Content Trends

Content Marketing, SEO and Digital Marketing

Transform your marketing with 5 new technologies

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Have you read sci-fi novels where your brain has only to think of something that you need and voila — you have it? AI is making this past fiction scenario into a future reality and is quickly transforming digital marketing. And while we haven’t quite reached this point just yet, every day, AI is getting better at learning how we think and what we want.

Thanks to NLP (Natural Language Processing), Voice search, Google’s algorithms like Hummingbird and Panda, predictive modeling in Data Science, marketers can better target the right customers with the most relevant message to their needs.

These 5 AI trends can help you sell more in three ways:

  • Your customers will better understand how your product will work.
  • You can reach the right audience with the right message.
  • You can automate certain tasks that were previously labor intensive.

All three ways help you save money, create a stronger customer experience which in turn will help you retain and win more customers for stronger profit and ROI.

1) Virtual reality

What is VR?
VR helps you create a simulated environment using computer software.
How to benefit from VR
Every day companies are coming up with new ways to use this technology. VR’s potential is still untapped and the sky’s the limit for many industries. For example, you can use VR to help customers imagine how your product will look in their environment or help them travel the world or even watch virtual exhibits. Here are some innovative ways companies are using VR.
IKEA: Place is an app that lets you virtually place true-to-scale 3D models in your very own space.
VOLVO: was one of the first companies to introduce virtual test drives with the help of VR sets.
Thomas Cook: released a VR campaign called Try Before You Fly. The results — $17,000 on flight and hotel bookings and a 190% uplift in trips to New York. All this within the first three months of the campaign.

Thomas Cook’s successful “Try before you Fly” campaign

2) Chatbots

What are chatbots?
Chatbots are an AI-powered software that help you converse with customers. They understand users’ keywords and can accordingly give pre-set answers to frequently asked questions about your business. Chatbots often have human names and avatars so we feel comfortable chatting with them.
There are lots of great chatbot platforms that allow you to build your own chatbot and integrate it on your website.
How to benefit from chatbots
Chatbots allow you to save money by answering questions and welcoming people with no need for human interaction. To answer more complex questions, you’d still need human interaction.
For example, chatbots can:

  • Greet your customers when they first land on your site.
  • Answer FAQs (like “what’s your return policy?” or “how much do your services cost?”)
  • Gather basic info from leads
  • Set up a sales call with them

3. Voice-activated search

What is voice-activated search?
Voice search allows users to use their voice to search the Internet, a website, or an app. More broadly, voice search includes keyword queries on any info on the Internet. Google Voice Search, Cortana, Siri, Alexa and Amazon Echo are all great examples.
How to benefit from voice-activated search
Some tips on how to optimize your site for voice-activated search:
1. Register for Google My Business
When you register for Google My Business, Google can confirm that yours is an authentic business. This means it’ll more likely bring up your name in a voice search.
2. Optimize Your Site for Mobile
Chances are, you won’t be doing a voice search on your desktop. You’ll probably do it while driving

  • Making sure your buttons aren’t too small to be seen comfortably on a mobile device.
  • Go for mobile-friendly plugins.
  • Optimize your site so it loads in under 3 seconds.

3. Get into Google’s Featured Snippets
This isn’t an easy task, but it’s the #1 reason you’ll make it in a voice search.

4. Personalization and recommendation engines

You know how Netflix and Amazon recommend products based on your previous history? Personalization and recommendations such as these are what consumers want. A recent report showed that nearly three-fourths (74%) of online consumers get frustrated with websites when they see content (e.g. offers, ads, promotions) that has nothing to do with their interests.
How to benefit from recommendation engines and personalization
AI predicts customer behavior based on previous brand interactions. For example, Amazon has a record of every purchase you’ve ever made, your browsing history, items you’ve wished for, apps you’ve downloaded, reviews and everything you’ve asked Alexa or Echo. They use this wealth of info about you to recommend other products.

