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Tag: Writing

  • 5 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy is not Working

    5 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy is not Working

    Why Your Content Marketing Strategy is not Working

    You must have already read from somewhere that ‘content is king’ and this phrase has become somewhat of a cliche now. Content surely does have a huge role when it comes to building your brand, reaching out to your target audience, and increasing sales. However, does this ‘king’ bring the same success to everyone who is leveraging it to their businesses? Here are 5 reasons why your content marketing strategy is not working for you.

     

    5 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy is not Working

    1. You Are Writing for the Bots and Not Humans

    One of the biggest reasons why your content marketing strategy is not working is that you focus more on making content that will rank rather than writing something interesting for your audience. Google has now become smarter and it considers how people love your content to rank it automatically. If your readers and target audience don’t connect with your content, it will not add value to your business.

    5 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy is not Working

     

    Writing to rank is understandable, but if you overstuff it with keywords and links and key phrases, your content won’t be reader-friendly. Check your content strategy again and if it’s only backed by keyword analysis and nothing else, it will really fail in the long run. 

    Here are some tips you should keep in mind to have a working content strategy:

    • Write more than just the required 300 words and cover the topic fully, maybe at least 1000-1500 words. Create your content with the needs of your readers in mind, yet at the same time, think about optimizing it for search engines.
    • Be careful on inserting long and short-tail keywords. Make sure that it doesn’t feel forced because it will not make sense to your readers. Insert your keywords strategically throughout your content pieces.
    • Link to informative pieces and not just to the services or products you promote. 
    • Include images in your written content to keep your readers entertained.

    2. Your content does not offer value

    Creating content just for the sake of making one will only take you so far. If you want your content to work for you, you need to remember to create it from a place of intent. And that intent should be providing something of value to your readers. 

    Think about your audience while you write your content. What will make them click, read, and engage with your post? Write something that will stand out and pay attention to the type of content that works and that does not.

    3. Your SEO needs improvement

    SEO and content marketing work together in a complementary relationship. If you have poor SEO while doing content marketing, the content you’re creating might as well be not created at all because nobody is going to find it. 

    The point in content marketing is to gather people to see your business by writing good quality content. And for people to find your content, it has to be visible on the search engine result pages when people search for something related to your niche. Ranking in search engine pages depends highly on your SEO, so if you lack in that department, it’s time to backtrack and improve what needs to be improved.

    4. You’re not promoting your content

    After creating your content, it’s just common sense to promote it further to gather traction. Content Marketing is not just about creating content. It is also about sharing and promoting that content to as many people. 

    Here are some ways you can promote your posts:

    • Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc
    • Email Newsletter
    • Mentioning your content when commenting on other blogs and website
    • Pitch to other bloggers and ask them to share your content with their followers
    • Partner with influencers who can share your content

    Always remember that content marketing involves BOTH content creation and content promotion. The two goes hand in hand—always.

    5. You’re in a tough niche

    Now, another reason why your content marketing strategy is not working is that you are in a niche with too many strong competitors.

    Yes, your content is great and you’re producing all types of content that appeal to your audience. You are even doing a great job promoting them. Yet, for some reason, it just doesn’t work.

    Maybe the niche you’re in has just too many strong competitors and the market is already dominated by these industry giants that you just can’t compare.

    Here are some tips you can do:

    • Make content that offers solutions to your target audience’s probable problems. 
    • Consistency is key. Be consistent in delivering your content. 
    • Build a community in the niche you’re in. Start small and grow from there.
    • Make skyscraper content by creating something inspired by your competitor’s content and generating something even better.

    Final Thoughts

    There can be other reasons why your content marketing strategy is not working for you and the ones we listed above are just the very common ones.

    Audit your content marketing strategy and find out where you’re lacking. Ramp up your business strategy and improve what needs to be improved. And don’t forget to have fun! Content marketing has its challenges but it’s worth it.

    I hope this post helped you. For more articles like this, visit our blog!

  • 7 Digital Copywriting Mistakes You Should Avoid

    7 Digital Copywriting Mistakes You Should Avoid

    7 Digital Copywriting Mistakes You Should Avoid

    If you are looking to improve your writing online, you are in for a treat! We have curated this post to help you identify and avoid the seven most common digital copywriting mistakes that are often seen online. This will help you drive more leads, convert more customers, and make more sales on your business online.

    “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein

    Making mistakes is a part of life, it is growth, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing as long as you learn from them. The main goal of this post is to help your learning curve be a lot faster than normal. 

    The truth is, the internet needs good writers. In our world today, where over half of the population can write whatever they like on the internet, one of the best ways to make you and your business stand out is to have the best communication and cleanest copywriting on the block. Your audience will thank you for it with their wallets.

    Mistake #1: Not Having a Goal

    One of the biggest digital copywriting mistakes I have probably made in the past is writing a piece of copy without having a goal in mind. You must keep in mind that people have short attention spans and they get bored easily. You don’t have a lot of time to make a good first impression so you need to make sure that every word you put out on the internet counts.

    Think about something that you’re marketing for your business right now. What’s the first thing you’d like your potential customer to take? What’s the one thing that they could do that would help move towards success for your business? Think about what that is for you and then make sure that every word you are writing works towards that goal.

    There are many types of goals that you could aim for with your writing. Here are some ideas to get you started:

    Provide Value

    To attract customers and get them to buy from you, you should first aim to prove that your product, business, or service is valuable. Give and give to your customers over and over again without asking for anything in return. They will thank you for it with their loyalty.

    Get Information

    Now that you have already provided your potential customers with a lot of value, it’s the right time to ask them something in return. The best thing here is to ask for their contact information. Having this will allow you to follow up with them and continue to stay in touch with them so you can turn them into customers eventually. 

    Show Gratitude

    Pleases and Thank Yous go a long way with customers, especially on the internet. Show your appreciation to your customers, show them how grateful you are for having them pick you among other businesses to choose from. Show them that you care about their experience, this will make them want to keep buying from you again and again. 

    Keep your writing straightforward and simple. And make sure that every word you choose works toward an ultimate goal. This will keep you on the right track.

    Mistake #2: Writing For the Wrong Audience

    Who are you writing for? Because I guarantee that it’s not for yourself. Oftentimes, I see companies online talking way too much about their experience, talking from their perspective. This might be unpleasant to hear, but your customers couldn’t care less about your company’s history or what you did to get to where you are now. They just want to know if you can provide them the service or product they need. Think about the people who need your product or service. What’s their experience? Why do they need your help? What are they looking for? People go to you because they need something and they think you might be able to help them. Don’t waste their time talking about things that don’t matter to them. Be forward, get to the point, and give them what they need.

    Another way people mess this up online is by having a poorly translated website. Remember that the way you communicate with your customer matters, even if it’s not in English. Lots of businesses are trying to reach more audiences who speak different languages. If you’re going to do this, make sure that your translation is accurate. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s not. If you need to communicate with your customers in a language that you don’t personally speak, don’t just put your words in Google Translate and call it a day. I’m telling you, this is not enough. Utilize the internet and find somebody who natively speaks the language you’re trying to communicate in. Have them look at what you’ve written so you can make sure that you are actually saying what you are trying to say.

