Content Marketing Secrets
Content Marketing Explained: How To Write Content That Converts!
If you’re just getting started in blogging, it’s easy to get frustrated when you don’t see immediate results. But like anything, it can take a little time to get things rolling. It’s important to be patient in the beginning, because the quickest way to fail is to give up too soon!
When it comes to successful blogging, consistency is key.
Fortunately, there are simple, yet effective ways to dramatically increase the amount of traffic, subscribers, and revenue from the start, while also decreasing the time and energy spent managing your blog.
There is no better way to stay motivated and focused than by seeing results from your hard work, and that is exactly what you’re going to experience when you follow the techniques below.
Blogging is ALL about content and you must be producing content on a regular basis. You should ideally be producing 1-2 blog posts per week, but if that is too much to begin with, then aim for at least one per month.
And make sure that this is good, high-quality content that people would be willing to pay for. This should be some of your best stuff.
Many novice marketers get a bit squeamish about publishing their best content for free, but if you do this, your readers will thank you for it and be much more likely to buy from you. And yes, that includes the content that they have freely available to them. This happens because you have put the first and helped them.ext in panel
It goes without saying then, that regardless of your niche, you’ll want to write content that solves a problem and helps your reader achieve their goals.
When creating content for your blog, you want to focus on 2 things:
- Educate
- Empower
Every post on your website should do one or both of these things.
If you are writing how-to style posts that provides readers with a step-by-step process to completing a task, or accomplishing a goal, you are educating. If you write a blog post that offers insight such as a personal story of success, case studies, or motivational-style posts, you’re empowering your audience.
Content that either educates or empowers is the easiest way to create posts that become sticky. This means that you’ll be able to encourage visitors to return to your website again in the future as well as to subscribe to your feed or newsletter. It’s also one of the easiest ways to create share-worthy content and to position yourself as an authority in your market.
Another thing to consider when writing content for your blog is to focus on evergreen content. That way the content you post today should still be relevant months from now because it doesn’t become outdated quickly. This will cut down on the time you spend rewriting or revising content and prevent you from having to remove content that no longer provides value.
Start by jotting down links to the top 10 authority blogs in your niche market, and then spend a bit of time evaluating the type of content they are offering, especially posts that have a high level of engagement.
Look for things like:
- Commonly asked questions posted by your target audience.
- Posts with a high number of comments or likes.
- Posts with the highest number of social shares.
High quality, informative and unique content is the key to your blog’s success. It’s what forms the foundation for your entire business, but it also is the driving force behind turning that traffic into subscribers.
Focus on building high quality content pages on your blog before you do anything else. You should aim to have 4-5 pillar posts before you start to drive traffic to your site. That will give your visitor’s enough reason to return to your site and to leave a positive impression in the mind of your target audience.
When it comes to the length of your content, search engines prefer longer blog posts that provide informative, original content, so try to write posts that are at least 1000-1500 words in length.
Think this is difficult to do?
It’s really not. Start out by creating an outline for every post and then add in images, bullet points and sub-headers that break up the content into digestible sections and keep readers glued to the page.
Whenever possible, try to write how-to or step-by-step style posts. Not only are they easier to write, but they’ll provide actionable information that your readers will love. Lists are another quick and easy way to produce a high value post that will help your readers.
Don’t be afraid to link to other bloggers! Not only is this a great way to provide additional value by guiding your readers to other resources that may help them, but it’ll make it easier for you get on the radar of authority bloggers in your niche market.
The goal is to impress your readers so much that they return to your site again and again because they know you provide value, and are a reliable source of information.
I cannot stress enough about consistency here. Content marketing is a proven strategy but it doesn’t happen overnight, so you need to be willing to wait for your hard work to pay off.
If you don’t want to solely rely on organic traffic, you can easily use some paid advertising (best via Facebook or Google Ads) to drive people to your best blog posts.
If you are doing this, then you definitely want a call-to-action on the blog post in question. In fact, I would go as far to suggest that ALL your blog posts should have some call-to-action in them. This could be to sign up for updates, go to a squeeze page or sales page, or to click on affiliate links in your post.
