Feed the Content Monster with the Help of a Closed-Circle Content Loop

If there is one thing search engines love more than anything, it is fresh content — and algorithms continue to get better at finding and ranking it by the minute.

But what content marketer has enough time to dedicate to feeding the content monster all day, every day?

To keep up with search engines and still preserve your time, you have to create a closed-circle content loop for your content marketing strategy. Let’s look at how to do that.

What is a closed-circle content loop?

A closed-circle content loop is an inbound content system that focuses on both the atomization of brand-new content and the repurposing of old content.

By generating many different types of new content while also recycling old content in new and relevant ways, you can ensure that your brand always has a body of fresh work to feed to search engines.

Using this two-pronged approach, you effectively close the gap in your content strategy (hence the name) and answer the struggle all content marketers face every day: so much work to create and not enough hours in the day to make it happen!

Create a variety of brand-new content

While text content like articles and blog posts may be your content strategy’s bread and butter, feeding the content monster means adding a little more spice to your recipe. Podcasts, presentations, infographics, photos, ebooks, and videos are all important for generating a diverse content offering and boosting your SEO.

But content creation is a necessary ongoing investment. Creating all those pieces takes up time and money, whether you’re doing the work yourself or hiring a writer to do it for you.

Enter atomization.

When you take one big piece of new content and repurpose it in a variety of ways, you’ll cut down on the time and cost of creating fresh work.

Say you own a construction consulting business. You could create an in-depth 10-page ebook to teach customers how to renovate a master bathroom. That ebook can also work as an infographic, a series of “quick tip” social media posts, a video series on YouTube, and more.

By publishing in a variety of formats, one piece of content can multiply into many fresh avenues to connect with your customers. And that means fresh content for search engines.

Recycle old content

Unfortunately, nothing stays fresh forever — all types of food (even Twinkies!) have expiration dates. To feed the content monster, you’ll have to continuously revisit your old work.

Create a content calendar that resembles the table of contents for a book or user guide. Decide when each piece of content will become outdated and in need of a reset, and mark it on the calendar.

By keeping track of your publication dates, you’ll be able to recycle content many times over using the same atomization strategy you use for new work.

5 hacks for creating fresh content

These tips will help you create more effective content for your closed-circle content loop.

1. Focus on quality and quantity

Many experts have weighed in over the years about whether quality or quantity matters more for content marketing.

I’m here to tell you, when it comes to your SEO, the answer is actually both. If you want to see real results in search engines, you’ll need to post quality content in higher volumes. For a small business, this usually means creating something fresh once a week or every other week.

2. Pay attention to your title and keywords

Sure, you’re creating fresh content for search engines, but so is everyone else. In such a saturated market, sometimes your title is the only tool you have to attract readers to click on a results page.
Make it count.

Keywords can help. From your title to your body text to your captions and video descriptions, all of your content needs to contain the right keywords for SEO to make sure you are found by the right people in the first place.

3. Curate as well as create

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and that goes for content inspiration as well. SEO-savvy content marketers undoubtedly have a list of fellow influencers and websites that they trust for insider knowledge. Use it!

Most of your content will be created from scratch, but you can also create original work that is inspired by your favorite work online.

Did another business in your industry release an annual report jam-packed with awesome research? Consider writing an article that highlights the best pieces of data and add your personal insights to what that data means for businesses.

4. Invite your community to join you

If you want variety, get different writers. Boost the amount of content you’re churning out by inviting your community to become guest contributors.

Your biggest advocates will gladly create content in exchange for exposure. Plus, user-generated work creates a fresh dynamic for your brand and encourages other fans to engage with your company.

5. Measure, measure, measure

Don’t waste time on content that doesn’t convert. Track everything you publish, and note the pieces your customers clearly respond to.

Knowing what your audience wants to read or watch online will help you create new content in the future that speaks to their needs, and it will make sure you don’t waste time repurposing and recycling content that doesn’t actually work.

Feed the content monster

Content is the heart of your online lead generation efforts. Its impact on SEO is crucial to the success of your website, and ultimately, your business.

But creating enough fresh content to satisfy search engines can be tedious and time-consuming, especially for smaller businesses with limited resources. As a content marketer, you need to know time-saving content generation tactics and hacks that will feed your content monster, helping you boost your rankings fast and well.

By using a two-pronged, closed-circle content loop strategy, you’ll make the most of your content creation efforts and ensure that nothing you write (or design or record or film) ever goes to waste.


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Activate Your Fanbase With User-Generated Content

 In the digital era, everyone is a content creator, and that’s great news for marketers. Brands are boosting awareness by encouraging the public to share their customer experiences on platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Just to name a few notable examples, Coca Cola’s “Share a Coke” hashtag marketing campaign asked fans to snap Coke-themed photos of themselves, and Charmin solicits toilet humor from its Twitter followers. But this kind of user-generated content (“UGC”) isn’t limited to social media interactions between a brand its customers. Savvy marketers are starting to mix UGC into their email marketing campaigns — and it’s working. Recent studies have shown that UGC delivers a 73 percent increase in email click-through rates.

