As a writer, MS Word has made me lax over the years. I type out the thoughts quickly and expect the autocorrect to take care of the mistakes. The good part is I also recognize the mistakes that the software misses. For example, if I wrote ‘The girl was pail’ and not pale, I can still run my over-the-years honed spell checker to catch it. Let’s get one thing straight. English may be a language I really like but it isn’t the easiest when you are learning the rules of spelling and grammar. Their and there, effect and affect… it can get you running to Google for answers. While we don’t have to by heart Wren and Martin, let me share a quick reference sheet that you can bookmark to avoid the most common mistake. I, Me, Myself Use I when you are referring to yourself in subject of the sentence i.e. you are the one taking action Example: I am reading Ikigai and I like it Me Use me when someone else is performing the action for / to you Dana gifted me the book Myself Use Myself when you are performing the action on yourself I taught myself the rules of Ikigai Also Read: A tried-and-tested guide to becoming a better content writer Different to / than / from Different from is considered a safe bet in the usage of Different with a preposition Different than and Different to are also used, but more often in British English Seven Square is no different to / than any major CBSE school or This house is very different to your last one. In American English, it is more common to use Different Than. For example: This coffee tastes very different than the one I usually drink. Because some rules are meant to be broken I’ve always been one of those errant children who think rules can sometimes be broken. Feels good to know that can happen with grammar too. Here are some set rules and why it is ok to break them Don’t begin a sentence with a conjunction However, this is a great example on how to break that rule 🙂 And then, don’t we all have exceptions. Don’t end your sentences with prepositions Then what do you end it with? Without a preposition, that would be ‘Then what do you end it’ which is just not right! Avoid sentence fragments She heard that. It broke her heart. She choose to walk out. Creative and narrative writing can bend the rules just enough to convey the meaning. Confusing words A lot v/s Alot v/s Allot ‘A lot’ represents a number that is uncountable. There are a lot of bees Alot isn’t a word… at least not yet Allot is to assign to a person. For example, ‘The land is alloted Also Read: The 10 mistakes your clients don’t want you to make as a freelance writer Should’ve, Could’ve, Would’ve There is something you should’ve done in order to explore what possibilities could’ve manifested and how we would’ve utilized them Common misspellings Here are the top 10 ones where spell checker comes to our rescue Seperate | Separate Definately | Definitely Occassion | Occasion Refered | Referred Entreprenur | Entrepreneurs Recieve | Receive Untill | Until Exceptable | Acceptable Embarass | Embarrass Paralel | Parallel Z or S As an Indian writer, this conundrum is more pronounced as we practice British English which uses Z. If you are writing for a global audience, ‘Specialize’ would be better but if you are writing for an Indian audience, ‘personalise’ would be appropriate. Dangling modifiers After a long day at work, the dog welcomed Shawn with slobbery kisses Wait a minute, did the dog go to work? After a long day at work, Shawn was welcomed by the dog with slobbery kisses. The right usage of Comma When a , can put a fullstop to your writer dreams A comma in the wrong place can change the meaning of the sentence. Comma with quotes In the series “The Walking Dead,” the lead character is played by Andrew Lincoln. Though this is a strange rule, the comma always goes inside the quotes. So does a fullstop. Comma in dates He was born on July 4, 1990 He was born on 4th July 1990 If you have 2 number units side by side, separate them with a comma. Comma and suffixes The most famous of them all is Kunal Mehta, Jr. Here it is fine to write Kunal Mehta Jr. Without the comma The essential comma Many men want to be the actor, Shah Rukh Khan. Here you aren’t talking about men wanting to be actors but wanting to be a specific actor (by using the). In this case the comma is non-essential as the meaning of the sentence remains the same without it. The correct usage is ‘Many men want to be the actor Shah Rukh Khan.’ The overused comma Some flowers, such as, sunflowers and lilies, brighten up the room. The extra comma after a transitional phrase such as (or including) should not be used. The correct usage is Some flowers, such as sunflowers and lilies, brighten up the room. Comma with compound elements She liked to read, and danced a lot too. When you are using a conjunction like ‘and,’ ‘but.’ or ‘or,’ don’t use a comma unless the subject (she) is used twice. The correct usage here is ‘She liked to read and danced a lot too.’ Alternatively, ‘She like to read and, she danced a lot too.’ Comma Splice I want to eat, I want t drink. The sentences, as such, are independent of each other and without conjunction. The best way to write it would be ‘I want to eat. I want to drink.’ or ‘I want to eat; I want to drink.’ Also Read: The content writer’s easy grammar cheat sheet Title Case In marketing we often capitalise what best pleases the
