The 4 Essential Questions Your Content Must Answer in Less than 15 Seconds

A rodeo cowboy gets eight seconds to become a champion. What can content marketers do with nearly twice that time?

HubSpot reports it takes less than 15 seconds for a reader to decide whether or not content is worth the effort. Think about that : In half of the Jeopardy theme, your reader’s mind is already made up.

You’re probably familiar with that statistic–it’s a marketing classic. But what exactly is happening in those 15 seconds?

There’s a series of subconscious questions anyone asks as they’re contemplating reading content. You ask them; I ask them; and our fellow human beings that we call an “audience” ask them, too.

Your content must answer these four essential questions, and fast.

#1: Are You Talking to Me?

Marketers would phrase this question as “Am I the intended audience for this piece?” In the mind of a non-marketer, though, this question is full-on DeNiro in Taxi Driver.

The hard part about addressing this question is that a “maybe” is the same as a “no.” If your reader can’t tell if they’re your intended audience straight away, they’re going to bounce like a ping-pong ball.

So don’t play coy; call out your audience in the first few minutes. Cut everyone else loose. Make it clear exactly who should keep reading.

Full disclosure: This post used to have 250 more words in the intro. I spent the first two paragraphs introducing a metaphor. Then I cut it to the bone, to start with a call-out to the audience. Are you a content marketer? Then yes, I’m talking to you.

It’s important your readers get an equally clear message.

#2: What’s in It for Me?

It may seem strange to have to address this question. After all, you created the content specifically to address your reader’s needs. You’d think it would be obvious what benefit they will get from reading it.

But think about how you search for content. If you’re like me, you do a Google search, and then click into the most promising couple of links to check them out.  In that context, the article that tells me exactly what I’m in for is going to win every time.

The folks at Social Media Examiner are great at answering this question. In the first paragraph or two of every post, there’s a bolded sentence that says exactly what’s in it for the reader. That’s part of the reason their posts get read and shared like nobody’s business.

#3: Says Who?

This question is all about the credibility of the source. Based on the scant information your reader gets in the first 15 seconds, they will decide whether or not to trust you.

The easiest way to fail this test is to either omit the author by line, or bury it at the end. If your reader sees no attribution at the top of the article, they may assume it’s a generic piece written by committee, solely to promote a corporation’s products.

If someone won’t even take credit for the content, how trustworthy can it be?

People want to read work written by humans for humans. Make sure your content has an author’s name, photo, and a link to their bio right up top.

#4: How Hard Will This Be to Read?

The last question your reader asks before committing is how much of a commitment you’re asking for, and how easy it will be to fulfill that commitment.

Now, I realize that not all content is text-based, but the phrase “consume content” give me hives. So we can apply this question to video and content like SlideShare presentations as well.

For text, make sure your content is optimized for web readability. Short paragraphs, headers, visual interest. You can write a 1500-word article and people will read it—but you have to make it easy.

The same applies to video. A single 50-minute video is a big ask. Five ten-minute videos is smaller. Three 5-minute videos that really get to the heart of things is even better. Once someone watches the first one, they’ll be more compelled to finish the series.

I’d say think of SlideShare presentations in the same way. It’s easy to put up the slides from your last webinar and ask readers to click through 192 slides. 192 slides that start, by the way, with greetings to your webinar attendees and instructions on how to ask questions during the webinar. In other words, with completely irrelevant information.

It’s possible to get readers to make that commitment. But imagine there’s another SlideShare that starts with a compelling intro aimed at the reader and hits the key points in 20 slides…which one do you think wins?

A Lot Can Happen in 15 Seconds

The battle for readers’ attention takes place in 15-second intervals. And that’s a generous assessment. For a rodeo cowboy or a viral internet celebrity (remember Chewbacca Mom? Vaguely?), that is an eternity. For the rest of us, it’s a daunting deadline.

Before you post that next piece of content, take off your marketing hat for a moment and see if it answers these four questions. Is it clear your piece is:

1. Calling out a specific audience?
2. Providing a clear benefit?
3. Written by an actual human?
4. Not a chore to read?

The clock is ticking. Make every second count.

