Author Archives: Mike Gingerich

About Mike Gingerich

Author: Mike Gingerich, President of web firm Digital Hill, Co-Founder of TabSite . Digital and Social Media Marketer, Speaker, and Business Consultant. Part geek, part marketer, total digital junkie! Seeking to add value, make the complex simple, and leave a positive impact. Follow me on twitter: @mike_gingerich.

Why You Should Use Responsive Email Marketing Strategies

Why You Should Use Responsive Email Marketing Strategies

You already know just how effective email marketing can be. Not only are you looking at an ROI in the region of $38 for every $1 you spend, but email also guarantees more traffic. Additionally, email improves customer loyalty and has other benefits that directly impact your bottom line. Now, you can extract even more juice from your emails by implementing a responsive email marketing campaign.

What is Responsive Email Marketing?

Similar to responsive web design, responsive email marketing means optimizing your emails for mobile devices.

According to multiple studies, the majority of emails are now opened on mobile. A recent Invesp report, for instance, shows that two out of three emails are opened on smartphones and tablets. To be specific, of all opened emails;

  • 49.53% are opened on smartphones
  • 16.81% are opened on tablets
  • 33.66% are opened on desktop

These people who open emails on their phones and tablets expect the messages to render seamlessly on their device screens. They don’t want to see broken images or sentences that run beyond the screen area.

Indeed, 70% of consumers immediately delete emails that don’t render correctly on their mobile screen. Worse still, 43% of consumers have previously marked an email as spam because the message didn’t display or work well on their mobile screen.

Responsive email marketing involves optimizing your emails for smartphones and tablets to achieve the best user experience.

Benefits of Responsive Email Marketing

As we’ve seen already, responsive email design significantly boosts user experience. With your improved user experience, your business stands to benefit in the following ways;

Higher email open rates

Smart Insights researched open rates in responsive vs. nonresponsive email campaigns. The results show that for nonresponsive emails, the average open rate on mobile is 51.7%. But, as soon as you optimize your emails for mobile, the average open rate jumps to 57.2%.

That’s an increase of about 10.63% or one more person opening your emails on mobile for every ten responsive emails sent.

Higher click-through rates

More enjoyable user experience can also significantly boost click-through rates. The above-mentioned Smart Insights study shows that marketers with responsive design get 58% of their clicks from mobile devices, whereas for those with nonresponsive design, only 46% of clicks come from mobile. It means that optimizing your emails for mobile can increase your click-through rate by up to 24%.

The first link in a responsive email, for instance, gets 30% more clicks compared to one in a nonresponsive email.

More sales/conversions

Obviously, an increase in your open and click-through rates will likely translate into more sales/conversions. But there’s more. A fully responsive email campaign also involves optimizing your landing pages for mobile. When you optimize the entire email marketing process, including landing pages, expect a sharp increase in conversions.

There are two reasons why. First, most people now make their purchases on mobile. Secondly, once you optimize for mobile, you remove most of the impediments that might prevent the consumer from following through to conversion.

Reduced unsubscribe rates and spam complaints

Finally, optimizing your email campaign for mobile devices also reduces the likelihood that recipients will unsubscribe from your list. It also gives them a reason not to report your campaign as spam.

Up to 51% of email users, for instance, have unsubscribed from a brand’s promotional email campaign because of issues such as poor rendering and broken images. Others also quickly mark such emails as spam. Responsive design can help prevent these issues.

Start Optimizing Now

If you’re serious about generating more leads and sales from your email marketing campaign, the time to begin responsive design is now.

How to increase engagement using email marketing

How to increase engagement using email marketing Email remains one of the best sources of traffic, leads, and sales for digital marketers. Not only is an email campaign easy to set up and run, but email ROI is also higher than any other marketing strategy.

The advantages don’t end there. The number of email users hit 5.9 billion in 2019, according to HubSpot. Up to 99% of these users check their inboxes at least once every day, with the average user checking their inbox ten times per day on average.

It keeps getting better;

  • At least 59% of email users say that emails influence their purchase decisions.
  • Up to 4.24% of email traffic ends up making a purchase, according to Monetate.
  • More than 59% of marketers say that email is their biggest source of ROI.