UGC is simply content about your brand that is created by your business’s customers or fans, whether that content is photos, videos, product reviews, or testimonials. One obvious benefit of incorporating consumer content into your email marketing is that it saves you time. Instead of having to constantly come up with new content ideas on your own, your customers are the driving creative force.

But the real key to the power and popularity of UGC is that it humanizes your sales pitch. You aren’t the one telling your subscribers how wonderful your products or services are; real customers do it for you. UGC is authentic, and when used as a part of an email marketing campaign, it builds trust in your brand.

One of the best forms of advertisement is a satisfied customer. As amazing as your email content-crafting skills may be, consumers are more interested in what their peers say about your business. In fact, 70 percent of consumers trust peer recommendations and reviews over professionally written content. Zulily takes advantage of this statistic with a “Customer Picks” emails that feature some of their best-selling products, along with a few brief but enthusiastic customer endorsements:

So how can you start integrating UGC into your email marketing? You can put out a call in your newsletter for subscribers to email photos or stories of their experiences with your products or services. Or you can come up with a brand-specific hashtag, ask customers to submit to you via social media, and feature your favorite responses in your next email. You might consider a theme for the submissions that is tied to an upcoming promotion or event.

To celebrate Star Wars Day and promote a Star Wars merchandise sale, Hot Topic asked its customers to submit photos of themselves in Star Wars gear. The best submissions were included in an email photo collage:

Of course a theme isn’t necessary. TeeFury’s emails showcase photos of happy customers wearing the company’s apparel:

To give your subscribers an extra push to submit, you can hold a contest, with a gift certificate or other prize going to the most creative submission. However you go about incorporating customer content into your emails, make sure that you’ve obtained permission from the original creator to use their content and that you’ve articulated exactly how that content will be used.

Once you get the go-ahead, don’t be afraid to experiment with different types of UGC. Photos might work well for one brand, while testimonials work better for another. But if content development is one of your email marketing pain points, then UGC could be the solution.

Read more about email content development here. 

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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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How to Write a High-Converting ‘Start Here’ Page

 I have fallen in love with a travel website.
It’s called CheeseWeb, and it’s a blog dedicated to “slow travel.” Slow travel is staying in one place for longer periods of time while you’re on the road and having full experiences in each place you stay.
When I stumbled upon it, the incredible photos and gorgeous design of the site made my mouth water. As an armchair traveler, it has now become one of my favorite travel sites.
One of the reasons why the site appealed to me during my first visit was CheeseWeb’s amazing “Start Here” page.
The page told me:

• Who the main CheeseWeb writers are
• Why they started a slow travel blog
• Where I could find their best content
• How I could connect with them via email and social media

By the time I was finished reading the “Start Here” page, I had become a die-hard fan of the site’s main writers, Alison and Andrew.
Since becoming a fan of their site, I’ve noticed more “Start Here” pages on various sites around the web. I’m now fascinated with this effective way for content marketers to create fast and valuable bonds with new readers who cross their paths for the first time.
Let’s talk about what a “Start Here” section is, why it’s important for your digital business, and how to turn yours into a high-converting page.

A powerful tool for bonding with your readers

A “Start Here” area is a page on your website that helps people have the best possible experience on your site. It assumes that people don’t know who you are and have never visited your site before. It also gives them a brief introduction to your site’s purpose and exactly what their next steps should be.
Here’s CheeseWeb’s “Start Here” page:

An effective “Start Here” page is like rolling out the red carpet for your visitors and giving new people a positive first impression of you. It’s a smart way to communicate:

• Who you are
• What the purpose of your site is
• Where new visitors can find your best content
• How they can connect with you via email or social networking platforms

That’s a big job for one page, right? But “Start Here” pages do that job beautifully (when they’re done well) and that’s why they’re so powerful.

Give every visitor a great website experience

It’s important to have a “Start Here” page on your site because website visitors — especially new visitors — are often like timid little birds when they land on your virtual real estate. They’re cautious and looking for any opportunity to fly the coop, so you need to be gentle with them.

Your “Start Here” page allows you to be a patient, nurturing, non-threatening tour guide who’s on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But your “Start Here” page never needs to take time off. It’s on duty forever and waiting to give new visitors a great experience, every single moment of every single day.

A “Start Here” page might also be called “[Your Site Name] 101,” “Begin Your Journey,” “Getting Started,” or any other name that informs new visitors that the page is an initial jumping-off point for your site.
Regardless of what you call it, a great “Start Here” page can earn you repeat visitors, convert more visitors into subscribers, increase your social media following, and bring in more sales.

