Two distinct strategies that many people confuse or mix up:
Content marketing.
Copywriting.
They aren’t the same thing, although both intertwine with each other in benefits and results.
Think of it like this:
Content marketing gets your prospects invested in what you do.
Copywriting makes them want to follow up on that investment with action.
That, right there, is the key difference.
And here’s the magic of both:
When you mix the best of these two strategies together, awesome things start happening.
Your content won’t just be educational and valuable for your readers – it will also make them want to take action.
That action could boost your likes and shares, increase your social media following, grow your email list, AND best of all – lead to sales.
It’s also why these two strategies are so perfect for each other.
They make each other more powerful.
The right content marketing meshed with stellar copywriting could give you success in the form of 4.5x the leads you had before. To that, add 3.5x more traffic if you create content consistently, according to HubSpot.
Let’s go a little further, though.
What are the nitty-gritty differences between content marketing and copywriting? How do you blend them together in a winning formula?
Creating the copy can be the most challenging part of great content marketing. I totally get it.
So, let’s talk about it.
Grab a mug of your favorite hot drink (coffee, tea, etc.), and dive in with me.
[bctt tweet=”Learn the differences between #copywriting and #contentmarketing and how both fit together to help you win online, in @JuliaEMcCoy’s guide” username=”ExpWriters”]
Content Marketing and Copywriting: What the Heck Is the Difference?
You can use them together, but they’re not the same thing. Here are the major differentiators between content marketing and copywriting.
Content Marketing: Many Tactics, Various Ways to Succeed
Content marketing is about creating content that nurtures your readers. The content you provide is served to prospects with the end goal of building trust and loyalty with them so they’ll turn into customers.
Educate them concerning their pain points, and they’ll end up turning to you for more solutions.
That’s content marketing at its core, and it can be done through a wide array of tactics – think blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, email campaigns, and more.
It’s about creating content (which can mean writing, but also all kinds of other production methods) and distributing it so your prospects become customers and stay customers.
Copywriting: Using Writing to Motivate the Desired Action
Copywriting, on the other hand, is about using your writing to strategically spur the reader to do something.
Good copywriting is not annoying. It sells whatever you want to sell without the reader realizing they’re buying in.
Good copywriting is gently yet irresistibly persuasive.
It helps move the prospect to sign up for your email list, click on your link or ad, follow you on social media, make a purchase, and more. As such, it’s used for stuff like landing pages, sales pages, ads, and direct mail campaigns.
Great copy is essential to content marketing.
[bctt tweet=”Great copy is essential to content marketing.” username=”JuliaEMcCoy”]
Content marketing copywriting is cohesively intertwined. Think of it like this:
What Happens When You Apply Great Copywriting in Content Marketing?
What do better results look like with these two strategies?
For one, engagement.
Look at this blog example from Intrepid Travel, an adventure travel company based in Australia.
The blog is called “The Top Destinations for Travel in April.” This could easily get very same-y and unoriginal, as there are scores of similar blogs out there.
However, what keeps you on the page is the copywriting.
[bctt tweet=”What keeps you on the page is the copywriting.” username=”JuliaEMcCoy”]
Check out this intro:
It invites you to stick around and keep reading without actually saying any such thing.
It also promises what you’ll find in the series of guides: “Your easily digestible list of places to visit, things to experience, and amazing weather to chase around the world.”
The blog copy also cleverly links to where you can book one of the company’s travel adventures:
On the sales page for the “8-day Best of Jamaica” trip, more compelling copywriting entices you to imagine exploring this locale:
“Experience the island in all its Caribbean colour, from Rastafari and reggae to the gorgeous unspoiled coast.”
Finally, there’s a call-to-action at the end of the blog that urges you to check out the other guides in the series:
The result?
It’s not just informative, fun, interesting content – it’s content with a purpose.
This content is working hard for this company. It’s providing value for their audience, but it’s also urging them to take multiple actions throughout the blog.
This banks on the solidity of the writing and research. If these two things were sub-par, then you wouldn’t feel inclined to click on anything within this content piece.
But, since both are on point, Intrepid Travel can use that built-in trust to get you interested in taking the desired actions.
To put it simply, content marketing and copywriting are holding hands and skipping together into the sunset in this blog post.
Now you may be wondering:
How do I get these same results?
How do you create awesome content marketing copy?
Well, my friends, I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve that can help you get there.
6 Essentials to Nail in Your Content Marketing Copywriting (Or, How to Appeal to the Online Reader/Buyer)
1. Use the Flow, Luke
If you want your online writing to be a little more engaging…
If you want to draw in readers and make their eyes compulsively move down the page…
Flow is crucial.
Use the flow, you must.
However…
Writing with great flow on the internet is markedly different from writing with great flow elsewhere.
Smart Blogger addresses this in one of their best posts ever.
In this piece, they tell you exactly why your flow needs to work differently online.
Basically, reading online involves a barrage of distractions. Notifications, ads, pop-ups, enticing links, and more all jostle each other for your attention.
Maybe that’s why most people online don’t read in-depth.
Instead, they tend to scan and skim the page in an F-shaped pattern, according to a Nielsen study:
Therefore, you’ve gotta write the way they read.
If you do it correctly, your audience will do more than skim. You’ll lull them into reading the whole page.
So, here’s how to use flow, according to Smartblogger.
May the flow be with you.
Great writing flow onlinebegins and ends with paragraph structure:
Make paragraphs shorter.
Break up sentences according to the rhythm of the piece. Don’t write in a monotone – vary your sentence lengths, paragraph lengths, and wording.
(This is what a boring paragraph looks like. The sentences are all a similar length. They all have a similar structure and style. It gets repetitive quickly. It leads to reader abandonment.)
Use one-line paragraphs to emphasize important thoughts.
Don’t break up your paragraphs at awkward times. Try to keep your thought trains coherent.
Smartblogger has an excellent example of awkward paragraph breaks:
2. Always Be Optimizing
Here’s another key for copy in content marketing.
Good copywriting that’s not search engine optimized will not earn as much ROI as you’d like.
If you want those returns (hello, rankings + leads!), you have to use SEO and make sure your copy is optimized and search-ready.
It’s not just about targeting keywords in the headline and body of your copy, though.
SEO is also about how you approach content creation in the first place, before you ever write a word.
For instance, how are you coming up with blog topics to write about?
