Digital media consultant, copywriter, and perpetual adventurer. With over 14 years of experience across a range of industries, I've been a part of in-house marketing teams and collaborative freelance partnerships. I make things awesome!
Your new blog article may be a masterpiece, but without a good headline, your post is basically dead in the water. There is a lot of competition for your reader’s attention – so you need to grab readers and compel them to click. For copywriters and marketers, that makes writing great headlines a must-have skill.
Luckily, there are some proven formulas for hooking your readers and getting them excited about your content. In this post I’m going to teach you how to write a powerful headline that your readers will love (and click).
Here’s What Makes a Great Headline
Your blog article title or headline is just one ingredient of a great piece of content – but it’s a pretty important one, as it’s the first thing your readers see.
There have been all kinds of studies done on the ideal length of a headline, words most likely to be clicked, words least likely to be clicked, and even capitalization styles. While these structural guidelines are important, capturing the “so-what” in your headline is critical.
Is emotional – headlines with positive sentiment perform best
Sparks curiosity in the reader – also known as the “curiosity gap”
A number of copywriters also rely on the “four U’s” as rules of thumb for writing great blog and article headlines.
Your headline should be:
Unique
Useful
Urgent
Ultra-specific
Did you know that headlines with numbers perform extremely well?
Numbers are scannable, specific, and offer a preview of what’s to come. Headlines like 7 Ways to Groom Your Dog are some of the most-clicked titles on the web.
One more thing – never, ever be click-baity. Don’t promise something your content doesn’t deliver. It’s frowned upon and no one likes to feel duped.
2 Free Tools for Writing Great Headlines
When writing, spend some time with your headline. Rewrite it. Tweak it. Change one word and then maybe change it back. Spend a lot more time than you think you should on writing the best freaking headline you can write.
There are some tools to help you test and make improvements. But the final decision is yours.
CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer
CoSchedule’s free Headline Analyzer is one tool I swear by for testing out different blog post headlines. Paste your headline in the box and you’ll get an instant score, plus a quick assessment of what’s working and what’s not.
Use the suggestions provided to test and retest your headline until you’ve got a score of at least 70 or above. If your score is above 70, you’ll see a green circle. For lower scores, the circle is yellow or red.
The tool breaks your headline down into types of words contained in your headline:
Let’s look at the title for the post you’re reading right now. While testing out headlines, my score jumped 4 points simply by adding the word “powerful”.
Headline Analyzer tells you when your headline is “too wordy”. According to this tool, headlines between 6 – 8 words get the most clicks.
This headline was a bit too long.
You can also optimize for characters used:
I like to use this tool and then compare against a second free tool.
You’ll receive an Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) score in terms of a percentage, and a breakdown of which types of emotions your headline sparks within your customer.
Here are AMA’s results for one of my headlines:
Like with the other tool, you can test and test again with different variations. If you’re trying to target a specific phrase, I recommend trying to use the keyword phrase in the title.
Whether you’re a freelancer, SMB, marketing agency, or in-house marketer, content marketing can seem overwhelming or even mysterious at times. But know that you have access to expert support, plus a wealth of knowledge & tools out there. I promise – you’ve got this.
If you have any more questions about writing headlines or content strategy in general, let me know in the comments below, or message me here. And when in doubt, always bring it back to the basics – your customer and your why.
Content promotion is a key piece of your overall content marketing strategy.
What’s the point of creating a great piece of content if you don’t take the time to promote it? With eleventy-billion things on the internet (and counting), it takes a bit of flag-waving in order to draw attention to your new piece of content.
When it comes to content promotion, HubSpot says you should spend about 40% of your time creating it and 60% of your time promoting it. The more effort you put into content promotion, the better your chances of it gaining traction with your audience.
However, most of us spend lots of time planning and creating content, and then forget the essential step of distributing it.
How to Promote Your Content and Get More Views
Before we talk about the how and where of content promotion strategy, let’s start with the what.
Creating great content with a purpose is where it all begins. If what you’re putting out there is irrelevant, overly sales-y, sloppy, or off-brand, you can Tweet it all day long and it still isn’t going to get you any traction.
Content can take many different forms. It’s often written content such as:
Blogs posts or articles
eBooks
Downloadable PDF
Social media posts
Whitepapers
Case Studies
Or visual content like:
Images
Infographics
Videos
Slide presentations
Animated GIFs
Tips for Creating Content Worth Sharing
So how do you create great content? That’s kind of like asking – how does one become a magical baby dolfin?
Ok, not exactly – but telling your brand’s unique story isn’t always easy. If you ask me, creating great brand content is an art. For sure, it’s a long and complex topic with countless books, ebooks, blogs, and webpages written on the subject.
But let’s start with a few key points:
Create with Purpose
Every piece of content you create should have a purpose. Decide whether your image, article, video, what-have-you, will inform, create awareness, build trust, or entertain. Providing value is first, selling is secondary.
Write for Your Audience
It’s critical that every piece of content you create is targeted to a specific buyer persona. A buyer persona is a detailed portrait of your ideal customer which includes demographic information such as:
Age range
Location
Gender
Annual income
Occupation
Family status (married, children, etc.)
And other important insights such as their:
Goals
Pain points
Needs along the buyer journey
Preferences
Perceptions
This information helps ensure that your content is is relevant to the kind of people you’re trying to reach – i.e., your potential customers. Here’s an example:
Mompreneur Megan – Mompreneur Megan is a middle-aged woman, married with children, and lives on the southeastern coast of the U.S. (coastal Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia). She’s a stay-at-home mom who’s building an ecommerce business in her free time. The combined family annual income is $87,000. She’s trying to grow her business and looking for guidance.
