Is this thing on?

Christa Theg

Does it feel like sometimes that you're just not reaching your audience through your emails?

It can be easy to fall into messaging patterns that just aren't clicking with your audience through our emails.

Obviously, we want our audience to know that we are well versed in our area of expertise. 

This is very important because for our audience to really come to know and trust us we have to make sure that we are speaking the same language!

Sometimes we forget that our audience may not understand business jargon and may become lost and confused causing them to abandon their client journey. So how can we bridge the gap between jargon and effective messaging that can be the difference between struggle and success?

Here are four ways to bridge that gap:

1. Reach out to your audience! Let your audience know that you want to hear from them! Offering this open line of communication has multiple benefits. The first is that it lets your audience know that you genuinely care about them and their opinions. This builds trust and creates a sense of connection and loyalty to your brand. Secondly, your reaching out to your audience can help you to improve your products and services and could potentially inspire some new ones.

2. Model the messaging of successful business owners in your field. I want to be clear I am NOT saying to copy-paste and change a few words to fit your message. Mainly because it will not sound authentic to you but also because it was crafted for their audience and may not resonate with your audience at all! Modeling a message looks at what you found interesting about it, maybe there is a type of sentence structure or wording that could be reworked in a way that will blow your subscribers' minds. Once you are inspired, take these elements of messaging and use them in your campaigns. 

  

3. Find someone who specializes in crafting messages that are appealing to our audience! Copywriters are and have been for decades the secret weapon  biggest best-kept secrets of successful businesses. Think of them as a translator taking your message and converting it into an eye-catching offer that is irresistible to your audience. 

4. One of the most powerful ways to bridge the gap between two people is through story! Stories capture attention and engage our audiences. Which makes them much more likely to assimilate our message. 

 

Why Is Content Marketing Important For Business Owners?

 

Daniel Grenbom

In a world full of creators, influencers and people who invest numerous hours every week into creating content, one might wonder why?

Why is content marketing so important and whether that can benefit his business?

Well, according to a recent study by HubSpot, 82% of marketers actively invest in content marketing. 51% of them publish content every day.

But first, what is content marketing? 

The Content Marketing Institute defines it in the following way:

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customers."

And now that we have this part covered let’s dive deep into what I believe are the 4-most powerful benefits content marketing can have on your business.

1) It Helps You Position Yourself As An Expert - When you consistently show up with new, relevant information, others will start to understand a simple truth: that you're someone who knows what he is talking about. Otherwise, how would you even do that?! 

This perception about you will make it easier for them to trust, and do business with you. They’ll also tend to value your opinion more, increasing your overall level of influence and ability to impact their lives.

2) More Opportunities To Connect - Everything you share and publish is an opportunity for someone else to read, think about you, and even reach out with questions, thoughts, or feedback.

Usually, when we start becoming more consistent with our posts, we will see a significant spike in the amount of communication we experience each day.

This will lead to more opportunities to serve our audience, as well as enroll them in our paid offers and services.

3) It Allows You To Educate Your Prospects - Many marketers nowadays leave a lot of money on the table by targeting hot prospects only. 

Problem is, it’s a very competitive market.

But what if you could target a bigger pool?

One that is filled with potential clients?

What if you could invest some time into educating your followers on the opportunity, journey, and things they can do to get to their desired state.

Then, you'll slowly transition people from the ice-cold pool into the warm hot tub, from which you'll be able to offer them your paid services.

4) Reciprocity - A great way to stand out, get attention and build powerful connections along the way is to serve your audience better than anyone else.

One quick way to do that is to offer value. Help them get closer to their desired state.

Build a relationship with them and show them that you’re here to help. Invest some of your time in educating them.

This will allow you to build long-term business relationships with them, and ensure that once they do get to the warm hot tub and ready to take the next step, you’ll be the first person that will come to mind. 

People buy from those they like, know and trust. And if you want people to take you up on your offers, you will need to show them how much you care.

Theodore Roosevelt once said: "Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care."

That’s it.

These are, in my opinion, the four most powerful hidden benefits that content marketing has to offer. It’s also important to mention that these are true for all businesses (At least the ones that rely on leads and sales)

I hope you found this useful and would love to hear your feedback below.

What's The Point of Creating Content If It Doesn't Convert?