Source : http://bit.ly/2eoWY7E

7 Tips for Seeking Out and Seducing the Best Influencers to Love Your Brand

The influencer marketing gold rush is underway, and recent surveys confirm that budgets are continuing to grow in this area. Unfortunately, when a lot of money is headed in one direction so quickly, some of it gets thrown out the window. To avoid wasting your budget, it's more important than ever to form relationships with the right industry influencers.

Through mistakes and many lessons, I've learned that remembering these seven things can help you seek out and attract the best influencers to become long-term advocates for your brand:

1. The best influencers aren't always well-known.

Sometimes, higher-profile influencers are in the business for themselves. They've had people cater to them for years and expect you to bend over backward for them, too. For example, one of my more well-known relationships emailed me on a holiday weekend just days after my daughter's birth to ask me to do something for him. That's not a healthy relationship. But lesser-known influencers usually aren't sidetracked by self-promotion or fame, which makes them more likely to become true brand advocates for you.

2. The one thing influencers love more than money is more influence.

–– ADVERTISEMENT ––

Influencers are naturally attracted to influence, so do everything you can to build your own influence before seeking partnerships with them. In your own content strategy, do what you can to include these influencers in your work. Source their content, quote them in an article on your blog, mention them in your speeches, etc. My approach is to draw attention to those outside influencers who deserve more influence--those who are leaders and experts in their industries. As a result, I've formed solid relationships with many of these people.

3. Seek out influencers who are helpful people.

In one conversation with someone, I'm able to determine whether he or she is a helpful person. Helpful people listen to you and lend a hand because it's the right thing to do. They value the relationship and want you to succeed--and that makes them great influencers to work with. But if ego is involved or they clearly have an agenda, they probably won't help you unless there's something in it for them.

4. Earn the relationship before you pay.

Think about this: If you pay somebody $10,000 to be your best friend for six months and then ask him to stay your best friend even if you can't pay him again, do you think he'll be there for you? No. You should do all you can to naturally earn an influencer relationship before spending thousands of dollars to buy it. (Note: Sometimes, you have to pay up if there's no option, but at least attempt to earn it first.)

5. Make sure they actually have influence.

One of my friends who consistently shares my content on Twitter has about 250,000 followers. Fortunately, there are tools to help me track engagement, and I can see that almost no one interacts with our brand or my content when this person shares my content. However, I have another friend with about 5,000 followers on Twitter, and some kind of opportunity always comes when this person shares my content. Don't be fooled by the perception of influence.

6. Care about people beyond what they can do for your business.

One of our clients, John Ruhlin, is one of the leading appreciation specialists in the U.S. He and I had lunch recently, and I told him that my wife was having a birthday party. From the same conversation, he remembered a certain type of gift he once gave us that I told him my wife really enjoyed. On the day of her party, that gift arrived at my doorstep with a handwritten note to say happy birthday and that he appreciated our friendship. John Ruhlin is cemented in my mind as someone who cares about me beyond what I can do for his business and vice versa. And in return, I'll probably always be an advocate for him.

7. Remember the small things.

Just like any relationship, the small things matter most. The other day, I noticed that Jay Baer received his speaker's certification. Jay's received a lot of recognition in different ways as an influencer, but this time, he was being recognized for all the hours he's spent on planes and speaking to people and the positive reviews he's received for putting the time in. Right away, I sent him a personal note to congratulate him. I like to do small things like this for people because when someone does something small for me, it always sticks out.

Influencer marketing will only continue to grow, and it's up to you to make sure your budget is spent on building the best relationships with the right influencers. Whether it's mentioning an influencer on your blog or sending a small message about an accomplishment, it's important for you to build trust and stay top of mind in the right way to seduce influencers into becoming your long-term brand advocates.

Source : http://on.inc.com/2b0QZSC

Six mobile marketing tips for businesses and brands

From chatbots to personalisation, here advertising and mobile experts share their tips on how to master mobile marketing.

We type tap and swipe our phones, on average, 2,617 times a day, according to new research by data company dscout. For heavy users that can rise to more than 5,000 “touches”. The figures are stark: mobile is where you find people’s eyes and hands. It means that brands can’t afford to ignore mobile as a marketing platform; it’s now an essential way to attract new customers and build brand awareness.

Telegraph Media & Tech Connect asked some of the top ad agencies and mobile experts to share their tips for marketing on the powerful, pocket-based platform. Here’s what they said:

1. Know your chatbots

“Chatbots provide a great opportunity for brands to engage in a personal and smart way with their audiences. We’re seeing a big shift in traffic from traditional social media platforms to messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.