This is an incomplete profile, but it illustrates how you can start to build a vivid picture of your clients.
Most businesses will have multiple buyer personas. Once you have developed your personas, you can create content with a specific reader in mind.
Write a Great Headline
To click or not to click – most people will decide based on the headline alone. That means you must make it enticing and clickable, not click bait-y.
A good headline:
Appeals to your target persona
Provides value or a benefit to the reader – it should hint at whey they will get out of reading the piece
Is emotional – headlines with positive sentiment perform best
Sparks curiosity in the reader – sometimes known as the “curiosity gap”
Marketers have also studied how many words and characters a great headline should have and what type of words get the most clicks. CoSchedule has created a handy list of 180 power words for writing emotional headlines.
It makes sense – humans are naturally visual people and we lock onto images. A big block of text, on the other hand, and we glaze over like a Krispy Kreme. Your blog post should include multiple high-quality, compelling images or videos that are relevant to the subject matter of your post.
¡Muy importante! – Make sure you have the right to use your images. Copyright infirngement is no joke. You’ll want to either create your own, buy stock photos, or use images licensed under Creative Commons. You can also find royalty-free images on sites like Pexels and Unsplash.
Make it Easy to Read
If that statistics are right, there’s a good chance you’re skimming this article. People tend to scan an article to see if it contains the information they need before reading deeply.
Writing for the web is not like writing for print. You’re going to have to bend some of the rules you learned in school about writing. To make your blog posts scannable and easy to read:
Use shorter sentences and shorter paragraphs
Use bulleted lists
Break up your text with relevant subheadings
Break up your text with images
Don’t use tiny or overly stylized fonts that are hard to read
Avoid jargon and “fancy for the sake of fancy” – simple language is better
Make it Easy to Share
Example of a pinnable image from my travel blog at Operation Gone.
Add social sharing buttons to your website so readers can share your articles via email, Facebook, Twitter, email and more with a few clicks. It’s easy to add sharing buttons to your website via your CMS or through a plugin like ShareThis.
Not just for recipes, Pinterest is actually one of the largest search engines in the world. Top 5, in fact!
Characteristics of a pinnable image:
Beautiful and attention grabbing
Portrait orientation – 600 x 900 pixels or 735 x 1102 pixels (2:3 ratio)
Includes text with the title of your blog post, product, or article
Website URL – Include your website’s URL or logo for brand awareness and attribution
Bonus points: Consistently use your brand colors and fonts
So you’ve got your awesome piece of content and you’re ready to break the internet by unleashing it to the masses. Now what?
If you’re going to be successful at content promotion, you need to create a plan and stick to it. Assign content promotion to a dedicated member of your team or outsource to trusted marketing partner.
Content promotion requires a multifaceted approach. Remember, everyone consumes content in different ways. Don’t assume that just because you shared it on Facebook, everyone in your audience has seen and read it.
Identify Core Networks
Identify the social network or networks where your target audience spends the most time. You don’t have to be everywhere.
Write for the Platform
Each platform is different. Write a unique post for each one and tailor your images to the platform as well. Consider the following:
Twitter captions are short and sweet; Facebook and Instagram captions can be a bit longer
Use hashtags sparingly on Facebook; fair game for Twitter and especially Instagram
Instagram posts must be visually captivating (the less ad-like, the better)
LinkedIn is best-suited to sharing links to articles. Instagram does not support in-caption link-sharing.
Facebook bridges the gap – great for sharing both links and images
Share Consistently on Social
You created your content, and you shared it once on Facebook. Done. Right? Oh, so wrong.
Only about 10% of your audience is likely to see any given post on Facebook or Instagram. To maximize post reach, promote each piece of content multiple times over a few weeks.
Create multiple variations of the post using different captions and share them out over time. You can use questions, calls to action, quotes, and other snippets from the article to mix things up. For example, you can highlight different items from a “listicle” over weeks to keep the content fresh.
Use a scheduling tool like Gain to make posting easier. With the tool, you can schedule multiple posts for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all at once.
Send to Your Email List
If you don’t already have an email list, start building one now. Email is still a wildly effective way to communicate with your audience. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that 99% of consumers check their inbox every single day.
Getting started with an email marketing provider like MailChimp, Emma, or GetResponse is easy and there are package types to suit every business.
Promote every piece of new content via email. Send an email to your subscriber list and share your latest blog post, infographic, or video.
Use Calls to Action
The most effective way to get people to view and share your content is to ask. Did you know that Pinterest pins with a call to action get 80 percent more shares? And Tweets that ask people to retweet them get 51 percent more retweets than those that don’t.
Use calls to action in your social media posts such as “Click to learn more”, “Tag a friend”, or “Comment your favorite pizza toppings below!” to encourage sharing and engagement. Make sure it fits with the subject and audience, of course.
Involve Your Employees
Actively ask colleagues and employees to share your content with their networks. To test the results, you can create a unique URL via Google’s campaign builder and share it via slack or email with your team.
If you quote outside sources, tag them when sharing on social media, or send them a DM with the link and a nice note asking them to share. It’s good exposure for them, and good exposure for you.
Share to Your Personal Networks
Of course, you’re posting your new piece of content to the company’s professional LinkedIn and Facebook pages and other preferred social platforms. But don’t forget to share with your personal networks as well. It’s a super simple but often overlooked content promotion strategy.
Run Targeted Social Ads
Don’t be afraid to invest in paid ads to promote your content. Social ads for Facebook and Instagram can be specifically targeted so that they reach only the right people. What’s more, you can gain exposure to a new audience, not just your current fans.
