We are living in a transitional time where mobile is taking over the desktop in terms of usage. But it has not taken over not fully yet. The future trends do seem to predict that mobile will be tipping the balance. What we create today needs to not only function but also work well for the next few years. Here are some practical tips on creating content for a mobile-first audience. 1. Get your mobile typography right Your content is only good if it can be consumed. With limited and varying screen sizes, getting the right font, spacing and size become an important factor of your content strategy. Using open source Google fonts seems to be a no-brainer. But some of those fonts are truly dreadful. Maybe, picking one from this list can help. The minimum criteria for your font size is that people should be able to read the headlines and sub-heads without pinching and expanding the screen. The one thing you shouldn’t forget is to remain minimalist – unless of course, you are designing for designers whose mission is to look for decorative fonts. 2. Focus on quality more than quantity Most people think that mobile users are averse to big chunks of content. This often means compromising on content quality. Don’t fall into this trap as quality content still is the key criteria for content consumption. Once you have the quality in place, just break the content into chunks to enhance readability. 3. Load your most important content first Websites viewed on desktop often have elaborate banners and ads before they get down to showing you the actual content. With mobile, the speed of load time coupled with the general need to grab attention quickly within limited screen space means that you need to load the most important bullets of your content first. Let the golden rules of SEO apply of having the most-likely keyword easily visible on the screen to ensure an immediate connect. 4. Create interactive content How boring is it to have someone preach a sermon while you are trying to have a conversation. In the smartphone age when a quick tap is enough for a user to share their opinion, you should create content that is interactive. Typeform’s interactive video, which effectively engages with customers with a story where the user gets to decide the outcome, is a perfect example of the right way of content creation. 5. Shift from customization to personalization Our current UX focuses on creating mass customization on the basis of browser cookies. This approach is gradually moving towards personalization where brands are able to quickly and easily answer the “What’s in it for me?” question that visitors ask. With an initial collection of data from the user, you can show them content about or from “people like me” which the user can relate to. For example, if you have read a couple of articles about road trips and travelling with kids, you are likely to be interested in an article that combines the two and gives you an apt summary for the destination you plan to visit. Last but not least, don’t forget to get an in-depth understanding of the most important metrics for your content. Use the Google Campaign URLs to track the source of traffic to your content. Track in-article link clicks, time on site, bounce rates, social shares and how the article adds to your overall marketing goals.
Month: December 2018
Are you making these mistakes with your About Us page?
Though the About Us page of a business website remains to be the most visited of website pages, it is almost always treated as an afterthought. Most business owners assume that since it is mostly self-branding, the About Us content and design can be pushed down the priority listings. This approach is one of the first mistakes you are liable to commit while planning this page. The About Us page is, in fact, your key differentiator from other businesses and websites and is a place to create a rapport with your clients. Before getting too overwhelmed with the job of creating the perfect About Us page, let’s look at 5 of the common mistakes to avoid: Mistake 1: It doesn’t tell me about you Your About Us page is the visitor’s window to you and your business. It is imperative to provide the key details about your work and contacts within the short attention window of the visitor. Here are some boxes you should tick: Who are you? Introduce your business and team. What do you offer? Give details about your products and services. When did you start? Mention the founding year, which is important if you want to showcase experience. How can you be contacted? Provide all your contact details – phone, email, address and also do not miss out on social links Mistake 2: It tells me too much about you One of the worst things you can do to your reader is to lapse into a narcissistic self -rant. While storytelling is fine and often encouraged, a long and winding story that goes into the unnecessary nitty-gritty of your personal career journey might easily bore your visitor. A brief and concise account of necessary details along with some great copywriting skills is all that is needed to make the cut. Mistake 3: It doesn’t take me into account As much as the About Us page is about establishing your personality and credentials, it is really not about you. The About Us page should deal with you/your business but only with respect to your service offerings to the visitor/reader. Make sure your content is in tune with the customer requirements. You should: Talk about why the visitor should spend time at your site Talk about the problems you solve Talk about how you can help Talk about what they’re interested in Mistake 4: It’s badly written Too long, too verbose, filled with grammar mistakes, no conversational quality and not SEO optimized; these are just some of the ways you could go horribly wrong when writing for the About Us page. It is important to take into account the over-communicated marketplace and ever-decreasing attention span of your present and potential customers to truly appreciate the importance of a well-written