This is one. We thought the best way to demonstrate Cross Media Blogs would be to produce one that shows you exactly what Cross Media Blogging can do for you. So, whether you are reading, listening, or watching this on video, do enjoy and feel free to contact me paul@yourcontentwrite.com if you have any questions.
What Can Cross Media Blogging Mean to You?
Imagine yours was the only business that provided your product or service, thereby eliminating all competition, solving your ideal clients’ burning issues and giving them exactly what they want and desire.
NOT ONLY THAT…
You rank number 1 on Google AND people connect with you and TRUST you to such an extent that they WANT to purchase YOUR product or service every time they need it.
NOT ONLY THAT…
They actively recommend your business to other potential customers too. And those customers do the same.
I’m not going to be twee and do the old ‘What would that do to your standard of living?’ But I think we can agree that the closer you can get to that scenario the better, right?
How close can we bring you to that dream?
At Your Content Write, Like the eager little marketing researchers we are, we’ve been chipping away for years to find the answer to that very question, and we’ve developed something very exciting:
Cross Media Blogging is the revolutionary new product from Your Content Write. It combines the power of the most effective marketing methods available today, with expertise from key professionals to generate (for you) unparalleled levels of user engagement, customer reach, accessibility, and lead generation.
How does it do that? To explain we need to break down the six elements that make up Cross Media Blogging and give you the juicy stats as to why they work and what they can do for you:
Commercially embrace the digital age we are living in.
How much of your current marketing efforts are online?
“Internet usage continues to grow rapidly, with over 5.18 billion (64.6 percent of the global population) users worldwide in 2023. This number is expected to reach 5.5-6 billion by 2024.”
You can, of course, continue to rely heavily on paper advertising, outdoor and billboards. They still have their place, but they are often not cost effective, and you are relying on your key demographic taking the time to look up from their phones and notice the right billboard at the right time for them to feel strongly enough about your company to make a purchase.
Put yourself in the mind of your customer.
As a consumer, you have no prior relationship with the company being advertised and therefore very little reason to do business with them. Traditional outdoor advertising works best for well-known brands, ones you probably already have done business with (ones you have probably regularly seen online). Then the billboard or bus advertisement merely acts as a reminder.
You could also advertise on the radio or the television. Having worked in both radio and television I can say that these are fantastic options if you have the money to get the job done properly and have your commercial aired at exactly the right times, then you will see results.
Since the invention of Netflix, Disney + and other streaming services however (as well as people’s preference for social media over television), these options tend to be regarded as overly expensive for reducing viewing figures.
According to Ofcom, the UK’s official communications regulators:
“Broadcast TV’s weekly reach fell from 83% in 2021 to 79% in 2022, the biggest-ever annual drop. The long-term decline in viewing of broadcast TV also continued – it fell by 12% year on year and was 16% lower than pre-pandemic levels.”
“For the first time, there is evidence of a significant decline in broadcast TV viewing among older audiences. Over-64s watched 8% less broadcast TV in 2022 than in 2021 and viewing was 6% lower than in 2019 (the last pre-pandemic year).”
“Older viewers are increasingly using streaming services, with take-up of Disney+ among online over-64s rising from 7% in 2022 to 12% in 2023.”
AND
“Among younger audiences, broadcast TV viewing continued to decline rapidly, falling by 21% year on year among those aged 4-34.”
HOWEVER IN THE ONLINE WORLD…
“YouTube and Facebook remain the largest social video platforms in the UK, each reaching 91% of UK internet users aged 15+ in Q1 2023.”
Okay, you’ve seen the stats. Can we agree your customers are online, and if you want to reach them then you need to be online too?
Excellent. So, the first essential ingredient to be placed into the ‘Cross Media Blogging’ mixing bowl is:
Your customers are online which means that’s exactly where you need to be.
Your customers are habitual creatures, so they need to digest your content in a way that:
a. They are used to
b. Will incite trust
c.Has been PROVEN to positively impact your brand personality, leading to sales
As the more astute among you may have surmised, Cross Media Blogging has at its core a well-written and engaging blog.
The simple blog, when optimised and used ‘properly’ can make a tremendous difference to your marketing efforts. According to OptInMonster:
“Every month approximately 409 million people view more than 20 billion blog pages, leading to 77 million new blog comments from interested readers every month.”
“Businesses that blog get 55% more website visitors than businesses that don’t.”
AND
“Marketers who prioritized blogging received 13X more ROI than companies that did not.”
And for those of you who are currently spending more on advertising to get new customers than blogging, HubSpot also found that:
“70% of people prefer to learn about a company through articles rather than advertisements.”
Why Blogging is so effective?
It’s all about building the right relationship with your customers.
In essence, the blog speaks the language of your customers, it reaches them directly and gives them the information that they want in an engaging and informative way… WITHOUT the pressure sale.
I could write an entire volume into the psychology of blogging and just why it has the power to transform your marketing efforts, but for now let’s go with the common-sense approach:
YOU are approached by someone in the street that you have never met, and they try to sell you something. What is your response?
The majority of people would probably not respond favourably and would either ignore, politely decline, or rather more directly tell this presumptuous stranger where to go.
What this person is selling might be of great value and just what you need, but as you have no history with the vendor or what it is that he/she/other is selling you have ZERO reason to trust them.
Your blog, however, is written to appeal ONLY to your ideal customer and give them the information that they want for FREE, and subsequent regular posts continue to do this. When this happens, potential customers get to know you, begin to trust you, and see you as the ‘expert’ in that field.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out who they will be spending their money with when they need to make that all-important purchase.
Blogs Written by Humans for Humans
In this age of AI-assisted writing it can be very tempting to subscribe to an online, artificial copywriting service and have your web copy done in seconds, and many people are doing just that. Unfortunately, this can actually hinder your marketing efforts for the following reasons:
a. Google (assuming you’d like your customers to find your website on Google) only embraces AI to a point and that point comes when people simply use it to churn out copy and then publish it.
Google has already stated that they will not rank AI content if:
“If you see AI as an inexpensive, easy way to game search engine rankings.”
“When it comes to automatically generated content, our guidance has been consistent for years. Using automation—including AI—to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies.”
b. As a copywriter with over 20 years of experience under my belt, I can spot AI copy a mile off. It all feels very generic and merges in with the content that EVERY OTHER person out there using AI is producing. As such, human-generated content has the ability to stand out now more than ever.
“A company using well-written and researched human content will rank better on Google and will effectively shine like a beacon against the backdrop of those companies electing to promote their business just using AI-generated content.”
c. References and facts generated by AI are not always correct.
Needless to say then, the next element in our cross-media blog mixing bowl is the well-researched and engaging, ‘human-written’ blog post.
You need to be accessible to capture a wider audience.
If you want your company to be exclusive, then you NEED to be inclusive:
“One in every five people in the UK has a disability, one in ten has Dyslexia and approximately three hundred and sixty thousand are blind or visually impaired (a number set to rise to two point two five million in 2025).”
Think of the above in terms of spending power, then ask yourself: How are you currently reaching those demographics?
Add to this, that different people have different learning styles and take in and retain information in different ways. According to Avado Learning, a top-ranking platform:
“…roughly 65 percent of the population are visual learners, 30 percent are auditory learners.”
That’s roughly 26.4 million people in the UK who prefer to take in spoken information rather than have it written down.
The Professional Voice over Artist and the Cross Media Blog
There is a difference between a professional voice-over artist reading text and say, a business owner who is not a professional voice-over artist. Tonal quality, vocal inflexions, speed, and timing are all perfectly crafted over the years to produce something that will be instantly engaging and attractive to your potential customers.
For EVERY Cross Media Blog post we produce for you, there will be an audio version of that post that can be streamed directly from your site – boosting your Google ranking AND catering for those among your customers who can’t – or are too busy to – sit and read your content. We have a range of voice-over artists ready to give your brand the trusted voice and personality it deserves.
Add to this, our resident musician/producer further enhances your audio production with custom music and sound effects, giving your customers a truly unique and memorable experience.
So, the third element in the Cross Media Blog is the professional audio version that your customers can play directly from your blog post.
The power of the podcast
Once your audio is recorded, we also turn it into a regular podcast show, opening up your potential audience again by nearly 5 million worldwide.
“Podcasts are experiencing a surge in popularity around the world, with 61% of people, globally, reporting that they now listen to them.“
The same article also stated that the gender of podcast listeners was fairly evenly matched with 58% male and 42% female.
68% tend to listen to the entire episode too. This means that when your Cross Media Blog content is produced you have an audience the size of which is, frankly, unparalleled.
I’m sure also that many of my readers, listeners, and watchers (delete as appropriate) will already know that when you find a business podcast that really appeals to you, then you subscribe which means you are automatically notified every time a new episode is released.
You subscribe because you find the information both informative and perhaps entertaining too. You trust the information that is being given, as its purpose is to help without a pressure sales message – aside from a call to action contained within the podcast which might direct them toward a website / e-commerce platform or an email list – where you can actually engage them in a sales conversation.
So, the fourth element in your Cross Media Blog is a high-quality podcast that is distributed by us, throughout Apple, Microsoft, Spotify, and relevant Google platforms.
Google and search engine ranking (SEO)
Ranking high on Google (and other search engines) can be critical to your business success.
According to Berkley the top eight benefits of ranking high on Google are:
Google Ranking Benefit 1: Brings Organic Search Traffic to your Website.
Google Ranking Benefit 2: Generates Leads Cost-Effectively.
Google Ranking Benefit 3: Increases Brand Awareness.
Google Ranking Benefit 4: Gets You Ahead of the Competition.
Google Ranking Benefit 5: Optimises Your Website for Mobile Users.
Google Ranking Benefit 6: Builds Trust.
Let’s Talk Numbers…
Type your business service or product into Google and see how many results come up. Now, take into account that position 1 receives an average of 31.7% of those clicks, position 2 – 24.71 and position 3 – 18.59%. By the time you get to the very top of page two, you are looking at an average of ONLY 0.63% clickthrough rate.
This leads to the oft-quoted SEO joke that if you want to hide a dead body, so it won’t be discovered, the best place is page two of Google.
To make sure your website is seen by as many people as possible, we have enlisted the help of a top-notch SEO consultant – or Google specialist, if you like – to help rise your Cross-Media Blog (and therefore your business website) to the top of Google.
Voice Engine Optimisation
A little speculation here, but we are also working hard to make your branded audio playable on Alexa and Siri as a result of a relevant user query. Early days and a little more experimentation are needed for this one, but as soon as it’s ready our Cross Media Blog clients’ content will automatically benefit from this.
So, the fifth element to be added to your Cross Media Blog is a dedicated SEO consultant to optimise your audio, written and video content so it will rank high on Google and the other search engines.
Your business on Video.
As an added extra, we can also include video production to your Cross Media Blog.
Whilst television may be experiencing dwindling viewing figures (as mentioned above) high-quality video content is NOT. According to Dash:
“In 2023 people are watching, on average, 17 hours of online video per week.”
Videos are also: “twice as likely to be shared than any other form of content.”
YouTube alone, has over two billion monthly users and 70% of viewers made a purchase as a result of seeing a brand on YouTube. This is probably part of the reason why 87% of marketers attribute sales back to their online video marketing efforts.
Your Content Write has teamed up with a long-established video production company to take your Cross Media Blog audio and add some stunning visuals/animation, which will then be uploaded to YouTube and optimised to rank on Google, as well as cutting a few short samples from your video content to be shared throughout your social media channels.
So, the sixth optional element we can add to our Cross Media Blog mixing bowl is the video content created edited and uploaded to YouTube.
So, what is Cross Media Blogging?
Cross Media blogging is the coming together of traditional blogging, audio marketing, podcasting, SEO Google optimisation and video marketing to create a product that can take you to the top of Google and gain the loyalty, trust and… money of more customers than you have ever experienced (see above for relevant stats).
And you don’t even need to come up with content ideas. Our researchers already know what is trending and what YOUR customers WANT to know about. We also look at gaps in your competitors’ content marketing strategy meaning you will absolutely stand out from the competition.
Ready to Stand Apart from Your Competition?
Click the link below and book a call and you can find out how Cross Media Blogging can take your business to the next level.
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If you are currently B2B, that is, you predominantly do business with other businesses then you need a LinkedIn profile that speaks to your customers.
WHY?
Because, like the majority of our clients were before we started working with them, you could be currently paying a lot of money for leads or funding elaborate advertising campaigns aimed at finding, engaging, and converting cold leads into customers.
Perhaps you employ a salesperson to pick up the phone and ‘cold call’ potential prospects. Invariably they will spend most of their time speaking to receptionists and other gatekeepers who are given specific instructions not to allow any sales calls through.
THIS SEEMS LIKE A LOT OF UNECESARY EFFORT ON YOUR PART…
…Especially when you are already using a FREE alternative that does the job better.
LinkedIn is the biggest social media platform in the world that has a specific focus on business. If your business success relies on making positive connections with other business owners, then surely leveraging the power of this platform and furthermore, the search function that puts you in direct contact with the people you want to do business with (NOT the secretaries) is a preferable strategy.
The first stage in attracting and then converting your ideal clients on LinkedIn is to make sure your profile is client-facing.
The trouble with most LinkedIn profiles today (and perhaps yours).
Back in 2003 when my daughter was born, LinkedIn was also brought into the world, and it was intended as a convenient way of connecting employers to potential employees. This is why over 90% of today’s LinkedIn profiles read more like an online C.V. or resumé. This does very little to attract and engage prospects who are looking for a commercial answer to their problems.
The very nature of a C.V. is that it speaks predominantly about the person for whom the profile was written. And, like a badly written ‘About Us’ web page, the LinkedIn profile rabbits on about themselves, and their accolades (no matter how irrelevant) with no attempt to really connect with a prospective client. In the second or two that the potential client may spend on the LinkrdIn C.V. profile, there is no engagement, and they leave.
Change your profile and start to build relationships.
Imagine a prospective client landed on your profile and in a few seconds became instantly excited because FINALLY, they had stumbled across an individual or business that existed purely to solve their problems and help them achieve their greatest desires. They’d want to know more… wouldn’t you?
Go through your own LinkedIn profile and ask yourself:
“Does my current LinkedIn profile speak directly to my clients – outlining the ways in which my product or service will help them make more money, save time, make their life easier and solve their problems?”
If not, then don’t worry this guide is here to help.
Self-promotion bit:
I should mention at this point that if you don’t want to do it all yourself then we have a simple cost-effective solution:
For a one-off payment of £75 we will have your LinkedIn profile rewritten within 24 hours. You also get our FREE eBook ‘LinkedIn Marketing Cheat Sheet’ and a FREE 30-minute Zoom call where we personalise your marketing efforts into a winning LinkedIn client acquisition formula tailored around your business.
Click this link if you’d like it done for you and me or one of my team will be in touch to discuss what you need for your LinkedIn profile.
Let’s build your LinkedIn profile.
Your LinkedIn profile photograph.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so your photograph needs to be inviting, friendly and appealing to your prospective clients.
