Friday 31 May 2019

New B2B Marketing Research, LinkedIn Sales Navigator & Ad Transparency Updates, Using AI Wisely, & US Digital Ads Top $100B

The post New B2B Marketing Research, LinkedIn Sales Navigator & Ad Transparency Updates, Using AI Wisely, & US Digital Ads Top $100B appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.



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Emotion and Empathy: The Storytelling Keys to Content Marketing

People, of course, love storytelling. It holds them their interest and makes learning easier and more intuitive. 

How does this relate to marketing. Well, storytelling is the very essence of content marketing. You are telling the story of your brand and what it can do for customers. 

Strategic Storytelling

Storytelling helps content marketers:

  • Sell or market
  • Share customer successes
  • Create a sense of urgency
  • Educate, coach, and mentor
  • Entertain and amuse
  • Energize, inspire, and spur to action

What matters in storytelling and marketing is how you make people feel and what impression you leave them with. It can shape their image of your brand in people's minds and have your audience associate it with strong emotions that provoke them to action. 

Great storytelling relies upon emotion. It can make something that should be dull sing or make what sounds trivial seem epic and important. Empathy is the key. We all connect and feel for each other. By using content marketing to forge an emotional bond with your customers, you become more likely to earn their brand loyalty.

Marketing is a conversation, and conversations almost always include storytelling. Look at it strategically. 

  • What emotions are you looking to stir with your content?
  • Are you looking to educate your audience?
  • Inspire or energize them?
  • Are you informing them about the latest industry trends or software updates?

Storytelling can help with all of that. 

Put together a strategy of what you want to achieve and how your content marketing can accomplish that.

How do you know how well you are doing?

Some customers might give you direct feedback, but you can always rely on your metrics and data to see if you have properly gauged what works with your customers.

Important Things to Remember about Storytelling

When it comes to content marketing and storytelling, it does not always have to come down to just written content. You have a variety of mediums to use and see which better suits your audience. You might try videos, podcasts, songs, demos, and more. And, written content can come in many forms: 

Do not limit your imagination and thinking. Let your metrics, instincts, and strategy guide you toward the content forms that will work best for your audience and business needs.

As such, don't think that you need to be doing B2C to harness the power of emotion and it isn't right for B2B. Sometimes, you might be dealing with a mix of B2C and B2B, especially with the line between them blurring all the time. Besides, there is room for emotion in B2B, even if you are only pointing out how your brand can help make someone's life and job easier and aid them in achieving success. Ambition, having goals, wanting to do better at your endeavors, and relieving stress are all emotional things. Feel free to tell a story about them. 

Also of importance, remember that you can have the best content in the world, but it will mean nothing if its presentation is bad. So, your content, regardless of its form, needs to be easy to read, understand, listen to, see, and engage with.

What Goes into Every Story

Empathy makes us care for others and the people in stories. We understand and sympathize with them. We see ourselves in them. That allows emotions to stir us up and makes us understand the lesson or message you want to impart and causes us to take the action you wish us to.

Thus, empathy and emotion must go into every story. They make good stories great and more memorable, and make content marketing more effective and powerful.

                                                     

Find out more about the usefulness of storytelling and emotion in content creation and how they create a softer sell with “The Art of the Soft Sell in Content Creation and Inbound Marketing.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Thursday 30 May 2019

Maintaining Your Focus: What B2B Marketers Can Learn From My Home Improvement Snafu

B2B marketing lessons from home improvement (1)

B2B marketing lessons from home improvement (1) The sweet smell of fresh cedar is wafting in the breeze around my homestead this week—along with hint of marketing inspiration. Let me explain …

Best-Laid Plans

To take advantage of a long holiday weekend and a string of dry-weather days, my darling husband and I embarked on a “small” home improvement project: Sanding and staining our recently built 16-by-16 deck—plus an intricate one-story staircase. She was such a beauty following her construction last fall. But as is tradition, a delightfully heinous Minnesota winter set in. When spring arrived, she looked weary and weathered. For months, we prepared to offer ourselves up to the cause once warmer weather came. And with the help of how-to YouTube videos and a lot of strategic Googling, our confidence and can-do attitudes were on the rise. When that fateful weekend arrived, we weren’t so naïve to think this project would be easy—it would take time, attention to detail, teamwork, and a bit of strategy to do it right. We didn’t fancy ourselves skilled craftsmen, rather capable apprentices who knew how to wield a sander and paint brush. We were ready. But in accordance with the prophecy of best-laid plans, things quickly went awry. From seemingly unavoidable inefficiencies to tool malfunctions to weather miscalculations, what started as a one-day-tops project has officially spiraled into a multiple weekend ordeal. We were worn down and frustrated, not knowing exactly what to do at times. Do you see what I’m getting at, B2B marketers?

Facing Failure

The frustration and disappointment that comes with falling down on what you thought was a well-planned or strategically innovative initiative is something every B2B marketer has had to face. Maybe you’ve gotten buy-in on an influencer marketing initiative and determined a few weeks in that you don’t have the bandwidth, niche expertise, tools, or timeline to execute effectively. Perhaps you’ve invested a sizeable portion of your budget in a marketing automation tool only to discover you lack the integrations, process documentation, or internal resources to get it fully off the ground. Or more simply, a tried-and-true tactic isn’t driving the results it used to—and you may not even know why. Regardless of the situation, the anxiety and emotion you feel can make it incredibly difficult to gain the perspective you need to quickly pivot your approach. So, how do you accept what’s happened and move ahead with ambition and confidence?

Finding Focus

When small or seemingly insurmountable challenges arise, success is directly tied to our ability to keep our eye on the prize: The goals or outcomes we hope to achieve. With our objectives in focus, we can rely on our smarts and experience (and perhaps even a little insight and help from a agency trusted partner) to guide the most effective tactics that come next. Frankly, after just one hour of sanding, we knew it was going to get ugly if we didn’t adapt to the reality of the situation. That said, it took us a full three hours to fully accept our fate, and refine our approach and reset our expectations. Through repeated equipment failures, four extra trips to two different hardware stores, and now being the proud owners of four sanders of varying sizes, the sanding is complete and the staining is planned for the next string of sunny days. Here she is after 20 hours of sanding—a near spitting image of her original glory last fall: So, remember this B2B marketers: You have a lot on your plate and things don't always go as planned. From creating relevant, engaging content on unsexy subject matter to contending with increasing competition, buyer distrust, and long sales cycles, B2B marketing is no cake walk—it’s an endless work in progress. However, with a steadfast focus on your end-goal, there’s no such thing as failure, just another opportunity to get it right. [bctt tweet="With a steadfast focus on your end-goal, there’s no such thing as failure, just another opportunity to get it right. @CaitlinMBurgess #B2BMarketing" username="toprank"] Looking for more crafty inspiration? Check out our post on three “real-life” tools that need to be staples in your B2B content marketing toolbox.

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Wednesday 29 May 2019

Transcript of How to Think About Hustle

Transcript of How to Think About Hustle written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

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Transcript

John Jantsch: Hey, this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Rev.com. We do all of our transcriptions here on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast using Rev.com, and I’m going to give you a special offer in just a bit.

John Jantsch: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. My guest today is Neil Patel. He is the co-founder, creator of some tools that many of you use; Hello Bar, Crazy Egg, Kissmetrics. Also, the author, creator of an awesome blog called Quick Sprout that I send people to frequently, and somehow or another, he finally got around to writing a book. That book is called Hustle: The Power to Change Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum. Neil, thanks for joining me.

Neil Patel: Thanks for having me.

John Jantsch: I actually had Robert Cialdini on the show recently, and he’s the author of Influence, and has another book out currently, and there was 30 years between those two books. I had to ask him, what took him so long, but I think there’s probably a lot of people wondering, why is this Neil Patel’s first book?

