20 Things to Remember for Writing the Perfect Blog Post

Marketing has so many subdivisions, sometimes it’s hard to keep track.

Content marketing, one of the more misunderstood off shoots, is as tricky as it is simple.

What’s so tricky about it, you ask? It’s just writing…

No. Not everyone can write something that speaks to their readers and prompts them to like/follow you on social media.

You are not writing high-school papers. You’re writing to an audience significantly larger than your bored college professor. You want them enthralled with your work. Unlike your professor, this audience can (and will) haul themselves off your website faster than you can say ‘Audience Engagement’ if they don’t find you interesting enough.

My point is simple and obvious: If you really want to make your content more inviting, engaging and user-friendly, you have to beat your articles into shape.

Content marketing can enhance your online visibility and generate leads for you within a short time span - But you need to get it right.

Let’s get this show on the road then, here are 20 things you need to consider when writing your next blog post:

1. Captivating headline

Here’s what David Oglivy has to say about a headline:

On average, five times as many people read the headline that read the copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.

Who are we to disagree with the Father of Advertising, really?

The headline of a blog post needs to be creative and magnetic. It’s what draws the reader’s attention at the first sight and prompts them to read what you post. Writing a headline that grabs your readers’ attention is a critical skill.

If you want to create fascinating headlines, you need to thoroughly understand your blog’s concept and then write down the headline that can both deliver the desired message and also persuade targeted readers. You can get some great tips from here as well.

Bottom line: It needs to be short and spunky, something to draw your readers’ eyes and entice them to take a look at the whole thing.

2. Supporting sub-header

You can’t squeeze everything about your content in the 5-10 words of a headline. This is where subheadlines come to the rescue.

You can use sub headers to start, finish, or explain (in short) what your content is about. Attention can be caught by the headline, but interest is generated with your sub-headers.

Bonus: Keyword-friendly subheadlines make your content more visible to search engines.

3. Word-play

Now we’re talking!

I am a huge believer in KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid) and I will do everything I can to tone down the jargon or huge, pompous words. If no-one understands what you’re saying, you defeat the entire point of content marketing.

Simply put, use simple words to explain. Of course you can use jargon, but only where jargon is necessary. Everywhere else, keep it short and sweet unless the context (or the content itself) demands heavy words and brutally large explanations.

4. Bullets with a name on it

Articles are a thing of the past. Everyone’s writing ‘listicles’ now.

Make your blog post more easily understandable by using numbered lists or bullet points. It helps people read blog posts and find the information they are looking for instantly, without much effort.

5. Properly punctuate

Use full stops, commas, colons and dashes to divide the mass of words into smaller chunks of information that make sense.

If you are not sure about punctuation, then keep sentences short and digestive. As you gain experience in writing, you can lengthen your sentences, and break up them by using commas.

By breaking up long sentences, you can make your blog posts engaging as well as informative. Make sure to provide your readers the desired information in an easier way.

6. Try to keep it lean

In a mobile age, we as readers, are more used to reading top-down than left to right.

If you are using the WordPress or Blogger layout along with a specific wide content column, it will be better to select a new layout, or adjust your column width. You can use 80 characters or less in the width to make your blog post narrow.

7. Test your font type

Monotype Corsiva looks amazing. But if you wrote that paper on, say, Shakespeare’s contribution in that font, prepare yourself for a low grade. Regardless of what you wrote you will be graded down.

Let that be a lesson (hypothetical one): The web is no different. While you can and should do everything to put your brand personality to proud display, keep the fonts and typefaces legible. Sans-Serif fonts (without the squiggly bits) are easier to read on-screens, and of course there are others. Many leading bloggers use the sans-serif font Roboto that is created for easy reading.

Remember, bloggers: Test your web fonts for legibility.

8. Big and engaging font size

Choose a big font size while writing your next blog post. Tiny writing is tough to read online, so it is better to make it bigger.

Check out some of your favorite blogs and compare the font size they use and then you can decide what works best for your potential readers.

9. Be bold, baby

Grab your reader’s attention by using bold text in your posts. But only do this strategically. Writing an entire paragraph in bold will make your blog ineffective. But using this tool to highlight some important sentences is an ingenious formatting technique that will put extra emphasis on things you want to stick out in your readers’ minds.

10. Give italics ago (sparingly)

Italics are a great way to emphasise a point, or a question, in a more discreet manner than bold text. But don’t over do it because after a while italics strain the eyes.

11. Don’t forget caps

Don’t be afraid to dabble with capital letters for entire words every now and then… They JUMP off the page at your readers.

12. Tell a story

Every story has three major parts: the beginning, middle, and the end.

So, you can start off with the introduction, then the main information, and end your blog by wrapping up with a conclusion. It will give a proper format to your blog post, and allow readers to more easily consume the information.

Try to make your blog tempting so that your readers crave more content.

13. Keep attention with internal cliffhangers

Internal cliffhangers basically bridge your article, blog or podcast together by using emotions. These are statements and devices within your content that encourage readers to keep reading.

After all, we engage based on emotion.

14. Use images

Visually-appealing images will always attract readers to your blog post. Noticeable images in a blog post emphasize its message and also grab the viewer’s attention. It will be great fun to use images to break up your lengthy content into digestive paragraphs.

Reading fully text-ified posts is tiring and boring – so there is bonus points for relevant images that add to the ‘story’ of your content.

15. Use graphs

Graphs can be an essential tool for content marketers who are in technical industries or covering data-laden topics. Data visualization can divide the monotony of dry articles, and increase the chance of sharing.

By creating graphics, you add significant visual interest and give depth to your blog post.

16. Short paragraphs make your content interesting

It is not necessary to apply traditional rules of composition while crafting the perfect blog post. Instead of writing long sentences, you can divide your blog post into short, digestive paragraphs, as it allows the visitor to view the important points quickly.

If you break up your lengthy content into manageable chunks you will engage more readers.

17. Use white space

Whitespace is basically the emptiness in between the characters, lines and paragraphs of your blog post. Proper use of white space in a blog will help prevent your readers from losing their place when they look away from the text for a little while.

It allows the reader to process the information in the story, give their eyes a break and keep them engaged with the blog post.

18. Be aware of your background

Your blog’s background color should contrast your text color because ultimately the hero of your blog post is the CONTENT.

The best combination is a dark and vibrant text color on a light background.

A white background is simple and least likely to cause distractions.

19. Use text call-outs

Showcase the purpose of your blog posts, especially the important points, with text call-out boxes (Such as block quotes). It will add some serious significance to your statement.

Text call-outs can become irritating to readers, so make sure you use them sparingly.

20. Close your blog post in style

You know how the endings of all great horror movies are open?

The main objective of effective writing is to take the reader on an interesting and informative ride from beginning till end. Try to wrap up your blog post in style so that you can deliver the message to the readers in the most exciting way.

The ending of your blog post will determine the reaction and emotions of people after reading your content. You can leave them contemplative, excited, in suspense, and more, just with a few words that make your ending.

Wrapping Up

“We’re all ADHDs here.”

Yes, that was a poor rip-off of Lewis Carroll’s famous line in Alice in Wonderland, but you can certainly see the similarities between a rabbit hole and the vast (and crazy) world of the web. Come on!

The internet is a madhouse and you’re trying to be heard (sorry, read) above the noise. A nicely written piece of content is you trying to stand out from the crowd. And once the eyes are on you, your content will determine how long they stay there.

Whip that blog post writing into shape and keep that spotlight on you forever.

Guest Author: Lucy Barret is a WordPress Developer and a passionate Blogger. She is associated with HireWPGeeks Ltd. and provide HTML to WordPress service with her team of experienced WordPress developers. She is fond of writing WordPress tutorials and loves to share her knowledge with other bloggers. You can follow her company on various social media networks like Facebook and Google+.

The post 20 Things to Remember for Writing the Perfect Blog Post appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

5 Alternative Ways To Share Content Other Than Social Media

When you want to get your content in front of new readers, tapping into the dozens of targeted platforms on social media is an obvious choice. Whether you share a blog post on Facebook or an infographic on Twitter, social media outlets boast millions of users. These established, engaged audiences give you a chance to not only get your content read, but also shared frequently.