7 elements of an effective “Start Here” page

Here are seven elements you should consider including in your own “Start Here” page.
You don’t necessarily need to include these elements in this order, but make sure your “Start Here” page is organized in a clear way that takes your reader on a journey from first-time visitor to educated site veteran.

1. Brief definitions of the key terms you use on your site

To avoid confusion, briefly define key terms you frequently use.
For example, Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income defines the term “passive income” close to the top of his “Start Here” page:

2. A concise statement about you and your mission

If you’re a solopreneur, this will include your individual story (and might include details about why you started your business or website).
If you are a larger business, you can explain the origin story of the business and talk about the mission of your company. Keep this story brief — you can use your About page to give more details or publish your official bio.
Food blogger Lisa Leake delivers a short version of her story on her “Start Here” page:

3. A clear message for your ideal reader or visitor

People need to know whether the information on your site will benefit them. They want reassurance that your content will meet their needs.
Show that you understand your ideal visitor’s issues and problems, and let him know he’s in the right place to get solutions.

4. Links to your best content

Your “Start Here” section is the perfect place to link to your best content — especially your best resources for first-time visitors.
Don’t go too crazy here. You want to include enough links that new visitors will find value and get lots of information, but not so many that they get overwhelmed and click away.
Consider organizing your links into categories if you have a lot of them. Put yourself in the shoes of a new visitor and choose categories that make sense for that person.
Here’s an example from Michael Hyatt’s “Start Here” page:

5. A prompt to join your email list

Your “Start Here” page should always include a strong call to action, so use that CTA to ask people to join your email list.
Explain why they should sign up and possibly offer a tantalizing incentive.
CheeseWeb invites you to be part of their community:

6. An invitation to connect on social networking sites (optional)

If you’re active on any social networking platforms, you can include links that allow people to connect with you on those platforms.
Clearly label the links and include directions on how to connect with you.

7. A link to an entry-level product offer (optional)

If you have an entry-level product, consider offering it on your “Start Here” page. Include this offer toward the bottom of the page.
Discuss the benefits of any paid product you offer here in detail, so the reader knows why it’s a good place for them to start. You want to avoid scaring away your new visitor and sending the message that you’re just trying to make sales.

3 perfect entry points to your “Start Here” page

Where should you put links to your “Start Here” page? Here are three options.

1. In your top navigation bar, preferably on the far left side

Your visitors will naturally look at your navigation bar when they start browsing through your content, so put a link to your “Start Here” page in that bar. The “Start Here” or “Getting Started” button lets people know exactly where to begin on your site.
Adding it to the far left side of the navigation bar ensures that it will be one of the first things people notice, as seen here on Lisa Leake’s site:

2. In a widget, slightly lower down on your home page

CheeseWeb’s home page has a “Start Here” widget that includes a welcome message and a prominent “Start Here” button. This technique also works well because it grabs the attention of people scrolling through the home page of your site.

3. Make it your home page

You can even consider making your “Start Here” section the home page of your site. The Copyblogger home page orients people to the site’s offerings.

Create your own “Start Here” page

Your “Start Here” page can create the perfect welcome for your new visitors and help them make the most of your site and your offerings.
Take some time today and outline the information new visitors need to know about your site when they first arrive. Then draft an original, friendly, and educational “Start Here” page.
Publish your “Start Here” page as soon as possible. Your prospects will be grateful for the warm welcome!
Have a favorite “Start Here” page? Share it in the comments section below.


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8 Essentials For An Effective Win-Back Email Campaign

For any marketer, we feel a sense of excitement when we are able to convert a visitor to a customer.
However, only the first half of the battle has been won. The other half is trying to retain those customers by probing them with email newsletters and offers over the span of a few months to a year.
This part is more difficult and usually results in them going inactive and not engaging with your brand as a whole.

The are many reasons why people would go inactive:

• They only bought your product as a gift (it was a one-time purchase)
• They had a bad experience
• You changed your product and they’re just not into the new thing
• Your emails may be getting sent to their junk mail inbox
• Circumstances have changed
• They took a great promotional deal you had on offer, but was never really into your brand

Retaining customers is an important yet challenging task. Don’t worry, many email marketers face this problem too.

Customers will naturally decrease by about 22.5% every year.

So why do we bother trying to retain customers when we can just find new customers?

1. First, it’s a lot easier to sell to existing customers than new ones – 50% easier to be exact. This is because your brand has already done the hard work of establishing a level of trust, so convincing them requires little work.
2. Second, it’s a lot cheaper. It costs between 4-10 times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one.

This is why win-back email campaigns are so important. But how effective are they?