AI also helps brands to personalize email marketing campaigns based on user behaviors. Marketers can send out emails based on certain actions you take while browsing or shopping. AI helps marketers optimize their email campaigns. You can use tools like like Phrasee to dynamically analyze and optimize campaigns quickly, rather than having to A/B test different messages and designs, which can take time.

5) CRMs powered by AI

What are CRMs?
Customer relationship managers are software systems that manage customer data. These systems help businesses manage their relationships with customers.

According to a recent survey by Capterra, 47% of polled CRM users said that their CRM had a significant impact on customer retention and customer satisfaction.

How to benefit from CRMs
Marketers can analyze a prospect’s needs and adapt to boost sales. Thanks to AI, CRMs can:

  • Better target your customers and serve them messages relevant to their needs.
  • Visualize the customer journey and make the shopping experience easier by helping the customer reach the checkout with recommendations that better reflect them and their habits.
  • Sync up with other marketing tools so that marketers can create better:
    • Email nurturing campaigns that educate prospects and new customers
    • Landing/sales pages personalized to the customer’s needs (for ex. special landing pages for those who abandoned their carts)
    • Targeted digital and display ads

All these help especially with products that are more expensive or need more thought before buying. These strategies help keep prospects moving steadily through the marketing funnel till they buy.

Your turn

What are you doing to optimize your marketing with new technologies? Please share in the comments below. Thank you!

10 off-site SEO strategies to boost your rankings

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image of off-site SEO optimizationSearch engines are constantly changing their algorithms. While it’s important to keep track, these days your off-site SEO efforts are almost as important as your on-site efforts.
A recent study by Moz found that off-site SEO-related factors likely carry more than 50% of the ranking factor weight.

image from an article written by SEO Moz showing that off-site SEO is almost as important as on-site SEO
An article by Moz that search engines use off-site signals almost as much as on-site signals

Need just one sentence to summarize your off-site SEO efforts?

It all boils down to how your brand is perceived by your customers and more broadly in the community. Are you creating the best possible brand experience for your customers and community? Then, Google is interested in rewarding you with good rankings. According to Google, if you’re respected in your community as a leader you’ll also have:

  • Quality backlinks from authoritative and respected sites
  • Authority
  • A strong reputation and be considered a leader in your space

Building relationships and community outreach

Link-building in the past involved buying links. This technique has long been considered spammy but it didn’t stop people from using it. Then, the Penguin update was released in April 2012. Until then, even though Google had improved its link evaluation, this was the first step toward the modern ranking system we know today. Sites using spammy, “black-hat techniques” were penalized. On the other hand, Penguin rewarded sites that had a natural link profile.

Matt Cutts said in a video that when you approach building links only for search engines, you create a certain mindset. Think instead of who might be interested in your content in the community and build relationships with them. This way, link building is just a byproduct of their collaborative relationship with you.

Also, think of quality vs. quantity. There was a time when the number of links that you had were important. This was before the days of link-spammers and sites selling you links. Nowadays, the only links that count are from high-authority websites.

What to do

Think strategically. “What can I do to market my website to make it broadly known in the community?”:
#1.Talk to people in the media such as high-profile newspapers and online news sites.
#2. Network at industry conferences and forums. Build relationships which in turn may lead to opportunities for collaboration.
#3. Sponsor an event that will create buzz in the community and earn you links from the organizations whose event you’re sponsoring plus the media.
#4. Donate to charitable organizations that have a high degree of trust and good sentiment in the community.
#5. Collaborate with educational institutions. They are respected and have a great deal of authority online.

Authority

Domain Authority (DA) is a ranking metric that Moz uses to predict how well a site will rank. It’s one of the industry standards we use when we talk about ranking on the SERPs. Moz has a free tool, Open Site Explorer (OSE) to check your DA.

Your DA depends on your MOZrank, how trustworthy your site is, links and domain age. Other factors include the number of social media mentions of your brand and brand search volume.

Brand reputation

Google takes the total brand experience into account. This includes user reviews, testimonials, social media shares, mentions and brand-name searches.

