Are You Fascinating Enough to Be a Content Marketer?

If you work closely with someone with bright pink hair, you might begin to question whether you are interesting enough to contribute your thoughts to the topic at hand.

Followings on the internet are built on memorability, right?

I mean, if you don’t give high-energy talks like Gary Vaynerchuk, dress on-brand like Mari Smith, or sport a high-voltage cranium like Michael Port, how will people know you exist?
Not that I’ve ever had any of those thoughts.

Is having an indelible personal brand a requirement for content marketing success? If you don’t have that, should you throw in the towel before you start?

Building a platform around your personality

There’s a conversation I’ve had multiple times with some of the most well-known people online.
People who — if you met them — might make you a little nervous. You might feel like you were in the presence of a celebrity!

Here’s how the conversation goes:

“I know I’m well-known within this group. But my family still doesn’t understand what I do. I talk to my neighbors and they say, ‘So, you make money on the internet? How does that work?’ And if all my ‘fans’ could see me in my day-to-day life they wouldn’t get so nervous talking to me.”

The internet gives us a place to build our own mini “kingdoms” of celebrity that we reign over. This process was much more difficult to do just 10-15 years ago. But now, we can gather our tribes, build our audiences, and develop our fan bases using strategic content marketing.

It’s a valid approach to an online business. But it’s not the only one.

Building a platform around your business idea

Traditionally, brands were developed to depict a product, service, or a movement — not a person.

In this more traditional approach to brand building, you identified a group you wanted to serve and you developed a brand they could connect to emotionally. The brand represented a series of experiences that would be delivered by interacting with the business.

This approach to brand building has some distinct advantages and some challenges.

The advantages:

You can craft a brand name that markets your business

When you carefully develop your brand name from scratch, you can easily associate it with the benefits you’ll deliver.

It’s less expensive to market the business

Proper names don’t say anything about your business offering, so you’ll need to spend more time and money establishing what the business is about when you base it on a proper name.

Brands built on a business idea (rather than a name) are easier to sell

If your long-term plan is to build a business you sell, it’s easier to sell a business that’s not associated with a proper name.

There are some challenges to think about with each approach:

It’s more difficult to put a human face on a set of words

When your business is built around your proper name, all you have to do is show up and the human face of your business shines through. Not so with a more traditional brand.

You have to be relentlessly present in your business when it revolves around your name

So you built a brand based on your own name. Need a vacation? Want to take a break? The show cannot go on without you. No pressure, but … it’s all riding on you.

Can you build a brand that’s the best of both worlds?

Yes, you can. And this is where content marketing comes in.

If you decide to avoid the sticky challenges that come with building a brand around your name, you can go the traditional route and build a brand around what you’ll deliver to your customers.

Examples:

Wellness Mama: Simple answers for healthier families
The Creative Penn: Resources to help you write, publish, and market your book
No Meat Athlete: Runs on plants
Copy Hackers: Convert like a mofo

These brands state exactly what they deliver in their names. And they back that up with consistent, high-quality content marketing that delivers on the promises made by the brand names and taglines.

That’s the way to have the best of both worlds: create a brand name based on a promised experience, then use content to deliver your promise today, tomorrow, and next year.

How to 10x your fascination quotient in one easy step!

You may not have vibrant pink hair on the top of your head. And you may not be beautifully bald, either.

Those qualities help your audience pick you out in a crowded room. But online, you know what really stands out?

Content that’s in tune with what an audience needs. Content that consistently serves the people who read it. Content that delivers time after time.

Feeling like you’re not quite fascinating enough to make it as a content marketer?

Find a way to be of service. Create useful, engaging, high-quality content. Go above and beyond to stand out from the crowd with your in-depth, helpful information.

That’s the brand of fascinating we need more of online.

PS: I just finished writing a book called Master Content Marketing: A Simple Strategy to Cure the Blank Page Blues and Attract a Profitable Audience. It will be released next month. Until then, I’m going to share excerpts and ideas from the book so you can start benefiting from it now. Watch this space.


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Skip Marketing 101 and Read This Instead

 As a small business owner, you understand how complicated running a business is. You’re the chief operating officer, bookkeeper, recruiter, trainer, top salesperson, office manager, and head of marketing — which is why you don’t have time to sit through a Marketing 101 class.

You know marketing is a critical component of your business success, and you need easy, fast tactics that will bring quick, impressive results. Instead of attending a seminar or reading a 500-page book, here are the top eight things you should know about marketing your small business:

1. Not marketing is not an option.

No matter how great your product or service is, it won’t sell itself. You’re going to need some advertising, promotions, publicity, email, or social media, and most likely a combination of all those things. Not sure where to start? A good rule of thumb is to look at what your competitors are doing and where they’re doing it. Is your chief competition advertising in the local newspaper? Are they all over Facebook? Have they totally missed opportunities on Twitter? Are they under-utilizing their website? Identify channels where you’ll need to go head-to-head, and look for opportunities your competition may be missing.

2. Online display advertising can have a big impact for little cost.

Your budget is probably as tight as your schedule, so it’s important to get the most impact for each dollar you spend. Online advertising is a great option for small businesses because it can achieve widespread distribution for less money than you might spend on traditional ad channels like radio, TV, and print. Check out our blog on choosing the right display advertising network to learn more about online advertising.