Effectiveness of win-back emails

ReturnPath conducted a study where they analyzed 33 different win-back email campaigns by different ecommerce stores to see how effective they were at turning a non-active customer into an active customer.
Results showed:

• 92% of the emails made it to the customer’s inbox – this means inactive users were receiving win-back emails
• Open rate was only 12% – A respectable number as customers have not interacted with the brand in a long time

However, results showed that slow and steady wins the race:

• 45% of recipients who received a win-back campaign read a subsequent message after the first email
• 75% of re-engaged subscribers had read a subsequent message within 89 days (after the first email), with the other 25% still opening emails 300 days after receiving the first win-back email

image: http://marketingland.com/email-win-back-programs-work-81574

Overall, three quarters of inactive customers could still re-engage with your brand within 90 days

8 Tips to creating an effective win-back email campaign

1. Personalize your emails

Personalization is a must in email marketing and here’s why

• Personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10% (Campaign Monitor)
• 74% of marketers say targeted personalization increases customer engagement (eConsultancy).

Customers will appreciate you using their name instead of “hey you”. It creates more of a personal connection than a retailer-customer interaction.
Here are some ways on how we can personalize our win-back emails:

• Say their name
• Show previous purchase history
• Personalized product recommendations (upsell and cross-sell) based on past purchases

Netflix does it right with their personalization: using the first name, effective copy (note how they use pronouns, e.g. “you” and “your”) and a list of devices they can view shows on. The email also includes a strong call-to-action personalized to the customer, “I’d like to come back”.

Source: allthatiknow

2. Provide a solution

There are many reasons why your customer hasn’t purchased from you in a long time.

Understanding your customer is super important in the world of ecommerce. If we do not understand why they are going lapse, we will just repeat the same mistake over and over again, hoping to get a different result every time.

So Instead of trying to guess the answer, a better way would be to ask them directly.

Inbound adopts for a personalized message request. Maybe Inbound is sending too many emails or irrelevant ones. They provide an opportunity to let the customers decide what kind of emails they want to receive so it’s more personal and targeted. They also send a feedback request at the end to learn what they could do better.

Source: Audienceops

Dollar Shave Club anticipates that customers may not want their razors every month. That’s why they ask their customer if receiving a razor every second month would be better and shows them how this could be done.

Source: Flexmail

3. Segmentation

It’s a fact that your customers will appreciate your emails if it’s related to them.
We can segment our email list to subcategories. This could include:

• How long since their last purchase
• Low, medium and high-value customers – average order value
• Number of orders per year
• Customers that had negative experiences

By segmenting your email list, you can deliver more relevant win-back email messages to each group.

4. Highlight the benefits

Win your customer’s back by reminding them of the value and benefits of your product
Here’s a win-back email by Dropbox to users that have not added or uploaded any files to their account. They remind users to start reusing their service by highlighting the features of their product.

Source: Betaout

Warby Parker sends out an email whenever someone places an item in their shopping cart but abandons it. They know the customer has enough interest to add the product to their shopping cart, so a simple email may be enough to make them purchase the product. They use the copy, “want a better look?” to let customers know the benefits of their glasses – looking great!

Source: essenceofemail

5. Send more than one email

There’s no magic email that will engage every inactive customer. That’s why you should develop a win-back email campaign comprising of several emails. Send different win-back emails over a period of time to try engage your inactive customer. Hitting them from different angles is better than relying on sole email – also great for split testing and gathering data!

Here’s Adidas’ third email in their 3-part win-back email series. They opt for the urgency tactic, reminding them that they have a limited time before the discount offer expires.

Source: Omertia

6. Give them an offer

Why not try to engage your customers by giving them something – maybe a discount or a gift.
Study shows that win-back emails that contained a “$ off” discount performed better than emails with “% off” discount.

A great way use this tactic is to include the discount in the subject line.

Tip: Don’t send your discounted emails in the first email of your win-back email campaign series (e.g. send on the second or third email). Sometimes customers are willing to purchase from emails with no discount so maximize your revenue by saving these for a later series.

If a customer doesn’t respond to your offers, you can maybe send them an even better offer than before. However, this may be risky as customers may catch on and wait intentionally for the better offer – so use it wisely!

Here’s Crocs’ win-back email containing a $10 off discount.

Source: wisepops

Here’s another discount offer – 100% free discount that is. Pinkberry, adds a free yogurt to customer’s account when they have not bought for a while. By offering a bonus or a free gift, you can encourage a person to come back to your store and start buying from you again.

Source: Business2Community

7. Know when to give up

It’s better to have a small but reliable mailing list than a large inactive list that delivers inconsistent results. That’s why part of the aim of our win-back emails are to opt out people that won’t buy from you.

If you tried everything, but your customer won’t budge, sometimes you just have to let them go. You don’t want to keep sending them emails over and over again as it may appear spam-like and may give your brand a bad reputation.