“With six out of the top 10 most used apps globally being messenger apps, it seems like a really interesting way for brands to exploit having a direct conversation with their customers. This worked well for KLM Royal Dutch airlines, when it launched a chatbot via Facebook Messenger to deliver flight information, itineraries, boarding passes and even delay information. That’s both useful and relevant.”

2. Think about how people travel across devices

“How you advertise across these devices depends on your product. Marketers need to understand how devices fit into the customer journey. There’s often a very complex path when people discover a new product or service: they jump between devices during the research and consideration process (this can be very varied across industries and product types).

“The size of the purchase makes a massive impact; a car purchase will involve a very different path across devices than buying replacement ink for a printer. It’s so easy to buy ink from Amazon on a handheld mobile device, you almost don’t even think about it. But if you are buying an insurance policy, it’s a lengthier process. Understanding how devices fit into your specific customer journey is important.”

3. Stop obsessing over tech and focus on users

“Businesses focus on what application or technology is coming next, but the people using it don’t care about technology – they care about what technology enables. The best technology is seamless, useful and invisible. Rather than focusing on technology or trend, shift your thinking to the user first: to their behaviours (the way the mobile user consumes content in a more snackable way); location (tailoring content depending on whether the user is at home in front of the TV or in a shop); and their need, which tends to be more immediate compared to a desktop user.”

4. Personalisation breeds quality

“Personalisation is the big trend in mobile. As datasets become richer, artificial intelligence becomes more powerful and shapes expectations, brands will be expected to offer more personalized content and better-curated experiences through mobile. Eventually ‘Recommended for you’ will reflect where you are, what you're doing and what your needs are, with no questions asked.

“In particular, it means that good content will find its way to the right people, creating a strong incentive for marketers to place an emphasis on quality rather than quantity when it comes to content.”

5. Sites need to work for mobile; being responsive isn’t enough

“Consumer behavior is different on mobile, which means that site builds must exploit the functionality mobile offers, with click-to-call buttons or GPS store locators to ensure the needs of consumers are met.

“If you have an app, it’s also really important to think about how it works with your site. 

“Having a single user journey – with actions performed on one touchpoint showing up in another – is critical to ensuring that the customer journey is seamless. The key here is they can continue whatever it is they started on the device or touchpoint, they choose.”

6. Ask yourself: where is the right place to advertise?

“Two important areas of mobile content consumption are the social ‘feed’ (Facebook, Twitter and so on) and editorial ‘read’ environments (for example, an article on the MailOnline mobile site). But consumers in the ‘feed’ are in a very different mindset than those in a ‘read’ environment.

“We asked a group of mobile users to spend 15 seconds interacting with a social feed and 15 seconds reading an editorial story. We found that users in the feed scrolled past about three ads, translating to a dwell time of only about 1.5 seconds per ad. In the editorial environment, users scrolled past an average of one ad, with five seconds dwell time – a much better exposure for a brand.

“But it’s not just about speed. Consumers in a feed are searching for something to engage with, but in read mode, they’ve already opted into an article they want to pay attention to – much better exposure for contextually relevant brand messaging.

“There’s one more thing to remember: grabbing an engaged consumer’s attention isn’t enough; if you don’t serve an ad that’s more creative and interactive than a standard static banner, for example, you can’t blame the audience for failing to interact with it.”

 Source : 

5 Social Media Marketing Rules You Should Live By

With the explosion of social media, any business owner who wants to cultivate a stronger relationship with their customers and earn more clients in the process should utilize social media marketing. With millions of people using social networking sites and apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram on a daily basis, using social media can give your business more exposure.

Things to Remember with Social Media Marketing

Before you launch a social media campaign, here are some of the most important things you must know to help ensure the success of your social media strategy,

1. Post on a regular basis

When it comes to social media, how often you post is very important. After all, the more your audience hears from you, the more likely they are to trust you. Also, it helps you stay relevant. Therefore, make it a point to post regularly on your social media accounts so you won’t easily fade from your audience’s consciousness.