3. Play on people’s love of events.

Buzzwords like “experiential marketing” may make it seem like this is something new, but marketing with events like in-store promotions has been around for as long as there have been brick-and-mortar businesses. That’s because promotions and events reward the people who are already coming into your store, and draw in new customers who may be shopping with you for the first time. Events like ribbon-cuttings, fundraisers, and customer appreciation days help build awareness and brand visibility. Plus, events play on one of your core strengths as a small business — the face-to-face interactions that your customers just can’t get from a mega-business. Read our blog on ways to promote your small business event.

4. Make the most of your website.

It goes without saying (or it should) that you have a company website. But if it’s only a glorified business listing, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful, cost-effective tools for marketing your small business. An engaging website not only gives current and potential customers important information about your business — such as your location, hours of operations, products, and services — it can be a vibrant sales portal and a channel for gathering customer data. Your website is far too important to have an amateur look or feel, so have your website designed by a professional.

5. Email marketing is the new direct mail.

In the old days, a small business would either pay big bucks to purchase a mailing list and have a direct mail piece professionally designed, or spend countless hours to generate the list and piece themselves. Either route could prove fruitless if the piece was poorly designed and the list was inaccurate or irrelevant. Email is far more cost-effective than the old ways of doing things. Free email tools like VerticalResponse makes it easy to design professional, effective, and mobile-responsive emails, compile and manipulate mailing lists, sign up new email subscribers through your website, and track results.

6. Social media is the new word of mouth.

Social media has made it easier than ever for customers to praise or criticize your small business. What’s more, social media has created communities of like-minded consumers where shareability amplifies the value of your marketing messages. Even better — you don’t have to pay to reach your customers via their favorite social media platforms. Yet it’s also important to strategize your social media campaigns so that you’re reaching your target audience with relevant information through their preferred channels. Check out our blog for useful tips on how to expand your social media presence.

7. Win with loyalty rewards.

Nearly every company seems to have a loyalty rewards program these days, so it’s easy to forget that the concept originated with small businesses. When the local baker slipped an extra cupcake in your mom’s order, or the florist threw in a pretty vase because your dad always bought flowers there — that was loyalty marketing! As a small business owner, you’re uniquely positioned to maximize the value of a loyalty program, because you’re already building loyalty in face-to-face interactions with your customers. Starting a rewards program can be as simple as offering a punch card that rewards shoppers with merchandise after they fill the card. The key is to give customers relevant rewards and make it easy for them to earn those rewards, so they’ll always have a reason to come back.

8. Build a network of relationships.

When you’re wearing your sales hat, you’re probably thinking “always be closing.” When you’re acting as chief financial officer, you’re thinking about minimizing costs and maximizing profits. Whatever hat you wear at any time of day, you should always be building a network of relationships with your customers, other businesses, and other business owners. Joining and participating in local networking organizations is a great way to build professional relationships with other businesses, such as by offering a discount to workers at nearby shops. Or send a stack of coupons to the HR department of the area’s biggest employers and suggest the coupons be used as performance rewards for their employees.

You could spend a lifetime educating yourself on how to market your small business — and maybe down the road you’ll even have time to take that Marketing 101 class! For now, however, these eight strategies will help you create a solid base for your small business marketing efforts.

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5 Simple Email Opt-In Strategies

EMAIL is the secret weapon of many successful businesses and internet entrepreneurs.  While social media marketing has received a great deal of (deserved) attention for elevating brand identity; it isn’t as powerful as the email when it comes to driving people to take action. 

Capturing email addresses and creating an audience of email readers will take you and your business to the next level.  Let’s take a look at why email is so important and the best recipe for building a better audience for your email marketing efforts.

First, Why Email is SO Important

Here’s why: people still guard their email inboxes.  They will not give their addresses to just anyone.  Because of this, they are much more likely to read and engage with the emails that they do get.  In addition, your email is not competing with games, funny memes, or a friend’s new baby.  It’s just your message laid out there for a ready and willing group of subscribers who are actually interested in what you have to say.

By the numbers…

Email has shown to blow other online marketing methods out of the water when it comes to ROI. Litmus reported $40 ROI for every $1 spent on email marketing, while keyword ads only return $17 per dollar, and banner ads a small $2 per dollar. Let’s also talk conversion rates. Email has been reported to offer a 4.16% conversion rate, whereas search results offer 2.64%, and social media converts at less than 1%.  So now that you have an understanding of the reasons to invest in email marketing, here is how to grow your email list.

The Best Strategy

The following ways are tried-and-tested ways to get the coveted email addresses of your potential customers. As we said, people keep their emails more guarded, so you will need to offer incentives and position your request strategically.

1. Prioritize Your Opt-In Form

First, your opt-in form should be a priority when it comes to the design of your site. These little forms allow you access to the golden list which converts higher than any other channel and offers the highest ROI for goodness sakes, make it the first thing visitors see! Here is an example from the 7 for all Mankind website, a company that sells high-end jeans.

Three seconds after arriving at their site, pop! Up comes the email opt-in with a 10% off incentive and a promise of exclusive offers, updates, competitions, and in-store events. Not only that, they help to segment their customers by gathering gender information. Take notes marketers, they’ve got it right. But, how about the customers that aren’t sold right off the bat and don’t opt in?

2. Ask for Subscriptions on the Bottom of Every Page

In order to get the most subscribers from your website or blog, you need to make an offer to subscribe at the bottom of each page. Now, each of these offers should not be like the rest. You want to customize call-to-actions according to the content on the page. For example, if you have a page explaining actionable steps a customer can take to achieve a goal, you might add an opt-in like the one below at the bottom of the page.

Make opting in easy and make the offers relevant to the situation your visitor is in.