However, there are times when you’ll need to go beyond normal social media sharing. Maybe you’ve found that your target market isn’t as active on traditional social sites as they are elsewhere. Or maybe you feel you’ve gained as much as you can from posting content to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and similar services. If you want to grow your audience further, you’ll need to think outside of the box when it comes time to share content.

Fortunately, there are plenty of options to share content besides the major social media sites. When you’re ready to take this step, pay particular attention to sites where you can share content that other people will then curate from, allowing you to get even more bang for your social buck. Here are five alternative ways to share content other than social media platforms to consider.

Scoop.it

On Scoop.it, you can share content on specific boards that are centered around the niche topics and keywords that are relevant to your business, your industry and your audience. People start to follow your content boards – similar to Pinterest – which can drive a lot of relevant traffic to your website as a result.

Add your own unique perspective to each article that you “scoop”, and share it not only to your content category but also on your website, blog and more. Many professionals rely on Scoop.it for their own content curation efforts, so posting your work here will increase your chances of having it be shared by others.

Triberr

Dubbing itself “A community of talented Bloggers and Influencers come together to read and share great content,” Triberr is another targeted place to share content other than social media.

To use Triberr, join specific tribes or groups of people sharing a specific category. By joining tribes that are related to your industry and interests, you can share content with a group of people eager to both read and share it with others. You can locate tribes exploring everything from SEO to women’s issues – there’s never a shortage of niches for you to tap into and grow your tribe.

Email Marketing

Email marketing has proven to have a consistently high conversion rate, and sharing your content to your email list is a sure-fire way to have your content reach those who are interested in what you have to say.

You can email your list a digest of content on a regular basis, including your own fresh content and interesting pieces you’ve curated from reading others’ work. Or, send your blog posts out as an email, and include the entire text of the blog in the email message itself. Before you launch, make sure that your email service provider is setup to handle the format, graphics, and links that you want to include. If your service provider has an RSS option, use it to translate your already-published content into your email.

Video Marketing

Not everyone enjoys reading and translating text and copy. Instead, sharing your content via video can be a great way to expand your reach. In fact, HubSpot shows that 40 percent of people respond better to visual information than written, making videos a relevant and useful option.

Videos can quickly be uploaded to a variety of sharing sites, as well as embedded in your website and sent to email subscribers. As with all content, simply creating a video or audio clip isn’t enough – you need to share and promote it. By adding it to your landing pages, email signature, and sharing sites such as Vimeo and even Google Hangouts, you’ll be able to send your content to thousands of new people without using social media.

Guest Posting

Creating guests posts on popular business news sites such as Inc., Forbes, and Entrepreneur can be a great way to share your thoughts without using social media. When you guest post, you not only reach the audience of a much larger website, you also get the credibility of the larger site as a tacit endorsement when people read your content.

When executed correctly, guest posting can bring tremendous additional traffic to your website and landing pages, while also creating buzz around your ideas, visibility and the ability to position yourself as a thought leader in your field. The secret to successful guest posting? Being selective about where you publish. Consider all of your content sharing options and select only those that will position you and/or your brand in the best possible light.

Sharing your content doesn’t have to end with the main players of social media like Facebook and Twitter. By adopting these five alternative ways to share content other than social media, you’ll find and reach a new audience of engaged readers, viewers, and listeners every time you produce new content.

Where else do you share content outside of social media? 

Crop Dusting Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "5 Alternative Ways To Share Content Other Than Social Media" was first published on Small Business Trends

Facebook Conversion Pixel Changes: What Marketers Need to Know

Are you using the Facebook conversion pixel? Wondering how to transition from your old conversion pixel to the new pixel? Facebook’s new “one-pixel solution” makes it easier for marketers to monitor and measure conversions from Facebook users. In this article you’ll discover how to install the new Facebook pixel, track conversions and view the cost […]

This post Facebook Conversion Pixel Changes: What Marketers Need to Know first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
Social Media Examiner - Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

Snapchat Rolls Out Story Explorer: This Week in Social Media

Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention. What’s New This Week Snapchat Introduces Story Explorer: “When you see a moment that inspires or excites you, simply swipe up to […]

This post Snapchat Rolls Out Story Explorer: This Week in Social Media first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
Social Media Examiner - Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

Online Reviews: How to Respond to Fraudulent Reviews

Do people review your business online? Ever receive negative or fraudulent reviews? To discover what to do when you receive a review that’s not what you were expecting, I interview Dan Lemin. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help […]

This post Online Reviews: How to Respond to Fraudulent Reviews first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
Social Media Examiner - Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

Is Pain Your Path to Success

As a child I struggled to breathe.

For days I would lie in bed and fight for every inch of breath. I almost thought of it as normal. Waking up and trying to drag air into my lungs for hours.

Nights were long with no end in sight.

Asthma wasn’t considered such a big deal back then and drugs were minimal and for the most part ineffective. Going to hospital wasn’t a consideration. For years the doctors were not much help. One suggestion was  burning an oily lamp with some strange concoction next to my bed.

The result.

Only stained bed clothes and sheets when the device was struck by flailing arms in the middle of the night.

Finally… at a doctor’s appointment, I was told that maybe exercise was one way of possible relief. Some new research had shown some promise

By then I was old enough to take some initiative.

I was tired and fed up with the pain. The next day I struggled out of bed in the gloom of the early morning. The fresh smell of dew promised a new day. The sound of the gravel driveway under my feet was deafening in the silence of the dawn as I walked past my parents bedroom and opened our creaking gate.

The orange street lamps beckoned.

I started pounding around the park next to the family home. The first event was 4 laps and I was done. The next day I thought it would be good to have my younger brothers join in. So I coaxed them to put on their running shoes and share my pain of struggling out of bed at the crack of dawn. The next day they just groaned…rolled over and went back to sleep.

No encouragement there.

It’s up to you

I was on my own.

But I had something they didn’t have. I was seeking a solution to escape pain. It’s a big stick.

The days became weeks and that turned into months and my persistence didn’t diminish but increased. I exchanged the pain of fighting for breath from asthma to fighting for breath as I exercised. My determination to escape pain drove me to such frenzied activity that sometimes I threw up from the sheer exertion.

I had also discovered a new natural high. It was a drug called endorphins. As my fitness grew, I felt I could run forever. Maybe I was the original Forest Gump.

Within a year, I could run for hours. I disappeared into the surrounding hills. I loved my freedom, enjoyed my own company and I learned that sizeable, insurmountable obstacles can be overcome. If you’re willing to push through the pain and take the next step.

This motivated escape had become a passion and my asthma had now become just a small sideshow.

I joined the high school long distance running team and discovered that persistence and practice had a reward. I qualified for regional and state championships and started winning races.

That was my first lesson on the power of pain.

One step at a time

Stephen King was asked ‘how do you write these 120,000 word novels and he said ‘one word at a time…’

The path to success is just one step at a time.

Going for a run every now and then is good. But the only way to achieve peak fitness requires persistence. Succeeding in this digital world…whether it’s blogging, content marketing, digital marketing or re-inventing your company or re-inventing yourself is sometimes not apparent.

It requires shedding comfort for growth inducing discomfort.

Your attitude to pain is key

You’re going to feel a lot of pain in life…because the reality is the world has changed and will never stop changing.  So you can bravely embrace the digital opportunities and understand that you have the power to build your own brand online without seeking permission or paying for it.

Then the riches of the world are yours…you can go from local to global in the click of button.

The new reality

You can build your own global audience one word…one tweet at a time…without having to pay for it.

Are you going to embrace your pain and reinvent, or are you just going to wallow. Settling for comfort is never going to lead anywhere. Feeling some pain means you are pushing your boundaries. And that is the event horizon where growth happens.

You have the choice.