With targeted social ads you can:
Control how much you spend
Ensure your dollars are only spent on getting your content to a relevant audience
Gain valuable data about which ads perform well and which don’t
Stop the ad at anytime
Republish your Content on Other Channels
Amplify your content’s reach by publishing it again on a third-party site. This “syndication” strategy leverages the power of established platforms which may have more traffic and higher domain authority than your own.
When considering which channels to republish your content, choose a platform that appeals to your buyer persona. Possible platforms include:
Medium.com
LinkedIn Pulse
Reddit
Digg
SlideShare
Industry blogs or forums
Collaborate
Even before your content is created, you should be thinking about how you will promote it. Collaboration is one of the best ways to encourage sharing of your content. This could include reaching out to influencers, quoting expert sources, brand partnerships, guest posts, knowledge roundups, and more.
Always offer to link back to a contributor’s site in your post. Then once the piece is complete, encourage everyone involved to share it via their own social networks, website, email, etc. You can find collaboration opportunities via Facebook or LinkedIn groups, or within your professional network.
Overall, content marketing strategy is a mix of high-quality content, an engaged audience, and diligent content promotion skills. Whether you’re just getting started or managing a team, it can be a bit overwhelming – but there are plenty of resources out there to help. If you have any questions about content marketing or content promotion, feel free to ask me! I love talking shop…
In today’s marketing world, your website is the North Star of your marketing strategy. All other efforts should orbit around and lead people back to your site.
When someone does land on your company’s website, you have about 5 seconds to capture their attention. In this time, you need to clearly communicate what you do, why you do it, and for who. The best websites are well rounded – visually beautiful, easy to use and with a clear, compelling message.
Essential Website Design Tips for 2019 and Beyond
If your site isn’t there yet, don’t worry! These tips will help you optimize your website content and design for user experience, SEO, driving traffic to your site, and more…
Make your website do more for your business.
Mobile Responsive Design
You probably already know that optimizing for mobile is extremely important. You might even be reading this on a mobile device?
At least 80% of internet users own a smartphone, and users spend an average of 69% of their media time on mobile devices. No joke! Google has even started penalizing sites that aren’t optimized for mobile devices. So, the need for responsive design is more critical than ever.
Together with web development partners at Carolina SEO Consultants, I help companies create mobile responsive sites that look great and communicate value.
Focus on Benefits, Not Features
Have you ever heard the saying “Features tell, benefits sell”? It’s true!
While customers might use features to compare two similar products, what they really care about is how your product (or service) makes their life easier.
Your website copy should focus on what problems you solve for your customers, what tasks you help them accomplish, and how they will feel after using your product or service.
Customers care less about “Advanced safety restraint systems” and more about “Keeping your family safe”. They care less about a “Dual-core 1.4 GHz ARM v8 Typhoon processor” and more about “Surfing the web, faster”!
Learn how I use the Hero’s Journey and StoryBrand frameworks to tell a story of success on your website – a customer-center that focuses on the positive results of your product or service.
Speak Directly to your Audience
You probably know all about creating detailed customer personas. You’ve spent a lot of time nailing down exactly who your target customer is. You know their age, gender, geographic location, income, interests, where they hang out online – all of it. Now that you’ve figured that out, you can speak directly to your target audience.
Replace “we” and “our” with “you” and “your”.
Instead of “Our clients see great results” try “You’ll love the results!”
By using second person, or “you”, you’re speaking to the customer one-on-one and allowing them to see themselves at the center of your success story. At the end of the day, customers care less about how great your brand is, and more about what’s in it for them.
Another thing – leave the industry jargon out. They don’t get it and they don’t care. (Remember that thing about benefits, not features?)
Reduce Loading Time
Slow page loading drives users nuts. It may even cause them to jump ship. Section.io reports that just 5 seconds of page load time can cause more than 20% of users to bounce. Whoa. The good news is, having faster pages can increase your website’s conversions by as much as 16.5%.
So how do you achieve a faster site? Google’s free PageSpeed tools will analyze your site, give it a score, and then offer suggestions for improving your load time on both mobile and desktop.
One quick fix is to compress all images using a tool like compressor.io before uploading them to your site. You can also set all external links to open in new browser windows or tabs. And if you’re redoing your site completely, a good web development team will make site speed a top priority.
Create Clear Calls to Action
Sign up now. Get started. Let’s chat. Calls to action like this are a critical part of driving and measuring conversions online. We’re so used to seeing call-to-action buttons, we many not even think about it. But make no mistake, they are super important!
There’s no point in capturing your audience’s attention, getting them all excited about your product, or building trust if they’re not sure what to do next. Make it easy for them to call you, schedule an appointment, or BUY your product.
Calls to actions should contain simple action phrases, and they need to stand out from the rest of the design. If your call to action is “Contact us” or “Get in Touch” it’s best to embed a contact form directly on the page, rather than forcing the user to open an email program in order to send you a message.
Include Social Proof
More and more business takes place directly on the web, without ever meeting your customer face-to-face. But that doesn’t mean people don’t need to vet you or build trust in your brand.
Social proof shows off the great things others have said about you before they book a call, sign up for your email list or click the ‘Buy Now’ button. Social proof in the form of testimonials, client or partner logos, case studies, and more work to reassure potential customers that you actually do what you say you do.
Some experts suggest sprinkling testimonials throughout your site rather than assigning them a specific location. You can add them to the bottom of the home page in a carousel feature, tuck them in around product pages, or put them on your Team page (you do have a Team page, don’t you?). People may not have time to click on a testimonials page, but they will notice testimonials as they cruise through your site.