2. Post relevant content

While it is true that posting regularly is important, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should post just anything that catches your fancy. Remember, what you post matters, too. For better customer engagement, post content that is relevant to the products or services that you’re offering and can help solve your audience’s problems. Always consider your audience’s welfare and interest when choosing which type of content to post.

3. Share and retweet

A great way to expand your audience reach is to show that you’re a thought leader or an influencer in your market. One effective way to do that is to share and retweet relevant content produced by other people in your niche or industry.

4. Respond and engage

Social media won’t be fun if1 you’re the only one who gets to do the “talking.” To have a better and bigger social media presence, take the time to engage your audience or followers. Respond to their questions and comments. If you legitimately know a solution to one of their problems, be a darling and share it with them.

5. Learn from your mistakes

As with anything in life, learning from your mistake is one way to improve your social media presence. To determine what works and what doesn’t, take a look at your previous posts and see what makes them a success or a failure. Once you have a clear grasp of what sort of content your audience likes, make sure you refrain from posting content most of your followers don’t care about.

Source: http://bit.ly/29VcTHU

7 Ways to Measure Marketing Performance

If you want to make sure your company is successful, you need to have knowledge of marketing. One of the biggest challenges that marketers face is having enough patience and prudence to wait on results and determine which methods are fruitful versus those that are a mere waste of time and funds. Unfortunately, it can take weeks or even months for the full effect of your efforts to become apparent, so it is imperative to start tracking any available analytics that might provide insight into your current performance within a campaign.

The best marketers use key performance indicators (KPIs) to track their progress in specific areas, and then use this data to hone in on effective strategies and identify weaknesses that need to be addressed. Now that you know why you need them and what they’re used for, here are the top seven marketing KPIs every entrepreneur should know about.

Conversion Rates

If you don’t know about this metric as an entrepreneur, you’re probably not very experienced. The conversion rate is the percentage of leads or site visitors who perform a desired action versus the percentage of leads/visitors who do not.

The “desired action” in question could be anything from buying a product, to signing up for a subscription, to opting into a newsletter, to clicking an ad. Obviously, you want your conversion rates to be as high as possible. In fact, that’s the main goal in marketing, which is why it’s at the top of this list.

Sales Revenue

You might not be tracking every aspect of revenue generation or comparing your data to your marketing efforts to find a correlation between your efforts and increases in revenue. But you should be. That’s what tracking KPIs is all about – using analytics to identify what works.

If you’re not analyzing your sales revenue in relation to marketing efforts on a daily and weekly basis, you’re limiting your businesses. After all, the last thing you want to do is waste time on sales efforts that aren’t yielding results.

Cost Per Lead

It’s also important to calculate how much each lead and customer is costing youin terms of advertising budget. Are you spending more to acquire customers through inbound marketing than you are through outbound marketing? If you are, the sooner you know about it, the better.

Identifying the most cost-effective method of lead generation is just one of the advantages of keeping track of this crucial KPI. Because spending money to make money only works when you spend less than you make.

ROI for Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is the practice of bringing customers to your company or website passively, rather than aggressively going out and seeking new clients/customers. Inbound techniques might include search engine optimization, content development, banner advertisements, and other methods that increase your brand’s visibility and presence.

The greatest businesses reap huge ROIs from inbound marketing, so this is a KPI that should never be ignored. Remember, sometimes playing hard to get actually works out.

Organic Search Traffic

Reiterating the importance of effective inbound marketing, organic search traffic is a KPI that shows how strong your company’s ranking authority is within the search engine result pages (SERPs). Ultimately, most of your online marketing efforts should be put towards ranking higher in major search engines like Google for popular keywords and queries.

Developing and distributing great content related to your brand is by far the best way to increase the amount of traffic gained from organic search results.

Social Media Engagement

Businesses that are firmly rooted in social media have a higher chance of continuing and thriving, so it’s important to keep an eye on the amount of traffic coming from social media as well as the percentage of those visitors who are converted into customers. Tracking KPIs related to social networking will ensure that you’re at least aware of where you’re at and what needs improvement in this pivotal department.

If you’re slacking on your social media game, you might want to try increasing social media engagement and presence and monitoring your KPIs along the way.

Average Customer Value

Finally, while all of the above KPIs are useful in their own regard, they won’t help you manage your budget if you don’t know the average value of your customers. There are several ways to calculate the average customer value metric, either in the short-term or long-term.

