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It turns out longer is better—at least when it comes to writing headlines for branded content. Branded content technology provider Polar analyzed a bunch of data provided by premium publishers, such as Oath and Gannett, to see how variation in headlines affected key performance indicators (KPIs). It found that branded content headlines between 90 and 99 characters achieved a clickthrough rate (CTR) of 0.43%, higher than headlines with fewer characters. The “more is better” theory also held true for the number of words included in a headline. Polar reported that headlines with 16 words garnered a CTR of 0.33%. By comparison, pithy headlines of just four words recorded an average CTR of less than half that, at just 0.14%. Some other tips Polar gleaned from its work? Numbers and special characters also resulted in a bump in CTRs. So feel free to figure out how to squeeze an ampersand in there....
Are you sending potential new customers to old content on your blog that is out of date? Or….….do you have old content on your site that never gets any traffic? Both of these things are bad for your site, so you need to do something about them. And here’s why. Producing new content on a regular basis may not always work as you would expect it....
So you’ve started blogging. It’s a great way to start building traffic, acquiring new customers, and developing brand awareness. But I have some bad news. Unless your articles are ranking well in Google search, you’re not going to make much progress. Understanding SEO is critical to making your website presence stand out. To accomplish that, you need to implement some proven tactics to boost your ranking in Google. This is your guide to getting your content ranked higher....
Well my friend, the time for excuses is over. After you read this post, there will be absolutely no reason you can't blog every single day -- and do it quickly. Not only am I about to provide you with a simple blogging formula to follow, but I'm also going to give you free templates for creating five different types of blog posts: - The How-To Post - The List-Based Post - The Curated Collection Post - The SlideShare Presentation Post - The Newsjacking Post....
As marketers, we often succumb to a cognitive bias called the overconfidence effect. Since we're technically experts, we tend to overestimate our industry knowledge and our ability to predict content performance. This can lead us to rely on our intuition more than data when we brainstorm new blog ideas. Since we like our own ideas, we think our audience will too. But just because we like our own post, doesn't mean our audience wants to read it. Instead of relying on our own personal taste, we need to let our audience's behaviors and preferences drive our new blog ideas -- or else we risk publishing irrelevant content. Analyzing audience data before ideation is crucial for crafting desirable content. Let's read on to learn six data-driven tactics for choosing the topics your audience actually desires....
Since our first reader in August of 2014, we’ve steadily increased our traffic, and we're now consistently drawing 5,000 plus readers per month to our blog. Our traffic is increasing at a growing rate, and we're optimistic about doubling or tripling our traffic in the upcoming year. If you're a small company like ours — under 20 employees — you're probably wondering how we can consistently publish over 100 quality blog posts annually in addition to getting our “day jobs” done. The answer is in our process. There are five important steps that make up our process, and each is critical in helping us accomplish our goal of publishing 100 high quality new blog posts annually. These steps use the HubSpot blogging and social tools....
A persuasive blog post not only gets the conversation started, but it creates an appetite for your ideas and products, without you coming across like a sleazy salesman. This is why I put so much time, money, and effort into creating exceptional content with all the persuasive checks and balances. And I’ve told you this before: When I started blogging, my content failed to hit the mark. Now, I’ve fine-tuned a system that allows me to create powerful content in record time. Trust me, you can do it too, and I’ll show you exactly how. In fact, I’ll give you specific formulas that you can plug-and-play to craft your blog posts in under an hour....
Fast forward almost ten years and blogging is so ubiquitous that not only are blogs supplanting traditional media channels as sources for breaking news, practically every single company I can think of has one. A good public relations professional will counsel their client to have a blog or content hub as a way to showcase thought leadership, earned media placements, company news, and announcements, and engage with fans and followers. Yet, we are often the shoemakers with no shoes.If you’re a PR pro, and you’re thinking of starting a new blog or rejuvenating a dormant one, here are a few tips to boost your digital presence....
Edison Research has just about cornered the market on podcast research and podcast statistics, and their new report, The Podcast Consumer 2017, continues the trend with a deep-dive into the demographics of American podcast listeners.
In January and February of 2017, Edison surveyed 2,000 people ages 12 and older about their audio and social media habits.