Blog Consistently
If you want to develop a strong online presence, you need more than just a cool website – you need a website that can be found. Blogs are one of the top ways that new users find their way to a website, if they include the type of content that your potential customers might be searching for.
SEO keyword research can help you figure out what keyword phrases to focus on, and a site like Answer the Public is great for coming up with topics of interest. I’m a big fan of blogs not only for their SEO potential, but their ability to “connect us with our tribe” (thanks Jeff Bullas) and build a loyal following.
Regarding blogs, HubSpot says:
Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got about 4.5 times more leads than companies that published zero to four monthly posts.
and
Content marketing gets 3X more leads than paid search advertising.
How often are you currently publishing to your company blog?
AnswerthePublic.com – This grumpy old man will help you come up with great topics for your blog.
Make it Easy to Read
Keep readers on your site and engaged with beautiful design – remember that 5 second rule? Along with your clear, compelling message, your site should be easy on the eyes.
Make sure your site is easy to read by including plenty of white space. Whatever you do, avoid huge blocks of text. Long, unbroken chunks of text make people glaze over and zone out faster than you can say “website bounce rate”.
Break your text up with strong headlines and sub-headers. Sub-headers (known in webspeak as “H2s”) are important tools for SEO. They also make your site easy to read or skim and find information quickly. Headlines grab the reader’s attention and tell readers – “Hey! This is important!”
Other tools for great web writing and design include:
Bullets and numbered lists
Short sentences
Short paragraphs
Color and text variation for keywords, headlines and buttons
If you’re ready to improve your website’s design, readability and sales driving power (or if you still have questions), I’d love to chat!
You’ve probably heard it before – good marketing is about storytelling. A good story sells products. Your brand needs a story.
“Storytelling” is the content marketing buzzword of the past few years. It’s everywhere from conferences to courses to books – to the point where some marketers are over. it. Over it!
But there’s a reason the trend has resurfaced and will continue to again and again.
It’s simple – ready?
EVERYONE LOVES A GOOD STORY…
Introducing the Hero’s Journey
…and every good story follows a trusted formula. Sorry to take the mystery out of it, but there you have it.
Bestsellers and blockbusters use proven storytelling patterns to pull at your heartstrings, get your blood pumping, and make you care whether the protagonist wins the game or falls on their face.
The Hero’s Journey is a classic formula. The concept is not new (nor is it the only framework out there – more on that in a minute).
This archetypal story pattern is credited to mythologist Joseph Campbell, as described in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. It was later refined by Christopher Vogler in The Writer’s Journey. In his book, Campbell waxes philosophical about how humans around the world tell versions of the same story, over and over.
Side note: It seems crazy to me that such a broad-sweeping observation can be credited to one person, especially in a world with such long oral traditions – but ok!
A Content Marketing Success Story
I create a lot of websites and write brand copy for clients using this framework. A lot of the biggest and most popular brands also use the Hero’s Journey formula to connect with customers.
We use it because it works.
Don’t believe me? Keep reading.
Let’s talk about shoes for a second.
Nike’s Just Do It. Campaign is a stripped-down version of the Hero’s Journey. It’s what made Just Do It. so infectious (and so profitable). Whoever the ad agency was that came up with this – big high fives all around.
Why does it work? The campaign paints you as the hero.
Just Do It. says that regardless of occupation, age, or gender you can do anything you put your mind to. YOU can do it. The product is just there to help you along your journey to achieving your goals, whatever they happen to be.
A Modern Day Hero’s Journey: StoryBrand
More recently, you may have heard or seen a new version of the Hero’s Journey, re-branded for a modern audience and a new generation of marketers.
Author, speaker and business owner Donald Miller has essentially repackaged the Hero’s Journey, giving it a catchy new name fit for our times – StoryBrand. Or, even more concise and textspeak-friendly, SB7.
While a lot of what Miller says has been said before, he drives the key point home –
CUSTOMERS DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR STORY – THEY CARE ABOUT THEIR OWN.
With the SB7 framework, Miller focuses specifically on applying the formula to marketing and brand storytelling, as opposed to using it for books and movies. He breaks the formula down into seven neat and easy buckets, making it really easy to execute.
As I said, StoryBrand and the Hero’s Journey are not new, nor do they stand alone.
Plenty of others have stood the test of time. Dale Carnegie is famous for his “Magic Formula”. Problem-Agitate-Solve is a popular strategy for sales copy. And as a former improv comedy geek, one of my personal favorites is the Story Spine.
Developed by professional playwright and improviser Kenn Adams, the Story Spine has since been nicknamed the Pixar Formula. The movie makers have used this format to make billions of dollars and win several awards.
I told you – everyone loves a good story!
The Proven Storytelling Formula
Hero’s Journey, StoryBrand, SB7, call it what you will – following along as a character struggles to be victorious (or fail) is engaging. It draws you in.
Why?
Because we’ve all been there. We can relate.
This format is tried and true, from King Arthur to Star Wars to presidential campaigns.
Here’s how it works:
Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey template contained 17 steps. Donald Miller’s has 7. Another point for StoryBrand.
7 steps to a great marketing story:
Image courtesy of StoryBrand.com
Character
Has a Problem
Meets a Guide
Who Has a Plan
Calls the Hero to Action
Which Results In
Success
OR
Failure
Voila! P.S. I hope I haven’t ruined all your favorite movies and books!
Using the Hero’s Journey in Your Content Marketing
At some point, brand marketers must have looked at the box office figures and decided it was time to get in on the action.
And lo and behold, storytelling is the biggest wave in content marketing today. There are entire workshops, books, websites, and coaching programs built around teaching the art of the story.
