7 AdWords Tips Google Doesn't Want You To Know

Paying more for the same service is never a good business practice.

 

Yet this happens all the time with Google AdWords. People who are new to AdWords set up campaigns and let them run, often with profitable results, but they don't realize they're massively overpaying for their clicks. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, they give up on campaigns that should be profitable when early results don't look good.

 

Either way, Google wins. The search giant makes more than $100 million from AdWords per day. And a good chunk of that cash is from advertisers who run inefficient campaigns.

 

Of course, you'd rather be increasing your profits rather than padding Google's pockets, and that's where we can help. Here we've compiled a list of tips that can help most advertisers optimize their campaigns and make better use of their budgets. Google probably wishes we'd keep these tips under wraps, but we won't lose any sleep over this - Google would do just fine without folks like you overpaying.

 

#1: Don't launch campaigns over the weekend

You can't properly optimize if you lack sufficient data. It's not only that you want to have lots of clicks to analyze, but you also need to have the right kinds of clicks in your campaigns.

 

For many businesses, most of your traffic will occur Monday through Friday, so you should launch new campaigns to get clicks on those days. That means you'd ideally want to start a campaign earlier in the week so you have time throughout the week to collect data. People behave differently when searching the Web on weekends, and you don't want these differences clouding your initial data.

 

#2: Spread the impressions around

In addition to collecting enough data, you also need to make sure your data is properly distributed among your ads. The temptation is to use the AdWords default option to "optimize for clicks," but doing this might cause more traffic to go to certain ads over others. In the first stages of optimizing, it's more important to spread out clicks so you give all ad variations a fair shot. Set ads in new campaigns to "rotate indefinitely."

 

#3:  Block bad Display Network placements

The Display Network is a great source of cheap, high-volume traffic. But if you're not careful, you'll end up paying for a ton of clicks that don't convert into leads and sales.

 

If your Display Network CTR is suffering, try running a Placement report in Google AdWords. This report will show which Display Network websites are showing your ads, as well as metrics such as impressions and conversions from each of those sites. Identify which websites don't send converting traffic and block them in your campaigns. Oftentimes, you'll find these websites have little to do with the goods and services you're marketing.

 

#4: Always split test new ads

A good online advertising strategy is always evolving. Riding the performance of a single high-performing ad is only a recipe for temporary success. Split testing at least two ads per ad group is essential for maintaining success and staying ahead of the curve.

 

Early on in your campaign, don't waste time split testing ads that are just slight variations of each other. Instead, write ads that employ different sales tactics. Try one ad that touts a benefit of what you're selling, then another that mentions your limited-time sale. You can also write ads that appeal to emotions using simple, powerful words such as "imagine" and "discover."

 

Don't instantly give up on ads that you're split testing. Go through your standard steps of optimization. That said, don't hesitate to shut down a struggling ad and replace it with something completely new.

 

#5: Check for landing page congruence

Do your ads make sense with your landing pages? If your ad makes a promise that isn't reflected by your landing page, then your conversion rate will certainly suffer. That's bad for ROI. Landing page congruence issues can become problematic if you've split testing numerous ads and drifted from your original concepts.

 

Landing page congruence is also important for design reasons, especially with campaigns for your mobile ads. Your landing page content could be perfect on desktops, but that doesn't matter if your targeting mobile devices and your mobile landing page isn't properly configured or designed.

 

#6: Create separate campaigns for your top keywords

Finding keywords that win big won't take long. These keywords are great for ROI, but bad for optimization as they'll dominate your clicks and your budget.

 

The solution? Run your proven keywords in their own separate campaigns. As you find more winners, move them over. You can pump up the budget for your winning keywords while spending less money on the rest (including new keywords you're testing).

 

#7: Check your Impression Share

Getting your ads seen can be difficult if you're marketing within a highly competitive niche. If you feel like your impressions are lower than they should be, then you can check your Impressions Share to learn how completely you're reaching your potential audience. Add this data to your AdWords account interface by clicking the Columns tab, then the "Customize columns" and "Competitive metrics" options.

 

To remedy a low impression share, either increase your bid or improve the quality of your campaign. Remember that low CTRs and landing page problems - usually either congruence or page load issues - can sink your campaigns' quality scores, resulting in more expensive costs and less-favorable ad placements.

