Content Marketing Archives

Love is In the Air: 7 Unique Methods to Inspire Customer Love for Your Brand

June 19, 2024February 14, 2017 by Adam Oakley

It’s Valentine’s Day! Time to enjoy the sweet, sweet flavor of chocolate-covered strawberries, write a perfume-scented note to the person you love (if you’re the type that handwrites, like me), and/or receive an abundance of chocolates, roses, and maybe a special date. If you’re single, you might be basking in a bowl of Ben & Jerry’s, a chocolate bar, and a tad of Netflix binge-ing. Whatever the scenario, love is the name of the game today—if that’s loving on yourself, or your special someone. We’re taking this opportunity to talk about a topic that’s crucial to your brand this Valentine’s Day (and far beyond): Building real, authentic customer love for your brand. Here’s the problem, and why many customers still feel “un-dated” or, worse yet, “broken up with” after they engage with a brand. The hard truth? Those lackluster exchanges eventually find their rock bottom, and your readers will eventually move on to more vibrant and exciting brand experiences. To avoid this now is the time to use all the tools in your tool belt to create a brand that your customers can’t help but love for years to come. Fortunately, it’s easier than you might thing. Heck – you don’t even need a pair of wings! 7 Cupid-Worthy Methods for Making People Fall in Love With Your Brand Whether you’re a new brand or an established company looking to deepen your relationship with your customers, these seven tips are your Valentine’s Day holiday go-tos. 1. Go Beyond Posting to Social Media, and Engage with Your Fans It’s not enough to just be present on social media. After all, anyone can have a profile. Instead, you have to engage. What are you giving your customers to fall in love with if you’re not engaging with them? How do you engage? Why should you matter to them? What are you giving them in return? Now is the time to think outside of the box. Instead of just tweeting once or twice a week, use Twitter to start a Twitter Chat that answers questions around a hot topic in your industry! I did this exact thing when I set out to create a Twitter Chat in January 2016, and #ContentWritingChat was born. It’s been an incredible journey of user engagement, brand awareness, and community growth since then. Our Twitter Chat has worked wonders for us, especially when it comes to creating brand loyalty. In December of 2016, we asked our participants how long they’d been joining us – the average was “eight months!” That’s some serious longevity—the relationships your brand can build through Twitter with real engagement can last forever. 2. Blog to Win Customer Love Blogging is a critical component of creating a lovable brand. By developing relevant, in-depth blog content, you can show your clients that you care about them and that the feeling is mutual. Blogging to win a customer’s eternal love, though, requires that you take it a step further. Instead of just writing or creating average content (we call that the floating-by blogger syndrome), this type of blogging demands that you focus on answering the biggest questions in your industry with seriously in-depth, long-form content (check out our recent long-form content guide for more information on this topic). Here’s what you need to do to go a step further with your blogging this Valentine’s Day holiday. – Find The Top Questions In Your Industry. There are a few great tools for this. Quora is one of them: The amazing answerthepublic.com is another great tool for this: Both platforms are designed to allow you to access customer questions according to industry, keyword, or category, and they can be fantastic resources for finding the top inquires in your industry. – Look at the Top Posts And Recreate Material Based On The Inspiration You Gain From Them. The best way to be a blogger your readers fall in love with is to give them what they need. When it comes to their questions, this means being the one who provides insightful, long-form answers that go deeper than the average writer. Take a look at what’s performing well on these top question sites and adjust your content accordingly. 3. Find Content That’s Ranking #1, Create Yours to Rise Above Using KWFinder, it’s easy to locate the content that’s ranking #1 for a phrase when you do a keyword search. Here’s an example of what a search looks like in the dashboard: On the right, you can see a list of results. For this search, “content marketing,” the top result is Content Marketing Institute’s “What is Content Marketing?” Using KWFinder or a tool like BuzzSumo, you can find the content that’s ranking #1, and then find a way to create content that is better than the competition. Look for gaps or weak areas in the material. What did the first author miss? How did he or she fail to meet the needs of customers? Did the readers walk away wanting something? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” you’ve got an avenue to blow that post out of the water. 4. Create a Podcast! For years, Buffer ran a blog. Eventually, however, they turned it into a podcast called The Science of Social Media. Since they made that decision, they’ve enjoyed massive engagement. I started my own podcast mid-2016, called The Write Podcast. Designed to echo industry questions and create more in-depth information for our audiences, The Write Podcast has been a fantastic tool for us, and we’ve heard from many listeners how much it’s helped their efforts grow. Podcasts are working very well today for a few reasons. In addition to the fact that they’re the ultimate on-the-go form of content (you can listen to a podcast at work, at the gym, in the car, etc.), they’re also a very conversational and approachable form of content, which makes it easier for listeners to develop an attachment to your brand. Worried about how your podcast will do since you’ve never created one? Know the tools you need, and set a goal of doing at least five episodes and then … Read more

An Argument for Long-Form Content: Why it Works, What Lengths to Create, & 5 Long-Form Creators That Win