Quick Ways to Increase Engagement Using Email Marketing

With the above stats in mind, you might be wondering how you could improve your email marketing campaign. One of the easiest ways to improve your email marketing strategy is by boosting your engagement rates.

Email engagement is “a measure of how people interact with your emails.” Engagement, therefore, is defined by three key aspects of email marketing, namely;

  • Open rate
  • Click-through rate
  • Conversion rate

So, how can you boost your open, click-through, and conversion rates? The following are three proven tips to help you get started;

1. Perfect your subject lines

Social Media Today recently found that a staggering 47% of email recipients decide whether to open an email based on the subject line. Put differently, the subject line can make or break your email campaign.

As such, you must always have a subject line and make it worthy of the recipient’s time. Some tips that have proven to work in the past include personalization, proper grammar and correct punctuation. Open rates increase by as much as 37% when you personalize the subject line.

Sticking to a moderate length, incorporating numbers and emojis, and providing a trustworthy “from” address are other tips that will boost your open and click-through rates.

2. Segment and personalize

Segmentation means dividing your contact list into buckets. You can segment based on a range of factors, including gender, age, location, and customer position on the buying curve. Segmentation, according to MailChimp, increases open rates by as much as 14.7% and boosts click-throughs by up to 100.95%

Once you’ve segmented your list, focus on personalization, i.e., writing your emails for individuals as opposed to the group. Learn what each person on your list wants and focus on addressing those needs at an individual level.

Personalization can boost email marketing revenue by up to 600%. When done together with segmentation, expect revenue to jump by as much as 760%

3. Optimize for mobile devices

Approximately 49% of all emails are now opened on mobile. In 2019, in the US, 34.8% of all emails were read on iPhones, while 8% were read on Android. Up to 42.3% of recipients deleted email messages that weren’t optimized for their mobile devices.

Further surveys by Campaign Monitor reveal that 33% of all email clicks come from mobile. For every three click-throughs, one is from mobile.

It is, therefore, critical that you optimize your email campaign for mobile. Use mobile-ready templates, shorten the subject line to around 30 characters, and write compelling preheader text. Additionally, balance image size and text to fit mobile devices.

Remember to Observe Best Practices

Aside from the three points above, always observe industry best practices, especially when it comes to sending times and sending frequency. If you can implement all these tips, success is guaranteed and you will increase engagement using email marketing.

Content Strategy Tips To Boost Traffic

Content Strategy Tips To Boost Traffic There is no doubt about it, content, is, indeed, king. However, you need to ensure that potential consumers are seeing your content. By implementing these content strategy tips, you will begin to see results in terms of a boost in inbound traffic in no time.

You can reach your target audience, and increase your chance of generating quality leads by using the following content strategy tips.

1.  Use Attention-Grabbing Headlines

Before publishing any post, make sure that the headlines on your posts are real eye-catchers. However great your content may be, one too many people may skip over reading the posts because the headlines are not enticing enough.

2.  Focus On Long-Tail Keywords

Conversion rates are significantly higher with long-tail keywords compared to general or common keywords. These keywords drive in more targeted traffic, resulting in less bounce rates. Targeting long-tail keywords should always rank high up in your content SEO strategy.

3.  Include More Video Content

Create engaging video content and begin to watch your traffic numbers soar. Product video demos are always a great hit, and you may have helped that customer who may have been having some difficulty using your products.

Seeing is believing, video demos may be the thing that convinces a prospective buyer to go ahead and add your products to their shopping cart.

4.  Include Infographics

A good percentage of your target audience, are likely to enjoy visual content. Think single and mixed charts, informational lists, and other types of Infographics to make your content more visual. You can use a comparison infographic to highlight the features and benefits of your products. A location-based infographic can also be perfect to show your service locations and physical location of your outlets.

5.  Guest Blogging

Create captivating content and post on reputable blogs or websites with a readership that fits well with what you would consider your target audience. Always link back to your site on these posts, and you can expect to see an increase in the quantity of quality inbound traffic.

Similarly, invite others to write guest posts on your blog. Guest bloggers will more than likely link and share to their posts on your blog, which is a great way to reach more readers and score you quality leads.

6.  Use Internal Links

Optimize the use of internal linking to, for example, showcase your products. On those top-quality blog posts, be sure to include links to other pages on your website as well as other posts on your blog that will add real value to the reader and their interests.