The post Is Pain Your Path to Success appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

How to Export Leads With Facebook Search

Do you use Facebook to find prospects? Ever wish you could export your lead lists? The new Facebook Search browser extension for Chrome makes it easy to search Facebook for prospects and download the results. In this article you’ll discover how to export prospect details from Facebook. Why the Facebook Search Extension Facebook has huge […]

This post How to Export Leads With Facebook Search first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
Social Media Examiner - Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

How to Create Content That Converts Like Crazy

You’ve been working hard to produce great content for your audience….

You’re getting your name out there on social media and traffic to your website is growing steadily.

But no one is buying your stuff.

Content is pointless if you’re not converting leads and sales. If you can’t do this, all the traffic in the world won’t help you.

If you want to create content that converts like crazy, you need to use a little marketing psychology.

Know the mind of your audience, truly engage them with your content, and they’ll be eager to click that button.

Know your audience

All successful businesses are based upon their ability to meet the needs of their audience. If you can do this, you will succeed. If you can’t, it’s going to be a struggle.

Any business strategy must start and end with your audience. Content marketing is no different. If you want to boost your conversions you need to know who you’re trying to convert.

Many marketers make the mistake of creating content for their peers. For example, as a freelance writer I could create content on the art of writing. However this would not win me any new clients. My clients are not interested in learning how to write better. But they would be interested in how to use content marketing to grow their business.

Create content for your audience not your peers.

But how well do you know your audience?

Get to know everything you can about your audience:

• Their demographics
• Where they hang out
• What their needs are
• What their values are
• What words and phrases they like to use
• What makes them happy
• What makes them frustrated

You can find out what you need to know using the following methods.

• Go to forums relevant to your niche
• Search under your keywords in Quora and Yahoo Answers
• Search under your keywords on social media
• Invite visitors to your website to fill in a survey
• Study the blogs and magazines they read
• Meet them in real life by attending relevant events

Choose a topic which is relevant and useful

The secret of effective content marketing lies in creating content which is relevant and useful to your audience.

The more relevant and useful your content is, the more engaged your audience is and the more they will trust you.

To optimize your conversions you should pick interesting topics that address your audience’s pain points and allow you to demonstrate your expertise.

This is where your knowledge of your audience comes in. After doing your research, you should have a clear idea of what their needs are.

Which of those needs can you fulfil? Those would make great topics for your content.

It’s often effective to be highly targeted with your content. For example, an article about social media strategies will have a broad appeal, but the topic is too general to really engage people. Now an article about social media strategies for solo entrepreneurs might turn off a section of readers, but the ones to whom it applies will be highly engaged.

Remember, engagement leads to conversions.

Write a captivating headline

In content marketing, the headline is king.  No matter how amazing your content is, now one is going to read it if they’re not immediately captivated by your headline.

According to Peter Koechley of Upworthy, switching from a bad headline to a good headline can produce as much as a 500% increase in traffic.

Headline writing is as much a science as it is an art. The attention grabbing headlines you see on the covers of Cosmopolitan Magazine or Buzzfeed are based on established formulas. These formulas were thought up by old school copywriting legends like Eugene Schwartz and David Ogilvy. They have proven their worth time and time again for more than 50 years.

Remember, your headline has one purpose: to capture your reader’s attention so that they want to read your content.

So how can you get your reader hooked?

Simple. Promise them a benefit.

“The headlines which work best are those that promise the reader a benefit.”

— David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

Now going back to Buzzfeed. This website lives or dies by its headlines. So why not use it for inspiration.

Now let’s say you run a website that offers social media marketing services. Can you repurpose some of these Buzzfeed headlines to write an attention grabbing headline that promises a benefit?

You certainly can.

“8 Brilliant Ideas for Throwing An Autumn Barbecue” becomes “8 Brilliant Ideas for Social Media Marketing”.

“21 Hilarious Tweets That Perfectly Capture Your Feelings About Dating” becomes “21 Inspirational Tweets That Perfectly Capture How You Should be Using Twitter”.

“24 Secrets River Island Staff Will Never Tell You” becomes “24 Secrets Social Media Experts Will Never Tell You”.

Hook them with your opening

Ok, you’ve captured your reader’s attention with your headline. You’re not home and dry yet. Not by a long shot.

People’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. According to scientists, our average attention span is now 8 seconds. For goldfish, it’s 9 seconds.

What does that mean to you?

It means you need to hook your reader from your first sentence. You need to make them interested in what you have to say. If you don’t they’ll just wander off and watch some videos of skateboarding dogs. Or something.

Here are some great ways of starting your blog posts with a bang;

• Ask a question. If you ask a question, you’ll get your reader thinking. Thinking means engagement. That’s a good thing.
• Drop a shocking statistic. Don’t use a statistic that your audience will be familiar with. Hit them from left field. Make them go “Wow, I didn’t know that!”
• Describe a problem. Go straight into the problem your content will be addressing. Don’t just define the problem. Go deep. Lay out the pain that the problem is causing. More about this later.

Build a Connection

Content marketing is about relationship building. You produce content to build a connection with your audience, which in time leads to a sale.

To build a relationship, you must establish rapport. Now if you’ve done your homework from the “know your audience” section you should have some idea of the values and interests of your audience. Your content should be congruent with those values and interests.

For example if your target audience is solo entrepreneurs, they may prioritize saving money over saving time. For an audience of marketing executives, saving time may be more important than saving money.

Another key factor is the language that you use. Study the words and phrases that your audience uses when discussing topics related to your business. Use the same words and phrases in your content. You can go further. If your audience demographic is interested in certain aspects of popular culture, you can refer to these to spice up your content.

Once you show your audience that you understand how they think, and how they feel, they will start to trust you. And this is so important in business.

Be genuinely helpful

Building rapport is great. But you need to show you can provide value to your audience. If you can’t, why should they buy your products and services? That’s why your content must be helpful. If a reader finds your content to be helpful, they will be confident that purchasing your products or services will benefit them so much more.

Your content can be helpful in the following ways:

• Solve a problem. You provide a solution to a common problem your audience is facing. To give the most value, you should provide actionable steps that your audience can take. When they act on your advice and it works, they’ll be eager for more. However, you don’t have to tell them everything they need to know. You can hold something back which will be revealed in your paid products and services.
• Educate your readers. As experts in your niche, you’re in a position to teach your audience about niche topics. If you establish a teacher-student relationship with your audience, you’ll be in a position of authority and trust. But remember to use their language. Never use jargon that they won’t understand. And be humble. No one likes arrogance.
• Give an informed opinion. In many niches there’s an abundance of advice, many of it conflicting. Your audience is likely confused as to which option to take. They might be spending hours on the internet trying to find an answer. What WordPress SEO plugin is the best? Is cardio or strength training better for weight loss? Clear up your audience’s confusion and demonstrate your expertise. You’ll win a few new fans in the process.

Be emotional

No matter how rational your audience is, their emotions still exert a huge influence over their decision-making process. Analysis of data from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising revealed that adverts with emotional content performed almost twice as well as those with purely rational content (31% effectiveness vs 16% effectiveness).

For our purposes emotions can be broadly divided into two categories:

• Positive emotions. Joy, happiness, satisfaction.
• Negative emotions. Fear, frustration, anxiety.

In general, evoking positive emotions is going to reap the greatest rewards in content marketing. As Psychology Today reports, studies show that positive emotions regarding a brand have far greater effect on consumer loyalty than any other factor.

You can evoke positive emotions by:

• Using a lively, optimistic writing voice.
• Encouraging your audience to achieve their goals.
• Sharing inspirational success stories.

Now this is not to say that evoking negative emotions is necessarily bad. You just need to be strategic about it. Copywriters have long harnessed negative emotions to sell using the Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS) formula.

It works like this:

• Problem. Identify your audience’s pain point. For example, say your audience wants more traffic to their website.
• Agitate. Rub it in a bit. So your audience has low traffic to their website. Describe their feelings of frustration. Describe their anxiety that they’re never going to succeed.
• Solve. Now you’ve really amped up your audience’s desire to find a solution to their problem. At this point, you reveal that you’re going to share your special marketing strategies that will skyrocket their traffic.