3. Site Registration

Of course, one of the easiest way to collect email addresses is when a visitor registers for your website. Juniper reported 77% of marketers report site registration to be effective for building a large, quality email list. Similar to how Facebook requires a registration to sign up, or eBay when you are trying to make a purchase, your site should register users with their email addresses too. In the site registration form, or e-commerce forms for that matter, you want to provide an opt-in option for visitors to receive continuous emails. Be sure to incentivize your opt-in so visitors are more likely to agree.  Here’s an example of this tactic on H&M’s website.

Note how they incentivize their offer by saying “exclusive offers”. Who wouldn’t want exclusive offers, right!? They also collect information to segment their audience, as the 7 for all Mankind opt-in did above, including fields for gender, location, and even an interest in kids wear.

4. Use Social Media

Next up is social media. Social media is a great tool to reach far and wide and attract new customers. It is also a place to build your email list. Opt-in forms can be placed on your social media sites to call followers to action. Here is an example of what that looks like on Facebook from Salesforce’s Facebook page.

When you click on that “Sign up” button, you are taken to this page to complete the email opt-in. Adding email opt-in buttons on your social media profiles can help you move your audience from social media down the buying funnel to a place where they will click through and convert.

Social media is also great for running contests. You can offer a prize and require signing up with email in order to qualify to win. Here’s a great blog about 10 social media contests that generated a total of 10,000 emails for the respective companies.

5. Create a Free Course or Other Downloadable Content

Last but not least, a free course is a great way to engage your audience and earn their email address. What can you teach? Well, what industry are you in? What is your expertise? What do your customers want from you? You can share some of your coveted expertise on a topic people commonly ask about in your industry. Courses can be in written, audio, or video form. Here is an example from a page on Neil Patel’s Quicksprout website.

On this blog, which targets an audience who is having trouble converting SEO traffic, he has the side banner offering his free course (valued at $300) on increasing traffic. It is free in exchange for a simple email address. Note how the blog and course have the same target audience and the course reinforces the blog. This is a great way to get more email subscribers.

Another note is that these offers don’t have to be limited to courses, you can offer an infographic (as shown below), a downloadable whitepaper or PDF, a report, etc. in exchange for the email address.

If you give visitors a reason to give you their email address, and something in exchange, they are less likely to hesitate.

There you have it, the best recipe for building your email marketing audience comes down to strategically placed opt in’s with incentivized messaging. As shown in these examples, you need to be funneling visitors toward your email list from many angles. The main takeaways to remember are:

• Opt-ins Should be Highly Visible
• Opt-ins Should be Frequent
• Opt-ins Should be Relevant
• Incentives! Incentives! Incentives!

Best of luck on building your golden list!

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Here’s How to Find the Right Mix and Fine-Tune Your Offer

Have you ever wondered if your strange collection of skills and interests could be woven together to build a profitable business?

If you have, you’ll love today’s Hero’s Journey article.

Lauren Pawell is a rare breed: she has a background in development and marketing. That’s a combination you don’t see every day!

Some people might have encouraged Lauren to choose one field or the other. But she persisted and has built a business that artfully combines her many passions.

Lauren’s story is this month’s Hero’s Journey feature. We’re tapping the collective wisdom of our community members to bring you reports from the front lines of the content marketing world. See all the Hero’s Journey posts here.

Read on as Lauren shares what she’s learned over the years and how you can use her hard-earned wisdom in your own business.

Building a one-stop revenue-building shop

Lauren Pawell: What sets Bixa Media apart is my background in both development and marketing. This allows me to sit at the intersection of business, technology and design.

We help entrepreneurs turn their WordPress and Shopify websites into revenue-generating powerhouses. We do that through a mixture of website design and development, content marketing, search engine optimization, paid advertising, and online reputation management.

Not only can we write killer copy, but we can also evaluate your technology options, decide which is best for your needs, and build everything for you, while keeping your business objectives at the forefront of the process.

I find our clients really value having a partner who can help them from A to Z.

Perhaps more importantly, we’re able to tell our clients where not to waste their dollars and effort, and where to focus their resources.

Even if this doesn’t always match what a client had in mind, our honest feedback resonates with business owners.

We offer two types of services:

• 1:1 online marketing services: For medium-sized businesses who are looking to outsource their online marketing, we offer a variety of services designed to amplify their online exposure and generate more customers.
• DIY programs: For small businesses or solopreneurs who don’t yet have the resources to outsource their marketing, we offer educational marketing programs through Websites That Generate.

My business is primarily online, although I do plenty of networking offline — I find they go hand-in-hand. The offline contact tends to tip the scale in our favor, especially when it comes to securing large contracts.

Putting the brakes on spinning wheels

Lauren Pawell: I started my business for two reasons.

First and foremost, after working in marketing overseas for a few years, I saw so many small-to-medium-sized businesses with a wealth of online opportunity at their fingertips. But they just didn’t have the right guidance.

As a result, they were spinning their wheels in so many different directions with little-to-no impact.

I wanted to help them pick that low-hanging digital fruit, so that they could continue to grow their businesses and entrepreneurial dreams.

So, in 2011, I moved back to the United States, booked my first client at a friend’s birthday party (notice that offline touchpoint!), and haven’t looked back since.

The best part of that story? Our first client still works with us today and has gone from a one-man business to a 20+ person company. Now that is why I started Bixa!

I don’t share the second reason with many people, but I feel it will resonate with the Copyblogger audience.

In 2011, I had been through one-too-many bad bosses and was tired of not being in charge of my own destiny, from both a personal and career standpoint. That freedom I craved drove me to start my own company.