And before you say:
“I hate having my photograph taken.”
…then qualify that statement with a plethora of reasons as to why you don’t want to smile or look at the camera, you are going to have to get over that. There has been far too much research done to prove that a smile associates YOUR product or the service with positive emotions: health, optimism, and success – all the attributes you want clients to associate with YOUR brand.
Remember also, that your clients are connecting with you (another human being). Would you find it easy to connect with someone who didn’t smile and shielded their eyes behind a hand or pair of dark shades? If you (like just about everybody on LinkedIn) only spent a couple of seconds to decide whether or not you wanted to connect, then I’m guessing you would have moved on and not given the person a second thought.
What should I wear for my LinkedIn profile photograph?
Whatever you would wear if you were meeting a client out here in the real world. Something that would give them every confidence that you care enough about your appearance and therefore care enough about their impression of you to actually make an effort – subliminally saying that just as much care and attention will go into your service to them… also, something that compliments your lovely eyes and smile.
What should your LinkedIn banner look like?
Behind the photograph is a banner that spans the width of the page (1584 pixels wide x 396 pixels tall to be exact). I’ve stopped marvelling at the number of people who waste this valuable space with generic non-descript images. Your banner (like a good website banner) is the ideal place to draw your profile visitors in and show them what you do, or perhaps display some social proof.
This is mine. It states very clearly what I do and inspires the reader to read further down my profile to find out more.
There are a variety of different tactics that can be employed with your LinkedIn banner. You can:
Outline the service/product you provide.
Talk about the audiences you serve.
The benefits that you bring to your customers.
Or social proof “As featured in Horse and Hound”.
The professional LinkedIn title.
Next to your photograph, your title is perhaps the most important part of your LinkedIn profile. In just 120 characters you can let your ideal client know that your very reason for ‘being’ is to serve their needs, and also to say how you do it.
This is precisely the reason why you should not waste this opportunity by having a title that reads something like:
John Smith
CEO Random Company Ltd.
I don’t see a single client benefit in the above title. It tells me NOTHING about how he will help solve my problems and make my dreams come true.
This is mine:
My ideal client is someone who has an underperforming website and wants their website to rank high on Google, whilst at the same time generating so many client conversions that they can stop paying for expensive lead generation people/tools. So, I simply state that on my profile title.
To start off with your professional title you might find the following template helpful:
I help [ insert your niched customer type here] achieve [benefit here] by [how you do it]
Don’t try to be too clever here. ALWAYS go for simplicity over jargon-filled intricacy. Steve Jobs (of Apple fame) once commented that if you cannot express what you do in very simple terms then you either don’t understand your product or your customers well enough.
I could have said on my profile:
I provide digital marketing, SEO, audio production and content writing/content marketing.
But, besides the above being an awful snooze fest, that is sure to be ignored alongside every other similar ad, how many people outside the marketing industry know exactly what goes into digital marketing? Or SEO, OR the intricacies of content writing?
It is much simpler and more effective to outline the benefits my potential clients will receive.
Why Niche your audience on LinkedIn?
To put it simply, you can’t be everything to everyone and if you try then you will create sales copy that is so generic that it appeals to no one.
I am aware that you may be scared of turning away clients that are not in your niche but:
The benefits of niching FAR OUTWEIGH the comparative bleak, baron wasteland of opportunities that lie ahead if you don’t.
Consider:
No two client types are the same and if you want a profile that stands out it cannot be a generic, vanilla, there to please everyone profile. It needs to immediately jump out to appeal to a specific type of profile visitor.
If you are marketing to your ideal client, then that is the client that will be frequenting your profile more than any other chance visitors. You are therefore making sure your profile appeals to the 99% of already ‘warm’ prospects that will be visiting rather than the 1% that happens to be there by chance.
Up to now, how many client conversions have you had on LinkedIn and of those how many were NOT your ideal customer?
Emojis and your LinkedIn profile.
Before we go into the content of your ‘About’ section I’ll address a question I’ve been asked quite a few times:
Should you have emojis on your LinkedIn profile?
Being in digital marketing for the past twenty years, my personal view is absolutely yes, provided they aren’t overused.
Psychologists say that emojis can help reinforce the meaning behind a message:
“I’ll see you later.”
Conveys a different tone and meaning, for example to:
“Emojis are a great tool to make your brand seem more human and relatable. While social media cannot replicate the intimacy of face-to-face communication, emojis can fill in essential aspects of communication, such as facial expressions and body language.”
AND
Messages sent by a business that contains emojis are four times more likely to get a response from a customer.
Humans are naturally visual people, meaning they can process emojis faster than they can read and understand your sentences, so I would stand by my earlier statement and say emojis (provided they aren’t overused) are definitely something you should consider adding to your LinkedIn profile. They definitely add the ‘human’ into an otherwise digital conversation. 🤗
Jargon and your LinkedIn ‘About’ section.
Unless your clients (NOT YOU) commonly communicate by using industry-specific jargon I would advise staying away from it. It can tend to alienate potential clients when you should be reaching out to connect with them on an emotive level as well as practical. Human beings always react emotionally FIRST which means if you can reach them emotionally, then your potential customer WILL read on to support the buying decision they have ALREADY MADE.
Apple are masters at this. Check out any advertisement for the latest iGadget and you will find the sales language reaches you on such a personal and aspirational level that instead of dismissing the ridiculously priced status symbol, you try to figure out which of your children deserves to go without shoes and food for a year so you can afford to buy it.
I was once asked to look over an eBook written by financial advisors for their clients. It was filled with technical jargon and was not (to my eye) fit to give to anyone but another financial advisor to read – even then it should have come with a public health warning. I rewrote the eBook, removing most of the technical jargon, and instead concentrating on appealing to the wants and desires of their client base. The resulting eBook improved client engagement by over 80% compared to the previous version.
Your business website is your corporate platform, but your LinkedIn profile has to be more ‘human’. So, please avoid technical jargon in favour of appealing to your clients’ desires.
LinkedIn ‘About’ section
If your profile visitor has made it this far, that is a great sign. It means your profile picture, banner and LinkedIn title have compelled them to read on. Now you can go more in-depth with to HOW you can help them and what they must do to take advantage of what you have to offer.
Impress your visitors with an amazing ‘About’ section and your chances of them jumping feet first into your sales funnel are massively enhanced.
What is your LinkedIn ‘About’ section NOT?
This should go without saying but the biggest way to turn away an interested prospect is to stop talking about them and instead talk about yourself: how many years you have been doing your job, what university you went to, the professional qualifications you have etc… This is NOT a ‘show off’ at the expense of your customer section. This is a ‘what I do in as much as it will help my clients have an easier life section’.
So, start out by doing something like:
I help [niched audience] achieve [their goal] by [whatever you do to help them]
One of my clients has this:
I help healthcare businesses dominate their marketplace, save money, and become more efficient by implementing robust I.T. solutions.
Clear, focused and client-facing!
For the rest of the ‘About section try to include the following points:
What you do.
Who do you work with (target audience or industry type)?
Why your product or service is something they NEED.
Your USP (what makes you different).
Testimonials and social proof.
Your process (so they know what to expect).
Ready to talk? (How do they take the next step?)
In closing…
Thanks for reading. I hope this guide has helped.
If you would like to supercharge your LinkedIn profile but simply don’t have the time, then we do have a cost-effective solution that will help:
For a one-off payment of £75, we will have your LinkedIn profile rewritten within 24 hours. You also get our FREE eBook ‘LinkedIn Marketing Cheat Sheet’ and a FREE 30-minute Zoom call where we personalise your marketing efforts into a winning LinkedIn client acquisition formula tailored around your business.
Click this link if you’d like it done for you and me or one of my team will be in touch to discuss what you need for your LinkedIn profile.
Thanks again and have fun leveraging the power of LinkedIn to attract and convert more profile visitors into clients.
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How to get more traffic conversions on your website
Welcome to this no-nonsense guide from Your Content Write, aimed at helping you get more of the right people to your website and ACTUALLY have them convert!
So many business owners jump in ‘feet first’ to having their website designed. And their strategy, once built is to simply cross their fingers and hope people stumble by it. That or they send out an initial post or two on social media, get disheartened because there is little to no response then give up and try other avenues.
“There were 66.99 million internet users in the United Kingdom in January 2022. The United Kingdom’s internet penetration rate stood at 98.0 percent of the total population at the start of 2022.”
That’s just in the United Kingdom!
Statistica reported there to be 60 million e-commerce users, leaving only a slight minority as face-to-face non-digital buyers.
“Just 16% of B2B sales departments in the UK have a face-to-face team that communicates with buyers in person.”
Based on those statistics I think we can safely agree that your potential clients ARE online. Does it not make sense therefore to have them interact with your flagship website?
It is, after all, the only place on the internet that is totally dedicated to promoting your company as the ideal business to satisfy their needs and generate a healthy profit at the same time.
If the only reason that you haven’t done this so far is because of a lack of knowledge and perhaps a perceived lack of skill then read on, this blog is for you.
Is your current website fit for purpose?
For your website to be your super-powered client-converting machine, it must first be fit for purpose and not just be aesthetically pleasing. I’m going to go through a checklist from which you can judge how well your existing site rises to the challenge.
The lower the bounce rate the higher your conversion potential
There is a metric in your onboard analytics called the ‘bounce rate.’ Generally having a high bounce rate is not a good sign: It means a user has landed on your page and left rather quickly WITHOUT interacting, making a purchase, or performing some other desired action.
There are occasions where someone arriving and then leaving seconds later is not a bad thing – getting a phone number for example, but if you are looking for high website conversions then you want to drive that bounce rate down as much as possible.
“As a rule of thumb, a bounce rate in the range of 26 to 40 percent is excellent. 41 to 55 percent is roughly average.”
Have a look at your bounce rate. It can be an early indication of how the website visitors you do get are behaving. If you find that you have a high bounce rate, then you may want to fix issues on your site before doing a lot of work to get your ideal clients there.
Some of our client’s had previously tried Google AdWords (sponsored ads) and deemed them a waste of time as they cost a lot and people did not convert when on the site. Very often this is not the fault of the Google ad. Assuming the Ad was targeted right, then Google has done its job and gained you a site visitor. If they fail to convert from there, the fault is within their experience of your site.
Never substitute quantity for quality
As a side note please beware of companies selling links and guaranteeing traffic to your site. You cater to a specific demographic and want to service people with a specific need or desire. If your site were to receive an influx of site visitors and links from irrelevant sources your site is not going to convert and Google tends to take a dim view of this tactic, meaning your chances of ranking well in the search engines is practically impossible.
Technical reasons your site is not converting
There are many technical reasons (such as load time and inline styles) that, unless you are technically minded, are out of your control, but should be straightforward for your web developer to fix. These elements can (and do) affect conversion rate. If you’d like a free, detailed site analysis for all technical and non-technical elements that can be improved on your site give us a shout. We’d be happy to help.
What about those website elements that you DO have control over?
How simple is your website to navigate?
Have you ever been on a site and then left rather quickly because you couldn’t find what you were looking for? If that is the experience that you offer to your potential clients, then you can expect a high bounce rate and low Google ranking.
It’s worth noting at this point that your site should be designed for your potential clients – not for you! Your job is to make sure they can find what they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible. If you can do that then you are on your way to converting more website visitors.
Each page on your website is potentially a homepage
As an SEO consultant and content writer I often encounter many websites that have a fantastic homepage, armed and ready to appeal to and convert those customers. The rest of the site however does not live up to the standard set out by their homepage.
It’s almost as though the other pages were put there because ‘that is what is expected.’
Every page on your website should have an overriding purpose and a call to action pertinent to that purpose.
By designing your site this way you are increasing the number of potential site visitors by giving them multiple reasons to log onto your site. Each page will be focussed upon a specific type of user query. Apple are masters at this, and they expertly blend emotion, with fact. Each page is simple to navigate and has one specific purpose with one call to action. To see how they achieve this feel free to look at a blog I wrote for AWE networking back in 2021 on how to write great sales content like Apple.
The About Us page
The about us page is a bit of a misnomer as successful well performing sites DO NOT use this page to simply show off. If its name was more indicative of its purpose It should read:
About us – in as much as it will help you (the customer) achieve your goals.
For more information on how to write an about us page here’s a short video I made earlier:
Your clients already have website expectations – don’t disappoint them.
Imagine going into a shop to buy a sandwich and the shop owner has decided to change things up a bit. When you walk in there is a brick wall – the idea being you find the loose brick, push it in and the wall disappears revealing seven dimly lit corridors, with a puzzle to complete to progress forward. Only one corridor will lead to a sandwich.
When you eventually get to the counter you must write a few sentences about your shopping experience BEORE you are permitted to pay and then leave.
The whole process takes around 30 minutes.
Whilst there may be people who wish to go once for the novelty aspect, most will not want to spend their entire lunch break trying to rethink a process that till now has been automatic for the sandwich-buying public.
Yet some people design their websites just like this. Don’t substitute novelty or aesthetic beauty for the expected user experience.
Unlike the shop example below, web users on average take only 50 milliseconds to decide whether they are going to stay on a site. If it doesn’t meet with their own preconceptions (conscious and subconscious) on what a site like yours ‘should’ look like, the chances are they will leave as fast as they arrived.
As much as YOU love your website your web visitor’s whole day is not focussed around admiring your site. They have a problem that needs to be solved. If your content can provide a quick and easy answer, together with a compelling reason to buy, then you are on the right track and that visitor may well convert.
Navigation can make or break your website’s overall performance when it comes to retaining visitors, keeping them engaged and driving them through the conversion funnel.
A very simple way to find out how your website should look is to type relevant search terms into Google that you should be ranking for. Look at the first two or three listings i.e., Sites that offer the same product or service as you and are already converting well.
Here you are looking at general design and structure which you can adapt and use.
How important are spelling and grammar on your website?
I’ve been asked this so many times. If you land on a page and the copy reads:
Naturally, it should read ‘find out more.’
How confident would you be using their service if they can’t even get their own sales copy right?
Even if you don’t consciously see the error, on a subconscious level you have seen it, noticed it, and added it to your internal and automatic ‘reason to log off and go somewhere else’ list.
Google knows it too and will not reward a site with poor grammar and punctuation with ranking points. The site that the above image came from was on page ten of Google. Bear in mind that most of the traffic goes to page one of Google, with over 50% of search queries going to positions one and two. By the time you get to the very top of page two, you are left with around 2% of the traffic for that search term. You can imagine how many people actually visit page 10.
Is your website full of technical jargon?
Nothing wrong with that, it makes you sound clever which will give your clients more confidence in hiring you – right?
Wrong!
The late Steve Jobs once commented that if you can’t explain your product in simple terms then you either don’t understand your clients or your product well enough. And we can’t argue with that philosophy when we look at the success of Apple.
Every industry has its own language and if you are appealing to clients who expect and want technical jargon, then, by all means, use it. Just bear in mind – because a service provider communicates in a specific language does not necessarily mean that their client base will.