 Some of the questions that I keep hearing from my new clients. 

Why do it if it isn't making sales?

What's the point if no one is reading it?

Will it ever pay off? I keep creating but...nothing!

I hear you, and I feel your pain. 

Not only is this one of the most frustrating things as a marketer, it wreaks havoc on our confidence and self-esteem.

Yet, there is hope. So let's get to the root of the issue. There must first be a few things taken care of before you start blaming your content as a failure.

1. Do you actually have an audience that your content is put in front of?

2. Is that audience actually in need of the content you are delivering?

3. If so, do THEY realize the need for the content you are putting out?

Without these things put in place, you will continually be struggling with low consumption and seemingly non-existent conversions.

If these are in place, now you can focus on the content(if done right, it will magnify the above list as well). Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating content.

1. Use stories. Not just any story, but your own story. This will allow you to connect with your audience and them to you.

2. Keep a variety of content styles and mediums. People get very bored quickly these days.

3. Don't be  afraid to share your life with them. This will help you to enhance the trust factor.

4. Get help form those who already do content well!

The fastest way to go from just starting to mastering something is to seek out those who have studied and implemented what you are looking to improve.

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I have spent over a quarter of a century learning the art of copywriting and sales persuasion and today I still beat myself up about being to prideful when I was younger. I should have asked for help and found someone to mentor me instead of spending my life trying to figure out on my own what others already knew. 

Don't be like I was then or it will take you most of your life to get where I am today.

How To Keep Your Subscribers Active

Getting Responsive Subscribers

It is the aim of all email marketers to have a list full of people that read their emails and make a purchase when they present offers. This is unrealistic, but what you don’t want is a list full of tire kickers and freebie seekers. 

There is no way that you can totally control this of course but there are some things you can do to minimize getting the wrong kind of subscribers.

What are your Traffic sources?

Where your traffic comes from is a very important factor. Traffic that originates from a source that is cheap will rarely produce a list of buyers. 

Resist the temptation to use “safe lists” for traffic or a similar service where you have to subscribe to their list and then they will join yours. 

These people will never even read your emails let alone make a purchase.

You must ensure that your traffic is targeted. If your niche is making money online then traffic that originates from the Warrior Forum is likely to produce better subscribers because it is targeted. 

Don’t go to general forums to get your traffic – it won’t turn out well. Using Facebook ads is a good idea as you can really be specific about the demographics.

Although almost everyone is interested in making more money, traffic from unrelated websites is likely to lead to freebie seekers and tire kickers. 

They just want information. Warrior Forum members are genuinely interested about making money online so they are likely to be more responsive.

Using the Double Opt In Confirmation Facility

Another mistake that a lot of email marketers make is to immediately redirect a visitor to their lead magnet download page once they have opted in. You have no idea whether the email address used by the visitor is real or not so this is just giving away your lead magnet for free. If you do use a redirect, make sure to send them to an alternate offer like this...

This will help you minimize the loss of opt ins with double opt in. You will end up with a better class of subscriber. If they are prepared to go to the trouble of confirming their interest then they are more likely to read your emails when you send them. If they can’t be bothered then you don’t want them anyway.

To increase the number of opt ins be sure to get people more excited about your lead magnet and your email newsletter after they have opted in. Direct them to a web page which will do this. Tell them that you offer a great deal of value with your lead magnet and your emails.

Be up front with your subscribers and tell them that you will send emails that contain offers sometimes. Measure your open rates and click rates all the time. Your autoresponder service will provide this information. Tell your subscribers that you are doing this and it will deter some tire kickers.

Track Activity and Clean your List

Take a close look at the subscriber activity in your list. If you have a number of subscribers that have not opened any of your emails for a while then it is best to get shot of them. There could be several reasons why a subscriber is not opening your emails:

• They don’t like your email content

• They do not use the email address any more

• They have forgotten who you are

• They are freebie seekers

This is a great way to cleanse your list:

Find all subscribers that have not opened emails for 3 months.

Remove these people from your primary list and add them to a new list.

Send out three broadcast messages to them on different days advising them of the situation and asking them to re-subscribe if they want to continue receiving your newsletter.

10 Musts For Writing Great Content

Thankfully one of the things that I have learned over time, is that copywriting is something that you can continually get better at as you practice. 