My driving motivation is to help other entrepreneurial spirits achieve the same freedom I have.

Conversion experiments that paid off

Lauren Pawell: Converting cold traffic into qualified leads is a finicky beast, especially when it comes to selling online education.

It’s not hard to understand why — cold traffic doesn’t immediately pull out their wallets. It took quite a bit of trial and error to dial in our lead-nurturing process, but we did it.

A few highlights:

We use Facebook ads as our hook

A new email subscriber generated from a Facebook ad was not likely to immediately jump up and buy our program. However, when we started to establish trust and demonstrate our authority through a few different mediums, we were far more successful.

Here’s what we do:

First, we run the new subscriber through a long welcome series over email. We send them 7 emails over 20 days, all of which include a lot of copy. It helps us weed out unqualified leads.

While in many approaches we did not want a lot of unsubscribes, in this case, we welcome them. It allows us to filter out anyone who doesn’t immediately love us.

After this, we direct the subscriber to our private Facebook community

There we share weekly educational content over video and give 1:1 feedback, similar to what they would experience in our course. This also helps establish us as a trusted and authoritative figure.

Then, we deliver free educational webinars on specific topics

This helps the subscriber better understand their problem and the solution they need to transform their situation.

Finally, we open our doors periodically

Last, but not least, we sell our program through email during specific times of the year, and are available on live chat to answer any questions the prospects have. (This, again, is similar to our course experience).

Some may say we give away too much for free, but I find this really helps us find great students. Plus, it allows our Facebook ad spend to generate far more ROI.

When we didn’t follow this solution and jumped straight from Facebook ads to a webinar to a sales email, our conversion rates weren’t great. Now, they are stellar.

So, if you feel like you are wasting dollars on Facebook ad spend, consider the rest of your funnel. Now that we know what works, it’s far easier to justify scaling up our marketing spend.

Venturing into online education (one validated step at a time)

Lauren Pawell: In Q2 of this year, I decided to test the idea of online education programs.

I wanted to be less reliant on 1:1 client work, which can be unpredictable. And I wanted to help all the entrepreneurs we were turning away due to a full calendar on our end, and limited resources on their end.

To validate the idea, we began being incredibly transparent about our marketing tactics.

We educated our audience through a number of mediums, notably: email, online webinars, and a private Facebook community.

I believed that through great educational content, we could:

• Empower solopreneurs, allowing them to achieve quick wins in their businesses
• Determine whether there was a demand for our DIY programs

This effort has been quite successful. We recently presold an educational course (before it was created) that our audience was begging for.

By validating an idea through free content first, we were then able to dedicate the resources to creating paid educational programs. A course takes a lot of front-loaded work, especially content creation. The last thing I wanted to do was create a program no one wanted.

As an added benefit of this education-first approach, when 1:1 prospects come through the door, they are already sold on working with us. Because they already understand the “why” behind our recommendations, the selling is 90 percent done by the time we write a proposal.

The Rainmaker Digital products Lauren uses

Lauren Pawell: We use quite a few Rainmaker Digital products, including:

• Rainmaker Platform to power our online courses and membership programs at Websites That Generate
• Genesis Framework + StudioPress themes to power clients’ websites
• Copyblogger Authority and Digital Commerce Institute to continue learning and engaging with the community

I also happen to be a new Copyblogger Certified Content Marketer. And I’m attending the upcoming Digital Commerce Summit in Denver.

So, needless to say, I’m a Rainmaker Digital diehard!

Refining and scaling up for the future

Lauren Pawell: In the final quarter of 2016, we’ll focus on refining our sales funnels and scaling up our DIY programs.

Our educational courses at Websites That Generate haven’t been marketed on our website, or really even promoted outside of email. That’s because I wanted to run a few groups of people through our programs to ensure we really dialed them in.

Now that we’ve gotten the process down, we’re ready to scale up. The first step in that process requires some adjustments to our sales funnel. Then, we can scale up our lead generation through Facebook ads.

An unsolicited piece of advice

Lauren Pawell: If, like me, you’re considering creating an educational program to complement your 1:1 services, I highly recommend the Rainmaker Platform.

All of the technology was so easy to set up, allowing us to focus most of our effort on the course creation and marketing.

When it comes to selling a course and serving your students, the less you have to worry about the technology, the better.

Find Lauren Pawell online …

• Bixa Media
• Websites That Generate

Thanks to Lauren for appearing in our Hero’s Journey series.

Do you have questions for her? Ask them in the comments.


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How to Ruthlessly Cut Worthless Words from Your Sales Copy

When you’re writing sales copy for your business, showing a little personality is a good thing.

It’s also a good idea to use natural language whenever possible, so people know you’re a real person who is genuinely interested in helping your prospects and customers.

I write conversationally when I write copy, and so do a lot of other folks I trust and admire.

However, there are limits to how far you should take that advice.

Are you taking a risk when you use slang?

Unless you have proof that your audience uses slang — and wants to see it in sales copy — you should avoid using it in your persuasive emails, sales pages, and other types of “selling” collateral.

And when I say “slang,” I’m also including alternative spellings, slang abbreviations, and hyperbole.

I know there’s a high probability I sound like an old grandmother shouting at kids to stay off her lawn — but lately I’m seeing this trend more and more frequently in sales copywriting. And I suspect it’s radically decreasing conversions.

Types of slang to avoid in copy

Want to see some examples? These are all words and phrases I’ve recently noticed on sales pages and in emails that were designed to sell me something:

• BOOM!
• Pleez (or worse yet, pleeeeeeeeez)
• OMG
• FREAKING ROCKED
• LOL

Chances are, you’ve got your own list of words that annoy you when you see them in professional writing. My list could go on for a while, but I’ve chosen some of my biggest pet peeves. I wince every time I see those words in an email from a business.