Are you going off a random list you dreamed up?
Or are you basing the topics you cover (and the keywords you use) on what your audience wants to see and user search intent?
I’ll give you one guess as to which method gets better results.
Once you have the right topics and some good keywords, the copywriting can be much more effective. It will appeal to people, first and foremost, but it will also get indexed, which will increase your chances for visibility and exposure to more people.
Need some scope for that?
Well, consider the fact that over 64,000 searches are performed on Google every second of an average day.
Every. Second.
If you’re not angling to get a piece of that seriously huge search engine traffic, you’re fishing in the wrong pond.
3. Make Your Copy Stupidly Easy to Read + Scan
What’s another tactic you can use to make sure your content marketing copy does its job?
As you can see, walls of text are unnecessarily complicated.
Here are some tips on how to simplify your copy for ease of reading:
Breaking up your paragraphs can help drive home your ideas and introduce clarity. The white space in-between acts as breathing space for the eyes. (It’s also a great technique for flow, which we’ve already discussed.)
Subheaders help organize your content so readers immediately get the gist of what you’ll cover in an article or blog post. Make sure they’re in a slightly larger font or in bold so they stand out.
Lists, bulleted and numbered, can help further break up and simplify long paragraphs.
Consistency in formatting helps give your copy a unified look. Use the same styling and spacing for all like elements throughout your content – it will look nicer, but also helps with comprehension.
4. Write Like You Mean It
Of course, the content marketing + copywriting formula is nothing without the addition of skilled writing.
When I say “write like you mean it,” I mean write the way you know you can.
Use all the skills in your arsenal. Don’t phone it in. Put in your best effort every time you sit down to write content, and aim to really speak to your target audience.
According to Neil Patel for CMI, advanced skills like these are necessary for great copywriting – whether on its own or infused into your content marketing:
Simplifying a complex topic for your audience
Creating content and copy that’s easy to read
Transitioning between ideas seamlessly, so the reader never feels jarred
Composing introductions that hook readers
Writing conclusions that do their job well, whether you want to sum everything up or leave your reader with questions to ponder
Choosing the right vocabulary for the right context
Using a style and tone of voice that appeals to your audience
Not every writer is capable of these things.
But the best copywriters are, and they strive to use these skills consistently in all their work.
5. Stay User/Audience-Focused
People first.
More specifically, your audience first.
That has to be your main mantra for content creation and copywriting.
If you write for search engines first, your copywriting and content will show it.
It will be really, really obvious.
According to Kissmetrics, “When you take the time to develop your story, your writing mimics the natural tone you would use in a conversation.”
This is absolutely true. They give a great example of a huge company that majorly failed at this basic tenant of good copywriting in this great post, “10 Things You Can Learn from Bad Copy.”
Read this about page from LEGO and tell me if they didn’t lose sight of who their audience is:
This reads like an encyclopedia entry about LEGO, not a bio written for their customers and fans.
Your content marketing copywriting must put your specific audience first in every detail. You can’t risk losing them at any stage of the buyer’s journey. Maybe LEGO, a giant, international brand, can afford it, but you can’t.
6. Don’t Neglect the Little Details
The little details are what set good copy apart from great copy in content marketing.
And, when you have great copywriting in your content, you’re packaging it up as beautifully and appealingly as possible.
After you create content that’s substantial, valuable, and high-quality, you have to dress it up. You gotta spend time on the wrappings, the trimmings, the ribbon, the bows, and the decoration.
This is what sells it. This is what makes people stop, scan, and ultimately read your content.
When you put lots of effort into every tiny aspect, that means you pay attention to each piece of the puzzle: headlines, subheaders, calls-to-action, intros, and conclusions.
Let’s start with the headline.
The Headline: The Attention-Grabber, Curiosity-Inducer, and Hook
An example of an awesome headline via Smartblogger.
If you can’t be bothered to spend time on your headline, your readers won’t be bothered to read your content.
Overwhelmingly, the headline is the hook. It sets the tone for the content it looms over. If the headline sucks, why would anybody look deeper and keep scrolling?
The stats back that up. On average, 80% of people will read your headline, but only 20% will continue on to read the rest of the post.
This is a spot in your content where good copywriting can pay off ten-fold… even one-hundred-fold.
If you want to motivate prospects to read more, the headline is where it starts.
The Subheaders: The Unsung Blog Post Heroes
Subheaders may seem small in the scheme of your content, but they can easily make or break it.
Here’s where content organization and formatting come into play.
If you use subheaders correctly, they logically split up your words and paragraphs, making them easier to read and scan for meaning.
If you use subheaders like a boss, they do all of the above AND they entice your readers to stop scanning and read, read, read.
Beware, however, of using subheaders that provide no context/meaning, or that get too clever. Smartblogger has some great examples and tips that may help you craft great subheaders.
For an example of subheader mastery, look at Jon Morrow’s content. His subheaders are crazy-good. Here’s an example from one of his pieces on Copyblogger, “7 Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School”:
The Calls-to-Action: The Words That Work Hard
Your entire content piece, no matter what it is, works hard for you, from the first sentence to the last period.
However, if you want it to work harder, your calls-to-action need to be on-point.
If copywriting as a whole is about inspiring action, then calls-to-action are copywriting that’s focused down to a laser point.
These are the movers and shakers of your content. They can be simple, but they always need to be effective.
What does an effective CTA look like? Check out this ConversionXL post to see great examples of both good and bad CTAs. Here’s a goodie from KlientBoost:
The Introduction and Conclusion: The Table Setter and Nightcap
Your introduction and conclusion are essential to get right.
The intro sets the table and makes your readers want to pull up a chair and tuck into your feast of words.
The conclusion ends the meal, but it can do it in a lot of ways: It can leave your readers full and satisfied, it can spark their curiosity with further questions, or it can offer them dessert (think lead magnets).
A good copywriter will take time to hone the introduction and conclusion, because these two pieces are notoriously hard to get right.
When you do nail them, they make your content 10x better.
Here’s a bare-bones guide for intro writing from HubSpot:
As for conclusions, check out this guide for “How to Go Out in Style with Your Ending” from Copyblogger.
Better Content Marketing Copywriting? It’s in the Bag
Copywriting and content marketing go together like peanut butter and jelly. They’re pretty good on their own, but mash them together, and you have something incredible and memorable.
