When it comes to content, nobody wants to be “decent.”
Decent is boring.
Unremarkable.
It doesn’t stand out.
When it comes to your content, you want to be much more colorful.
You want people to describe the material you write as exciting, unique, amazing, and memorable.
But how do you get from Point A to Point B?
The answer is simple:
When you learn what separates incredible content from decent content, and which tricks you can use to create more of the former, it’s easy to stand out as one of the most skilled content marketers on the web.
Here’s your step-by-step guide.
The Boring Content Marketing Epidemic
There’s an epidemic going around, and few people are talking about it.
No, it’s not the bird flu or the dreaded selfie “duck face.”
Instead, it’s something much, much more serious. It’s boring content.
In a world where more than 2 million blog posts are published daily, it’s safe to say that easily 90% of them are duplicative, boring, and unoriginal. It’s safe to say that most of them are crap.
Cloned from other blogs, regurgitated from prominent sources, or modeled on the 30 other blogs already written on a topic, these posts don’t do much but clog up the web and make it harder for truly unique content to stand out.
In some ways, this isn’t even the fault of individual writers. Instead, it’s the curse of an entire industry, which sometimes focuses on things that are viral and flashy more than it does on things that are unique and relevant.
In other cases, the boring content epidemic is perpetuated by the fact that everyone can be a publisher today, and this leads to the web being flooded with material that’s poorly written, poorly researched, and not worth reading.
If you subject to this boring content epidemic, it’ll have a real and dramatic impact on your content marketing. Fortunately, this fate isn’t inevitable. When you commit yourself to avoiding boring content and shooting for something bigger and more lasting, you can succeed in being one of the few content marketers that manages to develop unique content people remember.
Why Epically Amazing Content Matters
I know what you’re thinking.
“Come on – epically amazing content? Isn’t that just showing off? Or unforgettably impossible?”
The answer is no.
Not by a long shot!
Today, it matters more than it ever has mattered for brands to be unique, creative, and standout.
Here’s why: today’s consumers don’t just want an earful. They’re not looking for flashy promises, empty content, or regurgitated thoughts. Instead, they want real value. They want originality, and they want excitement. In fact, they base their purchasing decisions on these things.
According to a recent NewsCred study, 62% of millennials report that their brand loyalty is directly related to the type and quality of content a brand produces.
When you consider that millennials have an annual spending power of about $200 billion annually, this quickly becomes an important statistic.
Today, it’s not enough to just churn out boring content so you have something, anything, online. Instead, you’ve got to dedicate yourself and your brand to creating truly EPIC content that supports brand loyalty, builds your reputation, and helps people remember your company the next time they need a good or service.
Epic content is the only way to do this, which is why it’s emerged as the content format of the present and the future.
What’s more, the role of content is continually growing, and effective digital communication is more essential today than it’s ever been before.
Here are a few facts to illustrate my point:
[clickToTweet tweet=”78% of CMOs report that content marketing is the future of marketing. @JuliaEMcCoy” quote=”78% of CMOs report that content marketing is the future of marketing. @JuliaEMcCoy”]
Today, epic content is the only way to go for brands who truly want to make an impact on the web. Enough of this wishy-washy crud. Enough mediocre articles and blog posts. Enough low-paid, low-researched material that doesn’t do anything but clog up the search results.
In an environment where it’s harder than ever to earn attention online, the only way to succeed is by creating superb material that outshines everything else with its levels of quality and relevance.
The Benefits of Epic Content
The first and most obvious benefit of epic content is that it helps your brand stand out. While few people talk about boring content creators, everyone talks about content marketers who break the mold and do things nobody else is daring to do.
Here are a few of the other benefits of truly epic content:
It’ll earn you more online shares
It provides more actionable, relevant, exciting information for your followers
It lasts longer and remains valuable for longer than ordinary content
It helps people trust your company
It makes you stand out as a thought leader
Beyond that, brands that create epic content can rest easy knowing that their content creation efforts are worth something. When you’re not beating yourself against a wall, struggling to come up with boring topic after boring topic, and then being devastated when they don’t produce the results you’d hoped they would, content creation gets much easier and much more satisfying.
Unfortunately, creating content that’s consistently memorable can be tough, and many brands struggle to develop a formula for doing it.
5 Tips to Create Epically Awesome Content
“Epic” is a high standard, but it’s totally attainable. You just need to know where to start. Here are five steps to get you closer to the goal of unforgettable online material:
1. 10x Your Research
One thing that separates the wheat from the chaff when it comes to online content is research.
Think about it: writing is easy enough, for a lot of people. Almost anyone can put together an average blog post.
Heck, a prolific writer can easily crank out more than 1,000 words an hour, so even long-form material isn’t that hard to create.
When you look at it that way, there’s really nothing stopping everyone out there from creating ultimate, long-form guides, right?
Wrong.
The standout factor that’s missing from most content on the modern web is accurate, in-depth research.
While writing a 5,000-word post might be easy enough, researching something, pulling unique stats, and investing the time and effort required to develop a post that’s informative and relevant is harder.
Much harder.
With this in mind, one of the best things you can do for the quality of your online content is to hone your research skills. While most people had some formal research training in high school or college, now is a great time to brush up. For example, do you know what makes a reputable source and what doesn’t? Do you know how to reference your sources in your online material?
Good research is a skill not everyone has, and it can truly make the difference between a cheap, crappy post and something with legs.
Develop a list of go-to sources and learn to dig deep. Don’t ever link to something that’s linking to something else. Instead, go the extra mile and find the original source and unique, valuable, rare information that will stand out in your material and make an impact on your readers.
Not only will this differentiate your content – it will also make you a stronger writer.
2. Don’t Be Afraid to Break the Mold With Unique Content Types
While the quality of your content is essential any time you’re going for EPIC, so, too, is its format.
Today, the world of content extends far past a blog post or article. Right now, the content marketers that stand out in this industry are creating a wide variety of content, from infographics to memes and videos. If you want to run with them, you need to start mastering these content types, as well.
