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If you ask me, content marketing is probably one of the best long-term marketing strategies that you can adopt for your business. For starters, there is enough evidence that it works. And there is research to support what I just claimed. As per research, content marketing is actually three times as effective as outbound marketing and costs 62% less. And yet despite the fact that content marketing has been transformational for so many businesses, many brands still look at content marketing with skepticism and suspicion. For eg, a small business owner very recently declared to me that the whole content marketing thing was a sham and nothing really works. Turns out that he had hired a small-time agency who had promised great results through “a foolproof SEO and SMO content marketing package” and significant results are still to come in after 3-4 months in the game. And there are many like him who are simply not sure whether they should invest in content marketing when the results won’t come for days or even months. The reason for this hesitation and skepticism is not unfounded. The fact of the matter is that many companies who do content marketing get it completely wrong and struggle for months, if not years. This survey found that a whopping 96% of respondents believed that content marketing isn’t very effective. At Justwords, we’ve have met several clients who came to us saying that they’ve been publishing content regularly but they don’t think it’s having any impact. However, what people don’t realize is that content marketing is just like any marketing effort. It can be broken down into a number of logical steps. If any of those steps are being neglected or followed incorrectly, chances are your content marketing will fail dramatically. So in this article, I have broken down these important steps so you can see where you’re going wrong and take action to correct it immediately.   Problem 1- You’re executing without an effective strategy   This may seem basic, but it is one of the biggest problems we’ve seen over the years. Most companies are vaguely aware of the benefits of content marketing so they start publishing a blog post twice a week and then wait for the magic to happen. Even worse, they hire writers who start churning out content without any basic content strategy in place. The biggest mistake with content marketing is to start executing without a proper strategy. You have to begin by outlining your goals as clearly as you can at the very outset. The next step is to define the content formats and communication channels that you will be using to achieve these goals. Then use this strategy to prepare a weekly or monthly content calendar so that every piece of content is now aligned to the marketing and publishing plan and the overall goals. Simply put – If should know for what you are generating content for, which platform you are using and why, how are you publishing and marketing that article, where is that content piece sitting in your marketing plan and what is its final goal. Once you know this, you have a strategy in place.   Problem 2- You don’t have a brand voice   There are many companies that are churning out content regularly. The problem is, far from going viral or even creating a ripple in the vast ocean of the internet, most of this content goes by unnoticed. With over 2 million blogs being created every day, it’s easy to think there’s just too much competition and creating content is simply not worth the effort. But, there is also the fact that people’s capacity to consume content has also increased manifold. In fact, there are new blogs building a following and becoming wildly popular every single day. So what are they doing right? The answer is two-fold. First, to stand out, your content has to be truly exceptional. Ask yourself if you’re actually solving customer pain points in a clear and succinct manner, preferably in a way that hasn’t been done before. Secondly, there has to be a seamless flow between your content and your brand. In order to achieve this, you need to focus on what your brand voice is all about, and then create content consistent with this brand voice.   Problem 3 – You’re using the wrong content format   This is a very easy one to get wrong; especially if you haven’t focussed on audience research while building your content strategy. While it’s easy to follow some standard patterns— for instance, lifestyle brands should use Instagram stories while newsletters are a great idea for B2B brands — there are other nuances which need extensive research. Invest the time to understand what content is working for your competitors, what is the format in which your audience regularly consumes content, and so on. You really don’t want to waste time drafting blog post after blog post when an Insta story is what your audience needs or vice versa.   Problem 4- You’re not being guided by metrics   It’s great to go by your gut, but it’s not nearly enough to be successful. Your content marketing will only work if it is also backed by solid data and analytics. Unless you inculcate a culture of scientific, data-driven decision making, your content marketing strategy is unlikely to work. It’s important to have objective metrics to evaluate every single piece of content and alter strategy accordingly. Conversions, article views, CTR(Click Through Rates), shares, etc are all important metrics to track. Google Analytics is great for basic insights and you can also use specialized tools like Kissmetrics for more detailed analytics.   Problem 5- You’re doing everything yourself This is one of the biggest traps smaller organizations fall into. The founder might kickstart the content marketing journey by writing a few blog posts, but it’s nearly impossible to sustain this. From content planning to strategy to metrics, there is far too much for a founder or marketing

We all know that panic strikes when we are running out of ideas for the next blog post. There is pressure to constantly find ideas that captivate your audience can be very intense. In extreme cases, one can even start feeling burnt out or run into a creative block. One of the best ways to get around this situation is by turning one content idea into a four or five-part series. This can help you navigate the pressure of finding new content ideas every three days while also enabling you to create well-researched, and in-depth blog posts.   Why series are so great Here’s why carving one content idea into a series can pay off in a big way. Building anticipation and increasing traffic Someone who reads the first part of the series will want to keep going till they finish the entire series. Similarly, someone who stumbles across the 4th or 5th article will probably start from the beginning and go through them all. In fact, people who are waiting for the next post in the series may even end up subscribing to your blog. Eliminate stress and improve productivity When you decide to write a series, you have to go through the ideation process just once. After that, you already know the overall idea and its breakdown into different posts. All you need to focus on is writing. With the stress of constantly coming up with new ideas out of the window, you’ll actually be able to focus solely on quality content creation. Go in-depth Have you ever had one of those content ideas that are really meaty and important, but there’s no way you could fit everything into one blog post? That’s exactly what a series is meant to achieve. You can finally go into details and share in-depth insights without overloading your readers with too much information at once. More conversions and profits Believe it or not, series are often far more amenable to your business goals than stand-alone posts. Whether it’s getting more subscribers, generating leads, building your brand, or creating online products that generate recurring revenue. More ideas With a series, you have more time to play around with ideas and concepts. Many of our best writing ideas come to us subconsciously when we’re not actively writing. With a series, your subconscious mind has enough time to formulate ideas and arguments, whether you’re gardening or in the shower. Chances are that the ideas will flow a lot more easily when you do sit down to write.   