Understanding how powerful copywriting, and in a bigger picture, all of content marketing is doesn’t require you to look any further than the sheer amount of content that is produced on a daily basis.
Content marketing has long been considered a mainstay of digital marketing and marketers.
Considered a cornerstone of the industry, content marketing allows businesses to attract and keep a customer base.
And a fundamental part of content marketing is copywriting. It’s like the ham to the eggs.
Think about it: if your content marketing is a good blog, than your ham to that egg is the written blog. Design, SEO optimization with your plugins, correct categorization, etc. all tie in.
Let’s think back to the overall picture. Now as most marketers can tell you, saying something without showing what it looks like in cold, hard facts is simply spouting hot air.
The statistics of the matter bear out our original hypothesis: content marketing makes a major impact in the world today.
Content Marketing by the Numbers
There has been a constant reminder by content marketers that content is king, but only until you realize the statistics that exist behind the statement do you realize how powerful a king content really is.
On average per minute—
Nearly 2.5 million pieces of content are shared by users on Facebook
Instagram has 220,000 new photos posted to its servers
YouTube gets over 72 hours of new video uploaded
Twitter is used around 300,000 times
Over 200 million emails are sent
Over $80,000 worth of sales is generated by Amazon
And that is only PER MINUTE.
Every sixty seconds for the whole day this kind of change happens.
And it’s appreciating these massive movements of data that make us realize exactly how powerful social media is to the production and distribution of content.
How Has Copywriting & Content Marketing Contributed to These Numbers?
It is estimated, according to Content Marketing Institute, that nine out of every ten businesses today utilize content marketing in tandem with their sales force to generate awareness and increase their profits.
And you know what the foundation of content marketing is? Good copywriting.
Based on what we understand about the interplay between marketing and sales it’s not a stretch to see why these companies have adopted digital content marketing as an aid to raising their sales. The expenditure in advertising compared to the return on investment makes it a no-brainer to use content marketing.
Case Study: Express Writers (We Call Ourselves a Content Agency, Right?)
Hey – if we sell blogging and content, we better be good at it, right?
Yes. But you’d be surprised how many writing agencies don’t care about maintaining their blog.
Here at Express Writers, we’ve truly utilized content marketing to a degree of success. We adopted the idea in an effort to increase lead generation and sales through a targeted strategy incorporating guest blogging and SEO to a massive extent.
The results we got were far better than many of the competitors in our very industry – we outrank 95% of them – and proves the potency of content marketing in the framework of a modern developing company.
I would recommend any business that wants to see significant growth over time to consider content marketing as the vehicle to achieve that goal. You could say we’re among the 89% of companies that use content marketing and testify to its effectiveness.
The development of our content marketing plan is:
Four 2000-word pieces per week for our own blog, along with 4-6 more pieces per week for major guest blogs including such high-authority sites as Search Engine Journal, Site Pro News, SEM Rush and Content Marketing Institute.
We also have over 80 site pages, 50 of which are our main service pages (one for each of our writing services) and are about 500 words or more each.
I could tell you all day long how well our content does, how great our team does at compiling it, how we research the topics and develop the concepts, but here’s some cold hard stats for you to digest.
We average 500-700 visitors in organic traffic daily, from Google keywords.
We have 165 keywords indexed in SEO, 100 of which are in the top ten positions (screenshot from SEMRush):
Also from SEMRush, a screenshot of some of our keyword positions as of June 2015:
Many of our individual blogs are doing very well in search.
For example, this blog written in 2013, “Website Copywriting for Dummies”, ranks #4 in organic search (screenshots via SEMRush):
When we take into account the amount of growth our own company has seen over a single year, it’s not impossible to imagine how much content moves per day and how it can affect a company’s exposure and generate leads based off its content marketing strategy. It’s a testament to the kinds of things that we can expect from content marketing in the coming years.
Now that we’ve disclosed how much content marketing has helped us, let’s delve into…
The Cost of Content Marketing
As an industry, content marketing is responsible for a massive amount of expenditure.
In 2013, brand management site Brafton estimated that the total expenditure for new content creation for the year would reach about $118.4 billion. That’s billion, with a B.
Although based on the amount of new content is produced daily and factoring in a cost like this into it, you can see why content creation itself can cost very little but the sheer volume of its production can add up to so much. Mashable approximates that as much as twenty seven million pieces of content are shared on social media per day. That’s a LOT of outreach for something that could cost you a couple bucks to make.
Why Content Marketing Has Such An Impact
With twenty seven million shares a day you’re probably starting to see how content can influence consumers to such a level that a message can go viral. As much as 58% of consumers trust editorial content, according to Nielsen.