 

Conclusion

Don't be too hasty when optimizing your campaigns. Take the time to dig into under-performing campaigns and find out exactly what's not working. In most cases, if you can isolate the problem, then you can also create a solution. However, don't be afraid to turn off under-performing ads and keywords. Run with what works while never stop looking for your next big winners.

The 6 Key Metrics to Track in Your Email Marketing

Email marketing can be powerful and far-reaching -- more people use email than Facebook and Twitter combined -- but you won't get far if you're going in blind.

Email marketing is like any other form of online marketing -- you'll only succeed if you optimize, and optimizing requires data. But which data should you track to learn the most about your campaigns?

The answer to that question depends on the goals of each of your email campaigns. If you're optimizing an email meant to generate sales, you'll look at different data than you would for an email meant to bring visitors to your blog. Keeping these goals in mind will eventually help you optimize more efficiently.

So where to begin?

In this post, I'll review 6 key metrics to track in your email marketing campaigns. I'll also explain how each metric can help to optimize emails with different goals.

Before Getting Started...

You can't collect the data you'll need until you create special tracking URLs through a Web analytics platform. I recommend Google Analytics, a powerful (and free) analytics tool.

In order to track traffic to your website from email campaigns, you'll need to use the URL Builder to create special tracking URLs.

With these tracking URLs installed, you'll see how email recipients react to your campaigns and interact with your website. Then you can really get your hands dirty.

Metric #1: Clickthrough Rate

Clickthrough rate, or CTR, is perhaps the most universally important metric worth tracking. Whether you're promoting a sale or registering subscribers for a webinar, you'll always want recipients to click on links or share buttons in your emails. Engaging email campaigns earn more clicks from recipients. If your CTR is unusually low, then you'll know your messaging needs work.

To calculate CTR, divide your total clicks by the number of emails that reached their destination. Then multiply the answer by 100.

Don't be surprised if your CTR seems low. A study by Hubspot.com found companies that send 16 to 30 emails per month see median clickthroughs of 6.5 percent (and that's twice the CTR of companies that launch just one or two email campaigns per month).

Metric #2: Conversion Rate

If CTR measures engagement, then conversions measure effectiveness.

If the goal of your campaign is to entice people to complete an action -- such as requesting a quote, downloading an e-book or making an online purchase -- then anyone who follows through counts as a conversion.  These actions can be tracked in Google Analytics by setting up Goals.

To calculate your conversion rate, divide the number of email recipients who completed their desired action by the total number of emails that reached their destination. Multiple the answer by 100.

Conversion rates will always be smaller than CTR. However, a strong CTR with a weak conversion rate usually means your offer or your landing page needs some TLC.

Metric 3: Email Sharing/Forwarding Rate

If the goal of your email campaign is to get people talking about your business, then you'll want to pay close attention to your email sharing and forwarding rate. This is a measurement of how many people click on "forward" or "share" buttons embedded in your email. Shares and forwards can help raise awareness of blogs and social media profiles, and they're great for organically advertising compelling services and sales.

To calculate this rate, divide the total number of clicks on share/forward buttons by the total number of emails you've delivered. Multiply the answer by 100.

Shares and forwards also usually bring new people to your email list. Also, this metric can help you understand which campaigns your customers find to be most compelling.

Metric #4: Bounce Rate

Are your emails reaching their intended targets? Although email marketing isn't as engaging as social media marketing, it's still powerful because emails reach their intended targets and have tremendous staying power.

Emails remain in inboxes until they're deleted, creating opportunities for reengagement.

Unless, of course, those emails bounce, meaning they can't be delivered to recipients' inboxes. These can be "soft" bounces -- temporary problems usually resulting from server problems -- or they can be "hard" bounces from email addresses no longer being valid. Too many hard bounces can cause your ISP to flag you as a spammer, which can harm your marketing efforts. Delete invalid email addresses from your lists as soon as you're made aware of them.

To calculate your bounce rate, divide the number of bounced emails by the total number of emails you've sent. Multiply the answer by 100.