7.  Good Old Email Marketing

It’s tried and tested. Email marketing works. Remember to be tactical about your email marketing lest you end up with the exact opposite of the results you hope to get.

Make your emails short and straight to the point. Whether it’s a new product you wish to introduce, a reminder, or running promotions, pass across the intended message without bombarding the recipients with several long emails.

8.  Active Social Media Presence

Create and maintain an active presence across different social media platforms. Share your content on social media and ensure that the content is high quality, which will prompt your readers to share it.

Engage with readers in the comment sections and answer any questions that they may have in a timely manner. Join groups and be an active participant help get your name out there.

There are definitely more ideas worth adding to this list. That said, you can look forward to generating more leads, boosting traffic and increasing your conversion rates by beginning to implement these top content strategy tips. With every day that goes by without you implementing such strategies, you lose out on the opportunity to grow your brand and business.

Black Friday Email Strategies

Black Friday Email Strategies Black Friday has presented small business owners with an opportunity to ramp up sales. Last year, for example, 165 million Americans shopped over the Thanksgiving weekend which runs from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. On Black Friday specifically, over $6.5 million worth of items were sold, a 23.6% increase from 2017. Let’s look at Black Friday email strategies.

The value of the average Black Friday order has also been increasing. Last year, the average order was valued at $147, up 8.5% from 2017.

The following email marketing tips should give you a head start in the scramble for this year’s sales, which are expected to surpass $7 billion.

Black Friday Email Strategies

Start early, way before Black Friday

A 2016 report by Adobe Marketing Cloud shows that businesses that gain the most from Black Friday kick off their campaigns long before the Thanksgiving weekend. Most of the successful marketers begin sending relevant marketing messages as early as November 1st.

This is when you should start your campaign. At worst, begin sending Black Friday-themed emails three weeks out. If you delay even for a few days, it could be too late. By the time you send your first message, competing brands will have already turned your customers’ heads.

Send a SALE announcement email

A sale announcement is a well-executed email stating publicly that you’ll have a sale on Black Friday. These emails help build anticipation and excitement among consumers.

There are a few points to observe, however. First, make sure that the email is direct and to the point. You want to have a standout subject line, such as “Black Friday Sale – 30% Off” and a single, overarching CTA. Secondly, use a high-quality product image in the announcement. For maximum impact, the product and images must be chosen wisely. Experts recommend using images of your best-selling or most interesting products.

Consider the FOMO strategy

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is a strategy widely used by marketers to create urgency among consumers. As Black Friday approaches, you can turn to the time-tested tactic to boost your store traffic.

Feel free to use either the limited stock or limited time approach. Or, you could use both. Nicelaundry.com does an exciting “released only once a year” limited stock email campaign for their 3D socks every Black Friday. Essentially, there are a specific number of items such that the offer can run out anytime. Limited-time offers, meanwhile, run out after a given period. Remember to send reminder emails.

Send last-minute extended sale emails

Strategic “extended” deals also work like a charm. You put an irresistible offer on the table. But, the product or discount is only available for a limited time. When that window is about to shut, you extend the offer period by, say an hour, to give more people time to claim the deal.

Don’t forget to send email reminders about these extensions. Again, start with a catchy subject line such as “Extended Sale. Our 35% Off Deals Now End at 1.00 am.” Such subject lines stick out in the email inbox. Be sure to include a high-quality image of the product.

Supplement email with other channels

Finally, depending exclusively on email to run a Black Friday campaign would be wasteful. Not all customers will be checking their inboxes on Black Friday. And, even those who do might not check their inboxes 24/7. Using email alongside other channels such as text messaging, messaging apps (e.g. Messenger), and live chat will help you reach more people and convert even more sales.

Now You’re Ready to Get Started

Don’t forget to balance persistence with courtesy. In email marketing, too much is just as costly as too little. If you follow the above tips, you will be on your way to having a successful Black Friday weekend for your business.

Using Video as a Tool in Your Lead Generation Strategy

Using Video as a Tool in Your Lead Generation Strategy Today, savvy marketers are using videos to generate more leads. This is because video is a rich medium. It allows you to convey images and words, as well as emotion. Video marketing is becoming the in-thing, both in small and large companies. Therefore, you will want to use video as a tool in your lead generation strategy. The primary goal is to ensure the company has met the consumer’s demand.