A little while ago I was asked to proofread an eBook written by financial advisors for their potential clients. They were concerned because the company conversion rate was very low. My feedback was very simple:
“This reads like it was written by financial advisors FOR financial advisors.”
I rewrote their eBook to focus on their client’s wants and needs. I also dropped most of the jargon, and their conversion rate went up to 76% in a week.
Is your website Smartphone friendly?
Many internet users spend more time on their smartphones and tablets than on a stand-alone desktop computer.
“Mobile-friendly websites boost your sales and conversions because there is an ease of accessibility that surrounds this website design.”
Again, we can take a lead from Google which base a lot of its rules around human behaviour: If your website is not mobile friendly then you are not accessible to most internet users and therefore will not be rewarded with ranking points.
It all comes down to your user journey. If a potential client logs on to your website using their mobile device and has a bad experience, then you will not convert that visitor into a customer.
We have already exceeded 62.3 million mobile internet users in the UK and according to Cyber Crew are expected to hit over 65 million active users by 2026
Also according to Cyber Crew, of all the time UK residents spent online 71% was on a smartphone.
If your website is not mobile phone friendly, stop everything and put that right as a matter of urgency!
Does graphic design impact your website conversion potential?
The short answer is yes, but that is a whole other blog. I’ve been back and forth on how much to put in this guide because, unless you are a graphic designer then you are at the mercy of your web design team.
I will say this though: Certain colours, combinations and even whitespace can be very effective in helping a web user feel specific emotions, follow a certain path, and ultimately make a purchase.
The yellow ‘M’ that signifies the Mcdonald’s logo, for example, is that colour because the use of yellow is often used to incite feelings of hunger and a desire to eat. Imagine the ‘M’ as dark blue – would you still have that craving for a ‘Big Tasty’ meal?
As a business owner you might have a penchant for a colour combination to create the desired aesthetic but, as highlighted by vw.com:
“…in the long run, it can be disastrous for the business goals unless backed with the right research.”
With web design, like all other elements in your website, simplicity is best. If you give the end user too much to look at and process, they will become distracted from their expected journey and are very likely to leave your website and go elsewhere.
Digital marketing and client conversions
Okay, you’ve taken everything above to heart and made necessary changes and now your business website looks great and is fit for purpose. All you need now is a steady influx of the right type of person who needs exactly what it is that you provide.
It is not enough to build an aesthetically pleasing and functional site and then just sit and wait for droves of potential clients to come along. It simply won’t happen.
Luckily, Your Content Write is backed up by twenty years of digital marketing experience so we can offer you a few fundamentals that should help create an impact:
To start you need to know:
Who your clients are
Where your clients are
What your clients want
And why they would benefit from using you over another company
This is basic marketing and the answers to the ‘who, what and why’ questions would have instructed your website content already. Now that you have your design complete it is time to revisit those questions and add ‘where’ into the mix.
You will also be wanting to have a sales funnel ready to go – that is, exactly what is the process from the potential clients being unaware of you, to be both aware and purchasing your product to then coming back for more or referring another potentially interested party.
Again, the sales funnel process is a whole other blog, and the link above should help you get started.
Where are your potential customers?
Based on all the research above the simple answer is:
Your potential customers are online.
It’s impossible to get detailed without knowing your specific market sector but given Google’s market share we can assume that, like most of the UK population, your potential clients are on Google searching for answers to their problems.
If you know what they are typing in, then you can create content that answers their specific queries. The most cost-effective and popular way of doing this is by blogging. Blogs are a super effective way of creating and nurturing a trusted bond between your brand and your potential customer.
The theory is simple:
If your clients know, like and trust you then they are more likely to see you as the ‘expert’ in your chosen field and therefore make a purchase. They are also more likely to recommend others.
Blogging has been proven to increase quality website traffic and customer conversions. If you’d like more information on business blogging, click here
What happens once your clients have read your blog?
They convert right away and become lifelong advocates of you and everything you do?
That WOULD be nice, wouldn’t it?
Happily, the truth is not a million miles away from that:
Substitute the words ‘right away’ to after they have consumed 3 to 5 pieces of valuable content, perhaps over a few weeks and you will be closer to the truth:
Potential clients enter their search queries into Google
Your blog shows up on the first page and they click on it, finding it to be the breath of fresh air that they desperately needed.
Your blog becomes the platform from which you can truly connect with your consumers, and they can connect with you.
You consistently show up and give them what they want for FREE.
They begin to know, like and trust you.
They see you as the ‘expert’ in your chosen field and subscribe to your email list because they want to take their contact with you to the next level.
You can now give them free content, tailored more specifically to their wants, and needs.
You can also sell your products or services as they are more likely to be of interest.
Are your website and blog showing up on page one of Google?
Assuming you are on the first page of Google that is a lot of user searches coming your way.
And it works well if your blog ranks on the first page of Google for those key search terms that your clients are typing in but… what if your website is NOT on the first page of Google?
That doesn’t mean it can’t get there, but what it does mean is that you must dedicate a lot of your time in the early stages to create a good amount of relevant blog content for ongoing monthly recurring revenue in the future.
Business blogging success tips:
Write with your customers in mind and don’t make your content overly formal or jargon infested.
Give consumers the information and help that they WANT more than what they NEED… People NEED to save their money and buy an inexpensive basic phone. People WANT an iPhone 14 or a Samsung Flip Phone (you have an iPhone or a flip phone, don’t you?).
Make sure your content is a decent length minimum of 1,200 words.
Use pictures and videos to break up your content and make it more appealing and digestible.
Think about the phrases people will be typing into Google to find your content and try to include those phrases and variations of those phrases in your copy – keep it sounding natural or people won’t connect.
Don’t copy content from other sources unless you are quoting. Google is not daft and will not give you ranking points for someone else’s content.
Be consistent. People are habitual so if they are enjoying your content then make sure you stick to the same structure, tone of voice and format for each blog post.
Post regularly – at the very least once per week. Four times per week can give you results 3x faster.
I mentioned it above but make sure your grammar and spelling are on point.
Work hard in the early stages and reap the rewards in monthly recurring revenue thereafter!
Share your business content on social media
TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Clubhouse … I could go on.
By 2025, the number of active users is projected to increase to 4.4 billion
People spend an average of 144 minutes per day on their social media accounts
Social media is the place your clients probably spend most of their time. They use these platforms to connect with others, and according to research they go on for one (or all) of three reasons:
To be educated.
To be inspired.
To be entertained.
They don’t log on to be sold to.
So, as well as sharing your blog content on your social media platforms, produce regular well-timed posts to appeal to your potential clients. Whilst it is not always a good idea to try and sell your products on social media, if you can entice them to sign up to your email list then your chances of conversion are greatly increased.
Which social media platform should you use to promote your business?
If everyone behaved the same and their preferences were much the same too then there would probably be only one global social media platform. We are a diverse species though, which means there are a variety of social media platforms each with their own unique twist on sharing specific types of content for specific types of people.
With that in mind, please do your homework before posting on social media to select the right platform (i.e. the ones your clients frequent) and at the times they are most likely to react (analytics will tell you how well your posts perform according to type and time of day).
Break down your blog posts into smaller bite-sized chunks of information
It would be amazing if your potential clients woke up and wanted nothing more than to read your content, again and again. However, they have busy lives and may not even have the time to read a full blog post even once.
For these busy individuals, you can extract key elements from your blog and make smaller more digestible chunks of information, or infographic, audio, or video (perhaps with a link to the long-form article).
Give your blog posts to your strategic partners to share
No person is an island and businesses will always work better if they work together. Given that, take a look at your customer base and come up with other business individuals or companies that share the same client base that you can partner up with for a mutual benefit.
For instance, a photographer may want to connect with a wedding planner and a wedding cake maker. The chances are, if a client is using one of those services, that same client will also need help from the other two.
If you are operating to the mutual benefit of your strategic partners, then see if they will share your blog posts in their own social media/email channels. You return the favour in kind and reach a whole new audience!
And teaming up with other companies can really work:
Shopify generated approximately $50 billion for its partners in 2020.
And
95% of Microsoft’s revenue flows through its partners
Some entrepreneurs refer to the email list as their ‘licence to print money.’
Whilst selling directly on social media and on blogs is often frowned upon, it is expected and keenly encouraged once a prospective client has subscribed to your email list.
It is their endorsement of you and is them saying that they WANT to hear more from you.
“Email lists are important because email marketing is the best way to connect with customers vs. social media. In fact, you are 6x more likely to get higher click-through rates through emails instead of tweets. Also, email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter”
In conclusion…
I could have gone on as we live and breathe this stuff over here but that’s probably enough information for now. If you’d like to receive more tips and tricks and strategies to help your digital marketing efforts, then click here and sign up for our VIP list.
If you have the time to do it then the advice above should make a significant difference to your brand awareness, Google ranking, client conversions and your bottom line.
If on the other hand you are pushed for time get in touch and let’s work together to make your digital marketing efforts make a difference!
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Is it enough to say that blogging is on average 62% less expensive than other marketing methods to achieve the same result?
Probably not, though it IS true. Business blogging generates many long-lasting benefits in terms of customer reach, engagement, conversion and even Google ranking!
And those trends look set to continue in 2023.
What kind of people read blogs?
According to techjury.net, 77% of all web users read blogs. Now, if you want to experience more of a real-world illustration, take a walk just about anywhere in the UK and you will see all manner of people, all with their heads buried in their phones, tablets or other electronic devices. It doesn’t matter who you want to reach, the internet has made connecting with your ideal customer seamless. All you need is the right content and platform. Could that be blogging? Let’s find out…
How old are the people reading your business blog?
According to finances online:
16.8% are between the ages of 25 to 30.
29.4% are between the ages of 31 to 40.
23.1% are between the ages of 41 to 50.
14.1% are 50 +
Remember, since 77% of the people in the UK read blogs, we are looking at a total of approximately 48.40 million monthly blog readers in the UK, so even the 14.1% (lowest amount above) equates to 6,824,400 monthly business blog readers aged 50+ in the United Kingdom.
Do your ideal customers read business blogs?
Without knowing your exact demographics, it is impossible to say. You can always contact us, and we’d be happy to conduct a free analysis for you. As a general rule of thumb, however, many business owners consider themselves to be of a similar mentality and demographic as their ideal customers. If this is the case then consider, you are reading this blog post, so the chances are your ideal customers read blog posts too.
People who want to connect write blogs
Business Blogs communicate in the same language as your ideal customers, answering their burning questions and giving them exactly the right information at the time when they most need it.
“91% of B2B marketers reported that their companies blog or use other forms of content marketing and 86% of B2C marketers reported that their companies blog or use other forms of content marketing.”
Difference between your blog post and a web page…
Why do you need a business blog, after all, you have a website. Surely that’s enough?
If I had a pound for every business owner I’d met who had a website, but only because they thought they ‘should have one’ and proclaimed: “We don’t really get many leads from the site” then I’d consider early retirement.
Your website is your showroom. It is your chance to be slick and show off your wares in a very professional and engaging way, yet as brilliant as many people’s websites are they can be about as useful as a luxury yacht that has set up anchor in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, hoping to catch specific passers-by.
Enter the blog (the lesser-known Bruce Lee film)
For those websites that have a blog, I’m going to expand upon our earlier metaphor: Your blog is the army of friendlier smaller boats that rush to shore picking up your ideal passengers with a friendly smile then after a bit of pampering gives them a free ride to your big expensive yacht (your website).
Think of a business blog as a trusted friend
Think of the friends you have here in the ‘real world.’ Do you know like and trust them?
If they recommended that you purchase something, would you be more likely to consider it than if someone you didn’t know suggested the same thing?
Your friends care about you (I hope). They know what you like and what you need and the chances of them recommending something you’d hate is, let’s face it, unlikely; not that you’d drop everything right away to make a purchase. But after 2 or three separate conversations on the topic, the chances are you’d be ready to retrieve that credit card and start buying.
We can relate this behaviour to blogging:
People are more likely to make a purchase after engaging with a blog three to five times.
55% of marketers gained new customers because of blogging.
55% of marketers believe that blogging is the most critical inbound marketing channel.
Like a trusted friend, the successful business blog ‘speaks’ in the best interests of the reader, offering free information, inspiration or tools without a price tag.
This doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be a call to action, in fact, many successful blogs do have a call to action – that is a specific action that you want the blog reader to perform (join an email list, perhaps). Some businesses will brazenly promote their services in the hope you will make a purchase (perhaps with a discount). This sometimes works; however, the best-performing blogs recognise that you are unlikely to get married on the first date and will need to engage in a bit of professional courtship first:
They offer you free information.
You consume that information.
They offer you more free information and ask if you’d like to join an email list (the equivalent to let’s go for a coffee in dating parlance).
You send them emails with more juicy information, giveaways and exclusive offers and they make a purchase.
Business Blogs offer a perfect mix of emotion and logic
There are a few blogging truths that have served me well in the 15-plus years I have been business blogging in the UK and one such nugget is:
“A great blog will capture someone on an emotive level first and then back it up with the facts and figures that the ideal audience really wants.”
(Me, 10 seconds ago)
If you have ever read ‘The Chimp Paradox’ by noted neuroscientist Professor Steve Peters, then you’ll know the human brain is split into three distinct areas:
The emotional part (the chimp)
The logical part
Data storage (that serves the first two parts)
When we decide on just about anything (including whether we are going to purchase an item) the first part of the brain to react is the primal bit – the chimp – or the emotional part. By the time the logical part kicks into action, it is looking for reasons to support the emotional decision that WE HAVE ALREADY MADE.
The same can be said when we decide if we are going to like and trust someone. The emotional part will form an opinion, which will then be backed up by facts, figures and stories passed on from remembered, established trusted sources which will then lead to an opinion and a possible action to connect or not connect with an individual or group.
This is part of the reason why people from a similar background or a particular social and economic disposition tend to associate more freely with one another and have similar views and opinions.
(Yes, to be a content writer and marketer I elected to take a keen interest in psychology).
And finally, the same can be said if we choose to consume and trust information from a blog post…
The ideal from the business owner’s perspective is that their model customer will consume so much free content, that they build an emotional and trusting bond with the brand. This bond will then lead to future purchases and even result in their ideal customers recommending your products and services to other interested parties.
Like a ‘real world’ relationship, interacting with a brand conforms to much the same rules and expectations.
Regular blogging can help you get onto page one of Google
Positions one and two of Google are the Holy Grail of the internet for many businesses. More than half of every user search query goes to those positions, and by the time you get to the very top of page two, you are only receiving less than two percent of the search queries.
Google rewards relevant, well-performing sites. Regardless of what SEO experts will tell you and how much they might try to baffle you with SEO science, remember that Google is not neutral. It has an agenda:
“Google wants to remain the market leader for search engine traffic. To do this they need to deliver the most accurate results for a user and in the fastest time.”
Me again 15 seconds ago
Suppose you consistently help Google achieve that by BEING the most relevant result, and having relevant sites link to you as well as regularly having people interact with your content. In that case, you stand a good chance of receiving high-ranking rewards.