    Mistake #3: TL;DR

    If you don’t know this yet, TL;DR stands for Too Long; Didn’t Read. The internet moves fast. Your audience and potential customer doesn’t have a lot of time to consider what you have to say before they move on to the next thing. If you want people to engage with your content online, you need to write in a way that respects their attention span. Here are a few key things to remember:

    Get to the Point

    Filler language is a waste of everyone’s time and your customer will not appreciate it. Show them that you respect their time by not wasting any of it. Get to the point.

    Don’t Bury the Lead

    Say you’re doing an online giveaway to gather email addresses for potential customers. Lead with the value that they are going to get from engaging with your business. Start with the thing that matters to them. 

    Wrap it Up

    Give your customer exactly the information they need to make an informed decision and that’s it. Keep your writing concise and to the point, and you will have a lot more success reaching the people you want to notice you.

     

    Digital Copywriting Mistakes

     

    Mistake #4: Answering the Wrong Questions

    To find out what your customers need, you need to look at the world from their perspective. Put yourself in their shows and try to understand why is it that they’re coming to you for help. For your customers to reach an informed decision, they will need to find out something specific about your business.

    For example – for a coffee shop, that could be the shop hours; for an esthetician, that could be the different services that you provide; or for a birthday clown, it could be what type of clown you are. Whatever type of business it is that you have, there is something specific your customer needs. 

    Oftentimes, businesses bury that information somewhere on their website, and it’s so hard for the customer to find out the things they need to know to decide on your business. Find out what that crucial piece of information is for your business, and then make sure you make it easily available to your customer.

    Things to keep in mind:

    1. Be clear about what your business offers. That may turn out to be exactly what your lead is looking for, or it might not be. Either way, help your customer make the right decision by being crystal clear about what it is that you offer.
    2. Avoid giving your leads an onslaught of information. Your goal should be to help them, no to beat them over the head with your words. Remember, TMI equals TLDR.
    3. In this day and age, there’s no need to guess at what your potential future customers need. Use the internet and social media to get to know your current customers and that will help you attract more people like them. 

    Mistake #5: Bad Fonts & Colors

    You’ve worked really hard on your copy, you’ve carefully chosen your words, and everything is written to work towards a goal. But something is still not working for some reason. If this is the case, maybe the problem now could be your design.

    Another one of the digital copywriting mistakes we are going to talk about now is bad design as it can seriously detract from your message. Bad design can draw your reader’s attention to the wrong thing. It can even make your viewer feel uncomfortable, and you don’t want that.

    Design elements like font and color choices evoke emotion. The best way to make this work for you is to think about how you want your customer to feel. Use your design to create that feeling for them. Here are some tips to keep you on the right track:

    Always Keep it Readable

    Bad color choices will make your texts hard to see. It will become unappealing and the readers won’t have a second thought at closing that tab. When in doubt, stick to light background colors and dark colors for the text. The same concept is applied when it comes to font choices. Readability should be the top priority.

    Use Multiple Styles (but do so carefully)

    This depends on what you are writing, but it is recommended to use about 2-5 different fonts and colors. Using different styles draws focus and attention to your readers. Just be careful not to go overboard or it can become distracting.

    If you have a website, it should comply with the American Disabilities Act

    Depending on your business type, it should be in compliance with the ADA regulations, this may even be a requirement for your website. 

    Mistake #6: Too Pushy

    Another digital copywriting mistake is being too pushy. You have to think about the push and pull between you and your potential customer, just like dating. If you come on too strong, you’ll scare them away. Use your writing to draw your lead-in. People are smart, and they can tell when a business is trying too hard to get their money.

    Give your audience and potential customers all the information they need to make a decision, and then back off. Give them the space they need to decide on their own pace, but this is not to say that you couldn’t engage with your leads repeatedly. Because you absolutely should. Just don’t push them too hard to do something for you. This is particularly true with online advertising. Offer your leads a whole lot of value first and then put your call-to-action in front of them at just the right moment. 

    If you want to avoid sounding pushy online, you need to keep these two things in mind:

    • On the internet, ALL CAPS is shouting. Use it very carefully. Think about how much you shout in normal life. You probably don’t do it often. The same social norms apply online. 
    • Don’t sound desperate. Why should people want to buy from or work with a business that doesn’t sound confident about what they have to offer? Use your writing to highlight the positive things about your business, your customers will notice this.

    Mistake #7: Spelling and Grammar Errors

    There’s no excuse but laziness for bad spelling and grammar errors in professional writing. But sometimes, mistakes are inevitable, we’re just humans after all. But some companies seem to go above and beyond the limit of punctuation and spelling mistakes they make online. And this just makes those companies look bad. The issue here is that many people don’t see spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes as a big deal. But this post is here to tell you that those people are wrong. Any writing you put out online could be your business’s first impression with someone. The first impression is everything and you need to make sure that it’s always a good one.

    Having these errors in your writing just makes your business look sloppy. Think of it this way: If your potential customer sees that your business doesn’t try very hard on their website, why should they think that you’ll try very hard for them? This is important for every type of business, especially for those companies where building trust with customers is crucial. You want your audience to feel confident that you can deliver on what they need, and little things like spelling and grammar errors make it look like you won’t. Your goal should be to fill your reader with confidence that your business is worth every penny you ask for. Don’t give your reader any reason to doubt that.

    We all have our strengths and weaknesses. We are not all born strong writers, and that’s okay. This is what the internet is for. You can outsource and look for someone whose strength is writing. Maybe you know someone who has a full grasp of the English language and can write well. You can ask them for guidance and maybe even let them take a look at what you’ve made. As an alternative, you can look for talented freelance writers online (in Craigslist, Upwork, etc.) and hire them to work for you. 

    It is okay not to be an amazing writer, but it is not okay to let your business look sloppy and lazy. Outsourcing and asking for a little bit of help can go a long way towards making your business look both professional and reliable online.

    Writing online may seem easy but there are some pointers you need to heed to make your business look reputable and trustworthy. I hope you learned something about how to write a digital copy that truly engages your customers and helps put your business’s best foot forward online. Keep these digital copywriting mistakes in mind and your writing online will surely improve.

  • Effective Writing: How to Write an Irresistible Headline

    Effective Writing: How to Write an Irresistible Headline

    Effective Writing: How to Write an Irresistible Headline

    Most, if not all, of the content you create for your blog, is based on your writing. You are not limited to the format of a traditional written blog post, though, because even things like audio and video will often need some writing beforehand. This is why effective writing should be practiced at all times. So how do you do that?

    Writing is a great way to communicate ideas, but compared with in-person verbal communication, it comes with a certain handicap. Body language accounts for a significant portion of human interaction. Things such as facial expressions, posture, gestures, and eye contact can either support or negate the words that are being said. Body language is often used unconsciously to connect with people, gauge character, understand how someone is feeling, and many more.

    The meaning of what you say is based on how you say it. But when it comes to writing, many of those qualities are lost. Body language and tone of voice are not present in the published content. You are reliant on the words themselves, which makes effective writing much more important.