Content marketing may be the meat-and-potatoes, but copywriting is the salt and pepper.
So, craft great content that provides value, answers questions, and drops knowledge. But, don’t forget to use copywriting to turn those content pieces into workhorses.
Or, to continue the food metaphor, use copywriting to make your content marketing delicious.
Build your authority, make your readers trust you, and then get them to act on it.
That, my friends, is how you turn regular ol’ content into solid-gold assets.
Meta descriptions in Google search results ARE longer.
These descriptions show up right underneath the link to each search result. Google calls them “snippets,” and they’re a big deal.
We’ll go more into defining how it’s a “big deal” soon, but here’s a look at the old length vs. the new:
The change in meta length just happened across the last month of 2017 (less than a month ago).
Here’s a chart from RankRanger showing the SERP changes:
So, first, why do Google meta descriptions matter so much?
They are instrumental in describing the page that’s linked. Reading the snippet can thus help searchers understand whether the search result is relevant to what they need.
If the meta description is optimizing, clear on what to expect from the content, AND enticing (SEO, clarity, creativity), you’re more likely to click on it. The click-through on the organic ranking gets higher. That’s a lot to do in one meta.
You can see why great meta descriptions are so important.
Here at EW, we write meta descriptions all the time for our clients. It’s a fine art, because you have to cram the essence of what a page is about into a limited amount of characters. Then, you have to make it sound awesome.
With the character limit increased, this gives us a little more room to be creative and really speak to the reader. In turn, this gives you a higher chance of getting clicks and conversions for your content.
Let’s discuss the change, including exactly when it happened, and why this is great news for your business.
Why Google Upped the Character Limit for Meta Description Snippets
“We recently made a change to provide more descriptive and useful snippets, to help people better understand how pages are relevant to their searches. This resulted in snippets becoming slightly longer, on average.”
The snippets grew from around 160 characters to an average of 230 characters.
The official maximum character count allowed is now 320.
Why Does the Change Matter?
When you’re trying to write a description of a page for the search results, double the amount of space makes a huge difference.
Let’s be clear, though: The meta description has no effect on your page ranking. This was true before and it’s true now.
Instead, this snippet of descriptive text is for users, for their benefit.
As we said, the snippet could make a user want to click on your page in search results over a competing page. It may sound more tempting because it’s a better description, it’s persuasive, or both.
That said, Google won’t always use your meta description in the snippet.
Depending on the user’s search query, the search engine may instead pull snippets of content from your page.
John Mueller goes into this in detail on a recording of a Google Hangout that streamed on December 12, soon after the changes occurred. This topic starts up at about the 29:41 mark:
Here’s the tldr; –
Meta descriptions are important to get right.
They help describe your pages for users.
Google will sometimes (but not always) pull your meta description to use in the snippet that shows up with your link in search results.
Google will pull your meta description if they think it’s a more accurate or relevant summary than any text they could pull from your content.
If your description is accurate, relevant, concise, and well-written, you may have a better chance of nabbing click-throughs.
Google highlights the importance of high-quality descriptions, specifically:
Besides the benefit to you when you create good descriptions for each of your web pages, it’s simply a good usability practice to follow.
What to Do Moving Forward
You get that you should be creating unique, high-quality meta descriptions for each of your pages on your site.
But what about the descriptions you already have in place? Should you go back and lengthen them just because you can?
Not necessarily.
Don’t Lengthen Old Descriptions – Unless They’re Critical Pages
According to Google, they’re still looking for relevance and conciseness when they consider text to use in snippets.
Lengthening your meta descriptions won’t necessarily make them better in either of these areas.
Instead, think of this change as a chance to make your meta descriptions going forward even better. You have a little more wiggle room for creativity and persuasiveness to sprinkle into a highly relevant summary of your page.
One exception would be critical pages of your site – the most important content pieces, landing pages, etc. that get the most search traffic. Moz, in particular, recommends going back to these and reoptimizing the meta descriptions.
Don’t just lengthen them though – rewrite them with the new limits in mind. You may come up with something completely different, but even better than before.
What Are Best Practices for Meta Description Creation?
For meta descriptions, striking the balance between appealing to users and still giving a great summary can be tricky.
Because it can be an art form, here are some best practices to follow to help guide you:
Always include the focus keyword and the top secondary keyword in the description. This helps establish relevance right off the bat.
Use the focus keyword as early in the description as possible.
Use action-oriented words to describe the benefits to users if they click on your page. For example, start with words like “discover,” “find,” or “explore” – i.e. “Discover how to write fantastic meta descriptions.”
Of course, this is just a primer on writing meta descriptions.
Great ones don’t always follow a formula, but they do accurately entice readers with hints about what’s waiting for them when they follow a link.
Not a Meta Description Wizard? No Worries
If creating snazzy meta descriptions that bring in the click-throughs is a bit daunting for you, Express Writers can help.
We regularly write descriptions that sing the exact tune searchers want to hear. If you need some assistance with wordsmithery, let us write your meta descriptions for you.
If you’re reading this, you likely already know what a big fan I am of great content in content marketing.
It’s like saying, “Julia likes coffee” (understatement), or, “the sun is shining” (also a drastic understatement 89.9% of the year in Austin, Texas).
And specifically, what a fan I am of the SEO side of it all.
(Just read my piece studying the effects of hitting 1,000 blogs on the Write Blog to find out.)
Why?
Well, to recap, I’ve been blogging on our site for six years. It’s become our primary form of marketing.
And it’s brought qualified leads our way.
They’re so qualified that they’re ready to spend 5 figures without batting an eye – sometimes on the first order. They know what they need, and because they found our highly-relevant content piece high in the SERPs answering their question, they were convinced we were the answer.
We’re an anomaly in our industry because we arewhat we sell.
We know that what we sell, works. Because we’re a content agency fueled by the high-performing content we create.
Mic drop.
No other writing agency has the organic content focus we have.
We’re 3-5% more visible in Google than all of our competitors.
This organic visibility is how we net 99% of our best customers.
I first started Express Writers on a mission to band together writers that could help me create my own content. The idea for the modern writing force we now have in our agency was born from a need I had.
The rest was all hard work.
That was the starting point: and it’s fired up a major movement we’ve been able to maintain in our industry.
So, I’ve always loved SEO and inbound content.
But…
Did these online marketing fundamentals really just get ten times more important?