Being creative with your content formats will net serious results. Here are a few ideas:
Facebook Live: Live streams on Facebook are getting billions of views now. Jump in while the trend is hot!
Twitter & Instagram quote cards: Perfect for sharing on social media and getting more traction from your content!
Infographics: To date, our most linked-to content are infographics. This is a major content investment, but the visual engagement stats make it worth it.
Blogs, web pages: Don’t forget your “anchor” content with an ongoing blog schedule and up-to-date, fresh web page writing.
In addition to standing out because they’re unique, these content types also stand out because they’re valuable, and the stats back that up.
Infographics, for example, are liked and shared on social media three times as often as any other type of content.
As if that weren’t enough, 14% of marketers were using live video last year, and 37% of content marketers report that visual marketing is the second most important form of content (after blogs) for their business.
With this in mind, consider creating infographics for your online presence. Not only are they a unique way to communicate information, but they can also help brand you as an informative company that goes the extra mile to deliver value and relevance to its readers
3. Structure Your Content Correctly
If you’re going to write content, you need to do it correctly. Instead of just slapping up a wall of words and expecting people to wade through it, structure your content so it’s as readable as possible.
Here are a few tips:
1) Use Headers And Subheaders. Headers and subheaders break up large bricks of text, and help guide readers through your material. For best results, make yours informative, succinct, and direct. Readers should know by looking at them what each section will teach them, and what they can expect to find within them. Keep in mind that exciting headers and subheaders will draw your readers through your content faster and more efficiently, so it’s in your best interest to make these as exciting as possible. After all, epic content doesn’t just happen here and there!
2) Break Up Long Paragraphs. Long paragraphs are alienating to readers, and can make it difficult for people to understand your meaning or your point. With this in mind, keep your paragraphs short – two to four sentences maximum. This makes your content easier for readers to skim and encourages them to read to the end.
3) Use Bulleted And Numbered Lists. Like short paragraphs and good subheadings, numbered lists and bullet points break large chunks of content into digestible bits and encourage viewers to read over them and find the information they need. Plus, they make your content more appealing to look at, which goes a long way toward making it epic.
4) Keep Your Sentences Short. Short sentences are easier to read. They make your content more inviting and help communicate your point more clearly. To take this one step further, don’t stop with just shortening your sentences: make the reading level of your content lower, as well. If it sounds like this is counterintuitive for epic content, think again. There’s a good deal of research that says online content performs best when it’s written between a seventh and eighth grade reading level.
4. Take Your Time With Content Creation
No matter how well you do everything else – from researching your content to formatting it – it’ll all be for naught if you rush the creation process. Here’s why: epic content isn’t an overnight process. Instead, it takes time. In the (slightly altered) words of Hemingway, “the first draft of anything is crap.” If you’re rushing through the writing process and publishing your first drafts, there’s virtually no chance they’ll stand out as truly epic.
That said, one big component of creating truly unique online material is to take the writing and creation process seriously, and give it the time it deserves.
Here’s a process to follow:
1) Write Your First Draft Without Stopping. It’s easy to self-edit when you create content. Instead of going back to change thoughts, alter spelling, and shift wording, though, write your first draft without stopping. The secret weapon of many successful writers, this process allows you to get into a flow state, where your thoughts are cohesive and developed, and it’s easy to move from one segment of the content to the next. While you don’t have to write fast, you should write consistently. After you finish your first draft, put it aside and don’t look at it for at least 6-12 hours.
2) Give Yourself 2-3 Rounds Of Editing. Once you’ve let your first draft “rest,” so to speak, you’ll want to give yourself ample time to complete 2-3 rounds of edits. Editing is by far the most time-consuming process of creating epic content, and allowing time for multiple passes will allow you to fine-tune the writing as much as possible. Depending on the length of the article and your personal editing process, this could mean leaving yourself a few days or even a few weeks.
3) Have Someone Else Read the Content. Even after you’ve gone through the content several times manually, having someone else look at it is critical. When you’ve written and edited content on your own, it can be easy to overlook simple mistakes in voice and tone, or to believe that the subject is clearer than it is. A third-party will be able to read for these things and can help make your content crisp and sharp, which will help it resonate with your audiences.
4) Publish With Visual Aides. Finally, it’s time to publish your content, but don’t hit that button just yet. Instead, take some time to dress your content up with helpful visuals. Things like screenshots, custom infographics, and images can go a long way to add some extra depth to your content and make it more appealing for readers. We’ve even created custom illustrations to 10x our visual aides, like this blog illustration with Princess Leia:
This will also help differentiate your content from everything else that’s out there and ensure you earn the views and traffic you deserve.
5. Find A Professional To Help You
By far one of the best things you can do to overhaul your content marketing is to partner with a team that cares about epically amazing content marketing rather than just creating content.
There are dozens of benefits to this.
Not only will this approach provide the guidance and direction you’ll need if you’re new to content marketing, but it will also give you a team of seasoned content professionals to bounce ideas off of and work closely with as you seek to flesh out your content strategy.
As if that weren’t enough, a team of content professionals can ensure that the blogs, articles, and other digital material you create are always high-quality and mindful of up-to-the-minute SEO and content marketing standards, which is nonnegotiable if you want to stand out online.
The Future is Bright For Your Content Marketing
Enough of so-so content that doesn’t go anywhere or do anything. Now is the era of epic content marketing, and it’s time to get on board.
By following these five tips and refining and perfecting your presence and content as you learn and evolve as a content marketer, you’ll stand out as a leader in content marketing.
So, what are you waiting for?
Break the mold of “decent” content and shock the web by showing your competitors and clients just what a difference epic content makes.
We’ve all heard it: while 80% of people read headlines, only 20% read body copy.
What does that mean in practice, though?
In other words, how do you create headlines that entice that elusive 20% to keep reading? Or to share, comment, and convert?
The truth is that viral headlines are rare, and they take time, effort, and skill to master.
Fortunately, the content marketers who develop solid headline skills have a better chance of standing out from the crowd. Modern customers are attracted to quality and effort, and a great headline reflects both.
The good news is that headlines like these aren’t out of reach. Here’s your complete guide to creating them.