Google favors highly-rated sites

Google’s algorithms also factor the rating of sites, favoring the ones with the highest ratings according to a Search Engine Watch article. “It’s your social proof and authority that reviews can boost, which means that it’s not just about adding reviews to your site, you should also focus on how to improve them.”

What to do

# 6.Receive visible star ratings

When star ratings are displayed in Google search results, prospective customers can instantly judge whether they can trust your product enough to visit your site. This helps increase traffic and sales, but it’s not always easy to achieve it.

Google relies on specific third-party review sites to determine your star rating. You should have at least 30 unique reviews during the past year, with an average of 3.5 or higher.

Star ratings may lead to an increased conversion rate of up to 17%. This itself is a great incentive to research more about them, along with Google’s guidelines on how to be eligible.

If anyone leaves a negative review, it’s important to respond and find out the root cause. Many brands have turned these experiences into positive outcomes for their brand.

#7. Monitor your brand search volume

Paying attention to the discussions of your customers and prospects can also do wonders for your marketing strategies. Uncovering brand mentions can lead to:

  • Reputation management opportunities
  • Honest feedback and insight
  • A better understanding of how customers interact with your product or service

Listening online for brand mentions can also lead to legitimate link opportunities. Both branded and non-branded mentions of your company offer link prospects plus an exposure to new audiences and communities.

There are many tools that let you monitor brand mentions not only on Facebook and Twitter, but also on each and every website out there – whether they’re forums or news sites. These tools also allow you to respond immediately.

#8. Use social media to spread the word about your brand

It pays to be there, be proactive and be human.
1. Be there: Make sure someone is monitoring your social media accounts and can quickly answer questions and respond to comments. You should also have special social media accounts set up just to answer questions and for customer service.
2. Be human: People online expect interaction, not robotic responses or constant brand promotion.
3. Be proactive: Use social media as a resource for the online community in the vertical you serve. For example, you can do that by answering questions on q and a sites like Quora or looking to answer them with a Twitter search.

Some strategies with social media:

  • Many brands make the mistake of being on all the social media channels. This dilutes your social media strategy. It makes sense to stay on the important social media channels you know your customers are likely to frequent plus those channels that are relevant to your business. For example, if you sell clothes, Instagram is a must-use social media channel.
  • Make sure that your social media profiles are up to date and correctly reflect your brand promise.
  • Social sharing contributes to a brand’s authority much in the same way that external links do. To search engines like Google, any indication of a verifiable external source validating your brand or your content is grounds for a small improvement in domain authority. Likes, shares, favorites, replies, and retweets all count toward this increased authority.

#9. Build connections with social media/online influencers

An effective strategy for enlisting the help of influencers to boost your off-page SEO is to get to know them in person, at events, and online via group chats/tweets and such, which puts you on their radar without much heavy lifting on your part.

Then, in the future, when you do create and share content, they’re more likely to recognize your brand and share the content themselves.

Even better, later on, after you’ve developed a stronger relationship, you might even collaborate together on a piece of content.

#10. Optimize all your digital assets

This includes having and optimizing:

  • A blog, so you share fresh content regularly — search engines love fresh content
  • A YouTube channel and a presence on other video-sharing sites
  • Images on image-sharing sites like Flikr and Instagram
  • Mobile apps
  • Podcasts

Increased engagement will lead to an increased online brand presence. This in turn will lead to more brand searches on Google, and the more branded searches your brand receives, the higher it’s likely to rank for non-branded keywords.

All these off-site SEO strategies combined are bound to increase your influence and rankings online. As with anything, SEO takes time. If you hear differently, run miles away like you would run from a snake-oil salesman.

Your turn

What strategies are you using to increase your rankings? Or do you have any other ideas to share? Or you just want to share some feedback on this post? I’d love to hear from you. Add a comment below. Thanks.

Top 5 content trends for 2017

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2017 is an exciting year for content. It’s finally the year where you can target each customer so they have a unique experience with your brand.