Why you want to avoid them

There’s a compelling reason to avoid slang and abbreviations like the ones on the list above: they often don’t add value to your copy — and can actually distract your prospects.

When your prospective buyers read your sales page and decide whether or not your product is a good fit for them, you don’t want to distract them for a single moment. You want every line of your copy to flow seamlessly into the next, without interruption.

If you sprinkle your sales page with slang and nonsense words, there’s a good chance you’re going to interrupt that flow.

Keep prospects focused on the action you want them to take

You might innocently include “OMG” in your copy in attempt to sound conversational, but prospects could be distracted by that choice and think, “Wait, why does he say ‘OMG’ in the middle of this paragraph?”

If you’re trying to reach people who aren’t native English speakers (or who come from older generations), they might also ask, “What does ‘OMG’ mean?”

At best, the “OMG” is only a temporary distraction that slows down prospects’ decision-making processes as they read. At worst, the slang and misspelled words will turn off readers so much that they abandon your sales page forever — and you’ve just lost them as customers.

Slang words and abbreviations that belong in text messages also don’t add any value to your copy. As sales copywriters, we must choose every word carefully. Every word and phrase on the page needs to pull its weight — slang and overused exclamations like “OMG” just don’t cut it.

Think I’m wrong?

Perhaps in certain circumstances you’re correct — there are exceptions to this rule, of course.

If you performed extensive research and know for certain your prospects use this type of language — and want to see it in sales copy that promotes your product or service — you might be able to get away with using it.

You should test out these words and phrases to see if including them increases your conversion rate.
If they don’t, I recommend cutting them. Even if your prospect tolerates these words and phrases, they’re probably not contributing anything to your copy.

Get more copywriting tips

If you’re looking for more tips on how to make your copy tighter, more readable, and more persuasive, check out Copyblogger’s free ebook Copywriting 101: How to Craft Compelling Copy.
The 90-page ebook is packed full of helpful advice, including more thoughts on audience research and using your prospect’s preferred language.

Do certain words irritate you when you see them in professional copywriting? Or are there any you’re guilty of using (or overusing) yourself? Tell us about it in the comments below.

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Connection Steps that Lead to Customers

Once upon a time, there used to be a division in how people saw the web.

(Way back in 2009, I wrote a blog post about this, calling the two points of view “the cool kids” and “the internet marketers.”)

That division drew a line between online communication that intended to connect and online communication that intended to persuade and sell.

And that distinction was, of course, completely bogus.

As it happens, Brian Clark, Copyblogger’s founder, was an early heretic trying to show people that there was no difference between connection and persuasion.

Connection and persuasion belong together — because they work better together, and because it’s a natural, normal way to communicate and do business.

But as we all know, people don’t just land on your website, feel an instant sense of connection, then rush to your shopping cart and buy something. Although that would be very cool.

As a content marketer, it’s your job to build relevant paths for people to walk through your site, get a sense of what you do, and — if it’s a good fit — go on to become happy, loyal customers.

Connection matters

Good salespeople have always known that connection matters in commercial relationships.

There’s the creepy kind of salesperson who tries to connect but just comes across as clumsy and predatory. And the great kind of salesperson who actually gives a damn about prospects and long-term relationships.

Here’s the great big secret of selling online:

Internet-savvy prospects don’t have to put up with aggravating sales pitches.

Annoyed online users will block your ads. They’ll mark your irritating email as spam. Or they’ll just close the tab and never see you again.

The web gives us wonderful tools to mute the volume on people who get on our nerves. And the first targets for those tools were the salespeople and ads that tried to take our attention for granted.

How do you make that connection that keeps you out of the dreaded spam filter? It starts with being human and helpful.

Becoming a friendly authority

You might notice that we use the term “friendly authority” quite a bit around here.

To clarify, a friendly authority is:

• Not an entertaining train wreck (they’re amusing but untrustworthy)
• Not a monologue-spewing blowhard (they’re boring and offensive)
• Not a pseudo-therapist (they’re unethical and creepy)

Instead: A friendly authority is an intelligent, reasonably sane human being who clearly communicates solutions to problems in your topic.

You don’t have to over-share, and you don’t have to pretend that you’ll never sell anything. (Both of those are actually counterproductive.)

You just have to be useful, interesting, and human.

The conviction bump

If you want to go a step beyond a simple connection of one human to another, you can start thinking about how you communicate your values and the values of your organization.

It makes me sad that “values” have become a cheap buzzword.

I blame horrible mission statements like:

To be the world’s foremost provider of premier product excellence with world-class service and passion, embracing financially responsible frameworks within an optimized matrix that challenges limitations and nurtures creative solutioning …

At best, that gains an eye roll.

But those abstract nouns we call values or beliefs are also what give our lives meaning. They bring organizations and communities together.

Good businesses live by values — whether or not those values are spelled out.

But beyond that, as a writer and content creator, you have values that will help you get better at everything you’re doing today.

If you want a quick exercise you can start right now, pick five values that matter to you. These are concepts like “Family,” “Integrity,” “Freedom,” that kind of thing.

They don’t have to be terribly noble. “Fun” works. So does “Mischief.”

Write a couple of paragraphs about one. Do that with a different value every week. Maybe on Monday mornings.

