 As a copywriter, headlines are some of the most important words you write. They are so important, in fact, that if you spend more time copywriting headlines than you do the articles that go with them, you are probably doing it right. It is easy to see why. In our connected world, we see thousands of headlines every day. Every blog post, e-mail, social media update, and every article in every newspaper and magazine begins with a headline. The competition for attention is steep.
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Did your readers fall asleep while reading your blog? You know whose fault it is – yours – but don’t worry – there’s a centuries-old technique that makes a blog post on how to do your taxes seem so awesome it invokes excitement. Not only does it keep your reader awake, it keeps them coming back for more. The story and you Most of what you read about the process of writing great guests posts shares a common theme – content must be unique and compelling. In fact, some bloggers have gone so far as to consider it the golden rule. While I can’t argue with any of that, I can say there’s a worthy alternative approach: Tell a Story.
When you tell a story, you’re relating something in a way that resonates and connects. It’s simple, unexpected, credible and it taps into our emotions. This is the best way to grab a reader’s interest, especially someone with a very short attention span who quickly scans content on a smartphone looking for solutions to a problem. Great storytellers (and great bloggers) follow a narrative technique called the dramatic arc or more officially Freytag’s Pyramid.  The last year has seen the rise of a new kind of advertising that moves beyond the traditional banner advertising. It has been credited with an 82% increase in brand recall. It has performed exceedingly well in clickthrough rates vs traditional display ads and people view native ads 53% more than they do banner ads. With the decrease in clickthrough rates on traditional online advertising, publishers have been on the lookout for the Holy Grail of ad revenue. And they may have found it in native advertising. For the unititiated, there may be some confusion on the difference between native advertising and branded content. In branded content, the company simply creates content that is published on their own platforms – such as on their website or branded apps. For example, American Express runs the Open Forum targeting small business owners or even Footsmart’s Running Health Resource Centre. It isn’t the same as placing advertisements on a webpage. The company creates the content (images, blogs, articles, infographics, etc.) and places it on their own property. What differentiates native advertising is where the sponsored content is published. To be considered native advertising, the content must be published on a media property or a publishers site. It is a type of branded content that treats branding as secondary to the content. The goal of native advertising is to present the branding in a way that’s doesn’t interrupt the consumer’s experience of the content. A good example is what The Onion did for H&R Block.  There are thousands... no...millions of bloggers out there. And yet, they all sound the same. Kinda boring, don't you think? As a reader, take a look at what blogs you spend the most time on and the places where you leave the quickest. If you were interested in healthy foods, would you spend more time reading someone who wrote like this: " I made these a couple of weeks ago because I had a wicked craving for fish tacos and all I had on hand was shrimp. So I made a command decision: I made shrimp tacos. It’s called troubleshooting! I’m good at it, but only if it involves food. Put me in the desert and tell me I have to find my way out using my awesome sense of direction? Goodbye forever. Ain’t happening. Did you know I can spin Marlboro Man around a thousand times with his eyes closed and with his eyes still closed he can point in any direction and determine whether it’s north, south, east, or west simply because it’s so embedded in his being? Did you know I can spin around a thousand times with my eyes closed and throw up?I digress. Let’s move ahead with the tacos, okay? " From The Pioneer Woman Or would you like to hang out at this blog:  How not to make your press release boring..
A well written press release attracts the attention of not only the press, but your customers as well. An ineffective press releases benefits neither your company nor your prospects, but fortunately, it is easy to create a press release than the complemuch more common sense than it is rocket science. Although you may have heard of the upside down pyramid method of creating an effective press release, there are other concepts that you should be aware of:
 When it comes to creating content for your website, there are a lot of myths out there. If you ask online marketers, webmasters, and bloggers about their opinions on creating content, you’ll receive so many different answers it'll be hard to separate fact from fiction. We'd like to set the story straight. In no particular order, here are six misconceptions on creating online content so you can avoid making mistakes that may kill your website... Writing for SEO doesn't mean that you must sacrifice on quality. Why would you want to drive users to your site, only to push them away with poor content? It is wasted effort and becomes expensive for the long term. Using a plagiarism detection service or rewriting an article makes it unique. Putting an article through a plagiarism software only checks to see if it's a duplicate article. It doesn't mean that the article is unique and can't be found elsewhere. If your article is considered to be a duplicate, even when it's rewritten and passes Copyscape you could still be penalized by the Big G. Article marketing works, sometimes. When Google changed it's algorithm to include the Panda update, it dramatically affected spam article directories such as EzineArticles.com, ehow.com and others. Don't worry, it doesn’t mean that article marketing no longer works, it's that you'll have to make sure that your articles meet stricter quality standards. Poorly spun and private label rights articles won’t do well. However, original, well-written, and informative articles helps, especially when other websites link back to it for their readers. Be careful when posting junk because it will affect your website's brand.. Keyword density is king. While keywords are important, stuffing your article with a particular keyword is frowned upon by Google. The best way to get great organic search rankings is by:
Once your content is uploaded, your work does not stop there! Not only must you continue to add fresh, original content to your site on a frequent basis, you must also start promoting it. This will keep the search engines and, most importantly, your users coming back. Web content writing is the same as writing for print. Writing for the web requires a different skillset than writing a print publication. Not only must you be aware of who you're writing for, you should also have knowledge of SEO, article structure and readability. You have to remember that readers do not read online, they scan material quickly following a triangular path on a web page. Creating online content isn’t easy and as an online marketer, you must be aware of how these misconceptions can cause more damage than good.  Creating content on a regular basis can be challenging, especially when, you as a marketing director have other deadlines and responsibilities. In another post, we've discussed how you should create a content plan as a way to organize and generate content. We've provided a few tips to generate content ideas if you're struggling for blog topics. Another great way to add to your portfolio of blog topics are interviews... Here is why:
Planning the interview Understand that there is a purpose to your content. Know that your readers are here to learn more about solutions to their problems through your blog. Ask yourself:
Doing the interview
Make sure that you are prepared before the interview. Do your research on your subject, it's always good to over-prepare. Read their articles, blogs and anything that they have published. The more you know about them, the easier it is to ask insightful questions. Write out the questions ahead of time, and leave enough leeway for side topics during the interview. Prior to the call, prepare the interviewee on who the audience is so that he is aware on how to present the message the right way. The success of your interview would depend on the technology you're using. If you're doing an audio interview over the phone, a great tool to use is Skype. With Skype you can not only call your interviewee but also have the option to record the audio. You can then transcribe it afterwards into text for your blog... Let us know who you want us to interview... We would like to provide you with the best information possible in regards to content marketing or online marketing. Let us know who you would like us to interview in the comments and we'll do our best get their expertise. |
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