What Makes a Headline Viral?
If you want to create viral headlines, you must first understand what, exactly, makes them go viral. What are the components they include, and what’s their foundational structure look like?
Here are a few critical elements of every good headline, as laid out by Steve Rayson in a BuzzSumo article:
Viral headlines have an emotional element
Viral headlines use content elements to their advantage
Viral content covers trending topics
Viral headlines follow a format
Viral headlines promise the reader something
Here’s Rayson’s table, to illustrate:
According to him, most viral headlines employ not one, not two, but three or four of these elements. This combination allows them to perform in a unique way, and to grab your readers’ attention.
Which Headlines Get Shared?
The good things about learning to write viral headlines is that there’s a lot of information about which headlines get shared and which don’t, and this can help guide your efforts.
For example, in 2014, OkDork published a post that showcased the results of a survey that analyzed more than 1 million headlines. Here’s what they found:
The Most Popular Phrases in Viral Headlines
The OkDork survey found that the most popular words and phrases in headlines were:
As you can see, list posts top the charts time and time again. And this makes sense – they’re easy to skim, valuable for readers, and ideal for virtually all industries.
Beyond that, the survey also made it clear that people love personalization, and that content that addresses the reader personally (by using the words “you” and “your”) sat at the top of the list, as well.
Readers also loved any post that promised a better situation or hinted it would teach them to do something. As you can see, using the right words in your headline is essential, and can make all the difference in your readership.
Emotional Headlines
As the web has become more personalized and targeted, there’s been a push toward emotional headlines. These headlines take all forms. They can be shocking, infuriating, laugh-inducing, or curiosity-inspiring. Readers just want to feel something when they read your headline.
This requires the use of power words. Some power words, like free, easy, and DIY are already included in the list above. There are many others besides these, though. Terms like approved, competitive, unsurpassed, andconfidential all inspire strong emotional reactions in readers, and help drive shares for your content.
There’s science to back this up, too.
According to CoSchedule, posts with a higher emotional value earn more shares than posts with little emotional value.
Headlines That Utilize Trigrams
A trigram is a three-word phrase used in a headline.
While the number 3 has significance throughout nature and mythology, it’s also a powerhouse in the world of writing and, specifically, headlines. The rule of three states that things that come in packs of three are funnier, more impactful, and more satisfying than things that don’t and this holds true for a viral title. BuzzSumo reports that certain trigrams within headlines earn more shares and likes than others.
Here are a few to get you started:
X Pictures That
X Signs You’re
How Well Do
Can We Guess
You Should Never
X Things Only
The Science Of
History Of The
The Art Of
The Future Of
As you can see, these trigrams are just a skeletal structure that you can apply to any headline in any industry.
Superlative-Rich Headlines
If you’re like most writers, you’ve been taught not to use superlatives in your writing. It’s time to turn that on its head, though. According to BuzzSumo, superlatives can increase the share volume of your headline when used correctly. Because they boost the emotional value of a headline and make it easier for readers to get excited about them, superlatives are ideal for creating viral posts that spread widely across the web.
Here are a few superlatives to get started with:
Amazing
Inspiring
Surprising
Successful
Particularly useful for content designed to be shared on social, superlatives can make your headlines more impactful, promising, and exiting for your readers.
Content Formats
There are a few content formats that get shared more often than others, and using them is a great way to make your content more viral. These include lists of ten things, how-to guides, and quizzes. Quizzes are especially exciting since they represent a form of interactive content many marketers aren’t creating. In addition to going viral, interactive content like this also allows you to expand your reach and help you stand out as a leader in your industry.
How to Write Viral Headlines: 5 Tips
Now that you know which types of headlines go viral let’s talk about how to write them for yourself.
1. Evaluate The Headline’s Emotional Impact
Remember: headlines with a high emotional impact get shared more frequently than minimally emotional headlines.
With this in mind, use a tool like the Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer from AMI. Designed to evaluate the way your headline’s word groups come together to elicit emotional responses from readers, this tool is free and easy to use.
Here’s an example of what it looks like in action:
2. Follow a Formula
If you’re just getting started with headlines, and you want to ensure yours perform well, look for ways to include tried-and-true methods in your headline approach. Trigrams like those mentioned by BuzzSumo are always a fantastic jumping-off point.
In addition to making your headlines more impactful, using these trigrams as a structure is an excellent way to get out of a rut and ensure your headlines are performing the way you want them to.
Here are a few examples of what you could do with the trigram structure:
As you can see, it’s easy to take these headlines and run with them, tweaking them to your preference to ensure they fit your industry and cater to your audience.
3. Choose a Trending Topic
It bears mentioning here that creating viral content is a different animal than creating evergreen content. When you create evergreen content, you want to choose a historically useful topic that will appeal to your readers for years to come. Since evergreen content is meant to attract traffic to a post or page long after its publish date, it wouldn’t make any sense to use a fleeting, trending topic as the foundation.
When it comes to viral headlines, though, the approach is different. Because viral headlines are meant to drive a significant amount of traffic to a site or post in a short period, they thrive on trending topics.
This means anything in global, national, or industry news is fair game.
For example, check out this screenshot of some “trending” topics from Facebook:
You can also use Google Trends to discover trending topics, and build a headline from those. Since it’s Google, the data capabilities behind the trends you can search here are massive!
Be sure you keep the headline ideas from trends relevant to your industry, or else you stand the chance of missing out on the audience-specific traffic your headline could be generating.
4. Make a Promise
If you’ll remember from above, some of the top-performing headlines included words like “how to” and “DIY.” The reason for this is simple: these headlines make a promise. By telling the audience they’ll teach them something, these headlines get a jump start on providing value and relevance to readers.
To make your headlines more viral, include an element of promise within them. This promise can revolve around revealing a story, telling a secret, or offering insider tips.
No matter what you do, the more exciting you manage to make your headlines, the more likely your readers are to bite.
5. Make it Emotional
Today’s best headlines are highly emotional. In addition to inspiring readers to share, highly emotional headlines also stick with people and promote recall long past the point a customer would typically remember a headline. This allows these headlines to stand out as monsters in their industries, and to be shared widely across the web.