Here’s Fab’s unsubscribe email where they opt the customer out of their mailing list, but leaves them an option in case they still want to stay on. They know the receiver will never buy so there’s no point having them on their mailing list.

Source: Hubspot

Here’s the clothing company, Free People, acknowledging that their customer has not engaged with their emails in a long time and ask if they still want to receive them or not. This may encourage them to engage again, but also make the customer unsubscribe. Either way is fine as there’s no point having a customer that’s never going to buy. 

 

Source: Hubspot

8. A/B Test

Don’t assume one headline copy is going to be better than another. Let data guide your campaign instead of using your own opinion.

The best marketers are the ones that continuously test and optimize their campaigns based on data. Tests could include but not limited to:

• Design
• Copy
• Frequency
• Timing
• Offers

The 33 ecommerce stores that participated in ReturnPath’s study split tested different subject lines like, “we miss you” and “a note from the CEO”. These had read rates of 13%.

What to do next?

Trying to get your customers to re-engage with your brand is never easy as they stopped engaging for some reason. However, with these tactics, you will increase the odds of them re-engaging and buying from you again.

What success have you had with your win-back email campaigns? We’d love to hear in the comments below or if you have any other extra tips, pop it down below too!


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Affinity Content: The Key to Growing Your Community

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.

Due to its potential to generate large amounts of traffic, but result in low conversion rates, bare-bones Attraction content is kind of like saying, “Let’s throw some spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.”
It’s the spaghetti that sticks around that matters. (No, I’m not suggesting your readers are spaghetti. That’s where the analogy breaks down.)
But for those readers who do stick around, Affinity content is the content that keeps them sticking around. It gets them to like you. Even love you.
When you attract ideal visitors to your site, they hopefully click around and find Affinity articles that further endear them to you.
So, what is Affinity content? Here’s a definition:

Affinity content is content that attracts people who have the same values and beliefs as you. This content shares your beliefs, so people with similar beliefs feel like they belong in your community.

Read on to discover the value of Affinity content and how it works with Attraction content and Authority content.

Why you need to create Affinity content

Attraction content gets you attention, and Authority content builds your reputation.
But what distinguishes you from your competition? Why would a prospect choose you over them?
Well, it comes down to basic human psychology — what we call the know, like, and trust factor. It’s true that “liking” and “trusting” are subjective, but a lot of our decision-making is grounded in those fuzzy feelings.

In the end, we’re going to go with the person who makes us feel better. We feel better when we feel as if we share a mutual bond or similar worldview.

A company that has attracted an audience with value-added content — but is buttoned-up and remote — will have trouble competing with a person who produces the same content and who you feel a bond with because they seem to understand the way you view the world.
It’s about putting yourself in their shoes. Walking their paths — relating. That’s how you increase affinity.
But you will actually have to state what you believe in. You will need conviction. About something.

Examples of Affinity content

If you want an example of how this works, study Facebook. Facebook is largely a splintered, contentious, belief-based communication medium. It’s all about people’s beliefs and how they define themselves and find places where they belong, according to their preferences.
For your Affinity content, these shared beliefs can run the gamut. It can be anything from strictly pragmatic to plain silly.
Here are two examples of Affinity content from Copyblogger:

1. Digital Sharecropping: The Most Dangerous Threat to Your Content Marketing Strategy. In this post, Sonia Simone advises against building audiences on social media sites you don’t own. She then recommends the opposite: Build on your own property. That’s been a Copyblogger belief since day one.
2. The Inigo Montoya Guide to 27 Commonly Misused Words. For many of us, it’s posts like this one that endeared Brian Clark to us. Here was a guy sharing conventional writing advice by dropping a reference to a cult movie, The Princess Bride. By the way, Brian didn’t discover those 27 misused words. He repackaged them with personality and drew in readers who shared a love for the movie.

The risk you take with Affinity content

Here’s the deal:

The price of not standing for something is that you become generic and get ignored.

You have to occasionally speak out for things you believe in.
If you go after everyone, you get no one. And think about this: who really wants to follow someone who doesn’t believe in anything?
I can’t promise you that Affinity content won’t make you some enemies. But for every enemy you make, you’ll attract even more people who will go to war with you.
And keep in mind that Affinity content isn’t always contentious. Sometimes it’s just personal.

Affinity content gets personal

One of my favorite articles on Copyblogger is Brian Clark’s The Snowboard, The Subdural Hematoma, and The Secret of Life.
This is not a tutorial like How to Use the ‘Rule of Three’ to Create Engaging Content. Instead, the snowboard article is a personal story with a moral: live the life you want to live.
It’s a moment when Brian was being completely vulnerable. When you are vulnerable, people see who you are. And they realize you have weaknesses just like them.
That you are normal and approachable.
Another stellar example of Affinity content like Brian’s snowboard article is Jon Morrow’s How to Quit Your Job, Move to Paradise and Get Paid to Change the World. It’s an inspirational story that endears you to Jon.