and flowing introduction that is easy on the eyes. Don’t just leave it up to your neighbourhood English geek but employ a skilled content writer and editor who has knowledge of the business category and has the capability to align content to business goals. Mistake 5: It has no visual interest There’s no denying that this is the age of visuals and videos. Long and uninterrupted prose, however skilfully written, tests the patience of today’s readers. Moreover, the photos of your office and team give your page a ‘personality’ and a voice. Customers are always more reassured with a face to go with the business as it builds credibility and authenticity. As is evident, a well written and designed About Us page can go a long way in building a rapport with the customer, which is a necessity in these days of tough competition. Want to read more check the curated list below. Preparing Your Content Strategy For A Mobile-Only Future This Is Why Even Content Marketers Need Editors A Tried-And-Tested Guide To Becoming A Better Content Writer 5 Types Of Content That Will Attract Paying Customers
A tried-and-tested guide to becoming a better content writer
Fun fact: The average salary of a content writer in the USA is $42,000 per year. Another fun fact: The average salary of a content writer in India is INR 2,50,000. The plight of content writers in India is real. It’s a hard industry to survive in. Try finding a content writer who solely writes content and has work experience of more than a decade. Well, that’s like finding a needle in a haystack. Most professionals who work in this field get sick and tired of the gruelling competition in the industry and end up switching careers. What to do? Want our word of advice? Want our word of advice? Just become darn good. The industry is swarming with people who have no clue about writing and yet has found a job as a writer. The good news – these guys will never get to work with the best. The people who know the content will always try to find people who know the content. And that’s why you must improve your writing skills. However, here is a something that you need to keep in mind – perfecting content writing does not happen overnight. It takes time and effort. But when you get there, you just stay there. Here’s your tried and tested guide on how to polish up your skills as a content writer Golden Rule: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Your work should embody this epithet. Use your vocabulary with caution Good writers have a good vocabulary. Right? Right. But good writers don’t ‘flaunt” their vocabulary and that’s what really makes the difference. Whenever you decide to use a ‘big word’ in your writing- keep your audience in mind. Do you think your audience will know what the word means? Or, will they have to Google that too? Read The more you read, the better it will become. The more you know, definitely the better. The benefits of reading are simple and many. It gives you more content and new presentation ideas too. However, to reap the benefits of reading, you need to do it right. Focus on reading a lot of different types of content- fiction, non-fiction, infographics, research papers etc. Find yourself a writing buddy Finding a writing buddy can really help you polish your skills as a content writer. Look for someone who’s a little bit more experienced than you. Connect and network. Make such friends. Develop a friendship that results in both of you proofreading and editing each other’s articles. The benefit of having another like-minded person’s perspective, expertise and skills is that it has a seriously positive impact on the overall quality of your work. Create an ‘outline’ for your article Before you actually start article content writing, plan it. Make a comprehensive plan- not just an introduction, body, and conclusion- go beyond that. Divide the article into different pieces. For example: If the title of the article is ‘Benefits Of Guava’- here’s how you should plan your content or flow: Nutritional value of guava Health benefits of guava Benefits of guava leaves etc. Once you decide upon the sub-headings and create a strong outline- only then should you get to the actual writing of the article. Use online tools To be born in the age of the internet is a blessing. Don’t let such a blessing go to waste. Here is a list of tools that are a must for content writers. They help you get better at your craft without asking any additional effort from you. So invest in these tools or one of them to better your content. Here are our favorites: Hubspot’s topic generator – When you are staring at a blank screen to think what to write on, here is your go-to tool for inspiration. Just type in random words. Copyscape or SmallSeoTools – No one likes a plagiarized article, even though you might not have done it intentionally. Its always better to check. Grammarly – A great online tool that helps you create grammatically sound content. Headline Analyser – When you are stuck with the headline forever, this is a miracle worker. UK vs US spelling – This one is a savior when you colour and color gets your confused. Wordcounter – Your client wants only 500 words. Use this tool to keep a track on your words. Before we leave you- let’s just quickly run through some bad content writing practices that you must always try to avoid Avoid making spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and syntax errors. Never leave sentences incomplete. Do not be careless when formatting your articles. Formatting your content helps to improve the readability of the piece. Avoid committing any kind of logical mistake. Organize the content in your articles. To ensure that your content is always organized- pre-plan the outlines for the content before writing it. Always try to make the content intelligent and clear. That’s it from us. Do let us know if this helped you in improving your writing skills. We would love to hear from you. Watch: Why is it the right time to market your business through Social Media?