    The Importance of Effective Writing

    Effective writing gets you to build trust, share ideas, educate, and persuade people, all without the use of body language. Beyond that, remember that the nature of the world we live in today is ever-changing. At any given moment, thousands upon thousands of people and companies compete for your audience’s attention. Think about this: why should someone spend their precious time reading your content when they can do absolutely anything else? 

    The world of web content is more crowded than ever, and it’s only getting more competitive by the day. Some see that as a bad thing, as the surplus of content is driving down the value of the content itself. But the reality is, as the volume of content increases, so too do the rewards for those who create valuable, high-quality content. Valuable content is what you are going for. You want your content to be the diamond among the ordinary rocks, and effective writing can help you achieve that. 

    Effective Writing: How to Write an Irresistible Headline

     

    Writing Irresistible Headlines

    An effective and irresistible headline is one of the most important parts of a good blog post, because this is where you deliver and nail the first impression. When people come across your content while scrolling on social media or the Google results page, there are only two things they’ll do. People are either going to click through your link or they are going to ignore it. A good headline is crucial because it’s the only information people are going to have at this stage. 

    When you are working on a piece of content, start it by having a working title. The title doesn’t have to be final, it just has to be something simple to identify what you’re working on and guide the general idea of the write-up. Once you’re finished, that’s when you come back to the headline and refine it. There will be times that you’ll end up writing a slightly different approach than you originally intended, so it’s usually a smart thing to write the final headline once you’re done with the main content. Take your final headline seriously.

    Don’t just type out the first thing that comes to your mind. Give it a thought before hitting the publish button. The headline is your one chance to grab the people’s attention so make sure that you spend enough time on it. 

    One thing you can do is to come up with a list of potential headlines, maybe five or so titles. Then narrow them down until you have the perfect one. 

    With that process in mind, these are the certain elements that you need to have in a perfect title:

    1. Be unique. If your headline looks the same with all of the other related content on your topic, your potential audience might not want to click it. With a lackluster and common headline, what reason does your audience have to think that you have any unique value to offer them? 
    2. Show a little personality and don’t be afraid to be different. A good example of this is the viral video that put Dollar Shave Club on the map. dollarshaveclub.com – our blades are f***ing great! It’s edgy and they took a risk putting the f-bomb in an official ad, but here’s the thing, it worked. The ad got people’s attention and it showed the people that the brand wasn’t just another razor brand like Bic or Gillette. I’m not telling you to be intentionally edgy and swear in your headlines. All I’m suggesting is that you allow your blog to have a personality and a unique, authentic style. 
    3. A good headline is specific. Be extremely clear about what you have to offer. Don’t stick to the common and general titles that don’t offer much insight at first glance. Be as precise as you can. If you are writing a post about how to grow a business with content marketing, a bad example of a headline would be “Content Marketing” or even “How to Grow your Business”. A good title for this would be “How I Increased My Company’s Sales by 50% Using Content Marketing”. This will make the readers know what to expect, and if they’re interested in what you have to offer, they will surely click through your link. 
    4. Your headlines should be useful, and it should convey a clear benefit to the reader. Just like the example given above, the title “How I Increased My Company’s Sales by 50% Using Content Marketing” is extremely clear about what the reader is going to learn from the article. 

    In summary, when writing headlines, make sure to always offer something unique, specific, and useful. Come up with a list of potential titles for your posts and narrow down the list to find the best one. If you’re stuck, you can run it by your friends to get fresh perspectives. In any case, always remember that your headline is your chance to make or break the first impression. So be sure to give it the attention it deserves. 

  • 7 Benefits of Content Marketing for Small Businesses

    7 Benefits of Content Marketing for Small Businesses

    7 Benefits of Content Marketing for Small Businesses

    When you hear content marketing, you’d automatically think of blogs and articles, and maybe sometimes social media. Well, we are here to tell you that it’s more than just that. 

    Content marketing is for long-term use. It’s a strategy that uses content to build strong relationships with your market, capture your audience’s attention, and improve your engagement.

    Here are the significant benefits of content marketing for small businesses:

     

    It Increases Your Brand Visibility

    The content on your site is important if you want to appear in search engine results as 88% of online consumers use search engines like Google to seek out information.

    Perhaps the biggest and most known benefit of content marketing is its ability to help your website rank on search engines for competitive keywords. Every individual who finds your website from Google is a potential customer. So the higher you rank on the search engine results page, the better.

    To get to this part, you must first create unique, great quality, and highly engaging content that offers useful and valuable information to your readers.

     

    Quality Content Builds Trust. 

    Having quality content earns your prospect’s attention and consideration. Brands that offer free content on a certain topic that a consumer is interested in is effective for attracting prospects to their business.

    When you build trust, you invite your viewers to keep coming back to your platform. Content marketing converts prospects into customers as it is all about providing value and giving something to the audience to build trust. 

     

    7 Benefits of Content Marketing for Small Businesses

     

    Small Investment, Great Returns

    Compared to other forms of advertising, content marketing is cheap. You can even outsource it and it will still be relatively cheaper than traditional marketing tactics.

    For small businesses, content marketing is a budget-friendly means to get your brand across the cyberspace to get you results.

     

    Keeps your website fresh and relevant

    Google won’t only look at the depth of your content but will also look at its freshness. It will look at when your content was published, how your site is often updated, the rate of new inbound links produced, and its traffic and engagement metrics.

    When you put out relevant content regularly, you are producing ongoing fresh content that will keep your website afloat on Google’s radar.

     

    Showcases your Authority in your Industry

    All business owners eventually want to become an authoritative figure in their industry. In today’s world where the online marketplace appears faceless and robotic, content marketing can be a great way to build one’s credibility. When you write high-quality and valuable content that makes people trust and engage with you, you build your brand to stand out among the rest.

    By having a blog on your website, you can start building your authority and credibility. Making tutorials, infographics, and other forms of content will provide useful information for your audience, and they will thank you for it. Give something to people and you can start building that trust with them as you gradually show them that you know the stuff you are promoting.

     

    Encourages People to Return to your Website

    When you publish engaging content consistently, you invite people to come back to your website for fresh content. On the world wide web, your website is your storefront and it represents your business. When you release fresh content regularly, you expose your brand to existing customers. This will then make them more likely to check out your products and services.

     

    Gives you content to share on social media and other platforms

    One of the benefits of content marketing for small businesses is it gives you more shareable content that you can disseminate on your different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram.

    One blog post can go a long way. You can feature it on your email newsletter, share it on your different socials, or repurpose it into a shareable infographic. And it does not have to stop there. You can even revamp and update your old blog posts to maximize all your content.

     

    Content marketing has so many benefits both for big and small businesses. The process may be a little bit tedious but the returns are worth it.

    Make sure to visit our blog for more articles like this!

  • 10 Wonderful Digital Marketing Books You’ll Want to Read

    10 Wonderful Digital Marketing Books You’ll Want to Read

    10 Wonderful Digital Marketing Books You’ll Want to Read

    In digital marketing, the theory is just as important as the application. Our key to success in this industry is marketing the products that we built right. It’s about how we tell the story, know our audience, and actively engage and interact with them. That’s why marketers and product managers must work closely together to ensure unity and consistency. Digital marketing is an ever-evolving field and the trends change every time. Here are 10 digital marketing books you’ll want to read to give you the knowledge and keep you in the loop. 

