February 2017 - Michael Dillon

February 27, 2017

Content Writing Tips: How to Write Copy for Landing Pages

by Jennifer Johnson February 21, 2017 Alexa, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, SEO To get users to take action on a landing page, you need compelling, action-oriented copy. The following content writing tips will help you create engaging copy that can initiate valuable conversions on website landing pages. Know Exactly Who You’re Talking To All other copywriting tips won’t improve your landing page if you skip this first step. To write compelling copy, you must first know exactly whom you are talking to. Define your target audience’s demographics and characteristics, so you are aware of their habits, what they want and need, and how they speak. Your copy will be much more focused, clear, and direct when you have one target audience in mind, rather than a largely undefined audience. To gain insight into who your current audience is, use Alexa’s Site Overview tool, which is part of Alexa’s Competitive […]

How LinkedIn Uses LinkedIn for Marketing [Infographic]

If you’ve applied for a job within the last several years, you’ve probably used LinkedIn somewhere along the way. Whether you’re updating your resume, applying for a role, or communicating with a recruiter, LinkedIn has become a huge part of the modern job search. And while LinkedIn might not be your first thought when it comes to content sharing, there are 467 million users on the network — and that number grows every year . For marketers, this means a huge opportunity to reach an engaged community through sponsored content, messages, and campaigns. To help folks get a grip on how to effectively use the platform, the folks at LinkedIn published a guide that explores how they use their own marketing tools on the network. They’ve also distilled the results from various sponsored content tests they’ve run into the infographic below. Among their findings about successful advertisements on LinkedIn: […]

Use Design to Elevate Your Content Marketing

< All Articles    You have defined your audience personas, created an editorial calendar and spent hours researching and writing the perfect content for your customers. Now you’re ready to crush it with your content marketing, right? Not quite. Content marketing is getting increasingly competitive and noisy. In a 2015 survey by the Content Marketing Institute , 77% of marketers reported using content marketing for their strategy. 76% planned to increase their content production in 2016. With so much content fighting for the attention of your audience, marketers need more than just good writing to set themselves apart. As you plan your content marketing strategy, consider using design and visual storytelling to differentiate your content from the competition. Why design? Rather than explain why the visual element of content marketing is so important, let’s try the show, don’t tell method with an infographic: We are a visual […]

How to Give Meaning to Your Content

When Michael Jr., a Content Marketing World keynote presenter, took the stage, he admitted, “This is not my audience at all.” While this may sound like an inauspicious beginning, within a few minutes, there was a palpable shift in the room as the audience truly focused its attention – and turned off devices – to hear what he had to say next. One of the key messages from Michael Jr.’s act is a simple statement: “When you understand your ‘ why ,’ your ‘what’ has more purpose.” By that he means, when you understand why you’re telling a particular story or – even more elemental – why your business exists, then your story or message can be on note. We all need to hear – really hear – this message, but there was something even deeper about Michael Jr.’s connection with the audience – and something I couldn’t put […]

Content Technologies: How to Realize the Promises and Avoid the Pitfalls

Content technologies. Can’t live with ’em; can’t live without ’em. How can marketers take advantage of the promises while avoiding the pitfalls – or at least tip the scales in favor of the promises? We recently put that question to the folks speaking at the Intelligent Content Conference March 28–30 in Las Vegas. One warning came up over and over: Don’t expect technology itself to solve your problems. As Marketoonist Tom Fishburne recently said , “Trying to make an organization ‘customer-centric’ through technology alone is relying on pixie dust.” You’ll find our speakers’ advice grouped under these headings: Don’t fall for the trap of technology as solution Use artificial intelligence to deepen your insights but not to replace them Safeguard the security and privacy of customer data Choose technology that you can use fully Hire people who can make the most of your systems – and the content put […]

3 ‘Spammy’ Website Tricks that Can Double Your Conversions

The marketing industry leads the way. Sure, other industries (eventually) catch on to sophisticated marketing techniques. But more often than not, it’s the digital marketing echo chamber that paves the way for strategies and tactics before they hit mainstream. For instance. Consumers today ignore ads. They’re banner blind and doubling-down on ad blocking . As a result, we (ingenious) marketers have devised a plethora of new ways to interrupt, call attention, and generally annoy the S- out of people in order to get them to pay attention to what we’re pitching. Here’s the thing though. Some people might complain. They might not love it. But at the end of the day, they get results. And that’s what we get paid to deliver. So whether we like it or not, here are three ‘spammy’ website tricks that can skyrocket your conversions. Spammy Tactic #1. Countdown Timers There were two groups […]

What Consumers Really Want From Your Video Content [Infographic]

Video content is no longer an option: It’s a necessary component of any successful marketing strategy. The good news? Your audience wants to see more videos from you, and they engage with them at higher rates than other types of content. Email open and clickthrough rates improve when the word "video" is used in subject lines , and 4X as many people would prefer to watch a video about a product than read about it.

Two Vital Elements that Might Be Missing from Your Content (and Precisely Where to Add Them)

It’s taken you more than 10 hours to write a blog post. You’ve researched the topic to the nth degree. You’ve edited it to within an inch of its life. Now it’s time to get it out into the world! You excitedly press Publish, and … even days later … crickets. Heartbreaking, right? We all like to think that the amount of effort we invest in creating a piece of content directly correlates to how deeply it resonates with readers . But, experience has repeatedly shown this is not the case. So, what’s the deciding factor if it’s not effort? Luck? Timing? Skill? Yes, the factors above do play a part. But, more often than not, it comes down to these two elements: If your content doesn’t hook readers in the first few sentences, it doesn’t matter how good the rest of it is, you’ve lost them. If you […]

How to Use Psychology to Create High-Performing Content

When email marketing first started becoming popular in the late 1990s, it was possible to get open rates over 80 percent . When AdWords started getting traction, you could buy clicks for high-volume keywords at very low cost. In the early days of content marketing, it was easy to rank in search. As time goes on, you have to deal with more and more competition, which makes it harder to stand out. It’s not as easy to rank or drive leads as it used to be. But, there’s a deeper, more pernicious aspect of aging marketing channels that people rarely talk about: As more and more content gets created, it gets harder to make your company sound different from its competitors. Related: The 3 Types of Marketing Emails That Nobody Has Opened in Years One of the reasons for this is that we tend to look to our competition, […]

33 Tips to Build a Memorable Online Brand

“If you’re not on the internet. You don’t exist.” Seth Godin said that – or maybe it was Winston Churchill? Whoever it was, they had a point. Dramatic? Definitely, but not any less true. If someone Google’s (it’s a verb now, right?) your business and it doesn’t show up, then you’re as good as dead. But you already know this. You’ve been doing the online branding thing for a while now and it’s not working! Your brand doesn’t have that many followers on social media or maybe it does, but they’re not converting. Or maybe you don’t know this stuff, and are just preparing to hop onto this whole online marketing train everyone keeps talking about. Either way, you’ll be able to find some helpful tips in this post. These tips are probably not going to be a magic cure for your branding problems (it’s not a 12 step […]