Get your content marketing plan right and you can make a serious amount of money by producing high-quality, high-value content that really solves a problem for your audience, and by adding a good call-to action, you can grow your subscriber list and monetize your hard work.
Start your content marketing plan today and see what happens; hopefully you will be very pleasantly surprised.
In the next post, we will look at choosing your primary traffic source, so until then…
5 Even More Powerful Content Marketing Secrets
5 Even More Powerful Content Marketing Secrets
As I stated in my previous 2 posts, there is no single magic trick that will skyrocket your blog’s growth overnight. But fortunately for you, there are a lot of little things you can do, that when combined, will lead to steady continuous growth – the kind of growth that seems to take on a life of its own. In this final post in this series I will give you 5 more powerful content marketing secrets so you now have 15 tips that you can use to make the most of your content marketing strategy. If you want to take a look at the other 10 secrets you can find them here and here.
OK, without further ado, here are content marketing secrets 11-15.
11: Build Real Relationships with Your Fellow Marketers
Your fellow bloggers and marketers have the ability to send vast amounts of traffic to your blog. But before this will happen, you’ve first got to build real relationships with them.
This means reaching out and connecting without expectation of receiving anything.
Think of it as making friends because that’s exactly what it is.
If and when they later send you traffic, cool. But in the beginning, focus solely on building the friendship.
So how do you go about becoming friends? Here are a few tips…
- Follow them on social media
- Engage their content on social media with likes and comments
- Share their content on social media
- Leave valuable comments on their blog posts
- Subscribe to their newsletter
- Ask them how you can help them with whatever they’re doing at the moment. For example, you see a blogger talking about their latest product they’re creating and you’re a whiz at video editing – ask if you can help them edit their videos. Yes, for free.
- Do interviews with them for your own blogposts, podcasts, products, etc.
- Buy their stuff and let them know you bought it
- Meet them on Skype, or for coffee, or at a conference
12: Open A Twitter Account, Connect It To Your Website And Get 1,000 Followers Fast
If you don’t already have a Twitter account, go ahead and get one for your blog.
Then focus on getting 1000+ followers in the first week or so. The key here of course is to get targeted followers, not just anybody. You want folks interested in your niche.
You already know who your target audience is. Now make a list of Twitter accounts they are likely to be following.
You can either find the Twitter accounts of your competitors to see who is following them.
Or you can do keyword-based targeting using an app such as: http://narrow.io/, https://statusbrew.com/ or https://www.crowdfireapp.com.
Use the ‘copy followers’ menu to add the Twitter accounts from your list. Follow those people who look like a good match. After a day or two, you can unfollow those who did not follow you using the same app.
13: Use Pinned Tweets To Increase Engagement
You can stick one of your tweets at the top of your profile page. Then when anyone visits your profile, they will see this particular tweet.
Make it a good one – something that points to your best or most recent piece of content.
Doing this is simple: Visit your Twitter profile and select the tweet you want to feature. On the bottom right of the tweet, click the three dots. Select “pin to your profile page.”
Refresh your page and you should see your new pinned tweet.
14: Use Embed Tweets In Your Content For More Engagement
Just one click is all it takes for your readers to engage with your posts when you embed your Twitter updates.
Plus, an embedded tweet is a sign of social engagement, further extending your Twitter reach. And it’s easy to do.
Simply login to your Twitter account, go to updates and select the tweet you’re going to embed.
Click on the three dots at the bottom right of your tweet. From the drop down menu, select “embed tweet” and just copy the code and insert it into your blog post.
15: Think About Using Buzzsumo To Get Your Content Shared (Paid Strategy)
Asking random people to share your content won’t work. But asking people who have already expressed interest in your topic AND shared content on that topic can work really well.
Here’s what you do:
Create a list of articles that are similar or related to your content.
On Buzzsumo, paste the links to each article one-by-one. Click on “View Sharers.” This will show you everyone who shared the content.