     

     

    10 Wonderful Digital Marketing Books You'll Want to Read

    10 Digital Marketing Books You’ll Want to Read

    What Customers Crave by Nicholas Webb

    What Customers Crave examines how the hyper-connected economy is radically changing consumer expectations and reveals what companies need to do to stay on top. The solution rests on two simple questions: What do your customers love? What do they hate? Find the answers, and you’re well on your way to success. Jam-packed with tools and examples, What Customers Crave helps you reinvent how you engage with customers (both digitally and non-digitally) and:

    What Customers Crave by Nicholas Webb

    • Gain invaluable insights into who they are and what they care about
    • Use listening posts and Contact Point Innovation to refine customer types
    • Engineer experiences for each micro market that are not only exceptional but insanely relevant
    • Connect across the five most important touchpoints
    • Co-create with your customers

    When you learn to provide your customers with exactly what they want, they not only buy—they come back again and again…and bring their friends. (source)

    One key in having a successful digital marketing strategy is to know your customers. To improve your marketing offers, you need to know what problems your audience has and how to solve them. What do your customers desire? Once you know your customers, you’ll have ideas on what their expectations are and you can do your best to meet them. This book is packed with tools, examples, and resources to help businesses reinvent how they engage with their customers both physically and virtually.

     

    Building a Story brand by Donald Miller

    Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller

    Donald Miller’s StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their businesses. This revolutionary method for connecting with customers provides readers with the ultimate competitive advantage, revealing the secret for helping their customers understand the compelling benefits of using their products, ideas, or services. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching readers the seven universal story points all humans respond to; the real reason customers make purchases; how to simplify a brand message so people understand it; and how to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media. Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion-dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers. (source)

     

    This book is written by a New York Times bestselling author and it’s a proven solution to equip business leaders who are struggling with their businesses. The book offers revolutionary methods for connecting with consumers and provides the readers with competitive tips they can apply in real life.

     

    Contagious by Jonah Berger

    Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger

    What makes things popular? Why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?

    If you said advertising, think again. People don’t listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?

    Contagious combines groundbreaking research with powerful stories. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheese-steak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the seemingly most boring products there is a blender. If you’ve wondered why certain stories get shared, e-mails get forwarded, or videos go viral, Contagious explains why, and shows how to leverage these concepts to craft contagious content. This book provides a set of specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread – for designing messages, advertisements, and information that people will share. Whether you’re a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or a health official trying to get the word out, Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on. (source)

     

    This book is a best seller for a reason. It offers specific, actionable tactics to help you spread your message effectively by having the right design and making the right shareable content. This book is for everyone, whether you are a small or big business owner, a manager, a politician, or an educator. This book will show you how to make your idea or product stand out and go out into the world.

     

    Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion By Robert Cialdini

    Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

    Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say “yes”—and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly acclaimed book.

    You’ll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success. (source)

     

    This may be an old book, but it’s definitely one of the best marketing books out there. Influence offers an effective outline for understanding what leads people to make decisions. The author uses true-to-life examples to guide the readers through the six principles of persuasion. Although you won’t be learning about certain channel techniques for digital marketing, this book gives you the building blocks to achieve a digital marketing strategy that guarantees positive conversion outcomes through the application of consistency, social proof, authority, reciprocity, and more.

     

    Digital Marketing Strategy by Simon Kingsnorth

    Digital Marketing Strategy: An Integrated Approach to Online Marketing by Simon Kingsnorth

    Digital and social media are essential aspects of a marketing department’s function; therefore, it is important that they are integrated into the organization’s wider goals. Uniting digital marketing techniques with business strategy and established marketing models such as the 7 P’s, Porter’s Five Forces, and Customer Lifetime Value, author Simon Kingsnorth demonstrates how to formulate the best strategy for a company.

    Rather than presenting a “one size fits all” model, Kingsnorth brings various strategies to life through case studies, charts, illustrations, and checklists. Digital Marketing Strategy covers what digital marketing is, how to budget and forecast, acquisition, personalization, customer service, user experience, content strategy, how to analyze and perform social measurements, and how to structure and present a digital marketing plan in order to win support and funding. (source)

     

    It has all things social media, content marketing, SEO, user experience, automation, customer loyalty, and more. This book is a roadmap for digital marketers who want to optimize their strategies. It offers practical implementation guides on SEO, email, paid search, lead gen, and more.

     

    Hacking Growth by Morgan Brown & Sean Ellis

    Hacking Growth: How Today's Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success by Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown

    So how did these companies grow from these humble beginnings into the powerhouses they are today? Contrary to popular belief, they didn’t explode to massive worldwide popularity simply by building a great product then crossing their fingers and hoping it would catch on. There was a studied, carefully implemented methodology behind these companies’ extraordinary rise. That methodology is called Growth Hacking, and its practitioners include not just today’s hottest start-ups, but also companies like IBM, Walmart, and Microsoft as well as the millions of entrepreneurs, marketers, managers, and executives who make up the community of GrowthHackers.com.

    Think of the Growth Hacking methodology as doing for market-share growth what Lean Start-Up did for product development, and Scrum did for productivity. It involves cross-functional teams and rapid-tempo testing and iteration that focuses on customers attaining them, retaining them, engaging them, and motivating them to come back and buy more. (source)

     

    This book is a comprehensive toolkit that every company in any industry can utilize to implement its own growth strategy. This book covers how to set up and run growth teams how to identify and test growth levers, and how to evaluate the results. It focuses on customers, on how to get them, keep them, engage them, and monetize them. With this book, you will learn how to increase your customer base and market share. It will also walk you through the process of creating and executing your own growth hacking strategy.

     

    Permission Marketing By Seth Godin

    Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers by Seth Godin

    Whether it is the TV commercial that breaks into our favorite program, or the telemarketing phone call that disrupts a family dinner, traditional advertising is based on the hope of snatching our attention away from whatever we are doing. Seth Godin calls this Interruption Marketing, and, as companies are discovering, it no longer works.

    Instead of annoying potential customers by interrupting their most coveted commodity—time—Permission Marketing offers consumers incentives to accept advertising voluntarily. Now, this Internet pioneer introduces a fundamentally different way of thinking about advertising products and services. By reaching out only to those individuals who have signaled an interest in learning more about a product, Permission Marketing enables companies to develop long-term relationships with customers, create trust, build brand awareness — and greatly improve the chances of making a sale. (source)

     

    Anything written by Seth Godin is worth the read, and this book is a great one as it can influence your approach to marketing strategy.

    This book focuses on the importance of building a relationship with your audience and customers gradually over time. Once that relationship is established, your marketing will be most effective as your target audience has given your the ‘permission’ to market to them.

     

    Everybody Writes by Ann Handley

    Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley

    Everybody Writes is a go-to guide to attracting and retaining customers through stellar online communication, because in our content-driven world, every one of us is, in fact, a writer.

    If you have a website, you are a publisher. If you are on social media, you are in marketing. And that means that we are all relying on our words to carry our marketing messages. We are all writers.