June 19, 2024January 31, 2017 by Adam Oakley

There’s no way around it, if you want to publish content that truly works for your online presence. Long-form content is more valuable, more exciting, and more relevant to readers than shorter-form content. It’s also less common. While it might sound insane to start creating long-form content while we’re living in a world of increasingly short attention spans, swimming upstream is sometimes the only way to the goal. Here’s some real inspiration for you on the subject. Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing Institute, and a leader in content marketing, wrote this in an exclusive CMI subscriber email this month (read the actual email here via PDF): “…Nearly every marketer we talk to has run to shorter posts, shorter social media updates, shorter videos, shorter podcasts … thinking that audiences don’t have the desire to invest themselves in content for a longer period of time. But they absolutely do … if the content is worthwhile. Those marketers who take a longer form approach can immediately position themselves and their stories as differentiated simply because of the length. When all your competition is going small, maybe it’s your time to go big.” In the same email, Pulizzi points out that: Huffington Post has recently doubled down on its efforts to create long-form content. All-star Youtubers are creating videos that are 10 or 12 minutes long. Tim Ferriss’s recent bestselling book, Tools of Titans, is a whopping 671 pages. Today, long-form content is the best way to stand out online. But why, truly, long-form content–why does it work?–and how can you create it for your brand? Let’s discuss this timely topic. [bctt tweet=”Why, truly, are we pro long-form content for a strong online presence? Why does it work? And how can you create it for your brand? Read @JuliaEMcCoy’s guide ? ” username=”ExpWriters”] Long-Form Content, by the Numbers Long-form content isn’t just important because it’s different – it’s important because it works. By providing more space to include relevant information, and giving audiences a chance to settle in and get comfortable with your brand, voice, and content, long-form material manages to convert at higher rates, provide a higher ROI, and earn more engagement. Here are a few fast stats to prove it: The average length of posts in the top 10 spots of Google is 2,000 words. While it’s possible for short-form content to rank well, long-form content is the winner when it comes to front-page results. Long-form content gets people to stay on pages 40% longer. Kissmetrics reports that, in addition to staying on their long-form pages longer, people exposed to long-form content also viewed 25% more pages than other visitors. Long-form content earns more social shares. When it comes to social media, long-form content earns more shares and engagement than standard blog posts. Longer content helps position you as a leader in your industry. It’s tough to bluff your way through 10,000 words, and readers know that. When you create quality, long-form content, you position yourself as a leader in your industry, standing out even further from your lazy counterparts who would rather get by with 300-word blurbs. The Long-Form Guide Revolution One great place to see the power of long-form content is in guides. Today, long-form guides are doing incredibly well. While it’s tough to earn great results if you’re not writing specific, targeted, honed guides, ultimate guides are another thing. Instead of rambling and losing readers, these guides target in on one topic and dominate all facets of it. Covering things like InDesign and landing page lead generation, these guides are killing it in the online world right now. Because they’re extensive and in-depth, these long-form guides have longer lifespans than other forms of content. This is because they can be reused again and again. After they’re researched and published online, it’s easy to make a large book from them, for example, or break them down into a long-form SlideShare presentation. Need a real-life example? Consider Joanna Wiebe, who wrote a guide to copywriting formulas. It’s called “The Ultimate Guide to No-Pain Copywriting (or, Every Copywriting Formula Ever).” The piece sits at 5,000 words and takes more than an hour to read! It also includes a table of contents to follow: Useful, extensive, and helpful to readers, this piece has earned more than 6,000 shares and 151 comments. It also ranks well at the top for “copywriting formulas” in Google. 5 Examples of Bloggers Rising Above with Long-Form Content Now that you know why long-form content is so critical, let’s take a close look at a few prominent bloggers who are putting out excellent long-form content today. 1. Tor Refsland Tor Refsland, the face behind TimeManagementChef.com, has been featured on top sites like Lifehack, JeffBullas.com, Ahrefs, Post Planner, and Blogging Wizard. On his own blog, he’s famous for consistently publishing 10,000-30,000-word monster blogs. Thanks to the time, energy, and effort these blogs take, he’s been recognized as an award-winning, top blogger who was first invited to speak at key events just 18 months into blogging. For an example of what Tor Refsland is capable of with a blog, check out this piece, titled “Business Coaching, 20x My Revenue and Being Slapped by Frank Kern.” It clocks in right around 13,000 words and features so many segments and sections you’d think you were reading a novel! While the piece is long, though, it manages not to be overwhelming. This is because Refsland does a few things beautifully. For one, the entire article is broken into highly digestible segments and short paragraphs, so you’re never faced with a brick wall of text. Example: He’s also funny, and his humor feels like a trail of bread crumbs, leading you through the story step by step. He’s a pro at using punctuation, formatting, and headlines to help usher people through these monster blogs, so you never get bored or discouraged. Try this post: How To Attract the Right Clients By Doing Business Nude. It’s seriously funny. Tor’s incredible copy is a large reason he was on my podcast last year! 2. Adam … Read more

A Guide on How to Develop a Target Persona and Reach Your Audience (Hint: Stop Over-Creating)