Videos draw a huge crowd and can help you bump in massive organic search traffic. According to HubSpot Research, approximately 54% of consumers want to watch videos from brands. Another report indicates that 73% of consumers across the globe prefer seeing entertaining videos on social media.

What does that imply? If you want to use video to generate leads, then you should make it entertaining and informative.

Although marketing videos are usually short, approximately 3 – 3.5 minutes, you can make your long video engaging, entertaining, and educational for more lead generation. This is how you do it;

Create a Gated Content Community

Video communities can help you offer exclusive content to the dedicated audience that engages with your brand consistently. For instance, you can create a series of videos based on your area of expertise, or a certificate program that will help users make the most out of your products and services.

Users can sign up to receive notifications and access to your videos. Your target audience will then get directed to a gated landing page or microsite where your videos are hosted for exclusive members of the gated content community. This will help you see the number of leads on your website.

Add CTAs

This is the last but most essential part of your lead generation video. The CTA (call to action) will prompt your viewers to decide to like, purchase, follow, subscribe, or commit to your brand.

Both verbal and visual CTAs have a significant impact and will lead viewers to your website with a possibility of increasing conversation rate by 80%. The CTA can also help to provide more information, when the user is directed to a form resulting in a viable lead.

Some companies are already ahead in implementing great CTA options. For example, YouTube adapted in-video CTA with annotations to allow users to click to watch another video or to subscribe.

You can also use voice-over to encourage an action. Include a URL, button, or annotation below your video. Ensure the CTA is bold, provides value, and be sure to stick to one CTA per video.

Have High-Value Content

Approximately 75% of Fortune 500 executives are said to view online video content recurrently, where about 50% of them visit the website after watching the video.

It’s one thing to create a video and another thing to make the most out of it. To reach your audience, you need to focus on content and its presentation. You also need to understand where the video belongs.

With testimonial and social posts, you need to focus the message on deep funnel options like sales calls and live demos. Make sure once your audience watches your video, it leaves them with a clear takeaway.

Add a Lead Generation Form

You can add a form in your video, called turnstile. The form helps in gathering information and helps you qualify for your leads. This is because people who fill in turnstile are the ones who are interested in your video content and your brand.

Final Note

Using video as a tool in your lead generation strategy is one of the best approaches. It’s cost-effective and easy to create. By using the tips outlined above, you’ll maximize the value of your video. Pretty soon, the dollars will start rolling in along with those views.

How to Build Your Audience and Make Money

How to Build Your Audience and Make Money Building your web presence can make your business more successful. An online audience provides the potential for new customers. The key to any business with a web presence is targeting audiences who are the most likely to turn into customers. However, having a blog or webpage doesn’t guarantee an audience, and having an audience doesn’t necessarily guarantee that they will then turn into paying customers. Here are five things you should consider if you want to build your online audience and make money from it.

1. You need fresh, interesting content

No matter what you’re business is, online audiences want content that is new, fresh, and engaging. The internet moves quickly; this week’s biggest thing might be a distant memory by next week. Your content can consist of videos, graphics, or written posts, just be sure to update your site frequently and keep the content fresh and interesting.

2. Don’t be afraid of stories

Even if you don’t think of yourself as an author, you can probably think of a way to connect with your audience using a narrative. A good story will get people to share your site on social media and bring audiences back to your site looking for more stories.

There are plenty of ways to add stories to your content especially in blog posts and videos. Maybe your business has an interesting origin story that audiences will find compelling. Maybe your customers have stories to tell about your business. Or maybe your business offers a platform for others to tell stories in a variety of ways. Embracing storytelling can open plenty of potential doorways to new audiences for your business.

3. Interact with your audience

Letting your audience know that there are real people running your website is a great way to help them feel connected to your business. Taking the time to read and respond to comments and post content they enjoy builds a positive connection between your brand and your audience.

Customers often feel alienated and ignored by large corporations. This provides small businesses a great opportunity to show that they want to engage with customers in a way that other businesses don’t. Use social media to your advantage. Facebook makes it easy to engage with your audience in larger groups. Twitter makes it easy to converse with members of your audience one on one. No matter what platform/s you use, the internet helps make it easy to let potential customers know that you are listening to them.