Make a compelling offer

Through using the tactics we’ve outlined, you’ve built a connection with your audience, helped them with their problem, and even got them a little bit emotional.

You have an audience which is highly engaged with your content.

Now it’s time for you to convert them into sales leads.

To do this, make them an offer. This could be:

• Subscribe to your newsletter.
• Download your ebook.
• Sign up to your webinar.
• Purchase your products or services.

The copy that introduces your offer is the call to action. Your call to action should be placed at one or more prominent positions on your website:

• On your home page.
• At the top of your sidebar.
• At the end of your blog posts.
• On pop-ups.

To make your offer truly compelling, you should try and incorporate the following:

• Outline benefits. Clearly state the benefits your audience will gain from your offer.
• Emphasise uniqueness. Are you offering something that your competitors aren’t? This could be the nature of your product, or it could be your unique approach.
• Inspire confidence. Use social proof by citing testimonials from satisfied customers.
• Use figures. Figures lend credibility. It could be the number of subscribers you have, or statistics that demonstrate the effectiveness of your methods.

It’s all about the journey

Content marketing is all about taking your audience on a journey. You attract their attention, hook them, build a connection, and make your offer.

At every stage in the journey, you should be increasing the audience’s engagement with your brand.

So when you finally make your offer, how can they possibly resist?

Extra bonus: I’ve created a handy “Create Content that Converts Like Crazy Checklist” specially for Jeff Bullas readers. To download it now, click here.

Guest author: Clement Lim is a freelance copywriter and content marketer specialising in B2B and legal niches. When he’s not creating thrilling content he enjoys drinking green tea and doing handstand pushups. Find out how he can help your business grow at limwriter.com.

The post How to Create Content That Converts Like Crazy appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

6 Holiday Instagram Marketing Tips for Businesses

Is your business on Instagram? Looking for ways to stand out this holiday season? There are simple tactics you can use to grab attention and increase engagement with holiday shoppers on Instagram. In this article you’ll find six tips to boost your Instagram marketing for the holidays. #1: Ask Followers to Choose Their Favorite It’s […]

This post 6 Holiday Instagram Marketing Tips for Businesses first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
Social Media Examiner - Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

How To Build a Brand Reputation Online That’s Solid

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” – Warren Buffet

Sage words from a very respected, successful businessman, who has himself built one of the most trusted, consistent, emulated reputations of anyone through sound values and principles and a strong philanthropic commitment.

Brand reputation is the most important aspect of sustaining success and, make no mistake, is one of the hardest things to accomplish.

It refers to how a particular brand or a company is viewed by others. A favorable brand reputation allows consumers to trust you and your company and feel good about purchasing your goods or services and doing business with you.

Below are ways to build a brand reputation online that can help you make amazing connections, learn from others, and grow your credibility and your business while you’re at it.

Ways to Build a Brand Reputation

1. Be Yourself

The social media world is one dimensional, but you can make yourself multi-dimensional. Take a more personal approach to your branding and content marketing. Try to write how you actually are, as if you were sitting across from someone sharing a coffee and conversation.  Practice and study other successful bloggers and web writers style and delivery. What makes them successful to you?

2. Be More Interested In Others

Let people know you care about them, their issues and their challenges. “How I can I help”” is a powerful connector and opens many doors. Qualify and vet people and be clear on who you want to develop relationships with and why.

3. Give People A Glimpse Into Your Personal World

Finding that right mix of personalized professional content gives people a more complete picture of you. Tell people about what foods you like, favorite places you’ve traveled to, music that moves you. A glimpse of your world allows them to relate. Careful about how much you share and what you post online. The Web is viral and you can’t delete or erase things.

4. Get To Know Your Followers

Okay, so you have lots of friends and followers. Do you know anything about them? Survey them for their demographics, lifestyle, attitude and values. Get to know the kinds of industries they represent, which LinkedIn is great for.  If you don’t know the mix of your community then you can’t really serve them.

5. Collaborate And Hook People Up

Try to engage regularly, introduce people via e-mail and social media, state the commonality you believe you have with people and take it from there! We are NOT going to connect and hook up with everyone, but we should be consistently adding great people to our spheres.

6. Temper Your Humor And Anger

Hey, I love a great joke and some edgy language, but I don’t need anything really off color or any profanity to get my attention. Careful here to be professional and respectful of the etiquette of others. No profanity, religion or sexuality is still the best etiquette rule.

7. Be Consistent and Show Up Ready to Play

Be a kid in the playground. Show up, get to know the other kids, let them know what position you play best to help the team, acknowledge when others make a great play, and play your heart out when you get picked to play!

8. Give And Receive

Giving and receiving are both important. I have learned to give first but alo receive graciously. When people ask me how they can help me and I know they are coming from a genuine place, and it is something that can enhance us both, then I accept and allow them the pleasure of giving.

9. Offer Solutions, Sell Later

The rule with social media (which is kind of unspoken) is 4 to 1. Four posts or tweets where you give and provide information and solutions to problems or challenges, to one promoting or selling  yourself.

10. Spread Hope And Positive Energy

We all benefit from others sharing their challenges, successes and triumphs especially now. Good times are full of lessons, ideas and wisdom, but so are tough times. Share your story and show others what you have done and learned that can give people hope.

11. Be Consistent

We can learn a lot from the world’s most valuable brands. What makes these brands valuable in the 21st century is mix of factors including design, technical innovation, safety, price, reputation, distribution, availability, core values and engaging brand marketing. This can take generations to create, build and deliver, but it is consistency that allows people to know what to expect from us.

Are you focused and committed on being the best you can be? If your heart is not in what you are doing, then the best thing you can do is find something else that your heart is in.

Network Image via Shutterstock

This article, "How To Build a Brand Reputation Online That’s Solid" was first published on Small Business Trends

Uber-Targeted Social Media Strategies

In theory, more followers means more eyes on your content…

But savvy marketers know that doesn’t always work out. To be effective, you need engaged followers, people who are so interested in your content they will read it, comment, and share with their audience.

In other words:

It’s not the size of the boat, it’s the motion of the ocean.

To get your boat a’rockin, you need to build an engaged audience. Fortunately, people on social media self-identify, and you can harness that.

Finding your audience

Each social media channel has tools and methods you can use to identify interested people. If you follow them, and they are interested, chances are pretty good they will follow you back.

Here are some tools and tactics to speed up the discovery process by social media channel.

Twitter

You can follow 1000 people per day, but how? Twitter has its own search tool that I never found particularly useful, so I turn to online tools.

One easy and effective answer is Socedo.com. I used the Socedo app to run an experiment for a post I wrote here on Jeff’s blog.

On Monday morning, I set up an autoDM response, chose keywords that identify my ideal audience, and approved the 250 recommendations generated by the app. It took less than 5 minutes. The result was 40 extra new followers in one day.

Not bad!

Even more interesting was the response to the autoDM.

Mine said:

[First_Name], just wanted to say hi and thanks for connecting. If you’re interested in content marketing, here’s one of my recent posts, “7 Tactics to Write Quality Content Your Audience Will Love”

<http://www.jeffbullas.com/2015/08/11/7-tactics-write-quality-content-audience-will-love/>

I chose that post because it’s been up for a while and not getting a lot of attention.

Here are screenshots from Monday morning and Tuesday morning.

That’s 2,955 tweets on Monday, and 2,979 tweets just 24 hours later.

Mock autoDMs all you want (we all hate them), but that’s a nice spike on a post that’s two months old… 24 tweets from 40 new followers is better than a 50% conversion rate!

Another really simple way to find and engage new followers is through Twitter chats. Active participation in industry-related hashtags not only allows you to communicate directly with people who might not otherwise respond to you (influencers with large followings), but you can also observe who responds to others. The people who retweet and respond to industry influencers are your people.

Don’t be shy. Show your expertise and avoid cliches. Then followup the next day with a clever comment, and join the chat again next week. Don’t worry if you seem to be talking to yourself at first, they’ll warm up if you join conversations.