How do you know if an idea can be made into a series   If you’re not sure how to figure out which content ideas will make for great series, here are some tips. You’ve written a post with a meaty list Say you’ve done a post saying “Top 5 Content Marketing Formats in 2019”. You suddenly realize that each of these 5 formats merits a full post in itself. And suddenly you have your idea for your next 5-part series. The idea is too substantial for one blog post Many times, you don’t start off thinking of a content idea as suited to a series format. Maybe it’s intended to be just one post, but as you begin writing the outline you realize there’s too much substance to restrict the idea to one post. These kind of ideas are best outlined in a series. If there isn’t too much material, you can always stick to a short, three-part series. Your readers have many related queries This is another great organic way to develop a series. Many times, readers respond overwhelmingly to a post. In fact, they may come up with a number of questions on related topics that are not covered in the original post. It’s a great idea to take some of these questions to create a 4-part series. Evergreen content In general, it’s not a good idea to invest time and energy into writing a four-part series for passing trends. In most cases, in fact, articles based on the latest fads and trends simply don’t have enough material for a series. Evergreen content ideas that focus on substantial issues are ideal for creating a series. The idea-to-series playbook Let’s say you are planning to write a four-part series. The topic you’ve chosen is video marketing. Here’s a general playbook on how you should go about it. Post 1- Establish authority In the first post of the series, spend time on introducing the topic, your own background, and connecting the two. For instance, while talking about video marketing, you could start by introducing the concept and why it’s become so important to have a video marketing strategy today. You could then talk about your own experience with video marketing. It could be about your journey as a video marketer or even your experience with video marketing for your own product. Use interesting anecdotes and make sure to use an interesting CTA (Call to Action) that makes people want to know more. Post 2- Prepare the background In this post, you don’t delve into the details of creating video marketing but talk about the things you need to know in advance. For instance, you could talk about things that need to be in place before you get started with video marketing. This could include considerations like budget, a video marketing strategy, equipment, cast and crew, and so on. Post 3- The details This is the post where you actually break down video marketing into a step-by-step tutorial that users can follow. The best part about saving the details for the third post is that readers already know a fair bit about the topic by now and are well prepared for the information-centric content. Post 4- Give advanced information and answer queries This last post helps you give value-added information to your readers. A great way to design this post is by going through relevant questions you receive in the comments section in the previous posts.

Here is a thing to remember. You may have learnt a whole lot about copywriting; from books, online courses, and even real-life experience. You might have even worked for a multitude of clients across the board; handling their marketing and sales copy. But the truth of the matter is unless you’ve had the experience of selling your own product, you simply don’t know what it’s like to have skin in the game. It’s one thing to understand your client, their product, and their target audience; it’s another thing to be able to feel their pain and urgency. This kind of empathy can only come with personal experience and it can help you become a more well-rounded copywriter. In this article, we talk about how to sell your product online and why that will make you much better at your copywriting job.   Invest time and money to create a product Of course, you can’t sell a product you don’t have. While it might not be possible to create a physical product, in most cases you’ll find it much easier to create an online product. This includes a number of options, ranging from e-books to courses. The key here is to invest enough time, effort, and resources so that failing to sell your product will actually hurt. Not enough to bankrupt you of course but bad enough that it’s a real setback. Unless that happens, you simply won’t have enough skin in the game to focus the way you need to. Here are some of the key steps that you simply cannot skimp on when you’re on this journey.   Step 1 – Understand your audience   The key to creating a valuable product is by listening to your customers. You don’t want to spend valuable time and money on creating something no one needs. Use social media listening tools to really understand prospective customers’ pain points. It’s also a good idea to go old-school and just talk to people. Go past what your customers think they need to get to what they really need. How this helps- You will now understand how painstaking it is to find the right product and features that satisfy customers. Keep this in mind when you write copy for your clients.   Step 2- Create the product   This is the scary part. You’re going to be spending hours and hours creating a product that may not yield any ROI. You may also find yourself investing some money to create a quality product. For instance, if it’s an e-book you may have to hire an ace designer. If you’re creating a video-course, you might find yourself renting high-end equipment. Of course, you also need to figure out the platform that you will use to deliver your product. For an e-book, you need to decide the format you want to publish it in, whether you want it to be on Amazon, and so on. If it’s a course, you need to decide which platform to use; whether you want to go with a Udemy or Teachable or use a self-hosted LMS (Learning Management System). You will also need to complete the email and payment integrations so that your customers have a seamless experience. How this helps- All the time and resources you invest will give you a glimpse into what your client has at stake. It will also help you realize how much they really have on their plate. Be mindful of that when you work with them.   Step 3- Create a landing page and write sales copy   Work on creating a landing page, or even a complete website if it’s warranted. When you create the perfect landing page, write all your launch copy. From the sales page to emails and social media posts. How this helps- Notice the care with which how you write sales copy when you actually have skin in the game. Remember, your clients deserve the same focus.   Step 4- Launch your product   The D-day is here. You will probably be juggling a number of different things; from sending out emails to promoting your product on social media, collaborating with bloggers, and even asking your friends to recommend the product. It’s important to remember that this is only the beginning and that it’s going to be a long road ahead.   How this helps Launch day will give you a whole new level of empathy for your client. Juggling so many different things at the same time should give you an insight into what your client goes through every day. You can be a wizard with words, but you won’t really become an exceptional copywriter unless you understand what it means to have your skin in the game. Creating and selling your own product may not be the easiest way to become more empathetic, but it will definitely take your skills to the next level. And hey, you may just end up making a lot of money in the process!