Yes, it’s a paid feature, but as of this writing you can try it for free.
Add these people to a list and approach them on Twitter.
Here’s where it gets tricky: If you send out the same tweet to too many people too quickly, it’s going to look like spam. Instead, create variations of your tweet and send them out over a period of time.
Your goal: To make contact with these folks, hopefully to become friends and get them to comment on and share your content.
OK, there you have it. Now you have 15 really powerful tips that can make a really big difference in the efficacy and success of your content marketing efforts. Pick and choose which ones to start with and implement them, and once you have them up and running, try implementing a couple more.
If you do this on a consistent, regular basis, you won’t believe the difference this can make to your business by positioning you as a premium content producer and authority in your niche. And hopefully this authority will increase trust and ultimately end in more sales and profit for your business.
To get the most out of your content marketing you also need to be able to convert all these visitors and readers into buyers and if you would like a handy resource to refer to about increasing your conversions I have a great free checklist that will become an incredibly useful tool for you, and you can get it here.
OK, get to work, implement these strategies and watch your business grow!
5 More Powerful Content Marketing Secrets
5 More Powerful Content Marketing Secrets (That Drive Conversions!)
As I stated in my last post, there is no single magic trick that will skyrocket your blog’s growth overnight. But fortunately for you, there are a lot of little things you can do, that when combined, will lead to steady continuous growth – the kind of growth that seems to take on a life of its own.
Don’t forget that while you are creating your content, you need to be continuously experimenting to see what works, and constantly learning from your audience. Test, test and test again!
And don’t forget to keep things simple…
Experiment – did it work? And if so, how can you make it work even better?
And learn – who is my audience? What do they want? What do they fear? How can I become so valuable to them, they turn to me and my blog for advice and help? Nail this and your conversions will take off!
Now that’s out of the way, let’s get into some more tips that will complement the others (in this post here) perfectly:
6: Don’t Be Afraid To Stand Out
The fact is, more content is published every minute of every day. It’s not enough anymore to have great content – you need content that stands apart from the crowd. It’s got to deliver value in a unique way with a radical new perspective.
Some tips to help you:
- Try new content formats. For example, try an info-graphic instead of an article, or perhaps make a video.
- Put a lot of thought into your headlines and make them really pop. If you can trigger emotions, curiosity, or a burning need to know what’s in your article, you’ve got a good headline.
- For the content itself, either present something no one else has presented, or present the content in a way no one else has. I know, it’s a tall order but it’s something to aspire to.
- Tell stories. It’s hard to go wrong if you become a great story teller. In fact, people will revisit your blog just to read your new stories.
- Give stuff away. It could be pdf’s, prizes or whatever. Try creating info packed posts, and then giving away pdf versions of those posts for people to refer to later.
- Take a stand. Don’t be afraid to express your opinions and back them up with evidence, facts, stories, etc. Having strong opinions you’re not afraid to voice can be one of the quickest ways to get your content shared and build yourself a loyal audience.
7: Work On Your Headlines
According to CopyBlogger, 8 out of 10 people will read your headline, but only 2 out of 10 will check out your post. Yes, headlines are THAT important.
To get your copy read, write at least 5-10 headline variations that each incorporate at least two of the following: Curiosity, urgency, uniqueness, usefulness, specificity and news.
Choose the best 2-4 headlines and promote your content on social media using the different variations. After a few hours see which one gets the most engagement and keep that headline.
As much as you might be tempted, don’t use click-bait headlines. When people see your post doesn’t line up with your headline, they’ll click away.
8: Draw The Reader In…
Keep your readers reading by using this old sales letter trick. Insert words and phrases that naturally pull the reader into the next sentence, and the next, and the next…
Examples:
- “Here’s what I’m talking about…”
- “You might be wondering…”
- “I know you think this is crazy…”
- “Here’s why…”
- “Meanwhile…”
- “On the other hand…”
- “But here’s the really strange thing…”
- “Want to know the best part?”
- “And yet…”
- “But that’s just part of the story…”
- “As it turns out…”
- “No wonder…”
- “Sadly…”
- “What does this mean for you?”