Get comfortable in your own skin

To start creating your own Affinity content, answer worldview questions like:

• Are things ever handed to us? Is luck a part of success? Or is hard work the difference between success and failure?
• Can anyone succeed? How important is formal education?
• Do you view the world as one of abundance and opportunity? Or do you see the world as one of scarcity and competition? Or both?
• Is life a game? A war? An adventure? A cocktail party? A chess match? Meaningless?
• What truly matters in life? Is taking action pointless? Should we have it all? Or is that selfish?
• What virtues mean the most to you? Independence? Intelligence? Compassion? Duty?
• Are you practical or romantic? Are you a lover of literature? A lover of pop culture? Perhaps both? Do you love ideas? Do you love people?
• How do you view death? Is it something to be feared or embraced? Why?

Answering those questions will take some time. But you may find that hitting publish once you have written an affinity-style article is even more difficult.
We worry what people will think about us after we publish. When our truth is out there.
Here’s what you need to know: share as little or as much as you feel comfortable with.
If you look at Brian’s body of work, you’ll notice he doesn’t get personal very often. However, he’s very open about who he is, what he thinks, and what he likes.
In other words, he’s comfortable in his own skin.

Be who you are in pixels as you are in person. Open up, laugh, and don’t take yourself too seriously.

Quick case study: The Year of Falling Apart

I’ll close with a brief story.
Long ago, when I was frequently publishing on my personal website, I became tired of writing about web content. Basically, I needed to blow off some steam because I had exhausted myself after producing a long run of articles about writing. Sharing a good personal story was exactly what I needed.
The problem was, it didn’t fit within the category “web writing.” I was certain to lose readers. It was way beyond the blog’s focus — but I published the personal story anyway and it ended up becoming one of the most popular articles on the site: The Year of Falling Apart.
By giving myself permission to publish Affinity content, I also gave birth to a passel of ideas on web writing. It was a win-win.

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Over to you …

So, content marketer, are you ready to get comfortable in your own skin? Are you ready to share your beliefs? To let people know who you are? Are you ready to create some really good Affinity content?
Let us know in the comments.
Also let us know your favorite piece of Affinity content. It could be here on Copyblogger or on another site. It could even be something you wrote.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

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Action Content: Turn Fans into Customers [Plus a Free Bonus for You]

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.

So far, we’ve covered Attraction, Authority, and Affinity content. Now it’s time to turn your fans into customers with Action content.
And this is where all the work you’ve done as a content marketer starts translating into revenue for yourself, your clients, or your organization.
The good news is that Action content is probably the easiest type of content to understand. But the bad news is that it can also be some of the most difficult to produce.
We’ll dig into the reasons why shortly, but since we are in the habit of defining each term before we get started, let’s do that here for Action content:

Action content is content designed to get somebody to take an action.

How about that for easy?

The marriage of copywriting and content marketing

Content marketing is a new kid on the block in some ways, surging in popularity in the last five years.
In other ways, content marketing has been paired with advertising for quite some time. Take John Deere’s 118-year-old magazine, The Furrow, as an example.
The Michelin Guide, first published in 1900, is another great example of classic content marketing.
However, what I’m talking about here is the marriage between copywriting and content marketing.

A marriage between copywriting and content marketing helps you attract attention, increase engagement, and then ultimately, persuade someone to take action.

Types of actions

When you create content, you should have an action in mind that you’d like the reader to take. Actions could include, but aren’t limited to:

• Asking your readers to comment on a blog post
• Asking your readers to share an article or podcast
• Asking people to participate in a poll or survey
• Encouraging people to download a free video training course
• Persuading people to subscribe to your email newsletter
• Convincing people to follow you on social media
• Enticing people to hire you
• Getting people to buy your product

Naturally, you’ll want to start off with small requests. Get people used to taking your advice and following your instructions.
You first want people to say, “Hey, I want to pay attention to this person (or this company, or this brand) because it’s really relevant to my current challenge and the journey I’m on.”
You get people to warm up to you and trust you — step by step — until the sale, and then the repeat sale or the recurring sale.
Let’s look at some successful pieces of Action content.

Examples of Action content

The most obvious piece of Action content you will create is promotional — sales copy that you publish and run for the duration of the offer. After the sale is over, we recommend you remove the post from your site.
Action content also includes landing pages, like this one on content marketing that encourages visitors to register for Copyblogger’s content library.
In addition to those two cases, your best content will combine all four types of “A” content. Here’s a stellar example: What’s the Difference Between Content Marketing and Copywriting?
What makes it so great?