If you could tap into at least half the people that make up your core audience and have them share your content it can go a long way towards making your brand or company a household name.
Taking this into account, your aim should be to build your base of dedicated users and play the numbers game to get your content out there. Social Media B2B states that as much as 61% of US marketers utilize social media to increase the amount of leads they get. Using it correctly is as important as using it at all. Stephen Fairley writes that companies that blog 15 or more times a month see as much as five times as much traffic as those that don’t. It’s the perfect strategy for getting the word out.
3 Success Stories of Content Marketing
We know that content marketing has the power to reach out to the masses and raise awareness. We know that it guarantees sales increases after an extended content campaign. All of these things have been told to us time and time again, but short of doing it ourselves, how do we know that content marketing works? We can’t just take the word of the people who are trying to sell it to us. If you need proof of how well content marketing has managed to work for some companies, here’s a few of the more successful content marketing successes and how it’s managed to enhance their business. 1. Influence & Co. – Influence & Co. utilize knowledge-based tactics in order to help companies achieve their branding objectives. It has managed to place itself as the largest provider of thought leadership content that is shareable and relatable. This stemmed from an aim to empower companies and thought leaders to control the message they send to the masses, something fresh and new in the field of public relations. The company growth is palpable, expanding rapidly from a two-person operation to employing as much as seventy five people on its payroll. 2. NewsCred – Content marketers should at least heard of NewsCred, even if you haven’t had anything to do with them expressly. They are one of the most influential up and coming content production companies, employing over two hundred people currently. What started off as a news wire service has shifted gears and gone into full content marketing giant mode. They offer content strategy solutions to companies based on their level of service, including access to images from Getty and premium articles to help their clients along. Their analytical system also allows for them to aid their clients in suggesting content creation and distribution options in line with the company’s target demographic. 3. Express Writers – Yes, at Express Writers, we’re a great success story of content marketing. Our Content Shop receives about 700 visits a day, and we supply content writing, planning, and strategizing services for clients like Bank of America, PayPal, Shopify, GAP, just to name a few. On average, we’re writing close to 500 pages a week; our team of 60+ includes trained copywriters, marketing writers, PR writers, content strategists, social media managers, copyeditors, and our content managers and client account managers. Think you need great content? We can provide! Talk to one of our Content Specialists.
Exponential Growth
What these case studies of content production companies have in common is the demonstration that content is a juggernaut, unstoppable and uncontainable. As companies around the world switch over to digital content, it only promotes the growth of the industry many times over. It’s a self-fueling process as fresh content is what forces companies to update their content in order to stay relevant in the eyes of the search engines and the users they cater to.
The Battle Between Content Marketing and Old Media Style
Once upon a time, not so long ago, marketing was focused on fitting ads into media in order to encourage users to click.
While there is no shortage of these sites on the Internet, the truth of the matter is that they are slowly being phased out in favor of the new kid on the block, content marketing.
Old media depends upon a different type of revenue stream and their metrics for success vary vastly from content publishers. Some of the bigger content publishers around can do a number on the heads of old media.
The crux of the matter here is that content production and marketing leverages something that slips through traditional marketing media’s fingertips – that of human loyalty.
Content marketing is based on the idea that good content will attract and keep an audience because that audience starts trusting the brand and makes decisions based on that brand’s suggestions.
Old media never considered the idea of owning customer loyalty, rather “borrowing” it through an extended media campaign, meaning they would have to reinvent the wheel every time they had a new product to get the word out on.
The onus, therefore, in this case is on the publishers that promote this content rather than the brands themselves to monitor branded messages and keep the positive message going.
There have been situations where marketers have been less-than-stellar with their management of brands and possible negative fallout. The Atlantic is a good example of this poor brand management and a good example for companies where the faults of content marketing can lie.
The Future Looks Bright
Content marketing, and the bottom line of copywriting, has come to mean a lot to businesses.
It gives smaller businesses the ability to compete (and in some cases surpass) much larger brands by giving them an equal platform where their content is judged on its relevancy, not how much money has gone into its production.
Visual content has managed to boost the visibility of many sites, with The B2B marketing Mentor stating that images and photos make up the most effective way of optimizing social media posts to raise levels of interaction. This only underlines the fact that content marketing is a great way to raise levels of engagement with an audience and grow a company’s capital in the new currency of the Internet, user loyalty.
Over time the demand for content that is relevant and importantto different demographics will rise.
More and more brands are noticing how well content marketing is helping their business grow.