January 24, 2024January 24, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Did you know there are over 200 million pieces of online content created every minute? 205 million emails, 3.5 million Facebook and Twitter posts, 400 hours of YouTube videos, and 1,200 WordPress blog posts later, the evidence is there. Internet users create a ton of content. Even with so much time and energy spent on writing and sharing content, the more shocking statistic may be the amount that is not shared, clicked, or retweeted. After Moz pulled 757,000 posts for analysis, they found that half had less than 12 Twitter shares and zero external links. That’s a scary low amount of engagement. The audience was not even there, and their disinterest showed. So, how do we avoid making the same mistake? It happens when we stop creating too much ineffective content, and start focusing on engaging our audience based on a target persona. In this guide, I’m going to give you an actual guide to creating a nitty-gritty target persona, four keys to talking to your target persona and reaching them with your content, then go into a guide on how to stop over-creating, and dive deep into reader-persona-tailored creation. Ready? How to Develop a Target Persona: Your Granular Guide to Creating a Target Persona There are so many guides out there that tell you why it’s important to build a marketing persona, without also telling you how to do it. Generalities are all well and good, but they don’t get you very far! So, with that in mind, let’s break down how to build a customized, specific persona that helps you understand who your brand should be talking to. I teach how to build this in-depth persona, and get to know your audience like a friend, in Module 2 in my Content Strategy & Marketing Course. 1. Draw the outline of your perfect customer To build the foundation for your persona, answer these questions right now: Does the person tend to be male or female? How old is he or she? Does this person have a family? A spouse? Where does this person live? What does this person do? What type of company and industry do they work within? For example: Meet Leader Larry. Leader Larry tends to be male, he’s generally between 40-55 years old, he’s married, with two teenage children. He works as a senior manager for a major “Fintech” company. 2. Get granular with your details of the persona You’ve got the outline, now it’s time to dive deeper with your details. Answer specific questions, like the following: What is his biggest pain point? What are the biggest challenges or difficulties this person faces within their job? Is your target persona the one making the decisions or does he need to talk to upper management? For example: Leader Larry’s biggest pain point is developing customized training and educational materials to help bring his staff up to speed on new technologies. While he’s a senior manager, he’s not the ultimate decision maker in his company, and, thanks to corporate red tape, he’s finding it difficult to create training materials and have them approved by upper management in a time-effective manner. 3. Figure out how your persona accesses and consumes content Does your target persona engage on a mobile device or a desktop computer? Does this person consume content during the working hours or after-hours, while he or she is at home? How much content does this person consume? Do they want more? Does your target persona use social networks? If so, which ones? HINT: If you have a person in mind who represents your target audience very closely, head to his or her Twitter feed to see what they’re sharing, reading, and interacting with. This will help you hone your content down the road. Who does this person see as an influencer? What do they care about enough to trigger a purchase? For example: Leader Larry uses a desktop computer to consume content during the working hours. He maintains a profile on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. He’s an active reader of industry news and updates. He participates in several relevant LinkedIn groups, where he meets influencers and consumes related content. 4. Put it all together Now that you’ve developed an accurate picture of your target persona, it’s time to put it all together. From here, you’ll be able to identify the content types this person is likely to enjoy, the channels you should publish them in, and the pain points you’ll need to solve to earn (and keep) this person as a client. Bear in mind that target personas may change or shift over time, so it’s essential to keep revisiting the information you’ve developed here to ensure it’s still relevant, and update it if need be. 4 Keys of Developing Content that Speaks to Your Target Persona Next, let’s take an overview look at four keys that help you know how to create, and who to create your content for. How to Create for Your Target Persona Key #1: Readers Are Like Celebrities, Give Them the Red Carpet Treatment The Golden Globes recently took place in LA, and if you know anything about Hollywood awards shows, you know that the events are a big deal. From who wore what (and who wore it best) to the viral speeches, there is almost always a surprise or two that no one saw coming. This year, the Globes averaged 20 million viewers; while that huge number could have been credited to the host or the Trump jabs (or both), it was an 8% increase in viewers over 2016. There are some key points we can take away for our content marketing efforts and target persona development that come straight out of a Hollywood awards show. Ready to dive in? Let’s go! How to Create Content for Your Target Persona Key #2: Your Audience Wants Something Rich In a fast-paced, technology-driven world, your audience doesn’t have time to sit and read long paragraphs of boring content before finally getting to the point. (Neil Patel) Rich … Read more

Why You Should Choose Content Marketing in 2017 & The Best Forms of Content to Invest In Today

December 31, 2020January 19, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Today, content marketing is one of the lowest-cost, highest return marketing efforts. But don’t take my word for it – for example, listen to Kraft, who publicly revealed at Content Marketing World last year that their content marketing ROI was four times higher than that of their most targeted advertising! Or, check out our own case study that reveals how content marketing is responsible for 95% of our business revenue. Right now, marketers are creating more content than ever to see return, and inbound marketers are spending more time than ever before creating content. In fact, 93% of inbound marketers are now creating content on a weekly basis. What’s more, more than half of the surveyed marketers say they spend more than six hours a week doing so. That’s a lot of time and commitment! It’s clear that content is the way of the future for 2017 and beyond and that if you want to succeed in the coming year, you need to invest in it. Read on to learn more about the upward trajectory of content marketing, and how it can boost your business this year. Will Investing in Content Make Your Brand More Successful this Year? The simple answer is, YES! Today, most marketers understand that there’s no way around content. After all, it’s the only reliable way to get around the influence of ad blockers, the best way to connect with audiences, and the longest-lasting way to build relationships that last with customers. Just because most marketers understand they should be creating content, however, doesn’t mean most marketers have invested adequately in doing it. In fact, many marketers halfway it, pumping out cheap, poorly written content that does little but clog up the search engines, and fails at meeting readers’ needs entirely. Contently calls this: “the zombification of content marketing.” Sound terrifying? It is, and it’s a growing epidemic. Fortunately, there’s a whole host of things you can do to combat it. When you pour your best into your content marketing – in creating engaging, valuable, authentic content, that you’re tremendously proud of – you break the growing zombie mold of typical content, and your brand will stand out online. 5 Content Marketing Pillars to Focus on Right Now Before we talk about which types of content you should be investing in, let’s talk about which content traits you’ll need to focus on to be successful in 2017. Here are the top five. 1. Storytelling We’ve touted the importance of storytelling before, and we’re not planning on stopping anytime soon. There are a few great things about storytelling in content marketing. Namely, storytelling works with all types of content – ranging from video to written material, which makes it the ideal foundation strategy for your various content pursuits. What’s more, it appeals to readers on a universal level. Think about it for a moment: Didn’t you love hearing stories as a kid? Don’t you still love commercials that make you laugh, riveting travel tales that make you gasp, or a great novel that sucks you in and won’t let you go? Of course, you do, and it’s all because these things are stories! The appeal of storytelling is broad and universal. Include it in your content marketing and you’ll immediately see your audience transform from “ho-hum,” to engaged, compelled, and genuinely interested. 2. User-Focused Content Nobody likes a narcissistic company that just tells everyone how awesome they are all the time. In fact, this is a recipe for failure! Instead, a critical foundation of modern content is that it be user-focused. The more you can involve your customers in your online content, tailor it toward their experiences, and ensure it reflects their voices, concerns, and passions, the more successful they’ll be. In fact, if you look around at modern content, you’ll find that many of the most successful companies out there barely enter their digital content. Sure, they’re in there as supporting cast members, but the target audience is the star – always the star. This is as it should be, and it’s a wise thing to consider as you think about how to invest in content for a more profitable 2017. 3. Mobile-Friendly Content No matter what you choose to invest in, make it mobile friendly. On the same level of importance as story-dense, user-focused material, mobile-friendly content is everything right now, and you can’t expect your brand to make much progress online if you’re not catering to your share of the more than 50% of Google search queries that come from mobile platforms. 4. Strategic Content All the content you create should be strategic and intentional. While it’s one thing to put out short-form content or funny, original videos, everything you do should be supporting a larger content or marketing goal. If it’s not, you’re wasting your marketing budget and your team’s time. 5. Helpful, Relevant Content Regardless of whether it’s a video, blog post, meme, or infographic, your top priority in all of your content creation efforts should be to make everything you create relevant, helpful, and quality. Without these three pillars, your content will fall short, and you won’t enjoy the massive ROI content is so capable of producing. Successful Growth in Content Marketing: What Kind of Hot Content Should You Invest in? If you want to succeed in content marketing, you need to invest in the RIGHT content. Otherwise, you could risk adding to the fluff that’s already clogging up the content sea. Here are the top 5 types of content to focus on in 2017 and beyond: 1. Expert Content Expert content is no secret. Google demanded it in its 2015 Search Quality Evaluator guidelines, and influencers in virtually all industries have touted its importance since then. In addition to helping you rank better (Google may punish sites that feature poorly written content, or content that doesn’t possess the level of expertise the subject requires), expert content is the only real way to build your business. By positioning you as an authority in your industry, giving you a platform to showcase your knowledge, and helping you gain more qualified leads, expert content can go … Read more