To make your headlines as emotional as possible, include power words that make people want to click. The more of these you can include, the more impactful your headline will be.
Keep in mind that, while a good headline is emotional, it should also be natural. Readers don’t want to feel like a used car salesman is writing their blog headlines.
What Not to Do With Your Headlines
While there are a lot of dos when it comes to writing viral headlines, there are also dozens of don’ts. It’s true that headlines follow a formula and that good ones often have several things in common. You do need to be careful, though, that you’re not getting too formulaic or standardized with your headlines, or else you’ll risk coming off as spammy and untrustworthy.
Here are a few simple don’ts to keep in mind as you work toward the perfect headline.
Don’t Cram Your Headline With Exact Match Keywords
Exact match keywords are, by and large, a thing of the past. While they can be useful to guide your content, they shouldn’t act as its backbone. In addition to the fact that they look spammy, they’re not often very organic, and can cripple an otherwise great headline. Instead of relying on exact match keywords as you work your headline out, look for semantic matches, synonyms, or other phrases that get at your user’s intent but don’t feel artificial or plastic. This will make your headlines more emotional while also ensuring you’re doing a good job of matching the questions, topics, and interests your readers want.
Don’t Make A Promise And Not Deliver
As we mentioned earlier, great headlines make promises to their readers. Whether that promise is to teach a reader to do something or expose an industry secret, promises are compelling and exciting. As such, one of the worst things you can do in your headlines is make a promise and not deliver on it. In addition to being disrespectful to the reader, this also doesn’t do much for your reputation as a trustworthy source, and can harm your readership in the short and long-term. That said, make sure any promise leveraged in your headline is also supported by your body copy.
Don’t Get Too Short With Your Lists
While list posts rule, some are stronger than others. Most research suggests that 25 is the magic number when it comes to list posts and that longer lists may perform better than shorter lists.
With this in mind, don’t sell your readers short with your list posts. Instead of skimming the surface with a list of three or four things, go longer and stretch the list out to include 15 or 20 points.
Don’t Stop With Clickbait
Viral headlines are more durable than pure clickbait. They inform readers while they excite them, and they deliver on their promises. While creating run-of-the-mill clickbait headlines can be enticing, you’ll find these fall short with your readers. Instead of just flashing something shiny before their eyes, go deeper and write headlines that are as informative as they are exciting. What, exactly, will your reader learn from your content? Which questions will you answer? These elements prove your headline has substance and work to make it stand out from the crowd.
Don’t Get Overly Complex
A good headline is simple, precise, and to-the-point. If you get too complex with jargon or lingo, you risk losing readers and making your material harder to relate to or interact with. What’s more, the best headlines are the ones that can spread the furthest, and this is unlikely if you’re only writing for a specific audience. With that in mind, make your headlines appealing to as many people as possible. Not only will your readership balloon, but your headlines will more likely go viral as a result.
Viral Headlines Made Simple
If you’ve been in pursuit of viral headlines, you’re not alone. Luckily, they’re not as challenging to create as you may think. While it’s true that learning to write viral headlines is a process, it’s also entirely attainable and isn’t outside the reach of any moderately talented copywriter. That said, these simple tips are all you’ll need to learn to write viral headlines that resonate with your audience and earn your content the reach it deserves.
When you take the step toward viral headlines, your entire content strategy benefits. Not only do you rise above the sea of so-so, boring content, but you also enter a place that few content marketers know how to access. By mastering the art of the viral headline, you stand to improve your content’s value, drive more traffic to your site, and become a better content marketer, starting right now.
Hire expert copywriters to help you write viral headlines in our Content Shop!
All copywriters are very much human. Even though they might publish copy that looks absolutely pristine and perfect.
How do I know? Because we make spelling errors just like the rest of the mere mortals. 😉
But the difference between you and me?
Because when I’m a copywriter and make a mistake, a lot more people are going to see it. That’s a whole lot of pressure.
Let’s face it:
English spelling is hard.
For example, how come if you write a play, you are a playwright, not a play write?
And why in the world is kernel spelled colonel?
In fact, George Bernard Shaw once pointed out that under English spelling rules, fish could just as easily be spelled g-h-o-t-i as f-i-s-h. (As in the gh from tough; the o as in women; and the ti like in nation.)
With all the wacky spelling rules, it is easy to see why even the smartest of us have problems every once in a while. Still, though, there are some mistakes so wrong that nobody should be guilty of making them. Yet, there they are, constantly being included on lists of the most commonly misspelled words (misspell, by the way, is not misspelled: however, mispelled definitely is).
If you want to make it in the copywriting biz: do not make any of these common errors. We’ve put together a fun spelling test pop quiz for you in this post! Our talented designer created a quiz graphic for every question. Remember: don’t peek at the end till you’ve taken a guess!
How well will you do on our spelling test? Ready…set…go!
7 Common Spelling Problems You Should Not Be Making in Your Copywriting
Be creative with your copy, but not your spelling. Don’t even try to get creative with misspelling, i.e. krazy kopywriting. PSA: that’s not cute – that’s just bad spelling.
Here are seven words you should consistently be spelling right, but that a whole lot of people aren’t. If you want to make it in the copy game, time to get all of these right.
1. Most Obnoxious: They’re always getting their words mixed up over there.
[clickToTweet tweet=”They’re vs. their is a spine-chilling error that wins most obnoxious spelling mishap on the planet.” quote=”They’re vs. their is a spine-chilling error that wins most obnoxious spelling mishap on the planet. – @JuliaEMcCoy”] They’re vs. their.
People seem to have a lot of trouble with this one, but if you are going to be a copywriter, you have to figure it out.
For starters, let’s go over they’re. Whenever you see an apostrophe that is not possessive, you know it has to be a contraction. So they’re has to be one as well. And, of course, it absolutely is. It stands for they are, and it should never be used in any other way.
Then, there is there. It’s a location – as in over there. It should never get mixed up with their – which is possessive. As in, their property.