Essentially, your average customer value is the average sales revenue generated by each customer minus the cost of lead acquisition, multiplied by the average number of sales per customer. Figure out this number fast so you know how successful you need to be to stay afloat.

  Source: http://bit.ly/297psQR

15 things that happen to every social media campaign

You might think to be a "social media manager" is a dream job, like a travel blogger minus the packing and jet lag.

It seems easy: You do nothing but publish blogs, humor followers with memes, post a quote, share a link and watch YouTube. Well, if you plan on joining a social media company, you've got it all wrong.

Nearly nine out of 10 companies {88 percent) use social media marketing. It’s a virtual slug-fest. Enjoy it but don’t take it lightly. Social media requires hard work. You don’t just fire ideas into thin air. Identify your brand, understand your audience, choose a platform and deliver relevantly, interesting content. There are many pain points to overcome, many things that you must understand before you get giddy over every like or share your post gets.

Though being a social media manager isn't a bed of roses, it's not a bed of nails, either. Manage your expectations by noting 15 things that can happen while you run a social media campaign:

1. Expect to build a name .

Online presence, visibility, and awareness are part of the strategy. Putting your brand on social media is a cheap way to get exposure. And you’ll get the buzz if you do it right. Social media reaches out to a broader audience to pave the way to solid branding.

2. Enjoy brand loyalty.

A Texas Tech University report found brands that engage in social media enjoy higher customer loyalty. A study by Convince and Convert reported that 53 percent of Americans who follow brands on social media are more loyal to those brands.

Social media offers more chances to convert and improve brand loyalty. Every marketer must take advantage of this.

3. You can lose focus.

A report by Hubspot showed that consumers expect brands to be active on three or four social media channels. Logic tells you to immediately create four accounts at once but doesn't do it.

You must assess your resources before you do this or you risk failing in all. Do you have the people, the time, the energy, and the content to keep all of them going? Be realistic—take it easy. Focus on the platforms you can manage and the ones that cater to your audience.

4. You will stare at the wall.

One study showed that creating content is one of the biggest difficulties for digital marketers. You will experience this too. You will stare at a blank wall. There will come a time when you feel like you have done everything. You haven’t. Continue exploring and inspire yourself by reading and observing trends. Open your mind.

5. Formats can change.

Content comes in many forms: blog, video, photo, infographics, SlideShare, DIY, tutorial, list, memes, etc. At some point, you will know which ones work.

This requires understanding your audience. If you have a young audience, you might want to go easy on data and graphics. If your market is old, go easy on memes. Draw up a strategic formats plan.

6. Followers will get angry.

Stop telling yourself that you can please everyone. No, you won’t; no, you can’t; no, you don’t have to. The things you put out will get good and bad feedback. Learn how to deal with feedback. Do not ignore it.

7. Outsourcing to find the right people.

One tip for winning social media marketing: Find the right people to do it.

For start-ups, this is a real difficulty. It’s best to outsource. Don’t force yourself and your small team to do things you have difficulty doing. If you lack a good writer, hire freelancers. If you have difficulty scheduling, hire a virtual assistant. Assemble a team with potential, talent and the right motivation.

8. The fight for time and consistency.

In drawing up a plan, decide at what hour you should publish a piece of content. You must make sure that deadlines are met and schedules followed. Most social media channels enable you to schedule posts—but consistency isn’t just timing. It’s publishing the right content at the right time.

9. Analytics that are lost in (data) translation.

Analyzing metrics and data will be pain points. But don’t be scared of numbers. According to Propeller, a digital marketing agency, data is important in any social media campaign. It converts buzz into revenue. Measure ROI against goals, know the competition and go deeper into every like, comment or share.

10. Dropping everything if your post just went viral.

You‘ll occasionally experience the bliss of going viral. Viral content spreads like a disease. You’ll be surprised at how fast everything happens.

Enjoy virality, because it’s pretty hard to come by. Never rest on your laurels. Keep the ideas coming and get ready for your next viral content.

11. Winning the game of hashtags.

The #GetCovered campaign of the Obama administration is a social media campaign success story. Obama’s healthcare plan was off to a bumpy start, but things changed as soon as they launched the hashtag, reaching out to 26-35 year-olds and older adults. Millennials helped boost the government’s healthcare website traffic by 40 percent.