An Essential Guide: How Content Writing Works

December 31, 2020January 5, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Content writing is currently one of the most essential digital actions. The need for it, industry regardless, has virtually no limit. Talk of how content writing works, what result it produces, and how to effectively strategize around it, pops up in virtually every niche. Hospitals have site copy needs, mechanics start their own informative blogs, Mexican restaurants publish social media updates, and agencies of all types create a ton of content, from blogs, to landing pages and white papers (not to mention creating all of that x 10 for their own client base). With all this content flying around, it’s easy to wonder where it comes from and how content writing works as a whole. If you’re new to the world of content writing, the entire thing could easily seem like an impenetrable mystery, populated by highly trained professionals that you cannot access nor understand. Fortunately, learning how the world of online content writing works is a simple as understanding the mechanisms that make the process move. While it’s true that the world of content writing is complex, it is far from inaccessible. We’re here today to talk about how content writing works, and which types of content you should get familiar with to build out your online presence. Grab a coffee, and read on! How Content Writing Works: Understanding the Big Picture & How Content Types Support Each Other The first step in understanding how content writing works is understanding how seriously interrelated content creation, and its elements, really is. Today, it’s not enough to just have a blog or to just have a website. Instead, the world of content writing relies on various types of content, ranging from a PR writing to social media, to come together and create one cohesive content strategy. Without any of these different pieces, the entire strategy falls apart, and content writing doesn’t work. Here’s some of the major types of content, from our infographic last year: While it may seem like a lot of work to focus on creating 7 to 10 different types of content, the reason that each type of content is so essential is simple: each type of content, from white papers to blog posts, appeals to a slightly different segment of a company’s audience. Plus, you need content that appeals to your audience at all levels – not just at a buyer level. Not all consumers who arrive on your website are ready to buy something, and if you don’t have content to appeal to each of these groups and the dozens of smaller groups in between, you’re going to lose many of your leads, which will have an adverse impact on your company’s bottom line. This is exactly why it is so critical to use various types of content in your content strategy and to understand how content writing works, and how each specific type of content relies on many other types of content to function properly. And, not limit yourself to creating only one or two types of content. The 10 Pillars of Good Content Writing If you were an excellent blogger, but you didn’t understand how to create any other type of content, you might succeed online for a while. The fact of the matter is that there is a high demand for blogs, people love to read them, and you’d likely see some return on investment. Over time, however, your content strategy would begin to wear thin because it would be too one-dimensional. To thrive and continue from months and years, a content strategy needs enough pillars to equally disburse its weight. Know how content writing works when you understand the “big picture.” Here are the 10 top components of great modern copywriting: 1. Web Content Think of content writing like building a house. In this analogy, web content is the foundation. Web content, which includes the text on individual website pages, landing pages, about us pages, contact pages, and more is the foundational content that every company needs to build an online presence. Without this, readers cannot find the information they’re seeking about your company, and the rest of your content strategy has nothing to build on. As such, web content is the single most critical and essential type of online content writing in the modern world. 2. Blogs If web content is the foundation, blogging is the framework for the house. Blogging is a primary category of filler content that provides structure and formatting for virtually everything else you do online. Did you also know that B2C companies that blog 11+ times per month gain more than 4X as many leads than those that blog only four-five times a month? (Source: Hubspot) Aside from your company’s web page, your blog is the place where consumers can learn the most about you. Not only does it showcase your brand personality, but it also helps readers get a sense of who you are, what you care about, which topics to cover, and how much value you can provide for them, or not. As such, blogging is a highly essential type of online content writing, and when it’s done correctly, it can dramatically increase your views, your return on investment, and your overall success in the world of digital content creation. Blogs today are as diverse as they are critical. There is no one-size-fits-all format for a blog. Instead, there are multiple styles of blogs including list blogs, “how to” blogs, “what to avoid” blogs, and more. By mixing and matching these various blog formats, you can create a diverse and highly functional online content strategy. 3. Social Media Social media is the house’s furnishings and critical tools. You wouldn’t want to cook in the kitchen without a stove or spatula, and you wouldn’t want to develop an online content strategy without social media. Think of social media as a supporting player: it’s not enough for a company to only have a social media presence, but companies without any social media presence whatsoever typically do not make it very far in today’s social dominated culture. For example, we’ve been able to do very well … Read more