When you spend a small amount of time thinking about your values, those values will start to make themselves felt in your work. Your writing, your videos, your podcasts, your graphic design, will start to resonate with something beyond the nuts and bolts of your topic.

When you’re connected with your values, you communicate with conviction.

When you communicate with conviction, others feel it — and often they’ll want to connect further.

Conversion follows

Content marketing’s purpose is to make it a whole lot easier to sell stuff.

Thoughtful, well-executed content paves the way for what we want our audience to do — whether that’s buying something, opting in, or some other activity.

We use content to create a context of persuasion, so that when we move toward a business transaction, it makes sense and feels logical and natural.

Does that mean content marketing doesn’t do any selling? Well, only if you absolutely don’t care what your audience does next.

If you’re crafting content as a hobby or to gain attention for something fun, that’s fine.

If you’re crafting content to support a business, it would be great if people bought stuff.

Conversion is what happens when interest turns into action.

Our friends the traditional copywriters are excellent at this step. They have a lot to teach about persuasive language, clear calls to action, reduction of risk, and all those other excellent copywriting topics.

We try to make those topics user-friendly and accessible (even for those who are a bit nervous about selling) right here on Copyblogger.

Conversion uses a different toolkit than connection and conviction do … but that doesn’t mean you’re going to throw your values and your relationships out the window.

Remember that making sales online — particularly in a world of spam filters and ad blocking — is about constructing paths that lead people to your business. All of the stones in each path should fit together.

The more strategic content you create, the more paths you build — and the more business you’ll attract and convert.

If you’re terrific at creating content for the relationship part of the path, but your conversion steps are clumsy or awkward, your users will stumble … and they won’t move forward.

Get education for the whole path, not just one stone

Some marketing education focuses just on conversion techniques — crafting great ads, landing pages, and sales sequences.

Some marketing education focuses just on connection and conviction techniques — earning and nurturing relationships, without any of that pesky selling.

If you want to create content that markets a business — whether it’s your own business, a client’s business, or an organization you work for — you need to hone your skills for the whole path.
That’s what we designed the Authority community of content professionals to do for you.

Our online master classes cover a wide range of topics, including:

• Persuasive copywriting and site design
• The structure of effective content
• Content creation that attracts new customers
• Strategies to nurture prospects and create a better bond with existing customers
• Productivity and mindset management
• Improving the quality of your writing
• Search engine optimization for lasting results

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10 Ways to Grow Instagram Followers and Engagement

“Instagram Famous” is a term that has worked its way in to social media lexicon.
Forget the YouTube stars of the past – it’s all about how many followers, likes and comments everyone can garner from the endless recesses of the internet. And claiming your favorite celeb as another member of your own personal fan club is now cooler than a Grammy, just sayin’.
But you can’t buy fame.
There’s plenty of hacks and shortcuts and “sketchy” companies out there claiming to be able to double your following in seconds or share a delicious secret to instant Instagram fame that everyone else just happened to overlook.
Don’t believe any of it.
When Momma said there’s no substitute for an honest day’s work, she was actually right.
Here’s 10 ways to grow your Instagram following and engagement the new old fashioned way.

1. Keep your photos consistent with your brand

Your Instagram is an extension of your business and your brand, so make sure that the photos you post stay true to what you’re all about. People that follow you chose to do so because there’s something they like about your brand. They want more of it, so give it to them.
Think about what your brand is all about. What words best define and describe it? Keep your images aligned to those core traits.

For instance, a high-brow interior design company would want to focus on modern, minimalist photos of chic living spaces that exemplify good taste and clean lines. If an account like that were to include images of the mess after a crazy office party or someone’s fabulous-looking salad the overall theme would be completely disrupted.
Consistency in photos will keep attracting the right kind of followers, ones who appreciate your brand and who will thoughtfully engage. It also demonstrates professionalism and your authority as an expert in your space.

2. Focus on liking and commenting on photos within your niche

When someone gives you a compliment, you want to give them one back, right?
It’s kinda like that on Instagram, too.
One of the best ways to get people coming to your Instagram and seeing what you’re all about is by liking or commenting on a photo on their page so they can follow your handle back to your account. And hopefully, like or comment on your photo or maybe even follow you.
Carve out the time to find accounts within your niche market and like 5-10 photos and leave a comment or two. Every day.
Why is focusing on accounts within your niche so important? Because they’re managed by the people most likely to be interested enough in your brand to like or comment back.
Think about it – if you’re a beverage brand and you go liking and commenting all over a footwear designer’s Instagram, chances are that followers on that page are more interested in something to add to their closets, not their refrigerators. So your chances of engaging with the right people on there would be slim.

3. Captions matter, seriously

Of course Instagram is image-based. Everyone knows that.
But how many times have you gone to like or comment on that hilarious cat photo…only to be so annoyed by the lack of wit in the comment that you can’t even bring yourself to like it. Because if one’s brand is all about hilarious cat photos, then one better have some equally hilarious comments to go along with them.
Captions help solidify a consistent tone to tie together your theme of images. They also help you connect to your followers and show that you put thought into what you do as an expert in your field.
Treat your captions as though you’re speaking right to your best customers. What’s important to them? How is what you say a reflection of your brand?
Careless captions turn away knowledgeable people within your niche and confuse your brand message.
Thoughtful captions inspire thoughtful responses and genuine followers.

4. Ask for action

Duh! Just ask people to like you, right? It’s just that easy!
Well, almost.
When you’re posting to your account, think about adding a call to action into your caption to solicit a response from your viewers and/or followers.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Just something short and sweet. For instance, under a photo of a massive ice cream cone with a text overlay that reads “Ice Cream Cures All,” you could add the caption, “Like if you agree!”
This incites a no-brainer action by the viewer vs. just adding the caption, “I love ice cream!” which doesn’t necessarily incite any active response.
Make it easy for your followers to engage by telling them exactly what to do.