Month: February 2020
Clutch Features Justwords as One of India’s Top Content Marketing Agencies
At Justwords, we have been working on leveraging content to build brands for over a decade now. From our expertise in content creation, we have organically branched out into various aspects of digital marketing to now operate as a full-service content marketing company. In the last 10 years, we’ve watched content marketing come into its own in India, and are grateful to have been part of the transformation. While we’ve never really sought after reward or recognition, believing that the work we do for our brands speaks volumes, it feels great to have been ranked as one of the Top Content Marketing Agencies in India by Clutch. What is Clutch and why does this matter? Clutch is a Washington DC-based ratings and reviews research firm, focussing on digital marketing companies. They conduct in-depth reviews for clients of the companies they feature — which means that a Clutch list is based on real, comprehensive feedback from clients. Over the years, Clutch has emerged as one of the world’s most reputed websites when it comes to rating digital marketing companies across the globe. What does the rating mean and why it matters Clutch operates on the principle of in-depth client reviews. This means that it’s the feedback from our clients that has helped us feature in one of the most prestigious rankings for content marketing companies in India. We’ve serviced a wide variety of clients in the past decade – from a small neighbourhood bakery to some of the biggest multinational brands. The impact that we create for their business is what drives us, which is why this rating becomes so meaningful. What our clients have said Clutch is known for its in-depth client interviews, which go a long way in building the rating for any digital marketing agency on the platform. Unlike Google reviews which are more passive and open-ended, Clutch really goes deep into understanding We’ve been truly overwhelmed by what some of our clients have had to say. Here are some glimpses : “Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success? There has been ten-fold growth and success in the monthly visitors to our website since we engaged with Just Words How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs? They are very responsive and supportive. Even with the many changes we request. What did you find most impressive about this company? They are very responsive and the quality of the blogs they deliver is of a high standard. ” “What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? When we started this project, we were expecting to see a 40% improvement in our traffic, and Justwords delivered that in less than three months. For the next three months, we set a target for 80%, and it proved to be a challenge. I wouldn’t just blame Justwords; it also had to do with us as a customer. When starting from zero, getting to a 40% level is an easy jump, but, when we’ve achieved something, to exceed that figure is challenging. Both of us are still struggling to find the right strategy to improve traffic. My feedback to them is that we should have more weekly and monthly reviews, to plan the strategies and align ourselves right.” Where do we go from here We started our journey over 10 years ago. Back then, in a landscape that was just emerging, we understood that content would soon become a game-changer for brands of all shapes and sizes. So we started by creating text-based content- differentiating ourselves by the quality of what we delivered and the outcomes that it gave our clients. Through our journey, as we expanded from text to other content formats to become a full-suite digital marketing agency, this differentiator never changed. We still believe that it’s quality content that makes all the difference. As we expand our company to greater heights, creating campaigns that push the boundaries in content marketing, our commitment to quality content and yo client outcomes will never change. And milestones like the Clutch feature are just a reminder that this approach will always win out in the long run.