So how can you use storytelling for awesome and effective content marketing?
If we can go back to Nike for a minute – the key to using the hero’s journey in marketing is this: the customer is the hero – not your brand.
THEY’RE THE HERO. YOU’RE THE GUIDE.
In the classic hero’s journey, the main character (the hero) has a problem which he or she (hopefully) solves.
It’s easy to think your brand should be the main character, aka the hero. But I have news for you – Customers don’t care about your story. They care about their own. (kind of like Donald Miller says in his SB7 pitch).
By positioning yourself as the guide or mentor, you can highlight the benefits, not features, of your product. You can focus on outcomes, aka success for the hero, aka your customer.
Seems simple right? It is. And that’s exactly why it works.
Brand storytelling works because stories tap into our emotions. When done right, they make us forget, if even for a moment, that we’re being sold to.
Stories are emotional, and as you probably know, emotions sell (using emotions to sell is a whole ‘nother blog post).
Besides, people are extremely savvy these days and making your brand the hero comes off as icky and stilted.
If you’re ready to tap into the emotional connections created through storytelling and drive your customers to buy, I can help.
I will use the proven Hero’s Journey/StoryBrand formula (or another proven style) to engage your target audience, position you as an expert guide, and get people to click the best of all buttons – the BUY button.
Lifelong traveler here! I’ve lived on 4 different continents and I am about to call my 6th country home. Early on, I knew I was more than just a tourist. I wanted to be a part of the industry, but wasn’t really sure where I fit in. Recently, I’ve combined my two main passions by working as a content writer for the travel industry.
The travel industry is a great place to be. It’s exciting as a writer because it reaches every corner of the world and has ties to many industries. Not only in tourism sub-markets like airlines, hotels and museums, but also for industries like electronics, beauty products, insurance, clothing and more, travel has a sales impact.
Travel Writing – What I’ve Been Up To
As a travel writer I have experience with businesses from around the world, large and small. Luxury, mid-range or budget, every traveler needs to find information to get where they’re going, and help them make the most of their time there.
Luxury Travel Property Descriptions
I was commissioned to create website content such as Company Story and property descriptions for a luxury real estate development in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. These five star luxury residences and vacation homes deserve five-star descriptions that dazzle, impress, and entice.
Neighborhood Guides for Hotels
I love helping travelers discover local activities, food, and experiences near their hotel. As a freelance writer for Arrivedo, I work directly with hotels to create neighborhood guides that attract new guests and improve the experience for current guests.
Sometimes I do ghostwriting, which means I don’t always get to publish work under my own name. However, working as a ghostwriter (or “ghostblogger”, as the case may be) for The World’s Most Popular Cruise Line® has certainly been a fun project!
I love writing travel articles like these about exotic destinations including what to expect, best foods to try and souvenirs to look out for – because who doesn’t love looking forward to a vacation? I enjoy getting people excited about their travels and describing all the fun adventures they can get into while on their trip. I learn something along the way and get ideas for my own travels. Win-win!
Guest Posts
On occasion, I’m available to contribute a guest post. In the past, I’ve collaborated with other travel sites and communities to share my experience as a digital nomad and long-term traveler. Areas of expertise include financial planning for travel, solo travel, teaching English abroad, moving abroad, running a business while on the move, making the transition to self-employed or remote work, packing and travel tips, and travel inspiration!
This post for SheHitRefresh.com (a travel community of women over 30 who want to break free and live a life of travel) covers volunteering abroad using Workaway.
Operation Gone
What kind of 21st century traveler would I be if I didn’t have my own blog? See what I’ve been up to the past year and a half…
Still want to see more? Check out some more of my work
Though I work with all kinds of small-to-medium businesses in industries as diverse as dentistry, finance, tech, music, events and more, lately I’ve found myself doing a LOT of real estate writing.
Writing for the real estate industry is exciting, not only because there are so many different niches and sectors, but also because the field is central to American communities, families, and economic development.
For so many, home ownership is a pivotal step on the road to the American Dream. So I can feel good about my part in educating homebuyers, tenants, real estate professionals and builders.
Real Estate Writing – What I’ve Been Up To
As a real estate content writer, I have experience in both commercial real estate and residential real estate (B2B and B2C). I’ve worked with businesses from all areas of the field including homebuilders, commercial real estate firms, home lenders, housing counselors and even a real estate school!
Real estate is a fun industry to write for because there is just so. much. going. on.
Here’s a brief summary of what I’ve been up to on the content creation front:
Press Releases
Creating buzz for a fast growing commercial real estate and property management firm in South Jersey. Weekly press releases aim to establish the firm’s strong presence as a leader in the region. I think it’s working, because the founder was recently recognized by South Jersey Biz magazine as one of the area’s top entrepreneurs.
Website Redesign and Blogging
I recently worked with an Austin commercial real estate firm to help redesign their website. We brought this site up to date by adding a property search feature, online contact form, and more dynamic look and feel.
We also set up a blog so that the company can share insights, money-saving tips, and information that will help tenants and landlords get better results from their real estate deals. Not to mention, it’s great for visibility and SEO.
Online Articles (and more Blogging)
On the residential side, I’ve been tapping into my inner designer through home décor tips and inspiration, as well as covering interior design trends for a brand new site (luanching soon!) I’ve also written articles with useful information on preparing to buy a house and more.
Establishing Best Practices
I do ghost-writing too! From the perspective of real estate professionals, I recently created a series of 10 thought pieces that help establish best practices and build knowledge for those in the field.
Articles targeted to new real estate agents, established brokers, and agent teams covered how to grow and manage real estate teams, hiring for teams, how to prep for an open house, how to build a real estate “farm”, working with HOAs, marketing tips, and more.