Neil Patel: I just haven’t had the time. It was funny, after this book came out-

John Jantsch: You’re too busy writing other content, that’s the problem.

Neil Patel: Yeah, blogging. The funny thing is, after the book came out, I’ve had so many people ask me if I want to write another book, and I’m like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, I just got one out there, I’m not ready for any more books at the moment.”

John Jantsch: Yeah, actually, you’re in that window where I swear I’ll never write another book. That kind of, after you’ve come out of it, now you’re doing all the hustle of promoting it. Let me ask you this then, why was now the time for you to write a book?

Neil Patel: I just thought that it was a great point in my time to try to capture a new audience. I have, especially online, I have most people who are interested in learning about marketing, at least online marketing. Right now, I’m trying to just help people who want to start businesses, and I was like, “You know what? Why not try to write a book, it can reach a really broad audience.”

John Jantsch: Yeah, I actually really like that, because you’re right. You’ve written almost anything, somebody who wants to generate traffic, or things like that. You’ve written a ton about that. Another book by you maybe wouldn’t add that much to it, but I really like how you’ve taken, in a lot of ways, your life experience, your business experience, and said, “Here’s what I’ve learned through the years.” Now, you have a couple of co-authors on this, how did that come about?

Neil Patel: Yes. We were all thinking about this similar idea. Jonas, Patrick, and I, we’ve known each other for a while, and we were just like, it’d be really great to write a book that just helps people find the passion to rise, succeed at whatever they want to do and not just necessarily entrepreneurship, it could just be that they want to improve in the corporate workplace and climb the corporate ladder, or they feel like they’re stuck in life and they’re not sure what they want to do next, and they just feel like nothing is progressing and life sucks, right?

Neil Patel: We just want to help people accomplish their goals, and it’s not necessarily financial goals, just whatever makes them happy.

John Jantsch: One of the things, you break the book into three sections, which I like. To me, it kind of guides it, so it’s heart, head, and habits, and in some ways, that’s kind of the progression maybe of how somebody learns that they’re on the right path as well, and how to stay on the right path.

John Jantsch: One of the things that, in the first section, that took me, because it’s a little counter-intuitive, a lot of people think in terms of people starting businesses, is that’s like the ultimate risk. I think that you turn that on its head a little bit and talk about, if you’re not doing what you were meant to be doing, if you’re not starting a business, if you’re miserable, that that’s actually riskier than creating some venture that you could be passionate about.

Neil Patel: Yeah, you just need to go out there and do something, right? The big philosophy about going and trying different things, not necessarily doing a whole venture, but just the whole concept of trying different things, it’ll help you, it’ll lead you to your passion, and what you love in life.

John Jantsch: Yeah, there’s so many books out there that talk about, you have to sit down one day and decide what you’re passionate about. That’s really, I don’t think that’s possible. I don’t think that’s how it’s done is it?

Neil Patel: No. It’s not really how it’s done. It’s so funny, I was speaking to someone earlier today, and someone was telling me, they’re like, “You know when you’re a kid and you dream about being an astronaut? You had to think that as you grow up, you want to be an astronaut, but most people don’t really do what they’ve dreamed of as a kid,” and I’m like, “Yeah, that’s true.”

Neil Patel: They were like, “Do you think we should all go back and do what we dreamed up as a kid? Because most of us are not happy.” I was like, “No.” They were like, “Why not?” I’m like, “Well, as a kid you want to be an astronaut, even though that may seem awesome as a kid, as an adult, if that’s what you dreamed up, the chances are you’re not going to love it, and what you should just be doing is trying out different things, and it’ll … Two things will happen.

Neil Patel: “Either one, you’ll find out what you dislike really quickly, and two, you’ll eventually be led down a path on what you love from that.” For example, my first venture was a job board. Failed miserably, but from that, I realized that people just don’t come to your website and I learned how to market it. I fell in love with marketing, so I decided to get into consulting. From there, I realized that I hated consulting, even though I love marketing, and it wasn’t for me, but through consulting, clients had issues. One of the big issues was that they couldn’t figure out what made people convert on their own website, so we created a software company from that. I didn’t care enough to say create software, I love the concept of it, but I found my passion and that passion was marketing my own businesses.

John Jantsch: Yeah, one thing you pointed out that I want to go back to is that idea of it’s okay to find out what you don’t like too. In fact, that’s part of the learning process. A lot of times when I’m interviewing clients and trying to get them to decide who their ideal client is, it’s a lot easier for me to say, “Okay, who don’t you want to work with?” Because that sort of rings truer or at least comes to mind faster.

Neil Patel: Yeah. No, you got it right. It’s process of elimination. If you quickly figure out what you don’t want to do, eventually, you’ll narrow down what you could be potentially doing.

John Jantsch: You introduce, or at least use in this book a couple terms that I want to dive into. One is, I believe it’s pronounced hormesis. The idea of stress for success. I wondered if you would try to apply that to why you believe that’s an important element of growth?

Neil Patel: Yeah, sure. When you’re not stressed out, think of it this way. If everything in your life is fine and dandy, what happens? [inaudible 00:06:44], right? So you’re on Duct Tape Marketing, if every day of your life is easy, and you never had anything to stress out, what’s going to happen in your life?

John Jantsch: Probably get pretty complacent.

Neil Patel: Yeah, and when you get complacent, do you have anything that’s driving you to do better, keep learning more, growing, et cetera?

John Jantsch: Right, right.

Neil Patel: When you have some sort of stress, it’s good. You need to get out of your comfort zone, because that stress makes you think, makes you be creative, makes you take action, right? Causes momentum, all these types of things. When you don’t have stress and things are really easy, and I see this a lot with trust fund babies, in which, I have a ton of friends in New York, I’m in New York right now, who have generated quite a bit of income just from their parents, in which they didn’t necessarily have to make that income, but they just got their income truly from their parents, right?

Neil Patel: Like got 100 million dollars, or whatever it was, but large amounts of money. They’re bored in life, and they want to create these ventures, and they want to do things, but their life isn’t stressful, and it’s so easy that there’s no pressure for them to learn, innovate, succeed, they’re just like, “Whatever happens, happens.” That’s not how you grow as an individual.

John Jantsch: Yeah, I mean, look at the countless stories of people that really had their back against the wall, they were down to their last dime. They just had to either sink or swim and those are some of the people that … That’s your rags to riches kind of story, come about, because they were in that position I think.

John Jantsch: This episode of The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by rev.com. There are so many ridiculously valuable reasons to order transcriptions. You can write entire blog posts. Heck, you could write an entire book by just speaking it, and having Rev put together a transcript that you can then just bring on home.

John Jantsch: If you want to record a meeting, so that you have notes. Again, over and over, there are so many good reasons. If you just want to take notes when you’re listening to something, and you just want to record those notes and get it. It’s amazing what the reasons you can find for doing this. Rev gets those transcripts, as I said, they do our podcast. They get those transcripts back to you lightning fast, and I’m going to give you a free trial offer. If you go to rev.com/blog/dtm and that’ll be in the show notes too, but you’re going to get a $100 coupon to try them out, and I suggest you do it.

John Jantsch: So, another term. This was actually something I’d heard some economists talk about, but never necessarily applied it to business, and I love when terms come from other areas, and you can apply them to businesses, but obliquity. The idea that there is no … You can’t sit down and just say, “Here’s my vision for my business, I’m going to take that path there,” but that success actually is more indirect than that, isn’t it?