    Yeah, but who cares about writing anymore? In a time-challenged world dominated by short and snappy, by click-bait headlines and Twitter streams and Instagram feeds and gifs and video and Snapchat and YOLO and LOL and #tbt. . . does the idea of focusing on writing seem pedantic and ordinary? (source)

     

    When you get into digital marketing, writing will always be part of the job. This book is a helpful guide to make your writing better. If you are looking to improve your copy and content, Ann Hadley has great tips and guides to write engaging content that will attract and retain customers.

     

    They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan

    They Ask You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today's Digital Consumer by Marcus Sheridan

    A revolutionary marketing strategy has proven to drive sales and growth They Ask You Answer is a straightforward guide to fixing your current marketing strategy. Regardless of your budget, you are almost certainly overspending on television, radio, and print ads, yet neglecting the number-one resource you have at your disposal: the Internet. Content marketing is no longer about keyword-stuffing and link-building; in fact, using those tactics today gets your page shuffled to the bottom of the heap. Quality content is the key to success, and you already have the ingredients in-house. This book shows you how to structure an effective content strategy using the same proven principles that have revolutionized marketing for all types of businesses, across industries. (source)

     

    In today’s digital age, the strategies that proved to be effective years ago may not be up to par in the current time. To have success in the digital marketing scene, businesses must be all about getting to know what makes their customers tick. What are their audience’s concerns, questions, and problems? And how can they help provide a solution for them? Every day, consumers rely on the internet to answer their endless questions. Having the answers to what they need is the key to attracting new customers to become potential buyers to your company. This is what this book is all about.

     

    Content Machine By Dan Norris

    Content Machine: Use Content Marketing to Build a 7-figure Business With Zero Advertising by Dan Norris

    Content Machine outlines a strategy for using content marketing to build a 7 figure business with zero advertising.

    By teaching the fundamentals of content marketing, how to create great content, and how to stand out from the crowd, simplifies the otherwise challenging process of creating content with impact.

    The book outlines the #1 biggest mistake that kills content marketing efforts and how the best content marketers in the world have built their audience, their content, and their business. It provides downloads and frameworks to help the reader with every aspect of content marketing, from idea generation to writing guidelines, to hiring and scaling a content team.

    Whether you are a blogger, content marketer, entrepreneur, or marketing manager, Content Machine will help you see the return you deserve from your content marketing efforts. (source)

     

    For those who want to improve and develop their content marketing strategy to commercial success, this is a very good book to read. It contains more than just creating blog posts and mastering SEO techniques. It’s a book that will change your whole perspective on that matter.

     

    Read more articles like this on our blog.

  • 9 Ways Building Brand Authority with Content Marketing

    9 Ways Building Brand Authority with Content Marketing

    9 Ways Building Brand Authority with Content Marketing

    Having brand authority makes a big difference when someone is contemplating whether to buy from your brand or not. In this post, we will share tips on how to build brand authority with content marketing.

    In gauging your authority level, you must not assume that you fully understand how your viewers see you. Before launching any marketing strategies, make sure to do your research. How is the search traffic for your brand? What terms are people searching for that are related to your brand? How do people find you? Are you mentioned by others on social media?

    Utilize google and all its tools to help you get a perspective of how people discover and see your brand.

    Building brand authority is not easy and does not happen overnight. It’s a marathon. It takes a lot of effort and work, but the benefits you get from it are massive and worth every sweat you pour into it.

    Here’s how content improves brand authority:

    • Educate your audience about your products and services.
    • Help you gain better leads and conversions.
    • Build strong relationships between you and your audience.
    • Helps build a sense of community.
    • It boosts brand authority.

    So how exactly can a brand build authority? Here are some ways on how to build brand authority with content marketing.

     

     

    Answer customer’s questions

    Nowadays, people rely on the internet to get the information they are looking for. If you want to become an authority figure in your field, one of the many things you need to do is to provide value to your audience.

    Content marketing isn’t only about making personalized content for your brand and selling them to consumers. It is also about providing information to your audience by answering their questions.

    Providing answers to your viewers not only builds your brand awareness but also builds your brand authority.

     

    Take Advantage of Social Media

    The power of social media is at its high today, and for so many years now. The opportunities you get when you know how to tap into it are limitless and it’s a great platform to connect with your audience, potential customers, influencers, and possible business partner/s. By leveraging social media, you can easily share your expertise and quality content with a broader market.

    Create Captivating Visuals

    We have always accentuated how visuals are just as important as quality text. Your content should not only be full-on text, it should also have visual elements such as an infographic, high-quality images, or videos that can attract the reader’s attention.

    Additionally, these visual elements can be used and repurposed in different ways for your social media platforms.

    Be consistent with your visuals so that your branding is clear. Incorporate photos related to your brand and include your logo so that people will easily remember you.

     

    Keep your website current

    Monitor your website and keep it updated on a regular basis. Any errors affect your brand reputation and it will negatively affect your customer’s experience. Having a well-working website shows that you care about your brand and your customers.

     

    Base Your Content on Relevant Studies and Reports

    By basing your content on relevant studies, you are showing your readers that you want to give them fresh and helpful information. You can also conduct surveys and studies to provide more value to your audience. This is a good way to build your brand authority with content marketing.

     

    Contribute as a Guest Blogger on Authoritative Sites

    Blogs with high domain authority are the target because these websites are the ones leading in their industries. Guest blogging on authoritative sites will allow you to showcase your knowledge and expertise to their audience and this has many benefits. Aside from building brand recognition and authority, this is also a great link-building strategy that can bring more traffic to your site.

    Brand Authority with Content Marketing

    Produce Industry-Related Content

    Another way to build brand authority with content marketing is by producing industry-related content. Demonstrate industry-specific expertise and knowledge and even if this kind of content doesn’t necessarily address the customer’s questions, it can still resonate with them.

    Content that gives insight into what’s happening in the industry can work well in building brand authority.

     

    Make customer-based content for your website

    You can utilize your online reviews to gain and build trust. Each of your customers has different views and opinions about your product/service. Whether that review is good or bad, you should know about it. Use the feedback you get from previous customers and incorporate it into your content strategy.

     

    Team up with other brands to build a community

    Partner up and work with the right people to grow your brand. Look for partnership opportunities with successful brands in your industry that share your vision and values. A wonderful and strong collaboration can make a positive impact on your audience and you will be perceived as a brand that knows how to build and nurture relationships.

     

    Content marketing is powerful and investing more of your time and effort in it is a great step to improve your brand authority. Making content that benefits and give value to your audience is a mark of a true marketer.

    Continue building your strategy with the tips given above and be consistent to ensure positive results. Good luck!

  • How to Improve Your Content Writing Skills

    How to Improve Your Content Writing Skills

     

    How to Improve Your Content Writing Skills

    There’s no denying that content writing is a big business and the need for competent writers is increasing every day. Not everybody has what it takes to be a good writer. To be able to write properly on any topic, you have to continuously learn and put in the effort. There are various strategies to improve your writing skills. If you wish to improve your content writing skills, here are some tips that can help:

     

    Read other blogs

    As a content writer, you’re continually presented with new writing challenges. On some days, you have lots of time and may write at your leisure; on other days, you must write quickly to meet a deadline. It’s possible that you’ll be given an article that’s similar to anything you’ve written previously, or that you’ll be given something wholly fresh and unknown.