Top 5 SEO Tips for Google Rankings in 2020
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most unique areas of marketing — people either love it or hate it, there’s usually no middle ground. One of the reasons for this is that since its inception around 15 years ago, SEO has been constantly evolving. Justwords has been around for a decade now and in just 10 years we’ve seen so many shifts in the world of SEO. There was a time when stuffing blogs with keywords and creating hundreds of poor-quality backlinks actually helped increase search engine rankings, but that seems laughable today. Many of our clients ask us if there is any point in investing in SEO when things always change so quickly. In fact, SEO can often seem like a cat-and-mouse game between marketers and Google. The Google search engine algorithm is hell-bent on rewarding only high-quality content and trustworthy websites, and every update becomes another challenge for marketers to overcome. Yet, avoiding SEO is the worst possible answer to this conundrum. The fact of the matter is that organic traffic still contributes as much as 53% of all website traffic. And it’s really the only form of traffic that is sustainable in the long run, just because you don’t have to pay for every additional click on your website. Image Source So what’s the key to successful SEO? It’s fairly simple really — just stay updated. Every year, the Google search algorithm changes — sometimes in small, subtle ways and other times with massive upheavals. In fact, Google made 3200 changes to its algorithm in 2018 alone — that’s right, 3200 changes in just one year! With so much changing almost every single day, it’s important to keep going back to the drawing board to revise your approach to SEO, or there’s a strong chance you’ll get left behind in the organic traffic game. In this article, we break down the 5 best SEO tips for 2020 so that you can get that website ranking in Google once and for all. SEO Tips #1: Search engines are now much “smarter” This was the year Google released BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers). BERT is an NLP (Natural Language Processing) based update that focusses on the intent behind the search query. This means that for the first time, Google search is able to take transformer words (to, for, etc) into account while deciding rankings as opposed to just the keywords. Also Read: Google BERT — The Algorithm Update Everyone is Talking about and How it Will Affect Your SEO What does this really mean? It means that Google has started prioritizing the idea that is conveyed by the content over the keywords. So if you’re stuffing keywords like it’s 2010, then you’ll find yourself far from the first page of Google search results. The best way to deal with BERT is to start creating content that is geared towards audiences and not Google search rankings. It’s also important to start focussing on informational search — building content that answers important queries. Mathew Howells-Barby, Director of Acquisition at Hubspot sums it up in a nutshell, “Ultimately, BERT will dramatically increase Google’s ability to better understand the context behind queries being made in the search engine, thus allowing them to better serve results that match intent. But marketers shouldn’t be looking for ways to game the new update. There’s no ‘optimizing for BERT’ in the same way that there was no ‘optimizing for RankBrain’. The result of BERT being introduced has simply meant that Google’s natural language processing engine has reached new heights and you can expect much more granular answering of queries. If you’re already optimizing for intent, you’re in a good place.” SEO Tips #2: High-quality content that focusses on long-tail keywords This is going to be the key to success in SEO this year. Google has started rewarding high-quality content — although there may be exceptions, chances are that if your content is the best in a particular category it will rank highly. In short, you need to make your content the best in the domain that you’re competing in. But with 2 million blog posts getting published every day, this is easier said than done. A good way of doing this is to find long-tail keywords that you want to rank for, and then create content around those. For instance, let’s say you have a bakery in Noida that delivers cakes through online orders. If you create content around ‘Order cake online’, you will find it very hard to find a Google search ranking because of the competition. If you choose to build a high-quality, authoritative piece of content around ‘order cake online in Noida’, then chances are you can create content that will be an industry leader for this phrase. This will make achieving that website ranking in Google a lot easier. Also Read: 5 Types of Content to Get More Traffic to Your Blog For this strategy to succeed, it’s important to pick keywords that are at that sweet spot — where they attract a fair bit of traffic but are not as competitive as some others. Here are some of the best tools to help you figure out the long-tail keywords you need to target: SEMrush SEMrush is one of the most effective long-tail keyword research tools. This is mostly because it lets you see where your competitors stand, across keywords. It also allows you to see which keywords competitors are bidding on so that you can customize your strategy. Google Keyword Planner We have a tendency to underrate Google’s own tools, but the Keyword Planner is one of the best free tools out there. While it may not give you detailed insights like some other tools, it still gives you a fairly comprehensive list of long-tail keywords (along with the traffic) that you can then choose from. BuzzSumo, AuthorityLabs, WordTracker, and UberSuggest are other keyword research tools that work really well. SEO