Ready? Test yourself:
2. He needs to leave to buy that car by the store. Bye!
Everyone should know the difference between buy, as in purchase, bye, as in adios, and by, as in a preposition.
Yet, here is this used car sign that makes me question everything I thought I knew about the level of grammar knowledge:
This particular store will bye used cars. I guess that sort of make senses. I mean, maybe they were going for the message that they quickly get rid of used cars, as in they go bye. However, I feel like that is a stretch. They just apparently needed my spelling lesson.
How about you? Are you better than this used cars sign? Get this question right and prove it:
3. If you lose any more weight, your pants will feel loose.
Lose is a verb. It means to replace. Loose is an adjective that means not firm. It seems so easy.
Yet when a sign for Hoodia Patch, a weight lose aid, claimed to be the effective way to loose weight, people quickly pointed out their mistake.
And even fixing said mistake made them the butt of jokes as people pointed out that their ad must have gone on a diet because their loose lost an o in the edit. Now that is not the type of attention you want your copywriting to get you.
Are you ready for the quiz on this section? It should be an easy one:
4. Here are two cookies that need to be eaten later because they are too hot now.
Two people pretty much have figured out. It’s that pesky to and too that they just can’t wrap their minds around. Let’s break it down. To is a preposition. Too is an adverb meaning either a higher degree than is desired or else also.
Easy, right? Tell that to this tax office who thinks it is never to late to file your taxes (but is it too late to fix the sign?):
Do you have it down? Or do you need extra help like those accountants, too? Select the right answer:
5. Why don’t I like that sign? Because it’s got to fix its spelling.
Admittedly, its and it’s can be a little confusing if you are used to ‘s being a possessive. However, when it comes to this common misspelling, all you have to know is that it’s means it is or it has and absolutely nothing else.
Did you happen to notice that in the accounting sign above, they also got this wrong? That’s a truly awful sign. Its not to late to file your taxes should have been it’s not too late to file your taxes. If you ever see this sign on an accountant’s door, please know that it’s not too late to find another accountant.
Now for the quiz question:
6. A lot of people think alot is okay. (It isn’t.)
Alot does not exist. It is no more real than alittle or apair or adumb.
It is always a lot, every single time.
That being said, here is this section’s quiz question. (No excuses on this one.)
7. You’re right – that’s not your problem.
Where do I start? Your is possessive. You’re means you are. It could not get any simpler. And yet here I am talking about it. Why?
Because Seagate didn’t know this. And they are certainly not the only one.
So are you one of the misspellers? Here’s your question (and note that I didn’t say here’s you’re question):
8. Our friends are almost here.
Are is a verb, our is possessive. Are you getting all of this? I hope so because our spelling lesson is almost done. Get the difference?
See how well you do with this one:
9 . Always know when to say no.
Here is the last on this list but most certainly not the last of the commonly misspelled words: know and no.
If you understand something, you know it. If you mean the opposite of yes, then you want to say no.
Make sense? Let’s see.
Pop Quiz Answer Time!
Now here are the answers. I’m sure you aced it.
Before You Hit Submit, Think About Your Copywriting for a Spell
When you are writing copy, it is easy to misspell a word, even when you actually know how to spell it.
With copywriters, it’s easier to misspell than you’d think. You’re typing fast, and your thoughts are coming in fast, so it is easy to make a typo.
The problem with our jobs, however, is that when you make that typo with copywriting, a lot of people are going to end up seeing it. And when they see it, they aren’t going to know whether you don’t know how to spell or you made a simple mistake. They will assume the former, though.
The solution to saving yourself from a world of embarrassment is simple. Think before you submit.
Double and triple check your work.
Use, but never depend on, spell check.
Have someone else double and triple check your work.
Read through it backwards (it works very well – I don’t know why).
Just make sure it does not go to print with some glaring spelling error you would be embarrassed to have credited to you.
The past six months have seen a spike in interest in artificial intelligence (AI). Most of this has been focused on the increasingly widespread application of the technology behind what makes AI work: machine-learning. While the impact of machine learning is being felt in industries all over the world, from manufacturing to advertising, where it affects all of us equally is in the realm of Google search.
The web has become such a part of everyday existence that we barely question it. Google is supplying us not only with the answers to all kinds of queries, but also providing us a globally accessible portal for business and commerce. Google’s success can be summed up in one word: relevance.
These algorithm updates are designed to help Google realize their mission to be the best search engine in the world: by being the mostrelevant.
Of course, in order to achieve this, Google has to collect and collate data on virtually every topic imaginable, while scaling an ever-expanding Everest of information, and managing billions of requests for directions to extremely specific locations. A near impossible task for even the most skilled engineers. So, Google introduced RankBrain!
But what exactly is the Google RankBrain algorithm update, how does it affect SEO, and what are the key things online content creators should know? Find out in today’s infographic on the topic. Did you learn anything, or have an extra point on the subject to make? Let us know in the comments. Don’t forget to share this infographic!
[clickToTweet tweet=”#Infographic: Google & the rise of machine-learning, AI and #RankBrain” quote=”#Infographic: Google & the rise of machine-learning, AI and #RankBrain”]
What is Google Rank Brain?
Very simply, Google RankBrain a machine-leaning AI system that forms part of Google’s Hummingbird algorithm update.
Hummingbird is all about semantic search, or in other words, contextual relevance.
Google handles over 2 billion searches every day, of which 15% (or 450 million) the search engine has never seen before. RankBrain sorts these unique queries into contextual “entities,” chunks of language that have meaning, rather than simply returning results based on keywords.
RankBrain translates unique queries, ambiguous sentences, and more obscure “long-tail” keyword phrases into mathematical vectors, which it then uses to search for patterns in the gigantic pool of data that is the web, in order to sort and return the most relevant pages and results for the searcher.
It essentially searches for common queries and relates the more complex ones to them, based on context, and then refining its abilities to make similar connections in the future.
It is this aspect of RankBrain that makes is so powerful.
Each search is an opportunity for it to learn. After processing each query, the machine-learning engine makes slight adjustments to itself, essentially updating its part of the algorithm automatically as it makes connections and relates complex searches to data about similar or related searches it has collected in the past. It then revises search results based on this new information.