8 Ways to Win at Your Content Marketing in 2017

December 31, 2020January 3, 2017 by Adam Oakley

As 2017 looms just around the bend, it’s easy to predict that content marketing will seriously be on the rise. In 2016, we saw big moves in favor of content marketing: growth of the industry as a whole, and national brands opting for content marketing over traditional ads and media. Content marketing is already more impactful than traditional advertising – it costs 62% less, and generates 3x the amount of leads that traditional ads do. Influencer marketing was realized when, in 2016, CNN made the move to buy a YouTuber’s entire presence, channel and mobile app (Casey Neistat, who had amassed 6 million organic followers), for a cool $25 million. Buying influencers and exclusivity to their engaged audiences will be happening more in the New Year, as predicted by top expert Sam Hurley in our expert predictions roundup. If you’re a serious content marketer, you can bet that your skills, audience, and presence will grow in value in 2017 – you might even be approached for a major buyout! So, with content marketing growing as a mainstream form of brand marketing more than ever, how can you go into 2017 putting your best content foot forward? Fortunately, we’ve got your complete road map right here. Read on to learn best content marketing tactics for the New Year (and beyond)! 8 Proven Ways to Win at Content Marketing in 2017 & Beyond Whether you’re looking to enhance your content, earn more visibility and serious ROI in the New Year, or focus on attempting to rectify a less-than-perfect user experience, these eight tips can make your content more successful in the coming year. 1. Combine your written content with compelling visuals Sure, adding a photo to your blog post makes it pretty, but it also does so much more if you take that visual and go the extra mile. Recently, at Express Writers, we’ve started asking our lead designer to come up with handmade Adobe Illustrator designs for all our featured blogs (like this one). The difference? More social shares, mentions of, and traction on all of our blogs. Here are a few quick stats about the benefits of adding visual content to your written pieces: Adding colored visuals to a post makes people 80% more willing to read it People remember 65% of what they see and only 10% of what they hear For 34% of marketers, visual content is their most critical asset When content has a relevant image, it earns 94% more views Remember that today, “content” doesn’t just mean written content. Instead, it’s a broad term that also takes into account visual, audio, and video material that can enhance and improve the written content you publish. With this in mind, find creative ways to start adding visual content to your written content. For example, publish an information-dense infographic in place of your standard weekly blog post or add a tutorial video to your next how-to post. Use video content to review products, provide customer service, or showcase new offerings, or include a series of in-depth screenshots in your next piece to educate and uplift readers. You can even grab a GIF or two to emphasis a point with a movie scene that everyone relates to. In addition to enhancing your conversion rates, this creative, engaging, visual approach will also make your content more exciting and valuable to your readers. 2. Target your content more appropriately to specific audiences Many people mistakenly believe that broader content will perform better online when, in fact, the opposite is true. The more targeted you can get with your content, the better. You’ll be able to use long-tail keywords, which are easier to rank for. And, as a whole, more targeted content appeals to a smaller segment of the audience. While this may seem like a negative thing, it’s a fantastic way to bring in more qualified leads and make more sales. When your content is directed at a particular set of people, rather than anyone who passes your way, your conversion rates will naturally be higher, and your content will naturally be more successful. What’s more, you won’t face such stiff competition from the “content sea” – the millions of pieces of content available to the public on a daily and weekly basis. With all of this in mind, develop target personas to specify who you’re writing for, and keep them current enough that they reflect the outlook and problems of your actual audience segments. Update them as needed for maximum accuracy. 3. Make your content powerful enough to retain readers for life Great, you have readers. Now what? You have to work hard to retain them, with better and better content in their niche interests. This is a 10x goal of content you should be striving for. Sure, it is a big one – but if this is your goal, you won’t be publishing sub-par content. Even if you’re publishing compelling and relevant content, it’s not worth much unless it’s inspiring your readers to stay with your brand for life. In 2017, the single best way to win at content marketing is to focus your efforts on user retention. Here’s a fun fact to inspire you further. In addition to the fact that it’s easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to sell to a new one, loyal customers are worth ten times as much as their first purchase, which means it’s absolutely in your best interest to keep them around! With this in mind, do the following things to boost your customer retention rates: Post quality content on a regular basis Engage with your readers by responding when they post, share, comment on, or like your content Develop an easy way for your readers to subscribe to your content Showcase old posts and favorite posts in a convenient manner so that readers can access them quickly Offer incentives for your readers, including free content, giveaways, and prizes Use a targeted and specific email marketing campaign to help your readers develop a relationship with your content 4. Encourage your readers to submit content (user-generated content) What better way to focus … Read more