A regular, well-written blog post can have a significant impact on your Google ranking.
We’ve taken so many companies with underperforming websites and helped them rank in the first two positions of Google, simply by introducing a regular keyword-rich and engaging blog to their existing site (at least one per week, though four times per week, can generate outstanding results even faster).
The theory is simple:
If you can get inside the mind of your consumer and serve up quality blog content on a regular basis, then they will know like and trust you. They will interact with your site and Google will see your site as being relevant and worthy of ranking high!
You rank in the first position on Google, and significantly more people digest your content, which then leads to more conversions and your site transforms from relative obscurity to one of the main revenue generators for your business.
Hopefully, by now I’ve presented a compelling argument for you to introduce business blogging into your marketing mix. Though one important question remains:
Do you outsource your blog writing or do you do it yourself?
I believe we are each given two gifts in this life – those being time and money and the better use of one will result in an abundance of the other:
If you have the money to hire a professional to create engaging blog content that is equally engaging to Google and your prospective end user, then you should do so. They will make sure the articles are well written, are the right length, with the right density of keywords, are researched to be relevant to what your clients are looking for and are delivered on time.
If you are blessed however with more time than money, then write them yourself. The passion and voice a professional content creator will bring to your brand, you already have in its raw form. You just need to know how to translate that into profit-generating content, which we will help you with for FREE – subscribe to our VIP list.
So, there you have it. While you are making those new year’s resolutions to stop smoking, lose weight and be nicer to your mother-in-law (two out of three aren’t bad), make a promise to your business that you will spare a thought for your business and make a potentially game-changing decision by truly connecting with your potential and current customers – start a business blog.
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How does your blog strategy stand in the most crowded of market places and inspire clients to want to engage with you?
Traditional business schools may tell you to define your USP’s and make sure they are in your blog. – i.e. what is it that you offer that other people don’t?
Not a bad idea – I mean that’s what 80% of the other businesses are doing. What if you want to stand out from the shadows of the other 80%?
I’ll ask you a question and your answer to that question may guide you on the path to the answer to which you’ve been searching.
What would inspire you to select a never before tried company (at least by you) over another?
I’m guessing not much. I mean the new company is a risk. You know nothing about them. Perhaps all you have received is an initial sales message, with a purchase offer that is ‘Too Good to Be True!’
People are EMOTIONAL.
People buy because it FEELS right.
People WANT A SOLUTION to their problems.
People WANT TO BE CONVINCED that YOUR solution is the right one!
It’s your job to do just that that.
This is how I do it…
Firstly, I come from a place where I WANT to serve those who need my help.
I look for people who would benefit from my help and I get to know them.
I will give away as much help and advice as I can for FREE, usually by blog or social media.
If people want to take the next step then they can subscribe to my mailing list in which they will get more in-depth help and advice for FREE.
The people on my mailing list have seen my REGULAR BLOG AND SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS. They have used my methods and know they work. They are no longer standing confused in a market place wondering where to find their answers.
When I release information that comes at a cost then people know (because of my track record) that my help and advice is absolutely worth their time and immediate attention. They are not just willing, but they WANT TO INVEST in that help because they recognise what that product will do for them.
I’ve described very basically a funnel where you meet another living human being online, do as much as you can for them AND GET PAID FOR IT.
I hope this has helped.
If you would like more in-depth advice please feel free to subscribe to my mailing list.
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So, you have an amazing site… Great, well done you.
You may also post regular sales messages through your own social media channels.
In fact, there are a myriad of sales options out there, designed to show your clients that one irresistible offer that will make a huge difference to their lives and to your bottom line.
So why introduce blogging into the mix? What purpose does it serve?
I’d like to start by stating the obvious… Your clients are people.
Let’s think about that for a second. Whether they are the CEO of a major corporation, the owner of a chip shop or a single parent struggling to make ends meet, they all share that one common quality.
As ‘people’, they will base their relationships on perception, trust and familiarity. This works not only in their personal lives but also transcends into their purchases too.
Remember, your website is a sales platform pure and simple. It is the showroom for what you have to offer to satisfy your clients desires.
Trouble is, yours is not the only website out there, and the chances are you are not the only one offering the same product or service.
Having a blog takes you out of the rat race, in which thousands of businesses are standing on their own little patch of land screaming:
“Buy from me… Buy from me… BUY FROM ME!!”
When you have a blog, the clients come to you. They seek you out – Why?
Let’s look at the stats. Then I’ll help you understand why those impressive figures are entirely logical:
Firstly, the blog is NOT a direct sales tool and (barring a few minor exceptions), should never be used as one. It’s there to build a relationship between you and your clients:
You wouldn’t walk up to an attractive lady or gentleman at work and suggest marriage and children over the water cooler (I hope).
You’d get to know them and they choose to get to know you (based on their initial perception). You might even offer them a small gift in the form of a FREE refreshing cup of water.
When your relationship has reached a certain level of familiarity and trust, you can take your communication to a new venue (coffee shop or restaurant) then move on from there.
After a few restaurant dates, your level of commitment may move to the next level, perhaps eventually leading to marriage.
Heavy couple of days eh?
So, when designing a blog think initially about what it is that your clients want to see. Be aware that they are constantly barraged by numerous metaphorical marriage proposals which they automatically ignore.
Look for initial opportunities to serve your clients for free, offering them content that they really want (the chat and cup of water at the water cooler).
Make your blogs regular. This sets you up as the resident and reliable expert in their mind’s eye.
Encourage those who can’t get enough of your content to sign up to your mailing list (taking them away from that water cooler and into a coffee shop to offer them something of more value for free. The metaphorical cup of coffee).
Once they are on your mailing list:
They already know and trust you.
They are comfortably familiar with your brand.
They WANT to buy from you.
Now your free content can point towards a bigger offering, whilst still adding value.
If you follow this, then more than likely you will begin to receive comments and emails from potential clients who have loved your free content and are eager to purchase your bigger offering.
On the subject of what specifically to put into your blogs, this will be covered in a future post. I will say for now though, that my rule of thumb is the same as it is with social media:
Your content has to either inspire, educate or entertain (or a combination). If it does none of those then it is a waste of a post.
There should be some sort of call to action (To like a Facebook page or join a mailing list perhaps).
And I know this was mentioned earlier but beyond the branding, your blog should not be a blatant self-promoting sales document.
Remember you want your clients to WANT to buy from you not ignore you.
Good luck with your blogging. Comments and questions welcome below, as always.
Till next time…
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It’s your FAQ page. Many people put them up because… well because everyone else does. But beyond serving your clients with some blatantly obvious answers to things that are mostly covered in your site, what other use does it have?
I can’t even begin to describe… Actually, I can and that’s what the focus of this blog is. So, let’s dive right in.
Let’s look at the basics from a user perspective, then delve into the SEO possibilities that will help your website rank high on Google.
Assuming you are on first name terms with your customer avatar, you will have a site that addresses the majority of your users and presents them with the information that they want, in order for you to make conversions and sales.
That’s all great, but what of your potential clients (The ones who are frantically typing away on Google, hoping and praying for the solutions that you have for their burning wants)? They will have specific questions, phrased in a way that is unique to them and similarly use unique associated keywords.
Wouldn’t it be nice to rank for those specific questions and have the answers ready-made?
That was rhetorical.
Welcome to your new and improved FAQ page…
Below follows a few tips and tricks on optimizing your FAQ page so Google, your customers and you are smiling so much you’d think you all slept with hangers in your mouths.
Your website is there because you want the user to perform an action (join a mailing list, buy a product etc). Your FAQ page is no exception. Treat it like a sales page, treat it with the same love and dedication as you would your home page. No more bland and vanilla yes / no answers to unoriginal questions. Make each of your answers enticing – compelling the user to want to take an action. Think of each answer as something you could see on the Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and want to click through to a website.
Start out with your generic questions then hop onto Google and start to think about how each question could be reworded to match what Google would recognise as a natural link to your service. This does not have to be guesswork. Start to type a question into Google and loads of options will populate below before you have finished typing. These options are not made up, they are there because Google recognise those terms as ones that are frequently put into the search bar. By replicating the appropriate ones (by clicking through and see where they lead), you are answering the specific questions that your potential clients have and you are using the keywords that Google already know and recognise as being related your product or service.
Take the Following Example:
Imagine you run a parcel delivery service. Think of the most basic question that a user might ask like, ‘When will my delivery arrive?’
Before you have finished typing the word ‘delivery’ Google will already predict what you might want, based on frequent searches. You’ll see those populated below your search.
Click on one and see where it leads. You’ll probably find companies that offer the same service (or similar) to you.
Because the FAQ page is often ignored as a lead generation page you’ll find it easier to rank as the competition is far less.
Include links on your FAQ page and calls to action that are relevant to your customer’s specific questions.
Don’t assume your text has always answered your user’s questions. Offer them an alternative option for a more in-depth answer (could be a phone call or an email). Let’s face it many people leave FAQ pages, frustrated because they didn’t get the answer they want. By offering them the option to get the exact answer that they want, then the chances of them using you to fulfil their desires are greatly increased as they now know you actually care about serving their wants.
Lastly, as discussed on previous posts – look at the keywords that you want your FAQ page to rank for on Google for and make sure they are not in competition with keywords in the rest of your site (Every page has a specific purpose and Google will not rank two pages from the same site on the first page).
I Hope you enjoyed this. If you want to be kept informed on future blog posts please subscribe and like our Facebook page:
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With the launch of the new Apple iPhone X, Your Content Write thought it might be fun to investigate exactly what makes Apple web content so irresistible.
So, if you want to be able to write content like Apple and make your products and services sound as enticing as the iPhone X, then read on.
Once you log onto https://www.apple.com/uk/iphone-x/ you are presented with a graphic (a huge ‘X’) which magically transforms itself into a phone as you scroll down.
One might say, you are greeted with a concept of the future, and since the user has to scroll down to complete the transformation into a phone, it is a vision of the future that the user can now hold.
This is very empowering and thrills the reader enough to want to read on.
For those familiar with marketing and sales, you will know that creating an excitement or buzz around a product or service, before the reader has even looked further into it is essential if you want to take your potential customers down a sales funnel and convert them into long term fans.
Having seen this graphic, the words that Apple use must live up to the Graphic and nurture those subliminal concepts. See Below:
The next section starts with an <H> tag title ‘iPhone X’ making it easier for Google to read and understand what the web page will be all about.
In the 53 words that follow (before the next graphic), iPhone is mentioned three times and iPhone X twice. Throughout the page the keyword iPhone X is mentioned 18 times.
The text in this section contains language that is both inspiring and emotive and builds upon the established graphic as a true taste for the future.
Apple speak of their ‘vision’, creating a sense that this amazing piece of Tec has been worked on for many years and now their ‘vision’ is finally a reality.
This gives it an unique ‘sought after’ quality, helping the reader along the path to owning this little slice of heaven.
Right from the gate Apple speak of their device being:
‘…so immersive that the device itself disappears into the experience.’
This is essential… Let’s face it, a phone is a phone. You text, make calls, take pictures, record movies and play games (My grandma would be turning in her grave shouting ‘No. You make calls. End Of!’)
So, instead of selling a phone Apple are instead selling a dream, a vision for the future, a chance to escape the normal hum drum of daily existence.
Apple are selling what the user wants not needs. A drill salesman by comparison does not sell drills, he sells holes in walls i.e. The end result.
So, instead of selling a phone with a few upgrades, they sell the dream (the customer buys the phone as the natural transport to that dreams reality).
Let’s look at the keywords that stick in the mind from a user’s point of view:
Vision (Mentioned twice), create, immersive, experience and intelligent.
These words are lovingly wrapped around the words iPhone and iPhone X, with the closing line:
‘Say hello to the future.’
It even uses alliteration to heighten the readers experience with:
The device itself disappears into the experience.
There is then another graphic, followed by another paragraph. None of the paragraphs are long (The next being just 23 words) and are all centred around fulfilling a promise for the taste of tomorrow.
Throughout the whole page we are taken on a journey to experience the wonderment of what could be (subtly upselling Apple accessories and Apple Music on the way) which, if you have made it to the bottom, (resisting the temptation to click the buy button) then you are starkly presented with the call to action that Apple want you to take:
Buy an iPhone X now!
Apple know that if you have resisted clicking that buy button, but have read to the bottom, you are clearly interested in the product but perhaps money is an issue. It then offers monthly payment plans and even a chance to trade in your old phone for cash.
The complete sales funnel displayed on one page (I love it).
One thing I found quite clever on this page was its wider reach in relation to audience type:
At every stage people are offered the opportunity to learn more about the technical aspect of the phone with a simple inbound link (which is a brownie point for SEO and reduces the bounce rate).
One thing that Apple did NOT do was to include the technical know how and jargon in with the text on the front page. That’s because they know that not everyone is interested in that and it would interfere with the user experience as they make their way down the page.
That would be the same as an illusionist explaining the secrets behind a magic trick as he / she performs it for the first time on stage – all the viewer excitement and wonder is lost and you are left with nothing more than a how-to guide, which may be only mildly interesting at best.
I Hope you enjoyed this. If you want to be kept informed on future blog posts please subscribe and like our Facebook page:
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This is a follow on from my previous post (hence part 2) If you missed that one, please refer to my previous blog.
All caught up?
Good.
When I write content for my clients I do it in two stages:
1. I create an amazing piece of prose that will educate, inspire or entertain (hopefully all three depending on the subject matter of the text). When doing this I pay absolutely no attention to keywords, Google or any of the other search engines out there. My first and most important task is to communicate an idea that will lead to a call to action.
2. After stage one is complete I then look in great detail at the purpose of the page. I want my clients to rank on Google so I try to make the purpose as specific as possible. I am trying to make this as niche as possible thereby making it easier for Google to present the page to the right people.
Generalized Phrases should be avoided as much as possible. Remember Google is not as clever as you (yet) so work has to be done to make the search engine crawler’s job easy.
As an example, if a car dealership wants to rank high for the keyword ‘Cars’ they will find it:
a. Very expensive if they are paying for it.
b. Extremely competitive if they are wanting to appear on the first page.
With such a general term Google has to cast a wide net in the hope that the information you are looking for is on that page.
Typically, you may find:
A few local car dealerships near to where the user is, information on Disney’s Cars, Magazine listings on the top performing cars, Newsworthy items that include cars and a few YouTube videos that have cars in them.
‘Cars for sale’ or ‘Cars for sale in Jarrow’ on the other hand is a lot more specific and helps Google recognise exactly what your page will be about.
Tags
On websites you have Tags (H1, H2 etc). If you are new to this, you can think of them as headings much like you would see on a newspaper article:
(The following news article is FICTION. Don’t get too excited).
Daily News
Jeremy the Goose Learns to Speak English!
A Goose was spotted giving directions to a group of tourists.
Bystanders were today left baffled when a Goose, who later identified himself as ‘Jeremy the Goose’ approached a group of foreign tourists and….
In the above example, taken from a true story (Not really) The first item we are drawn to is the headline ‘Goose learns to Speak English!’