8 easy ways to spike up the engagement rate of your content
Engagement is a term that is thrown around quite loosely these days when it comes to social media KPIs. But then brands fail to question what engagement metric is truly of value to the brand. If someone just likes your page, is that of value? If someone likes a post or leaves a comment like ‘Nice’ or ‘Good’ or the dreaded ‘Hi’, does it help the brand? Or will you want the user to share your content with his friends and followers? Can that make a difference? Before we discuss ways to make content engaging, let us analyze what engagement is of value to you. If you or your brand owns a blog, what metrics help you decide whether your users are engaging with you? Here are the top 6 metrics that leading brands measure Time spent on the blog No. Of users sharing the blog on social media Valid comments on the blog Clicks on call to action links in the blog Giving a backlink to your blog Bounce rate Each of these metrics relates to engagement. But all of them are of different value. For example, we would rate shares on social and backlinks to be the top two metrics that prove that the blog has nudged an action from your reader to endorse your brand/view. On the other hand, a click on the CTA which drives users to buy your product (in case of an e-commerce site) or fill a lead form (especially for B2B sites) is the most valuable action your user can take. Time spent on the blog and bounce rates are general measures to keep a check on if the users are finding your content useful and whether the title and the content are in sync with the user’s expectation. Did you wonder why we did not set ‘views’ as a metric here on how many people read the blog? That’s because that is a KPI for the content you put out in marketing the blog. It does relate as a KPI for the title of your blog but that’s where it ends. Another metric that can stem out of your content and is a great one to measure is how many people subscribe to your newsletter after reading your content. They like it and want more of it. They are a niche audience, perfect for lead nurture and will eventually come handy when you have something to promote. The first thing you need to figure out is what engagement metrics count for you. It will be great to eyeball them all every month as a standard practice. Now, let’s get down to best practices that can drive each engagement metric. 1. Improve Social share engagement for your content Depending on the type of your content, the first thing is to know where it is likely to be shared socially. The simplest thing to do is install a plugin that pushes social shares to the forefront. Some show the number of times the post has been shared by others, which promotes mirror behavior. Others have the social share buttons on the top, bottom, and side scroll of the page so that it is readily available. There are other plugins that allow your text selection on the page to be converted into a tweet tagging the brand handle. Others paraphrase important sentences from the content into tweet bits to make it a no-brainer to think about what and how to share. Last but not least, a line below the content requesting share doesn’t do any harm. You can experiment and evaluate to see which tool works for your audience. Keep it simple and that should be it. 2. Get backlinks for your content Backlinks used to be the secret weapon in the SEO arsenal. It’s now much harder than it looks. You have to be the most authoritative content provider on a topic to get a good few backlinks for it. You may have to go the old-school way of asking people to link to your site too. There are some common types of content that get the endorsement. They are great listicles, good content that people can’t easily re-write or copy because you have indisputable research behind it. It can even be one that is high on humor. Such content gives the endorser some value to link to. Backlink.io’s crazy article about 200+ SEO factors considered by Google is a great example of this. It is not something that you can just get up one day and write. It requires in-depth research, industry knowledge and more than a few days of time commitment. (See how he just got one more backlink!) 3. Add an easy call to actions What do you want your readers to do when they are reading your blog or right after. The attention span is too short and you need to get them to do something quickly. If you are a local business, you want them to call or visit you. Display your contact number prominently and add a map to your location. You can give a first visit incentive (BOGO offer) or even a discount to pique their interest. If you are a B2B site, putting out a white paper, eBook or research with industry data is one of the sure shot ways to attract a prospect lead’s attention. They are more than willing to share their email id to get free access to valuable information that helps with decision making for their business. Another great example is how travel sites do it – create amazing wanderlust articles and then subtly push in a package option. If you are a B2C e-commerce site, doing listicles and product comparisons is a great way to subtly sell to your customers. Don’t forget to add a UTM code to your links to know which link is driving the most leads/conversions. 4. Add comments on the blog Though commenting is a feature that gets counted as engagement, how can you as a