Why Content Marketing is an Entrepreneur’s Best Friend

December 31, 2020December 28, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Today, we’re living in a time when entrepreneurs are everywhere, and it’s exciting. As we head into 2017, the rise of entrepreneurs is seriously growing. While starting a business used to be something reserved for those with extensive training or excess family money, just laying around and waiting to be spent, entrepreneurship has become something that everyone can access. As a result, companies like Facebook, Snapchat, Dollar Shave Club, StitchFix and – hey – Express Writers! – has popped up as a result. Today, however, people who are trying to get startups off the ground are struggling to figure out where to best invest their efforts, and which type of work will pay off most seriously down the road. Fortunately, the answer is straightforward: content marketing. Those doing the “side hustle” will SERIOUSLY benefit from a blog and a web presence (and social media), aka, content marketing. Think about it for a moment: content marketing is low-cost compared to traditional advertising, it’s meant for the social media age, it performs well with customers who want to develop honest and long-lasting relationships with the companies they frequent, and some of it can even be done yourself, within reason. Today, we’re here to talk about why content marketing is an entrepreneur’s best bet in terms of marketing, and how it can help new businesses grow from the ground up. Read on! Content: The Entrepreneur’s Lifeboat Content is the one thing that will work when virtually nothing else does for the entrepreneur. Think about it: most forms of traditional marketing are expensive and time-consuming. While large enterprises might have the budget and the in-house staff to accommodate that, entrepreneurs seldom do, and content marketing can be much more accessible. Although content marketing costs 62% less than traditional advertising, it generates triple the leads, which makes it an astoundingly perfect option for marketers who want to spread the word about their startups online. What’s more, since breaking into content marketing doesn’t require a huge staff, it’s easy to DIY some of it on your own, saving yourself money and learning something new in the process. By developing an online presence, entrepreneurs can build their brand story, connect with their customers, and set themselves apart from their competitors. A social media presence can also serve to expand your reach and make it easier for you to connect with your followers – both online and in person. 7 Ways Content Marketing is Perfect Marketing for the Entrepreneur Regardless of whether your startup sells tangible goods or services, here are seven incredibly strong benefits content marketing has to offer for entrepreneurs. 1. Content Marketing is Amazingly Cost Effective Entrepreneurs rarely have a ton of money to start out with–unless they walked into inheritances like the Rich Kids of Beverly Hills did. 😛 But truly: self-startups don’t usually have an unlimited reservoir of funds. It’s usually the opposite. Funds are low, time is tight, resources slim. I began Express Writers with $75–trust me! I know what it’s like to start with nothing. Enter content marketing as an effective way at building a brand and starting out when you’re doing the side hustle, trying to build your dream biz while you work on leaving your 9-5 that pays the bills. Check this out. From one blog post (roughly a $50 investment, between resources and my time), I gained $5000 back – a 100x return on investment. A warm lead walked in from my blog, and converted on our content services at that amount. Proof that content marketing can be a strong endeavor for startups and those trying to brand themselves with limited finances. To repeat the cycle that I created, you want to focus on these three things: Building your presence online (your website, starting a blog). Getting off the ground is key here! Consistency. Build up that presence, don’t just start it. Blogging at least 2x/week, minimum, and pairing up social media to your content presence, is a good consistency to start with. (We blog up to 5x/week for maximum outreach and SEO results.) Guest blog. Outreach and start putting together a list of key sites you’d like to blog on. Presence there is a tremendous key to the ROI of your content marketing. (My 100x ROI featured in the graphic above came from my column on SiteProNews.) 2. Content marketing helps you develop your unique brand voice Today, the startups that make it big are the ones who know how to talk to their audiences like nobody else does – in their content, bleeding all the way through social media posts, pulsing through video marketing, shining through blog posts. The voice you establish in your content marketing is key to helping you stand out online. Take, for example, Dollar Shave Club. Witty, a little edgy, and funny through and through, this is a startup that’s achieved billion-dollar valuation because of its content marketing. Without content marketing, it’s tough to spread your voice the way Dollar Shave Club has done. In fact, it’s tough to be heard at all. Content is the one central factor that allows marketers to be heard in various places across the web, and it’s the one guaranteed way for small business owners and founders to showcase their unique brand voice to all the critical customers out there who want to listen. To succeed with content marketing, founders must first have an idea of their overarching brand message and how best to leverage it. This will help people connect with the message and will make it easier for readers and customers to connect with online information. It will also help produce continuity in brand messaging, which will make it easier for a startup to grow in the coming years. 3. Content marketing can welcome people into your world As a founder, you live a life that people are interested in being a part of. Even if you’ve never met many of your customers personally, they want to know who you are, how you come up with your products, … Read more

A Year of Content Marketing in Review (2016): The Hottest Types of Content & 5 Key Takeaways

June 19, 2024December 20, 2016 by Adam Oakley

2016 has been quite a year, and we aren’t just talking about the world of politics or sports. When the new year began, it would have been hard to believe that the Chicago Cubs would (finally!) win the World Series, “challenges” would be so popular (how many flips will it take to upright that water bottle? And can you do it while posing like a mannequin?), and adults would be THAT wrapped up in Pokémon Go. Over here at my agency, we started the year with some tips on how to run a successful blog, and through the last twelve months we have continued to deliver on a ton of content for our audience. From publishing my book, to launching my podcast, publishing our intense #howtowriteseries, and launching our weekly #ContentWritingChat back in January, all the way to email marketing and event attendance, infographics, and much more, content marketing continues to prove our #1 form of marketing here at Express Writers. 2016 proved to be our biggest year for that. But what we did this year in content marketing is for our Content Creation Report, coming up on Thursday. For today, we’re taking a retrospective look back at the industry of content marketing as a whole and what 2016 looked like. Content marketing has had its own interesting turns in 2016, and we’re here to break it down. Grab a cup of something warm and join me, will you? [bctt tweet=”We’re taking a retrospective look back at the industry of content marketing as a whole and what 2016 looked like. Check out our takeaways and #contentcreation report ” username=”ExpWriters”] Best in Content Marketing Circa 2016: 7 Key Factors of Good Content this Year There was much to talk about this year by way of good content, viral content, shared content, and engaging content. Whether it was liked, retweeted, pinned, or snapped, quality material was not in short supply. What became clear is that readers have a desire to interact with what they’re taking in, that influential content marketing leaders still know where it’s at, and fake news is not going to rule the landscape. Here are some highlights of what went down: 1. The rise of interactive content (Forbes): As companies have moved away from “plain vanilla content”, they have moved toward content that is appealing to the audience by way of interactive material. This may take the form of quizzes, polls, and a variety of two-way content. 2. Influential leaders (Marketing Profs): From Sujan Patel to Jeff Bullas, influential content marketers showed us what worked and what didn’t. 3. Viral content (Buzz Sumo): Anytime a video, blog, or social media post goes crazy, we call it viral. From open letters directed at Trump supporters to sexy bald men, viral content was a highlight of the year. No surprise here, since we live in a time of instant shares, Facebook trolling, and retweets that number in the millions. 4. Long and complex blogs (Track Maven): When companies blog for business, they are producing more content but with less impact. Per brand, the number of posts have increased while the social shares have gone down. The length of blog posts grew from an average of 639 words per post in 2015 to just over 700 in 2016. 3. Consistent delivery (Content Marketing Institute): Of the top content marketing performers, 85% deliver content consistently. This does not always translate to daily or even weekly content, but rather impactful and relevant content on a consistent basis, including repurposed material. 4. Fake news and Facebook (The Guardian): Mark Zuckerberg may have started the year with a message of hope, but no one could have predicted what the next 12 months would hold for the social media giant. Photo censorship and fake news seemed to loom even as the site’s users inched toward a total of 2 billion worldwide. 5. Infographics (Buzz Sumo): Not everyone is a fan, but infographics are widely shared, even if they fail to gain very many links. Back in 2012, Jeff Bullas gave us 9 awesome reasons to use them, and by the end of 2016, 58% of marketers are still on board with the picture-and-data mashups. Infographics actually made up one of our top-shared content types for the year (3/10 of our top-shared content pieces for the year were infographics)! Did Content Marketing in 2016 Surprise You? If any of these come as a surprise, it might help to go waaay back to the end of 2015, when predictions were being tossed around about the future of content marketing. Can’t remember that long ago? Here are some predictions given in late 2015 from influencers, about 2016, to refresh your memory: (CMI) Native advertising would help big companies find their footing, while others would be decimated and may never fully recover. (Mashable) Static content would start to be replaced by more interactive experiences. (Neil Patel via Forbes) Personal authority will be important to the audience. (Jordan Teicher via Contently) The smartest brands would publish less and put more emphasis on larger editorial projects. (Jeff Deutsch via EW) Content marketers would be challenged to cut through the “noise” of too much content. Some of these predictions were spot-on, while others may have been good guesses but didn’t quite hit the content marketing nail on the head. Our predictions post last year had some pretty accurate statements made. 5 Takeaway Lessons from Content Marketing in 2016 Either way, there are some takeaway lessons we can learn as we move forward to 2017. 1. You Wouldn’t Use a Dial-Up Phone—Don’t Use Boring Content You may or may not remember the days of writing letters, reading the newspaper as a sole source of information, and dialing the phone (at home) when you wanted to call someone. Some might say that those were the days, and they might be right. But just like it would not be conducive to start using a rotary phone, content marketers can’t afford to ignore the right now. Staying stuck in the past, where content creation went steady with keyword stuffing and boring information, … Read more