Economic giants such as Burger King and Coke have already dipped their toes into the water of the content marketing ocean and have found great returns on their investment.
Although it may take some time before such massive brands come to embrace content marketing as a viable method of their marketing strategy, they will continually add content that keeps them in the game although not at the top of it.
Content marketing is the true leveler, a meritocracy where your content determines how well you do as a company. Check out our Content Shop and start shopping for your online content today!
Gary Vaynerchuk. If you haven’t heard of him, I really don’t know what kind of marketer you are. (Kidding! Or not…)
For a start, he’s a reputable entrepreneur, public speaker, social media expert, investor, Internet personality, Jets fan, self-taught and self-proclaimed wine expert, and author of several bestselling, motivational books, such as The Thank You Economy, Why Now Is the Best Time to Cash in on Your Passion and Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.
Three Reasons Why Gary Rocks
For Gary Vaynerchuk, family comes first, but after that, his ever-growing empire is listed as one of his top priorities. We love this guy because he is forward thinking and ahead of the curve. He isn’t afraid to make his voice heard and lead the pack; he understands the new realities of the 2015 content marketing industry and doesn’t hesitate to lend a helping hand to small business owners looking for pertinent advice on how to grow their businesses.
1. Gary Vaynerchuk’s Marketing Insight Is Not for the Faint of Heart. Bold content pieces with daring titles, like, for instance, Marketers Ruin Everything reflect the challenges experienced by entrepreneurs who are disconnected or unable to see any real ROI, in spite of their continuous efforts. His take on content marketing is pretty straightforward: in order to explore the full potential of your content and use social media as a convenient marketing tool, you have to give more than you actually ask for in return. In other words, you have to avoid becoming an annoying noise maker by providing increased value to your readers through your innovative, problem-solving, engaging content.
2.Gary Vaynerchuk Practices What He Preaches. As a CEO and hustler, Gary Vaynerchuk doesn’t waste any time. After growing his dad’s company from $3 million to $50 million through a unique combo of aggressive pricing, email marketing tactics and ecommerce hacks, Garyfounded VaynerMedia, a digital agency focused on social media, and also started VaynerRSE, an investment fund estimated at $25 million. All the advice that he generously offers to fellow entrepreneurs is derived from his past experiences and based on his marketing insight, skills and know-how.
3. You Can Ask Him (Almost) Anything. #AskGaryVee is the best place to get answers to your everyday marketing, entrepreneurship and social media-related questions. Takeaway: whatever you do, don’t miss Episode 108, especially if you’re very fond of elevators, e-commerce and aliens, or at least wish to discover the connection between these three elements. Here’s how it works: you ask questions, and GaryVee answers them. Check out his YouTube channel, free your curiosity and get inspired.
Five Crucial Content Marketing Lessons That We Can All Learn from Gary Vaynerchuk
In 2015, when the battle for supremacy and the highest number of eyeballs is fierce on any digital market, small business owners need leaders and influencers more than ever. Vaynerchuk is one of the path openers who could help you overcome any challenge that you may encounter while trying to lift your online business from the ground. Here are five important lessons that you can learn from this talented all-in-one social media guru, entrepreneur and author.
1. Creating Quality Content Is a Matter of Respect. According to Vaynerchuk, proper content creation revolves around the concept of respect. First of all, you have to respect the platform that is going to carry, distribute and promote your marketing message. One must strategize around the platform, and adapt the storytelling tactic based on the way in which a prospect actually interacts with that particular channel. For instance, activity on different social networking websites is linked to different mindsets. A woman may use Instagram and Pinterest to discover new trends, while also relying on Facebook to stay connected with her friends, family members and favorite brands. Each of these channels require a unique content strategy tailored to the prospect’s intent. At the same time, you have to respect the audience and give your readers instant access to quality food for thought. Play with different nuances, explore the unique features of your products and convert them into benefits and incorporate a surprise element to stimulate the curiosity of your public. After all, Five Genius Organizing Solutions That Will Help You Keep a House Clean with X Young Kids sounds much more interesting than Here’s What You Can Do with the Cheap Plastic Containers That I’m Selling,” right?
2. Hustling Is the Key to Survival in Any Environment. In the world of content marketing, you have two options at hand: you can either go big or go home with an empty wallet. If the latter alternative doesn’t exactly appeal to you, consider the fact that only a cohesive, well-rounded content marketing strategy will offer you the desirable long-term results. As Vaynerchuk puts it, every minute has to count for something. As far as we’re concerned, every success involves a struggle, and every struggle is geared towards creating and delivering better content that resonates with a specific audience, encourages feedback and improves conversion rates.