Real Estate Content Writing Services
Real Estate industry research
Press releases
Blogs
Media kits
Brochures
Presentations
Social media
Email marketing
Online articles
Related Services & Specialties
Website development or redesign
Editorial and content calendar (topic development)
Content management and web publishing
Content distribution – sharing on social media, LinkedIn, email, to contact lists, etc.
Sourcing royalty-free images for blogs
Digital presence consulting
Not sure why content marketing is important to your business? Check this out…
To request samples or a consultation, contact me here:
No matter what you do, your job is to tell your story. — Gary Vaynerchuk
A major aspect of growing any business is developing a great brand. And the number one way to build a great brand is with great content.
Top brands use content to tell an evolving story, while sprinkling in their knowledge and expertise in the field, product benefits, or how their service will make your life easier. In other words, the story comes first. What you’re selling comes second.
The story comes first. What you’re selling comes second.
By consistently and continuously telling your unique story, you will separate yourself from the competition, which means you can charge more than your competitors.
With so much competition in the marketplace today, it’s easy to become just another [insert product or service here]. Becoming “just another” is the fast track to becoming a commodity in the minds of your customer — a commodity is something that is easy to come by and thus, doesn’t have a lot of value (like water, bubblegum and plastic bags.)
Use Content to Tell your Brand’s Story
To make your story interesting, you should focus not just on what you do – but WHY you do what you do. In other words, what is the passion and mission behind your brand, and even more importantly to the customer – how do you help them?
Most people are looking for products or services that make their lives easier, save them time, or create a positive emotion (such as in the case of luxury brands, hotel rooms, and travel experiences).
By showing the customer exactly how you make their lives easier, save them time, or make them happy – through content such as blog posts, graphics, email newsletters, videos, photos, and the pages on your website – you’ll create value in your ideal customer’s eyes and will remain at top-of-mind until they are ready, willing and able to buy your product or use your service.
Tell Your Brand’s Macro and Micro Stories
Within a strong business brand, there are two types of stories: (1) the macro story, and (2) micro-stories.
A macro story is the overarching narrative you want to communicate to your ideal clients.
The key to developing a meaningful and memorable macro story is putting the WHY of your services front and center, followed by the HOW and perhaps the WHAT. It’s easy for business owners to focus on the WHAT – when in fact this is the least important part of your story.
Within your macro story, there are many micro stories — more specific topics that flesh out your macro story and personalize your brand.
Here are some examples of great brand stories (in my own words):
REI
Macro story: We help people get out and enjoy the outdoors.
Micro stories: We sell gear that is designed for trails, slopes, and waterways and our products are fitted with efficient, lightweight and innovative features. We also support conservation efforts nationwide and send volunteer missions to help clean up and rebuild local habitats.
Whole Foods
Macro story: We are America’s healthiest grocery store.
Micro stories: We maintain the strictest quality standards in the industry by selling only foods that are free from additives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats. We support sustainable agriculture and we also make eating healthy fun through recipes and meal ideas.
Notice that in both cases, the product is not mentioned at all in the macro story.
If you’re an auto repair shop, your macro story might be that you help drivers get back on the road quickly and safely. But your micro story (or stories) are the details of how you do it – what processes you use, what kind of specialized expertise you offer, or what benefits and guarantees you provide to the customer that differentiate you from the competition.
You may have noticed, there’s a psychological effect at play here: The more people know about your professional and personal story, the deeper they’ll connect with you, and the more they’ll trust you.
As a business owner, you’re looking for ways to improve visibility and remain at top-of-mind with your customers.
If you’ve heard that a blog or other content marketing can draw traffic to your website, you heard right! But that’s not the only reason blogging is awesome for your business.
Content marketing in the form of a blog builds trust with your customers, educates them, and gives the SEO bots fresh new content to index (and they LOVE fresh new content). It also humanizes your brand and catches readers who are in the research phase – aka lead generation.
If your website’s blog has been sitting there for weeks without an update, it’s time to consider content writing services. If your business doesn’t have a blog at all, it’s DEFINITELY time to hire a writer.
You Know You Need to Write Web Content … But You Don’t Have Time
You probably have a content piece that you started writing a few months ago and then never finished. Or maybe you have an idea that’s been swirling around in your head, but you haven’t had the time to sit down and write it.
If you know you need to create meaningful content for your site’s blog, but you just don’t have the time, then it’s time to consider hiring a content writer.
A skilled content writer can save you boatloads of time, and time is money. A good content writer will stick to deadlines and keep your editorial calendar on track. After all, we don’t get paid unless the work is done.
You Don’t Know What to Write About
Some business owners have plenty of ideas and no time. Others have no time, and no ideas. If you know you need to write web articles to draw traffic to your site but don’t know what to write about, you need an experienced blogger.
As a web copywriter with over 10 years of experience and hundreds of blog articles under my belt, I can help you identify the topics that your ideal client is searching for. I can also take your ideas, even if it’s just a few bullet points, and whip it into a sparkly new lead gen tool in the form of a blog, email, website page, lead magnet, or all of the above.
Tell a Compelling Brand Story
A good copywriter does more than just fill pages on your website. The right content writer can fine-tune your message and create a clear mission across your social media, website, emails and ads.
Your brand story is perhaps the most important piece of your marketing strategy. Even more important than WHAT you do is WHY and HOW you do it. The why and how are what makes up your brand story, and your brand story is what makes your ideal customer trust you, like you, and ultimately buy from you.
As a copywriter and digital media specialist, I’ll help you figure out what your brand’s own story is, and then help you scream it from the mountaintops!