If we want to draw Google’s attention to a headline in the same way we would place this text in the ‘H1’ tag. This would tell Google what the main focus is.
Google would then read on to make sure the rest of your text lives up to the promise of that tag. If it does, then all is good.
In newspapers we also have a sub heading, designed to draw the reader in further. Google has this too. It’s called the H2 tag. Still important, though not quite so much as the H1.
After this we have main body of text.
Let’s have a quick look at my keywords in this very small body of text.
Already I can see I am likely to rank very well for the key phrase ‘Jeremy the Goose’ and although the word ‘goose’ appears four times in four lines, it does sound very natural.
If I were to continue the article I would be wary of the number of times I use the specific keywords and would perhaps use synonyms as substitutes to ensure Google does not put me on their hit list of keyword spammers.
Naturally, I’m assuming the text on your site will not be speaking of talking geese, but the concept is the same.
If you need help in inserting H1 and H2 tags on your platform leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to help.
WordPress makes it very easy to insert H1 and H2 tags.
Going on the assumption that you already know how to set up a WordPress page or post:
Once you have your text written, highlight the area that you want to identify as the H1 tag and then look up and you will see a drop-down box with the word ‘paragraph’ written on it.
Click on the box and select ‘Heading 1’.
Hey Presto, you have a H1 tag.
I Hope you enjoyed this. If you want to be kept informed on future blog posts please subscribe and like our Facebook page:
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Cross Media Blogging and Why YOU Need it in 2024.
All, Blog Writing, Content Writing, cross media blog, Rank High on Google, UncategorizedWhat is a Cross Media Blog?
This is one. We thought the best way to demonstrate Cross Media Blogs would be to produce one that shows you exactly what Cross Media Blogging can do for you. So, whether you are reading, listening, or watching this on video, do enjoy and feel free to contact me paul@yourcontentwrite.com if you have any questions.
What Can Cross Media Blogging Mean to You?
Imagine yours was the only business that provided your product or service, thereby eliminating all competition, solving your ideal clients’ burning issues and giving them exactly what they want and desire.
NOT ONLY THAT…
You rank number 1 on Google AND people connect with you and TRUST you to such an extent that they WANT to purchase YOUR product or service every time they need it.
NOT ONLY THAT…
They actively recommend your business to other potential customers too. And those customers do the same.
I’m not going to be twee and do the old ‘What would that do to your standard of living?’ But I think we can agree that the closer you can get to that scenario the better, right?
How close can we bring you to that dream?
At Your Content Write, Like the eager little marketing researchers we are, we’ve been chipping away for years to find the answer to that very question, and we’ve developed something very exciting:
Cross Media Blogging is the revolutionary new product from Your Content Write. It combines the power of the most effective marketing methods available today, with expertise from key professionals to generate (for you) unparalleled levels of user engagement, customer reach, accessibility, and lead generation.
How does it do that? To explain we need to break down the six elements that make up Cross Media Blogging and give you the juicy stats as to why they work and what they can do for you:
Commercially embrace the digital age we are living in.
How much of your current marketing efforts are online?
According to Web acquisition:
“Internet usage continues to grow rapidly, with over 5.18 billion (64.6 percent of the global population) users worldwide in 2023. This number is expected to reach 5.5-6 billion by 2024.”
You can, of course, continue to rely heavily on paper advertising, outdoor and billboards. They still have their place, but they are often not cost effective, and you are relying on your key demographic taking the time to look up from their phones and notice the right billboard at the right time for them to feel strongly enough about your company to make a purchase.
Put yourself in the mind of your customer.
As a consumer, you have no prior relationship with the company being advertised and therefore very little reason to do business with them. Traditional outdoor advertising works best for well-known brands, ones you probably already have done business with (ones you have probably regularly seen online). Then the billboard or bus advertisement merely acts as a reminder.
You could also advertise on the radio or the television. Having worked in both radio and television I can say that these are fantastic options if you have the money to get the job done properly and have your commercial aired at exactly the right times, then you will see results.
Since the invention of Netflix, Disney + and other streaming services however (as well as people’s preference for social media over television), these options tend to be regarded as overly expensive for reducing viewing figures.
According to Ofcom, the UK’s official communications regulators:
“Broadcast TV’s weekly reach fell from 83% in 2021 to 79% in 2022, the biggest-ever annual drop. The long-term decline in viewing of broadcast TV also continued – it fell by 12% year on year and was 16% lower than pre-pandemic levels.”
“For the first time, there is evidence of a significant decline in broadcast TV viewing among older audiences. Over-64s watched 8% less broadcast TV in 2022 than in 2021 and viewing was 6% lower than in 2019 (the last pre-pandemic year).”
“Older viewers are increasingly using streaming services, with take-up of Disney+ among online over-64s rising from 7% in 2022 to 12% in 2023.”
AND
“Among younger audiences, broadcast TV viewing continued to decline rapidly, falling by 21% year on year among those aged 4-34.”
HOWEVER IN THE ONLINE WORLD…
“YouTube and Facebook remain the largest social video platforms in the UK, each reaching 91% of UK internet users aged 15+ in Q1 2023.”
Okay, you’ve seen the stats. Can we agree your customers are online, and if you want to reach them then you need to be online too?
Excellent. So, the first essential ingredient to be placed into the ‘Cross Media Blogging’ mixing bowl is:
Your customers are online which means that’s exactly where you need to be.
a. They are used to
b. Will incite trust
c. Has been PROVEN to positively impact your brand personality, leading to sales
As the more astute among you may have surmised, Cross Media Blogging has at its core a well-written and engaging blog.
The simple blog, when optimised and used ‘properly’ can make a tremendous difference to your marketing efforts. According to OptInMonster:
“Every month approximately 409 million people view more than 20 billion blog pages, leading to 77 million new blog comments from interested readers every month.”
IN FACT…
“77% of ALL internet users read blogs.”
According to Hubspot:
“Businesses that blog get 55% more website visitors than businesses that don’t.”
AND
“Marketers who prioritized blogging received 13X more ROI than companies that did not.”
And for those of you who are currently spending more on advertising to get new customers than blogging, HubSpot also found that:
“70% of people prefer to learn about a company through articles rather than advertisements.”
Why Blogging is so effective?
It’s all about building the right relationship with your customers.
In essence, the blog speaks the language of your customers, it reaches them directly and gives them the information that they want in an engaging and informative way… WITHOUT the pressure sale.
I could write an entire volume into the psychology of blogging and just why it has the power to transform your marketing efforts, but for now let’s go with the common-sense approach:
YOU are approached by someone in the street that you have never met, and they try to sell you something. What is your response?
The majority of people would probably not respond favourably and would either ignore, politely decline, or rather more directly tell this presumptuous stranger where to go.
What this person is selling might be of great value and just what you need, but as you have no history with the vendor or what it is that he/she/other is selling you have ZERO reason to trust them.
Your blog, however, is written to appeal ONLY to your ideal customer and give them the information that they want for FREE, and subsequent regular posts continue to do this. When this happens, potential customers get to know you, begin to trust you, and see you as the ‘expert’ in that field.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out who they will be spending their money with when they need to make that all-important purchase.
Blogs Written by Humans for Humans
In this age of AI-assisted writing it can be very tempting to subscribe to an online, artificial copywriting service and have your web copy done in seconds, and many people are doing just that. Unfortunately, this can actually hinder your marketing efforts for the following reasons:
a. Google (assuming you’d like your customers to find your website on Google) only embraces AI to a point and that point comes when people simply use it to churn out copy and then publish it.
Google has already stated that they will not rank AI content if:
“If you see AI as an inexpensive, easy way to game search engine rankings.”
“When it comes to automatically generated content, our guidance has been consistent for years. Using automation—including AI—to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies.”
b. As a copywriter with over 20 years of experience under my belt, I can spot AI copy a mile off. It all feels very generic and merges in with the content that EVERY OTHER person out there using AI is producing. As such, human-generated content has the ability to stand out now more than ever.
“A company using well-written and researched human content will rank better on Google and will effectively shine like a beacon against the backdrop of those companies electing to promote their business just using AI-generated content.”
Paul Greystoke
c. References and facts generated by AI are not always correct.
Needless to say then, the next element in our cross-media blog mixing bowl is the well-researched and engaging, ‘human-written’ blog post.
You need to be accessible to capture a wider audience.
If you want your company to be exclusive, then you NEED to be inclusive:
“One in every five people in the UK has a disability, one in ten has Dyslexia and approximately three hundred and sixty thousand are blind or visually impaired (a number set to rise to two point two five million in 2025).”
https://yourcontentwrite.com/crossmediablogs/
Think of the above in terms of spending power, then ask yourself: How are you currently reaching those demographics?
Add to this, that different people have different learning styles and take in and retain information in different ways. According to Avado Learning, a top-ranking platform:
“…roughly 65 percent of the population are visual learners, 30 percent are auditory learners.”
That’s roughly 26.4 million people in the UK who prefer to take in spoken information rather than have it written down.
The Professional Voice over Artist and the Cross Media Blog
There is a difference between a professional voice-over artist reading text and say, a business owner who is not a professional voice-over artist. Tonal quality, vocal inflexions, speed, and timing are all perfectly crafted over the years to produce something that will be instantly engaging and attractive to your potential customers.
For EVERY Cross Media Blog post we produce for you, there will be an audio version of that post that can be streamed directly from your site – boosting your Google ranking AND catering for those among your customers who can’t – or are too busy to – sit and read your content. We have a range of voice-over artists ready to give your brand the trusted voice and personality it deserves.
Add to this, our resident musician/producer further enhances your audio production with custom music and sound effects, giving your customers a truly unique and memorable experience.
So, the third element in the Cross Media Blog is the professional audio version that your customers can play directly from your blog post.
The power of the podcast
According to podknowspodcasting:
“Podcasts are experiencing a surge in popularity around the world, with 61% of people, globally, reporting that they now listen to them.“
The same article also stated that the gender of podcast listeners was fairly evenly matched with 58% male and 42% female.
68% tend to listen to the entire episode too. This means that when your Cross Media Blog content is produced you have an audience the size of which is, frankly, unparalleled.
I’m sure also that many of my readers, listeners, and watchers (delete as appropriate) will already know that when you find a business podcast that really appeals to you, then you subscribe which means you are automatically notified every time a new episode is released.
You subscribe because you find the information both informative and perhaps entertaining too. You trust the information that is being given, as its purpose is to help without a pressure sales message – aside from a call to action contained within the podcast which might direct them toward a website / e-commerce platform or an email list – where you can actually engage them in a sales conversation.
So, the fourth element in your Cross Media Blog is a high-quality podcast that is distributed by us, throughout Apple, Microsoft, Spotify, and relevant Google platforms.
Google and search engine ranking (SEO)
Ranking high on Google (and other search engines) can be critical to your business success.
According to Berkley the top eight benefits of ranking high on Google are:
Google Ranking Benefit 1: Brings Organic Search Traffic to your Website.
Google Ranking Benefit 2: Generates Leads Cost-Effectively.
Google Ranking Benefit 3: Increases Brand Awareness.
Google Ranking Benefit 4: Gets You Ahead of the Competition.
Google Ranking Benefit 5: Optimises Your Website for Mobile Users.
Google Ranking Benefit 6: Builds Trust.
Let’s Talk Numbers…
Type your business service or product into Google and see how many results come up. Now, take into account that position 1 receives an average of 31.7% of those clicks, position 2 – 24.71 and position 3 – 18.59%. By the time you get to the very top of page two, you are looking at an average of ONLY 0.63% clickthrough rate.
This leads to the oft-quoted SEO joke that if you want to hide a dead body, so it won’t be discovered, the best place is page two of Google.
Thank you to numeroagency and orbelo for those Google stats.
To make sure your website is seen by as many people as possible, we have enlisted the help of a top-notch SEO consultant – or Google specialist, if you like – to help rise your Cross-Media Blog (and therefore your business website) to the top of Google.
Voice Engine Optimisation
A little speculation here, but we are also working hard to make your branded audio playable on Alexa and Siri as a result of a relevant user query. Early days and a little more experimentation are needed for this one, but as soon as it’s ready our Cross Media Blog clients’ content will automatically benefit from this.
So, the fifth element to be added to your Cross Media Blog is a dedicated SEO consultant to optimise your audio, written and video content so it will rank high on Google and the other search engines.
Your business on Video.
As an added extra, we can also include video production to your Cross Media Blog.
Whilst television may be experiencing dwindling viewing figures (as mentioned above) high-quality video content is NOT. According to Dash:
“In 2023 people are watching, on average, 17 hours of online video per week.”
Videos are also: “twice as likely to be shared than any other form of content.”
YouTube alone, has over two billion monthly users and 70% of viewers made a purchase as a result of seeing a brand on YouTube. This is probably part of the reason why 87% of marketers attribute sales back to their online video marketing efforts.
Your Content Write has teamed up with a long-established video production company to take your Cross Media Blog audio and add some stunning visuals/animation, which will then be uploaded to YouTube and optimised to rank on Google, as well as cutting a few short samples from your video content to be shared throughout your social media channels.
So, the sixth optional element we can add to our Cross Media Blog mixing bowl is the video content created edited and uploaded to YouTube.
So, what is Cross Media Blogging?
Cross Media blogging is the coming together of traditional blogging, audio marketing, podcasting, SEO Google optimisation and video marketing to create a product that can take you to the top of Google and gain the loyalty, trust and… money of more customers than you have ever experienced (see above for relevant stats).
And you don’t even need to come up with content ideas. Our researchers already know what is trending and what YOUR customers WANT to know about. We also look at gaps in your competitors’ content marketing strategy meaning you will absolutely stand out from the competition.
Ready to Stand Apart from Your Competition?
Click the link below and book a call and you can find out how Cross Media Blogging can take your business to the next level.
https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/greystoke
You can also SUBSCRIBE to our Cross Media Blog podcast, HERE:
How to Supercharge your LinkedIn Profile and 10x Cusomer Conversions
All, UncategorizedWhy you NEED to change your LinkedIn profile.
If you are currently B2B, that is, you predominantly do business with other businesses then you need a LinkedIn profile that speaks to your customers.
WHY?
Because, like the majority of our clients were before we started working with them, you could be currently paying a lot of money for leads or funding elaborate advertising campaigns aimed at finding, engaging, and converting cold leads into customers.
Perhaps you employ a salesperson to pick up the phone and ‘cold call’ potential prospects. Invariably they will spend most of their time speaking to receptionists and other gatekeepers who are given specific instructions not to allow any sales calls through.
THIS SEEMS LIKE A LOT OF UNECESARY EFFORT ON YOUR PART…
…Especially when you are already using a FREE alternative that does the job better.
LinkedIn is the biggest social media platform in the world that has a specific focus on business. If your business success relies on making positive connections with other business owners, then surely leveraging the power of this platform and furthermore, the search function that puts you in direct contact with the people you want to do business with (NOT the secretaries) is a preferable strategy.
The first stage in attracting and then converting your ideal clients on LinkedIn is to make sure your profile is client-facing.