Am I blowing smoke because I simply love these techniques?
Not at all. Keep reading for my thoughts.
Inbound Content & SEO Just Got 10x More Important. {The Case Study}
Part One: The Death of a Guest Platform Spells Fear and Trouble for Those Focused on Real Estate that Isn’t Yours.
“I write for HuffingtonPost!”
Just became “I wrote for HuffingtonPost,” last week on Thursday.
Ripples on the news of the Contributor network shutdown, a pulling-the-plug act for more than 100,000 “free” authors, ran through social media like giant waves, ebbing and flowing to instantly become old news the next day (let’s face it: that’s the nature of good old social media).
I learned about it when Josh Steimle, founder of MWI, tagged me in a LinkedIn post:
My initial thoughts to the Contributor shutdown:
1.) Honestly, my posts were not getting a ton of traction except for one really good one (my story) that launched over a year ago. Since then I’ve had lackluster exposure on all posts I published.
2.) I heard straight from the amazing Aaron Orendorrf that HuffPost was actually doing some sly no-follow on all their Contributor content so it wouldn’t show up in search. So that’s why I could never find my HuffPost story when I Googled it!
3.) Can’t say I’m not disappointed, though. If this was how they started and exponentially grew their platform, through the free contributor base, this just dissed everyone that helped them grow from nothing. And that’s not cool. You never diss the people that gave you the reason for who you are today.
But let’s go into a wider picture for a moment. If you were publishing on HuffPost Contributor platform, you were publishing on real estate that wasn’t yours.
And if you can’t lay an ownership claim to the site, you can’t get too upset if the person who actually did manage and own it did what they wanted to do.
Frankly, it’s their site.
Not yours.
The same thinking even applies to Facebook algorithms, social media platform updates… they get to decide because they run it. They own it. You don’t own that platform.
So, this fear factor, the “when-are-they-going-to-change/remove/do & how will that affect my content there,” applies to many platforms. Let’s call it “brand fear” for now.
Think about all the platforms brand fear applies to.
Medium.
LinkedIn.
Every other guest blog and publication on the planet.
Every social media platform on the planet.
The only platform brand fear doesn’t apply to?
Your site.
You own your site. You get to say when it shuts down, or when it’s online. When you add content, and what content to add. How it looks. Presentation. How your content looks. How well your content gets indexed (how well you optimize it). Etc.
So…
Start publishing to your site, NOW. Focus on it. Don’t have one? Get one.
I teach this heavily in my course – your site is your real estate. Make sure you’re investing in your own real estate.
That way when a platform goes down and takes your content with it, you won’t be in big trouble.
Part Two: Many Platform Changes for Social Media and the Death of “Fads” Means Tried-and-True Just Got More Certain
If you didn’t know, Facebook algorithms are like a weathercock in high winds these days.
They’re all over the place.
Read more about the massive Facebook algorithm change in my blog here.
One side-effect of all the Facebook algorithm changes is that Facebook business page reach could be at an all-time low.
Research from Social@Ogilvy shows that for Pages with more than 500,000 Likes, organic reach could be as low as 2%. This is probably more like 1% for non-video posts these days.
Instead of just “posting” average content in a typical fashion to your Facebook page, try:
Don’t schedule Facebook page posts from a tool: Directly post yourself, and get creative about what you want to tell people. Don’t schedule from a tool unless you have to.
Tag a feeling: When I tagged “feeling happy” from my Facebook page, that post had the most reach of all my page posts out of that week.
Try saving your Instagram or Snapchat stories and uploading them to your Facebook page as a post: Again, another creative option if you want to avoid just scheduling content from a tool, without too much time involved.
Live stream: This by far is the best way to get more reach from your Facebook page these days.
Here’s another “fad” at risk: text messaging alerts from brands.
Email Marketing > Text Alerts
Did you know that email marketing is 41 years old?
The first ever marketing email was sent almost 41 years ago by a marketer named Gary Thuerk, from Digital Equipment Corporation. Thuerk sent a promotional email about his company to 400 people, using an ARPANET address. (Read the story on Entrepreneur.)
On the other hand, sending marketing messages through “text messages” only got hot around 2005, according to Mobile Marketing Engine. That means text message marketing is barely 13 years old.
Text message marketing could be dying. GAP, a huge clothing retailer, recently shared a text alert indicating it’s “giving up” on text alerts and suggesting their end users continue with email.
Courtesy Bill Skowronski, founder at Sharing the Good.org
What will be next? Is my brand or content at risk?
I guess that’s the big question echoing in all of our minds, as we see feature after feature change since the beginning of 2018, the HuffPost Contributor section go bye bye forever, and Facebook’s business page reach decline severely.
Are you wondering how to secure your content against platform changes = avoid the danger of losing your content or platform reach (reminder, my term for this: “brand fear”)?
Here’s my shortlist.
3 KEY Ways to Secure Your Content & Guard Against the “Brand Fear” Factor When Publishing Content Online
A.k.a, Why Inbound Content Just Got More Important.
1. Know Your SEO
Don’t know how to find high-opportunity keywords that you can create great content for your ideal readers/buyers to find in Google?
You should learn.
You need to find low-competition, long-tail keywords, using an SEO research tool. I recommend using KWFinder or SEMrush. Then, you need to verify that you can create content better than the 3-5 spots in Google that exist for that keyword.
Once you’ve passed both of those research barriers and have keywords ready to use, then it’s time to create SEO optimized content – and you’ve got to work harder than ever to be the best result for that keyword now, so that part’s not easy.
It’s a tough, long game to get familiar with the “how” of great SEO content (that really works), and this is one of the favorite modules I teach in my all-access course.
2. Focus Your First and Foremost Content Efforts on Your Castle, & You’ll Have a Stronghold Online
We focus on expresswriters.com for the majority of all of our created content. Also in priority is my course site, contentstrategycourses.com.
I save my frequent and focused content effortsfor my platform – the site I own.
We’re talking more than 1,046 published blogs to date.
Other than this primary focus, I have 3-5 guest blog platforms I contribute content to, either monthly or quarterly.
It’s important to know your SEO, along with your content.
Why?
Because SEO + content = POWERFUL content marketing.
If you don’t know your SEO, your content isn’t going to get found in Google.
Add in a great keyword and optimization to a piece of content, and BAM – your onsite content just got far more valuable.