Neil Patel: That’s correct. Yeah, because when you see a path and you’re just like, “This is what’s going to happen,” chances are usually not what’s going to end up being the end result. I see this all the time with venture capitalists. I’ve been in San Francisco for years, raised money, and you know, one feedback or piece of advice that every single investor has told me? They’re like, “Yeah, when we invest in a company, we invest in the people.” I was like, “Why is this?” They’re like, “The vision, the path that you take to succeed,” right? The original picture, original concept is very rarely what you end up with. They never really see the end company being the same one that was originally pitched.

Neil Patel: You learn, you have to adapt, market conditions change, competitors arise, et cetera. For that reason, the way you get to the end is typically an indirect path. It could be from learnings, or you learn business shortcut, or there’s a more efficient way, or you may end up learning that the business model won’t work, and you’ve tried many different paths, and it isn’t going to happen, and then from there you can spin up a different business.

Neil Patel: For example, Twitter came out of Odeo, or Audio, I forgot what it was called, but it was about a podcast site, and from it, they weren’t doing well at all, but they built Twitter [inaudible] though, like, “Oh, this seems like a much better idea,” and yeah, people could say Twitter is struggling right now, but they’re still a multi-billion dollar company.

John Jantsch: Right. Why the term hustle? That comes pretty loaded with some ideas, presuppositions. How does that term play out for you?

Neil Patel: Yeah, so the way we see hustle isn’t like most people. During my dad’s age and time, when the word hustle was used, he was like, “Oh, you’re going to go and sell drugs on the street corner.”

John Jantsch: Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, or you’re going to get hustled. That’s a term too, that … Yeah, yeah.

Neil Patel: Exactly, but if you’ve been looking up the last, in which you have, if you look at the last five, 10 years, the concept has been changing, right? You’re seeing people everywhere out there being like, “Well, I’m going to make something happen, I’m going to hustle.” Right? It’s the act of doing something, and trying to be more efficient at it, and figuring out how to get what you want, in maybe unconventional ways. You’re seeing everyone talk about it.

Neil Patel: For example, one of the biggest authors in our space is Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary Vaynerchuk is interestingly known for using the word hustle, right? We want to change the meaning, or what everyone perceives it. It’s actually not that hard, right? With the younger generations, there’s not much to change meaning wise, it’s more so with the older generation.

John Jantsch: Yeah, and actually there’s a very positive connotation when you think of how people apply to say, sports. Athletes, you know, that you out-hustle somebody, you’re just willing to work harder and try something different as opposed to really just resting on your laurels.

Neil Patel: Yep, you got it right.

John Jantsch: There’s another concept that I really like, and you think about it, makes total sense that we should be doing this, and it’s your personal opportunity portfolio, or POP, I think you call it throughout the book. The portfolio, like the graphic designer shows up for the job interview with their portfolio, but I think you’ve taken that concept and said, “Hey, everybody ought to be doing that.”

Neil Patel: Yeah. The other thing I want you to think about is, companies and IPO’s. A company can grow their value and they can IPO and they can keep increasing and growing, why can’t individuals? You yourself can keep building up your brand, your portfolio. You can increase your value over time.

Neil Patel: A great example of this is Kim Kardashian. If you look at her over the years, she’s increased her POP, and now, companies will pay an arm and a leg to just go out there and post something on Instagram, or Facebook, or whatever it may be, because she’s such a powerful brand out there. In essence, she has built up a really strong POP. Why can’t individuals out there do it? You don’t have to be in the celebrity space.

Neil Patel: Now, for me, I built up my brand through content marketing and blogging. Not only does it help me drive business, but I can get paid to speak, I can get paid to write books. The possibilities are endless and so many doors are opening, and you have a similar journey as well, right? Through the podcast, through the blog, it’s probably opened up a lot of doors for you.

John Jantsch: You bet. Absolutely. Another concept that I think is really interesting. I’ve heard other people talk about this, now we’re in the habits I suppose, this idea, but the 10 minute rule. You want to explain how that has changed your life?

Neil Patel: Yeah, so we all have goals. If you want to achieve your goal, just for 10 minutes, try doing something that will help you get closer to it. Once you’ve done it for 10 minutes, evaluate. Has that helped you get closer to your goal? If it has, do more of it. If it hasn’t, shift your approach. It’s just, taking little actions can create drastic changes in your life. It’s usually not one thing though, it’s a lot of little things that add up. We’re teaching you by just taking little actions, that you can get further into accomplishing what you’re trying to achieve.

John Jantsch: Yeah, and I think it also, sometimes just getting started is really all you need. You use the example in the book about exercise. There are a lot of times when I just feel like, “I don’t really want to do this,” but then I kind of force myself to do it, and within a few minutes, I’m like, “I’m glad I did this.” I do think that it has a little bit of that getting started, the initiative it takes to get started.

Neil Patel: Definitely. Yeah, and when you look at it as 10 minutes, it’s not overwhelming, right? You’re like, “Oh, I’ll only have to do this for 10 minutes,” not a big deal. If I tell you to go do something for hours, it’s like, “One hour, that’s a lot of time.”

John Jantsch: Now another thing I’m going to dive into, a lot of people I think really try to be the best at what they do, and that’s a noble goal, I don’t have a problem with that, but I think you also talk about a lot of people end up succeeding by … I don’t want to say they’re intentionally mediocre, but maybe they’re sort of mediocre at a number of things that they can combine.

John Jantsch: I would never tell anybody I’m a great writer, or a great speaker, but I have written five books and 4,000 blog posts, and done four or 500 presentations. Now, partly because I just wanted to do it, and I started to do it, and being kind of mediocre, I’ve certainly, hopefully gotten better, but being kind of mediocre at a number of things, has actually allowed me to excel aggregately, if that makes sense, and I wonder if you feel like that’s been your journey to some extent?

Neil Patel: It has. I’m not necessarily great at one thing. Yeah, people can say I’m really good at marketing, but I’m probably decent at a lot of components at marketing, when you combine them it makes me dangerous. Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 hour rule, in which, if you do something for 10,000 hours, you become an expert. What we say is, there’s a lot of things that you’re going to suck at. There’s going to be some things that you’re mediocre at, and you’re going to have a natural talent.

Neil Patel: When you try different things, you’ll figure out where your natural talent is, and if you spend time perfecting your natural talent, and usually if you’re talented at something, you should love it, because what’s easier for you is typically the thing that you fall more in love with. If you start trying to improve it, you can actually make a career, a living off of it, right? Especially when you combine it with your other abilities.

John Jantsch: So, you have put together a website that you actually have a few of the tools that you talk about. You have some resources there at hustlegeneration.com, is that right?

Neil Patel: That’s correct.

John Jantsch: Anywhere else you want to send people to find out more about you and the various things that you’re doing?

Neil Patel: Neilpatel.com.

John Jantsch: Great. Well Neil, thanks so much for joining us. Hustle: The Power to Change Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum, is available everywhere, and I suggest it is just the nuggets, such a handful of nuggets that you can pull out of it in a quick read are well worth the price of the book. Neil, thanks for joining us. Hopefully we’ll see you out there on the road.

Neil Patel: Thanks for having me.



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How to Think About Hustle

How to Think About Hustle written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Neil Patel
Podcast Transcript

Neil Patel headshotThe word hustle sometimes gets a bad wrap.

In days of old, it conjured up thoughts of getting hustled, as in a scam. Even today, its meaning can get lost in a work-all-day-and-night, Gary V kind of hustle.

But I think there’s a middle ground—more like Charley Hustle—the player that prepares, works hard, and wins and loses with grace.

My guest for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is Neil Patel, author of Hustle: The Power to Charge Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum. He is also the founder of Quick Sprout, Crazy Egg, Hello Bar and KISSmetrics. Neil and I talk about how to find your passion and turn that momentum into a successful business that is both professionally and personally rewarding.