Check your bounce rate if an email campaign surprisingly underperforms. You might find that a hardware issue, not a marketing issue, is impeding your efforts.

Metric #5: Growth Rate

Even with stellar CTRs and conversions, your efforts will eventually fizzle out if you're not adding new emails to your list. That's because your list will shrink over time as people get new email accounts, unsubscribe or flag your messages as spam. Your growth rate is the no-nonsense answer to whether you need to more urgently grow your list.

To calculate your growth rate, subtract the number of emails you've lost from your total new subscribers. Divide the answer by the total number of email addresses on your list, then multiply that answer by 100. Positive numbers are good; negative numbers, not so much.

Metric 6: ROI

Is your email marketing campaign profitable, or are you spinning your wheels? Calculating your ROI gives you the answer. You'll definitely need to outfit your emails with analytics tracking URLs in order to learn your overall ROI.

To calculate this metric, divide the amount of money earned by your campaign by the money you've invested in your campaign. Multiply the answer by 100 to get your return on investment. Don't expect all of your campaigns to be profitable right off the bat, especially if you don't have a sizeable email list. But keeping track of your ROI will help you stay within your email marketing budget.

Conclusion

Email marketing is powerful and effective, but only if you know how to optimize. The six metrics reviewed in this article are a great start. Become proficient in monitoring these metrics, and you can rest easier knowing whether your campaigns are hitting their targets.

Email Marketing Lessons from Trump & Clinton

With this year’s election, there sure is a lot to talk about.  It seems like every day we have some new gossip on Trump or Clinton.

But if you sift through all the noise, there’s actually a lot you can learn from this election - specifically with email marketing.  

In this article I’m going to dissect one email from each candidate so you can see what they’re doing right and where they could improve by incorporating email marketing best practices.

Neither candidate is perfect, but one is head and shoulders above the other from an email marketing perspective.  For both candidates, we’ll review a few of the most critical elements of email marketing:

• From name
• Subject line
• Personalization
• Call to action

Let’s start by reviewing an email from Clinton…

The Clinton Email Example

The From name for the Clinton emails is “Hillary Clinton” so the emails appear to be sent from Hillary herself.  This follows email marketing best practices because the email looks personal, which helps increase the open rate (number of people that open the email versus ignore it).

The Subject line for this particular email is “Let me know when your birthday is.”  This is a missed opportunity, which likely hurt the open rate for this email campaign.  There’s no benefit in the Subject line and no compelling reason to open the email.

A much more compelling Subject would have been “I want to send you a gift” since that’s ultimately what the email was about.  Who wouldn’t open an email from Hillary Clinton that said she wants to send you a gift?  Nobody is the answer.

Now on to personalization…  This is again where Clinton’s email falls short. The email is addressed to “Friend” so right away it smells like a generic, mass email (aka “junk mail”).  

Finally, the Call to Action is a button that says “Get a note.”  Since when is a “note” exciting?  It’s not and that’s why this is a weak Call to Action that likely did not get a high click-through rate.

Now let’s review the Trump email example...

The Trump Email Example

Again, the From name is the candidate’s name, in this case Donald J. Trump so it looks like a personal email from Mr. Trump himself.  

The Subject line in this example email is “Hilllary - I’m coming for you.”  In no way is this boring like the Hillary example above.  When you read this Subject you feel like you’re in the middle of a debate fight and you almost can’t resist the urge to open the email to read more.

In other words, Trump’s email creates curiosity which is one of the best ways to get more of your emails opened.

Once you open this email you’re instantly addressed by your first name, which makes it feel like Trump is speaking directly to you.  Plus, midway in the email Trump addresses you by name a second time.  Everyone loves to hear (or read) their name and repeating it throughout an email is a proven way to increase response rates.

Finally, Trump’s Call to Action is a button that says “Contribute $$$ to win.”  It doesn’t just say “Contribute $$$” which is the most obvious Call to Action. Instead, Trump added a benefit to the Call to Action to emphasize why it’s important to take action.  It’s not about contributing, which benefits Trump; it’s about being a part of the winning team.

What Did We Learn?

By reviewing each candidate's email we learned that Trump’s marketing team has done a better job with email marketing compared to Clinton’s marketing team.  

