Attraction Content: The Foundation of a Smart Content Marketing Strategy

This article is part of our series on the 4 Essential Types of Content Every Marketing Strategy Needs. Make sure to get your special free bonus at the end of the article.

Let’s start at the beginning: you need to attract people to your content.
Creating Attraction content is the first step in a successful content marketing strategy and the focus of our first lesson.
Here’s a working definition of Attraction content:

Attraction content is freely available on the web for social sharing and for search engines to index. Your goal for this content is for people to consume it and spread it.

In other words, this is the content that drives traffic — ideally, a lot of traffic. Let’s look at a few examples of Attraction content.

List articles

Some like to call these articles “listicles.” Others like to call ’em “rubbish.”
Call them what you will, but creating a high-quality article around a numbered list like the 109 Ways to Make Your Business Irresistible to the Media simply works.
And, yes, you will typically see better results from higher numbers (as long as you make each point a beefy, satisfying item).
But Ernest Hemingway’s Top 5 Tips for Writing Well or The 7 Things Writers Need to Make a Living prove that short list articles can also be popular.

Infographics

The most-shared piece of content on Copyblogger is an infographic called 15 Grammar Goofs That Make You Look Silly.
We’ll dig into why it works so well — and why it doesn’t — below.
In the meantime, here are two more examples of successful infographics:

• 11 Essential Ingredients Every Blog Post Needs
• The ABCs of Landing Pages That Work

Both of these infographics were large drivers of traffic and social shares the year they were published (2014).
And check out these articles if you are interested in learning how to make winning infographics without risk or transforming your ho-hum infographic into something extraordinary.

Downloadable assets

Give people resources to make their lives easier and they will be happy to share them with others. That’s the purpose behind downloadable assets like worksheets, checklists, and inspirational posters.
Definitive guides and content libraries fall into this category, too.
Definitive guides are resources like QuickSprout’s The Complete Guide to Building Your Personal Branding or Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO.
These are monster resources that pile up the inbound links, generate thousands of social shares, and dominate the top rankings in search engines.
Content libraries like My.Copyblogger accomplish the same result, but instead of focusing on one topic, we offer 15 different ebooks on topics ranging from copywriting to content marketing to landing pages.
And yes, in exchange for one email address we give you access to all 15 ebooks. If you are interested, you can read up on the results of this approach in a report published by MarketingSherpa (spoiler alert: the experiment was a smashing success, in more ways than we imagined).

SlideShares

Another method for attracting new people to your content is creating slide presentations and publishing them on SlideShare. On Copyblogger, we publish a new post with a SlideShare presentation embedded in it, like we did with 10 Rules for Creating Content People Can Trust.
By doing it this way, we drive our Copyblogger audience to view the SlideShare, which then (we hope) raises the number of views to a point that it gets featured on the SlideShare home page.
Since all of our slide presentations point back to Copyblogger, this additional exposure potentially introduces us to new audience members.

Surveys and stats

Sometimes you don’t have to create all the content by yourself. You can ask your audience to provide the raw material for you. That’s the idea behind surveys.
A survey is also a great way to establish yourself as an authority in your industry by becoming the go-to source for the latest research on a particular topic. In fact, we used a survey to launch our native advertising series, and that survey attracted a number of links.
The SEO software company Moz elevates its authority and visibility in the market by releasing its annual search ranking factors report. Surveys are a reliable way to attract links.
Stats are another way to reuse content (whether they are yours or someone else’s) to drive traffic to your site and attract links. For example, take a look at NewsCred’s 50 Stats You Need to Know about Content Marketing downloadable report, which is also a SlideShare.

Attraction content mashups

As you can see, and as you will continue to see over the course of this week-long series, Attraction content can embody a number of different formats and mediums.
You can also transform one piece of content into different formats and mediums. Almost two years after we published Stefanie Flaxman’s 30 Quick Editing Tips Every Content Creator Needs to Know, we updated it and turned it into a SlideShare presentation.
In another case, an infographic became a series of podcasts and then eventually became a series of articles. And don’t forget, you can always republish old blockbuster articles to expose them to a new audience.
Now let’s discuss a common problem with Attraction content.