Neil knows all about hustle. Coming from a hard-working family, he has entrepreneurship in his blood and has helped companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP and Viacom grow their revenue. He was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 35 by the United Nations.

Questions I ask Neil Patel:

  • You break the book up into three sections – Heart, Head & Habits. Can you explain how this ties into finding your passion?
  • “Hustle” can imply negative preconceptions; why did you choose this for your book’s title?
  • What is the “10-Minute Rule” and how has it changed your life?

What you’ll learn if you give a listen:

  • How exploring several paths, and failing at some, can reveal your true calling.
  • Why stress is actually good for leveraging your career.
  • How combining your “natural talent” with your other abilities can lead to a successful business.

Key takeaways from the episode and more about Neil Patel:

  • Learn more about Neil Patel here
  • Buy Hustle: The Power to Charge Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum here
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Follow on Facebook
  • Connect on LinkedIn

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Rev.

Rev offers quick and accurate transcription services. Whether you’re looking to transcribe a video or podcast episode, want to record a meeting, hope to dictate a blog post or even a book, Rev can help you get it done.

We at Duct Tape Marketing use Rev for transcription of all our podcast episodes, and we have a special offer for you. Go to https://www.rev.com/blog/dtm to secure a $100 coupon for new users.



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How to Perform a Thorough SEO Audit in Less Than 3 Minutes

seo analyzer

They say there are over 200 ranking factors in Google’s algorithm.

But are you going to take the time to optimize your site for each and every single one of them?

Well, you should… but you probably won’t.

See, SEO has changed… it used to be that you could do a handful of things and rank well. Sadly, those days are gone.

Now you have to do every little thing and do it well to dominate Google.

So, I decided to make your job easier and release yet another new feature in Ubersuggest that audits your website for you in less than 3 minutes.

It’s called SEO Analyzer.

Introducing SEO Analyzer

If you want to find out what’s wrong with your website, you won’t have to do it manually anymore.

All you have to do is head over to the SEO Analyzer and put in your URL.

seo analyzer

How SEO Analyzer works

Once you put in your URL, you’ll be taken to a report that looks something like this:

seo analyzer

Once the report loads (it typically takes 3 minutes or less), you’ll see an overview like the image above.

The overview is broken down into 3 main sections.

Overview

overview

The first section shows you your on-page SEO score (the higher the better), your estimated search traffic, the number of keywords the domain ranks for, and how many backlinks the site has.

You’ll also see a message from me that breaks down how many pages were crawled and any SEO errors that were found.

When you click on any of those 4 boxes, it will take you to a more in-depth report.

Clicking on the on-page score takes you to a page that lists out your SEO errors. It looks something like this:

seo issues

Clicking on the organic traffic takes you to a report that shows you how well your site is performing.

traffic analyzer

Clicking on the keywords box shows you all of the keywords your website ranks for organically.

keywords

And clicking on the backlinks box shows you all of the sites linking to that domain.

backlinks

Site health

This is my favorite section of the site audit report. This is where you can really dig around and boost your rankings

site health

You can click on any of the four site health boxes and drill down into more reports.

This is important because you’ll want to first focus on clearing up any critical errors. From there, you’ll want to fix any warnings and then, finally, consider doing any of the given recommendations.

The health check box gives you an overview of the healthy pages and the ones that have issues or are broken or blocked or even redirected. By clicking on this box you’ll get taken to a report that lists all your SEO issues in detail.

seo issues

From there you can click on any of those issues and you’ll be taken to the exact pages that contain any SEO errors and what they are exactly. An example of this is pages with too long of a title tag.

long titles

If you aren’t sure on how to fix any of the issues, just click on “what is this and how do I fix it?” and a box like this will appear:

how to fix

And if you click on the critical errors, warnings or recommendations boxes, you’ll see reports just like the ones above. They will be broken down by how important they are.

hard easy

That way you’ll know which fixes have the greatest SEO impact and how hard they are to implement.

You should first focus on the ones that have the highest SEO impact and are the easiest to implement. And I took the liberty to prioritize the table for you, so all you have to do is start at the top and work your way down to the bottom.

Site speed

Speed is important. Not only do faster load times help boost conversion rates, but they also help boost your search rankings.

site speed

There are two sections to the site speed. The section on the left breaks down your desktop load time and the section on the right breaks down your mobile load time.

Site speed varies drastically by a person’s connection and computer, but the charts give you a rough range of how fast or slow your site loads.

Your goal should be to have your site load in 3 seconds or less for both mobile and desktop.

The report even breaks down which areas are slowing down your site speed.

For example, you could have an issue with “First CPU Idle”… and if you aren’t sure what that means, just hover over the question mark and the tool will tell you.

tool tip

Top SEO Issues

I know I said the report has 3 main sections, but the 4th section is just repeating the site health section.

top seo issues

You’ll see the 3 most important fixes that you should make to your site if you want higher rankings.

If you don’t have the time to fix everything, start off by fixing the 3 issues listed here. Those will give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Conclusion

So, what do you think about the SEO Analyzer report? Do you think it was a good addition to Ubersuggest?

I know I haven’t talked about the SEO Analyzer report much, but we’ve been working on it for 4 months now.

For now, the tool crawls the first 100 pages on your website, and eventually, our goal is to increase the limit to 500 or even 1,000. Technically we can do that fairly easily, but for the launch, I’ve capped it at 100 due to the sheer number of users I have and server load.

Give the SEO Analyzer a try and let me know what you think.

The post How to Perform a Thorough SEO Audit in Less Than 3 Minutes appeared first on Neil Patel.



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B2B Content Not Making an Impact? Try These 7 Underutilized Promotion Channels

Creating great content requires considerable investment, in terms of time, effort, and money. Knowing this, it’s crazy how often I see marketers and brands fail to follow through by promoting their content to the fullest and maximizing its targeted exposure. It literally makes me sad. I’m tearing up as I write this. One moment… Talk amongst yourselves. via GIPHY Ahem. So the scourge of unseen quality content is one we must conquer. The path to doing so, I’m afraid, isn’t as simple as scheduling a bunch of links across the same old social feeds. This isn't to say social media isn't important, but this formulaic, reflexive approach is fast losing its luster. The latest Content Trends Report from BuzzSumo found that social shares have dropped by 50% since 2015, owing to several different factors: increased competition for eyeballs, changes to Facebook’s algorithm, shifts in discovery habits for users. All of this means fewer referrals, less engagement, and less impact for content promoted solely through these channels. How can we counteract this troubling decline? The first step in treating Invisible Content Syndrome is acknowledging it’s a problem, and developing a concrete plan to address it. To this end, our CEO Lee Odden created a list of 50 content promotion tactics that can be implemented during the planning stages of your next initiative. His suggestions will provide plenty of guidance for a broader and more robust promotion mix. Once you’ve committed to giving your content the continuing attention it deserves post-publication, it’s time to start differentiating. [bctt tweet="Once you’ve committed to giving your content the continuing attention it deserves post-publication, it’s time to start differentiating. @NickNelsonMN #B2BContentMarketing #ContentPromotion" username="toprank"] This will be our focus for today: zeroing in on some of the underutilized channels capable of providing a competitive advantage. Instead of exclusively trying to compete with ephemeral Twitter feeds or mercurial Facebook algos, diversify with these seven B2B content promotion techniques that can help your best stuff stand out and get noticed by the people who truly matter to your brand.

7 Underutilized B2B Content Promotion Channels

Volume is about vanity. It really is that simple, I’m afraid. Unless your company profits directly from pageviews (via ads), there is no practical value in piling up impressions. It might feel nice to see a higher number of visitors, but if you aren’t driving action with the right people, you’re bound to end up feeling verklempt. With an eye on quality and resonance, here are seven channels worth considering for your B2B content promotion mix. Because they are generally underutilized, there’s a good chance your competitors aren’t tapping them (yet) or using them to their full potential.