Cool Brand Content Spotlight: 6 Ways Farmers Insurance Wins at Incredibly Great Content (in a Boring Industry)

June 19, 2024December 8, 2016 by Adam Oakley

There’s a brand out there that is able to seriously transform dull into delightful. You’ve seen the commercials. Actually, we all have. From partying deer in your backyard pool to dogs performing water ballet after flooding the kitchen, Farmers Insurance has seriously catchy advertisements on TV. Their commercials alone get you excited about their brand, and what is even more captivating is their tagline. “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.” It’s catchy, but also tells you that Farmers has been around for a while and that they are prepared to tackle just about any claim you have to give them. That’s superbly brilliant advertising. They’re establishing their superiority, longevity, and expertise in a single sentence. Did you know that they go well beyond that with their content marketing? From their blogs to helpful guides, all the way to social media, you’d be surprised at how word savvy the people behind Farmers Insurance really are. (PSA: Krystal leads our brand content spotlight initiative (her post on Denny’s was marvelous). I just had to step in and add one of my own today :-)) Insurance Isn’t Sexy, & Farmers Knows That: Here’s How They Turn that Around Let’s face it; we all know that insurance is not a sexy or compelling topic. People usually gag at the idea of having to hunt down a new insurer for anything. It’s one of those pesky things in life that we all need, but dread. Yet, Farmers Insurance tackles the natural urge to run and makes their brand fun, engaging, and almost exciting to interact with. They are all about creating compelling experiences in their content, from social media to YouTube to the articles and guides on their website. That’s why I’m here highlighting them: because Farmers Insurance took a boring topic and made it fun. That’s skill. 6 Ways Farmer’s Insurance is Brilliant at Brand Presence (& Great Content) Let’s look at six ways Farmer’s Insurance takes the cake with an incredible brand presence. 1. Farmer’s Kills it on Facebook Are you following Farmers Insurance on Facebook? If not, you probably should. They belt out tips on a weekly basis that are not regurgitating the same facts you have heard over and over. For example, here’s this post about a hand-crank charger for your car’s battery this winter! I didn’t even know one existed. The social media team behind them is excellent. While they don’t have thousands of shares yet, if you follow them, you notice that they are quickly gaining momentum in followers and shares. That’s quite impressive for an insurer on Facebook. 2. Expert Tips and Articles to Guide Customers as well as Non-Customers Farmers Insurance does not discriminate. Instead, they provide valuable information to all. Neil Patel’s post on Content Marketing Institute highlighted how Farmers Insurance empowers customers with excellent information. He specifically focused on their Inner Circle content. Here is a resource center that is created to provide consumers with information (whether they are customers of Farmer’s or not). Their information does not just focus on insurance-related topics. They also provide information about anything life throws at you. Getting divorced? Lost a pet? The Inner Circle tackles your biggest hurdles in life and provides you with well-thought-out advice on how to cope. 3. They Create Easy-to-Digest Content What is more impressive about Farmers Insurance content is how easy it is to read. They include statistics and facts — showing that all their content is well-researched. However, they break it down and make it easy to consume. When you walk away from a post, you feel educated and empowered. Take this post on easing student debt: See how they give you the facts first to help you understand the problem with student debt? They also show that they are more than aware of the issue student debt poses for consumers. After they reel you in with the problem, they dive into their solutions. They don’t just offer a quick bullet list of solutions either. Instead, they provide real-life solutions that include savings plans, insurance policies, and even encouraging children to work. 4. They Touch on Real Pain Points & Get Relatable What is brilliant about Farmers is the fact that they know how to touch on pain points in their content. Pain points are one of those areas that are not easy to dive into. According to Henley wing at Buzzsumo, these topics are things people do not like to talk about, but if you can successfully bring them up, you get a conversation and following going for your benefit. The content from Farmers touches on topics like death, divorce, debt, and failure. However, they take it in an approachable way and make it easy for customers to solve those sensitive issues. More importantly, they establish themselves as the go-to resource for customers and non-customers alike. 5. They’re Simply Genius (Example: The Hall of Claims Content) Okay, we’re back to the commercials. Now, some of these claims sound outrageous, but if you visit the Hall of Claims on Farmers Insurance website, you are surprised to find out that these were real-life outrageous claims that their agents have handled and settled in the past. That’s pure genius. They take the outrageous, hilarious, real-life events a person suffers and makes it into a commercial. Naturally, they embellish them a little for entertainment value, but they bank on the fact that life happens and they make it a reality in their pitch to consumers. View all the Hall of Claims videos on their YouTube. 6. Let’s Not Forget: Farmers Establishes Their Capability to Cover Just About Anything The entire purpose behind Farmers’ content is to show that they have experience. They do this through their Inner Circle articles, YouTube videos, claims assessments online, and of course their hilarious commercials. By employing actor J.K. Simmons, they were also able to tack on an infamous Hollywood voice and face to their branding — giving them even more credibility. Let Farmers … Read more