The problem with Attraction content

As I mentioned above, a great example of Attraction content is our 15 Grammar Goofs That Make You Look Silly. This is easily our most popular post. It’s generated a ton of links and social shares.
In addition, it’s driven a lot of traffic to our site. But there is one problem with the traffic. And it involves delivering the right value to the right type of person.
Unfortunately, many of those people who find Copyblogger through Grammar Goofs are not part of our target audience, so they tend to drift away. They care about grammar, but not content marketing.
This is not always an entirely bad thing. Traffic surges can lead to surges of free publicity. Let me explain.

When bad traffic can be good

In their early stages, Buffer published hugely popular posts on body language and happiness. They were great posts, but I always thought it was strange for a social media app company to write about these topics.
Until I understood what they were doing.
See, those popular posts were getting picked up by big-name media sites like TIME and The Huffington Post, which drove a ton of traffic back to Buffer via the links embedded in the articles.
As expected, the conversion rates were low, but Buffer got publicity from these articles.
This is (sometimes) the beauty of content syndication.
Eventually, though, Buffer narrowed its content focus to attract the right audience. Once they reached a critical mass of visibility and traffic, it was time to focus on conversion.
The same was true for Copyblogger. Attraction content is now typically part of our content mix about once or twice a month.

When to use Attraction content

Let’s close with a couple of thoughts about when you should use Attraction content.

1. New websites. Your new website will need a heavy dose of Attraction content to get attention and links. If you publish twice a week, for instance, you could publish Attraction content once a week. This ratio is a good starting place because it’s not easy to predict which piece of content will become a stellar performer.
2. Mature websites. In general, it will take you anywhere from six months to two years to start seeing your content rise in the search engines, regularly get shared, and routinely pick up links. Once you reach that point, you may want to publish Attraction content about once or twice a month.

It’s comforting to remember that it’s quite easy to blend your Attraction content with other content types, like Authority and Affinity. This way, you not only drive a lot of traffic to your site, you also attract the right type of traffic.

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Over to you …

Do you have any questions about Attraction content? Drop us a line in the comments section below.

And let us know about your favorite piece of Attraction content (whether you or someone else created it).

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Email Reactivation

 Are you looking at your sales figures this time of year and wondering where everyone went?

It’s no secret the middle of the summer can be a slow, syrupy season for sales revenue. That’s what makes it a great time for rejuvenating your email marketing campaign, giving a shout-out to existing customers who seldom if ever respond, click or buy.

The good news is that reactivation campaigns offer great value when it comes to ROI, producing a median return of $28.50 for every dollar spent compared to a mean customer-acquisition cost of $55.24. After all, Internet users trust opt-in email messaging above all other forms of advertising, reports a recent study.

“Consumers don’t just trust email, they look to it for purchasing decisions,” the study notes. “Both B2B and B2C marketers have much to gain by breaking through inbox clutter, but this could prove a more difficult task for B2B marketers in the years ahead.” Prognosticators point to a burgeoning 143.8 billion business emails to be sent this year, compared to 89 billion in 2012.

Creating a compelling reactivation campaign that prompts a response from customers may be challenging, but it’s a low-cost tactic that could fire up your sales this time of year if you follow these steps.

1. Segmenting audiences

If you haven’t already divided your customers by type, that can be accomplished relatively easily. Check out our complete guide to list segmentation. A global study earlier this year found segmented email campaigns produce 14 percent higher open rates, 64 percent higher click rates, and 8 percent fewer unsubscribes than unsegmented plans.   

For your reactivation campaign, your goal is to reach each online audience member with a message targeted (at least partially) toward his interests, values and preferred communication styles, increasing the likelihood he’ll open and respond to the email.

While the potential categories are endless, popular segmentation methods include dividing customers by the kinds of products they’ve purchased or perused, by previous emails they’ve opened, by demographics or by their stage in the sales funnel (awareness, evaluation or purchase). As such, many marketers create fictional personas for their common customer types, establishing a general marketing message for each along with an “elevator pitch” or selling style that might apply.

Depending on your goals, today’s analytical tools can drill down to detailed info like customer occupations, salaries, pain points, hobbies, family, education, values, goals, objections, preferred devices, computer literacy, news sources, hours of availability, and ideal shopping conditions, while simultaneously weeding out customers unlikely to buy your product. 

You might also consider identifying (and creating special offers for) your “gold standard” audience that in the past has bought high-margin products without being high maintenance.