    As much as we hate it, writing is not always fun. It can also be frustrating at times. When I’m struck by writer’s block, I go back to the basics and read other blogs to expand my knowledge. Reading is a terrific technique to improve your writing skills, especially if you’re reading similar stuff to your own.

    Reading other blogs and soaking up as much knowledge from them will improve your writing. Reading exposes you to a variety of writing styles, which can be especially valuable depending on your industry.

    So start reading other blogs in your niche. If you don’t know any, a quick Google search will tell you. Be inspired by other people’s work and learn from other people’s successes and mistakes. 

    Improve Your Content Writing Skills

    Analyze the trends in your niche

    While keyword research is useful, it can only take you so far. As a content writer, you need to know what’s trending in your niche to create an engaging and interesting article that people will want to read. A number of tools can help in tracking what’s trending like Google Trends, Buzzsumo, and Quora.

    Analyze the trends in your niche. There’s a lot of stuff on the internet. Don’t just settle and write about the same stuff as everyone else. You would want to stand out so that people will read and share your content with others.

    There are a number of ways to analyze the trends in your niche. Research about what you’ll write. You can use social media to see what people are talking about, Google Analytics to see what material on your website is popular, Google Trends to see how frequently particular phrases are searched for, or Google Autocomplete to get suggestions based on the keywords you input.

     

    Do not overuse keywords or phrases

    When you have a piece of content, you will naturally want to use your chosen keywords several times. However, it’s important to remember that search engines look for density. This means that they look at how many times you have used a particular keyword in relation to the total number of words on the page.

    Don’t use too many of them. A few well-chosen keywords can improve your content’s relevance to search engines. Stuffing your content with keywords in an attempt to manipulate rankings, on the other hand, will have the opposite impact.

    A keyword density of little more than 3 to 5 percent is ideal. If you use more than that, you may be accused of keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is considered a black hat SEO strategy and can lead to penalties from search engines.

     

    Write with your audience in mind

    There are two sorts of writers: those that understand the rule, and those that don’t. The former know their audience, their needs and the way they want to be communicated with. The latter simply write what’s on their mind. If you want to succeed as a content writer, you need to understand your audience.

    Writing for an audience is like writing for someone specific. You have to consider their needs, their “pain points”, their problems and interests, and provide them with the information that’s most relevant to them.

    So, what’s the best way to write for your target audience? Here are some suggestions:

    1. Determine your target audience. Who do you want to reach and read your content? What features do they have in common? This will assist you in determining which topics will be most engaging and beneficial to them.
    2. Define a clear objective for your content. This might help decide which topics are most relevant to your audience. If you want to produce more leads, for example, create material that will appeal to potential customers.
    3. Find out what people are looking for on the internet by doing keyword research. This can help you come up with ideas for themes and keywords to put in your content so that it ranks well in search engine results pages (SERPs).

     

    Substitute images for text where appropriate

    To spice up your content, make use of images. Relevant images can make your article easier to digest.

    Images are essential for communicating complex information more efficiently. They also help draw readers into your content, which is especially important when you’re posting content on social media platforms. If possible, use original photos or graphics. If you don’t have the means to create unique images, there are plenty of free resources available online.

    Here are some tips for using images effectively:

    1. Use photos that are relevant to your theme. It’s a good idea to include an automobile image in an article about a car dealer, including a photo of a cat isn’t
    2. Wherever feasible, use original pictures. It’s usually preferable to use your own photos rather than stock photos or images that everyone else is using.
    3. Make use of a wide range of photos. Don’t use the same photo in all of your articles. Include autos from various angles and distances if you’re writing about automobiles.

     

    Write in a conversational tone

    It’s tempting to write in a formal tone and use complicated vocabulary, but this makes your writing difficult to understand. Remember that your readers are real people, not search engine bots.

    Using a conversational tone will convey concepts and explain ideas in the simplest way possible. You don’t have to talk like a teenager, but you should avoid using jargon or sophisticated terminology unless it’s really required. Rather, concentrate on explaining things in straightforward English that everybody can comprehend.

    It’s also easy to inject personality into your material if you write in a conversational tone. If you’re having trouble deciding, try reading some of your favorite blogs and try to figure out why you enjoy them so much. What does it take for you to like their writing style?

     

    Be organized and consistent

    If you want to write well, you need to be organized. Sounds simple, right? But despite this, many writers, particularly the new ones, struggle at being organized because they lack a writing strategy.

    So, how do you plan your writing schedule? You figure out what works best for you and then apply it repeatedly. To put it another way, you create your own writing system.

    No one ever got good at anything without first organizing their resources, scheduling their time, and practicing consistently every day. Writing is a skill like any other in this respect — it takes work and dedication to become proficient. It takes a system to succeed.

    If you’re writing for a blog, that means having a schedule and sticking to it.

    If you’re writing a novel, it means keeping track of your ideas, plot points, characters and so on in some kind of system.

    If you’re writing for your business, it means keeping track of who you’ve written to and when — even if all you do is write one email per day to someone who’s agreed to read your work.

    Not only will organization save you time and help you avoid mistakes, but it will also force you to think about your ideas in fresh, new ways.

    Final Thoughts

    Finally, practice is the most effective technique to develop and improve your content writing skills. Read your favorite blogs and websites and try to create your own content based on what you’ve learned. As you practice more, you’ll likely notice that your writing style becomes more sophisticated and coherent.

    We hope you found this post useful. There are different ways available to help you improve your writing. You only need to find the method that works for you and implement it in your next project. Good luck, and happy writing!

  • 3 Practical Tips on Writing A Great Headline

    3 Practical Tips on Writing A Great Headline

    3 Practical Tips on Writing A Great Headline

    If you are a content creator of any kind and you make blog posts, create YouTube videos, write kindle ebooks, or an online instructor, you need great headlines. But coming up with ones that are going to seize your audience’s attention can be a little challenging. In this post, we are going to talk about three formulas that are proven and tested on writing a great headline.

    Why These Formulas Work Writing A Great Headline

    The most basic reason why these formulas work is because they are based on a deep understanding of how a human brain works. Based on evolution, the human brain has developed into a solution-seeking device. From the dawn of humanity, people have to solve problems – may that be on how to hunt, how to build a fire, or how to defend themselves from predators to survive.

    Over the years, all of these things have made the brain solution-oriented, and this hasn’t changed until today. Although we have different problems today, we are still constantly trying to find solutions for them. This is the first factor that you should keep in mind when writing a great headline.

    The second factor is the most common word used every day. It’s not “love”, it’s not “money”. It’s the word “I”. Most often, when we’re not preoccupied with major problems, we think of and about ourselves. What will I eat? Where should I go for vacation? What should I wear? The list goes one. This does not make people good or bad, but thinking in this perspective can help you write good headlines.

    By keeping the reader’s needs, problems, and desires in mind, they will definitely want to hear you out because you are basically saying, “Hey, I know and understand how you feel. Let’s talk about your problems, I’m here to help”. Just a word of caution though, be careful when using those “how to get rich doing nothing” slogans. You can get in trouble if you are promising something that’s subjected to a lot of different factors, and it can sound very scam-y.

