Archive for blog marketing – Page 6

Content Marketing with Stories: Better than Facts

Good stories are what make a blog interesting and fun to read. More importantly, if you’re trying to influence people to buy into your ideas and ultimately your business, there is evidence that stories work better than facts.

A 2007 study by Jennifer Edson Escalas, a marketing researcher at Vanderbilt University, found that people had more positive reactions to advertisements that were presented in a story form than to ads that were factually straightforward about the products.

In another study, when information was labeled as fact, it was subjected to critical analysis. Apparently humans have a tendency to want to make factual information wrong, compared with information labeled as a story, which people accept more easily.

In his book Meatball Sundae, Seth Godin writes, “People just aren’t that good at remembering facts. When people do remember facts, it’s almost always in context.” The way to put facts into context is to transfer them through the use of story. A story is all about context.

So if you’re a professional with a blog, or writing content for your web pages or e-newsletter, what kinds of stories should you be writing? On a blog, it’s easier to do since it’s a personal communication tool. It’s easy to share client experiences and stories about the work you do.

I’ve written extensively about how to craft blog posts, and given you some outlines and templates for structuring blog posts. Most of them center on writing about how to solve a problem for your readers. The best way to gain attention and engage readers is through storytelling.

Here are some ideas for triggering stories: Read More→

3 Easy Tips to Target Readers with Your Content

This is a guest post from Sam Briones, a freelance writer, who explains how to get targeted traffic to read your online content.

You may be on your keyboard all day and night, writing about content that you are knowledgeable and passionate about. You know that what you are writing makes sense, and more importantly, your expertise could change someone’s outlook, or even their life!

However, you don’t seem to be getting responses. You check your blog, and the only comments are from your mother. What’s wrong, and how do you fix it?

While there are many writers out there who can really deliver, content-wise, the truth is, most of these writers aren’t marketers, or lack the marketing skills to get their work noticed by the people who may actually find the information they provide useful. If you’re one of those individuals, you can change that by following one or more of these easy tips.

1. Have the right domain name: You may love to write about web design, but if your domain name is something like Katlovesdogs.com, then nobody will ever associate your website or blog with design. In choosing your domain name, make sure that it states what your website is actually about. That way, it can also be searchable when people type in keywords.

2. Submit your work to article submission sites: You’ve gotten your domain right, but people are still not visiting your blog. Maybe you just need to inform a wider audience that you are indeed out there. Try taking a few blog posts or articles and submitting them to some article submission sites like ezinearticles.com or goarticles.com. Read More→

How’s Your LinkedIn Profile?

(Note from Patsi who is on vacation: This week I asked Phyllis Miller to write a guest post on social media resources. This is excellent advice you need to know and act on. And, if you haven’t already, connect with me on LinkedIn…)

I will be the first to admit that, when three years ago I received an invitation to LinkedIn.com, I joined without a clue as to what I was joining or doing.

Three years later I know that any professional who does not take the opportunity of a free and well-written LinkedIn profile is “cutting off his/her nose to spite his/her face.”

And this is true whether the professional plans to ever actually make connections on LinkedIn.

Why is this LinkedIn profile so important?

Let’s say you are a lawyer. You have written many legal articles for print publications (some with online sites) and you have served on various bar association committees.

If a prospective client were to “google” you, some of these legal articles and some references to you on bar association committees would appear in the search results.

Yes, if your firm has a website your firm profile will be there. But most of these firm profiles are one very long paragraph with rather stilted language.

None of the above provides a well-rounded look at who you are as a legal professional.

What you need is a well-formatted LinkedIn profile that people are accustomed to reading for others and would be able to easily read about you.

By setting up an effective profile, you can offer a range of professional information that will enable prospective clients to quickly learn about you – and hopefully do business with you.

And the good thing about your profile is that you can always add to it and revise it whenever you want. (In fact, if your law firm changes its name – due to a loss or gain of a partner, for example – remember to change the firm name throughout your profile.)

Be sure to include a good headshot of yourself and choose the option of your whole name appearing on your profile rather than just your first name and the first initial of your last name.

Bonus tip: LinkedIn offers company pages (still in beta as of this writing) and has just rolled out product and service tabs for these company pages.  Here is a blog post to help you take advantage of these new opportunities: http://www.millermosaicllc.com/linkedin/new-linkedin-company-feature/

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) and her social media marketing business partner Yael K. Miller (@MillerMosaicLLC on Twitter) offer a Professional Setup service.  See http://www.millermosaicllc.com/linkedin-professional-setup/

How to Write a Content Marketing Blog Post

Here’s a little review of steps involved in writing and publishing a blog post:

Once you have written the body of the post, it’s time to check for effectiveness:

Before you publish, here are a few smart things to check for: Read More→

Content Marketing Matters: What’s Your Brand Personality?

What are two key elements to creating content that get results? I stumbled across an interesting quote on a site that gets to the heart of content marketing matters:

“Evolution tends to favor action over thinking.  That hasn’t changed.  Emotion controls the mind as it did when humans first came on the scene.

“People react much more emotionally than companies dare to think.  Purchasing decisions are never driven by logic alone.  Emotion and narrative are key, they are the very structure of mind and of human nature.

“All successful marketing campaigns – whether using primeval or post-digital technologies — have responded to this phenomenon.” ~ Dr. Bob Deutsch, cognitive anthropologist, BrainSells.com

Emotion and narrative… Remember these two crucial keys to content marketing.

I’m going to take a broader view and relate narrative to branding. Branding tells a story in the blink of an eye.

How can brands, which are designed to make an instant visual and emotional impact, take advantage of emotions and narrative to connect with consumers emotionally?