The trouble with most LinkedIn profiles today (and perhaps yours).
Back in 2003 when my daughter was born, LinkedIn was also brought into the world, and it was intended as a convenient way of connecting employers to potential employees. This is why over 90% of today’s LinkedIn profiles read more like an online C.V. or resumé. This does very little to attract and engage prospects who are looking for a commercial answer to their problems.
The very nature of a C.V. is that it speaks predominantly about the person for whom the profile was written. And, like a badly written ‘About Us’ web page, the LinkedIn profile rabbits on about themselves, and their accolades (no matter how irrelevant) with no attempt to really connect with a prospective client. In the second or two that the potential client may spend on the LinkrdIn C.V. profile, there is no engagement, and they leave.
Change your profile and start to build relationships.
Imagine a prospective client landed on your profile and in a few seconds became instantly excited because FINALLY, they had stumbled across an individual or business that existed purely to solve their problems and help them achieve their greatest desires. They’d want to know more… wouldn’t you?
Go through your own LinkedIn profile and ask yourself:
“Does my current LinkedIn profile speak directly to my clients – outlining the ways in which my product or service will help them make more money, save time, make their life easier and solve their problems?”
If not, then don’t worry this guide is here to help.
Self-promotion bit:
I should mention at this point that if you don’t want to do it all yourself then we have a simple cost-effective solution:
For a one-off payment of £75 we will have your LinkedIn profile rewritten within 24 hours. You also get our FREE eBook ‘LinkedIn Marketing Cheat Sheet’ and a FREE 30-minute Zoom call where we personalise your marketing efforts into a winning LinkedIn client acquisition formula tailored around your business.
Click this link if you’d like it done for you and me or one of my team will be in touch to discuss what you need for your LinkedIn profile.
Let’s build your LinkedIn profile.
Your LinkedIn profile photograph.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so your photograph needs to be inviting, friendly and appealing to your prospective clients.
And before you say:
“I hate having my photograph taken.”
…then qualify that statement with a plethora of reasons as to why you don’t want to smile or look at the camera, you are going to have to get over that. There has been far too much research done to prove that a smile associates YOUR product or the service with positive emotions: health, optimism, and success – all the attributes you want clients to associate with YOUR brand.
Remember also, that your clients are connecting with you (another human being). Would you find it easy to connect with someone who didn’t smile and shielded their eyes behind a hand or pair of dark shades? If you (like just about everybody on LinkedIn) only spent a couple of seconds to decide whether or not you wanted to connect, then I’m guessing you would have moved on and not given the person a second thought.
What should I wear for my LinkedIn profile photograph?
Whatever you would wear if you were meeting a client out here in the real world. Something that would give them every confidence that you care enough about your appearance and therefore care enough about their impression of you to actually make an effort – subliminally saying that just as much care and attention will go into your service to them… also, something that compliments your lovely eyes and smile.
What should your LinkedIn banner look like?
Behind the photograph is a banner that spans the width of the page (1584 pixels wide x 396 pixels tall to be exact). I’ve stopped marvelling at the number of people who waste this valuable space with generic non-descript images. Your banner (like a good website banner) is the ideal place to draw your profile visitors in and show them what you do, or perhaps display some social proof.
This is mine. It states very clearly what I do and inspires the reader to read further down my profile to find out more.
There are a variety of different tactics that can be employed with your LinkedIn banner. You can:
The professional LinkedIn title.
Next to your photograph, your title is perhaps the most important part of your LinkedIn profile. In just 120 characters you can let your ideal client know that your very reason for ‘being’ is to serve their needs, and also to say how you do it.
This is precisely the reason why you should not waste this opportunity by having a title that reads something like:
John Smith
CEO Random Company Ltd.
I don’t see a single client benefit in the above title. It tells me NOTHING about how he will help solve my problems and make my dreams come true.
This is mine:
My ideal client is someone who has an underperforming website and wants their website to rank high on Google, whilst at the same time generating so many client conversions that they can stop paying for expensive lead generation people/tools. So, I simply state that on my profile title.
To start off with your professional title you might find the following template helpful:
I help [ insert your niched customer type here] achieve [benefit here] by [how you do it]
Don’t try to be too clever here. ALWAYS go for simplicity over jargon-filled intricacy. Steve Jobs (of Apple fame) once commented that if you cannot express what you do in very simple terms then you either don’t understand your product or your customers well enough.
I could have said on my profile:
I provide digital marketing, SEO, audio production and content writing/content marketing.
But, besides the above being an awful snooze fest, that is sure to be ignored alongside every other similar ad, how many people outside the marketing industry know exactly what goes into digital marketing? Or SEO, OR the intricacies of content writing?
It is much simpler and more effective to outline the benefits my potential clients will receive.
Why Niche your audience on LinkedIn?
To put it simply, you can’t be everything to everyone and if you try then you will create sales copy that is so generic that it appeals to no one.
I am aware that you may be scared of turning away clients that are not in your niche but:
The benefits of niching FAR OUTWEIGH the comparative bleak, baron wasteland of opportunities that lie ahead if you don’t.
Consider:
Emojis and your LinkedIn profile.
Before we go into the content of your ‘About’ section I’ll address a question I’ve been asked quite a few times:
Should you have emojis on your LinkedIn profile?
Being in digital marketing for the past twenty years, my personal view is absolutely yes, provided they aren’t overused.
Psychologists say that emojis can help reinforce the meaning behind a message:
“I’ll see you later.”
Conveys a different tone and meaning, for example to:
“I’ll see you later.” 😃
According to Entrepeneur.com:
AND
Humans are naturally visual people, meaning they can process emojis faster than they can read and understand your sentences, so I would stand by my earlier statement and say emojis (provided they aren’t overused) are definitely something you should consider adding to your LinkedIn profile. They definitely add the ‘human’ into an otherwise digital conversation. 🤗
Jargon and your LinkedIn ‘About’ section.
Unless your clients (NOT YOU) commonly communicate by using industry-specific jargon I would advise staying away from it. It can tend to alienate potential clients when you should be reaching out to connect with them on an emotive level as well as practical. Human beings always react emotionally FIRST which means if you can reach them emotionally, then your potential customer WILL read on to support the buying decision they have ALREADY MADE.
Apple are masters at this. Check out any advertisement for the latest iGadget and you will find the sales language reaches you on such a personal and aspirational level that instead of dismissing the ridiculously priced status symbol, you try to figure out which of your children deserves to go without shoes and food for a year so you can afford to buy it.
I was once asked to look over an eBook written by financial advisors for their clients. It was filled with technical jargon and was not (to my eye) fit to give to anyone but another financial advisor to read – even then it should have come with a public health warning. I rewrote the eBook, removing most of the technical jargon, and instead concentrating on appealing to the wants and desires of their client base. The resulting eBook improved client engagement by over 80% compared to the previous version.
Your business website is your corporate platform, but your LinkedIn profile has to be more ‘human’. So, please avoid technical jargon in favour of appealing to your clients’ desires.
LinkedIn ‘About’ section
If your profile visitor has made it this far, that is a great sign. It means your profile picture, banner and LinkedIn title have compelled them to read on. Now you can go more in-depth with to HOW you can help them and what they must do to take advantage of what you have to offer.
Impress your visitors with an amazing ‘About’ section and your chances of them jumping feet first into your sales funnel are massively enhanced.
What is your LinkedIn ‘About’ section NOT?
This should go without saying but the biggest way to turn away an interested prospect is to stop talking about them and instead talk about yourself: how many years you have been doing your job, what university you went to, the professional qualifications you have etc… This is NOT a ‘show off’ at the expense of your customer section. This is a ‘what I do in as much as it will help my clients have an easier life section’.
So, start out by doing something like:
I help [niched audience] achieve [their goal] by [whatever you do to help them]
One of my clients has this:
I help healthcare businesses dominate their marketplace, save money, and become more efficient by implementing robust I.T. solutions.
Clear, focused and client-facing!
For the rest of the ‘About section try to include the following points:
In closing…
Thanks for reading. I hope this guide has helped.
If you would like to supercharge your LinkedIn profile but simply don’t have the time, then we do have a cost-effective solution that will help:
For a one-off payment of £75, we will have your LinkedIn profile rewritten within 24 hours. You also get our FREE eBook ‘LinkedIn Marketing Cheat Sheet’ and a FREE 30-minute Zoom call where we personalise your marketing efforts into a winning LinkedIn client acquisition formula tailored around your business.
Click this link if you’d like it done for you and me or one of my team will be in touch to discuss what you need for your LinkedIn profile.
Thanks again and have fun leveraging the power of LinkedIn to attract and convert more profile visitors into clients.
YCW Partnership Programme (Web Designers and Web Developers)
All, Content Writing, partnership programmeHow to turn your website into a client conversion machine.
Blog Writing, Content Writing, Rank High on Google, Social Media for BusinessHow to get more traffic conversions on your website
Welcome to this no-nonsense guide from Your Content Write, aimed at helping you get more of the right people to your website and ACTUALLY have them convert!
So many business owners jump in ‘feet first’ to having their website designed. And their strategy, once built is to simply cross their fingers and hope people stumble by it. That or they send out an initial post or two on social media, get disheartened because there is little to no response then give up and try other avenues.
According to Data Reportal:
“There were 66.99 million internet users in the United Kingdom in January 2022. The United Kingdom’s internet penetration rate stood at 98.0 percent of the total population at the start of 2022.”
That’s just in the United Kingdom!
Statistica reported there to be 60 million e-commerce users, leaving only a slight minority as face-to-face non-digital buyers.
And Get Accept states:
“Just 16% of B2B sales departments in the UK have a face-to-face team that communicates with buyers in person.”
Based on those statistics I think we can safely agree that your potential clients ARE online. Does it not make sense therefore to have them interact with your flagship website?
It is, after all, the only place on the internet that is totally dedicated to promoting your company as the ideal business to satisfy their needs and generate a healthy profit at the same time.
If the only reason that you haven’t done this so far is because of a lack of knowledge and perhaps a perceived lack of skill then read on, this blog is for you.
Is your current website fit for purpose?
For your website to be your super-powered client-converting machine, it must first be fit for purpose and not just be aesthetically pleasing. I’m going to go through a checklist from which you can judge how well your existing site rises to the challenge.
The lower the bounce rate the higher your conversion potential
There is a metric in your onboard analytics called the ‘bounce rate.’ Generally having a high bounce rate is not a good sign: It means a user has landed on your page and left rather quickly WITHOUT interacting, making a purchase, or performing some other desired action.
There are occasions where someone arriving and then leaving seconds later is not a bad thing – getting a phone number for example, but if you are looking for high website conversions then you want to drive that bounce rate down as much as possible.
According to GoRocket Fuel:
“As a rule of thumb, a bounce rate in the range of 26 to 40 percent is excellent. 41 to 55 percent is roughly average.”
Have a look at your bounce rate. It can be an early indication of how the website visitors you do get are behaving. If you find that you have a high bounce rate, then you may want to fix issues on your site before doing a lot of work to get your ideal clients there.
Some of our client’s had previously tried Google AdWords (sponsored ads) and deemed them a waste of time as they cost a lot and people did not convert when on the site. Very often this is not the fault of the Google ad. Assuming the Ad was targeted right, then Google has done its job and gained you a site visitor. If they fail to convert from there, the fault is within their experience of your site.
Never substitute quantity for quality
As a side note please beware of companies selling links and guaranteeing traffic to your site. You cater to a specific demographic and want to service people with a specific need or desire. If your site were to receive an influx of site visitors and links from irrelevant sources your site is not going to convert and Google tends to take a dim view of this tactic, meaning your chances of ranking well in the search engines is practically impossible.
Technical reasons your site is not converting
There are many technical reasons (such as load time and inline styles) that, unless you are technically minded, are out of your control, but should be straightforward for your web developer to fix. These elements can (and do) affect conversion rate. If you’d like a free, detailed site analysis for all technical and non-technical elements that can be improved on your site give us a shout. We’d be happy to help.
What about those website elements that you DO have control over?
How simple is your website to navigate?
Have you ever been on a site and then left rather quickly because you couldn’t find what you were looking for? If that is the experience that you offer to your potential clients, then you can expect a high bounce rate and low Google ranking.
It’s worth noting at this point that your site should be designed for your potential clients – not for you! Your job is to make sure they can find what they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible. If you can do that then you are on your way to converting more website visitors.
Each page on your website is potentially a homepage
As an SEO consultant and content writer I often encounter many websites that have a fantastic homepage, armed and ready to appeal to and convert those customers. The rest of the site however does not live up to the standard set out by their homepage.
It’s almost as though the other pages were put there because ‘that is what is expected.’
Every page on your website should have an overriding purpose and a call to action pertinent to that purpose.
By designing your site this way you are increasing the number of potential site visitors by giving them multiple reasons to log onto your site. Each page will be focussed upon a specific type of user query. Apple are masters at this, and they expertly blend emotion, with fact. Each page is simple to navigate and has one specific purpose with one call to action. To see how they achieve this feel free to look at a blog I wrote for AWE networking back in 2021 on how to write great sales content like Apple.
The About Us page
The about us page is a bit of a misnomer as successful well performing sites DO NOT use this page to simply show off. If its name was more indicative of its purpose It should read:
About us – in as much as it will help you (the customer) achieve your goals.
For more information on how to write an about us page here’s a short video I made earlier:
Your clients already have website expectations – don’t disappoint them.
“From furniture to websites, your brain has a template for how things should look and feel.”
Imagine going into a shop to buy a sandwich and the shop owner has decided to change things up a bit. When you walk in there is a brick wall – the idea being you find the loose brick, push it in and the wall disappears revealing seven dimly lit corridors, with a puzzle to complete to progress forward. Only one corridor will lead to a sandwich.
When you eventually get to the counter you must write a few sentences about your shopping experience BEORE you are permitted to pay and then leave.
The whole process takes around 30 minutes.
Whilst there may be people who wish to go once for the novelty aspect, most will not want to spend their entire lunch break trying to rethink a process that till now has been automatic for the sandwich-buying public.
Yet some people design their websites just like this. Don’t substitute novelty or aesthetic beauty for the expected user experience.
Unlike the shop example below, web users on average take only 50 milliseconds to decide whether they are going to stay on a site. If it doesn’t meet with their own preconceptions (conscious and subconscious) on what a site like yours ‘should’ look like, the chances are they will leave as fast as they arrived.
As much as YOU love your website your web visitor’s whole day is not focussed around admiring your site. They have a problem that needs to be solved. If your content can provide a quick and easy answer, together with a compelling reason to buy, then you are on the right track and that visitor may well convert.
As outlined by searchengineland.com:
Navigation can make or break your website’s overall performance when it comes to retaining visitors, keeping them engaged and driving them through the conversion funnel.
A very simple way to find out how your website should look is to type relevant search terms into Google that you should be ranking for. Look at the first two or three listings i.e., Sites that offer the same product or service as you and are already converting well.
Here you are looking at general design and structure which you can adapt and use.
How important are spelling and grammar on your website?