Get a Fresh Perspective
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read a business’ blog or website and thought to myself “What the heck are they talking about”? Especially in industries like real estate, finance and tech, it’s easy to fall back on industry jargon.
I get it – when you work in your business everyday, you’re so in tune with the topic that what you write seems to make perfect sense. But it may not make sense to your customer.
Good marketing content is easy for the everyday reader to understand. A content writer can spot industry jargon, or “cop speak” from a mile away and brings a fresh perspective that you often need.
My specialty happens to be turning complex subjects into plain English. I can help you create clear, concise content that people actually want to read.
Copywriters Write Content that Converts
As a business owner, you know what your customer wants, their pain points, and what sets you apart from your competitors. But you probably don’t know how to turn that into a compelling brand story. A content writer does.
A good content writer knows how to write specifically for the web, how to keep fickle web readers on your page and MAKE THEM CLICK THAT BUTTON!
As a content writer, I will take your business knowledge and turn it into something to the point and effective. In other words, something magical.
Writing effective content for the web is nothing like writing short stories, essays, or any other kind of writing. It’s a special skill, and we content writers pride ourselves on nailing it, every time.
Fill out the form below to schedule a free consultation about your content marketing needs.
First of all, you may or may not know that I am a digital nomad since January 2017 and am currently working from various locations around Europe. It’s pretty awesome!
The other day I was at the morning fish market in Hamburg, Germany (eating fish sandwiches at 7am is an experience I highly recommend, by the way) and I noticed that among the many booths, some of the sellers were yelling out their prices to passersby. Those same sellers were also singing songs, joking with the crowd of people gathered around, and generally seemed to have a lot of personality.
I would dare to wager that those guys sold more fish than the other booths. Why? Because they stood out.
My theory comes from one of the basic principles of sales – Selling is all about relationship-building.
In the case of these fish vendors, their boldness allowed them to stand out, which created a starting point of interaction with these potential customers.
Build Relationships to Make More Sales
This experience got me thinking about sales reps in general, and how critical being memorable, standing out, and building relationships are to making a sale. It’s important to note that if you own a business then you are, in fact, a sales rep.
If you focus solely on what your product or service is or does, you risk blending in with all the others who provide your same service or sell the same product.
But by creating a personalized experience through conversations with your customers – whether that conversation is in the form of an online survey, a blog post, a video or a song – they get to know you better and in turn, begin to see you as a human with a personality, and not a sales person they are trying to avoid.
This is the first step to building lasting relationships with your customers.
Personalization Makes You Memorable
If you’re creating memorable experiences, hopefully you’re doing it in a positive way. Another common wisdom in the sales world – people buy from people they like.
If your potential customers like you, then they’re more likely to trust you, and people buy from people they trust.
When you leave the fish market you may think back on the souvenirs you saw, the coffee you bought (a godsend at that early hour), the vendors selling baskets of fruit and the beer being drunk in the live music hall. Yes, you read that right. Germany is an amazing place.
Naturally, in a fish market, you’ll have seen more fish vendors than anything else – dozens in fact. Which ones will you remember? Probably the ones that sing songs and make friends with passersby.
How will you stand out and add your personality to the marketplace?
This Applies to Your Business Too
Sure, selling fish is nowhere near as complex as getting someone to use your legal services or sign up for a monthly software service – but the principle remains the same. Stand out in a positive way, and you’re more likely to get the business.
We’re all being sold to all the time, and there are multiple providers of nearly every service or product out there. How you differentiate yourself and stand out to your customers will affect their decision to buy from YOU and not the other guy.
In 2017 personalization in marketing automation got smarter and smarter. It was a big year for Facebook and LinkedIn groups, and it was the year Instagram Stories exploded. With the shift to 2018 comes changes in digital marketing, whether we’re ready or not. New digital marketing strategies are entering the marketplace every day, as technologies emerge and user behaviors demand a more integrated experience. How will your company evolve this year?
Here, 4 International Experts share how 2017 shaped the world of digital marketing, and what they think will be the biggest trends to watch in 2018.
Liam Hennessy – Digital Marketing Strategist/Media Analyst, 6H Media
I think customer service (or “customer experience”) very slowly crept in and has started to dominate the domain of marketers as well. Since social media allows real-time interactions with brands, last year it became all the more important for companies to keep a friendly and informative face.
In terms of SEO there are some interesting indicators: “linkless” mentions of brands on sites may very well become a Google ranking factor (this is already the case on Bing). The recent collapse of net neutrality in the States, however, could very much be a game-changer in terms of content marketing and SEO. ISPs may decide to limit website speed and content unless users pay premium, having considerably adverse effects on SEO efforts in the USA. Should this be the case, marketers may have to get very creative and technical about displaying their content on the slowest speeds. On an international scale, however, this is unlikely to be an issue – at least for the time being.
Liam is a digital marketing strategist, copywriter and general lover of wine and travelling.
For nearly a decade now, mobile has been the next big thing in digital advertising, and for nearly a decade now it has not lived up to the hype. While there is no denying the growth in mobile consumption, and its value in a balanced marketing plan, it has simply been another screen for text and banner ads. That changed for me in 2017 however, with Google’s integration of Nearby Notifications on Android devices. Now it’s easier than ever to reach consumers on mobile screens, and connect online advertising with in-store engagement. While location data has been available for years, integration into the OS means there are no special apps required. On top of that, there are no media fees associated with the Nearby Notifications.