I absolutely encourage you to grab the full report (no cost) here. Meanwhile, here are the findings I found most interesting....
The following is made up of 3 “Monday Tips” articles, each of which talks about 4 helpful tools and resources around a specific area of your business. Today, the subjects are: - Tools to Improve Your Blog - Instagram Marketing Tools - CRM Tools for Leads and Sales...
Via janlgordon
If contributing guest posts is part of your content distribution and promotion strategy, you're probably familiar with the following scenario: You write a great article for a guest publication, and at the end, you’re compensated with a teeny, tiny paragraph about yourself. Unless you wrote the article for purely altruistic reasons, this paragraph, though short, is quite critical. Not only does it connect you to the article on a level beyond your byline, but also, it provides space for links back to your website or social profiles. And who wouldn't want even that little bit of glory? But what are you supposed to write in that brief paragraph, anyway? How do you make your author bio compelling, powerful, and effective -- without a whole lot of space? As it turns out, there are quite a few seemingly small ways to approach your author bio that can help it have a much bigger impact. But what do they look like, exactly? Read on -- you’re about to find out....
We are a visual culture. People respond better to visual content and even process information more efficiently when presented in a visual way. With so many performance advantages, it’s clear how design can elevate written content. With the convincing out of the way, let’s talk about specific ways to introduce design and visual storytelling into your content marketing strategy. We all know that blog posts need images but are you using enough? One of the best ways to increase the reach of your content is with the right amount of images. BuzzSumo did the math for us, and found that the right amount of images is one every 75-100 words: “In a study of over one million articles, BuzzSumo looked at how many blog posts with images were shared. Then they looked at how many images, per how many words, got the best results. What they found was articles with an image once every 75-100 words got double the amount of shares of articles with fewer images.”...
Researching, developing, and writing blog posts is only the first half of content marketer’s jobs. The other half of the day consists of making sure that all of your hard work creating the post doesn’t go to waste. Promoting your blog posts on the right platforms and through the right channels is vital if you want your content to be read. But promotion is a tricky subject. And most of the time, it includes paid social advertising campaigns that are poorly managed and don’t see strong results. With this as the norm, it’s no surprise that some content marketers have started re-posting their blog content on other domains to maximize its visibility. While this may seem like a good idea and an easy way to broaden your visibility, you can run into some serious trouble with Google here. Whenever you are thinking of re-posting a blog post on another site, remember this bit of expert advice: Google hates twins. So how can you broaden the visibility of your content to make sure it engages well? How can we all milk each piece of content for every drop of value it has to offer?...
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Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winning author of “Thinking Fast and Slow” uses the terms “system 1” and “system 2” to describe how we process and understand information. System 1 is intuitive, non-thinking. System 2 kicks in when the brain must work on the problem.If I ask you what is 2+2, your system 1 brain immediately answers 4. Now, if I ask you what is 2,531 + 9,518? without using a calculator, then your system 2 brain kicks in. You focus, and your cognitive load increases as your brain works towards the answer; 12,049.And it is the same for language. If a Web visitor arrives at a Web page with a complex message, they must spend mental energy working to understand. And since people scan web pages and spend 15 seconds on average on each page, they will most likely churn....
A recent Reuters Institute study, aptly titled ‘‘I saw the news on Facebook’ looks at how audiences recall the source of news found via social media and search. The study takes into account how users recall where they found a particular story (search, social, or by landing directly on a website), as well as going a step further to measure their likelihood of remembering the actual source of the information. It turns out that accurate source recall is a legitimate concern for publishers. Here’s the key line from the report: “Less than half could remember the name of the news brand for a particular story when coming from search or social media. Correct brand attribution was just 37% from search and 47% from social media. This compares with an attribution rate of 81% for users who arrived directly from another page on a destination website.” So on average, less than half of the people clicking links to news stories in their social media feeds could correctly recall the actual source of the story afterwards, leading to the common scenario where someone says they saw a story ‘on Facebook’....
When writers apply visual thinking to their writing magic happens. This tutorial teaches you how to make your content clearer, vivid, and more persuasive.