- “I couldn’t believe what happened next…”
- “Best of all…”
- “By the way…”
9: Create Viral Content Using S.T.E.P.P.S.
Now, some folks will tell you that you can’t predict what will and what won’t go viral.
Companies have spent fortunes trying to make viral content. Sometimes they succeed, and many times they don’t.
So how can you, a solo entrepreneur, increase your odds that your content will go viral?
According to Jonah Berger, author of Contagious, there are six principles to making viral content:
- Social Currency – People want to feel smart and cool, like they’re on the ‘inside.’ We share things that make us look good.
- Triggers – Which gets more word of mouth – Corn Flakes or Disney? Be Disney and remember that top of mind is also tip of tongue.
- Emotion – The higher the emotion, the more it gets shared. Remember, when we care, we share.
- Public – There are always people who will jump on board the latest trend. Think if it as, ‘Built to show, built to grow.’
- Practical value – the more valuable and useful content is, the more it tends to get shared. Think of it as, ‘News you can use.’
- Stories – Stories are like Trojan horses, coming in under the radar in the guise of entertainment, when really they are delivering a message
You don’t have to hit all six principles, but the more you do hit, the more likely your content will go viral.
10: Use Great Images
I hate to tell you this, but odds are the images you’re using now aren’t helping you. In fact, they might even be hurting you.
You already know that great images enhance a great post. But for this to happen the images need to be relevant and interesting. A stock photo of models in business attire staring at a laptop won’t cut it anymore.
Best bets: Take your own photos. A photo of you holding something relevant or being in a relevant place will do wonders. People love to see who they are reading, especially if it is a REAL shot and not some studio photo that’s been photo-shopped to death.
Source HIGH quality free images and be choosy. It pays to spend that extra time finding just the right picture.
Here’s a list of 21 sites with ‘breathtaking free stock photos’ to get you started.
https://blog.snappa.io/free-stock-photos/
Don’t have free time to find great pics? Hire a graphic artist on Fiverr to do it for you. They already have great sources and a knowledge of where to find what you’re looking for.
If you want to save some cash and create and design your own images there are a number of tools that you can use which are pretty inexpensive and cost you less in the long run than continually outsourcing.
One such tool is Design Wizard and is well worth checking out to create stunning viral images and video. Check it out here
Try using these 5 “secrets” in your content marketing strategy and see what happens to your traffic, and more importantly, your conversions. I think you will be surprised 😊
I will cover even more of these tips in one more post, but for now don’t forget that if you want to know more about converting your traffic into customers, I have a great guide for you that can give your traffic and conversions an enormous boost. And even better, it’s free 😊 To download your free copy just click here
OK, that’s it for this time. Now go and put these tips into practice in your content marketing.
Discover 5 Easy To Do Powerful Content Marketing Secrets
Discover 5 Easy To Do Powerful Content Marketing Secrets (That Drive Wicked Traffic!)
Firstly, let me be blunt with you; there is no single magic trick that will skyrocket your blog’s growth overnight. But fortunately for you, there are a lot of little things you can do, that when combined, will lead to steady continuous growth – the kind of growth that seems to take on a life of its own.
Here’s the mindset to have when it comes to your blog and content marketing in general… you are continuously experimenting to see what works, and constantly learning from your audience.
It’s rather simple, don’t overcomplicate things…
Experiment – did it work? And if so, how can you make it work even better?
And learn – who is my audience? What do they want? What do they fear? How can I become so valuable to them, they turn to me and my blog for advice and help? Nail this and your conversions will take off!
Now that you have the mindset, let’s get into the tips, in no particular order whatsoever:
1: Know Your Audience
We already talked about this, but it’s so important we need to go deeper.
Where is your audience coming from, both physically and mentally?
By physically, we mean what brings them to your site. Is it an ad? A blog post? A mention somewhere on the web? Social media?
Where your readers come from plays a large part in what they expect from your blog.