#1 - Influencers

Of course we’re going to start here. While influencer marketing in the B2B realm is on the rise, research shows that an incredibly small percentage (11%) of B2B brands are engaging in ongoing influencer programs. Strategic influencers are vital conduits for connecting your content with key audiences. If you’ve done your due dilligence to identify individuals who align with your brand from a topical and cultural perspective, then their networks are likely highly qualified, and most importantly, your association with them can infuse near-instant credibility in the eyes of their followers. [bctt tweet="#Influencers connect with a much more targeted audience than banner ads have in quite some time. @martinjonesaz #B2BInfluencerMarketing" username="toprank"] Influencers themselves aren’t a channel, but rather a powerful entry point to several different channels. Once you’ve developed strong relationships with influential partners, you can work with them to co-create and share content that your mutual audiences will find value in. Depending on the type of relationship you cultivate, you could also encourage them to share prioritized content from their social accounts, on their blogs, in their newsletters, etc. Cross-mentions on platforms such as LinkedIn can also help your articles gain more visibility in feeds. Remember: when you incorporate these influencers into co-creation campaigns, they’ll be more motivated to share, and their audiences will be more likely to take notice.

#2 - Employees

As Michael Brenner wrote recently at Marketing Insiders Group, engaged employees can be some of your brand’s most authentic and influential advocates. “Who better to sing the praises of your organization than an employee who truly believes in the value of what you’re trying to achieve?” he asks. [bctt tweet="Who better to sing the praises of your organization than an employee who truly believes in the value of what you’re trying to achieve? @BrennerMichael #ContentPromotion" username="toprank"] The operative word here is “engaged.” When employees are dutifully copy-pasting article links into their social accounts, the results will reflect the effort and enthusiasm. However, when they feel truly invested in the content and its success, this also tends to manifest. Find ways to make internal content sharing more aspiration than obligation. We can do this by involving employees in the creation of content itself, gamifying the promotion process (“Free pizza if we hit XX% referrals from this platform!”), or conveying the benefits of personal brand-building on social. Employee advocacy programs can provide structure and ease for implementing such initiatives. The Marketing Advisory Network’s 2017 Employee Advocacy Impact Study can shed some light here, highlighting barriers that keep employees from sharing company-related posts on social and so much more.

#3 - Customers

Much like employees and industry influencers, your customers provide an extra element of credibility when amplifying your brand’s content — both offline and online. Their networks likely include professionals within the same niche, so the audiences are inherently more qualified. Obviously it’s great when a satisfied buyer is willing to participate in and promote persuasive lower-funnel pieces like success stories and testimonials, but that’s a relatively heavy ask. Conversely, providing them with practical content that’s useful to their followers will carry more appeal, especially if you tailor your message (i.e., “I think your customers will really like this article because…”).

#4 - Topical Forums

Message boards, subreddits, social media groups, and other focused online communities can be highly valuable for brands. Forums contain tribes of engaged, knowledgeable, connected people with an intrinsic desire to learn and grow. However, these established communities tend to be skeptical of unfamiliar outsiders — especially those who enter with a blatantly self-promotional motive. In order to leverage these channels properly, you should build a long-term strategy around them. Create a functional presence in groups and forums long before you start sharing your own content there. Encourage your employees to participate in boards that interest them specifically. Ensure there is a clear match between the respective audiences and what you’re trying to accomplish. One reason forums make our list of underutilized tactics is because they can often be used in the wrong way. As a general rule, it’s best to repurpose your content within these forums, rather than just linking out in the traditional sense. The primary goals should be establishing thought leadership, and generating meaningful conversations, rather than simply driving people to your website.

#5 - Industry Associations/Publications

Much like online forums, industry outlets have the advantage of pre-existing audiences organized around specific subjects or verticals. Whether it’s an online resource or still in print, people still trust the information from their favorite niche publications. Magazine readership remains high. Trade associations are filled with pros who are adamant about their crafts. Once again, the key here is relationship-building. It can be really tough to pitch stories or earn coverage out of the blue. Consider connecting with publication editors or association leaders long before you start working the content promotion angle.

#6 - Email Segments

I’m not talking about blasting out content digests to your entire email list, or indiscriminately sending automated RSS links devoid of context. These methods are already widely in use, and the results are only worsening as people grow tired of inbox irrelevance. But email remains an effective channel for direct engagement, when used as such. Rather than falling back on the spray-and-pray approach, try divvying your email list into segments based on interest, specialty, or function. The more granular you can get, the better. Then, share content via email with the segments for which it is most acutely suited. Customize your messaging accordingly. You could even consider composing individual emails and sending them along with a personal note to people you really feel would benefit from (and maybe share) a particular piece. Remember: one pertinent reader/viewer who can take action is far more valuable than 10 who can’t. [bctt tweet="Rather than falling back on the spray-and-pray approach, try divvying your email list into segments based on interest, specialty, or function. The more granular you can get, the better. @NickNelsonMN #ContentPromotion" username="toprank"]

#7 - Direct Mail

It’s one of those classic mainstays that has largely gone out of style. How often do you receive a piece of mail at work that is actually tailored to you personally, and worth your time? Would such an item stand out to you? Physical mail doesn’t have a place in most digitally-based strategies, which is exactly why it may offer a unique opportunity to reach important contacts. Tracking down someone’s office mailing address is often easier than tracking down their email address. This method isn’t necessarily cheap or scalable, but in cases where you really want to get your content in front of a particular account, sending a printed version (or just a note encouraging them to check it out online) can be a sneaky winner. One B2B-centric example is *LinkedIn’s Sophisticated Marketer Quarterly, which stands out as a glossy, colorful product you can hold in your hands. It’s a great place for B2B practitioners to be featured. Sophisticated Marketers Guide Quarterly

Find New Audiences for Your Best B2B Content

One of the most valuable objectives for B2B brands is also one of the most challenging: generating awareness and influence with new audiences and prospects. Continuing to push the same cookie-cutter social promotion tactics won’t do the trick. In the era of content saturation, we must remain vigilant in finding new ways to reach and engage the right people. [bctt tweet="Content promotion can’t be effective if it’s an afterthought. @leeodden #B2BContentMarketing #ContentPromotion" username="toprank"] Whether embracing the channels above or identifying others that make sense for your brand, I encourage you to think outside the box when it comes to promotion. And whatever you do, don’t make this essential marketing an afterthought. Because that leads to lonely content and general sadness. Ahhh here I go again, I’d better log off... via GIPHY Want more guidance to B2B content marketing success that’ll turn your frown upside-down? Check out Annie Leuman’s recent write-up on powering through the summer slump. *Disclosure: LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing client.

The post B2B Content Not Making an Impact? Try These 7 Underutilized Promotion Channels appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.



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Why It’s Important to Start Podcasting for Your Business or Personal Brand

Podcasting has emerged as one of the most popular ways for brands to engage with their customers on a regular basis. While most people think of huge media companies – such as the New York Times or NPR – when it comes to podcasting, the reality is that any business or brand can very easily set up a podcast and make it possible for fans and consumers to download this content to their smartphones. With that in mind, here are four great reasons why it’s important to start podcasting for your business or personal brand.

#1: Reach Fans, Followers, and Potential Customers 24/7

What makes podcasting so fundamentally different from other forms of digital content is that most people consume this content when they are away from their computers. Once you’ve downloaded a podcast to your smartphone, you can listen to it as you work out, as you commute to work in the morning, or as you’re walking around town doing errands. That gives brands a great way to engage with customers on a 24/7 basis.