4. Know your audience

Once you’ve established a loyal audience, it’s important to post relevant and engaging content for them. Customers love custom content, and the content you post should be on brand. For example, if you own a coffee shop, it would be strange to suddenly post an article about the history of bicycles. This doesn’t mean you should be repetitive; just make sure your web content is consistent with what your audience has come to expect from your brand.

5. Understand techniques for expanding your audience

You should be taking the time to showcase your content as much as possible. If not, you are missing out on potential customers. Techniques like search engine optimization (SEO) can lead potential customers to your site through Google. Posting and sharing across social media platforms also make it easy to distribute your content. Try getting your brand out there on blogs and podcasts as a cost-efficient form of advertising.

There are plenty of creative ways to advertise on the internet. Learn what works for your business, and use that to spread the word about your brand. Turning your audience into customers takes some doing, but it’s well worth the effort.

How to Improve your Email Marketing

How to Improve your Email Marketing

Email marketing remains one of the oldest yet most effective digital marketing tools. Reaching at least 3.8 billion people per year, according to a December 2018 study by the Radicati Group, this provides marketers with a practical, inexpensive way to generate leads, drive conversions, and retain customers.

Unfortunately, many small and medium-sized businesses still struggle with email marketing. While the majority of these businesses use email, only a small fraction can say they’ve mastered the channel, with most still struggling to get meaningful ROI. Below, we look at seven proven tips to help you improve your email marketing returns.

Begin with a clean Email List

Every email list loses a bit of quality every year. Between people changing their addresses and customers moving to new email providers, you’re guaranteed to find a few obsolete contacts on your list. It’s your job to regularly audit the list and weed out incorrect and outdated addresses.

Aside from that, take steps to grow your list. Find a useful lead capture tool, get your opt-in forms out there, and consider giveaways to win new sign-ups.  And, never, under any circumstance buy a list and expect it to be valuable. More often than not, it will get you banned from your email marketing service.

Get your content right

Since emails need to be fairly short, every word counts. So, you want to be keen on what you say and how you say it. Optinmonster has three useful tips.

First, always sound like a real person; avoid marketing jargon and be conversational. Secondly, appeal to emotions; use sensory words to help your readers see and feel the picture. Third, sprinkle your copy with power words to elicit a reaction.

Use psychology to drive action

The human brain is designed to react in predictable ways. Email marketers can take advantage of this to drive action. For instance, Fear-Of-Missing-Out (FOMO) approaches such as scarcity and urgency are guaranteed to earn a higher CTR. Other psychology-driven strategies to help you get more clicks are; color choice, pictures of faces, social proof, and personalization.

Invest in email automation

Only 49% of companies use email automation. This is unfortunate considering that automation has the potential to turnaround your email marketing fortunes. According to a recent study by the Epsilon Email Institute, triggered emails have 70.5% higher open rates and 152% higher click-through rates compared to regular emails. Also, automation boosts qualified leads by 451%, improves revenue by 85%, and increases productivity by 69%.

Use images/video in Emails

In one of his most popular blog posts, celebrated digital marketer Jeff Bullas reveals how he increased email conversions by 344%, thanks to images and videos. The trick is simple, make sure that each email you send out has at least one image. Videos work too, but they can be slow. This makes quality images your best option. Consider GIFs and emojis as well. GIFs, for instance, boost conversions by 103%.

Follow industry best practices

Over the years, email marketing has shown a few patterns that marketers can use to remain competitive. For instance, always send welcome emails. Welcome emails have an incredible 81% open rate and 22-25% CTR! Additionally, send emails between 9-11 am and 3-5pm, on weekdays, for the best outcome. Above all, optimize your subject lines, use lead magnets, and always provide a CTA.

Test and improve

No marketing campaign is perfect. If you want to get maximum value from your email campaign, take time to observe, measure, analyze, and consistently test out different options. Some of the elements you want to test are; subject lines, CTAs, send times, content, and visual layout.

Get Started Today

These seven tips to improve your Email marketing alone might not triple or even double your email marketing revenue. But, they’re guaranteed to have a positive impact on your ROI.