3. You Have to Provide Real Value to Your Customers. Unless you have been on vacation for the last decade or so, you must be fully aware of the fact that clients are now more selective and difficult to reach than ever. Why? First of all, they are bombarded with more than 5,000 branded messages daily. Secondly, even if they manage to cut through the dreadful advertising clutter, your visitors have a short attention span and tend to be quite self-centered. In this context, you have to step up your game by providing real value to your potential clients. According to Moz, you can achieve this objective by providing exclusive information that your readers wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else, delivering content presented in a unique manner and prepping the ground for a major upgrade in terms of website design, accessibility and aggregation.
4. You Can Improve Your Luck by Improving Your Content. In order to make your brand visible, you have to put it in front of your potential consumers. You may ask: how do you do that? The answer is simple: you invest more time, money, energy and effort in content development and distribution. Vaynerchuk seems to think that a larger amount of quality content is directly linked to higher odds of success on overly competitive markets. This is precisely why he has turned one of his staff members from VaynerMedia into the “shadow of his life” who now follows him at conferences and local events to record all his statements and turn them into high-value social media content that could inform, entertain and educate his audience. Vaynerchuk thinks that his clever strategy will soon mark the beginning of a new trend, as more and more social media personalities and executives will hire a full-time content manager to stay relevant on their niche. Even if you can’t afford to employ a social media savvy scribe who could follow you around 24/7 and put pen to paper anytime, anywhere, do keep in mind the fact that maintaining a steady content flow is your best chance of survival on overcrowded digital markets.
5. Micro-content Can Help You Breathe New Life into Your Old Marketing Campaign. As a founder of a successful digital shop focused on quality storytelling across different platforms, Vaynerchuk uses the knowledge that he has gained via premium micro-content to design and implement creative campaigns that trigger noticeable, positive results. If you still think that bigger is always better in the content marketing world, Gary will sooner or later prove you wrong. Micro-content crafted for the native platform that it will “live” on is more compatible with a specific user behavior and thus, more likely to favor an improved response to CTAs.
How to Become Your Own Role Model in the Content Marketing World
In today’s insanely competitive business environment, staying inert and silent is definitely not at option. On the other hand, if you share Gary’s opinion and acknowledge the fact that your progress depends on your perseverance, consistency, originality and passion, perhaps now would be a good time to rethink your content strategy. Creative minds and bold, resourceful entrepreneurs like Gary Vaynerchuk offer us the inspiration and motivation that we need to dream bigger and work a little harder. Nonetheless, after following in the footsteps of those who know better and dare to think outside the box, at the end of the day, you can become your own content marketing hero and use your writing to create communities around your product or service, increase conversions, make more money, leave your competitors behind and inspire others.
All these goals are perfectly attainable, especially when you count on the unconditional support of a team of talented content marketing gurus and professional writers.
If you are unaware of what ModCloth is, you must not be into old-timey, vintage women’s clothes, accessories, and home décor. But really, who isn’t? I’m going to assume that most people are huge fans of this brand. I know I am. One thing I like about ModCloth is their amazing content marketing strategy. They really know how to organically sell themselves, and through this, they have shed a light on the retro, vintage appearance in general. Because marketing is so important, companies that do it well are always the ones people should be looking to follow.
ModCloth is an example of these content leaders. For a group that is dedicated to vintage apparel, they sure are forward-thinking in their marketing.
7 Ways ModCloth’s Content Is Killer
ModCloth has several content strategies that I love but here are six (and a half) things that they do that I think are especially innovative.
1. They use real models.
If you go to the ModCloth website, you will not always see the average model. ModCloth sometimes even uses their own employees to show off their great designs. In fact a campaign they ran earlier this year took several of their employees of all different sizes and had them model the same swimsuit.
ModCloth makes use of ‘real’ models in many different ways.
They were one of the first retailers to sign the “Heroes Pledge for Advertisers,” which consists of guidelines on limiting Photoshop use in ads.
They boosted their plus-size collection shortly after they signed the pledge.
If you want to model for them, they make it easy for you to apply even if you do not have modelling experience straight from their website.
In fact, they claim that they often find models in untraditional places, from, in their own words, “parties and shopping districts to airports and libraries.”
The reason this works is because they are committed to making clothes for the everyday girl, and they realize that if they want to sell to that everyday girl, they need to show potential customers what someone like them would look like wearing that outfit. Plus, not for nothing, it got talked about in the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Gloss, Cosmopolitan, and tons of other big name markets.