Looking ahead to 2018…this will be the year of Amazon. Not only has it established itself as the bottom of the funnel for retailers, but it has emerged from the 2017 holiday rumble as the leader in smart home technology and services. With a recent announcement of the expansion of its search and video advertising products, Amazon has put the industry on notice. They have the platform, the consumers, and the cash to disrupt in 2018.
Kahuna Marketing is an online advertising agency based in Hawaii.
I think particularly in the digital media discipline data remains king. We historically backed ourselves into a data corner and I don’t foresee us breaking free of that. At first people were not convinced that spending advertising dollars online was a good idea, but now according to recode as of 2017 digital ad spending (41%) has surpassed TV ad spending (35%) for the lion’s share of media spend and it is predicted to make up 50% of ad spending by 2020. In addition to users spending more time digitally, I believe that a major contributor in convincing Advertisers to spend their media budgets digitally is the accountability that digital provides.
CTR (click through rate) was the early holy grail of digital KPIs (key performance indicators). I believe this was the wedge that helped break open the digital media door because we were able to point to hard numbers and say “X amount of impressions drove Y clicks for a CTR of Z” and thus measuring the impact of advertising down to an impression-level was introduced. As with anything (especially anything digital) in order to remain relevant, it must evolve which I think has been a continued obstacle for our digital media discipline.
It is a process; for example, CTR (click through rate) is no longer the end-all-be-all when it comes to measuring digital media’s impact/effectiveness. Now we have to have a lot of conversations around how CTR and Conversion Rates often are not positively correlated or how CTR and Video Completion Rates often have an inverse relationship because one either clicks or completes the view, not both. We’ve evolved enough to know that CTR is no longer the all-inclusive metric to measure the impact of digital media, but we also haven’t replaced it.
We also often have predicaments where a Client wants a cool, integrated Native brand awareness buy, but expects that to drive the same ROAS (return on ad spend) as a programmatic buy, which is not likely but also isn’t to say the Native buy wouldn’t be effective. So we need more understanding that different digital media tactics yield different results and a better data-backed understanding to show how it all works together.
All that to say, we did see some advancements in 2017 in terms of telling a more of a complete story with cross-device data and “closing the loop” offline with more accurate location-based data and in some cases being able to directly tie back to offline purchase data.
This is great and much more advanced than traditional media, but it is also problematic because we’ve set this expectation that we’re measuring everything. However, in reality, the data we currently have only tells us bits and pieces of the whole story. We are still a long way from where we want to be, albeit digital does tell much more of the story than traditional media. Which isn’t to discount traditional media because it all plays a role and works together, but traditional media hasn’t historically had to sing for its’ supper the same way digital has. Digital has built its’ worth on its’ accountability and therefore the responsibility lies on its’ shoulders.
So for the love of all things pixelated, I hope we see an accurate, digestible, platform agnostic, reasonably priced attribution-modeling tool emerge in 2018. I’m also curious to see how we go about tracking and measuring ads in the emerging AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality) and Hologram, etc. worlds in the (near) future.
Rachael is owner of Rachael Piper Consulting, specializing in Digital Media since 2012.
I really felt a turn operating in marketing in 2017: from faceless corporations and brands, we switched to a more personalized approach in targeting, but also in messaging.
With plenty of new tools & technologies – chatbot, re-targeting, Facebook ads – it is now possible, more than ever, to make your marketing highly targeted.
But technology without strategy is useless. If your marketing is bad offline, it’ll be bad online as well – the only difference is, more people will see it. Global brands are only starting to understand this, but when you’re mainly online – like in my clients’ and my case – it is crucial to have a clearly defined and powerful marketing identity.
On a global level, marketing switched from B2B and B2C to a « H2H » approach: a Human to Human one. Personal branding has been growing immensely this year: we don’t talk only about business anymore, but we talk about people (us and our customers) and to people. We brand ourselves but not in a corporate, polished way.
We also stopped selling and started building relationships instead. Relationships based on value first, with content strategies at their core. Yes, the goal is always to get clients and make money. But it’s done in a different, subtle way. To get people’s trust, you first need them to believe in your expertise and that’s exactly what content does.
Facebook groups are certainly a proof of all of this: mixing personal and professional interests, they allow like-minded individuals to connect and support each other. But (even) more than a community, they’re also a fantastic branding tool to use. Facebook groups are the ideal combination of personal branding, relationship building and content creation and represent to me perfect illustration of the year 2017.
I definitely believe that 2018 will bring even more depth to personal branding, storytelling and putting value first – and also more opportunities to make it sustainable and scalable.
We’ll make a step further down the road of authenticity, taking a learner approach instead of an expert one. Saying we’re struggling when we are struggling, showing people the not-so-glamourous side of managing a business and a brand is, as surprising at it may seems, what is going to get us more clients.
Showing vulnerability is what makes us connect as human beings. Being authentically you in how you run but also market your business is what’ll make you stand out. It’s a step forward in relationships building, a more intimate one.
Technology-wise, I see Instagram & Facebook stories allowing just this. These snippets of your daily life will make you and your brand appear more human, more lively, more relatable. Whatever you choose to share, don’t overthink it and be as natural as can be – because you’re the best at being you. They’re a powerful tool to reach an audience and get them to like and trust you easily – and it’s pretty fun to do!
I also see chatbots playing a major role in 2018. It’s relationship-building scaled to a whole new level. Of course, chatbot in and of themselves won’t make or break a business. But they might just be the piece that makes your audience turn into customer. Being able to deliver content directly to a client’s Messenger is really, really powerful.
In 2018, you’ll want to have a place in your ideal client’s daily life while not spending too much time doing so – which means automating and speaking to an audience. If you follow these two rules, then 2018 will be the year of your marketing breakthrough!