I’ve been asked this so many times. If you land on a page and the copy reads:
Naturally, it should read ‘find out more.’
How confident would you be using their service if they can’t even get their own sales copy right?
Even if you don’t consciously see the error, on a subconscious level you have seen it, noticed it, and added it to your internal and automatic ‘reason to log off and go somewhere else’ list.
Google knows it too and will not reward a site with poor grammar and punctuation with ranking points. The site that the above image came from was on page ten of Google. Bear in mind that most of the traffic goes to page one of Google, with over 50% of search queries going to positions one and two. By the time you get to the very top of page two, you are left with around 2% of the traffic for that search term. You can imagine how many people actually visit page 10.
Is your website full of technical jargon?
Nothing wrong with that, it makes you sound clever which will give your clients more confidence in hiring you – right?
Wrong!
The late Steve Jobs once commented that if you can’t explain your product in simple terms then you either don’t understand your clients or your product well enough. And we can’t argue with that philosophy when we look at the success of Apple.
According to hcamag.com:
“As well as lack of trust, overuse of jargon can mean people disconnect from your message, feel isolated and ultimately lead to miscommunication.”
Who would have thought that using a stream of big, impressive words could be seen as condescending, and alienating?
Speak to your customers on their level. If you stand on a metaphorical platform and speak down to them, they won’t thank you for it.
“Ultimately, avoiding jargon not only shows customers that you care but helps you build lasting relationships built on clear communication.”
Usertesting.com
I’m going to add a caveat here:
Every industry has its own language and if you are appealing to clients who expect and want technical jargon, then, by all means, use it. Just bear in mind – because a service provider communicates in a specific language does not necessarily mean that their client base will.
A little while ago I was asked to proofread an eBook written by financial advisors for their potential clients. They were concerned because the company conversion rate was very low. My feedback was very simple:
“This reads like it was written by financial advisors FOR financial advisors.”
I rewrote their eBook to focus on their client’s wants and needs. I also dropped most of the jargon, and their conversion rate went up to 76% in a week.
Is your website Smartphone friendly?
Many internet users spend more time on their smartphones and tablets than on a stand-alone desktop computer.
“Mobile-friendly websites boost your sales and conversions because there is an ease of accessibility that surrounds this website design.”
Weblite.com
Again, we can take a lead from Google which base a lot of its rules around human behaviour: If your website is not mobile friendly then you are not accessible to most internet users and therefore will not be rewarded with ranking points.
It all comes down to your user journey. If a potential client logs on to your website using their mobile device and has a bad experience, then you will not convert that visitor into a customer.
We have already exceeded 62.3 million mobile internet users in the UK and according to Cyber Crew are expected to hit over 65 million active users by 2026
Also according to Cyber Crew, of all the time UK residents spent online 71% was on a smartphone.
If your website is not mobile phone friendly, stop everything and put that right as a matter of urgency!
Does graphic design impact your website conversion potential?
The short answer is yes, but that is a whole other blog. I’ve been back and forth on how much to put in this guide because, unless you are a graphic designer then you are at the mercy of your web design team.
I will say this though: Certain colours, combinations and even whitespace can be very effective in helping a web user feel specific emotions, follow a certain path, and ultimately make a purchase.
The yellow ‘M’ that signifies the Mcdonald’s logo, for example, is that colour because the use of yellow is often used to incite feelings of hunger and a desire to eat. Imagine the ‘M’ as dark blue – would you still have that craving for a ‘Big Tasty’ meal?
As a business owner you might have a penchant for a colour combination to create the desired aesthetic but, as highlighted by vw.com:
“…in the long run, it can be disastrous for the business goals unless backed with the right research.”
With web design, like all other elements in your website, simplicity is best. If you give the end user too much to look at and process, they will become distracted from their expected journey and are very likely to leave your website and go elsewhere.
Digital marketing and client conversions
Okay, you’ve taken everything above to heart and made necessary changes and now your business website looks great and is fit for purpose. All you need now is a steady influx of the right type of person who needs exactly what it is that you provide.
It is not enough to build an aesthetically pleasing and functional site and then just sit and wait for droves of potential clients to come along. It simply won’t happen.
Luckily, Your Content Write is backed up by twenty years of digital marketing experience so we can offer you a few fundamentals that should help create an impact:
To start you need to know:
This is basic marketing and the answers to the ‘who, what and why’ questions would have instructed your website content already. Now that you have your design complete it is time to revisit those questions and add ‘where’ into the mix.
You will also be wanting to have a sales funnel ready to go – that is, exactly what is the process from the potential clients being unaware of you, to be both aware and purchasing your product to then coming back for more or referring another potentially interested party.
“A well-executed sales funnel will help your business become more visible in the marketplace. This is because it creates a consistent and positive customer experience, which leads to increased word-of-mouth buzz.”
Again, the sales funnel process is a whole other blog, and the link above should help you get started.
Where are your potential customers?
Based on all the research above the simple answer is:
Your potential customers are online.
It’s impossible to get detailed without knowing your specific market sector but given Google’s market share we can assume that, like most of the UK population, your potential clients are on Google searching for answers to their problems.
If you know what they are typing in, then you can create content that answers their specific queries. The most cost-effective and popular way of doing this is by blogging. Blogs are a super effective way of creating and nurturing a trusted bond between your brand and your potential customer.
The theory is simple:
If your clients know, like and trust you then they are more likely to see you as the ‘expert’ in your chosen field and therefore make a purchase. They are also more likely to recommend others.
Blogging has been proven to increase quality website traffic and customer conversions. If you’d like more information on business blogging, click here
What happens once your clients have read your blog?
They convert right away and become lifelong advocates of you and everything you do?
That WOULD be nice, wouldn’t it?
Happily, the truth is not a million miles away from that:
Substitute the words ‘right away’ to after they have consumed 3 to 5 pieces of valuable content, perhaps over a few weeks and you will be closer to the truth:
Are your website and blog showing up on page one of Google?
On average, the number of Google Search queries each second is about 40,000, which is more than 3.5 billion searches per day.
Assuming you are on the first page of Google that is a lot of user searches coming your way.
And it works well if your blog ranks on the first page of Google for those key search terms that your clients are typing in but… what if your website is NOT on the first page of Google?
That doesn’t mean it can’t get there, but what it does mean is that you must dedicate a lot of your time in the early stages to create a good amount of relevant blog content for ongoing monthly recurring revenue in the future.
Business blogging success tips:
Work hard in the early stages and reap the rewards in monthly recurring revenue thereafter!
Share your business content on social media
TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Clubhouse … I could go on.
Social media is the place your clients probably spend most of their time. They use these platforms to connect with others, and according to research they go on for one (or all) of three reasons:
They don’t log on to be sold to.
So, as well as sharing your blog content on your social media platforms, produce regular well-timed posts to appeal to your potential clients. Whilst it is not always a good idea to try and sell your products on social media, if you can entice them to sign up to your email list then your chances of conversion are greatly increased.
Which social media platform should you use to promote your business?
If everyone behaved the same and their preferences were much the same too then there would probably be only one global social media platform. We are a diverse species though, which means there are a variety of social media platforms each with their own unique twist on sharing specific types of content for specific types of people.
With that in mind, please do your homework before posting on social media to select the right platform (i.e. the ones your clients frequent) and at the times they are most likely to react (analytics will tell you how well your posts perform according to type and time of day).
Break down your blog posts into smaller bite-sized chunks of information
It would be amazing if your potential clients woke up and wanted nothing more than to read your content, again and again. However, they have busy lives and may not even have the time to read a full blog post even once.
For these busy individuals, you can extract key elements from your blog and make smaller more digestible chunks of information, or infographic, audio, or video (perhaps with a link to the long-form article).
Give your blog posts to your strategic partners to share
No person is an island and businesses will always work better if they work together. Given that, take a look at your customer base and come up with other business individuals or companies that share the same client base that you can partner up with for a mutual benefit.
For instance, a photographer may want to connect with a wedding planner and a wedding cake maker. The chances are, if a client is using one of those services, that same client will also need help from the other two.
If you are operating to the mutual benefit of your strategic partners, then see if they will share your blog posts in their own social media/email channels. You return the favour in kind and reach a whole new audience!
And teaming up with other companies can really work:
Shopify generated approximately $50 billion for its partners in 2020.
And
95% of Microsoft’s revenue flows through its partners
Thank you crossbeam.com for those statistics.
You need a business email list
Some entrepreneurs refer to the email list as their ‘licence to print money.’
Whilst selling directly on social media and on blogs is often frowned upon, it is expected and keenly encouraged once a prospective client has subscribed to your email list.
It is their endorsement of you and is them saying that they WANT to hear more from you.
According to campaignmonitor.com:
“Email lists are important because email marketing is the best way to connect with customers vs. social media. In fact, you are 6x more likely to get higher click-through rates through emails instead of tweets. Also, email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter”
In conclusion…
I could have gone on as we live and breathe this stuff over here but that’s probably enough information for now. If you’d like to receive more tips and tricks and strategies to help your digital marketing efforts, then click here and sign up for our VIP list.
If you have the time to do it then the advice above should make a significant difference to your brand awareness, Google ranking, client conversions and your bottom line.
If on the other hand you are pushed for time get in touch and let’s work together to make your digital marketing efforts make a difference!
Why your Business needs a blog in 2023
Blog WritingA compelling reason to blog in 2023…
Is it enough to say that blogging is on average 62% less expensive than other marketing methods to achieve the same result?
Probably not, though it IS true. Business blogging generates many long-lasting benefits in terms of customer reach, engagement, conversion and even Google ranking!
And those trends look set to continue in 2023.
What kind of people read blogs?
According to techjury.net, 77% of all web users read blogs. Now, if you want to experience more of a real-world illustration, take a walk just about anywhere in the UK and you will see all manner of people, all with their heads buried in their phones, tablets or other electronic devices. It doesn’t matter who you want to reach, the internet has made connecting with your ideal customer seamless. All you need is the right content and platform. Could that be blogging? Let’s find out…
Does your ideal demographic read blogs?
It is more than likely.
According to https://truelist.co/blog/blog-statistics/, the difference between male and female blog post readers is almost negligible.
52.43% are male, whilst 47.38% are female.
How old are the people reading your business blog?
According to finances online:
Remember, since 77% of the people in the UK read blogs, we are looking at a total of approximately 48.40 million monthly blog readers in the UK, so even the 14.1% (lowest amount above) equates to 6,824,400 monthly business blog readers aged 50+ in the United Kingdom.
Do your ideal customers read business blogs?
Without knowing your exact demographics, it is impossible to say. You can always contact us, and we’d be happy to conduct a free analysis for you. As a general rule of thumb, however, many business owners consider themselves to be of a similar mentality and demographic as their ideal customers. If this is the case then consider, you are reading this blog post, so the chances are your ideal customers read blog posts too.
People who want to connect write blogs
Business Blogs communicate in the same language as your ideal customers, answering their burning questions and giving them exactly the right information at the time when they most need it.
According to financesonline.com:
“91% of B2B marketers reported that their companies blog or use other forms of content marketing and 86% of B2C marketers reported that their companies blog or use other forms of content marketing.”
Difference between your blog post and a web page…
Why do you need a business blog, after all, you have a website. Surely that’s enough?
If I had a pound for every business owner I’d met who had a website, but only because they thought they ‘should have one’ and proclaimed: “We don’t really get many leads from the site” then I’d consider early retirement.
Your website is your showroom. It is your chance to be slick and show off your wares in a very professional and engaging way, yet as brilliant as many people’s websites are they can be about as useful as a luxury yacht that has set up anchor in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, hoping to catch specific passers-by.
Enter the blog (the lesser-known Bruce Lee film)
For those websites that have a blog, I’m going to expand upon our earlier metaphor: Your blog is the army of friendlier smaller boats that rush to shore picking up your ideal passengers with a friendly smile then after a bit of pampering gives them a free ride to your big expensive yacht (your website).
Think of a business blog as a trusted friend
Think of the friends you have here in the ‘real world.’ Do you know like and trust them?
Your friends care about you (I hope). They know what you like and what you need and the chances of them recommending something you’d hate is, let’s face it, unlikely; not that you’d drop everything right away to make a purchase. But after 2 or three separate conversations on the topic, the chances are you’d be ready to retrieve that credit card and start buying.
We can relate this behaviour to blogging:
Thanks to https://financesonline.com/business-blogging-statistics/ for those juicy stats.
Like a trusted friend, the successful business blog ‘speaks’ in the best interests of the reader, offering free information, inspiration or tools without a price tag.
This doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be a call to action, in fact, many successful blogs do have a call to action – that is a specific action that you want the blog reader to perform (join an email list, perhaps). Some businesses will brazenly promote their services in the hope you will make a purchase (perhaps with a discount). This sometimes works; however, the best-performing blogs recognise that you are unlikely to get married on the first date and will need to engage in a bit of professional courtship first:
Business Blogs offer a perfect mix of emotion and logic
There are a few blogging truths that have served me well in the 15-plus years I have been business blogging in the UK and one such nugget is:
“A great blog will capture someone on an emotive level first and then back it up with the facts and figures that the ideal audience really wants.”
(Me, 10 seconds ago)
If you have ever read ‘The Chimp Paradox’ by noted neuroscientist Professor Steve Peters, then you’ll know the human brain is split into three distinct areas:
When we decide on just about anything (including whether we are going to purchase an item) the first part of the brain to react is the primal bit – the chimp – or the emotional part. By the time the logical part kicks into action, it is looking for reasons to support the emotional decision that WE HAVE ALREADY MADE.
The same can be said when we decide if we are going to like and trust someone. The emotional part will form an opinion, which will then be backed up by facts, figures and stories passed on from remembered, established trusted sources which will then lead to an opinion and a possible action to connect or not connect with an individual or group.
This is part of the reason why people from a similar background or a particular social and economic disposition tend to associate more freely with one another and have similar views and opinions.
(Yes, to be a content writer and marketer I elected to take a keen interest in psychology).
And finally, the same can be said if we choose to consume and trust information from a blog post…
The ideal from the business owner’s perspective is that their model customer will consume so much free content, that they build an emotional and trusting bond with the brand. This bond will then lead to future purchases and even result in their ideal customers recommending your products and services to other interested parties.
Like a ‘real world’ relationship, interacting with a brand conforms to much the same rules and expectations.
Regular blogging can help you get onto page one of Google
Positions one and two of Google are the Holy Grail of the internet for many businesses. More than half of every user search query goes to those positions, and by the time you get to the very top of page two, you are only receiving less than two percent of the search queries.
Google rewards relevant, well-performing sites. Regardless of what SEO experts will tell you and how much they might try to baffle you with SEO science, remember that Google is not neutral. It has an agenda:
“Google wants to remain the market leader for search engine traffic. To do this they need to deliver the most accurate results for a user and in the fastest time.”
Me again 15 seconds ago
Suppose you consistently help Google achieve that by BEING the most relevant result, and having relevant sites link to you as well as regularly having people interact with your content. In that case, you stand a good chance of receiving high-ranking rewards.