When your content is found organically in Google by a lead, OptinMonster says the chances of purchase are high.
This high:
50% of everyone who did a local search on their phone went and visited that store within a day
18% of all local mobile searches led straight to a purchase in 24 hours
78% of all local mobile searches led directly to offline purchases
Now, listen to the stat we personally can claim (100% truth):
My agency (Express Writers) closes an average of 85% of organic SEO leads at an average order value of $500-1,000 sale value.
When it comes to the content published on our site right here at expresswriters.com, the results are phenomenal.
This phenomenal:
Today, we have over 12,200 keywords ranking organically in Google from the blogs we’ve posted.
We have over 500 talk to sales that have come in, over the last 5 years, from our organic content found in the rankings. In the last few months, these leads have risen in quality by 10x. We see purchase-ready leads that are at a very high level these days.
Do I need to say more here?
Your site is your castle – build your content there, and you’ll have a stronghold.
Just remember to build right.
Don’t be cheap.
Be strategic and high quality about whatever you do.
Be about adding value to your readers’ lives.
Work on becoming a content stronghold with your site, niche foothold, content strategy, and content output.
Nothing less.
And you’ll succeed, long-term.
Wondering how to put together high-performing content? I mentor students on this very strategic skillset: visit www.contentstrategycourses.com.
2. Back Up Your Content – Now. Here Are a Few Ways:
Export your Facebook Live videos to YouTube. This is a great way to make sure your Facebook Lives never disappear. Upload them to YouTube and take that to your site. Make blogs for your site out of YouTube and transcribe your videos for even more content you can publish on your site.
Syndicate existing content on your site to LinkedIn Pulse and Medium, after waiting 1-2 weeks for Google to register that you’re the first publisher (that way no content penalization happens). Save time and don’t write original content for these platforms, unless you absolutely feel you must.
If you guest blog, work to get an agreement from an editor for an ongoing column, or if not, don’t contribute ongoing content. You never know when the next guest blog you write for will close submissions and start taking down your pieces – you truly don’t. If you create killer content for them, the chances of that happening are slim. So for one, create amazing content and guest blog editors will never want to take yours down. Problem solved! For two, work to get an agreement from an editor for ongoing column contributions. I’ve got a couple of these secured with some platforms where we earn great leads. If you can’t get that ongoing column in written agreement from an editor, don’t focus all your efforts there. Contribute offhand as you can. Still, make sure you’re always contributing your best.
No more Brand Fear Factor: Focus on the Tried-and-True
Don’t get distracted and misled by shiny objects.
Focus on the 40-year-old veteran fundamentals: email marketing. Website optimization. SEO.
Great content, published on a site you own.
Optimized for your people to find it in Google.
And you’ll win.
I promise.
If you need help getting there, don’t hesitate to reach out.
I run a course to teach the real-world skills of this very principle, the tried-and-true of content marketing – maybe you’d be a perfect fit for the training. Click below to find out more about it. – Julia
When you are on Facebook, do you ever realize that suddenly, you see a post from a page that you hadn’t seen in a really long time?
In fact, you might have forgotten you’d liked that page at a certain point in near-obsolete history.
That scenario probably sounds very familiar, and also sometimes frustrating as we all try to understand the latest Facebook social media algorithms that have been put in place.
Businesses are worrying about losing interaction and a decrease in distribution—while on the flip side, consumers miss opportunities they don’t even know exist, because they didn’t interact with your page regularly.
With the latest changes, what does that mean for businesses and content marketers?
I’m diving in today. Grab a mocha, latte, or tea and come join me.
What’s Up with Facebook’s Social Media Algorithm? Why Facebook is Changing for Your Benefit
According to Adam Mosseri, Head of News Feed over at Facebook, the goal for these changes is to create an environment for meaningful engagement on behalf of the end user.
The latest update will predict posts that end users do and don’t want to see based on individual interactions.
Posts that are seen are meant to inspire discussion between friends, communities, and other pages.
If you are a content marketer, this may make you say, “Well, how can I make sure that my business doesn’t tank like so many others? How does that benefit me?”
These changes will encourage you to step up your game by being more interactive with your audience, and the benefits of doing so can cause your business to grow exponentially.
Finding the Key that Opens the Door
Recently, I discussed just how to find the key to content marketing that will keep your business growing and thriving.
There are some trial and error approaches to see what works best for your audience, but you owe it to yourself to find the answer for your page.
It could be an active group that focuses on you or your service or product. It could be a source outside of Facebook like Twitter or maybe a regular webinar or podcast. It could be a combination of all of the above.
As long as your post is meaningful and not spammy, you are going in the right direction, but there is a bit more to it.
What Not to Post on Your Page or In Your Group: Defining Engagement Bait
People do not like posts that look like spam or seem like they are attempting to coerce interactions. Examples like “Like my post if you agree!” or “Like and share if you love cats!” are known in the content marketing industry as engagement bait.
Other phrases like “Vote for your favorite” and “Share with your friends” also fall into the bait category. Avoid creating posts or content that include a phrase like those because that is one of the quickest ways to make people want to unfollow you.
It may look like you’re getting engagement right now with posts like that, but along with the algorithms introduced in December 2017, Facebook is working on limiting anything that carries engagement bait phrasing.
Keep that in mind when you post a picture or an article because Facebook strives for authenticity from people and businesses when they post an update to their pages and groups.
The posts above from Parenting Hub, Wish.com, and even The Weather Channel are prime examples of engagement bait style posts, and these are well-known, established companies.
As the algorithms to remove these posts are recent, everyone has a learning curve to go through.
This includes larger businesses just as much as mom and pop shops that use social media as part of their content marketing strategy.
Use this knowledge to your advantage and get ahead of the game by learning how to produce authentic posts that people will want to see in their News Feed.
What Authenticity Means According to Facebook
Facebook is forever adapting to meet the needs and wants of its consumer base that includes over two billion people up from a mere 100 million users ten years ago.
According to them, their research shows that beyond seeing updates from friends and family, there are “two other strong expectations” which include posts being informative and posts being entertaining.
From a content marketer’s perspective, you need to look at your posts and what they do for your audience.
Is your content informative?
Is your content entertaining?
If you can answer yes to either of those questions, then your posts will be more meaningful, which means you are going in the right direction.