Lesson to Learn: Be up front and honest about your product. If you try to flatter and deceive, customers might use you once, but they won’t come back. Plus, this is such a rare concept that when you do it, tons of people will want to cover it.
2. They keep their retro-y vibe even in modern-y formats.
As does any e-retailers, and hopefully most if not all retailers, ModCloth has a blog, a Twitter account, Instagram, Tumblr, and you get the picture. All of these social media platforms have something big in common: they are all decidedly un-vintage.
How can a company that is dedicated to celebrating all things retro use modern forms of marketing?
The answer is by turning those modern forms into a retro playground. If you look at ModCloth content, you still get that vintage feel that you would expect from them. Through color schemes, images, and product descriptions, you forget that you are using technology from this era as you are transported back to the time that ModCloth wants you to envision.
What is the lesson here for all employees, though?
Remember who your audience is. You might not have young women who love that old-time feel as your target reader. So don’t advertise for them. But do figure out who you want to target, and then make sure your content reflects the image you want those people to feel.
Don’t let technology control you. To an extent, you have to follow the crowd. If Twitter is where the people are, you have to be on Twitter. However, just because you need to use these modern marketing methods does not mean you have to market on their terms. Turn these formats into platforms to showcase your visions.
3. They let their customers upload images.
Similar to the real life models point, ModCloth is great about encouraging people to upload their own images. Other places do this, but I have never seen it done quite as much as I have on ModCloth’s site.
When you go to view an item, you can see whole galleries of real customers wearing that same piece. This is a great concept for so many different reasons.
Free models. The more you get people to show off your product without having to pay them, the better it is for you.
Customers feel like they are part of your team. When you let them help, customers feel like they are part of the family. And the more they feel like they are part of the family, the more they are likely to remain a loyal customer.
People see what it looks like off the shelf. One of the worst things about shopping online is that you cannot see how you will look in an outfit before purchasing. Just because it looks good on a model, does not mean it will look good on you. And even if the model is just an ordinary person, the photographer is taking the picture at just the right angle with just the right light. However, if you get to see the outfit worn by someone of the same size as you (the uploaders include their measurements and the size they ordered to help make picking the right size easier) in a real life situation, you are more likely to purchase it.
What should you take away here? Let your customers get in on your content marketing plan. They’ll give you free marketing and will want to keep coming back.
4. They give you access to their stylists.
ModCloth makes it easy to get the information you want most through their ModStylist feature.
Most sites have a chat feature where you can talk to a customer service rep. But ModCloth takes it a step farther. You can chat, email, or even call them for advice like what to wear for a big event; how to pick a style that will look right on you; and what the latest fashion trends are.
This strategy works because people want more than customer service. They want to know how to incorporate a product into their lives.
Say you order a dress from a regular retailer and want to know what shoes to wear with it, so you call up the customer service department. Chances are, you aren’t going to get much help even with the nicest of reps because they aren’t the ones who know the answers to these types of questions.
With ModCloth, not only do you get your questions answered, you can solve fashion dilemmas you didn’t even realize you had. And let’s be honest, if a stylist goes out of their way to help you look your best, aren’t you that much more likely to buy the pair of matching shoes they suggest?
Your lesson here is simple. If you want to make the sale, go above and beyond in your efforts to prove to people you are an expert in that product, you want to help them in the ways they really need help, and using your product/service is just what they need.
5. They let you pick what they sell.
If you really want to grow your customer base, let them pick your product. You know they’ll want it then. ModCloth does this through their ‘Be the Buyer’ feature.
Every now and then, they put up a possible item, and let viewers vote on it. If the people want it, it goes on sale. The idea here is to let the customers be the designers because the customers are who the designers are trying to please.
You can take away from this that, the more you give customer’s input into your product, the happier they will be. After all, nobody knows what they want better than they do.
6. They rock at Pinterest and Instagram.
When your product is visual, you have to be good at the visual based social media platforms. That is just a given. ModCloth knows this and uses it to their advantage.
First, they make it very easy to pin their outfits to personal Pinterest sites. If someone likes your product and wants to share it, they are much more likely to do it if you make it easy for them.
Second, they fill their Instagram account with pictures of their products in real life situations. They use stunning colors and vivid imagery that really catches the eye. However, they also use it to host challenges and contests to really get people sharing their favorite outfits.
What your takeaway from this is take advantage of whatever social media platform especially fits your brand. For retailers, image-based sites such as Instagram and Pinterest work. If you are a targeting business people, LinkedIn might work for you.