Be sure to keep an eye on your Twitter Analytics. You can learn all kinds of cool stuff about who your most engaged followers are and what your most popular tweets include.

Scaling it back

To keep up your follow count, you have to keep up on your ratio. There are many tools online to help you manage your followers. I use Crowdfireapp.com to weed out inactive accounts and unfollow people who don’t follow me back (after a proper grace period).

Facebook

Facebook has advanced search tools built into its program. Enter a keyword in the search field and you’ll get a wide range of results: People with your keyword in their profile descriptions, professional and business pages, groups, events, and even videos and photos about the subject.

Promoting your business on Facebook is tricky. While you can connect directly via a personal page, you’re limited to enticing people to follow a business/professional page. Depending on your industry, one good way to build an audience is to let your people be the face of the business. Paid promotions can help you get noticed, but nothing beats personal engagement.

You can really uber target ads and boosted posts, though. Get local by specifying country, state/province, city, and language, then specify age, sex, and interests.

Target got my attention recently by featuring items I’d left in an abandoned shopping cart. Brilliant!

And also effective; I went back and finished my order.

To analyze and optimize your page impact, Facebook offers Insights, a collection of reports that shows you such things as who your followers are, where they are located, and what they respond to.

Linkedin

Linkedin is the go-to social site for B2B, and just like the other sites, the key is engagement.

In 50 Ways To Get More Linkedin Page Followers, Jayson DeMers says “Growing your LinkedIn presence all comes down to two main strategies: promoting your page and producing engaging content that drives shares and increases your visibility.”

The same advice holds true for all social media sites. Even if you’re writing a simple tweet, make it a good one. Find ways to promote your content without repeating the same post over and over – choose bullet points from the post or report, ask a question, use a different graphic.

Ground floor video opportunities

The live-streaming trend is blazing hot right now, and it’s still early enough to grab a big share of the audience. Pick your poison: Meerkat, Periscope, and Blab are all gaining traction. Just remember, trends come and go, and audiences are fickle. Don’t get too invested in any one social site that may not last. When was the last time someone mentioned Vine?

Got the hang of if? Good.

By this point, you have figured out that you can’t just build it and they will come. You have to search for your followers, reach out, and give them a reason to follow you. No matter what social media site you’re targeting, your content has to be on point, your bio has to be interesting, and you have to interact quickly and cleverly.

Tips on improving your social media strategies

Beef up your bio

Consider your profile bio a personal ad for social media sites. It helps people find you and influences them to follow you. Use searchable keywords and make it interesting. It doesn’t have to be a dry list of qualifications. Include some personal details and make it personable. You can fit a surprising amount of information in a short paragraph.

In order: @morgancarrie, @MarcGuberti, @MrRyanConnors, @HillaryClinton

Show some love

Here’s the part a lot of businesses don’t seem to get. The more you spread the love, the more you get in return. It’s a little bit thrilling when a big name or a brand with a ton of followers responds or retweets an ordinary person.

Brands that really engage in conversations and reshares tend to be talked about and written about. My current favorite social media account is @Applebees, and not just because they tweet mouthwatering bacon cheeseburger pictures at me. Their social media team is clever, responsive, and funny.

Lure targeted followers (AKA inbound marketing)

Targeting people on social media isn’t always about finding them. It can be about helping them find you. The same tactics used for linkbuilding can be effective for audience building. I do a lot of blogging on high traffic sites (like this one, for example), and each one has a bio with my contact information.

It’s a win-win. I write about what I know best – writing, social media, marketing, and all things associated. People who read it and like what I have to say connect with me… and that grows my audience.

It has other perks as well. You build authority by sharing your knowledge, make friends in the blogging world who are likely to help spread your fame and put your name in front of a targeted group of dedicated readers. All very worthy goals.

Deliver the goodness

Building a targeted audience becomes easier over time. The more exposure you have, the more people find you, it’s a natural progression. That doesn’t mean you get to relax. Instead, you should turn up the heat. Your goal is not only to find a new targeted audience, it’s to provide the content that keeps them interested.

As you get to know your audience, you can better understand what makes them tick. What content they are most likely to read and share, what they want to know from you, and where to find them.

Targeting your social media audience is all about answering their needs, sparking their interest, and being a resource they can count on. When you engage enthusiastic followers, they are all too happy to help you spread the word – and your fame.

Guest Author: Sherry Gray is a freelance content writer from Key West, FL, currently suffering the burbs of Orlando. She’s a science geek, a business and marketing writer, and an unapologetic fan of all things bacon. Connect with Sherry on Twitter@sherisaid or on Linkedin.

The post Uber-Targeted Social Media Strategies appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

23 Steps to Better Photos for Your Website and Marketing Materials

High-quality, professional images can add a whole new dimension to your website and marketing materials. But a lot goes into creating images that will really enhance your business efforts.

To learn more about creating images that will boost your website and marketing materials, take a look at the list of tips below.

Take These Steps for Better Photos

Understand the Importance of Quality

The photos on your website and marketing materials can have a big impact on how customers view your business. So you don’t want to just go with the cheapest or easiest options at the expense of your overall marketing or branding efforts.

Professional photographer and consultant Missy Mwac explained in an email to Small Business Trends, “High quality professional images on a business’s website and marketing materials give the impression of a high quality professional business; they are an indicator of quality.”

Evaluate Your Needs

Before you just start adding photos to your site or setting up photo shoots, you need to decide on what types of photos you want and what they will add to your site or marketing materials. Photos can be incredibly useful in creating visual interest and adding a face to your company. But adding irrelevant photos just for the sake of filling space may not do you any good. So come up with a plan and decide on the photos that are likely to have an actual impact.

Hire a Professional

Smartphones, tablets and other devices have made it easy for people to constantly photograph their lives. But access to a camera doesn’t make you a professional. And customers can usually tell the difference. So if you want better photos that look like they were taken by a professional, hire one.

Mwac says, “You hire a professional when you want a job done right. Professional photographers are business people themselves and know what goes into creating extraordinary images. It’s what they do, which is why when you need something extraordinary, you need to hire a professional.”

Know the Difference Between Professional and Amateur

However, simply hiring someone who calls himself or herself a photographer does not guarantee that you’ll get high quality images. You need to really vet potential candidates to ensure that you’ll get the highest quality and most relevant images for your business.

Mwac says, “There are a lot of pictures being taken in today’s world. From DSLR’s to camera phones to camera tablets, we are a generation that must photograph everything, even our food. (Guilty. I admit it.) And that’s great! I am very much in favor of capturing as much of Life as possible. The memories, the times together … we just don’t get that back, and a photograph is the closest we get to reliving it. But everyone is not a professional photographer … it’s just, well, most everyone has cameras. And the ownership of an object and/or the ability to perform a simple task does not entitle one to claim a certain status.”

Don’t Just Rely on a Website

A quick online search can likely point you to some professional photographers in your area. And while a quick look at their website can potentially give you an idea about their style, it’s not the main thing you should use to base your decision.

See Photo Examples in Person

If possible, visit potential candidates at their studios or set up meetings so that you can meet them and take a look at their work in person. This should give you a better idea of their work and quality, especially if you plan on using photos for tangible marketing materials.

Ask for References

You can also ask photographers you meet with for references or customer testimonials, to ensure that their past clients were happy with the overall experience and finished product.

Find Someone You Like Working With

A photographer’s personality and working style are also important things to consider. You’re likely to need professional photos taken more than once over the course of running your business. So finding someone that you like working with can be extremely beneficial.

Get a Feel for Their Style

You should also consider very carefully if each candidate has a style that would suit your business and the types of photos you want to use. Each photographer is different and has different strengths. So think about which examples best exemplify what you want to see for your business’s photos.

Seek Out Recommendations

If you need help in your search for professional photographers and better photos, ask others for recommendations. See if any friends or fellow business owners have had professional photos taken recently and if they were happy with their results.

Search Your Local Area

You can also simply keep an eye out for photo studios in your local area. Drop by and see if you can meet with a photographer and take a look at some photo examples.