Understanding How Meaningful Posts Work
Meaningful posts on social media are relative to the people viewing them. When you’re developing your content marketing strategy, you need to have a handle on your target persona to be able to create posts that will be meaningful to your audience.
When you have the target persona defined, you can develop content that will be relevant to your consumer base.
As an example, if you are a cleaning product company aimed at the residential sector, your audience is likely going to be interested in the latest trends in cleaning items and ensuring safety for their families by using non-toxic recommendations.
You can be the voice that they listen to when you post content that contains information they want to read therefore making the post meaningful in its interaction.
Entertainment is Also Meaningful for Your Audience
People also enjoy being entertained, so if you leverage the desire for entertainment in your content marketing strategy with your social media posts, you will have a leg up on the competition.
Think about all of the funny pictures and videos that get shared by your friends.
If a post, image, or funny video resonates with you like this clip posted by Good Housekeeping and its viewer audience, it will be more likely to be shared.
Good Housekeeping knows their audience can relate to this particular funny video because their target audience is made up of adults that are parents with families. The video becomes a meaningful way to engage and generate conversation which is evident by the 29 million views this one video has had since August 5, 2017.
Generate Content that Generates Conversation
As a content marketer, you want to generate conversation with your audience, but the question remains as to how to make that happen.
With the updates that Facebook is putting into play, content marketers will see their reach, video watch time, and traffic decrease on the social media platform. To minimize the expected reduction, the most significant factors that will impact traffic are the content produced and the way that users interact with the content.
What you want to do is create content that makes your audience stop and say, “Hey, that’s great! I need to share that!” or “Wow, I can’t believe that. I need to share it!” Either way will lead to sharing and generating conversation.
That means that you need to share educational and informative content that is relevant to your audience as well as content that entertains. The informative information is usually easier to develop into a meaningful post, but how do you make that work with funny material that is entertaining?
What Goes Into a Meme or Viral Video?
Some major points can’t be forgotten when creating an entertaining meme that you intend to share with the public including being aware of your audience and keeping the image relevant to you and your brand.
The first goes back to knowing your audience because your meme needs to have an image that your audience will understand. Just because you think it is witty and creatively funny doesn’t mean your audience will get it. Always put them at the forefront of your memes and videos to keep the scope of your post intact. Memes are used to spread cultural and relevant information while being simultaneously amusing.
Videos work much the same way.
In one example, there is a mom in Dallas, Texas who went on a rant about Red Ribbon Week. Melissa Radke’s video has been shared almost 200,000 times and viewed several million times since October 2016 because it touched a chord in a lot of people.
They either related to her, or they couldn’t stand what she said. Either way, it got people talking. Her video spread cultural awareness of how many parents feel and how at least part of the public feels about this campaign that has been a part of Texas culture for over 30 years. The video is still shared even today.
Make 2018 The Year You Create Your Best Content, & the Algorithms Will Have Nothing to Penalize
I’m going to discuss more on how to do live video next, but there’s something I want to say before that.
Create your best content this year, and stick to your most comfortable format.
Horse-blind yourself to everything else.
If that’s written content, stick to written content.
If that’s video content, stick to video.
Play with other formats whenever you want to, but you need a go-to format where you’re consistently building your online authority and presence.
No matter how many trends hit the market, the best creators are those that find their sweet spot and truly get comfortable creating their best content on their favorite platform. Time and time again.
For example:
Mark Schaefer holds the title of the world’s top five business blogger and author. He didn’t get there through live-streaming, podcasting, etc. In fact, he told me on my podcast with him that he stuck to blogging for years before trying anything else. Listen to my podcast with Mark.
The majority of our leads at Express Writers have come in through the 1,000+ blogs we’ve published over the last 5 years. Our primary content marketing focus is blogging. Everything else, from my Twitter chat to podcast to Facebook group, has come in secondarily to blogging.
Schaefer and my own story at Express Writers are prime examples of finding and building your core authority in one platform and area, instead of jumping around in order to not miss out on the trends. By doing too much of that, you might miss out completely on building an audience.
Make Posts Even More Meaningful with Live Video
We’ve covered the idea that your content marketing posts, whether articles, pictures, or videos need to be informative or entertaining to create a meaningful post for your audience, but have you ever thought about doing live video feeds?
Live feeds have the potential to be an essential marketing tool for content marketers if they are done correctly. Facebook has declared that videos will receive priority in their News Feed if they meet at least one of the two following criteria:
What this means for content marketers is that it would be great to have reoccurring videos set up like shows in a series.
Facebook wants videos that people will seek out and visit repeatedly, so having a live video series that is both entertaining and informative is a win-win for you and your target audience.
Regularly Occurring Shows are Not the Only Way to Go
While video streaming set up with series-style predictability is a Facebook recommendation, there are other ways to do live streaming, too, which can also boost your visibility.
Facebook has a neat feature when it comes to videos – they send out a push notification to your entire audience when you go live. These notifications serve as great reminders when you are planning something like a live webinar you want to share with your audience.
As I found out first hand, planning your Lives is a good thing. I had an idea to be spontaneous about a live stream – it generated less than 200 views. Random live streams do not engage your audience as much as a live stream that has been planned and scheduled out in advance.
You know what to do to increase your viewer audience and create meaningful engagement for your business, but you may not know where to find these viewers.
The answer is surprisingly simple – use multiple platforms to find them. Use Twitter, build community groups, broadcast podcasts, and blog regularly to establish an online presence. No, it won’t happen overnight, but with consistency and time, your audience will grow.
Blogging regularly is especially important because it gives you industry credibility, and research has repeatedly shown that blogging periodically has a positive correlation with overall incoming business.
Perhaps most importantly, at the end of every blog, podcast, and Twitter chat, you want to have a CTA or call-to-action to direct your audience to where you would like them to go. Facebook groups are a perfect place to send them because as a content marketer, you can have your audience at your fingertips, ready to read or watch whatever you send their way.
Action List Takeaways: 12 Best Practice Suggestions for Content Marketers
As Facebook makes these updates over the next few months, there are a few things to keep in mind to help you keep yourself in other people’s News Feeds.
Keep your finger on the pulse of new social media policies and ever-changing algorithms.
Think about the type of content you produce: create your best. If that’s written content, stick to written. If that’s video content, stick to video. Make 2018 the year you create your best.
Remind people to select “See First” in their News Feed Preferences for your page.
Stay away from engagement bait.