Whatever the platform that is going to help your brand the most, make sure you are really doing it right.
7. They rock at social media in general.
As mentioned above more specifically, ModCloth is just great at most social media platforms. So the lesson here is really straightforward. Have a presence on and be great at all social media.
Follow the Leader to Success
I could name 100 hundred other reasons ModCloth’s content marketing plan is great (and they aren’t even paying me to write this or even know that this article exists). So, if you are trying to figure out ways to jumpstart your content marketing strategy, maybe you can take one or two ideas from the ModCloth playbook.
The world is full of great business books by awesome authors. I want to specifically look at the bookshelf of someone who’s involved in marketing and business and recommend the best-ever books they could put on their shelves.
I’ll admit to not reading each of these cover-to-cover (yet they are all on my must-read list), BUT I know plenty who have benefitted from reading them, and recommended them; plus, I am familiar with each of the authors . I hope you find this book list helpful!
Get Ready To Change Your Life With These 20 Business Books
Many entrepreneurs and captains of industry started off as regular people, but the books they consume changed who they are at a fundamental level so that they were able to make the decisions that put them into the positions they are today.
And, a book is like an insight into another person’s mind. People inspire people. Want to be inspired by someone? Read what they write and understand where they’re coming from. Business coaches, self-starters and entrepreneurs all write books detailing their thinking and the model of their success. By reading their books, you can pattern your thinking around theirs and reap similar results. Here’s a list of the twenty most influential business books I’ve come across that are very likely to change your future.
1. See You at the Top – Zig Ziglar: Originally rejected by over thirty publishers, this particular book is one of Zig’s greatest works. Although it’s a bit dated (it was published in 1974) a lot of the principles it teaches regarding your own personal motivations and how you get what you want are still relevant. Through a series of steps based around your own, honest self-evaluation, he develops a method for changing your outlook on life and your aims of accomplishing what you believe needs to be done. It’s not new information, but it’s a brand new way of looking at yourself.
2. So You Think You Can Write? – Julia McCoy:Authored by yours truly, this is a summary of all the lessons I’ve learned on how to craft successful, winning online copy after 5+ years in the field learning it on my own. I left nursing school and built a multi-million dollar company around online writing. Now, I’m sharing all the lessons I know so you can change your life by a) writing winning online copy for your brand that gains you rankings and reads or b) make a career out of online copy. It’s on Amazon as print and Kindle.
3.Maximum Achievement–Brian Tracy: As far as motivational manuals go, this one is among the best available. Brian Tracy is a self-made-man. He outlines his tactics in Maximum Achievement and creates a roadmap for all of his readers towards success. Although the things that Tracy propounds should be obvious to anyone, the way in which he presents them makes you think critically about your goals and your results. It delves into the idea of result-oriented tactics. Even if you don’t follow what he says, his writing will forever change the way you look at a task.
4. The Art of SEO – Rand Fishkin: This book is a must-read for marketing professionals, simply because of how well laid out it is. Fishkin and company outline and define the important aspects of SEO, ranging from the basics to the extremely advanced approaches. And when I say it covers everything, I do mean everything. Anyone, at any level of SEO knowledge can pick up this book and learn something from it. It’s obvious that as time goes on, SEO will be even more relevant to everyday life, which is what makes this book an investment in understanding the future.
5. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen. R. Covey: You’d be hard pressed to find someone in business and industry who hasn’t read this book. It belongs on the shelves of everyone because it helps you to get your mind focused on your tasks at hand. Covey developed a methodology for personal effectiveness that is as important today as it was the day it was published. Another oldie (this one was also published in the 70’s), the book goes back to the roots of what drives success and makes you think about your character first and your personality second, something that many books of the period seem to do in reverse. It’s definitely one of those business books that will affect the way you look at life.
6. Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki: Kiyosaki, a self-made multi-millionaire, explored the differences in conditioning between a rich parent and a poor parent and explores the differences between the thought processed between the two social classes. It’s semi-autobiographical and reads extremely easily. By applying Kiyosaki’s lessons to your own financial situation and change the way you perceive value. That’s a lesson that tends to follow you all the years of your life.
7. Ogilvy on Advertising – David Ogilvy: This particular book has helped many entrepreneurs figure themselves out. Ogilvy focuses on big-picture thinking, proposing that your most important ideas are the ones that are huge. Those ideas are the ones that drive your success. He also writes about dealing with negativity and always having your facts to hand, two things that serve you very well in day to day life. Although the book is mostly aimed at advertising professionals, everyone can glean some form of inspiration or insight from it.