Email Subscribers Need to Automatically Receive Your Blog Posts

Email Subscribers Need to Automatically Receive Your Blog Posts Every business craves a higher return on their online investment; more email subscribers, more readers, more conversions, and ultimately more revenue. Email marketing can be an asset towards accomplishing this goal. We’ll find out how, shortly. But first, three powerful stats;

    1. Email marketing has a Return on Investment (ROI) of $32 for every $1. PPC, in comparison, returns a paltry $2 for every $1 spent.
    2. Up to 81% of SMBs depend on email for customer acquisition. Another 80% consider email their primary retention tool.
    3. Up to 81% of SMBs depend on email for customer acquisition. Another 80% consider email their primary retention tool.

These stats tell us one thing – any serious digital marketer cannot overlook email marketing. Not only does it promise a huge market but that ROI is simply incredible.

Email Marketing Promises Even Greater Value to Bloggers

It’s not just the market and average ROI. Particularly for bloggers, email marketing promises a lot more.

You own the email subscribers

Not many digital marketing platforms give you control over your contacts. Social media networks, for instance, go as far as to control what posts you can share and the fraction of your followers you can reach. On Facebook, for example, you can only reach about 12% of your followers and your posts can be deleted if deemed “inappropriate.” Email marketing gives you complete control.

Email marketing generates plenty of traffic

According to a 2018 report by Constant Contest Knowledge Base, the average email open rate (fraction of recipients that open the emails they receive) is an impressive 41.96% on mobile and 58.04% on desktop. The average CTR, meanwhile, is 7.06%. That’s 7 in every 100 contacts clicking through to view your blog! Even paid ads struggle to deliver this CTR.

Email personalization drives even more traffic

Bloggers often turn to buyer personas to meet personalization needs. Unfortunately, even the best buyer persona can’t fully meet personalization needs. The good news is – email personalization can! You can craft your emails in a way that specifically addresses the needs of that individual recipient. And guess what, such deep personalization boosts CTR by up to 50%!

It’s easy to track and measure

Measurement is the key to sustained business growth and there isn’t an easier marketing channel to measure than email. You can track pretty much every metric; from delivery rates to open rates and CTR to conversions.

How to Use Email Marketing to Grow Your Blog

Every blogging campaign is different. But, there are a few basic rules to email marketing success;

  1. Find the right email platform: There are several email marketing platforms to choose from. Three that stand out are AWeber, Get Response, and MailChimp. Picking any of these three would be a great start.
  2. Develop your drip campaign: Customers go through an entire journey before making a purchase. It’s important to map out this journey beforehand and send emails in accordance with the journey.
  3. Optimize your emails: Work on your subject lines, email length, sending times, personalization, and CTAs to get the most from your emails. Also, don’t forget to A/B test your campaign.
  4. Optimize your opt-in forms: Also known as lead capture forms, your opt-in forms must be great both aesthetically and functionally. Use a catchy headline, include a compelling CTA, and design to impress.

Now, You Know What To Do

If you’ve not been using email to grow your blogging campaign, now is the time to begin. If you’re already on the bandwagon, use the four tips above to extract more value from your campaign.

How to Find Key Topics to Blog About

How to Find Key Topics to Blog About

The benefits of blogging on your website are quite obvious. Aside from the key value of search exposure, blogs help businesses generate new leads as well as keep existing customers happy. Blogging also boosts SEO performance, builds authority, and supports other digital marketing initiatives. This makes finding the right topics to blog about vital.

While you can’t always wow everyone, it’s critical that you consistently come up with resource topics. Therefore, not only engaging the majority of your readers but also add value to their lives. And, of course, are related to your business. Here’s how to find these topics.

Take inspiration from your blog’s comments

One of the best sources of blog topics is the comments from your previous blog posts. This especially applies if you have a dedicated reader community that’s always looking forward to your posts. After reading, they’re likely to have an opinion on the posts. Some will question your position on the subject, others will side with you, and then there are those who’ll share their views. Use these responses (positive or negative) as new blog topic ideas. If need be, ask the commenter to elaborate and use their points to build an outline for your next blog post.

Check out what your competitors are doing

There are several advantages of checking with the competition. For instance, it gives you a glimpse into what works for businesses in your industry. Also, you’re guaranteed to learn about keywords you previously didn’t know about. The great news is that there are tools designed to simplify this job, including; BottleNose, Topsy, and BuzzSumo. A quick search on BuzzSumo will not only reveal your competitor’s last blog post, but you will also discover the keywords they used as well as the level of engagement (traffic, shares, comments, etc) the post received.