2. Baiting the hook

Your next step is creating your next round of email messages to appeal to your different personas or segmented audiences. Some general tips for crafting copy include:  

• Re-engage customers on a set schedule, perhaps 30, 60, or 90 days after they’ve been unresponsive.
• Most reactivation emails contain some statement of regret that makes the customer feel valued. A Google search shows a range of copy with headlines like “We’ve missed you,” “Let’s stay together,” “It’s been a while,” and “Good friends are never forgotten.” Depending on your audience you can be highly creative with wording and imagery or stick to the basics.
• Reference your past interactions with the customer so they feel recognized.
• Consider the customer’s individual needs, problems, and interests. What might he care about that others don’t, and how can you appeal to that?
• A discount, special offer, free product, or free download or upgrade can be especially effective in achieving reengagement. In one study, the most effective offer involved free shipping.
• Think about where your customer is in the sales funnel. Those relatively unaware of your product might value a free white paper, kit, e-book, tip sheet, checklist, webinar, or how-to video. Those still evaluating may react well to a webinar, case study, product sample, data sheet, FAQ sheet, or demo video. Those close to buying may respond best to a free trial, live demo, consultation, estimate, or coupon.
• Consider the recipients’ level of expertise; should your wording be basic or highly technical? How industry-specific should you be? Should language be formal and professional or casual? Are you using appropriate jargon?

Here are some samples of compelling reactivation emails:

3. Writing open-friendly subject lines

The title of your email greatly impacts whether it will be opened; one study found 33 percent of email recipients open email based on subject line alone. In general, subject lines should contain only six to eight words; differ from past versions; mention the recipient’s name; lead with the most important words; clearly state your purpose and value; and point to any deadlines. Recent research also found subject lines containing “free” are opened 10 percent more often, while “sale,” “new,” or “video” can also boost rates. Another study reports 13 of its top-25 subject lines in reactivation campaigns have contained the phrase “We miss you.” Tickling your recipients funny bone can also lead to an open. Here are some important tips when using humor.

4. Making it mobile

Last year the average adult mobile phone user in the U.S. spent 2.8 hours per day on their devices, with mobile phone use growing 58 percent worldwide between 2014 and 2015. Users worldwide are expected to reach nearly 2.1 billion this year. Need we say more? It’s apparent you must format your email marketing to play well on mobile. One study reports 40 percent of emails are opened first on mobile.

5. Re-confirming opt-in

If you can get customers to click on your reactivation email, you may wish to include a highly visible “opt-in” button to confirm they still wish to receive your messages. That may seem counterintuitive, but there’s no point in continuing to pitch the uninterested, and being vigilant as such prevents accusations of spamming. A few ways other companies have done that can be found below.

6. Rewarding responders

Strengthen relationships with those who respond to reactivation with a follow-up email that says something like “Welcome back” or similar messaging that reaffirms their value.

7. Including surveys

Consider including a brief survey in your reactivation emails to learn why the customer has been non-responsive in the past. Make it clear you’d like to correct any issues, and keep the survey short, easy, and painless to fill out. Online services Survey Monkey, EZquestionnaire, or KeySurvey can help. Below is an example:

8. Following up

Don’t be surprised if a customer doesn’t respond to your first reactivation email; your campaign may well necessitate a series of short, engaging messages over time, perhaps culminating with your most attractive offer. If that doesn’t work, consider sending a message by post in case there’s an issue with the customer’s email or online access. The added expense may be worth your while, considering that retaining existing customers produces a much higher ROI than finding new ones.

Finally, keep in mind that your email campaign should always be a work in progress. To cut through the clutter of the gazillions of business emails out there, you’ll probably need to continually tweak your content and methodology to find fresh ways to reach target audiences.

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Guide to Autoresponders Part 3: Follow-Up and Confirmation Emails

Autoresponders are an excellent way to stay engaged with leads and customers even while you’re busy doing other things. This kind of email automation saves you time and provides value to the recipients. In this final post, we examine follow-up emails and the automatic lift you get from incorporating them into your campaigns. We also look at various examples of confirmation emails and how to make them more than just a transactional message. But first let’s quickly recap what we cover in Part 1 and Part 2 of this guide.

In the first of this three-part series, we explore the top five ways your business can benefit from using email autoresponders. We also look at Welcome emails and how this type of autoresponder works to greet new subscribers and direct them to the next desired step with a clear call-to-action.