Be authentic in your posts to create meaningful engagement.
Get to know your audience persona to publish relevant memes and videos.
Trial and error is par for the course to figure out what works for your audience.
Post content that generates conversations.
Don’t shy away from live videos, keeping in mind my “create your best” theme from #2.
Consider developing and creating a regular live video feed.
Plan and post about future live sessions.
Use multiple platforms to feed your Facebook communities, pages, and overall engagement.
Join our Facebook group to stay up-to-date on the latest content marketing strategies and keep finding ways to engage your community, all at the same time.
Hello, 2018!
Isn’t it crazy we’re weeks into the New Year already?
For one of our first Write Blog posts in 2018, I’m beginning the year with a powerful topic.
I want to unveil the what, how and why of a rare content epidemic that can transform our marketing world as we know it.
What is this epidemic, you say? Content storytelling.
Research has proven that emotional connection is EVERYTHING in marketing:
On average, emotionally connected customers are 52% more valuable than customers who are only highly satisfied. Emotionally connected customers engage with your content, buy products, and keep coming back.
In a study of retail banking customers, those who were emotionally connected to the bank were 6x more valuable than highly satisfied customers.
This is because:
They remained customers much longer
They held more products at the bank
They concentrated more of their balances at the institution
Just look at the average lifetime revenue of highly satisfied customers ($10,189) versus emotionally connected customers ($59,500).
There’s a difference there that adds up to tens of thousands of dollars.
It’s pretty clear that when you connect with your audience/potential customers on an emotional level, amazing things happen.
Your customers become better, more loyal, and invested in what you do.
They don’t just like or trust you; it’s deeper than that.
So, how do you get to that level with them? Content storytelling can be the lynchpin.
To get a better idea of how it’s done, let’s start by looking at how a major credit card company, Chase, courted millennials and plugged into an emotional connection with them for awesome results.
Ready to dive in?
How JPMorgan Chase Courted Customers and Won Their Hearts with Content Storytelling
JPMorgan Chase has had a lot of success with millennials. They recently introduced a credit card targeted at this generation with the intent of inspiring emotional connection – with lots of success.
What happened?
Use among millennials rose by 70%, while account growth increased by 40%.
Big gains, right?
Let’s analyze a piece of their strategy and look at how they used storytelling to tap into millennial emotions. They did it with TheSkimm, a targeted daily newsletter that briefs its readers on world news and issues.
First, there’s something you should understand about TheSkimm.
It’s not just a news briefing delivered to your inbox daily. It’s also a wildly popular newsletter with a distinct tone of voice that offers tips for living a better, more successful life.
It’s generally well-regarded and loved by celebrities, influencers, and average readers alike. (Among its fans: Oprah, Trevor Noah, Lena Dunham, and Sarah Jessica Parker.)
Happy birthday to @theskimm. One of the best things young people can do to their inbox.
However, according to Bloomberg, its most notable demographic makes up 80% of its readership: professional females ages 22-34.
Along with that, TheSkimm gets great engagement when you look at its open rates (anywhere from 35-40%).
Of course, the draw of TheSkimm for its readers mainly has to do with the way it presents its content. The newsletter has a style that’s fun to read, and it elegantly covers an array of news topics from various angles so readers feel informed and knowledgeable.
It honestly reads like an email from a worldly, well-informed friend who has a hefty dose of wit.
Here’s an example of a news snippet from TheSkimm’s daily digest:
It’s important news in an easy-to-swallow format, with linked text so you can read further in depth.
The thing is, this news outlet also includes affiliate advertising in their content. The other thing is, it’s not intrusive or annoying, and its presented in a way that’s meant to be helpful.
And, it works:
There’s no mention of brand names. But, these are obviously coupon offers (at least, to anyone with a marketing eye). They’re presented the same way as the rest of the information in the newsletter. It fits.
Plus, these seem like offers that any millennial woman would be interested in.
Enter Chase.
Media Logic explained how the credit card company managed to take advantage of TheSkimm’s native advertising and seamlessly appeal to their built-in audience (even with branding!).
Chase was able to tap into TheSkimm’s storytelling style and direct readers to their own blog:
It only works because Chase is continuing to build the narrative that TheSkimm started: “You’re a young professional looking to create a successful life. You need help getting there. We have your back.”
There is no tie-in to Chase’s various products or services. The Chase links within TheSkimm take you to content that meshes with the story already in progress.
The results (particularly that 70% rise in millennial credit card use) attests to how well this strategy worked.
Stories tell – and stories SELL!
How to Use Content Storytelling to Emotionally Connect and Inspire Brand Devotion
So, now you know how stories can sell.
Storytelling in content marketing, needless to say, is integral.
The power of stories has followed human civilization since the cavemen first painted figures on cavern walls, telling the story of their way of life as hunters. It’s been with us since human language first developed, allowing us to entertain and regale each other with experiences both real and made-up.
Emotion has always been at the core of stories. Stories make you feel something, whether that’s delight, surprise, sadness, fear, joy, or plain old empathy.
Stories are how we communicate. What is a conversation but a series of intertwining narratives? Storytelling is also a better way to present content.
To tell stories in your content, draw on what you know about them intuitively. Use these aspects to make your content come alive for your readers and create that emotional connection.
1. Be Personal
When somebody gets personal, we automatically feel more invested in what they have to say.
A personal story or point-of-view has far more emotional resonance than one told from a third person or objective perspective.
Example:
This Quartz article about the secret of creativity is well-written and full of good points. However, it mainly approaches the topic from an objective, facts-only perspective.
The author addresses the reader as “you,” but we still feel removed from this piece. We aren’t necessarily drawn into it on an emotional level.
Compare it to the following piece by Jennie Spotila on JessicaAbel.com. (Jessica Abel is a productivity and writing coach with a great blog.) This piece is also about creativity, but it offers tips for honing your creative focus when you’re chronically ill:
It’s not just facts-based – she also supports her points with her own personal experience.
Suddenly, when she plunges into her personal story, we find ourselves nodding along – even if we have never dealt with the obstacles from working or writing with a chronic illness. This is how hard it can be to work creatively, but Jennie guides us through her story and shows us how it’s possible.
This read is far more intense, and pulls at your emotions much more effectively, than the Quartz article about a similar topic.
That personal element makes all the difference. If you want your content to be as addictively readable as well as informative, don’t be afraid to weave in your own personal tales or add a personal element.
