Read
How to Turn Vanilla Writing into Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
…just reading that title makes us hungry for a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.
If you’re into math (ew…why?), here are some equations that might explain why writing is comparable to ice cream in the first place:
Technically Sound + Inoffensive = Vanilla Writing
Provoke Strong Feelings + Tell Your Friends = Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Writing
In a perfect world, we’d all be screaming for that cookie dough ice cream writing until there was too much of it to handle. So…where do we even start to turn that boring vanilla into delicious chocolate chip cookie dough? Hire a fairy godmother?
Don’t stress, Copyblogger has all the answers for you…
When a piece has reached its full vanilla potential, it’s time to add another scoop of editing and make sure you’ve hit these points:
- You know exactly who the ideal reader is.
- You know what promise you’re making to them.
- Your piece contains all the key information required to deliver on the promise.
Once you’ve crossed off this list, get ready to roll up your sleeves and edit like you’ve never edited before. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Step 1: Check Yo Self
Are you familiar with the delete button? If not, you’re about to be. This stage is for deleting anything that isn’t relevant to the promise you’re making, especially your examples.
Step 2: Establish Structure
All writing needs a hook, build, and payoff. A strong hook at the beginning of a piece will have readers on the edge of their seats with popcorn in hand. To make sure they don’t put that popcorn down, focus on building up “what is” and “what could be.” The payoff is the gooey pieces of cookie dough themselves, also known as the information that delivers on the promise of your title.
Though it’s common to think getting to the payoff is the final stage of your masterpiece, there are still a few more steps to make your writing the sweetest it can be 👇
Read
7 Ways You Can Use Google Trends to Bolster Your SEO Efforts
Forget money, tools make the world go ’round. Think about it. Need to grab something off the top shelf? Use a Reacher Grabber. Wanna hang up a picture? Grab a hammer and nails. Looking to improve your SEO efforts? Google Trends should be your go-to!
I think we made our point. HubSpot is furthering that point by showing us a few tricks to Google Trends. Let’s get to it!
1) Create and optimize content for seasonal trends. There’s that seasonal talk again. Seasonal trends gain so much hype because it’s the most reliable and consistent topics to cover. Keep in mind seasonal doesn’t always mean holidays.
HubSpot uses baseball as an example. You can use Google Trends to find when the keyword, “Opening Day” reaches its peak in popularity. Then you can create new content or optimize old content surrounding Opening Day of Baseball.
2) Find trending topics to cover. Delivering the freshest news keeps your audience informed. And in exchange, they’ll begin looking to you for answers first. Google’s Trending Search Tool will show you which queries people have searched for the most during the last 24 hours.
The key here is not taking the same angle as everyone else. Stand out from the crowd.
3) Gauge the demand for your product/service by location. It wouldn’t make sense for a surfboard company to target the US as a whole, right? Google Trends can help you understand which audiences you should target.
Once you figure out where your audience is, you’ll be able to create content based on each location.
4) Will a topic work better with video? It’s possible. If the popularity of a keyword misses the mark with web search, there’s a chance it’s working better on YouTube
Plug your keyword into Google Trends for YouTube search, and see how it’s trending with video versus search. If the keyword is trending upward for video and trending down for web search, all you gotta do is make a video series.
Three more to go. It’s all up to you!
Watch
Zombie Selfie
It’s about freakin’ time. More brands are jumping into the Halloween spirit this week. So yes, we’re featuring another Halloween ad. You’re probably asking yourself, “What gives? Are they just gonna feature Halloween ads for the rest of the month?”
Yep, we probably are.
This latest one comes from LG and is packed full of zombies. For some reason, these zombies have smartphones…which kinda seems like a metaphor for 2018 America…but we’ll look past that.
Anyway, two of these zombies end up falling in love. And like any good millennial couple, their love means selfies. Plenty of selfies.
These zombies might not be living, but they apparently still have love burning in their cold, undead hearts.
“Every person holding a smartphone is on your marketing team. Empower them to share visual content about your brand.”
Donna Moritz
Ads from the Past
Ads from the Past
Who was honestly giving out glasses of Kool-Aid to trick-or-treaters in 1964? What did they do? Dump 8 ounces of that sweet nectar into the kids’ bags? We’re not following Kool-Aid on this one.