These 5 content trends are all inter-connected as everything in digital marketing is these days. And using them will make a big difference to your content marketing goals.

#1. Video content

Almost 50% of users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store.
69% of companies report their video marketing budget is increasing.

And 25% of consumers will lose interest in your brand if you don’t have a video explaining your product or service.

Video trends
Creating a video can be simple and inexpensive. Live videos are big now. And brands can use them to get a high level of reach on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, so take full advantage.

Ways to include video content

  • Turn sales materials into video format.
  • Show how customers engage and are helped by your brand every day with customer stories.
  • Have a helpful how-to video about something related to your industry.
  • Engage with customers via live video on Facebook.

#2. Personalization

Nearly three-fourths (74%) of online consumers get frustrated with websites when they see content (e.g. offers, ads, promotions) that has nothing to do with their interests.

Personalization these days is all about data and using it to shape a customer’s experience with your brand.

Maximize your ROI

When you offer your prospects and customers alike only what they have expressed an interest in seeing, you’ll be likely to get higher levels of engagement – and more sales – than you would if you blanketed everybody with the same content.

5 ways you can instantly personalize

  • Location
  • Persona
  • Behavior
  • Device
  • Referral source

What you can do to personalize

  • Use recommendation engines. They show people items they may like based on previous behaviors and other user’s who bought similar things.
  • Ask users in your email lists to specify their topics of interest. Or create special social media pages for separate lines of business.

#3. Cross-channel marketing

According to Econsultancy’s fourth annual Cross-Channel Marketing Report, 73 percent of respondents said that cross-channel marketing had a significant impact on increased conversion rates. But it is only effective if you know your target audience and their consumption habits.

The primary goal of cross-channel marketing is to create a consistent brand presence across multiple channels so that users can move seamlessly between devices and platforms to make a purchase.

3 best ways to use cross-channel marketing

  • Determine what the right message is
  • Find the right time to release it
  • Use the correct channels

High demand but still in early stages
Although there are several tools and resources to help, cross-channel marketing is still in the early stages, even with the widespread adoption of mobile devices. Consumers today are more connected than ever, and the need for quality cross-channel marketing will continue to be in high demand throughout 2017.

#4. Big SEO update – Mobile version of your website is indexed as the primary version

Google is busy rolling out their mobile-first index. Until recently, Google viewed web pages through the eyes of a desktop user, treating mobile pages as important, but secondary to desktop pages. Now, Google is indexing the mobile version as the primary page, with desktop pages being secondary.

Mobile-friendly features Google rolled out recently

  • The Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) update allows users to access content almost instantaneously when the protocols are included.
  • App streaming update allows users to preview content within apps they haven’t even downloaded to their mobile devices.
  • Mobilegeddon, Google’s algorithm update from 2015 — it started giving priority to web sites that display well on smartphones and other mobile devices.

What you need to do

  • Make sure your content is optimized for all devices. Here are some tips on how to write for mobile
  • Make sure you use responsive design templates so the site automatically accommodates the device used to access it.
  • Develop an app for your business. Experts are saying that the mobile-first index is paving the way for app favoritism in the near future.

# 5. Content strategy

According to Content Marketing Institute (CMI), only 40% of companies have a documented content strategy. 57% of marketers have a strategy that’s either not documented or they plan to documents their strategy within the next 12 months.

That’s a huge opportunity for marketers and for content marketers. They can increase their insights and show a direct relationship beween content, business goals and profits with a documented content strategy. And it’s an upward trend for 2017.

Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends for 2017 report by CMI and Marketo

5 most important priorities in developing a content strategy

  • A plan to operate content marketing as an ongoing business process
  • A differentiated story value to deliver
  • Well defined business goals for content
  • A process to align with other sales/loyalty objectives
  • A measurement plan to provide insight and progress toward the business goal

Your turn
Have a trend to report that you don’t see here? Or have you used any of these trends and what were your results. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks.