However, with just a few tweaks Clinton’s team can dramatically improve their email performance.  They need to use compelling Subject lines that encourage more opens, include personalization throughout the emails, and highlight the benefit in the Call to Action.  

Remember these examples when you’re drafting your next email campaign. Small edits to each of the key elements highlighted above can make a huge difference in the success of your email marketing.

Marketing 101: Why Conversion is Key to Your Success

Your conversion rate is hands-down the most important metric in digital marketing.

 

Everything you do in online marketing is designed to convert visitors to your website into paying customers for your business.  And conversion rates don't just include sales -- people who make appointments, fill out contact forms, call you, and request free quotes also count as conversions. A conversion can be any desired action that brings your business closer to making a sale.

 

It's easy to get overwhelmed by metrics when getting started in digital marketing. You must watch click-through rates (CTRs) and cost-per-click (CPC) while always considering your return on investment (ROI). But the whole point of digital marketing is to maximize conversions for the cheapest-possible price.

 

In this article, we'll help you understand why conversions are crucial to your success.

 

 

Why Conversions Matter

Increasing the conversion rates of your online marketing campaigns is usually the cheapest way to boost your profits.

 

Think of it this way -- would you rather get more customers from Google AdWords by doubling your ad budget or by optimizing your advertising approach? Optimizing for a higher conversion rate means more bang for the buck. That's a big reason why conversion rates are so important.

 

That's not all - here are three other reasons why conversion rates matter:

#1: Conversion rates can predict success or failure.

Want to know whether your business is on the right track? Conversion rates give a pretty honest assessment, especially once you've optimized your campaigns.

 

With help from analytics reports, you can see which parts of your business get the strongest conversions, and you can predict which audiences are likely to become your best customers. Likewise, weaker conversion rates indicate where your business strategy needs work.

#2: Better conversion rates can save you money.

Campaigns with better conversion rates are generally more efficient than campaigns with weaker conversion rates. A higher conversion rate lets you cover more ground without increasing your ad budget, or you can reduce your ad budget and have cash leftover for testing new marketing tactics.

#3: Focusing on conversion rates will improve your website.

Creating an air-tight sales funnel is the key to boosting conversion rates. Your campaigns, your website and your sales processes need to be as in-sync as possible. As you learn which factors are most important for driving conversions on your website, you'll eventually discover how to make your site more valuable for visitors and customers -- and the benefits of this extend far beyond short-term profits.

How to Boost Conversion Rates

Now that we've reviewed the importance of conversions, the next step is taking action to boost your rates. Here are six easy tips to take your conversion rates to new heights.

 

#1: Sharpen your ads. The first step toward increasing conversions is nailing your ad copy to stand out from the competition.

 

#2: Optimize your landing pages. Deliver on promises made in your ad copy, and use concise, catchy headlines that immediately engage visitors.

 

#3: Test new ad funnels. Create new ads and variations of your landing pages. See how conversion rates change with different advertising approaches.

 

#4: Pare down your audience. Sometimes casting a wider net is better, but tightening your focus to specific consumer groups is an easy way to boost conversion rates.

 

#5: Use FOMO to your advantage. That's the fear of missing out. If you're advertising a sale, say in your ads or on your landing pages that time is running out -- and you can even use countdown clocks for added urgency.

 

#6: Grow your social media. Urge visitors to follow you on Facebook, Twitter and other accounts. Install social media login buttons on your website if it requires a member sign-in; people are much more likely to register using social logins. And if you have a strong social following, display the number of followers or shares on your pages for increased social proof.

 

Conversion Rates Aren't Always Reliable

Conversion rates may be the most universally important metrics in digital marketing. However, any data viewed out of context can be incredibly deceiving. Never be blinded by a high or low conversion rate without carefully evaluating all the data at your disposal.

 

Here are a few ways in which conversion rates can be deceiving:

#1: Higher conversion rates may hide poor performance.

Strong conversion rates are generally positive -- that's what you want. However, you might have a high conversion rate paired with a low sales volume. Or, despite your favorable conversion rate, perhaps high advertising costs are wiping out your ROI. Never assume your campaigns are profitable based on conversion rates alone.

#2: Some of your visitors aren't there to buy.