Brand Campaigns That Earned the Right Spotlight on Republic Day 2020
Brands are in the constant lookout to engage with their prospects and build a moment marketing connection on special occasions. Republic Day 2020 too was one such occasion. On such days, it is never about a hard sell, but the messaging, where there is some product or service synergy. We questioned various marketers on how they can evaluate the value of such initiatives. Mostly ranging for a week to just on the day of the event, some believe in ensuring that they never miss a chance to be in the visibility range of their users. Others, with contests, offers and quizzes, and engagement campaigns, try to generate leads and sales too. Here are some interesting brand campaigns and ideas from Republic Day 2020. Twitter: India Gate Twitter launched the tricolor India Gate emoji on the 26th of January. They also had President Ramnath Kovind tweet it during his address to the nation. While an emoji is a great way to cut across language barriers, Twitter still made sure that the emoji (which was available until 30th Jan) was available in ten Indian languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Urdu and Gurmukhi. Also Read: Content marketing for heavy industries – how you can make it work Google Doodle The 71st Republic Day Google Doodle was created by Meroo Seth, a Singapore based guest artist. It is the celebration of iconic India from famous landmarks like India Gate and the Taj Mahal to our national bird – the Indian peafowl, music and dance, fabric and culture. Even the camel from Rajasthan and the ubiquitous auto-rickshaw found a place in this doodle. Tiktok #Deshkibhasa @theshilpashettyHappy 71st Republic Day! Jai hind!??#DeshkiBhasha #fyp #republicday #republicday2020 #happyrepublicday♬ original sound – theshilpashetty Tiktok invited users to share videos of Republic Day wishes in their mother tongue using the hashtag #DeshkiBhasa. The tricolor sunglasses added to the fervor with several users responding to Tiktok’s call. It was an engagement strategy that urged users to create more videos by riding on the patriotic sentiment of the day. Zee5: #RepublicOfEntertainment View this post on Instagram The #RepublicOfEntertainment gives you the right to enjoy the best of blockbuster movies and original web series! @zee5 @zee5shows @zee5_marathi @zee5_bangla @zee5kannada @zee5telugu @zee5tamil A post shared by ZEE5 Premium (@zee5premium) on Jan 24, 2020 at 3:46am PST We need entertainment and we need it now. OTT platforms have both created and fulfilled a need that we did not know we had. Today, they are an integral part of the way we consume content (or rather binge watch it). This Republic Day, Zee5 put out the #RepublicOfEntertainment message with a pledge to entertain with no bias of language or genre. FBB: #WearYourPatriotism View this post on Instagram This Republic Day, express pride with your unique statement of fashion. #WearYourPatriotism and flaunt it well, with scarves from fbb. . . . #styles #scarf #india #RepublicDay #pride #patriotism #fbb #fbbOOTD #Suave #casual #fashiongram #basic #fbbonline #instaalert #Fashion #Style #CasualWear #Trending #MensWear #WomensWear #lookbook A post shared by fbb (@fbbonline) on Jan 22, 2020 at 6:29am PST FBB asked everyone to #WearYourPatriotism. This is a great way to ride on a popular trend as most people choose to wear some representative colors from the tricolor to mark the celebrations on this day. In addition to this, they also created a special line of scarves inspired by our flag. The proceeds from the sales of the scarves were to be donated to the Indian army. Also Read: How to start your first content marketing campaign: the 5 must-do steps Lava: #SendItBack Mobile handset brand Lava conducted the #SendItBack to curb the fake news menace. It urged users to send the ‘Back’ emoji to verify the authenticity of a forwarded message. The message also fits well into their #ProudlyIndian umbrella of brand positioning. Amazon Prime Video and Netflix Prime video launched The Forgotten armies on 24th of January and Netflix launched Vir Das of India on the 26th. Both shows are now on the trending list. Contests #ContestAlert #Contest ? Tag, Retweet, Repeat! #RepublicDayWithMoneyTap should be trending before we start.? Starting in 30 minutes.? #MoneyTap #RepublicDayWithMoneyTap #RepublicDay #RepublicDay2020 pic.twitter.com/QKw53kwMqz — MoneyTap (@MoneyTapApp) January 24, 2020 Several contests were launched on the occasion and some even lasted until the end of the month. Kamdhenu Paints put out the #ShareTheColoursOfRepublicIndia contest asking for four colors they associate with the four pillars of our constitution – Equality, Fraternity, Justice and Liberty. Money Tap ran a Republic Day Quiz, the OppoColorOS community ran a contest for their fans. Restaurant offers Restaurants came up with some interesting offers to woo customers on Republic Day, which also worked well for them as it was a Sunday. Soda Bottle OpenerWala offered one cocktail from their new menu for just INR 26, all-inclusive. Taste of Punjab offered all their dishes only in tricolors among others. See what you missed here Discounts If not a special campaign idea, discounts do manage to grab attention. Big Bazaar made their annual 5 SabseSatse Din campaign around Republic day. Here’s a look on what got discounted Ecommerce deals AJIO offered flash deals of 71% flat off on popular brands, Lemon salons offered 50% flat off on all services, Lenskart offered 50% off on everything, Helios offered flat 20% off, Myntra had the Right to Fashion sale, and Amazon and Flipkart also worked hard to catch our attention. Those that did not have an offer simply piggybacked on the celebration asking users to check out their already existing offers and discounts. So, what did your brand do differently on Republic Day? Share via comments.