25 Helpful Resources to Improve Your Writing Skills

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crystal clear contentWe all know that improving your craft of writing can help you land lucrative gigs, improve your communication with prospects and customers and can even help you do well in jobs where you are not paid to write. So, where do you look online for inspiration to improve your writing skills? Fortunately, there are plenty of resources that we can tap into. As a follow-up to these tools, 25+ must have tools for content writers, here are some great learning resources that will help you write better copy.

Resources to help you write better

1. Copywriting 101 by Copyblogger
Copywriting is one of the most highly paid professions in the writing world. The ability to write good copy depends upon your ability to convince people to take some form of action. Copyblogger has a great beginners guide to copywriting that includes tips on writing good headlines, writing persuasive copy, the difference between good copy and bad copy.
2. Writing Kick-Ass Website Sales Copy by Nick Usborne
Nick Usborne has written several eBooks for freelancers and web content writers. This eBook is a great guide on how to how to write web copy that sells.
3. Plain language course by NIH (National Institutes of Health)
If you’re interested in clear communications as most writers are, you will love plain language. NIH puts out a course on plain language that goes through all the basic rules for getting your message across clearly.
4. Strunk and White’s Elements of Style
In 2011, Time magazine named Stunk & White one of the 100 most influential books written since 1923. Even though this classic book is over 50 years old, (longer if you count the first publication of Strunk in 1920), some of its advice is still relevant today. Use the active voice. Omit needless words…Look it all up on Bartleby.com, a site that publishes thousands of free online classics of reference, literature and nonfiction.

Useful blogs for writers

5. Daily Writing Tips
Get writing tips sent to your inbox, daily. Topics range from grammar to punctuation, from spelling to usage and vocabulary.
6. Grammar Girl
Grammar Girl’s description is “Your friendly guide to the world of grammar, punctuation, usage, and fun developments in the English language.” Her tips are mostly on grammar, punctuation but once you polish these, you will always have a better, clearer document.

Books on writing well

7. The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well by Paula LaRoq
From the importance of clarity to the value of a conversational tone, this book shows you some easy guidelines to good writing,
8. 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost
Don’t let the fact that this book is often used as a textbook intimidate you. Gary Provost maintains a good conversational tone and explains with concrete examples. He even has tips to overcome writer’s block and how to develop your style.

Grammar resources

9. EduFind
Do you have a question about the correct use of a semi-colon or how to place relative adverbs in a sentence? At Edufind, you’ll find examples and a collection of exercises to test your mastery of English grammar. You can even test your current level of English with an in-depth exam.
10. Grammar Handbook
Writers workshop at the University of Illinois addresses common problems in writing such as dangling modifiers, homophones, run-on sentences and sentence fragments. A quick read of the workshop’s everyday grammar will strengthen your grammar and your writing abilities.
12. Purdue University’s OWL (Online Writing Lab)
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources that help with general writing skills, grammar and punctuation.
13. Common errors in English usage
The concept of language errors is a fuzzy one and this is acknowledged by the author who wants to leave it to the linguists for technical definitions. It’s helpful to use this site  to see the differences in words that are common pitfalls for even seasoned writers.  Words such as affect and effect, allude and elude.

Style Guides

14. Ap Stylebook online
The AP Stylebook online is one resource that requires a small annual fee of $25 to join but is an indispensable tool and needs to be included in this list.
15. Chicago manual of style
The online edition of the Chicago manual of style Online provides recommendations on editorial style and publishing practices for the digital age.

Online Writing Schools

17. Writers Digest University
Writers Digest University has workshops for fiction, non-fiction, short stories and for freelance copywriting.
18. American Writers & Artists, Inc.
AWAI is a recognized resource for freelance copywriters. As a member you’ll have access to an archive of helpful and original articles. Their most popular and effective program is called The Accelerated Program for Six Figure Copywriting.

Forums

19. English forums
Stumped by a tricky grammar moment? Join these forums to get advice from others who love the language.