Consider Quality Stock Images

While professional photos created specifically for your business are preferable, it’s not always possible for every business to hire a professional every time they want to post a photo. Particularly if you use a lot of photos in blog posts or similar materials, professional stock photography is a useful option. Sites like iStock, Shutterstock and Fotolia all offer such photos.

But Don’t Skimp on Them

There are also sites that offer free or very low cost stock photos or royalty free images. But you shouldn’t choose low quality images just because they’re low cost. In many cases, you’re better off not adding images over adding low quality ones.

Use Images That Fit with Your Brand

You have much less control when using stock images than you would when working with a professional. But you should still try and select images that fit with your brand’s style, overall aesthetic and your website’s color theme. When possible, use the psychology of color in your images.

Make Sure They are Relevant to Your Specific Message

When working with stock images, you also need to ensure that they’re actually relevant to the page of your website or section of your marketing materials where you want them to appear. If you just add a photo for the sake of adding one, it can be confusing or distracting to customers.

Humanize Your Brand

Professional photos of your products or other offerings are great. But many customers also appreciate a behind the scenes look at your company.

Get Comfortable in Front of the Camera

Part of humanizing your brand means showing your actual team. Adding better photos of you and the other members of your team to your website and other materials can help your customers feel more comfortable reaching out to you or doing business with your company.

Create a Plan for Your Social Images

Aside from the professional or stock photos that you use for your website and official marketing materials, you’ll likely also want to include some images on your social media accounts. These don’t necessarily need to be of the quality that you hold your official website images to, but they should still be relevant to your company and overall marketing strategy.

Take More Photos Than You Need

When taking photos for your social media accounts, you want to have plenty of options to choose from. Always take more photos than you actually need at events or photo shoots. Then you can decide which ones are most worthy of posting later.

Work With Your Team

Your team can also be helpful when taking social images. Ask everyone to submit their images from various events or behind the scenes shots. They might offer a new perspective or just give you some interesting imagery that your customers could appreciate.

Find Good Lighting

Lighting is one of the most essential elements for great photos. Don’t post dark or grainy photos to your social accounts. Instead, try to take photos in natural light or with high quality artificial light. For product images, use a light box.

Don’t Stretch Images

You also need to make sure that your images are large enough to post on the platforms you use. Actual dimensions are different for every platform, but you generally want to start with the largest image size possible, especially if you’re using the .jpg (J-peg) format. Then, before you post, just make sure that your photos don’t look pixelated or stretched out.

Take the Overall Look into Account

Whether it’s your website, social accounts or other marketing materials, you want to make sure that your images add real value to your company’s message. Take a look at your materials as a whole and ensure that your images fit with your message, branding and image. If not, it could be time for a change.

Camera Shutter Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "23 Steps to Better Photos for Your Website and Marketing Materials" was first published on Small Business Trends

LinkedIn Group Changes: What Marketers Need to Know

Are you active on LinkedIn? Wondering about the recent changes to groups? LinkedIn groups have been redesigned to make interactions more seamless and valuable for members. In this article you’ll discover how marketers can find, join and use the new LinkedIn groups. What the Changes Mean LinkedIn completely overhauled its groups interface, so the desktop and app versions […]

This post LinkedIn Group Changes: What Marketers Need to Know first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
Social Media Examiner - Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

Meet Aabaco Small Business (the Reincarnation of Yahoo Directory)

The Yahoo Small Business Directory is no more. It’s now part of Aabaco Small Business.

Aabaco — whatever that means — is a company owned (for now) by Yahoo and attempts to reach the Yahoo Small Business Directory now direct users to the Aabaco site.

Before Google was a household name, many people found their way around the Web by way of the Yahoo Directory. The Directory was not a search engine, rather an organized list of websites selected by Yahoo.

Websites were sorted by topics such as education, shopping, and resources. You could click the topic you were interested in and see a list of websites under that topic which Yahoo had curated.

But some found the system convoluted and confusing. What’s more, directories began to get a bad rap as spammy link sellers. That wasn’t a good reputation for Yahoo.

The decision to retire the Yahoo Directory was announced with little fanfare by the company. Yahoo simply gave a short paragraph at the end of an already short 2014 progress report explaining its decision by stating, “Yahoo was started nearly 20 years ago as a directory of websites that helped users explore the Internet. While we are still committed to connecting users with the information they’re passionate about, our business has evolved and at the end of 2014 (December 31), we will retire the Yahoo Directory.”

So it’s not really much of an explanation. But perhaps Yahoo did not feel the need to spell out the reason behind its actions with directories so little in use these days.

Yahoo has been making a number of changes in recent years, a transformation that is coming to pass under the leadership of ex-Googler Marissa Mayer. As for the Yahoo Directory, it is no more. Instead of transitioning the service into a new form, it seems the company has killed it completely in favor of a new service all together.

The question is now, what exactly is Aabaco Small Business?

In short, Aabaco Small Business is a service that offers small business owners custom websites, hosting, domains, eCommerce help, and business email plans. So, instead of helping you find businesses on the Web, Aabaco helps you get your small business on it.

For now, Aabaco Small Business is a Yahoo business, but this will not always be the case. Though no specific date was given, Aabaco explained on its website that they will be spun off from Yahoo to become a part of Aabaco Holdings. You can go to the company’s Questions and Answers page to learn more.

Image: Aabaco Small Business

This article, "Meet Aabaco Small Business (the Reincarnation of Yahoo Directory)" was first published on Small Business Trends

How to Create Facebook Video Ads: A Step by Step Guide

Interested in creating Facebook video ads? Looking for an easy-to-follow guide? Facebook video ads don’t require a lot of time or money. All you need is a script and some basic gear. In this article you’ll discover how to design and record your own Facebook video ads. Why Create Facebook Video Ads? According to data from […]

This post How to Create Facebook Video Ads: A Step by Step Guide first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
Social Media Examiner - Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

Online Quizzes: The Digital Ads Your Audience Won’t Want To Block

If the music industry can survive free streaming and downloads, then the advertising industry can overcome ad blocking.

Since Apple announced in June that users will easily be able to install ad blockers on phones that support iOS 9, there has been a frenzy of articles predicting the demise of online advertising. What’s more, PageFair and Adobe reported that in the past year the number of people downloading ad blocking software has grown 41% globally and 48% in the United States.

Why do users block ads?

In addition to privacy concerns, it’s mostly to stop those blinking banner ads and pesky pop-ups that make it more difficult for users to access content. Meaning, if ad blocking is the weapon of choice in the public’s battle for less intrusive ads, then it’s time publishers make their way to the negotiation table and appease the public’s demands.

How to do it?

Well, the best way is to enhance the user experience by implementing native, engaging, and interactive ads that complement the context of the web page.

Let’s take a deeper look.

Interactive online quizzes are the #1 way to draw users in

If you don’t know which pop star should be your best friend, or which 2000′s rapper you are, then you’re somehow the only person who’s been able to evade these addictive personality quizzes.

If publishers were able to harness the interactivity of online quizzes, think of the advantages it would bring to advertising. It’s an incredible way to engage users and keep their attention focused on your ad, especially if you can tailor the advertisement to match the content of the site (which I’ll get to in a bit).

I can’t tell you how easy it is to get distracted by a quiz titled “What Did Celebs Do Before Fame?” on the bottom of an article about Kim Kardashian’s most recent stunt. Suddenly, you look up from your computer and realize you spent 15 minutes contemplating Kim’s childhood. (We both know this has happened to you too, but don’t worry, your secret Kardashian obsession is safe with me.)

Here are 4 reasons why online quizzes are your answer to digital ad blockers.

1. They’re not just for millennials

In 2013, the New York Times reported that their most visited piece of content that year was the interactive quiz “How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk.” And, it was published on December 21, with just a week left until the end of year! Meaning, online quizzes are not just directed towards and consumed by millennials – there’s an increasing fascination with online quizzes in all generations.