#2: Develop Your Overall Brand Personality

In many ways, podcasts are just like talk radio back in the old days. For that reason, the most popular podcasts are almost always headed up by a popular personality. So, if your business or personal brand is thinking of getting into the podcast game, you’ll definitely want to find one or more people within your company who can help to develop your overall brand personality.

The good news is that this personality doesn’t necessarily have to be a mega celebrity or top industry influencer. For example, Barstool Sports now has more podcast listeners than ESPN, thanks in large part to its unique (and often irreverent) approach to sports. In January 2019, the company had a cumulative reach of 7.9 million unique listeners, up from 4.3 million a year ago. Moreover, the company’s podcasts were downloaded 37.9 million times in January 2019, up from 19.9 million a year ago.

#3: Bring in Advertising Dollars

Just like you can monetize your YouTube video content, you can also monetize your podcast content. Podcast content is free, so the way that you monetize it is with ads. In 2018, total podcast revenue was $514.5 million. At Barstool Sports, for example, 50% of the company’s advertising revenue comes from podcasting. In 2018, the company brought in $15 million in podcasting revenue from 25 different shows.

#4: Go Deep in Different Verticals

While the most popular podcasts are general interest shows designed to appeal to large audiences, the reality is that the ease and convenience of creating podcast content makes it possible to go very deep in very specific niches or verticals. Barstool Sports, for example, has 25 different shows, while The Ringer has 28 shows and Vox Media has 75 shows.

Final Thoughts

If done right, podcasting can be more than a corporate vanity project – it can be a way to reach new customers; develop your overall brand personality, bring in new advertising revenue; and super-serve your best customers by going very deep in content areas that matter the most to them.

                                                                                                         

Podcasts are only one touchpoint in which you can engage customers. What other channels and platforms might you utilize? How do you intertwine them into one marketing strategy? Learn more about “Cross-Channel Fundamentals” in order to keep up with customers no matter what channel or platform they prefer.

 

 



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Tuesday 28 May 2019

Transcript of How to Give Your Content CPR

Transcript of How to Give Your Content CPR written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

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Transcript

us-logo

John Jantsch: Choosing the right domain name is critical to ensuring the success of your small business, but it’s gotten a little harder. Now you can choose a .us domain to help your business stand out. Reserve your .us web address today. Go to launchwith.us, and use my promo code, PODCAST, for my special offer.

John Jantsch: Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch, and my guest today is Laura Belgray. She is the founder of Talking Shrimp, and co-creator of The Copy Cure with Marie Forleo. She brings a mixed bag of [inaudible] experience, and I mean that in the best kind of way. Today she’s working with entrepreneurs to create copy that isn’t boring.

John Jantsch: So, Laura, welcome.

Laura Belgray: Oh, thank you. I like being described as a mixed bag.

John Jantsch: Well, you know, in doing the bios, you know, a lot of people have the 100 word thing that’s very crisp, but you’re just all over the place. You’ve done a lot of things and that’s awesome. But that was my best way to describe it.

Laura Belgray: Thank you. I’m so the opposite of crisp, I’m soft batch cookies.

John Jantsch: So, Talking Shrimp. You know, I’m sure a lot of people ask about the name, but it’s obvious, right? I mean, you were … you had a dream that you were swallowed by shrimp, and you started talking, and that led you to … you’re supposed to stop me here, because I’m just babbling here.

Laura Belgray: No, I just wanted you to fill it in for me, because what other explanation could there be? The name Talking Shrimp, everyone asks about that. A lot of people think that I deal in, you know, flash frozen shrimp and seafood. I do not. The really boring answer is that my husband and I had a CPA who told us to incorporate, and we needed a name, and the URL was available. We basically wanted a name, he’s in restaurants and I’m in copy writing, we wanted a name that could apply to either of us, and could mean absolutely everything and nothing at the same time, and I think it does.

John Jantsch: Yeah, and all the other crustaceans were taken, right?

Laura Belgray: That’s right. Can you believe Talking Shrimp was free?

John Jantsch: No, I cannot believe it. So, you have a done a lot of work, as you bio suggests, in television. So are you still doing TV?

Laura Belgray: I am. I would say it is a smaller part of my business, it’s the little arm. I’ve got two arms, and they’re uneven sizes. So the bigger arm is entrepreneur, small businesses, private clients, and then I do still do a bunch of TV stuff for different networks, and sometimes for production companies. I focus on promos, which are the little commercials that you see for the shows.

John Jantsch: Yeah, the thing that tries to get you to stay on before the commercials.

Laura Belgray: Yes, exactly. I mean, sometimes it’s a big poster that you see on the subway or at a bus shelter on the side of the bus and the tagline that goes on that.

John Jantsch: So, do you have to be a whole different person dealing with entrepreneurs than you do with the TV world? Or is there a lot of similarity?

Laura Belgray: That’s a good question. I’m always the same person, and I-

John Jantsch: You’re just playing a different character though.

Laura Belgray: Yes, playing a different character. I would say that the job is very different, because with entrepreneurs, we’re writing really direct response copy, we’re writing copy that makes people make a decision right away. For TV, we’re mostly writing copy that helps them make a decision over time. They say, “Oh, I get what that network is about, or, oh, that looks like a funny show, I’ll have to remember to look it up when I get home.” Or, you know, when they’re watching TV, “Oh, I got to check out … I’ll have to remember to set my DVR for that.” But they don’t necessarily make a decision right away.

John Jantsch: So, I’m going to ask you a few questions about copywriting that are things that I actually hear all the time, because they’re just sort of generic problems, challenges, when it comes to marketing. I’m sure you hear this all the time too. So, if you’re going to write copy that gets somebody to make a decision now, and hopefully it’s exciting and moving, you know, but then I hear all the time, “But what I do is really boring.” You know, how do you make that spicy?

Laura Belgray: Yeah, well, can you give me an example of someone’s job that’s really boring when they say, “What I do is really boring.”

John Jantsch: Well, again, this may … I’m not saying it’s true, I’m saying that’s their perception. But, you know, yeah, so let’s say a plumber that, you know, is looking for local clients, and they know that they need to be online, they know that they need to be doing stuff. They’re obviously not selling a course, or at least in this example, they’re not selling some of the same things that you might do in a direct response environment. But they are trying to get somebody who has a problem to call them, or to think that, “Yeah, this is somebody that I want to engage, you know, in an ongoing basis.”

John Jantsch: So, there’s my example. Can you work with that?

Laura Belgray: That’s a … okay, that’s a great example. So, they think, “Okay, what I do is really boring. I don’t really have anything to talk about at dinner parties.” But, on the other hand, it is something immediate and relatable, and that solves generally a dire, urgent, problem. I mean, when someone’s … somebody’s toilet is stopped up, they need a plumber pretty badly, they need one now. These aren’t … A plumber’s not working … that what they do is not something that people say, “Oh, I’ll fix that, you know, next week, two weeks from now, next month.”

Laura Belgray: So, I would say that … So that’s a really specific example, but everybody with a legitimate business solves a legitimate problem, something that people need to fix, or something that … or offer something that delights people, or that people want. So, even if it’s something mundane, it’s not truly boring if people want it.

John Jantsch: Well, and I think that anytime you’re talking about the human condition, I mean, just relating stories, can you imagine some of the stories plumbers must have? You know, that probably would make for some pretty good narrative on a website.

Laura Belgray: Yes. Great narrative on a website, great, you know, depending who you’re sitting next to, dinner party conversation. I’ve got a strong stomach, so I would want to talk to that person, and great material for ongoing correspondence. They could, you know, be writing to their email list on and on, and be … you know, they could be offering information, like what to do when there’s no plumber around and your toilet is stopped up.