What if we told you that you’re ignoring a very simple aspect of your e-commerce website? And that this aspect can actually help you increase your conversions by 14- 166%? This article talks about microcopy- an essential element of a website’s user experience that most businesses end up ignoring. We will also talk about how you can use microcopy to increase conversions. What is Microcopy? Microcopy refers to all the text on your website that doesn’t fall into any category. In other words, once you strip away things like headings, banners, titles, blog posts, and standard website copy; microcopy is what’s left. Microcopy occurs in different ways and forms and its main goal is to motivate shoppers to complete an action. This includes adding a product to the cart, signing up for a newsletter, or filling credit card information. The best example of microcopy comes from Joshua Porter who’s often known as the father of microcopy. When Joshua Porter was working for an online store, he realized that the store was losing money every month because 5-10% of its transactions were failing. After some research, all he did was to add one sentence next to the billing address field “Be sure to enter the billing address associated with your credit card.” Immediately, all the failed transactions reduced dramatically. In other words, microcopy strives to make the user experience as smooth as possible. And that is why it has so much power to influence conversions and help you reach your financial goals. How does microcopy increase conversions for your e-commerce website? Microcopy can become the key to better conversions simply by virtue of their strategic placement in the entire user experience. Here are some ways in which effective microcopy can help you increase conversions. Emphasize key value propositions You may have some killer deals and discounts for your customers. But it’s not enough to just put them in your standard website copy. Having these deals located at strategic places such as the shopping cart or when the customer is making the purchase helps emphasize them. Build trust You may be losing customers without even realizing it simply because they have a hard time trusting you. Microcopy can really help here. For instance, having a line that says “We won’t share your email id with anyone” right after they have been asked to fill in their email id, helps assuage their privacy concerns. Similarly, things like security and confirmation messages when a customer is actually doing a transaction go a long way to build trust. Reduce ambiguity The main goal of microcopy is to ensure that customers have a seamless user experience. Smart microcopy can enable a better user experience by reducing ambiguity and making things as clear for customers as possible. For instance, all the product categories in your e-commerce store should be classified in a way that leaves no room for doubt. Reinforce your brand voice Microcopy is also a way of cleverly reinforcing your brand personality in a subtle but effective way. For instance, if your brand is known for being slightly quirky and out-of-the-box, injecting humour into your error messages and form fields can endear you to customers. Similarly, if you want to be known as a credible brand with authority, your microcopy should reflect that. Tips on writing good microcopy Now that you know how powerful microcopy can be, it’s time to understand how you can leverage microcopy to increase conversions. Here are some tips on writing effective micropy. Brevity is the key As the word itself suggests, microcopy is meant to be short and to-the-point. Its goal is to enhance the user experience and wordy sentences are not the way to go. The more succinct the microcopy is, the easier it is to drive the point home. Use Click triggers Click triggers refer to text that is right next to a button and that motivates customers to click the button. Money-back guarantee, free shipping, testimonials, etc are all good examples. State your case directly Microcopy is not the place to be coy or ambiguous. It’s where you need to tell your customers exactly what you have to offer. Phrases like “Buy now” and “Sign up for exclusive offers” tell customers exactly what to do. Of course, you don’t want to come off as coercive or pushy but it’s important to be explicit and speak to customers directly. We often end up trying every trick in the book to increase e-commerce sales; from digital ads to content marketing. Sometimes, it’s the small things that we tend to neglect that can actually have a major impact on those conversions. Microcopy is one such thing that many people tend to neglect. Luckily, all it takes is some attention to detail and you can soon have many more customers shopping at your virtual store.