5. Use and create relevant and thoughtful hashtags

As on all social media platforms, hashtags help build community and bring together people with similar likes and interests.
The people you want liking and following you.
So with hashtags consistent with your brand and tone, you’ll be attracting people within your niche who will be more likely to engage and help build your following.
Focus on hashtags that are highly relevant within your industry, such as #motivation and #fitness if you’re a personal trainer or #organic and #cleaneating if you’re a vegan chef.

You can even create your own hashtags pertaining to perhaps a social campaign you’re currently running. When your followers start using it, you can then like or comment on their photos, repost them and create a dialogue.
Combine hashtags with thoughtful messaging to caption your themed photos and you’ll be well on your way to Instagram stardom. Or at least more engagement and a larger following.

6. Don’t forget to geotag

So simple, yet so often forgotten.
When you post your photos, remember to geotag them with your current location.
Doing so helps build camaraderie with followers who may also have a connection to that particular city, restaurant, gym, etc. or share common sentiment toward the place you’re posting from.
Because kinship breeds commentary.
For example, say you’re a food critic and you’re visiting a highly acclaimed restaurant in San Diego.
When you share a photo of your exquisitely crafted meal, be sure to geotag that restaurant as a location in your post.
This way, others who have eaten there or who live locally will be inspired to perhaps share what their thoughts were on their meals, like your photos or follow you thinking that by doing so they’ll get more insider scoop on great restaurants in their hometown.

7. Ask people to follow you via your other social accounts

Believe it or not, having additional social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook can actually help you build your following and engagement levels on Instagram.
Generally, any avenue to get your name and brand out there online will help generate interest around your brand, and thus, interest in your social channels.
But you can also use your other social channels to ask your current followers there to also follow you on Instagram.
Think about it. If they already like you and your brand enough to follow you on one account, it’s probably a pretty safe bet that they’ll be more than willing to follow you on another one.
And you can even give them a little sample of what they’re going to get on your Instagram by linking it to your Facebook page. So whatever you post to Instagram will also show up on your Facebook page.
Asking followers on one social account to follow you on another is a smart way to earn more of the “right” followers who have a genuine interest in your brand and who will be more likely to comment and create a thoughtful dialogue.

8. Consider mixing business with pleasure

In most areas of business, combining your business and personal accounts isn’t always a recommended activity.
But if your daily life can somehow compliment your brand, or vice-versa, it may be a smart idea to incorporate your personal photos into what you’re posting for business purposes.
For instance, say you promote an energy-boosting green drink, made of organic, locally harvested produce. Along with posts of your bottles as part of a well-balanced breakfast and of customers drinking it at their local gyms, you may consider posts of you harvesting your own vegetables in your home garden or shopping at a farmer’s market.
Not only do images like this reinforce your embracing the essence of your brand in your everyday life, but doing so helps potential customers and followers better connect with you, as a person. And when that happens, it leads to a deeper connection with your brand.

9. Research and learn from other successful accounts

The cool thing about social media is that the whole purpose of it is to share.
Share posts, share pictures, share copy, share…ideas.
There are tons of people out there just killing it when it comes to earning a constant stream of new followers and above-average levels of engagement. So they’re doing something right.
What?
Do they run awesome campaigns? Have a really solid brand message exemplified throughout their photo stream, hashtags and captions? Are their photos done off-the-cuff and spontaneously? Or are they highly orchestrated down to the last detail?
You definitely want to make your brand your own and stay true to your own persona and voice.
But looking for ideas that have been successful on other top accounts and applying that general framework to your overall strategy can help you take your efforts to the next level.

10. Start using Iconosquare, Schedugram or InstaEasy

Using various social tools to help you better manage your Instagram account can help you save time and strengthen your efforts to build your following and boost your engagement.
Iconosquare can help you better manage your account by offering you an easy-to-use dashboard with more detailed search and engagement capabilities involving other Instagram accounts.
Schedugram is a great tool to use if you’re looking to schedule out future posts in advance. You can set times and stay organized with what you’re featuring and how it plays into your greater brand initiatives.
InstaEasy allows you to grow your Instagram following on autopilot. You can follow by hashtags or another user’s followers. Plus you can automatically like images based on hashtags and unfollow users. Did I mention that once this is setup, it runs automatically?
If neither of those tools give you what you are looking for, you can browse this list of over 500 social media tools – many of which work for Instagram.

Growing your following and engagement isn’t an overnight achievement

Rome wasn’t built in a day.
We’ve all heard that one before. But in today’s world of instant gratification, patience is at an all-time low. For everything.
If you’re looking to work your way to Instagram fame the right way, by earning followers who really care about your brand and who want to contribute to intelligent conversations, the investment of your time and energy is an absolute must.
You’ve got to regularly engage with people within your niche, upgrade your caption copy, seek out popular hashtags, ask people to take action and to follow you – and don’t forget to geotag.
At the end of the day, your potential to gain a mass following and high engagement depends on the kind of effort you’re willing to put into each one of these tactics. Of course, you can choose to use an automation tool like InstaEasy to help you skip the mindless and redundant necessities of you Instagram account.
And with the right amount of work and the right amount of patience, you’d better start planning what you’re going to do with all that newfound fame.
Because in the right amount of time, you’ll have Instagram success in the bag.
Ready to become “Instagram Famous”?
Let me know how you plan to do it in the comments below. Or if you are already a star, why not spill the beans on how you did it?