In part two, we provide an overview of Content Offer emails and how to get people to re-engage by offering quality content after a period of inactivity. We also show you a few examples of Survey and Feedback emails so you can set up a two-way line of communication with your customers.
For our final post, it’s all about follow-up and confirmation. Let’s get started!

Follow-Up Emails

We’ve written a lot about follow-up emails recently. That’s because by sending a follow-up email as part of your campaign you are likely to see an average 30% lift in your open rate.

Here’s an example we sent to VerticalResponse Classic customers this past April in celebration of Earth Day.



The open rate on the initial email was 21.15%. A few days later, we sent the same email to non-responders (the segment of the list that never opened the first email). That secondary, or follow-up email, received an open rate of 13.6%. That brought the new open rate up to 31.88%. By simply sending the same email to those who didn’t open the first one, we were able to lift the open rate by 50%.

As mentioned earlier, from what we’ve seen from our own campaigns to the campaigns of our small business customers who send follow-up emails, you can expect to see a 30% lift.

Just last week, VerticalResponse released a new feature for premium accounts that allows you to automatically schedule a follow-up email when you create and send an email campaign. This helps you maximize the results of your email without the extra work of manually segmenting your list of nonresponders and creating a new campaign. Both the original and the follow-up email stay tied together, and the results from both are visible in the reporting so you can easily see the benefit. We think it’s pretty super.

Confirmation Emails

When a customer makes a purchase, you can send an email to confirm the sale. Fitpacking, a backpacking adventure outfit, sends confirmation emails whenever someone books a trip.

“We’re small, and although there’s always someone staffing the company, during the busy season most of us are out in the wilderness guiding trips,” Steve Silberberg of Fitpacking explains. “If someone signs up for a trip and we can’t get back to them in a timely manner, they will quickly lose patience and withdraw or go elsewhere. That’s why we rely heavily on autoresponders to confirm trips.”

Here is an example of the confirmation email that Fitpacking customers get. It’s a simple text –only email but gets the job done.



In this next confirmation email, Mountain Play Association confirms the purchase and also provides links in anticipation of frequently asked questions..



Another use of confirmation emails is to confirm a recipient’s involvement in a contest. Check out these triggered emails for new contest entries:




Notice that both companies offer a promotion in their confirmation email to generate a sale.

Conclusion

Follow-up and confirmation emails are two autoresponders that make it easy for you to stay engaged with your customers. Use them to improve your email open rate, communicate important information, and inspire a sale.

Hop on your favorite social channel and tell us which autoresponders you use.


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Automation takes your email marketing strategy to the next level. If you’re new to email marketing, we created this Beginner’s Guide to lay the foundation. As soon as you have the basics down, you can up your game with autoresponders.

Last week in the first of this three-part series, we covered the benefits of autoresponders and explored a variety of Welcome Emails. In this second post, we dive into Content Offer and Survey Emails. Here’s what you need to know about these two types of email campaigns.
Content Offer Emails

You can educate your audience by sharing your knowledge. Keep them engaged with content you know they will find interesting and useful.

Let’s look at a couple of examples that offer quality content.

#1

The Expert Institute uses an autoresponder that combines a welcome email and content offering.

The email above welcomes the new recipient, provides a point of contact and also includes a link to an in-depth article.

#2

In this next example, you can see how Eventbrite communicates with people who haven’t used their app in a while. They tell the user how much they’ve missed them and offer some content to re-engage.




Both product and service-based businesses can use these two types of content offer emails. Send your version to new customers and those who haven’t purchased from you in a while. Aim to make the recipients feel connected by providing them with thoughtful and relevant content.
Surveys and Feedback Emails

Another way to get customers to engage is by sending an autoresponder that asks for their feedback triggered by a recent purchase. Collecting this kind of information can be of great benefit to your business, and customers appreciate the opportunity to share their thoughts.

#1

In the example below, a chance to win a gift card is offered as an incentive for writing a review. The email also includes instructions on how to write the review and a quick reference to the product that was purchased.





#2

Sending a survey is yet another way to elicit feedback and engage your audience. In the following example, Coastal.com explains the reason for the email and provides a link to the survey. It also conveys that the survey is quick and painless, which is a good thing to mention as short surveys are always better received.




Creating a survey is a simple process. Once you’ve done so, add the link to your automated email or create an eye-catching button that takes the recipient to the survey when clicked. Be sure to use a catchy and relevant subject line to help get opens and stay compliant with laws.