If you focus too much on conversion rates, you may overlook the multitude of other reasons why people visit your website. Some people may be researching products, and perhaps they'll eventually return to become paying customers. Some may already be customers and they're seeking support or checking on their orders. Do you maintain a blog? You may be building an audience. Don't become so fixated on conversion rates that you forget all the other ways your website is valuable.

#3: Conversion rates can fluctuate with different audiences.

Is your online marketing causing a large influx of new visits? If so, your conversion rates may seem unusually low. That's because new visitors are less likely to buy goods and services than established customers. Also, visitors from different traffic sources tend to convert at different rates. Using Google Analytics reports can help you determine your true conversion rates among different types of visitors.

Conclusion

Conversion rates are immensely important when optimizing your campaigns. Not only do they indicate whether your marketing is profitable, but they also reveal how visitors engage with your website. Conversions aren't all that matter -- you still need to watch your click-through rates, overall spend and numerous other metrics -- but driving conversion rates is generally the key for successful campaigns.

 

 

How Much Does Local SEO Cost?

There’s a common misconception that search engine traffic (aka SEO traffic) is free.  That’s primarily due to the logical comparison against search engine advertising, which is obviously not free.  With search engine advertising, you’ll pay for every click on your ad.  With organic SEO traffic there is no cost for clicks to your website.  Hence the conclusion that SEO traffic is free.

 
But is it really free?  Is it possible to invest zero time and money and still generate traffic from SEO?
 
Of course not.  Just because you built a beautiful website does not mean you’re going to rank high enough in Google to drive any meaningful traffic.  As I explained in this article, to rank high in Google, you’ll need a relevant webpage and an authoritative domain.
 
You may be wondering, how relevant and how authoritative does your website really need to be?  That question leads us to the #1 factor that will determine how much local SEO will cost.
 

      

#1 Factor That Determines the Cost of SEO

Ever hear the joke about outrunning a bear?  I’m no comedian so I’m sure I’ll butcher this, but it’s an important lesson so here we go… If you’re in the woods with your friends and an adult black bear starts chasing you, then how fast do you need to run?
 
Do you know the answer?  If you’ve never heard this before then you’re probably trying to figure out how fast an adult black bear can run.  Hint: It doesn’t matter how fast the black bear can run.  What matters is how fast your slowest friend can run, and whether you can outrun him! :)
 
OK, I know that’s not a great joke, but it’ll get your brain warmed up and you may have already guessed the #1 factor that determines the cost of SEO.
 
The #1 factor is your competition.
 
If you’re in a more competitive industry, then unfortunately, you’ll have to invest more in your SEO.  You’ll have to work harder to create a more relevant webpage (e.g. create better content) and to build up your domain authority (e.g. build more links) than a business in a less competitive industry.
 
In other words, to rank high you just need to outrun your “friends.”  The first step is to review the websites that are ranking high in Google for your target keywords.  An easy and fast tool to complete this analysis is Moz’s Open Site Explorer.
 
Head over to Open Site Explorer and simply copy/paste your competitor domains into the tool.  You’ll instantly see their domain authority score and their total number of backlinks.  The higher the authority score and the more backlinks your competitors have, the more you’ll have to invest in SEO to outrank them.
 

Do You Have Multiple Office Locations?

With local SEO, the number of office locations will also play role in determining how much you need to invest.  This is pretty straight forward.  Ranking each location in Google requires more resources than ranking just one.
 
At a minimum, each additional location will require you to build additional citations.  Citations are mentions of your name, address, and phone number on another website.  Think of citations like reference checks for job candidates.  Search engines need to confirm your business information is accurate and up-to-date and they do this by reviewing all the citations on different websites. If all your information checks out, then you have a better shot at ranking on the first page.
 
Creating citations for one location can be tedious enough.  Each additional location multiplies the workload.
 

Do You Have Multiple Products or Services?

The third consideration is how many products or services you’re trying to promote via SEO.  Again, this is straight forward.  As you try to expand your reach by targeting more and more product or service keywords, then you’ll need to invest more in your SEO. At minimum, you’ll want to build separate webpages for each of the products or services you’re promoting.
 