Use headline generator tools

Aside from competitor comparison tools, there are tools designed specifically to generate blogging headline ideas. You simply enter a keyword (or keyword phrase) and a list of possible topics is generated. Such tools include SeoPressor, BlogAbout, and HubSpot’s blog topic generator. A word of advice though – always conduct keyword research first before using headline generator tools. This way, you get to kill two birds with one stone – you get top performing keywords, guaranteeing favorable Google ranking, as well as generate top headlines for maximum clicks.

Leverage social media networks

Social media is where all the hot topics are discussed these days. Whether it’s consumers arguing over how to sell a home or marketers promoting seasonal offers, you’re certain to uncover several new topics to blog about. Quora, in particular, is an excellent place to take your blog topics search. You can ask a question and see how people respond to it. You can also read other people’s posts and replies. All of these can lead to new ideas. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Reddit are other social media networks to consider.

Repurpose old content

If your business engages in digital marketing, it’s likely that you have hundreds if not thousands of articles sitting on your website and at least as many videos, infographics, industry reports, and email newsletters on your server. Whenever you find yourself short of blogging topic ideas, feel free to comb through these old content pieces for inspiration. You can pick up a whitepaper you published 3 years ago and turn it into a blog post based on the latest updates; locate an outdated blog post and add a few points to bring your readers up to date, or turn the last video you uploaded to YouTube into a short post.

Essentially, the options are there and the benefits of new content on your website are significant for traffic that can turn into new customers. Take time to use some of these ideas and start a new blog post this week!

Create Content that People Gladly Share

Create Content that People Gladly Share

The internet is saturated with content. According to data from Smart Insights, 1,440 blogs are posted every minute, translating to a whopping 2,073,600 blogs every day. That’s before you account for videos and social media posts. This level of saturation presents a new problem for content marketers – difficulty attaining the desired reach.

One way to get around this problem is to pursue sharability i.e. making your content highly shareable.

Look at it this way; if 1,000 visitors read your content and share it with their network (say 30 people per reader), your blog post would have already reached 1,000 + (1,000*30) = 31,000 people. Considering that digital consumers highly trust each other (70% will read posts recommended by fellow consumers compared to those promoted by brands), you can expect to reach a lot more people than you would through direct reach.

Wondering how to create content readers will like and want to share? The following are five tips to get you started.

Understand Your Target Audience

Many marketers begin writing articles and blog posts without even understanding the people these content pieces are meant for. How do you expect to write what they want to read if you don’t understand them? How are you going to address their pain points if you haven’t taken the time to learn about their needs? It’s impractical. Begin by learning the; who, why, what, when, and where of your readers.

  • Who are they?
  • Why are they online?
  • What do they need?
  • When do they need it?
  • Where do they get their information?

If you can successfully answer all these questions, you’re ready to create content your audience will like.

Choose Value-Adding Topics

Now that you fully understand your audience, it’s time to choose topics to write about. Ensure that the topics you choose add value to the reader’s life. If you’re not solving a problem, tell them something new; something they haven’t heard before. “How To…” topics are some of the most shared posts for this reason – they actually solve a problem.

Other commonly shared topics include; “X Tips,” guides, and checklists. Aside from that, content that provides new information is also highly appreciated and frequently shared.

Present Your Content in the Right Format

The content type you choose will directly determine your reach.

Videos, for instance, are on the rise. But, is your audience looking for videos? Do they frequently watch YouTube and the likes? If not, then expecting them to like and share your videos is a pipe dream. Webinars are also very effective and come with a high ROI. But not all audiences are looking for webinars. A consumer looking to buy a pair of shorts online, for instance, won’t be interested in a webinar.

The idea is to choose a content type that fits both the message and the audience.

Optimize Your Posts for Sharing

Yes, you can make your content easier to share. How? By including features on your blog, website, or video channels that reduce the effort needed to share the posts. With blogs, for instance, you can include social share buttons to allow readers to share the content they like in a single touch of a click. Certain types of content such as industry reports can even carry these social share buttons within the content body.

Finally, with certain content types such as videos and infographics, you can include embed codes to allow other website owners to share the content on their blogs.

Oh, and don’t forget to ask for shares. Readers are 150% more likely to share your posts if you personally ask for the share.