Conclusion

Both Content Offer and Feedback emails give you a way to engage with leads and customers. By setting up these kinds of autoresponders, you maintain communication and keep your brand and business top of mind.

For the final part in this series, we look at Follow-Up and Confirmation emails.

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4 Tips to Refresh Your Email Marketing Strategy

 Email marketing continues to reign supreme when it comes to reaching consumers. When compared to Facebook and Twitter marketing, it’s nearly 40 times more useful for acquiring customers. To help refresh your email marketing strategy this year, we’ve outlined four tips to make sure you’re on the right track.

1. Make emails mobile friendly

Mobile is the preferred method for reading emails. According to a study from Mobile Ink, 65% of email is being opened on mobile devices. And that number continues to rise as more people purchase smartphones. From 2013 to 2014, the amount of smartphones shipped worldwide increased by 23.8 percent. By 2018, 1.8 billion smartphones will be used around the globe.

In a perfect world, your emails will pique customers’ interest when they’re on the go, and they will make an immediate purchase or do so when they get to their laptop or desktop. 

How to implement: Your emails need to be use responsive design, which means they adjust to the screen size of any device. If you’re using templates in the latest version of VerticalResponse, your emails are automatically responsive, and you don’t need to do a thing. If not, you may want to hire a designer, or it might be time to use an email service provider that provides responsive templates.

Along with responsive design, we recommend using a serif font (those with legs or tails) for your headlines and sans serif fonts for any other text. These are easiest to read on a computer screen. Use font sizes between 12-22pt to make sure your email is readable. Headlines can be 22pt, additional font in the email can be 12 pt or more.

2. Ask your audience what they want to read or see

To get a grasp on what content your audience wants to receive, you have to ask. You can survey them, and then use the results to dictate the kind of content you create. Ask about what kind of content appeals to them, what products or services they’re interested in. You can also ask how often they want to receive email from your business. 

How to implement: There are many free survey products you can use to get a grasp of what your audience wants. For example, there’s SurveyMonkey, KwikSurveys, and SurveyPlanet, just to name a few.

Surveys are easy to create with these DIY sites. Just remember to keep your survey short, maybe 5-7 questions so you don’t lose your audience. Once you complete the survey, include a link to it in an email.

3. Measure results

An email marketing strategy is never complete without some form of measurement. You have to know how you did to improve upon your efforts the next time around.

“Create content that suits your audience but also spend time measuring it,” says Jasmine Sandler, an independent digital marketing expert. “You need to measure it as much as you create it.”

How to implement: Here’s a quick list of metrics to watch along with the average rates you should aim for.

• Conversion rate: How many people clicked that call-to-action link you included in your email? How many downloaded that how-to guide you’re advertising? Did anyone make a purchase from the last email you sent? The average conversion rate is five to 10 percent.

• Bounce rate: How many emails that you sent were undeliverable? The average bounce rate, depending on your industry, is between eight and 12 percent.

• Open rate: How many of the emails were actually opened? The average open rate for brand emails is 18 to 25 percent.

• Unsubscribe rate: How many people clicked “unsubscribe” at the bottom of the email? The average unsubscribe rate is .25 percent.

Note: All these metrics can vary based on your industry, your list and your mailing practices. Need more help gauging your metrics? Check out this previous post.

4. Email your blog posts, videos and images

You put a lot of effort and energy into your blog posts, videos, or images. You should include this content in your emails.

“If you’re wise, you can leverage other content that you’re spending money and time creating,” says Sandler. “You could send out a list of the hottest articles of the week or a wrap up.”

Aside from the fact that you’re going to get more eyes to see your content, you can also increase your website traffic.

Look at Carol Tice, who runs the Make a Living Writing blog for freelance writers. The entrepreneur, who boasts 12,000 subscribers to her blog, sends out sections of it to her readers and prompts them to “read more” on her website. VerticalResponse does this successfully with our weekly VR Buzz newsletter. 

How to implement: Choose content, images or videos that have already received a lot of hits, likes or attention. It’s a good indication that your readers enjoyed them. Don’t include an entire article in your emails; include only a teaser, and then link to the rest of the article on your website or blog.

There are many factors that go into a successful email campaign. As long as you plan ahead, and are willing to look back at your work to see what you can improve, you will be on your way to a better email marketing strategy.

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