5 types of content that will attract paying customers
When we set out on a content marketing journey, our key agenda is to create offerings for readers who get attracted to the brand’s offerings. Whether we do this subtly or in an overtly promotional manner depends on the brand’s requirements. In both cases, the idea is to think what content is highly relevant to prospects and customers, and then deliver it in the format they are most likely to consume it. So what’s the magical content formula of content creation that attracts paying customers? Here are five key elements that go into it. 1. Write content that solves their problem No matter what the customer base, they are likely to have a problem area for which your product is the perfect solution. If they like to travel, a travel itinerary with an ‘exact match’ peer review is a great way to see which package someone is more likely to buy. This content is not easy to find. It takes a lot of research to put together content that a user will relate to, based on his life stage, family size, income, age and a mix of other factors. And that’s what makes it ‘sales-clinching’ content. Such content is generally used to subtly introduce the brand to the customer and nudge him to explore more about the solution. Once the customer buys the concept, it is easy to create hooks that can get him to fill a lead form or directly line up for your sales. How to do this Conduct online or offline customer research to understand customer pain points and create different customer journeys on the basis of the problem you propose via your content. It can be content on the website, emailer, SMS, lead form, social media or a blog. To carry forward the above example, conduct a survey to see what millennials look for when traveling v/s what someone in their early 40s with children in tow looks for. If each of these segments receive an itinerary reviewed by their peers, they are likely to find it more relevant to their life stage and travel preference. It may be the nudge they need to book the package with you. 2. Content extrapolating reviews and testimonials Reviews and testimonials are a tricky part to handle for a marketer. Its authenticity is considered only if it comes from a third party source. For example, you probably wouldn’t pay too much attention to a positive review shown on a product’s own website. But if you were to see the same review on Amazon, you might consider buying the product. Similarly, you might give more weight to a video review where you can see real consumers talk about using the product. A balanced review that highlights the good and some bad is more trustworthy than many overwhelmingly positive reviews. How to do this The first task is to understand third-party review sources for your product. See the most valuable channel that is driving sales. Once you have a couple of channels, you can use API integration or plugins to pull these reviews and show them on your website directly, that too along with the third party attribution. The second way is to go after your existing customers and chase the happy ones to give you a video testimonial. Using this to attract prospects adds credibility to your product offering. From an SEO perspective, create a blog that collates all this with links pointing to actual reviews. This blog can be optimized for the keyword “<<product/brand name>> reviews” keyword, giving you an advantage for ranking in search, with positive Content. 3. Offer a valuable piece of content in a timely manner Often, customers are wary of making an upfront investment in your product, especially one that is of high-value. They would like to start with a sampling to nudge them into the decision-making mode. Besides, who doesn’t like a freebie? How to do this People don’t want to give the really good part for free, but hey, if it is really good, it will attract customer attention. In case you have a recipe e-Book kindle version, give away one of your prized-possession recipes and it is bound to get everyone’s attention. Many e-book and online course sellers have found this strategy to be highly effective. What’s more, offer your products gift-wrapped during the holiday season and it is bound to get a whole new level of reception. 4. Ask your existing customers to create content that can attract new customers Have you seen some of the little millionaires of YouTube enthusiastically reviewing toys, or those reviewing everything from cell phones to carpet cleaners? It’s obvious that people are hooked to the concept of watching others use a product and share their review. You can ask influencers to review your product which is likely to attract attention from paying customers. The other option is to incentivize positive behavior like sharing on social media which will add to the visibility. 5. Create comparison content to show superiority Common human behavioral science makes your search on different websites before deciding what to buy. But what if you initiate the answer even before they ask? When a comparison is available in a controlled environment like your own website, it may be accepted with bias. But if you have third-party syndication to push this, it can be one of the most important pieces of content that drive conversions. For example, if customers think of your product being heavy on investment, having an independent financial website or daily do a comparative review will create a perception of credibility. Even long after the article is published, it can be a piece of content that your sales team carries with it to convince and clinch a customer. Conclusion The format for content consumption may not be a decisive customer driving factor, but it definitely plays a role in getting traction. Blogs that rank well in key searches can improve your overall SEO value and drive incremental organic traffic