2. Give Examples and Supporting Information
What makes a good story great? It’s all in the details.
As William Sarto writing for JeffBullas.com says, “Deep research is what differentiates a remarkable story from an okay one.”
Especially if you’re trying to convince your readers of something, your story is nothing without details.
This definitely means facts and statistics from reputable sources mentioned in your writing, but it also ties into point #1: Be personal.
Back up what you say, what you purport to be true, with personal anecdotes and examples as well as facts and statistics that help add solidity to your assertions.
Never just state something baldly and leave it at that. Provide evidence.
A good story becomes great when you pad it out with details, evidence, scene-setting, and more details.
Don’t be afraid to get descriptive. It helps your readers visualize what you’re saying and connect with it personally.
3. Try Different Mediums and Methods for Connecting
There’s more than one way to tell a great story.
If you find that the written word isn’t quite the best way for you to tell yours, try something else.
If you’re more comfortable with speaking, for instance, why not try a podcast?
A FANTASTIC example is the Fueled by Death Cast.
This podcast from Death Wish Coffee Company asks a question that neatly connects to coffee as fuel (“What fuels you?”) and tells stories that revolve around it. They record it live on film and audio, so you get to see the speakers as well as listen.
A podcast about coffee with a name as crazy/cool as “Fueled by Death?” Yes, please.
Episodes range from band features to interviews and more (whatever creative fuel gets you through the day along with your coffee, natch), but they also do stuff like employee features, too. And, they even record it live as a video and upload it to YouTube, giving what would be only an audio podcast a much more invigorated, lively, and visual feel. Example:
It all ties back to the brand and their voice.
This is a fantasic way to tell a brand story.
Note, too, that the podcast doesn’t exclusively talk about coffee. They found a way to branch out while still making the episode topics relevant. It’s a smart way to tell stories without coming out of left field with random topics.
Other Methods for Telling Stories
Creating a podcast is a great idea for storytelling if you’re better at speaking than writing. There are even more mediums to try, though.
If you love telling stories through visuals, try out a YouTube show. It can be as simple as you sitting down in front of a camera and addressing topics in your industry. Or, you can really get creative and do more – graphic presentations, interviews, etc.
Heck, if you’re musically inclined, you could even write and perform songs that tell your brand story.
Writing isn’t the only way to tell your tales. Think outside the box and consider other ways to get your message across. The sky’s the limit when it comes to types of valuable content that will emotionally connect your audience to your brand.
4. Create an Ongoing Narrative Arc
To make your brand storytelling seamless, you should try to stick to an overarching theme.
A theme that underlies all of your brand stories and content will create a narrative arc that, when taken as a whole, provides a bigger picture.
For each story you tell (whether in the form of blog posts, podcast episodes, YouTube videos, or even just Stories in your social media feeds), make sure it ties into this picture.
Think of each piece of content like an individual puzzle piece. They should fit together neatly under your brand’s personality and core message.
Chase’s News & Stories
Let’s revisit Chase for a good example.
On their content hub, they divide their “stories” into different categories. Note, however, that all of them tie back to the theme: “Helping you make the most of your money.”
Calling it a “magazine” illustrates the theme perfectly. It’s like an online magazine with all the articles you’d expect, like “Your Guide to the Perfect Holiday Movie Marathon” and “How to Create a Soft Smoky Eye.”
Out on the Wire with Jessica Abel
Yet another example of content that has an overarching theme is the “Out on the Wire” podcast with Jessica Abel.
This is a storytelling podcast about storytelling. Jessica Abel is on the road to writing a story, and this show goes through the whole process along with her.
Lore Podcast
Yet another example of themed storytelling done right (that you may or may not have heard of): “Lore,” a podcast that explores frightening folklore and true scary stories.
The episodes each tell wildly different tales, but they’re all held together with this one connecting thread.
This podcast got so popular, it even was made into a TV series on Amazon.
As you can see, themed storytelling is everywhere you look. Brands, companies, and entities that do it right are rewarded with devoted followings. The power of cohesive tale-telling really helps your audience connect with you and find emotional resonance with your brand presence.
A theme is an incredibly important aspect of telling multiple stories over time. Use this technique to create a compelling big-picture view when you zoom out from the individual pieces.
5. Invite Readers to Contribute to the Tale
Your brand is nothing without the audience, friends, followers, and customers in your community.
Your tale is continually shaped by your interactions with them. Your brand relies on them for its forward motion. Hence, it makes perfect sense to invite them to contribute to your ongoing story.
Lots of brands are already doing this to great effect on social media.
Folio Society
The Folio Society, a self-described publisher of “beautiful editions of the world’s greatest literature,” invites their fans and followers to post pictures of their books and tag them #foliosociety for a chance to be featured on their Instagram account.
Book-loving fans eagerly show off their Folio Society editions “in the wild.” This paints an overall picture of how the publisher’s books are collected and displayed, which adds to their brand story.
A Color Story is a well-loved image-editing app for tweaking and improving snaps right on your phone.
The app has made clever use of social media to highlight exactly what it can do, as well as show off how its users get creative with it.
On their Instagram account, the app developers invite their followers to tag photos they’ve edited using the app. A Color Story reposts their favorites and explains how the photo was edited and which filters were used.
Their brand story, as a result, highlights the collective experience of the people who use their app – people all over the world taking beautiful photos.
And, when you browse the main hashtag, #acolorstory, you can see how that story unfolds across continents:
Want More Traction, Sales, and Results? Tell Great Stories
Look at any successful brand and you’ll more than likely find their name synonymous with some kind of story.
It can be as loose as a theme tying all their content marketing together, or it can be an involved narrative that is continually expanding.
Whatever stories they tell, each and every one contributes to the brand’s voice and persona.
Stories add life, warmth, and personality to a company’s messages. Stories make people lean in and emotionally connect to you with their minds and hearts.
Customers who are emotionally connected to your brand are 52% more valuable than those who are just highly satisfied.
Storytelling requires going the extra mile, but your audience, followers, and customers will reward you handsomely for your trouble.
And, when you can tug on those emotional strings, you’ll find your business going places you never dreamed. If you’re ready to tap into the power of stories, you first need some storytelling power. We have it right here with our pro content storytellers – check out what we can do and start emotionally connecting with your audience for better results.