8. The Magic of Thinking Big – David Schwartz: Schwartz deals with the mind-over-matter phenomenon. It’s a book that has changed the lives of many people by teaching them a time-honored lesson: “don’t sweat the small stuff”. It’s mostly self-motivational in content, but it does help you to overcome hurdles that your own mind erects for you. Most importantly, it has something for everyone, no matter what level of business you find yourself at. From employee to owner, everyone can benefit from reading this book.
9. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard– Chip Heath and Dan Heath: Everyone knows change is hard, but it’s also necessary. People are usually afraid of change because it means something different from the ordinary and would require people to leave their comfort zones to deal with it. Chip and Dan make a compelling argument for helping someone deal with change, whether it’s in the workplace or in life, by breaking it down and understanding change to make it less scary. It’s a very well-thought-out book that combines the psychological stimulus of fear with the physical and logical reasoning needed to overcome it. This book helps you master your fear of the unknown.
10. The 4 Hour Work Week – Timothy Ferriss: I acquired this book in my early twenties and it has been a source of constant motivation for me. Ferriss breaks down the modern view of success and replaces it with a simple philosophy, then gives you the tools you need in order to achieve this philosophy. When I got this book, I was skeptical about its claims but it does work. And what’s more, it gives you a different look at life in general. It makes you reconsider what you think of as “success”. Whether your treat it as an instruction manual or a motivational tool, it’s definitely something that’ll change your future.
11. Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? – Seth Godin: This book is based on the idea of leadership and potential. It helps you to marshal your resources and become indispensable to a company or organization. In a job market such as this no one is one hundred percent assured of their place in an organization. Overnight changes could render your position redundant. By becoming a linchpin you add value to yourself and if it’s one things companies love, it’s value. Godin teaches us to be the linchpin that holds organizations together by simply doing what we do to benefit the right people.
12. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho: The only fictional entry on this list is here for a very specific reason. Coelho is noted for the way he explores the lives and personalities of his characters in his work. The Alchemist does that to an extent that most of his other works abandon in favor of the narrative. Although the premise seems to be that the universe will conspire to make things happen to people, the deeper meaning is that success comes to those who work for it. Through all the struggles of the protagonist we see a very human figure surpassing almost insurmountable obstacles in his quest. As an analogy for life, you can’t get any more accurate than that.
13. The Lean Startup – Eric Ries: When you have limited resources, how do you function? You get more creative and efficient to deal with those reduced resources. Ries has developed a different sort of mindset from what we are used to when it comes to putting together a startup business. In the 90’s startups were abundant because capital and speculation in the “electronic age” was high. With the eventual collapse of the startup market, it has become increasingly difficult to present and expand on a good idea because there were so many bad ideas. Ries gives you a whole new way to think about business that will definitely shape your future.
14. Maverick – Ricardo Semler: Most people have never heard of Semco, a Brazilian business that has a very unorthodox work ethic. Due to its unique business structure, it has managed to weather and even better a Brazilian recession and perform vastly better than its nearest competitors, both in production and worker satisfaction. Semler explores what makes Semco such a good place to work for his employees. It’s one of those books that leave you considering that worker happiness can actually lead to a more productive company in the long run.
15. The Score Takes Care of Itself – Bill Walsh: Starting with the randomness that pervades all success, Walsh takes a look at the things that are out of our control and then goes on to tell us that we should deal with the things within our control. As a former football coach, he was well positioned to know this. The advice he gives is simple and although we do this daily with a number of things, we never apply it consciously to our own life decisions. Walsh’s philosophy of leadership is the kind of thing that gives you hope for the future in a rational way.
16. Rework – Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson: Efficiency is the name of the game. At its core, Rework is a business manual, but it’s so much more than your run-of-the-mill step-by-step to success. Fried and Hansson give you ideas about how to circumvent the traditional method of developing a successful business with the same end result. The most important thing that you learn from this book is that success comes from doing, not talking. It’s a lesson that you should apply to both your personal AND your business life.
17. Traction – Gabriel Weinberg: Traction gives startup owners insight into previous startups that have managed to succeed over the years. By utilizing such well-known names as Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Alex Pachikov (Evernote) and Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), we get to see how these masters of business think and what got them to where they are today. Marketing professionals should definitely follow what he has to say since his statements are based around finding the right channels of communication for a particular business.