2. The brain is wired to love them

There’s a whole psychology behind the addictiveness of online quizzes. Not only is it an easy way to distract yourself from reality, but it also brings out two inherent characteristics in all of us: narcissism and competition.

Essentially, it gives us a chance to prove to ourselves how great we are, how smart we are, or how much we know about a specific topic of interest. If you’ve taken a psychology class in college, you’d know that this is simply a part of the human condition. It’s not saying that we’re especially narcissistic, but everyone needs a bit of self-validation – and online quizzes provide a harmless way to relieve this desire.

In addition to feeding our inner narcissism and competitiveness, people continue to engage with interactive advertisements because the brain thrives on learning new things. Whether you realize it or not, each new tidbit you learn gives you a rush of motivation to learn more. This is because it makes you anticipate a reward.

It’s similar to starting a new level on a video game and continuing on in the hopes of gaining more points or unlocking some other achievement. In fact, there’s a whole region of our brain dedicated to novelty and new things!

3. Clicks come from context

The success is in the numbers. For example, Carwow, a website that helps people choose their perfect car, created “The World’s Hardest Car Quiz.”

It’s been taken more than 215,000 times and of course drove insane traffic to the site.

The takeaway: context is key.

This is because Carwow, knowing their target audience, was able to tap into the internet’s car-enthusiast community and successfully engage them.

Now, imagine if this quiz were an advertisement. Because it’s extremely relevant, it’d receive an incredible amount of clicks and create tons of revenue for both the publisher and the advertiser.

4. They’re never ending

The great thing about tapping into human addiction, is that once you’ve got them, they’re hooked. Unlike still advertisements that don’t offer anything else besides a redirection to a destination site, interactive advertisements can go on repeat forever.

Once you’ve finished one quiz, publishers are ready to serve you three more based on the interests you’ve already shared with them. The idea, of course, is to focus your attention on their interactive ad and keep you coming back for more, hoping to keep you on the site as long as possible. The chance of you interacting and engaging with them is higher than it ever would be than with a blinking advertisement you frustratingly scroll past.

Essentially, if publishers were to capitalize on advertisements that enhance user experience and play to the psychology of the brain, they’d be able to successfully tackle this impending ad blocking problem the internet is facing. Like I mentioned previously, it’s time for publishers to wake up and realize that shoving intrusive advertisements down users’ throats is no longer feasible in today’s culture. If publishers want to gain users’ trust again, they need to make advertisements entertaining, engaging, and less intrusive.

Of course, online quizzes aren’t the only type of interactive advertisements that can successfully engage users. There’s also quotes, biographies, facts, polls, and tons of other examples. And these types of advertisements can be just as engaging and addictive as online quizzes and provide similar amounts of traffic and revenue for publishers.

I’m not sure about you, but I’m looking forward to seeing how this ad blocking story unfolds.

Guest Author: Rony Donio is Head of Content at Carambola, an interactive content platform that boosts engagement and generates new revenue streams for premium publishers.

The post Online Quizzes: The Digital Ads Your Audience Won’t Want To Block appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

15 Digital Marketing Trends for 2016 That Could Destroy Your Business

Marketing today is a new game.

The “Mad Men” of the Madison avenue era of wine, whisky and women as inspiration, are now a distant but fond memory. But as much as the new dawn of digital and the rise of the social web has changed the landscape, some things have stayed the same.

Memorable and congruent branding, creative content creation and knowing and understanding your target audience are still marketing 101. The hard nosed conversion tactics and principles of the direct mail experts from the 20th century are also a skill set worth embracing and polishing.

The social web marketing tactics, new media and digital marketing automation are all new skills, concepts and technologies that we need to understand and learn. I know that hurts. And you thought when you left college or university those exams and learning were all over.

But staying in your comfort zone is not an option in a digital world.

As marketers we need to be reinventing ourselves. It is a revolution, not an evolution and ignorance is not bliss but a road to extinction. Who thought a mobile app (Uber) would destroy the taxi industry. Or a computer company (Apple) would disrupt the music business.

We need to be nimble, agile and dedicated to a lifetime of learning. Much of the past we have to leave behind.

Why I wish I had a Neuralyzer

In the Men in Black movies, Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) and Agent Jay (Will Smith) are the guardians of all things alien. One of the tools at their disposal is the Neuralyzer. It is one of the signature tools. It is a device about the size of an average cigar tube that gives a bright flash which erases the memories of the past.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For many traditional marketers and business people there is a lot of unlearning to do. Erasing bad old habits is essential.

But for many, the old habits die hard and mass media marketing that was so effective in the past is losing its traction as the new connected generation switches off the remote and junks the letterbox contents.

They aren’t watching TV, but YouTube. No more sitting down to watch the weekly shows, but scanning Facebook on their smart phone. It is the new way to kill time!

John Maynard Keynes insight many years ago, which summed up the challenge for businesses in the 20th century, is more relevant today than when it was first uttered.

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones“

It’s time to get rid of the old marketing practices that no longer work and step into the new world.

It’s time to use the Neuralyzer.

The challenges for marketers

Once you step into the digital marketing maelstrom, you will be confronted with terms and words like SEO, long tail, inbound links, list building, optimization, CRO, conversion, retargeting… and the list goes on.

You will not only need to know the “what” but the “how” for all these new marketing tactics.

But there are some other challenges. Here are 8 as ranked by Hubspot in its latest “State of Inbound Marketing 2015”

Technology

Technology is ranked as the third biggest challenge.  But you will also need to integrate technology into your digital marketing manager skill set. To cap it all off  you need to find someone who understands and has the capabilities.

Some more questions

So you know what is needed but now you need to find the resources that you can trust. These are some of the questions that burn in many marketers minds.

• Who can I use that understands and executes paid Facebook advertising without wasting my limited budget.
• Who is an SEO expert I can trust?
• Where can I find a switched on “data scientist” that will improve my landing page conversion rate.

It used to be easy before when you just handed your marketing dollars over to the advertising agency.

The opportunities

Digital marketing is not just about challenges but opportunities. In fact, the opportunities are staggering… should you roll up your sleeves and go for it. In traditional industries the upside is huge as they are the most ripe to be disrupted by someone who “gets” digital.

So what are the advantages digital marketing can provide?

• The ability to reach a much bigger market by moving from local thinking to global.
• Scaling and amplifying your efforts with technology
• Measurable results from data that reveals what works and what doesn’t
• Free crowd sourced social media brand content that amplifies your marketing for free

These are just some of the opportunities that the mobile and the social web allow.

Some digital marketing facts

Digital marketing is many moving parts and here are some facts worth contemplating.

• Budgets are doubling for social
• Email with sharing buttons increases click through rates by 158%
• Today 50% of companies have content marketing strategies

Source: Adweek.com 

The digital marketing trends

So what are the digital marketing trends that could destroy your business if you don’t start now? You can be sure that your savvy competitors will be getting in on the digital action! So it’s time to beat them to the punch.

And you can’t ignore the looming reality that the new start-ups will also disrupt.

1. The focus on “Return on Investment”

The shiny new toy is just another toy.

When social media started to be recognised as not just a plaything for teenagers, the marketers started piling in. They realized that it was free marketing driven by the global online crowd. Facebook “likes” were the new gold rush. For the last 7 years the shiny new social media toy has distracted us. We have talked about trust, engagement and other fluffy metrics.

Vanity metrics blinded our common sense.

Social media is now to be treated as just another digital channel. The reality has set in and the question is being asked “What is the return on investment”. The CEO is saying “Show me the sales”.

Social media is great for traffic, brand awareness and customer engagement but as you move down the sales funnel the other digital marketing tactics are vital. Landing pages that convert and an email list that gives you control of customer contact.

No longer can you rely on Facebook to provide free traffic to your website or blog. It’s become just another paid advertising channel.

It’s time to stop chasing every new social media distraction. It’s time to get serious and focus on what matters. Moving beyond vanity metrics like traffic, likes and sharing to the sharp end of the sales funnel. Return on investment.

2. The continuing rise in the importance of digital assets

In the past advertising was just seen as an expense.