Laura Belgray: Someone will click that open, because they know it’s a problem that’s going to happen to them, and that plumber will be top of mind when they do have a problem they can’t fix themselves.

John Jantsch: So, just in reading your website, I think people could make an assessment that your writing style is, let me choose the right word, snarky. How’s that? Is that a good one?

Laura Belgray: I would say, well, sometimes it’s snarky. When I write for … okay, go ahead.

John Jantsch: Yeah, I was going to say, that’s not really the point. The point I … main point I’m making is do you, as a copywriter, have to, I mean, definitely get into the voice and into the ideal client’s head, and all that of the client that you’re working with, and to some degree, adopt or adapt your style to that, right?

Laura Belgray: For sure. I would say one thing that remains consistent about my writing, no matter who I’m writing for, who I’m helping, is that I’m always conversational. I will never go into stiff, boring, buzzwordy business mode, because that’s just against everything I believe in, and I don’t think anybody wants to read it.

Laura Belgray: But, I help businesses sometimes who have a way more earnest tone, and need to, they might be dealing with delicate issues. Maybe it’s about … I haven’t worked with someone like this, but maybe they do end of life care. It’s not going to be like, “What’s up, girlfriend? Got a friend who’s dying?” You know, that’s not going to-

John Jantsch: I would call that ad, I’m sorry. So, I think you ought to rethink that one. No, I totally agree. Totally agree. So, what kind of challenge does that present you? I mean, I write a lot of stuff, but I write a lot of stuff that’s just me. So, do you have to sometimes turn me off?

Laura Belgray: So, I would say the biggest challenge for me is really when the client doesn’t know what they’re selling, and cannot … no matter how deep we dig, they can’t come up with the concrete details of what they do. So, for instance, someone who’s got a really vague woo-woo life-coaching business, and I say, “So, how exactly do you help people?” They say, “Well, I help them to become their most vital, joyful, selves.” I say, “Well, how do you do that?” “Well, we work through blocks and break through their self-limiting beliefs.”

Laura Belgray: I’m like, “Okay, so what do you … what are the results that they get on the other side?” “Well, they have a feeling of inner peace and joy, and they become … they step into their most vital selves” I have had this conversation. They say to me, well, you know they jump out of bed, they override that annoyance that they feel when they see the dishes in the sink, and instead of snapping at their husband, they hug him.

Laura Belgray: If they give me concrete details, I can work with that. If they have no picture, nothing that’s … no picture that they can describe for me, then I can’t … then I have a hard time channeling any voice, mine or theirs.

John Jantsch: You know, I love sharing tips and resources with small business owners, and one of them is, you’ve got to choose the right web address for your business. It’s gotten harder, all the good names are gone. But you can take a short relevant .us web address and maybe come up with the best possible name for your business while it’s still available. You’d be in pretty good company with some big hitters like Zoom.us, and Mastercard.us. I want you to reserve your .us web address today. So, I’ve arranged a special offer for my listeners. Register your .us domain for just $1.49 for a year, plus you get free website builder and hosting services for six months. So, to go get my special offer, go to Launchwith.us, and use my promo code, PODCAST. That’s Launchwith.us, promo code, PODCAST.

John Jantsch:  What place does humor have in business writing? You know, a lot of people use it brilliantly, a lot of people shy away from it because it’s hard.

Laura Belgray: Yeah, I mean, I think that if you are … if you have a sense of humor, then you should show it in your business. Because remember, part of the job of our copy is not just to get people to make a split second decision, it’s not just to convert on the spot, sometimes it’s about building a relationship over time, it’s about building the know I can trust factor.

Laura Belgray: We are drawn to people, especially if we have a sense of humor, we’re drawn to people with a sense of humor. So, if a business has a sense of humor, you’re more inclined to like it and trust it, and say, “Oh, there’s a human behind that.”

John Jantsch: Right. Yeah, I love getting … you order something in the mail, and you get a little insert in there that just goes on, you know, sort of self-defacing, you know, humor about, you know, all the care that had gone into getting you this package. I mean, they’re clearly over the top being funny, and I just … all of a sudden, I … you know, that makes me like that company more.

Laura Belgray: Yeah, exactly. I mean, you see … I’m sure you’ve seen how successful the Squatty Potty ad was, right? That’s gone a long way, I think, towards getting people to order a little stool that fits around their toilet. The fact that they used a unicorn pooping rainbow ice cream, and it’s hilarious. People like the company, and they say, “Okay, the company gets me, they don’t take this too seriously. This is a human thing that we all do, and I’m going to get that thing.”

John Jantsch: So, one of the things I encounter all the time, especially with business owners, they can talk for days about everything they do and how awesome it is, and the benefits that people get. Then you put a blank sheet of paper in front of them, and they, you know, they freeze. Why do you suppose that is?

Laura Belgray: I think because a lot of people grew up thinking, “I’m not a good writer.” I think there are two different things. One, are people who think, “I’m not a good writer, I suck at writing, I always got D’s on all my papers, I can’t put words together, or I’m dyslexic, I’m not good at that.” Then … So they freeze up, and then there are the people who are great writers, or think they are, and decide, “This must be the most exquisite piece of writing I’ve ever put out. I’m putting on my beret, and I am dipping my feather into a quill of … my quill into some ink, and I’m going to write a poem about what I do,” and they freeze up.

John Jantsch: So let’s talk about what kind of moves people. I mean, I think the best, certainly persuasive copy, you know, gets people at an emotional level, which moves them. So, I know when I … I’ve been doing this a long time, and I know when I started going out to business owners and saying, “We need to hear more about you and your personal story about, you know, why you do this, and what you overcame.” You know, were thought … at one point, people thought, “Oh, no, that’s … there’s no place for that, you know? Nobody wants to hear about me, they want to hear about the products and the services and all that.”

John Jantsch: But now, it seems like personal stories are really in now. Is that your take, as far as, you know, one of the ways to move people?

Laura Belgray: For sure. I think personal stories are great, because we all love story, we want to find something relatable in the person who’s selling to us, and it brings us closer to [inaudible] I think it, you know, it gets us closer to the person who’s talking or writing, when we know something about them, and we’re drawn in by their story. On the other hand, I think some people go overboard, some business owners go overboard, thinking that they have to write their whole life story.

Laura Belgray: You know, they might sell [inaudible] phone chargers. But then on their About page, it’s like, you know, “Do you ever feel frustrated, down on yourself, lonely, because you can’t find a phone charger? Well, I get you, I’ve been there my friend. You know, I was in a downward spiral, I was in the darkest place of my life.” Then they talk about how they got therapy, and how they found themselves, and left a lousy cubicle job and started selling phone chargers, and now their life is great. That has nothing to do what we’re getting from the phone charger.

John Jantsch: So when you sit down to write a particularly persuasive … let’s just say a sales letter, where your hope is in 1,000 words or 2,000 words or whatever, somebody is going to go through a range of emotions, and, you know, ultimately decide, “This is the most awesome thing, I have to have it today.”

John Jantsch: Do you have a … I don’t want to call it a checklist. But, I mean, are there kind of a set of principles, is there a narrative, or a journey even, that you’re trying to, you know, “First we have to take them here, and then we have to take them there.” I mean, is that … am I being too sort of formalistic about it?

Laura Belgray: Well, no, I wouldn’t say you’re being too formulaic, I’d say … for a sales page, I definitely have a scale of 10 that I like to use, sort of a framework, which I call the GUSTA Framework. We teach this in our course, The Copy Cure. Marie and I do. I can give you the very bare bones of it, but it is … so the G is for get attention, and that you want to do with your headline. The U is for understanding. So you do that by showing you get what this person wants and what their frustrations are, you get exactly what they are feeling.