That’s why some marketers set up separate squeeze pages for each traffic source, so they can custom tailor it to their audience.
And where are they mentally when they hit your blog? Did they just discover they have a problem and they’re looking for solutions? Are they looking to be entertained more than informed? What are they looking for, and why are they there?
If you can, interview your readers. You might get them on Skype, send them a questionnaire, ask questions on your blog, etc.
Ask things like:
What are your biggest challenges in <your niche>? You’re looking for the pain points you can help solve.
What have you done to overcome these challenges? This will show you how determined they are.
How do you find the information you need? This tells you where and how they are looking
What content format do you prefer? Video, written, audio, etc.
You don’t have to interview a lot of people to find the answers. In fact, according to research experts you should see a pattern emerging after just 5 interviews in the same audience segment.
Your goal of course is to learn as much about your audience’s needs and desires as you can. It’s not always about building buyer personas – after all, not all of your readers will be 37-year-old college educated women with 2.4 kids and a $200,000 mortgage.
Once you have gone through this process you will have a customer avatar for your perfect customer and ALL your sales copy and content should be written with this person in mind at all times.
2: Get a Bird’s Eye View of Your Blog
Buzzstream put together a list of questions that will give you a good view of your content marketing strategy and help you identify your weak points.
You might go over this list of questions every 3-6 months and make sure you are still on track with your blog:
1. Who is your audience? <dog owners>
2. What are you offering them? <tips on dog training and care>
3. How will they find you? <through guest blog posts and social media>
4. Why will they care? <I give great tips they can use immediately>
5. How will they interact? <they will watch videos and read blog posts>
6. What will be their next step? <signing up for my dog training course>
7. Why do they share it? <it’s great info, entertaining and awesome dog photos, too
8. They might not share it if… <it’s too dry>
9. A solution for this is… <inject plenty of humor and personality>
3: Use Competitive Analysis To Find Your Audience
Finding your target audience can be difficult. But then again, who says you have to reinvent the wheel? Just find out what is working for your competitors, and you can often use the same sites and techniques to drive targeted traffic to your own site.
First, make a list of websites that are closest to yours in topic and intended audience. If you don’t know them, try searching Google using your top keywords. Or use this Google query (related: yourcompetitorwebsite.com)
Next, enter the competitor’s domain on SimilarWeb.com to see where their visitors are coming from, which social networks they use, total visits, traffic by countries, search traffic and more.
4: Use Competitive Analysis To Uncover Their Social Media Activity/Strategy
Use http://www.fanpagekarma.com and http://buzzsumo.com to find out:
- What is their average engagement rate?
- How often do they post?
- When are they posting?
- What types of posts are they posting?
- And most importantly – what is their best performing content?
Discovering what’s working for others can shorten your own learning curve dramatically.
You can also use http://likealyzer.com to get metrics on likes, growth and engagement.
If you want to analyze their Twitter account, use https://www.twitonomy.com to find their average tweets per day, total retweets and favorites, as well as how many tweets contained hashtags, links, mentions and so forth.
To learn about their SEO performance, you can use https://seranking.com for backlink research and more.
5: A.P.P. Your Content!
Keep readers on your content longer by using this formula:
Agree: Begin with something your readers agree with. “These days politics are scary and unpredictable.”
Promise: Show them you have an answer, creating a contrast between what is and what could be. “But there is something you can do that will put your mind at ease and keep your politicians in line.”
Preview: Show them what will happen when they read your content. “In this blogpost, I’m going to reveal the 3 steps to easily making your elected representatives actually listen to you and act in your best interests.”
Try using these 5 “secrets” in your content marketing strategy and see what happens to your traffic, and more importantly, your conversions. I think you will be surprised 😊
I will cover more of these tips in another post, but for now, if you want to know more about converting your traffic into customers, I have a great guide for you that can give your traffic and conversions an enormous boost. And even better, it’s free 😊 To download your free copy just click here
OK, that’s it for this time. These are not the only ways to optimize your content, and I will give you some even more powerful tactics next time. Now go and put these tips into practice in your content marketing.
