IFLOP? - Carney
The Daily Carnage

IFLOP?

You knew we were gonna talk about it, right?

How to Craft Question Headlines that Don’t Flop

Ah, the ol’ question headline. A tried and true marketing practice. You know how they go. You’ve likely seen a bunch of, Want More Leads from Social Media? Or, Is Your Adwords Campaign Getting Enough Clicks?

Here’s the thing, though. Those two headlines that we just made up are actually terrible question headlines. Really bad. And bad question headlines (or really just any bad headline) will cause your content to totally flop.

The good news is that our friends at Copyblogger are here to help you fix your flop-worthy question headlines, and it’s actually easier than you might expect.

Let’s get into it.

Your first step is to avoid a “yes” or “no” answer at all costs. If someone is scanning through headlines on, say, Facebook, and they can easily answer the question your headline is posing, they’ll ignore it.

Take it directly from copy-pro Stefanie Flaxman, “[Readers] won’t read any further because you aren’t helping them — or more accurately, you’re not giving the impression that your article will help them. The content might very well be groundbreaking and useful, but the headline does not communicate that.”

Here’s a good example, if you write a home gardening blog, you shouldn’t write a piece that asks, “Does Your Lawn Need Fertilizer?

That might not be a bad blog post, but the headline destroys any hope of success. Instead, Stefanie suggests trying something like, “Are You Making This Common Fertilizer Mistake that Shortens the Lifespan of Your Grass?

Don’t you really wanna know what that fertilizer mistake is? We do. The goal with this headline is to make your audience feel like they’re really going to learn something from you. That’s when they’ll click.

Try this headline exercise. Go through all of your content, and find the question headlines. If you can answer any of them with a simple, “yes” or “no,” rewrite it. Then, re-promote it to your audience and see if the performance is better or not.

Ready, set, go!

7 Ways to Upgrade Your B2B Marketing Strategy

So your brand is the hotshot on the block. What could be better than number one?

Fam, let us upgrade you. Flip a new page, and introduce you to some new things. We can up, can we up, let us upgrade you.

Yep, we’re jammin’ to Beyonce today. But for reals, SEMRush wants to upgrade your B2B strategy and we are fully here for it. Marketers in B2B play a much, much longer sales game so staying up to date with the digital landscape can be the difference in winning potential customers and not.

1. Live Video
We talk a lot about how video is a dominating medium on social platforms and according to Facebook, “live videos are watched 3X more and receive 10X more comments than regular videos.”

So what does this mean? One, visuals are better received and retained. Two, communicating emotions offers a higher relatable content. Three, these live videos can always be repurposed.

2. Brand Storytelling
Business to business can be tricky in that you can’t forget you’re still selling to people. Showcase how the real people behind your brand can solve the problems of your customers.

3. Employee Advocacy
Leverage your team! Get your employees excited about creating buzz about the company they work for through social networks. Smarp is a tool that makes the advocacy process easier.

5. Mobile-Friendly Content
Our head of design will preach the need for mobile-first content until he’s blue in the face. Why? SEMRush reported, “50.3% of global web traffic was generated from mobile devices.” Ensuring websites are mobile friendly means content is easily readable and CTA’s are prominent.

Believe us, mobile really matters for B2B too, even if your web traffic is 66% desktop.

6. Customer Testimonials
We love this strategy because it’s so easy to carry out and it’s super cost-efficient. Build credibility by sharing testimonials and case studies across social media. Encourage your clients to give feedback and use their words to your benefit. It’s that simple.

There’s 7 total and we left two out so if you’re in the B2B biz then click through and let SEMRush upgrade ya.

IHOb?

You had to know we were gonna talk about it…

The International House of Pancakes made a hard left by changing their focus from the fluffy breakfast dish to burgers. And we’re so not sure how we feel about it.

The move came as IHOP’s, or we guess IHOb’s, business has been stagnant.

The social strategy with the business change has been a wild ride too. From TV spots to Twitter. It seemed like the goal was to raise anticipation and amp up publicity. Though the commercial reflects an overly excited employee sharing the fantastic company news.

Not gonna lie, we’re not impressed. This sort of thing has been done over and over and over again. But they have gotten a ton of press from it. And all press is good press, right?

Everyday viewers, celebrities, and other brands are having fun with the name change on social. Seriously, if you need a pick me up check out the #ihob Twitter feed.

But, we wanna know: what do y’all think about #ihob? Marketing genius or total flop in the pan?

“Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like.” 

Brian Chesky

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