But in the new age of digital it should be seen more as an investment in the future of your online authority. It is an asset build. Advertisements that had a lifetime of 30 seconds and never to be seen again and cost hundreds of thousands are being added to and even replaced by online videos that can be viewed this year and into the future.

This new media  is indexed by Google and shared on Facebook and Twitter. They are searchable now and will be found on the web in a decade. Media creation is a digital content asset that provides brand value now and will keep giving. In 10 years the content you created today will be found in a Google search.

Search engine assets

Below is one of my search assets. Ranking position one and two on a Google search for “social media facts”. This brings in about 30,000 visitors a month. But it does take time and persistence. Keep in mind that organic search rankings can bring in 300% more traffic than social.

That surprised you!

The new age marketers that win will be the ones with the greatest and best content and will also know how to make it flow across the web and optimized for discovery. They will understand the power of content “marketing”.

Social media assets

Another digital asset is your tribes on social media.

You may have the content but do you have the crowd to distribute it? That is why growing and investing in your social network following is a long term game.

I have been investing in building my Twitter tribe for years!

Investing in growing your digital assets is vital and content is the foundation.

The mantra of “think like a publisher” have been embraced by brands like Red Bull, Coca Cola and Lego. You need to be investing in your digital content assets and global distribution networks.

3. Thinking global instead of local

You competition is no longer just local.

Amazon is the global competitor for the corner book store and much more. Online stores that are owned by corporations in London are selling to your customers in New York, Los Angeles or even Sydney.

Small thinking needs to be discarded.

The world can now be reached with a tweet, an email or a blog post that is shared on social.

4. Crowd sourced brand content is essential

Coca Cola decided to re-invent and pivot its marketing philosophy from creative excellence to content marketing excellence when it discovered an essential truth about the digital world. That your customers and fans could create many more stories, content and conversations about your brand than they could ever hope to build or buy on their own.

Scaling content on your own is expensive and hard to do.

In some recent research Onalytica discovered that just on YouTube alone that brand fans were creating 99% of the content that mentioned the brand. Discover how to do that well and you are on your way to earning that free attention that companies crave.

At the annual Minecraft conferences the young fans are not provided free workshops on how to play Minecraft but on “Video Creation 101″.

What will they do when they go back home?

Create videos about Minecraft. Almost all the videos on YouTube about Minecraft were created by young passionate Minecraft fans.

Source: Technobuffalo.com

Minecraft hardly spends a cent on traditional advertising. But why should they when they know how the social web works. They generate 2.4 billion video views a month on YouTube with content marketing created by their fans. All they had to do was train them on video making.

5. The rise of the robots

Marketing was just an art.

Now it is being amplified and optimized by technology and science. Human intuition and creativity is being enhanced by data.  The splintering of media means that to do digital marketing at scale you need help. Digital marketing platforms provide automation tools that allow you to publish and market at scale.

• Email: Automated email sequences can be designed to run from opt-in to purchase without human intervention.
• Social: Tweets and Facebook posts that were all done by hand are now loaded, scheduled and automated.
• Paid Digital Advertising: Knowing what works and what doesn’t makes sure that we are spending our Facebook marketing dollars on the right creative, approaching the correct target audiences and identifying the calls to action that work best.

Marketing effectiveness is also able to be measured for impressions, engagement and clicks. We now have the ability to measure almost any data point. The old marketing joke attributed to John Wanamaker over a century ago will become a relic of the past

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.“

Measurement is what the digital world excels at. But you need to know what to measure and the digital tools to do it.

6. Email is alive and kicking

Email is still a digital trend that isn’t going away.

The rise of social media and all those multiple messaging apps (Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, Viber and much more) have lead many people to question the future of email.  But it will not be going away anytime soon. It is still the default business communication tool.

Stewart Butterfield, the founder of Slack – a chatroom app for teams in workplaces says this about email.

“The reason email survives – even though everyone seems to hate it – is that “email has many benefits, it’s the lowest common denominator for official communications”. To those that expect email to disappear….wait another 30 years!

For marketers, email will continue to be the key communication channel for acquiring leads and customers.

The money is indeed in the list.

7. Personalisation has arrived

Relevance is key to catching and holding attention offline and online. Delivering content that engages and sells means tagging customers interests as they discover you and subscribe to your email list.

There are now a variety of digital marketing technologies from email to marketing software that are now available that can provide personalized marketing. They are also within the resources and reach of most businesses. They will allow you to do personalisation at scale.

8. The data scientist is your next hire

In the past direct mail, print and mass media were your only option. Experience, skill and intuition were the marketers only friends to achieve optimal results. Today there is a new and vital component.

Data.

The web now provides us with the data we need to determine what works and what doesn’t. The guesswork is disappearing. A/B split testing can be automated (eg Leadpages.net allows this with their template landing pages). The new emerging media sites like Buzzfeed, Viral Nova and Upworthy’s success is not from just creative excellence  but data driven decisions.

So believe the data ….not your intuition.

9. Mobile is now your first screen

Mobile was called the second screen but that has been flipped. It is now the primary screen for most.

You only have to look at where most of Facebook’s revenue comes from (over 75% is from mobile advertising) and it becomes clear that smart phones should be a big part of the marketers focus.

Mobile raises the challenge of “less is more”. You cannot do everything on mobile so you have to do what matters. So what is that?

• Capturing email leads via mobile (see image above)
• Easy to read and view content on mobile
• Calls to action that are easy to use
• Contact details that don’t require finger dancing

Keep in  mind that as you move from local to global that most of the 3 billion new internet users coming online in the next 5 years will be accessing your website via a smartphone

10. Powerful digital platforms for all business

As the cost of technology drops, the access to powerful software that was only in the past accessible by the big end of town has become a reality for all.

What are those platforms?

They are customer CRM and digital marketing automation software such as Infusionsoft, Ontraport, Hubspot and Marketo and many more. Once they have been acquired by the business the next challenge is learning how to use them.

11. The rise and rise of paid social media advertising

Social media was free.

That is what attracted me and many marketers 7 years ago. But things have changed. Facebook has wound it’s organic reach for pages back to almost zero. Want to reach your Facebook fans?

Its pay to play.

All social networks are now in this game and as social media has become just another media channel that reality is not going away. You are going to need to adapt.

Facebook makes big money from this in 2015. But if you are paying you need to make sure you are measuring the results. You don’t want to be spending $100 in advertising every day and only making $50 in profit. Don’t pay for traffic until you know what it produces.

That is why advertising on the web and a data scientist are a match made in heaven.

12. Influencer marketing takes off

Nike pays Tiger Woods and many other athletes for one thing. Helping them reach the right audience.

Online influencers and niche bloggers now offer this for brands to reach targeted global audiences. They offer not only global reach but credibility and trust. Companies are now willing to pay for that attention.

A recent report from Group High reveals that influencer marketing is no longer a freebie but often requires a paid investment.

13.  Virtual reality is real

It’s still early days but the rapid evolution of virtual reality and the big investment by players such as Google and Facebook with its Occulus Rift acquisition for $2 billion is setting the stage for immersive marketing.

Marketing webinars that educate while wearing a virtual reality headset will have incredible engagement capabilities.

14. Wearable technology takes its first steps

Do you wear a Apple watch? Have you been reminded to stand to reach your standing goal several times during the day as it vibrates gently on your wrist. As the web becomes noisier and more crowded the use of wearable technology by marketers will be tested.

Standing out will become even harder and marketers will need to find different ways of communicating with potential customers that work.

15. Mobile apps for all business

In the past the cost of developing an app was high.

Today the costs are plummeting as the technology has improved. The domination of the web by mobile will lead to companies realizing that an app is no longer an option but a necessity.

What about you?

What digital marketing trends have you adopted? Has it made a difference. What technology are you thinking of implementing? What do you think is the most important trend that will disrupt your industry?

Look forward to reading your insights and experiences in the comments below.

The post 15 Digital Marketing Trends for 2016 That Could Destroy Your Business appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.