I am reading Dan Hill’s excellent book Emotionomics. He says this about branding and narrative:

“…brand equity accrues to the extent that a company’s brand story provides the two main components of a successful story. The first is an attractive personality. The second is positive signature associations by which the company becomes familiar and comfortable to members of its target market.”

In other words, a company’s brand works when: Read More→

Content Marketing Optimized for Search Engines

How can you learn basic search marketing for blogging in 5 minutes or less? Do what all the smart and savvy bloggers and content marketers do: use Scribe.

At the end of this post I’ll give you a link for a special discount code which expires on Friday November 5, 2010 at 5 p.m. CT. In case you don’t understand what Scribe can do for you, here’s the best way I can describe it, along with a screen shot of what a Scribe report looks like.

Scribe SEO Copywriting is a practical tool you install and use for each blog or web pages you want to publish. Once installed, you can get a report BEFORE you publish, which tells you how optimized your content is for search engines.

Before I started using Scribe, I assumed (because I’m pretty smart and I’ve been getting good search results) that if I wrote quality headlines and posts, using the keyword phrases I wanted to focus on, those little search robots would be pleased…

Wrong! By using Scribe, I learned which pages and posts were getting 100% scores… and which were only ranking 52%, 78%, and 90% with the little darling spiders. In seconds, after writing a draft, a report is generated, telling me what’s wrong with my headline, use of keywords, description, etc.

All I have to do is make a few corrections and usually I can get a 100% score on the 2nd try.

Trust me, I’m no geek. This is so easy a 3rd grader can use it. Do yourself a favor and try it out, you can always unsubscribe from the monthly fee ($27 for 300 analyzes a month). I am an affiliate, I recommend it, and I love it.

Here is a sample analysis… Read More→

Business Blogging: Blast Past the Blunders

Here’s how to bust out of blog oblivion: Blogging 101: 6 weeks to Confident Blogging with the Queen of WordPress, Suzanne Bird-Harris.

The latest survey of small biz professionals revealed most people struggle with “Time:” 72% say they don’t have enough time to update their blog.

But we often say that, when in fact the reason we don’t have time is because we’re not sure what exactly what we’re supposed to be doing, or how to do it.

Once you master a skill, you can get it done quickly. And, if you’re successful at it, you want to do it again and again.

Here’s what the survey reveals:

  1. 72% struggle with enough time to blog
  2. 54% of people say they struggle  to know what to write about
  3. 52% aren’t sure how to apply SEO strategies to increase the reach of their blog

No wonder people run out of time. If you sit down to blog and have to figure out these two important things (#2 and #3), well, there goes your day!

To remedy this, Suzanne and I are going to teach the solutions to #1 and #2: blog writing and SEO workshop in January 2011.

In the meantime, get prepared by mastering the basics. If you’re struggling with your WordPress blog, don’t miss Suzanne’s Blogging101 workshop: 6 Weeks to Confident Blogging. (Don’t miss the early bird discount – you must sign up by Friday, Nov. 5,  2010 to save $50.)

You can read more about the details of the 6 week workshop on Suzanne’s Blogging101 web page here.

Here’s what one of her clients said about her: Read More→

Search Engine Results: 3 Tips for Savvy Bloggers

I don’t know why it took me so long to learn this SEO stuff, but I DO know that I wouldn’t post one more blog post without using Scribe SEO Tool. Thank you thank you, Brian Clark of Copyblogger. You’ve saved me from oblivion.

At first I thought, an SEO tool? – well, that must be for programmers and geeky types. Why would I mess with that, I’ve got too much information packed into my brain and the thought of learning SEO secrets made my head swim. Besides, blogs are naturally search engine friendly…Then I thought, oh heck, I trust Brian Clark, let’s give it a whirl and I can always unsubscribe after a month.

I can’t live without it now. I just love it when it tells me I’ve got a 100% score on a blog post. Now, when I hit publish, I’m confident my post will be understood for the right reasons by those search spiders. Read More→

Content Marketing Blues: the Battle for Attention

Content marketing with blogs isn’t as easy as it used to be. But like you, I can complain all I want to. It doesn’t matter.

The good news is there are more people going online to read things they need to know, to solve the problems they have.

The bad news is there are more blogs, more competition for attention.

What do you need to do to win the battle for attention and survive the WIIFM flter?

Doug Kessler and the boys over at VelocityPartnersUK ask this question in the B2B Manifesto. (You can get your copy here.) And they answer it. For example, they suggest 5 imperatives for B2B marketers. I think this is essential advice for anyone using a blog for business, not just B2B marketers.

Here’s an excerpt and my interpretation of what this means for my own business:

1. Get a World View:

Before you can sell a product or service, you need to sell a world view.

But very few marketers spend any time at all clarifying their world view.

What is a world view and why is it so important? Read More→

10 Conversion Tips from Brain Science

Why do people decide to buy a product online? How is it they decide to trust the information you provide, and register to download information from your blog or website? What can we learn from brain science?

This is something that intrigues me. I read a lot of research on motivation, decision making, and neuroscience to try to figure out how brain science can be applied to better content marketing.

The problem is not what you might think. We know enough about the brain and marketing today to realize people are influenced by unconscious feelings, as much as they are by logic and reasons.

Any professional who has studied content marketing and copywriting knows that you must use emotional stories to get people to take action.

The problem for content creators  is that so much of what influences and persuades is unconscious and specific for each reader. Everybody’s different, and you can’t possibly address each reader’s wants and desires.

What are the unconscious reasons for people’s actions, how do their emotions affect decisions, and how can professionals apply the principles of persuasion to create content that encourages users to take action? Read More→