18. Seneca: Letters from a Stoic – Lucius Annaeus Seneca: For a book to survive over two thousand years, it has to be a pretty good book, right? Letters from a Stoic touches on the simple dictum, “actions speak louder than words”. As a life changing manual it can be pretty dry, especially when compared to the other business books that I’ve mentioned. Seneca’s letters have survived the test of time because these speak to a certain part of us and inspire us in ways modern works can’t. It gives us a sense of perspective that is lacking in many modern methods of motivation and inspiration, something that lingers with us forever.
19. The Intelligent Investor – Benjamin Graham: The newest installment of this book with added commentary by financial journalist Jason Zweig underlines the importance to investors of knowing the value of the product or company they’re investing in. Even if you’re not in investor, this book teaches some important lessons on financial risk management that are likely to benefit everyone to an extent.
20. The Hard Thing About Hard Things – Ben Horowitz: In any business, there will be hard situations to deal with. Horowitz explores in-depth the sorts of uncomfortable situations CEO’s and managers tend to find themselves in. As a semi-autobiographical writing on Horowitz’s life, we get to see how the upper echelons of a company deals with the hard decisions that they may have to make. It’s a very good manual for those aspiring to be the leaders of a group.
BONUS, # 21: Zag: The Number One Strategy of High Performance Brands – Marty Neumeier: This book is a treasure-trove of information for the marketing professional and entrepreneur alike. The book focuses on understanding why certain brans are good at what they do and why some fade out of existence a couple months after hitting the shelves. It gives you insight into customers, audiences and understanding their unspoken signals. Neumeier says, “When everybody zigs, zag.” I could not have said it better myself.
For You: What to Read?
Understandably, not all of these books would fit into any specific category for any type of individual. Investors would have a different set of books that change their lives compared to marketing professionals and entrepreneurs. The books you read are usually reflected in the decisions you make and the steps you take to secure and promote your business. A couple of these books promote the idea of not having a business or profession run your life and to me that’s as important to your future as is dealing with your current position in life. These business books all have something to teach you, regardless of your field or position.
Reading these books (and starting with which one feels most relevant to you right now) would be among the best things you can do to enrich your life in the long haul. Grab a cup of coffee (or tea) and get started! And, let us know in the comments which book YOU love to read!
Welcome to my Great Content Roundup, folks! Today, I’m looking at a big question that applies to businesses of all sizes.
When do you start promoting yourself (your content, your business) too much?
The only exception I could think of is local ice-cream shops – I probably wouldn’t ever get tired of seeing their posts, but maybe that’s just me.
Recently, I’ve encountered some businesses that over-promoted the “heck outta themselves,” excuse the grammar. I’m talking every HOUR on Twitter they were tweeting about their app. Every other day the rep was messaging me, either on LinkedIn or on my personal email.
Granted, the company had a nice Twitter community going and what looked like some actual real interested followers who were devoted fans—but as a prospective client of theirs, I was turned completely off and decided to tell them to “stop spamming me” a few days ago.
Now this experience was so fresh and real in my mind, as I read content this week I couldn’t help but place it next to what I was reading about. So, let’s delve into:
The Great Content Roundup, Week 9: How Much Is Too Much Promotion?
Social Triggers has a great rule on how to build a blog audience: the 80/20 rule. Spend 80% of your time promoting OTHERS’ content; and 20% of the time promoting your own. This is exactly what we do at Express Writers (view our Twitter as proof); and we connect with new followers and great industry friends all the time.
80/20, folks. Those that flip this for 80% self-promotion will soon be labeled a spammer.
Neil Patel mentions somewhere in his very useful post How To Inspire Your First Time Blog Visitors To Trust Youthat you absolutely have the right to share your own content on your profiles. I agree. Um, hello: you own the profile—and you should use it for your advantage!
But, he also says this: Blogging is not a one-way street. It’s an exchange between you and your readers. I think this applies to all content you publish. He says you should listen more, and answer questions. (Brian Dean at Backlinko is a very successful example. He emails his new signups with this question: “Reply to this email and tell me one thing you’re struggling with. Even if it’s teeny tiny.”) Patel’s post here is golden.
Buffer’s Guide on Content Promotion: How Content Promotion Works for Blogs Big and Small: Our 11 Favorite Content Distribution Strategies. This is an amazing piece, I highly recommend reading it through. The part where the author follows up and emails the person he mentions in his blog for a kudos, thank-you, and new loyal fan—GENIUS! Might I say. And I’m always saying you should mention your influencers. Also, #6 – the top content community is Inbound – I’m on Inbound and can attest to it as a wonderful community gaining us new fans, followers, and engagement overall. The only downside to all this is time. It’s going to take a LOT of time for one person or one marketer to follow all the steps. I recommend involving a team in this process.