[Video] 11 SEO copywriting tricks you must understand if you want your content to work
When we hear the term SEO copywriting, we think that its main objective is to make sure that the content ranks well in search engines. And that’s why often the content creators get too caught up with ever-changing search engine algorithms, rankings and generating traffic and forget that the real essence lies in creating compelling content. The reader is the most important element in this process and should always be the focus while creating content. See, at the end of the day, high ranking and volume of traffic won’t matter if the visitors on the webpage are not buyers or potential buyers. Similarly, the purpose of coming up with rock solid content is failed if no one is able to find it on search engines. Good SEO copywriting is the solution as it helps your content reach your target audience without the need of spending a fortune on paid advertising. So, here are 11 SEO copywriting tricks that will help you leave a mark on your readers with quality content while also elevating your search engine rankings. Want to read more check the curated list below. [Video] 8 steps guide to Good Content [Video] Why Exactly Should You Do Content Marketing And How? Different Ways Your Business Can Use Videos To Its Advantage 8 easy ways to spike up the engagement rate of your content
[Video] 8 steps guide to Good Content
Gone are the days when traditional advertising used to rule the roost in marketing strategies. Today, content marketing has taken over that pie and is transforming the way brands communicate with their consumers, both present and potential, and create a sense of bonding. A company that creates relevant and valuable content and markets it well is rated higher than its competitors. Over a period of time, it gains in reputation and acquires a better brand image with growing online followership. Content marketing also helps in identifying the needs of the consumer better and assists in making tailor-made marketing strategies based on consumer feedback leading to more revenue generation. Be it blogs, infographics, video content, or podcasts, content has to be of a high standard and full of creativity and can’t be an insipid piece loaded with keywords. But all said and done, churning out informative and engaging content regularly is not that easy. So, how to really create good content? Well, sadly there’s no magic wand for that but luckily there are few guidelines which can help you achieve your goal. From ideation to evaluation, here are 8 steps one should adhere to while creating digital content for a better success rate. Need a helping hand with the content? Connect with us. Want to read more check the curated list below. How Content Marketers Can Use the Power of Clickbait for Good [Video] Why Exactly Should You Do Content Marketing And How? Different Ways Your Business Can Use Videos To Its Advantage Should You Use ChatBots For Your Small Business?
[Video] 6 things that will help you hire the best content agency
In an ideal world, being a client would be the easiest job on earth. Put together a brief, see the agency work their magic, get back beautiful reports that make you look good and imagine yourself sipping Margarita on the beach. Since the world isn’t this imaginary utopia, clients, as you may know, are burdened with much more tasks and outcomes. Picking the right content writing company from about a million (OK, exaggerating. Let us say, a few too many) available out there is the first and most crucial task in meeting outcomes for the business. You’ll see many companies change agencies every year with the same old story playing like a broken record. Lapse in deadlines and losing the creative spark being the most common reasons. Then there are others with whom agencies have stayed for decades, so much so that they know the brand’s growth and transition as much as the founders. They can recollect the brand guidelines in their sleep and don’t need an extensive brief for every campaign. Most importantly, they ‘get you’. They know you and they know your customers. They deliver consistently. They have an entourage ready to help you through a crisis. Basically, they have your back. How on earth do you find such an agency, you ask? They are here – around you, like diamonds hidden in plain sight. But to find them, you will need start by measuring them up against a few criteria. Here are six things you need to find out the right partner for your brand