    To sum things up, keep these two factors in mind:

    • The human brain is seeking solutions
    • Always think about the reader’s benefits

    You’ll be on a fast track to writing mind-blowing headlines and making people want what you are offering.

     

    Formula #1: The “How-to”

    In writing a good headline, one of the easiest ways is by using the good old phrase “How-To”. This might be overused but it works. It works because it sparks up the reader’s attention and the solution-seeking function of our brains. 

    Example 1: Traveling to Thailand

    Assume that we are writing a blog post about traveling to Thailand. Instead of writing “Traveling to Thailand”, use the how-to formula and it will give you “How to Travel to Thailand”. With the latter, we are getting more specific. We’re targeting people who want to travel to Thailand, but we can do even better than that. We can be more specific.

    Keep in mind that catering to our reader’s needs and problems are our priority. The headlines we make should be able to address those needs and problems and show how to fix them.

    In this case, we can get specific by writing “How to Get to Thailand on a Bike”. Now, we are addressing people who are worldwide traveling bike riders, or we could write “How to Get to Thailand Without Spending a Dime”. Here we are addressing people who have no money to get to Thailand. This last example takes us to something called Objection Killing.

    Objection Killing

    Objection Killing is a useful technique when writing a good headline that grabs attention. By killing people’s objections, we are making them extremely interested in the solution that we are offering. In the example above, the objection killing for the bike riders could look like this: How to Get to Thailand on a Bike in Less Than a Week or How to Get to Thailand on a Bike Without Having a Flat Tire.

    We are addressing the most common problems and objections bike riders can have if they want to Travel to Thailand. Writing A Great Headline

    Assuming that you know your target audience and have already done your research, you already know what their most common objections are. 

     

    Writing A Great Headline

     

    Example 2: Making Your Kids Eat Vegetable

    Let’s assume that we are passionate cooks who promote healthy eating and have come up with a sure-fire way of encouraging children to eat veggies. A headline like “How to Make Kids Eat Vegetables” is the most obvious one. But if you want to add some objection killing in it, make it “How to Make Your Kids Eat Vegetable With a Smile” or “How to Make Your Kids Ask You to Cook Vegetable for Them”.

    We are addressing the parent’s objections who are most probably tired of trying to make their kids eat vegetables, so there you go. Writing a great headline

    That is how you use the How-To formulas to write great headlines. Remember to keep the audience’s benefits in mind, make it as specific as you can, and kill some objections along the way. With this, your headline will surely grab the reader’s attention. Writing a great headline

    Formula #2: The Power of the List

    We are living in a time when sharing content is a must for businesses to get noticed. So if you want your content to get shares on Facebook and/or Twitter, a list type of headline is a good fit for you.

    Lists have been popular today and it’s pretty obvious why. We have less and less time to do more and more things. Lists give out easy-to-digest bite-sized chunks of information and it gives the readers an exact idea of what to expect. 

    Examples: 

    • 10 Ways to Travel to Thailand Without Spending a Dime
    • 7 Easy Steps to Make Dieting Easy (No. 5 is particularly effective)

    You can see the power of the list right away. One glance allows you to understand what you can expect inside, and if you add some objection killing, you get yourself a click and a Facebook share.

    Does the size of the list matter?

    There may be one more question you are asking now. Does the size of the list matter? How many steps or ways or tricks does a list need? 

    The most common amount of things on the list you can see on your Facebook wall if you like profiles like Psychology Today and Business Insider is seven. Many consider this to be a lucky number, but it’s also not too long a list, or too short.

    It’s comprehensive and easy to digest. Of course, it’s not mandatory to make all your lists in sevens, but studies show that lists that are odd numbers not greater than nine are easier for readers to remember. If the list exceeds nine steps, try to end it with a five or a zero. So it should be 10, 15, or 25, instead of 11, 17, or 26.

    You can also use a top list, e.g. Top 3 or Top 10 ways of something. But remember that a list of top 9 or 6 won’t look too plausible, it will look like you just made it up and made it a top list. Writing A Great Headline

    The list is the second headline formula and it’s useful when you’re after those Facebook likes and shares. 

    More examples: 

    • 7 Easy Ways of Making your Kids Ask you to Cook Spinach for Them
    • 5 Tricks to Learn a New Skill When You are Stuck in Traffic
    • 5 Ways to Sleep Healthy, Longer and Wake Up Refreshed

    Writing A Great Headline Just remember to make it an odd number if it’s not greater than 9, and seven is the best. Round the list to zero or five if it has more than ten items, and you can always use the top list if you need some variety.  

    Formula #3: Question Headlines

    The question headline is an answer to people’s need to find a solution and a promise to reveal it after they click. 

    Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Picture yourself starting up Google and looking for an answer to a question your customer might have. What kind of information would they be looking for? How would they ask it? What keywords would they use? With a question headline, you can use one of these two tactics. Writing a great headline

    Tactic #1: Ask a Yes or No question and give an answer straight away or phrase the question so the reader must click to get the answer. 

    Examples: 

    • Are you paying too much for tennis lessons? This free report will tell you.
    • Can you hit home runs like this 7-year old?

    The reader, most probably a baseball enthusiast, would have to take a look inside to actually find out if there is a seven-year-old who can hit home runs better than he can.

    Tactic #2: Ask a question that implies the answer or the benefits. It’s as easy as using words like “this”, “these” or even “which”.

    Examples:

    • Are you make these mistakes planting a garden?
    • What makes a perfect gentleman?
    • Which latest gadget is the most affordable?

    Question headlines can be really powerful if you are asking the right questions. Just remember to get into your audience’s mind and think about what questions they might ask. Also, think about what keywords they might use to find the answer. And don’t forget to phrase the question in a way that would make a promise of solving a problem if the reader clicks on the headline.

    How to Evaluate Your Headlines

    If you are just starting out, most probably you’re not sure whether your headline is good. So, how can we check the potential effectiveness of our headlines?

    Two online sources can help in evaluating your headlines. The first one is the Emotional and Marketing Value Headline Analyzer. It’s a free tool you can find on the Advanced Marketing Institute website. This tool counts the total number of EMV words in your headline in relation to the total number of words it contains. Copy your headline and paste it on the analyzer window and click the Submit for Analysis button to get your results.

    The higher the number the better, but if you can score something around 30%, that is already good enough.

    The second headline analyzing tool is more of an in-depth study of your headline. It’s called the blog post headline analyzer that you are gonna find on the CoSchedule.com site. All you need to do is to paste in your headline and let the analysis begin.

    It will give you a detailed evaluation of your headline in terms of word count and balance. It will give you lots of useful data that you can use to spruce up your headline. And if you can see the green color, that already means your headline is good to go.

    These are the two easiest ways of evaluating your headlines. Remember to practice all the formulas you learned in this post and check which version gives you the best results. 

    Now that you have learned the three formulas for writing a good headline, it’s time you put what you’ve learned into action. You can try to mix these formulas together to see if you can get even better results. Keep on practicing because this is the only what that will make you into a real headline superstar. Writing A Great Headline.