Remember, each additional product or service comes with a new set a competitors already ranking high in Google.  So make sure you analyze the competition using Open Site Explorer before diving in too deep.
 

No One-Size-Fits-All Solution

I hope at this point it’s clear that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for SEO. That’s why if you’ve done your homework, then you’ve noticed the range in fees is quite wide.
 
For businesses in less competitive industries, with one location, targeting just one product or service, the investment could be $500 or $1,000 per month. For businesses in more competitive industries, targeting multiple locations and multiple products and services, the investment could be $2,000 or more per month.  It just depends on your unique situation.
   

[Local SEO] The 3 C's to Rank #1

What are the 3 most important factors in real estate?

 

The answer is location, location, and location.  Every real estate agent knows that location is far and away the biggest selling point for a home.  A crappy studio apartment in Chelsea can sell for more than a fully renovated 2-bedroom in Harlem.

 

And if you own a business that depends on local customers, then you know location is also a critical factor.  Clearly, businesses near Super Bowl Boulevard are going to attract more customers simply because of their proximity to the Super Bowl festivities on weekend.
 
The same is even true with local SEO.  A business located near the industry hub within a city has a greater likelihood of ranking high in the local Google results (aka the Google+ Local results).  This is known as the “centroid bias.”  So if your office or store is located too far away from where Google thinks is the hub of your industry, then you’re going to have a harder time ranking in the local results.
 
 

Location Is Not Enough

Take a minute and re-read what I just said above about the centroid bias.  It’s a bit technical so make sure you fully understand it before moving on.
 
Now blink your eyes twice.
 
OK, the online marketing landscape has just changed in the time it took you to read this far!  I know, it’s frustrating.  As soon as you think you’ve figured it all out, Google goes and changes everything!
 
Location is not enough to rank high in the local results.  Sorry, it’s going to take a little bit more work.
 

The 3 C’s of Local Search Engine Optimization

Google changed the rules of local SEO when they decided to migrate Google Places to their social media platform, Google+.  Google Places was fairly straight forward because there simply wasn’t much you could do.  It was a static business page with contact information and customer reviews.
 
Now, take a look at the new Google+ Local pages and you’ll see text updates, pictures, videos, reviews, and even conversations between the business and their customers and prospects.  The businesses ranking and getting the most out of their local SEO investments use what I call the 3 C’s:

1. Citations
2. Community
3. Content

 

1. Citations

Citations are mentions of your name, address, and phone number on other websites.  Citations have always been important for local SEO because search engines use them to verify the accuracy of your business information.  Generally speaking, the more citations you can get for your business, then higher you’ll rank in Google because Google will have more confidence in the accuracy of your business information.
 

2. Community

As I mentioned above, Google Places was migrated over to be part of Google’s social media platform, Google+.  Google is still ironing out all the kinks of this overhaul, but we can see that local SEO is clearly merging with social media.  Community is now a factor in how your business is going to rank in the local results.
 
By community, I mean your Google+ Local followers, shares, +1′s, and reviews.  The stronger the community, and the more activity on your business page, the better.
 

3. Content

The new kid on the local SEO block is content.  This is good news to anyone already using content marketing for non-local search engine optimization. For traditional, non-local SEO, content has always been king.  Now it’s even a factor in your local SEO rankings. Great content will get you more high quality links from other websites, it’ll help you build community on your Google+ Local page, and it’ll improve your Author Rank.  All of this will in turn help you rank higher in the local results.

   

5 Ways to Energize Your Content Marketing

In our last article, I explained why content marketing is extremely valuable to use for your business.
 
But, just because you realize using content marketing to engage your audience is important, that doesn’t mean you know how to create that content.
 
This article focuses on how to create content that hooks your audience in and keeps your company top of mind.
 

     

1. Establish a Voice That Speaks to Your Audience.

Creating the “voice” of your company helps to connect to potential clients and customers that are ideal for your brand.  Whether you’re the person doing all of the content creation for your business, or you have a team that works on that, it’s imperative that you’re very clear about the voice of your content, and consistent about using that same voice across all channels.

To start, it’s helpful to identify who your ideal audience is. One way to do this is by creating a customer avatar, which is the person who represents those in your target market. To create a customer avatar, you should answer as many identifying questions about your ideal client as possible. 