RankBrain, then, is the part of Hummingbird that makes the algorithm so powerful and effective at fulfilling Google’s mission.
Why Does It Matter?
After the devastation the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates caused online marketers, SEOs (and their clients) in 2012-2013, the entire landscape of online marketing and business has been on edge about any major announcement coming from Google about their new algorithm updates.
Part of why RankBrain caused such stir when it was announced in an article published by Bloomberg in 2015 is that it was revealed that out of the 200+ ranking signals Google currently uses to rank pages, RankBrain was named as the third-most important.
However, what is most significant about RankBrain is that it is not a ranking factor that can be “gamed” by SEOs. In fact, it encourages Google’s prime directive of extreme relevance by forcing best practices in content production and link-building.
This is not to say that traditional SEO doesn’t matter anymore. In fact, RankBrain interacts dynamically with Google’s other ranking factors to return relevant answers – factors like social shares, bounce rate, time on site, etc. Part of what it does is read data from how other users interacted with a particular site related to a specific query, and uses that data to rank search results.
So the reason RankBrain matters is because it is geared towards improving the overall user experience of Google search, by affecting search results. But hopefully for the better.
How Google Rank Brain Affects SEO
RankBrain is primarily designed to handle the 15% of Google searches that are uncommon, so the impact on SEO is minimal.
What is crucial to understand, however, is that RankBrain represents a significant step forward in Google’s use of machine-learning and AI to sift, sort and filter search results.
What this means in practice is that SEOs and marketers looking to rank highly in search results need to pay attention to where Google is going.
In 2015, Rand Fishkin declared that Google is a “two algorithm world” and that the major impact of the future of Google on SEO was the fact that optimization had to account for ranking inputs for machines, as well as user outputs for humans.
So as well as ranking factors like keyword targeting, quality and uniqueness of content, being spider friendly, having excellent UX, and multi-device optimization, user output factors like task completion success, relative CTR, and content gap fulfilment are now a much more significant piece of the SEO puzzle.
This seems to be the very essence of RankBrain, which is the first major step toward the refinement of Google’s evolution into the realm of machine-learning.
For now, however, what is important to know is, firstly, sticking to SEO best practices means that RankBrain won’t affect you too much. Secondly, instead of being concerned with the effects of an algorithm update on your SEO, you should focus on building your page and creating content for search engines and human users.
Onsite SEO has to be optimized for more for clicks, less for keywords
Go for better engagement by:
Making sure your site is as fast as possible
Providing content that satisfies searcher needs
Having excellent UX across all devices
Including features that draw users deeper into your site
Leaving out features like pop-ups and auto-play videos that tend to annoy visitors
Fill content gaps in your visitors’ knowledge
Earn more links and social shares, and encourage visitors to return
Create content based on user task fulfillment
Most of this advice is pretty standard, and will take you to 80% of ranking success. Points 3 and 5, however, is where you have the opportunity to provide searchers with that vital 20% which will put you head and shoulders above the competition.
Fishkin calls these essential success factors “10X” content and they are 100% in line with where Google is headed in the future.
Here are Fishkin’s criteria for 10X content:
Delivers an exceptional user experience through visuals, layouts, and general design
The content should be “meaty,” unique, authoritative, and trustworthy
Content should evoke a positive emotional response
The content has a viral quality about it, or at least has been shared enough to make it part of the wider conversation in a market
Content that solves a problem or provides an answer in a way that is complete, comprehensive and actionable
What All of This Means For You
These criteria are already being held up as the gold standard for content marketing success, and users are being trained to expect this higher quality of content from online businesses and marketers.
This kind of “10X” approach to content creation is going drive the gap separating the winners and the losers online wider and wider as we move further into 2017 and beyond.
So what can you do about it?
First of all, you can’t approach anything related to content marketing online today without a well-developed strategy. Anything less than a professional, committed approach is going to deliver mediocre results.
Here are my top 5 suggestions for creating content that will help you win in 2017:
1. Get specific
As I’ve mentioned multiple times throughout this post, Google wants the most relevant, accurate and content rich results to be delivered to searchers. One of the best ways to do this is to get specific.
The major problem with most content out there today is that it is too broad, which is the result of not knowing your audience well enough. Find out what their most pressing concerns are and create ultra-targeted content pieces that address those very specific problems. You can also take a specific angle or perspective on an issue, make it your own and deliver a unique solution for your market.
2. Get visual
It’s a given these days that you need great design for your website. But as the web becomes more visual and users get used to having a multimedia experience, no only should you start including more images in your blog posts, because online video is more popular than ever, you should also look to post video content and repurpose your most popular written content as videos.
3. Be original
This means not only having a unique perspective, angle or opinion on your industry or topic, it also means being able to deliver original research as part of your content. Talk to your audience, survey your email list, and mine insights from influencers in your niche. Then create stellar content around it.
4. Go Social
This goes without saying in 2017, but to maximize shares and earn quality, natural links you need to be proactive about promotion. Instead of focusing on pumping out reams of “good” content all the time, pour that energy into creating fewer, more valuable content assets and promote them relentlessly.
5. Be Influential
OK, we all know this is way easier said than done, but if you approach your content marketing with this intent in mind, you will make very different choices before you create, publish and promote your content. Look at how the influencers in your market position and promote themselves. How can you take a fresh perspective on the major issues in your market? Is there an opportunity to segment the audience and become the top influencer in that sub-niche?
Conclusion
While Google RankBrain represents a breakthrough in the application of machine-learning, what we have seen up to now is just the beginning of a new way the algorithm behind search is operating.
What this intelligent algorithm will evolve into remains to be seen, which means the best we can do for now is to keep a close eye on Google in 2017.
As far as SEO goes, the best advice from top SEOs is this: stop trying to trick Google and follow where the search giant is going by optimizing for the future, because the future of search belongs to the machines.
Ultimately, what ranking highly comes down to is simply what Google has always wanted – fresh, natural, relevant content that solves searchers’ problems and gives them comprehensive answers to their questions.