Laura Belgray: Then the S is for solution, is where you turn it and say, “Well, what if it could be like this? You know, what if there were something that would do this for you?” Then the T is for … so, I mean, the T … oh, sorry, the T is for trust, duh. So that can come from testimonials, it can come from your credentials, your story, all that. Then the A is for action. That is your call to action, the buy now.

Laura Belgray: So there is a flow to that. But I would say for any piece of copy that you put out there, whether it’s short or long, whether it’s on, you know, a Facebook post, or a blog post, or an email, or your homepage, it all has to have what we call CPR, clarity, personality and resonance. So it has to be super clear about what you’re offering, what this is and who it’s for, it has to sound like a human, and hopefully reflects your personality or the personality of your company, has some sort of … a vibe to it. You would know, “Oh, this is, you know, this is so clearly their brand.”

Laura Belgray: It has to resonate, it has to make the person say, “Yes, or yay, or yikes, I better fix that.” It’s got to hit home and meet the person reading it where they are. So it has to … you want it to speak to what they want, not to what you want them to want.

John Jantsch: I think there’s a fine line, a lot of times you’ll see great examples of this where, you know, and I hate to point anybody out too much, but certainly the internet marketing crowd, of particularly of old, that, you know, that use this formula very well, but also used it, you know, with a number of sort of emotional hot buttons very cleverly.

John Jantsch: Where’s the fine line between manipulation? Particularly, I mean, I hate to say it, in some cases they were selling stuff that was very expensive and promised a lot things that didn’t deliver. You know, where’s the fine line between figuring out these how to influence through emotion, you know, for good or for bad?

Laura Belgray: I think it just … to me, it all depends on whether what you’re offering is good or bad. I think that if you can get someone … if you get the right person to invest in the thing that’s truly going to help them, then great. Sometimes you do need to speak to them through their pain, or through their fear, because that’s what’s going to motivate them.

Laura Belgray: I heard … I keep hearing this ad over and over on TuneIn Radio. So I’ve been addicted to all the political coverage last couple of months, so I’ve been listening to TuneIn Radio on my iPhone wherever I go. The commercials are constant, they’re driving me bananas. One that I keep hearing is about safety. It’s some ad for safety, some safety something, I don’t know what. The voiceover says, you know, “Hey, I’m John, and I love safety. In fact, safety is my middle name. Just went to the DMV to change it today. You know, first name John, middle name Safety, last name exclamation point, because I love safety. When I want safety, I go to these guys, whatever, for safety.”

Laura Belgray: I’m just thinking, “Who’s motivated …” I don’t know even know what kind of safety he’s talking about, and who is so excited about the idea of safety, that they’re going to run out and invest in safety? You have to be motivated by fear, like, “Oh my God, that could happen to me.” Whether it’s car seat safety, like, “My kid’s life could be in danger if I just take a sharp turn,” or home safety, like, “Could someone break into my house and take everything? Things that I’m not even insured for. I would be screwed if somebody came in and took my photo albums and my computer.”

Laura Belgray: So, those kinds of fears are what are going to motivate somebody to invest in safety. You have to … sometimes you have to speak to someone from a point of fear or pain.

John Jantsch: So, tell me about Italy.

Laura Belgray: It’s this wonderful country with delicious food. You mean my writing retreat in Italy, which I held for the first time in the end of May, beginning of June, 2016. It was a wonderful three-day writing retreat in Cinque Terre, a town called Riomaggiore, which is on the coast of … near Tuscany. It’s just beautiful there.

Laura Belgray: We held the classes in an ancient castle at the top of the hill, and it had amazing patio overlooking the water. I taught a group of 30 women writing. Not just copywriting, but also creative writing for three days.

John Jantsch: Yeah, I looked at it a little bit and you had … I think you had a whole blog post on this about the power of details in your writing. That’s really one of my favorites.

Laura Belgray: Right. Well, that is my favorite thing to focus on. So we do a lot of that in Italy, or anywhere that I teach. Details are everything.

John Jantsch: Some great hikes in that area too.

Laura Belgray: Some great hikes. I’m ashamed to say I never did the hike.

John Jantsch: You didn’t do the hike, huh?

Laura Belgray: I was going to. There was one morning I got up early and went to go do the hike, and then I couldn’t find the beginning of the trail.

John Jantsch: It’s a little treacherous too, because it’s pretty … it’s on a pretty steep … a little …

Laura Belgray: Yeah, you see … it is a little steep, and not really a lot of railing there, there’s not a lot of safety regulations. You see a lot of Germans with fancy shoes and walking sticks.

John Jantsch: So, I mentioned in the intro that you have … of course people can find more about you at Talkingshrimp.com. But, give us the 10 second pitch on Copy Cure.

Laura Belgray: Copy Cure, which I created with my friend, Marie Forleo, who is also the creator of B-School, is a all-in-one program to help you find your voice and sell your anything. So, first of all, it’s under five hours, so it is completely binge-watchable. It’s in video form, but you can also download it as PDF, or however you’d like to learn. We consider it the Breaking Bad of copywriting courses, because you’ll probably want to watch it all in one go, and not come out of the house till you’re done.

Laura Belgray: It really focuses on parts of copywriting that I find other courses don’t, and that’s why we created it. There are tons of courses out there that give you templates, you know, “Here’s how you have to stretch your blog post, here’s how you have to stretch your sales page, here are the techniques to persuade somebody.” But they don’t tell you how to make things conversational, how to sound like you, how to really understand who you’re talking to, how the secret to getting more clients or getting more buyers is to get your clients, and really get your buyers.

Laura Belgray: So we go into all of that so that you have the power to write anything better, and hit home better, and get people to click and like and buy.

John Jantsch: Is that just CopyCure.com? I can’t remember.

Laura Belgray: TheCopyCure.com.

John Jantsch: Great. Laura, it was awesome visiting with you, and I encourage people to check out both Talking Shrimp and TheCopyCure.com. Hopefully I’ll run into you next time I’m in New York.

Laura Belgray:  Thank you so much. I’ll be on the lookout.



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How to Give Your Content CPR

How to Give Your Content CPR written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Markeing Podcast with Laura Belgray
Podcast Transcript

Laura Belgray headshotThere are at least 2,193 ways to make your content better and the best copywriters know them all.

However, there are just three things that every marketer must master to dramatically improve their copy.

Your web pages, brochures, and emails must have Clarity, Personality, and Resonance (CPR). Review every word you write for CPR and you are on the road to success.

My guest for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is Laura Belgray, founder of Talking Shrimp and co-creator of The Copy Cure. Laura and I discuss content and what it takes to create copy that is fresh, vibrant and drives sales.

Having been a professional writer for nearly two decades and earning a number of honors and awards, Laura knows all about producing killer content. Laura has written for SPY Magazine and New York Magazine, as well as a variety of television stations including Bravo, NBC, HBO, Nickelodeon, VH1, the CW and USA – to name a few.

Questions I ask Laura Belgray:

  • If you’re writing creative and exciting copy that is supposed to drive a decision, but your client tells you that what they do is really boring, how do you make it spicy?
  • What place does humor have when creating copy?
  • When you sit down to write a sales letter, hoping to touch a range of emotions, is there a set of standards that you use to create the content?

What you’ll learn if you give a listen:

  • Why conversational copy is more likely to convert.
  • What role the acronym CPR—Clarity, Personality and Resonance—plays in creating killer content.
  • How to find your voice and why it’s necessary in sales related content.

Key takeaways from the episode and more about Laura Belgray:

  • Learn more about Laura Belgray and Talking Shrimp here
  • Learn more about The Copy Cure here
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on LinkedIn

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

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