  • 7 Websites to Look for Unique and Free Fonts for your Brand

    7 Websites to Look for Unique and Free Fonts for your Brand

     

    7 Websites to Look for Unique and Free Fonts for your Brand

    Typography has a big role in design. From product packaging, website design, mobile apps, and more, the font you use plays a huge role in making your designs attractive and inviting. Today, we will be talking about the best places to get unique and free fonts to take your content and graphic designs to the next level.

    The Importance of Typography

    1. Comprehension

    A person’s process of understanding and comprehension can be highly affected by the type of font used. 

    2. Focus

    A well-formatted copy will grab the reader’s attention and will keep it on the content.

    3. Hierarchy

    Typography can help make the most important elements in a piece of content stand out. Ex. Highlight the benefits or product features by using bullet points.

    With great typography, your content will be easy to read and will be able to show what your brand is about. This will help drive traffic and increase conversions.

    Here are 7 websites you can visit to look for unique and free fonts for your brand.

    7 Websites to Look for Unique and Free Fonts for your Brand

    DaFont

    Dafont is a popular platform where you can find thousands of free fonts. The majority of the fonts here only support personal use, but there are plenty that comes with commercial licenses as well. The category system of this website makes it stand out as it lets you browse its collection of fonts based on different themes, which makes it easier for you to quickly find the fonts you need for different types of projects.

    Google Fonts

    Google fonts have a large collection of web-ready fonts. Offering more than 900 different font families, Google fonts is the place to find and customize free fonts. 

    The best thing about this site is its font preview tool. When you find the font that you like, you can type in your content and generate a preview to see what your copy looks like in that font. You can select how you want to display your content, whether in paragraph or sentence form. You can also customize the font’s pixel size. This is a recommended site to check out for high-quality resources of free fonts. 

    Creative Market

    This website puts a spin on the free fonts marketplace. They offer free fonts, but these fonts change every week. By signing up, you can download their featured fonts and graphics for the week – free of cost. About 23,000 designers are contributing to their platform, and six different freebies are offered each week, and they are wonderful.

    What’s great about Creative Market is that you can avail of these featured fonts free of charge which would normally cost a fee on normal days. Be quick, though, because when Sunday comes, the free stuff won’t be available anymore, and you’ll miss out on those great things. 

     

    fonts

    There’s a large collection of free fonts on Befonts that are submitted by professional designers all over the world. The downside is that majority of the fonts on the site are free samples of premium fonts, meaning they include fewer font weights, and you can only use the fonts on your personal projects. Despite this, the high-quality fonts on the site are worth checking out.

    FontSpace

    Fontspace has over 72,000 fonts from over 2,000 designers, and all are legally licensed and ready for you to download for free. You can use FontSpace to find plenty of beautiful, unique and free fonts for your personal and commercial projects. And what’s great here is that it is clearly stated if a font is for commercial use or personal use only. 

    If you become a member of the site, you can create a personal favorites collection to easily access your favorite fonts. You can also contact the designers and even donate to them if you like.

    1001 Fonts

    Contrary to its name, 1001 Fonts contain more than 9,000 fonts, and this site features a collection of high-quality fonts that are often updated. And many of these fonts are available for commercial use. You can browse different fonts according to style, size, and even font weight.

    Graphic Design Freebies

    This is another site that features a wide selection of freebies – including illustrations, templates, mockups, and fonts. It has a section of free fonts with hundreds of modern and stylish fonts for free. Most fonts on this site are for personal use only, but there are a few that are for commercial use as well.

    Your fonts are important and you don’t have to spend money getting great ones because there are a plethora of resources online where you can get free ones. If you are looking for unique and free fonts, definitely check out the websites listed above. 

  • 5 Common Social Media Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

    5 Common Social Media Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

    5 Common Social Media Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

    Previously, we have posted an article about 9 Things You Should Never Do On Social Media. In an effort to give you updated content, we gathered the top three common social media mistakes that people make when writing for each platform and how you can avoid them.

    It does not take an expert to miss these mistakes but the ones that we are going to list are the most overlooked ones. Here we go.

     

    Not Checking The Spelling

    When it comes to social media, the writing style is more casual compared to other channels. We’ve tackled in the previous articles how you can get away with using abbreviations and breaking a few traditional grammar rules. However, nothing is worse than having confusing and funny typos in your copy to interfere with the message you are trying to relay. The unfortunate thing on social media is that if these mistakes are overlooked, these mistakes can be shared by thousands of people and you can’t have any way of taking them back.

    The easiest fix here is to have proper proofreading. Here are three top tips for proofreading your social media copy:

    • Check usernames and hashtags – these are where errors most likely occur because spellcheckers can’t check them. So before clicking that post button, click on them, check the link to whatever you’re expecting them to go, and give them a final once-over before hitting the publish button.
    • Get a second opinion – if you use a scheduling tool to plan a lot of your posts ahead of time, set up a process whereby each post is checked and signed off by another member of your team. This can be a little time-consuming but it can save you a lot of stress in the long run by avoiding typos of any kind.
    • Use Hemingway or Grammarly – for picking up good old-fashioned spelling mistakes, I recommend using either of these tools. They are both free and very easy to use. For Hemingway, you only have to open a tab on your browser and quickly copy and paste your posts in for a quick check. You can do the same for Grammarly or you can install the Grammarly Chrome Extension and give it access to your google docs or anywhere you’re writing and it will automatically check your spelling and grammar. I love the latter more and I use it for pretty much everything I write. But both are really great because they go beyond spelling as both apps also check your grammar more generally. And it gives you tips to make your writing clearer and more concise. 

    Common Social Media Mistakes

     

    Cross-Posting

    Another common social media mistake is cross-posting. This is when you share exactly the same post on different social media platforms – word for word. And it’s always tempting to do this to save time while at the same time keep all your accounts active. But this is a terrible idea. In the long run, it can potentially devalue your brand.

    From our previous copywriting articles, you’d know that there are different elements like the audience, the caption length, and the vocabulary used in every platform. When you share the exact same post on all of your platforms, you might accidentally end up inviting your followers on Facebook to ‘retweet’ you, or you could lose half of your caption or tag a handle from one platform that does not exist on another. Moreover, cross-posting is just so obvious and your followers might assume that you don’t care, or worst, your post can even look spammy.

    Always craft different variations of your posts for different platforms, and this does not need to be time-consuming. Be aware of where you are posting and clarify your message, audiences, brand voice, and call-to-action. Use the information found in our previous articles to write your Twitter posts – keeping them short and sweet. Then from this original copy, tweak your wordings that will give the same message for your other channels, taking into account the differences in captions length, hashtags, and more. In most cases, 90% of your post copy will remain the same, so you don’t really have to start from scratch.

    Emojis ????????✨????????

    They’re all over social media. I bet all of your followers are using them, and if you are too, then you’re cool! Emojis add color and fun to your posts. You smile at your customers in person, right? So why not smile at them online? For some product and services though, the usage of emojis are less appropriate. But if you’re writing them off for no good reason, you’re missing a trick. 

    Incorporating emojis can work as an extension of tweaking your language to match the more casual, informal language your audience is using. In the end, whether and how you use emojis comes down to your brand voice and consistency. As always, audience focus is key. 

     

    Now, you’ve learned practical, actionable steps. Put these things into work straight away to improve your copy and make it more concise, persuasive, attention-grabbing, and engaging.