A regular, well-written blog post can have a significant impact on your Google ranking.
We’ve taken so many companies with underperforming websites and helped them rank in the first two positions of Google, simply by introducing a regular keyword-rich and engaging blog to their existing site (at least one per week, though four times per week, can generate outstanding results even faster).
The theory is simple:
If you can get inside the mind of your consumer and serve up quality blog content on a regular basis, then they will know like and trust you. They will interact with your site and Google will see your site as being relevant and worthy of ranking high!
You rank in the first position on Google, and significantly more people digest your content, which then leads to more conversions and your site transforms from relative obscurity to one of the main revenue generators for your business.
A few Google ranking stats on business blogging:
“72% of online marketers describe content creation as their most effective SEO tactic.” https://optinmonster.com/blogging-statistics/#:~:text=77%25%20of%20internet%20users%20read,than%20they%20do%20on%20email
“Websites with blogs have a 434% better chance of ranking high in search engine results.” https://truelist.co/blog/blog-statistics/
“56% of surveyed consumers have made a purchase from a company after reading their blog and 10% of marketers who use blogging say it generates the biggest return on investment.” https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/blog-search-engine-optimization
Should you write your own business blog?
Hopefully, by now I’ve presented a compelling argument for you to introduce business blogging into your marketing mix. Though one important question remains:
Do you outsource your blog writing or do you do it yourself?
I believe we are each given two gifts in this life – those being time and money and the better use of one will result in an abundance of the other:
If you have the money to hire a professional to create engaging blog content that is equally engaging to Google and your prospective end user, then you should do so. They will make sure the articles are well written, are the right length, with the right density of keywords, are researched to be relevant to what your clients are looking for and are delivered on time.
If you are blessed however with more time than money, then write them yourself. The passion and voice a professional content creator will bring to your brand, you already have in its raw form. You just need to know how to translate that into profit-generating content, which we will help you with for FREE – subscribe to our VIP list.
Whilst we do provide a business blog writing service, we also offer free content and advice on how to do this yourself. It is 100% FREE and will be forever.
Closing thoughts…
So, there you have it. While you are making those new year’s resolutions to stop smoking, lose weight and be nicer to your mother-in-law (two out of three aren’t bad), make a promise to your business that you will spare a thought for your business and make a potentially game-changing decision by truly connecting with your potential and current customers – start a business blog.
How To Blog For Maximum Attention (Part 1)
Blog WritingHow does your blog strategy stand in the most crowded of market places and inspire clients to want to engage with you?
Traditional business schools may tell you to define your USP’s and make sure they are in your blog. – i.e. what is it that you offer that other people don’t?
Not a bad idea – I mean that’s what 80% of the other businesses are doing. What if you want to stand out from the shadows of the other 80%?
I’ll ask you a question and your answer to that question may guide you on the path to the answer to which you’ve been searching.
What would inspire you to select a never before tried company (at least by you) over another?
I’m guessing not much. I mean the new company is a risk. You know nothing about them. Perhaps all you have received is an initial sales message, with a purchase offer that is ‘Too Good to Be True!’
This is how I do it…
Firstly, I come from a place where I WANT to serve those who need my help.
I look for people who would benefit from my help and I get to know them.
I will give away as much help and advice as I can for FREE, usually by blog or social media.
If people want to take the next step then they can subscribe to my mailing list in which they will get more in-depth help and advice for FREE.
The people on my mailing list have seen my REGULAR BLOG AND SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS. They have used my methods and know they work. They are no longer standing confused in a market place wondering where to find their answers.
When I release information that comes at a cost then people know (because of my track record) that my help and advice is absolutely worth their time and immediate attention. They are not just willing, but they WANT TO INVEST in that help because they recognise what that product will do for them.
I’ve described very basically a funnel where you meet another living human being online, do as much as you can for them AND GET PAID FOR IT.
I hope this has helped.
If you would like more in-depth advice please feel free to subscribe to my mailing list.
Why Blogging is Good For Your Business
Blog Writing, AllSo, you have an amazing site… Great, well done you.
You may also post regular sales messages through your own social media channels.
In fact, there are a myriad of sales options out there, designed to show your clients that one irresistible offer that will make a huge difference to their lives and to your bottom line.
So why introduce blogging into the mix? What purpose does it serve?
I’d like to start by stating the obvious… Your clients are people.
Let’s think about that for a second. Whether they are the CEO of a major corporation, the owner of a chip shop or a single parent struggling to make ends meet, they all share that one common quality.
As ‘people’, they will base their relationships on perception, trust and familiarity. This works not only in their personal lives but also transcends into their purchases too.
Remember, your website is a sales platform pure and simple. It is the showroom for what you have to offer to satisfy your clients desires.
Trouble is, yours is not the only website out there, and the chances are you are not the only one offering the same product or service.
Having a blog takes you out of the rat race, in which thousands of businesses are standing on their own little patch of land screaming:
“Buy from me… Buy from me… BUY FROM ME!!”
When you have a blog, the clients come to you. They seek you out – Why?
Let’s look at the stats. Then I’ll help you understand why those impressive figures are entirely logical:
Firstly, the blog is NOT a direct sales tool and (barring a few minor exceptions), should never be used as one. It’s there to build a relationship between you and your clients:
So, when designing a blog think initially about what it is that your clients want to see. Be aware that they are constantly barraged by numerous metaphorical marriage proposals which they automatically ignore.
Look for initial opportunities to serve your clients for free, offering them content that they really want (the chat and cup of water at the water cooler).
Make your blogs regular. This sets you up as the resident and reliable expert in their mind’s eye.
Encourage those who can’t get enough of your content to sign up to your mailing list (taking them away from that water cooler and into a coffee shop to offer them something of more value for free. The metaphorical cup of coffee).
Once they are on your mailing list:
Now your free content can point towards a bigger offering, whilst still adding value.
If you follow this, then more than likely you will begin to receive comments and emails from potential clients who have loved your free content and are eager to purchase your bigger offering.
On the subject of what specifically to put into your blogs, this will be covered in a future post. I will say for now though, that my rule of thumb is the same as it is with social media:
Your content has to either inspire, educate or entertain (or a combination). If it does none of those then it is a waste of a post.
There should be some sort of call to action (To like a Facebook page or join a mailing list perhaps).
And I know this was mentioned earlier but beyond the branding, your blog should not be a blatant self-promoting sales document.
Remember you want your clients to WANT to buy from you not ignore you.
Good luck with your blogging. Comments and questions welcome below, as always.
Till next time…
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Why Optimizing your FAQ Page Could Be One of Your Smartest Moves.
All, Rank High on GoogleIt’s your FAQ page. Many people put them up because… well because everyone else does. But beyond serving your clients with some blatantly obvious answers to things that are mostly covered in your site, what other use does it have?
I can’t even begin to describe… Actually, I can and that’s what the focus of this blog is. So, let’s dive right in.
Let’s look at the basics from a user perspective, then delve into the SEO possibilities that will help your website rank high on Google.
Assuming you are on first name terms with your customer avatar, you will have a site that addresses the majority of your users and presents them with the information that they want, in order for you to make conversions and sales.
That’s all great, but what of your potential clients (The ones who are frantically typing away on Google, hoping and praying for the solutions that you have for their burning wants)? They will have specific questions, phrased in a way that is unique to them and similarly use unique associated keywords.
Wouldn’t it be nice to rank for those specific questions and have the answers ready-made?
That was rhetorical.
Welcome to your new and improved FAQ page…
Below follows a few tips and tricks on optimizing your FAQ page so Google, your customers and you are smiling so much you’d think you all slept with hangers in your mouths.
Take the Following Example:
Imagine you run a parcel delivery service. Think of the most basic question that a user might ask like, ‘When will my delivery arrive?’
Before you have finished typing the word ‘delivery’ Google will already predict what you might want, based on frequent searches. You’ll see those populated below your search.
Click on one and see where it leads. You’ll probably find companies that offer the same service (or similar) to you.
Because the FAQ page is often ignored as a lead generation page you’ll find it easier to rank as the competition is far less.
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Till next time…
How to Write Web Content Like Apple.
All, Content WritingWith the launch of the new Apple iPhone X, Your Content Write thought it might be fun to investigate exactly what makes Apple web content so irresistible.
So, if you want to be able to write content like Apple and make your products and services sound as enticing as the iPhone X, then read on.
Once you log onto https://www.apple.com/uk/iphone-x/ you are presented with a graphic (a huge ‘X’) which magically transforms itself into a phone as you scroll down.
One might say, you are greeted with a concept of the future, and since the user has to scroll down to complete the transformation into a phone, it is a vision of the future that the user can now hold.
This is very empowering and thrills the reader enough to want to read on.
For those familiar with marketing and sales, you will know that creating an excitement or buzz around a product or service, before the reader has even looked further into it is essential if you want to take your potential customers down a sales funnel and convert them into long term fans.
Having seen this graphic, the words that Apple use must live up to the Graphic and nurture those subliminal concepts. See Below:
The next section starts with an <H> tag title ‘iPhone X’ making it easier for Google to read and understand what the web page will be all about.
In the 53 words that follow (before the next graphic), iPhone is mentioned three times and iPhone X twice. Throughout the page the keyword iPhone X is mentioned 18 times.
The text in this section contains language that is both inspiring and emotive and builds upon the established graphic as a true taste for the future.
Apple speak of their ‘vision’, creating a sense that this amazing piece of Tec has been worked on for many years and now their ‘vision’ is finally a reality.
This gives it an unique ‘sought after’ quality, helping the reader along the path to owning this little slice of heaven.
Right from the gate Apple speak of their device being:
‘…so immersive that the device itself disappears into the experience.’
This is essential… Let’s face it, a phone is a phone. You text, make calls, take pictures, record movies and play games (My grandma would be turning in her grave shouting ‘No. You make calls. End Of!’)
So, instead of selling a phone Apple are instead selling a dream, a vision for the future, a chance to escape the normal hum drum of daily existence.
Apple are selling what the user wants not needs. A drill salesman by comparison does not sell drills, he sells holes in walls i.e. The end result.
So, instead of selling a phone with a few upgrades, they sell the dream (the customer buys the phone as the natural transport to that dreams reality).
Let’s look at the keywords that stick in the mind from a user’s point of view:
Vision (Mentioned twice), create, immersive, experience and intelligent.
These words are lovingly wrapped around the words iPhone and iPhone X, with the closing line:
‘Say hello to the future.’
It even uses alliteration to heighten the readers experience with:
The device itself disappears into the experience.
There is then another graphic, followed by another paragraph. None of the paragraphs are long (The next being just 23 words) and are all centred around fulfilling a promise for the taste of tomorrow.
Throughout the whole page we are taken on a journey to experience the wonderment of what could be (subtly upselling Apple accessories and Apple Music on the way) which, if you have made it to the bottom, (resisting the temptation to click the buy button) then you are starkly presented with the call to action that Apple want you to take:
Buy an iPhone X now!
Apple know that if you have resisted clicking that buy button, but have read to the bottom, you are clearly interested in the product but perhaps money is an issue. It then offers monthly payment plans and even a chance to trade in your old phone for cash.
The complete sales funnel displayed on one page (I love it).
One thing I found quite clever on this page was its wider reach in relation to audience type:
At every stage people are offered the opportunity to learn more about the technical aspect of the phone with a simple inbound link (which is a brownie point for SEO and reduces the bounce rate).
One thing that Apple did NOT do was to include the technical know how and jargon in with the text on the front page. That’s because they know that not everyone is interested in that and it would interfere with the user experience as they make their way down the page.
That would be the same as an illusionist explaining the secrets behind a magic trick as he / she performs it for the first time on stage – all the viewer excitement and wonder is lost and you are left with nothing more than a how-to guide, which may be only mildly interesting at best.
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How to Write Content that Google and Your Customers will Love (Part 2)
All, Content Writing, Rank High on GoogleAll righty then…
This is a follow on from my previous post (hence part 2) If you missed that one, please refer to my previous blog.
All caught up?
Good.
When I write content for my clients I do it in two stages:
1. I create an amazing piece of prose that will educate, inspire or entertain (hopefully all three depending on the subject matter of the text). When doing this I pay absolutely no attention to keywords, Google or any of the other search engines out there. My first and most important task is to communicate an idea that will lead to a call to action.
2. After stage one is complete I then look in great detail at the purpose of the page. I want my clients to rank on Google so I try to make the purpose as specific as possible. I am trying to make this as niche as possible thereby making it easier for Google to present the page to the right people.
Generalized Phrases should be avoided as much as possible. Remember Google is not as clever as you (yet) so work has to be done to make the search engine crawler’s job easy.
As an example, if a car dealership wants to rank high for the keyword ‘Cars’ they will find it:
a. Very expensive if they are paying for it.
b. Extremely competitive if they are wanting to appear on the first page.
With such a general term Google has to cast a wide net in the hope that the information you are looking for is on that page.
Typically, you may find:
A few local car dealerships near to where the user is, information on Disney’s Cars, Magazine listings on the top performing cars, Newsworthy items that include cars and a few YouTube videos that have cars in them.
‘Cars for sale’ or ‘Cars for sale in Jarrow’ on the other hand is a lot more specific and helps Google recognise exactly what your page will be about.
Tags
On websites you have Tags (H1, H2 etc). If you are new to this, you can think of them as headings much like you would see on a newspaper article:
(The following news article is FICTION. Don’t get too excited).
Daily News
Jeremy the Goose Learns to Speak English!
A Goose was spotted giving directions to a group of tourists.
Bystanders were today left baffled when a Goose, who later identified himself as ‘Jeremy the Goose’ approached a group of foreign tourists and….
In the above example, taken from a true story (Not really) The first item we are drawn to is the headline ‘Goose learns to Speak English!’
If we want to draw Google’s attention to a headline in the same way we would place this text in the ‘H1’ tag. This would tell Google what the main focus is.
Google would then read on to make sure the rest of your text lives up to the promise of that tag. If it does, then all is good.
In newspapers we also have a sub heading, designed to draw the reader in further. Google has this too. It’s called the H2 tag. Still important, though not quite so much as the H1.
After this we have main body of text.
Let’s have a quick look at my keywords in this very small body of text.
Already I can see I am likely to rank very well for the key phrase ‘Jeremy the Goose’ and although the word ‘goose’ appears four times in four lines, it does sound very natural.
If I were to continue the article I would be wary of the number of times I use the specific keywords and would perhaps use synonyms as substitutes to ensure Google does not put me on their hit list of keyword spammers.
Naturally, I’m assuming the text on your site will not be speaking of talking geese, but the concept is the same.
If you need help in inserting H1 and H2 tags on your platform leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to help.
WordPress makes it very easy to insert H1 and H2 tags.
Going on the assumption that you already know how to set up a WordPress page or post:
Once you have your text written, highlight the area that you want to identify as the H1 tag and then look up and you will see a drop-down box with the word ‘paragraph’ written on it.
Click on the box and select ‘Heading 1’.
Hey Presto, you have a H1 tag.
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