If you haven’t been doing this, well, here’s your opportunity to up your game. In fact, this is all in line with the top trends in content marketing anyway.
If anything, RankBrain is a wakeup call to us as marketers that the web has finally grown up and now it is simply time to get serious.
What steps can you take today to make your site more relevant?
If you’ve spent any time in content marketing, you’ve probably already seen this phenomenon: most of the content out there is simply a copy of something else.
While this might seem odd, in an industry that’s so focused on individuality, relevance, and value, it’s true.
Much of the written material in our niche has gone stale.
Instead of being groundbreaking, it’s repetitive.
Instead of being fresh and exciting, all it does is place a slightly new spin on an old topic.
Copycat content doesn’t do anything to further the industry, and some would argue that content marketing is stagnating because of it.
Today, more than 90% of B2B companies use content marketing in their digital strategies.
But while many of these cloned blogs are produced to populate platforms with content at a high quality level, others are written by wannabe, beginning bloggers who think it’s easy to model after industry leaders and become one.
Fortunately, being a dull content marketer doesn’t have to be your fate – just so long as you know how to avoid it. Today, we’re talking about the power of contrarian content marketing and how you can use authenticity, strategy and controversy to be a standout marketer. Keep reading!
[bctt tweet=”If you’ve spent any time in content marketing, you’ve probably already seen this phenomenon: most of the content out there is simply a copy of something else. Learn @JuliaEMcCoy’s tips for standing out as a contrarian content marketer ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
Diving Into Contrarian Content Marketing: The Secret of Controversial Content
Contrarian simply means having a controversial or standout opinion. From Dictionary.com:
The adjective sense fits what we’re talking about today: going against current practice.
Quick, answer this question: True or false: Creating controversial content is the last thing you want to do as a marketer.
While you might be inclined to stay safe and believe the answer is true, you’d be surprised to learn it’s false. Today, people don’t talk about things that are old and familiar. If you create another “10 Shocking Ways to do the Thing Everyone Already Knows How To Do” post, you’re not going to break the internet.
Nobody is going to go to their grave with the name of your blog post on their lips unless you develop a real knack for identifying controversial, interesting, legitimately useful topics your customers love.
Today, controversial content causes customers to sit up and take notice.
When people are piqued emotionally by something, whether it makes them feel awe-struck, angry, happy, or inspired, they’re much more willing to share it with their friends, initiate conversations around it on social media, and comment on it, which leads to a greater discussion around your topic.
This isn’t just speculation.
In fact, there’s been lots of research done on the power of emotional content to start conversations.
According to a 2014 Buffer study, there’s a significant correlation between the number of views a blog post gets, and the number of positive feelings (like interest, trust, anticipation, and joy) it evokes.
You don’t have to create purely positive content to reap these benefits, though. The same study shows emotionally complex content and surprising material both earn the same results.
Here are just a few benefits of controversial content:
1. More Traffic. People love being surprised, and controversial content can draw in far more views than a run-of-the-mill post. What’s more, once you create a surprising post, people will come back again and again to read it, boosting your views even further. 2. More Links. Surprising material goes viral, so it’s in your best interest to create it. When people link to your material and share it with their friends, they’ll start conversations and build a community around your content. 3. Shares. Be they on social or in an email, people will share controversial content at a higher rate than boring content. This can drive more traffic back to your site and increase the number of conversions you earn. 4. Comments. Comments are one thing virtually all bloggers want and few get. Because controversial content becomes a hotbed for comments, it’s a great way to start a dialogue around a new or unfamiliar topic and keep it fresh.
What does a content marketing strategy look like that includes contrarian content marketing? Let’s delve in.
Contrarian Content Marketing: 3-Step Recipe for an Anything-but-Ordinary Content Presence
In the world of content marketing, being ordinary is one of the worst things that can happen to a marketer.
[bctt tweet=”In the world of content marketing, being ordinary is one of the worst things that can happen to a marketer. @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”]
In addition to annoying your readers, being ordinary makes it exceedingly easy to get lost in the sea of other voices, shifting from a place of prominence and notice to a prison of solitude and minimal traffic.
Luckily, creating truly unique content is possible, you just need to follow a formula.
Our content marketing has brought in over 98% of our clients and sales. Here’s what we do to stand out in content marketing. (For the full version, see our case study.)
1. Creating A Ton of Consistent, In-Depth, Long-Form Content
Consistency wins – and long-form, in-depth content wins. In addition to the fact that long-form content ranks better than short-form content, it’s also harder to create, which means few people are doing it. If you want to zig while everyone else zags, dedicate yourself to writing super-exclusive guides or crafting five word compilations that will remain valuable long past their publish date. Trust me, it’s worth the extra work. We do it all the time – and results happen.
And by “a ton,” I mean a ton. Here’s what our content publishing schedule looks like, per our case study – volume is around 40-45 unique posts a month:
2. Building Effective, Highly-Engaged Communities
Today, even the best content is only as good as the community you’re building day by day and sharing it with. The more you share your content and engage with real people on your social platforms, and the harder you work to create communities, the better you’ll do in terms of traffic, rankings, and audience conversation.
My team and I have been able to build several communities from scratch: an ongoing podcast subscriber community with my Write Podcast, and one of my favorite communities ever (if I do say so myself), our Twitter chat that happens every Tuesday at 10 AM CST, #ContentWritingChat. Rachel, our social media manager, creates and posts Twitter chat recaps, and I create time-stamped show notes for each episode of my podcast.
Both of these communities necessitate (and create, user-generated-style) content that is posted to our site weekly. We have a dedicated site category, like a blog, linked under the Learn tab to present these sections. Here’s the Write Podcast recap section:
And our lively, engaged Twitter chat recap section (bonus: our participants LOVE getting mentioned in these recaps). Rachel curates these by selecting the best tweets shared during the hour, handwriting headers and comments around the tweets, and creating a custom recap weekly:
3. A Firm Consistency to the Investment of Standing Out
The most important aspect of creating a unique online presence is developing a commitment to standing out. This will require time, money and a strategy, but it will be worth it.
