Listen
The 3-Step Check to Get Better Results for Your Content
Before you start busting out content for this week, make sure you’re sending your hard work down the right path. Today’s Listen from Copyblogger FM is a quick 3-step check that can help make any piece of content more interesting and more effective.
During an Authority sesh, or “blog post teardown,” the folks at Copyblogger noticed some consistent themes with the critiques. Sonia calls these themes, “The ‘P’ Factors,” which kind of sounds like a pet-pee verison of The Fear Factor if you ask us.
Anyyyyway… we’ve outlined them for you below. Compare them to previous content you’ve published and then keep these P’points in mind as you continue creating content. If reading ain’t your thing on a Monday morning, you know what to do.
(03:00)
Get to the Point. Your audience needs to understand why they should invest their time in your content, so answer “what’s in it for the audience?” quickly. Make a script or outline so you can jump to the point as soon as possible. Make a dang-good headline, too.
(05:25)
Purpose. Why did you spend time creating the content? Once you have a goal, you can develop a strategy. If you don’t know what your strategy could even be, this free ebook by Brian Clark offers a framework to understand the types of strategic roles different kinds of content can play.
(08:55)
Path to Purchase. Most of your audience is just wandering around online, bumping into you at different points. Create specific paths so that, when they find you anywhere, they have opportunities to come closer. Think about where your content should lead your audience. What comes next? Craft that can’t-refuse Call to Action — make it stand out.
Not sure where you want them to go? Make yourself memorable, create a bond, get them to sign up to your email list, etc. Make content pave the way toward your business goals.
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Read
The Ultimate Content Marketing Audit
We all know the 80/20 rule — where 80% of your results come from 20% of your content. It’s kind of a disheartening rule. But, cheer up! Rules are made to be broken, and we’re going to help you break that rule (and maybe a few more) with today’s Read.
Nope, this isn’t’ a “create quality content” blog post. It’s more of a “take what you’ve got and make it a heck of a lot better” blog post. You can do that by performing a content audit. Unlike when the IRS audits you, this one is actually fun (although a little time consuming).
The first step to conducting your content audit is to get organized. Break out a spreadsheet. You’re going to want separate sheets that detail:
- Content that attracts visitors from search
- Content with declining search traffic
- Content that has search ranking potential
- Email campaigns that attract visitors
- Measuring the engagement of visitors from email campaigns
- Content that gets the most social shares
- Content that converts visitors into leads at the greatest rate
Note: Links above have all the deets on how to find those stats (we couldn’t fit all that info in this email).
Alright, so you’ve got yourself a neat little report, right? Now it’s time for action. Reports don’t do anything by themselves.
- With your “traffic champions,” you’re going to want to entice those visitors to stay on your website longer, or get them to opt-in to an email list. Link to your highest converting pages from these traffic champions.
- Your “potential champions” might just need a quick refresh, or a new title, to get people to be more interested in them.
- The “falling stars” might need a more serious overhaul. Add anything that improves quality. This could be more details, images, video, contributor quotes, or question/answers.
- Your “better mousetraps” are the pages with high conversion rates. Promote the heck out of these. Link to them from other blogs, add them to your homepage, try using them in native advertising. The list goes on and on…
Watch
The Lost Panda
Remember the days of yore when we wished for a gadget to keep track of your car keys, wallet, purse, parents, etc. Well that little gadget is here and they just released their first major ad. And if Toy Story 3 caused you to cry like a baby, prepare to have your heartstrings pulled. LOOK AT THAT LITTLE SWEATER VEST!
About as precious as a story about a lost stuffed panda could be, Tile’s new ad spot takes us on this panda’s journey to be found. According to Tile’s CMO, the story was inspired by an actual Tile customer, a young girl who lost her stuffed animal in a busy city, only to be reunited later with the help of the Tile community. (I’m not crying, you’re crying!)
“Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still.”
David Foster Wallace