Via Penelope
"Should I kill off my blog?” These are valid questions. In this article, I’ll help you come up with valid answers. First, we’ll look at a few “false flag” reasons you may feel like calling it quits and how to get past them. Why dwell on the false flags? I don’t want you to make a permanent decision based on problems that can be fixed easily. It could simply be a case of you using the wrong strategy. Then, we’ll get into the circumstances that may warrant killing off your blog....
In a world where everyone seems to be constantly churning out content, you may be feel like you’re not doing enough. However, there’s an upside and a downside to what I’m about to tell you. The upside is: There is no universal “right amount” of content to publish. There’s no magic publishing cadence for achieving content marketing success. Rather, the key is to figure out how much high-quality content you can produce on a regular basis – and then maximize it through your distribution channels to reach your goals. And that’s the downside: You have to find your own best publishing cadence – based upon your goals – through testing, trial, error, and optimization....
Research on social posting frequency is less conclusive than you might think. Before you post on social media, ask, "Is this worth knowing?"It’s good stuff. But, it’s not true. None of it is true. Because all of those studies look at the success of each post in a vacuum. How many clicks, likes, shares, comments, etc. did a piece of social content get, and what happens to those baseline results when the frequency of publication goes up, or down? Every single one of these reports ignores an unassailable certainty about success in social media marketing: Put another way, increased frequency doesn’t imperil your success in social media marketing. Instead, your success is mitigated every time you post something mediocre, or worse....
Even though we all are crunched for time, spouting off a mediocre blog post for the sake of hitting a deadline isn't worth it. Considering our audiences have access to countless other articles, it's unlikely that they'd settle for a half-baked attempt.We get it, though: It can be difficult to keep track of all the right blog components when you've got a full plate of projects. There's a lot to remember when crafting a solid blog post -- which means there's also a lot to forget. To make sure nothing slips through the cracks and every one of your blog posts is both comprehensive and useful to your readers, we've created a rundown of everything you need to remember when you start writing. Bookmark this blog post, and make sure you've completed this checklist the next time you press "publish."...
One of the best ways to demonstrate your relevance and expertise is by publishing thoughtful and valuable content to educate, inspire, and entertain your target audience. The problem is, it’s a lot of work! So, how do you avoid CMF? The answer: Get smarter with content creation. Yes, there are fantabulous ways, like working with guest bloggers, to keep the original ideas and perspectives flowin’. But even so, when it comes to content creation, you need to get the most bang for your buck (time is money, right?). Try upcycling: The simple process of repurposing old content into something new and improved.
When it comes to writing text for your blog and social media posts, many marketers wonder, "But what's the character limit?" It's never a simple question -- sometimes, it's answered by parameters established by certain channels. And on other occasions, it's more a question of what's ideal. For example, you probably know the character limit for a tweet is 140, but did you know that the ideal length is actually less than that? (Hold tight -- we'll explain why.) While we've written before about optimizing your actual content, we thought it would be helpful to gather the numbers of character limits -- both enforced and ideal -- for different online channels, all in one place.  Below, you'll find a more detailed guide to character limits and ideal character counts for posts on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, SnapChat, and YouTube....
In addition to time, thriving bloggers now need to invest in tools and resources that help with content creation. It’s also common for bloggers to bribe their audience into subscribing with free eBooks, discount coupons, and free trial periods. Whether you feel that your blog is better than others is immaterial. If you want your blog to stay relevant for the upcoming years, you need a solid strategy that efficiently produces and delivers great content to your target audience....
When it comes to content strategy, a lot has been said about the importance of keeping a steady stream of fresh content flowing through your distribution channels. Marketers have listened. According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 76 percent of content marketers produced more content in 2016 than they did in 2015. That content stream will only increase in 2017. This trend has been with us for years. According to an October 2016 TrackMaven blogging report: Over the last five years, the average number of blog posts published per brand per month increased by 800 percent. However, over the same time the average number of social shares per post (from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest) decreased by 89 percent....
In today’s blog post, I want to share with you my 16 best content marketing tools I have been using and how I think you can also use them to build up a solid content marketing strategy. Most of them are free to use so you have nothing to lose trying them, I will mention a few that might have some payment required but I’ll keep those to a minimum. Let’s get into it....
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A paradox? More characters and more words mean more clicks.