Get creative with hashtags without losing focus on the people you target. Soon you’ll know the difference between a poorly-constructed and a spot-on hashtag.

12. Find time to repurpose content.

The blog you published several months ago has become relevant again but fight the urge to publish the same blog.

Repurpose it by turning it into a list article. Turn (for example) a step-by-step guide to putting up wall decals into a video. Learn how to recycle content. It saves time and energy.

13. Prove you are not robots.

Social media is tricky in the way it connects people but risks losing people at the same time. It seems very impersonal. Don’t fall into that trap. Let your followers know to whom they are talking.

HBO’s “Girls” promoted their show on Snapchat in a personal way, filming behind-the-scenes videos. Imitate the social media campaign to improve your audience engagement. When you feel your campaign has gotten too mechanical, get personal—it might help things flow again.

14. Revenues are climbing.

Companies launch social media campaigns to boost website traffic, followers, and revenue.

A Social Media Examiner study found that 50 percent of brands that used social media for at least three years reported a spike in sales and revenue, which is good news for companies who take social media seriously. If you do things right, expect increased sales.

15. Select trends to ride.

In the blink of an eye, Facebook introduces an update, Instagram announces a new policy and a new social networking site is born. Learn about these trends, but don’t ride all of them. See which serve your goals and your audiences’ interests.

Social media is a big marketing help, but it poses big risks if you use it without know-how or a good plan. When done right, social media marketing is dynamic and fun.

Source: http://bit.ly/28K7jiJ

5 key traits to be a successful entrepreneur

Taking the first steps to start your own business can be difficult and there are certain traits that help entrepreneurs have a positive outlook and push through their toughest early days.

Financial services company Santam published  a Start-up Survey, speaking to 606 South African entrepreneurs who listed coping with pressure and being adaptable as some of the key traits needed for success.

When questioned what their motivation for success is, respondents said the following:

• Passion – 47.6%
• Be your own boss – 28.2%
• Other – 12.5%
• Time flexibility – 11.8%

What key skills should an entrepreneur have? The respondents listed the following as traits required to make it as an entrepreneur:

1. Coping with pressure

Stress is a part of our daily lives and includes having to juggle family life, relationships, and financial difficulties. Dealing with pressure has to do with your personal perspective and the importance you place on a task relative to your own self-identity and self-worth.

Rather than seeing pressure as a negative, an entrepreneur identifies the need to apply core skills and knowledge to solve the challenge at hand. Learning to perform under pressure is crucial to surviving personally and professionally.

2. Adaptability

Building a start-up requires an entrepreneur to constantly find new ways of doing things and to react as new information emerges or situations evolve. Running a business in an ever-changing environment is difficult enough but a successful entrepreneur needs to be able to adjust quickly and seamlessly.

From the initial decision to become your own boss to changing markets in the business landscape, you need to be able to change your focus accordingly to benefit your business.

3. Self-confidence

A firm belief in your abilities and your own success is an important characteristic to possess. You represent your business and have to be confident in your ideas, services and capabilities. This will help you to rule out any fears or doubts.

Part of having high self-confidence means being able to identify where you are and where you would like to be. Establishing your idea of success in your mind’s eye will motivate you to progress and overcome any obstacles in your way.

4. Ambition

Ambition is key to an entrepreneur’s success. The will and courage to achieve your goals fuels an entrepreneur through economic uncertainties. An ambitious attitude drives you to actively seek out opportunities, to think big and take calculated risks.

Setting your sights higher will help you prove to yourself that there are no limits to what your business can achieve. Embrace failure and tirelessly seek out ways to improve your ways of working. High risk = high reward.

5. People skills

Do you think you’re fit to lead a team? Being a leader means being able to engage and invest in people in a way that motivates them to reach business goals. Your communication skills are directly linked to how much influence you have over the people you work with.

Successful entrepreneurs need to be able to build people up, value them and inspire them. Social skills are also essential for networking with other business owners to secure potential partnerships.

More than 90% of respondents cited these are vital traits to succeed.

Additional traits cited by the respondents included: optimism, financial savvy, leadership and the ability to negotiate.

Even though education is not seen as a key requirement, 72.2% of respondents had some form of post-matric qualification, Santam said.

  Source: http://bit.ly/1SnnoT5