• It’s useful. The headline suggests you are about to learn something important. The question-style headline also helps attract attention. People wonder whether or not they do indeed know the answer. They think, “This might be too important to miss.”
• It’s authoritative. Sonia Simone’s years of working in the copywriting and content marketing world turned what could have been a shallow answer into an extended clinic in effective writing.
• It takes a stand. The content exposes people to one of our core philosophies at Copyblogger: Really good content is unsurpassed at building rapport, delivering a sales message without feeling “salesy,” and getting potential customers to stick around.
• It’s laced with action. You might not see it at first blush, but this piece of content motivates readers to check out the educational resources Copyblogger has to offer — from the My.Copyblogger free membership site to the paid offers like Authority and Content Marketing Certification.

The success of this content wasn’t accidental. There was a plan: the content primes people for when we actually do make an offer.

How to write Action content

Writing something interesting to fill space and keep people reading won’t cut it here.

You need to pair your content with a business goal.

That’s not as complicated as it might seem, because all you have to do is ask yourself this simple question before you write each piece of content:

What is the action I want my audience to take?

Now, getting people to actually take that action requires some skill. Like I said above, this is the hardest type of content to master. It takes time to learn copywriting skills, and it also takes time to master them.
The following resources can help you:

• Copywriting 101: How to Craft Compelling Copy
• The Copyblogger Conversion Series
• How to Be a Copywriting Genius: The Brilliantly Sneaky Trick You Must Learn
• 9 Classic Must-Read Direct Response Copywriting Books
• The Ultimate Guide to No-Pain Copywriting (or, Every Copywriting Formula Ever)
• The Ultimate Copy Checklist: 51 Questions to Optimize Every Element of Your Online Copy [Free Poster]

Once you’ve worked through that list, the next best thing you can do is to practice. Write. Then write some more.
And on that note, let me close with a little encouragement.

Keep your chin up

When I first got into copywriting, I threw myself into it whole hog.
I devoured every book I could get my hands on. Tore through successful promotional pieces. Listened to a legion of cassette tapes on the art of direct response copywriting, human psychology, and negotiations — yeah, this was way before podcasts. Wrote a mountain of sales letters, emails, and text ads (and then watched mentors tear them apart).
This went on for years. I thought I knew my stuff. However, it wasn’t until about Year Five when things clicked … when I turned the corner and all that head knowledge became heart knowledge.
The moral of this short story is that if I can learn how to write Action content, so can you. But it’s going to take time. Don’t expect too much of yourself too soon. Just start learning, publishing content, measuring results, adjusting, asking for feedback, and so on.
You can do it.

Get your free ebook: 4 Essential Types of Content Every Marketing Strategy Needs

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Over to you …

What’s your favorite example of Action content?
Drop us a note in the comments section below to share your thoughts.


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Authority Content: Build an Audience that Builds Your Business

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.

In a famous 1963 experiment at Yale University, psychologist Stanley Milgram learned that people’s duty to authority runs pretty dang deep.
Here’s how he conducted the study.
Two participants met and were placed in separate rooms. One participant was the “learner,” and one was the “teacher.” Unbeknownst to the “teacher,” the “learner” was an actor.
The teacher was instructed to ask the learner a question. If the learner got the question wrong, the teacher was directed to shock the student.
And here’s the disturbing part.
When a “researcher” wearing a grey lab coat told the teacher to keep shocking — even if the student was screaming, kicking, and begging for mercy from the adjacent room — the teacher would continue to shock 65 percent of the time. All the way up to 450 volts of electricity.
On the other hand, when there was no encouragement from the researcher, the teacher would quit delivering the shocks early on.
Keep in mind these were typical, healthy people — just like you and me — shocking the daylights out of strangers. Of course, no electrical shocks were actually given. But the teachers didn’t know that.
It seems our sense of duty to authority does run pretty dang deep.
Fortunately, we are content marketers around here, so we deliver products and services, not electrical shocks. But does authority have anything to do with people trusting you when money is involved?
That’s exactly what we’ll explore in this post.
But first, what does authority look like in content? Here’s a good definition I culled from a conversation with Brian Clark:

It really boils down to the demonstration of expertise through delivery of valuable content as opposed to claiming expertise or saying, “We’re number one.”
It’s the difference between marketing messages and content that actually creates the experience of authority. This is an important distinction that can be summed up with the short phrase: “Show, don’t tell.”

In other words, telling people you are a world-class copywriter does not have the same effect as showing people that is the case.
Take someone like Joanna Wiebe, for example.

Demonstrating world-class expertise with Authority content

Joanna got her start in the copywriting world while working at Intuit. While with the company, she was known for digging into the results of campaigns to inform her new ideas. She regularly adjusted copy to make it perform better.
After Intuit, Joanna took that reputation with her when she worked for Conversion Rate Experts and a few agencies, all the while increasing her reputation as a “conversion copywriter.”
Eventually, she struck out on her own with Copyhackers, where she established her authority by publishing a number of case studies. This led to a series of ebooks focused on copywriting.
These data-driven articles and ebooks demonstrated that Joanna knew what she was talking about. And it wasn’t long before organizations were asking her to speak at their events (like ours).
Joanna didn’t need to say she’s a world-class copywriter. She demonstrated it.