How to Use SlideShare to Amplify Your Content Results & Reach

June 19, 2024December 6, 2016 by Adam Oakley

SlideShare is one of the most powerful tools in the visual content marketing space. Whether you’re re-purposing content or simply working to expand your presence, SlideShare is a fantastic platform to develop a presence. As it stands right now, the platform has more than 70 million users. 17% of B2B marketers use SlideShare to launch new products, and a whopping 41% of marketers (in North America) use it to share and disperse content. As if that wasn’t enough, there are more than 400,000 SlideShare presentations uploaded monthly, and a massive 80% of SlideShare’s traffic comes directly from searches. These numbers outline just how popular SlideShare is, and how essential it can be to your content marketing. Today, we’re here to walk you through SlideShare: what it is, how it works, why it matters, and how you can apply it to your marketing. Read on. Part 1 of How to Use SlideShare for Better Content Reach: Optimizing Your SlideShare Decks Not all marketers have used SlideShare as a platform of choice, so now is the ideal time to incorporate it into your digital marketing, and doing so can boost your ROI substantially. I’m dividing this how-to into two parts: first, how to optimize and prepare great decks, and secondly, bonus tips that include how to promote your SlideShares. Enjoy! 1. That first slide needs to be irresistible Never underestimate the power of your very first slide. It’s the cover for your presentation and it’s going to appear pretty much everywhere as the thumbnail of your social shares or in the SlideShare search if you’re lucky enough to be featured on the site’s homepage. Since this is so important, be sure to take time designing that opening slide. Spend time finding the perfect image that will capture your audience’s attention and get them clicking through. There are plenty of free tools on the web that will help you create amazing visuals. Remember to check how your image looks at various sizes so that it looks incredible no matter where it’s shared. Two particular tools that make this entire process a cinch are Canva and Haiku Deck. Haiku Deck can help you put together stunning decks, even on your tablet while you’re on the go. Canva has a free Presentations section and the designs are attractive. You’re also able to upload your own images to use as backgrounds. There are also several industry-related charts you can use for your SlideShare presentations – remember, readers are always attracted by visual stats and numbers. Examples include: Hubspot – the site regularly publishes visual stats they have curated. SiteGeek – the site shares loads of real-time visual states that you can check out on the homepage and in each hosting listing. MarketingSherpa – another site that publishes tons of industry reports. BuzzSumo – their blog often has fantastic industry insights and findings. 2. Always write SEO-friendly descriptions for your slides Don’t glaze over SlideShare’s description fields. It’s here that you can include the text you want the search engines to see. What you say in these fields and how you say it can massively improve your SlideSlade natural rankings. When a reader does a search on SlideShare, these search terms come up in bold in the results, and that draws more attention to them. More attention equals more clicks. When you’re writing your descriptions, use tools like SEOchat that will give you an idea of the keyword and phrase combinations that will have maximum effect. A great tip is to remember that the name of the file that you upload to SlideShare actually becomes the URL slug. So when it comes to naming that file, choose something that is going to be SEO-friendly. This will give your presentation a much better chance of ranking in SERPs and that, as we well know, drives more reliable traffic to that presentation you’ve shed blood, sweat and tears over. 3. Use Video and Links If you are serious about using SlideShare as a content marketing tool to gain greater reach, then you best be linking to resources, tools and articles that you mention in your presentations. Links usually only work from around slide four onwards. To make your links clickable, add your hyperlink in Keynote or PowerPoint. If you’ve created a slide background that is an image, you can go ahead and link the entire slide to an external website. Tip: if you decide to embed infographics or one-page documents, there is no way of creating clickable links, but these uploads still work well for exposure. If you start out writing an online article and you realize that a slide from one of your decks could seriously reinforce your point, why not link directly to the slide within the article? All you have to do is put “/” along with the number of the chosen slight right after your SlideShare page URL. It’s that easy! For instance, deep linking to one of your deck slides is a fantastic way to introduce your audience to even more of your highly relevant content. Video also integrates well with SlideShare. You can place a video on the right inside the slide! Use videos to share more in-depth information with your audience, show them how something works or even for a little comic relief. Video gives you the opportunity to introduce a variety of opportunities. So it’s really up to you how and where you use them if they fit in with your project. If you want to include a YouTube video with your Slideshare presentation, it only takes 3 steps: Click on the My Uploads section and then click Edit > Settings > and then Edit YouTube Video Paste or type the URL of the YouTube video into the box Select your desired position and finally click Insert and Publish If you’re going to be inserting videos into your presentations, make sure you familiarize yourself with the FAQs for further information. SlideShare does not allow you to upload any TV shows, copyrighted videos, music albums, movies or … Read more