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How to Use a Facebook Contest to Promote Your Business

FACEBOOK has emerged as one of the most influential social networks in the world.  It has also become a platform for companies to increase their reach and promote their business. However, one of the most highly interactive ways to do so on Facebook is also one of the most under-used: a contest.

Contests provide a great opportunity for businesses to generate a buzz, and increase brand recognition. Here, we will outline the process of hosting a contest on Facebook to promote your business.

Step 1. Preparation

Using a contest requires preparation, but first and foremost, you should review Facebook guidelines for organizing a promotion. Knowing the rules and guidelines set forth by Facebook will allow your contest to be completely legitimate. This is vital to your success so we recommend you read the guidelines in their entirety. To summarize, any promotion on Facebook (such as a contest or sweepstake) must contain:

• Official rules
• Terms and eligibility requirements
• A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant

Once you are familiar with Facebook’s rules, spend some time researching other contests that have been successful. Explore feedback, review what participants have said about previous contests and take note of which contest posts had the highest engagement.  This will help you establish some best practices for organizing a Facebook contest, and be informed about current contest trends.

Expert tip: Optimize research by seeking out competitors in your niche. Targeting preparation by investigating your competition will help maximize results.

Finally, establish a method for hosting the contest. While a Facebook page may be used for this purpose, you may find a hosting app to be more suitable. Hosting apps often feature contest management tools, quantifiable insight and reporting components, branding capabilities and more. Fandom Marketing recently published a top 10 list of the Best Social Media Contest Apps, which is a great reference to get you started.

Expert Tip: Contests may be administered on Fan Pages, Business Pages or within apps on Facebook. Personal Profiles may not be used for sponsored promotions.

Designed by Freepik

Step 2. Planning

Once you have finished preliminary research and preparation, move onto planning your specific contest. Every social media marketing strategy needs a solid plan, but not every marketer knows where to start. If this is your first Facebook contest, here are some important things to keep in mind:

• Budget – Will your contest require hosting, traffic/advertising? How much will be spent on prizes?
• Promotion – How will participants learn about your contest? Ads, Emails, Social Media Posts, Etc.
• Contest Length – What are the start & end dates? What is the length of time allowed for entries? When are winners announced?
• Entry method – How do participants join? What information is required to do so?
• Participants – Who can participate? Amount of entries allowed (total, and per person)?
• Prizes – What are they? What value do they bring?
• Winners – Number of winners? How they are determined?
• Legal Documents – Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, Etc.
• Goals – What quantifiable results do you want to achieve? What is your baseline for success?
• Tools – Does your hosting app cover the basics? Do you need other solutions to track statistics and measure goal achievement?

Each of these components will be important when it comes time to take action. Be sure you set yourself up for success and plan accordingly.

Expert tip: Planning sets the stage for your entire promotion, and can make or break your contest. Don’t skimp on time or effort with this step!

Step 3. Take Action

With a defined plan, you are ready to take action. Begin by implementing the contest strategies outlined during the planning phase.

Compile your prizes, sign up for your hosting app, and create the content needed for your contest. For example, if your advertising plan centered around using your email list to reach previous customers, design an effective series of messages that will help you reach these subscribers and urge them to participate.

Then, up your engagement! Since Facebook is a social network oriented towards user interaction and social relationships, connect with participants.

The end goal here is to promote your business, right?  So, take this time to really interact with Facebook users who are interested in your contest. Use the research compiled during your preparation phase and post some targeted and highly engaging updates.

Expert tip: Engagement matters! Ask questions. Answer questions. Like. Share. Post pictures and spread the word about your contest. 

Step 4. Monitor

Planning and hosting a Facebook contest is great for promotion but don’t stop there! We also recommend that you closely monitor performance metrics.

By carefully monitoring your contest, you have the opportunity to notice if an ad doesn’t convert, if a link is broken, if a follower posted an inappropriate comment or anything else that could be having a negative effect on your promotion.

Observing statistics during your contest allows you to recognize issues and, more importantly, adjust accordingly. For example, if paid advertising for the contest is not resulting in conversions – quickly pause your campaign, revamp your ad to increase the click-through-rate and encourage more Facebook users to join your contest.

Crisis (and wasted funds) averted.

Step 5: Analyze

You set out to host a contest, so once the contest is over and prizes have been awarded, you’re done, right?

Well, kudos on the follow through, but since the real goal was to promote your business your work is still not quite finished: The final stage of organizing a Facebook contest involves analyzing the results.

Analysis is important because it helps you determine:

• If you met your planned goals
• What worked and what did not
• If this type of promotion is worth repeating

The best way to analyze your results? Compare the before and after.

Use trackable links and other marketing tools to compile data and make comparisons based on standard metrics. If you chose an application for hosting, this is a great opportunity to review the data, and analyze the efficiency of your Facebook contest. The more information you gather before, during and after the contest, the better.  When it comes to analysis, you want to have a well rounded set of data to reference and draw conclusions from. This information will help you set standards for future marketing efforts.

Wrapping It Up

Facebook contests can be a viable marketing strategy to generate results for your business. A successful contest goes beyond just having participants and giving away prizes; requiring preparation, planning, action, monitoring and analysis. These steps offer a guide to building a contest that will promote your business to a larger audience and with real, tangible results.

Over to you! Take a minute to post comments or share any ideas you have about Facebook contests. Have you used them before? What worked, and what didn’t?

We’d love to hear from you!

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