Think about this the same way you would developing your personal style: if you wanted to be regarded as a monster of fashion, the last thing you’d do is wear the same jeans and t-shirts as everyone else. Instead, you’d swim upstream, try things other people weren’t trying, and take risks. This is exactly what you need to do with your content. When you develop a commitment to standing out, it becomes easier to break the mold. (Some of the best, highest-performing content I’ve written has had controversial titles or a firm opinion in the industry, like this one: Stop Selling, Start Helping.)
For another great example of content marketing, check out what WordStream does, which follows a simple (but not-so-simple) pattern of:
Create long-form content
Promote your content online
Commit to being different
5 Unique, Creative Tips for Developing Standout Content Marketing Ideas
Let’s face it: the content sea is 90% crap.
If you want to be a unique blogger, you first need to come up with unique, salient ideas that deviate from everything else that’s out there.
Luckily, this is easier than you might think. Here are your top five tips:
1. Dig Deeper Into Social & Mine for Topics
Social has long since been used as a tool for topic mining and research. Trending hashtags, content shared by influencers, and viral posts are all easy enough to find and, historically, have served as the bedrock upon which so many marketers base their content strategies.
If you want to stand out, though, you’ve got to go deeper.
This means using social platforms like Twitter and Facebook and spending some time each day doing a scan of what’s popular on these platforms and what’s missing. Feel free to use viral content as a jumping-off point here, just look at it differently.
It’s a great idea to see what your audience is already reading. From there, get ideas of how you can do content they already love, but better. Scroll through the social feeds of the people in your buyer persona. Don’t have a persona? Check out our guide here.
Instead of seeking to clone it, read it in search of what it doesn’t have. Is there a question left unanswered or a demographic left unconsidered? If so, jump on it and be the first in your industry to cover it.
2. Develop a Process for Qualification
When you’re on the hunt for the new and noteworthy, it’ll benefit you to create an elimination process to decide which topics are worth writing on, and which veer into the familiar a bit too much. Keep in mind that few brands can afford to be controversial all the time. Not only is that exhausting, but it’s very likely to push customers away and leave you reader-less.
That said, ask yourself these questions before deciding to cover a contrary topic in your industry:
Will It Be Shocking To My Target Audience? If you’re going to be controversial, you’ll still need to do it in a way that resonates with your target audience. If the topic isn’t interesting or useful to them, look for something else.
Is There More To The Story That You Can Flesh Out? If so, that’s a great place to start. In addition to taking a new approach, you can add details, insight, and perspective that nobody else in your industry offers. This is a fantastic way to carve out a spot for yourself as a leader with fresh ideas.
Is The Story Too One-Sided? If so, it’s a good time to strike. People crave perspective, and offering some material that delves into another side of the story, or a contrary viewpoint, is a fantastic way to appeal to your target audience and develop a reputation as a contrarian leader.
Is Your Perspective Unique? Even if the rest of your industry agrees with a consensus, you might have an experience or background that provides you with another viewpoint. If this is true, now is a great time to share it. A highly personal viewpoint can add depth to your company and help you snag more of the clients you deserve.
3. Get Visual
If you’re going to write content, long-form is the way to go. When it comes to content in general, though, visual material is becoming more and more in-demand. With this in mind, one of the best ways to stand out is to create custom infographics that visualize data.
In addition to requiring some extra leg work (again – most people won’t do this, which makes the field less crowded), infographics are ideal for an on-the-go audience and can help people synthesize complex ideas in simple ways.
4. Make it Intellectual
When it comes to controversial content, there are some things you don’t want to do. The primary thing is to be overly combative, rude, or crude. Don’t drag anyone else down to prove that you’re right, or be too diminishing to another brand or person.
Instead, seek to be civil, informed, and intellectual. That last part is critical. Today, people crave information, and backing your contrarian claims up with solid data, good information, and unique stats will help you stand out as a leader rather than a troll.
If you can, pull stats from your own experience or data. This will help back up your view and position you as a primary source for unique information.
5. Watch (Select) Influencers
Again, you don’t want to hang on to an influencer’s every move, and then copy it in your own content. This is just a slightly more fine-tuned version of creating copy content, albeit from a great source. You can, however, learn from influencers. After you find a few influencers you love in your industry, follow their content and watch what they’re doing differently. Are they using sources you’re not familiar with? Maybe they’re monitoring social media in a way that allows them to jump on hot new topics, or maybe they’re interacting with the community via platforms like Quora or chat boards in ways that allow them to pinpoint controversial topics and get there first. Whatever the case may be, you can learn a lot from following their lead.
3 Examples of Great Contrarian Content
To close this out, let’s look at a few examples of great contrarian content in its natural habitat:
1. Rand Fishkin’s “Why Good Unique Content Needs to Die” Video Post
In this epic post, Fishkin CALLS OUT mediocre content and proposes a shocking alternative: creating content that’s ten times better than anything else out there. The post earned over 9,000 shares and subsequently garnered dozens of offshoot posts by all kinds of marketers calling Rand their hero and making the new phrase, 10x content, an actual definition. Rand = won the internet.
2. Matt Cutts’ “The Decay and Fall of Guest Blogging”
In 2014, a time when everyone was touting the virtues of guest blogging, Matt Cutts stuck a fork in it with this contrarian post. Complete with a shocking title and the indication that a brave new world cometh, this post earned 657 comments.
3. “Numbers Don’t Matter, Influence Does,” by Gary Vaynerchuk
When it comes to contrarian material, few would dispute that Gary Vaynerchuk is the master. This post lays waste to the importance people place on impressions and followers on social media, and insists that the impression a marketer leaves and the depth of the interactions he or she creates are drastically more important.
Bringing Contrarian Marketing Into Your Digital Strategy
Contrarian marketing is the one thing that can truly help your brand stand out and make a name for itself.
By incorporating these five tips into your digital strategy, you can develop a more unique content presence.
Time to stop floating on in the digital sea of content crap. 😉 Rock the boat a little, get out of your typical habitat, and express yourself authentically. Visit our Content Shopto find contrarian content marketers and writers who can help you enjoy a truly unique online presence through standout content.