Tools to help you write better, clearer copy

20. Techterms.com
The goal of TechTerms.com is to make computer terminology easy to understand. While definitions of computer terms can be helpful, explanations with examples are even better. Most TechTerms.com definitions include examples of how the term is used.
21. Thesaurus.com
Thesaurus.com is easily my favorite tool online. I’m always looking to simplify my message and thesaurus.com helps me find synonyms.
22. Reference.com
I was writing content recently for a highly technical industry and reference.com was a huge help to me. Not only did I learn the meaning of essential terms, I also learned when they were used.
23. Dictionary.com and MerriamWebster.com
Both are essential dictionary resources for all content creators. Synonym.com is a great resource when you’re searching for alternate terms. Using synonyms instead of repeatedly using the same keywords is also recognized as an seo best practice .
24. Content Experiments
Content Experiments is a great conversion testing tool. It’s right inside of Google Analytics which makes it easy to use for everyone that has a Google Analytics account. It allows you to increase the value of your existing websites and traffic, as you can test your site content and design. You can show several versions of a page to different visitors. Google Analytics measures the popularity of each page version. If the user performs the action you want them to perform you know that you have hit upon your winning version of the page. It’s very effective in determining which copy works better.
25. Scrivener
Scrivener is a powerful content-generation tool for writers that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring long documents such as story scripts, non-fiction eBooks and theses. While it gives you complete control of the formatting, its focus is on helping you get to the end of that awkward first draft.

Your Turn

Do you have other writing resources you’d like to share? I’d love to hear from you.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks.

How to Delight Your Audience with Brand Storytelling

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crystal clear contentStories sell. Stories excite our imagination and increase our passion.

Above all a good story can make our audience relate to our brand by touching their hearts. And there’s no more powerful way to make a connection with your customer.

Stories connect us to our listeners. When we share our own real-life stories or the stories of others our audiences feel that they know us and that builds trust.

There are many different stories you can tell to help a prospect find that connection with your brand. You can use stories to inspire, teach, caution people or use everyday events to relate to your audience.

So without further ado, lets look at an example of brilliant storytelling.

This is the Google “Reunion” story – I always feel a bit tearful watching it. It’s from Google Search. They came out with it a few months ago and it went viral with over 11 million views. And once you experience it, you’ll see why. Here it is:

Google’s Reunion story that went viral with over 11 million views

The backdrop is the partition of India. In this story, a woman in India reunites her grandfather with his childhood friend (who is now in Pakistan) following six decades of separation with a little help from Google.

This story is sure to resonate with you even if you haven’t experienced all the subtle nuances that are part and parcel of this tale (borders, separation, political tensions between the two countries).

Lessons we can learn for when we prepare our own stories

Always speak about the benefits, not features

The story is an example of how Google Search can help us find what we need. It speaks to the benefit of using Google but in a way that touches our heart. Research shows that most of our buying decisions are made to fulfill an emotional need.

Make your customer the hero of the piece

The heroes who brought the separated friends together were users of Google Search. It’s all about your customer.

Don’t be intrusive and push your brand as the best

It’s obvious that this video is promoting Google. But the use of Google as a brand is woven into the storytelling in a way that feels natural.
Even though we saw the use of Google on laptop and mobile devices, nowhere was anyone pushing us to use Google. It’s perfect for these days where marketing needs to be subtle and you cannot push your brand on your customers anymore.

The story has a clear beginning, middle and end

Every story needs to have all three to work well.

The story has a clear message

The message of the video is clear: We’re Google, and the work we do is making the world a better place.

The story speaks to and touches our hearts

I know that I’ve mentioned this point an umpteen number of times in this post, but the essence of a good story lies in its ability to capture your heart.

Storytelling may seem like an old-fashioned tool, today — and it is. That’s exactly what makes it so powerful. Life happens in the stories we relate to another. A story can go where data is denied admission: our hearts. Data can persuade people, but it doesn’t inspire them to act; to do that, you need to wrap your vision in a story that fires the imagination and stirs the soul.

Your Turn

What are your thoughts on using storytelling as a creative tool? I’d love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks.

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