Empower your audience

If you examine Joanna’s content, you’ll realize that the goal behind Authority content is ultimately about empowering your audience.

You give them what they need to know in order to succeed, making them the rock stars, as opposed to a lot of chest-thumping about your business, your clients, or your organization.

In the early days of Copyblogger, Brian accomplished this by publishing content almost exclusively on copywriting. Gems like:

• Don’t Read This or the Kitty Gets It!
• “Kids Eat Free” and Other Irresistible Offers
• Writing Headlines That Get Results

While Brian was an effective copywriter long before he launched Copyblogger, he never once said that he was. He simply demonstrated it through his content.
Brian would write posts as if they were mini chapters in a section of a book. The first series he wrote was Copywriting 101. This was just his standard two-times-a-week content.
It took Brian five weeks to get that 10-part series out. But once he was done, he bundled all of those articles into a cornerstone content page.

“I created it like the table of contents in a book, or a section of a book. Each of the 10 parts was laid out there with beautiful, nice navigation. I had intro copy. I had outro copy with a call to action at the end to join the email list or subscribe. I called it Copywriting 101.” – Brian Clark

Back then (2006), it was rare to see content organized that way. Not only was it authoritative, it was new, too.
What happened as a result of packaging that copywriting content in an authoritative way? People found it. They shared it. They linked to it.
Copyblogger subsequently ranks at the top of web search results for the term “copywriting.”

Elevating your Authority content

Fast-forward many years and content bundles are now common. That means it’s not enough to just create authoritative articles and landing pages. You’ve got to up the value to get attention.
And that’s what we did a few years ago.
Over the years, Brian and Sonia Simone had created a handful of these series.
In 2013, they were edited and formatted into PDF ebooks, and then offered behind a gateway or “free paywall” — what we call a content library.
We made them available as a comprehensive content marketing library and created the My.Copyblogger free membership community where you access the content.
You don’t have to pay any money. You just register for the site, give us your name and email, and we give you all that good stuff.
The cornerstone content evolved into a more appealing and more convenient format behind a free gateway. It was a new concept to the content marketing world.

Create your own Authority content in 4 steps

Here’s an outline for creating Authority content:

1. Pick a topic. Select a topic you’re knowledgeable about and have experience with. Keep a narrow focus. For example, if you own a chain of local laundromats, you can create authoritative content on subtopics like “laundry detergent,” “dryer sheets,” and “folding garments.”
2. Write a series. Break down your topic into five articles. Think of these five articles as chapters in a book. Publish one article from this series each week. Incorporate elements of Attraction content. You may need to include surveys, stats, lists, and downloadable assets.
3. Bundle the series. Once all five articles have been published, bundle all of these articles into a downloadable PDF, and create a cornerstone content page for the PDF bundle. (By the way, there is an important difference between a cornerstone content page and a blog post.)
4. Promote the series. Share the series on social media sites, link to it in your blog posts and guest posts you write on other sites, and notify your email list subscribers.

Again, the four content types may overlap, but Authority content will get people to actually do business with you.

The unstoppable power of Authority content

Authority content is the type of content that’s going to be the most likely to attract high-quality links to your site — both links from other websites and, even more importantly, authoritative sites (like popular media publishers, Wikipedia, or government sites).

When you combine Authority content with Attraction content, you’ve got an incredible one-two punch.

Authority plus Attraction is where the heavy-duty value begins. It tends to attract links and get a lot of shares. This is because — as I showed you in this article’s introduction — authority is one of the most powerful psychological influencers out there. And what’s really cool is you’re helping people, not tricking them.
Authority content gets attention, yes. But it gets it in a very meaningful way that’s going to eventually translate into action (which we’ll explain in the last article in this series).
Furthermore, people trust authorities, particularly authorities they like, which leads us to Affinity content (the content type we’ll discuss tomorrow).

Check out the other articles in this series

• An Introduction to the 4 Essential Types of Content Every Marketing Strategy Needs
• Attraction Content: The Foundation of a Smart Content Marketing Strategy
• Affinity Content: The Key to Growing Your Community
• Action Content: Turn Fans into Customers

Get your free ebook: 4 Essential Types of Content Every Marketing Strategy Needs

Build a content strategy based on the four content types in this series! Get your free ebook, 4 Essential Types of Content Every Marketing Strategy Needs.

Click to get the free ebook

Over to you …

Do you have any questions about Authority content? Drop your thoughts or questions in the comments section below.
And let us know about your favorite piece of Authority content (whether or not it was something you created). While you’re at it, let us know who your favorite authority is.


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