Once you’ve established your customer avatar, you need to understand how they speak and what they connect to. What other websites are they reading? If your ideal customer is a single mom who works from home, take a look at blogs she may read and start to understand the terminology and writing structure those sites use.

Another way to research this is to look at forums that your ideal customer would post in. Do they write very formally with technical language, or is it a bit more casual?

Based on this research you can begin to create your voice. Here are a few things to consider when establishing your voice:

• Do you write in first person or third person?
• Does your content include personal stories, or is it strictly professional?
• What vocabulary are you going to use when referring to things in your business? Are there some things that the terminology can differ on?
• What will your format be? Do you use bold, italics, or both to stress a point?
• How do you break up your blog content?
• What kind of images will you use?
• Do you use any slang, or is all of your writing more formal?
• What is the format of your social media posts?

 

2. Create Really Really Ridiculously Good Content

Derek Zoolander may not have understood how to create a center for kids who can’t read good, but he knew how to be a male model.

The same goes for content. You may not know everything about marketing and conversion, but you understand your product or service and when it comes to creating content about it, your content needs to be really good.

Make sure the articles, videos, and images you create have a clear purpose every single time. Ask yourself, “Why am I creating this?” If it doesn’t educate, entertain, or engage your audience you should probably rethink it.

 

3. Write Catchy Headlines

One my favorite movies growing up was the Disney musical film Newsies, starring a very young, pre-Batman, Christian Bale. The movie was all about the days of William Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer and the use of yellow journalism. Basically, the newspapers of the time would put out papers with extremely catchy headlines, even if they had nothing to do with the truth behind the article.

While I definitely don’t recommend going to the extreme of yellow journalism, there’s no question that writing catchy headlines is key to producing good content. Your headlines should absolutely reflect what is actually in your article, but should do so in a way that makes the content sound enticing and lets your audience know that your article is worth taking the time to read.

Headlines that include numbers, address the reader directly (i.e. use “you”), and contain active word choices do really well.

For example, for the headline of this article I started with the title “Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing”. While this would have been a fair representation of what this article is about, it’s not very exciting.

Instead, I answer the question “how many ways” and use active verbs so readers understand exactly what the goal of this article is. “5 Ways to Energize Your Content Marketing” is a much catchier headline than the original, but still delivers on the promise of what’s included in the article.

 

4. Add Videos & Images

“A picture says a thousand words” might be one of the most cliché sayings out there, but there’s a reason it has hung around this long.

Photos and videos are hugely engaging when it comes to content, which is why platforms like Instagram and Snapchat have become so successful. It’s also the reason you can play videos directly from your Facebook feed.

Images can be created as standalone content or as a way to enhance a blog post or article you’ve written. According to Hubspot.com, not only does content that contains relevant images get 94% more views than content without images, but people also remember the content for longer. In fact, when people hear information they are only likely to remember 10% of that information 3 days later. But, if that information is paired with a relevant image, they’re likely to remember 65% of the information.

If you’re taking the time to create important content, you want to make sure that people read it and remember it. Adding images helps to make that happen.

The same type of statistics hold true for video content. An article from Insivia.com presents 50 stats about using video marketing. And one stat, from Unbounce, says that including a video on your landing page can increase conversion by 80%.

When it comes to livening up your content marketing, including photos and video is a no-brainer.

 

5. Switch Up Your Format

Nobody wants to read the same article, or type of article, over and over again. It just gets flat-out boring. That’s why varying the format of your blog content is extremely important for increasing and maintaining engagement.

Here are a few article formats that can help you change it up:

• Listicles – You’ve seen these. These are lists that are used to engage or educate your audience. 
• Resource Roundups – These articles put together a bunch of resources in one place. Audiences love these because it saves them time on research. 
• Stat Roundups – People love when ideas are backed up by numbers and that’s why stats roundups are so great– you’re able to back up why people should use your product or services.
• How-To Articles – Remember, a key goal of content marketing is to educate your audience with valuable information. How-To articles offer the perfect opportunity to do that.
• Quote Roundups – The goal of these types of articles is mostly to entertain your audience, but depending on the quotes you pick, you can also educate them as well.