So join me as we cover the following 10 things that must be to write great content.

1. The Headline Must Grab Attention and Peak Curiosity 

First and foremost, you must grab their attention and make them ask a question in their mind. Our subconscious can be a pain sometimes, but it can also be a huge asset in business. You see, a question in the mind cannot be left unanswered. There are only three ways to solve that problem. Give them the answer, let someone else give them the answer, or they will make one up based on their current understanding.

2. The Headline Hook Their Attention

Now that we got their attention we must hold it. 

"20 Pounds In 1 Week!" 

That will get someone's attention but will not hold it. Now try this...

 "Lose 20 Pounds In 4 Weeks Without the Medieval Torture of Fad Diets, Endless Hours of Grueling Cardio, And Embarrassing Trips To The Gym That Make You Want To Hide In Your Gym Locker"

• 
  

3. Remember The Your Audience Is Your Audience - Write To Them!

A sharp intro may get their attention, yet you are not there yet. When you write, write as though your were speaking to a specific member of your audience across the table.

4. Keep Your Writing Focus Tight

• Bad: How to improve your sales
• Better: How to do better selling in your small business
• Best: How to use social media to increase sales in your affiliate marketing business

5. Be Engaging

Let's face it, if you are not giving them what they need, they are simply not going to keep reading! If they don't keep reading you will never be able to build rapport, trust, or connection and therefore make no sales.

6. You Have  A Unique Brand Voice - Write Like It!

Imagine that you get 200 people to show up and read your content, and you get 80% of them to read your headline. Now I know that sounds like it's pretty good but let's go a little bit deeper.

Of those that actually went ahead and read the headline you might only get 25% of those people to read the content that you wrote.
Now you know the importance of making sure that your headline grabs the attention of his many people as possible.

If you want to create a strong headline, you have to be very specific about what you're talking about but offer very few details as to how to implement it.
Great job your headline got people to click on your content! Now you have only one specific goal and that's convinced them to keep reading.

This isn't as easy as you might think!

The Nielsen Norman Group says, approximately 57 % of time viewing a page is spent above the fold. This is that area that can be seen before readers need to scroll. If they happen to scroll and fill the screen again, it drops to 17%. As you can imagine, only the hardcore reader will go further than that.

If your headline doesn't grab 'em, don’t expect them to stick around.
You want to keep your audience reading, so the best practice is to jump straight into the content promised in your headline.

Like this article, I am pretty confident you want to write better content. So, at the very beginning, I mentioned your struggle and explained this article will guide  you to the solution you are looking for.

Since you are still reading, I know it worked!

If you write to everyone, you will connect with no one.

If you keep one congruent thought from the title to the end of your writing, you will find that your readers will consume a greater portion of your articles.

Write with a tight focus, yet do it conversationally. Ultimately, they should be able to easily answer, "What was your key take-away from the article?"

Think about your focus being an arrow that points your readers to a specific point

 For instance:
However enticing your headline may be, if your content doesn’t quickly engage your audience once they land on your page, they’re going to bounce.
As a marketer, I bet you’ve been told excellent content writing is about using simple language.

However, that same BuzzSumo study suggests content with high readability scores (shorter sentences and words) do not generally perform any better than those with lower readability scores.

To keep it simple, the best practice for writing is to use language that your audience will easily understand. The best way to do this is spend time hanging out on forums or groups where you audience hangs a out and read/listen to how they communicate with one another.
Ever wonder why some brands stand out while others do not?

Figuring out who you’re writing for and what engages them is key. When you get it sorted, keep doing it. 

Find out what works and just do more of it. It’s all about consistency.

7. Give Your Readers The Info They Want

Can you imagine searching google for car insurance quotes and then having them offer a link to this article? Disappointing for sure!

Or what if you got here and I told you that you should just write really good content and make your readers happy. I am pretty sure that would just upset you, right

I would have certainly lost a reader that day.

Make sure you spend some time setting up an "Ask Campaign" to get the info you need.

8. Outlines Give Structure

Knowing what your audience wants is not enough. You now have to create an outline that will strategically oder that data so that it is easily consumed. More importantly is so that it can be easily implemented!

Adding structure will also help you in researching and identifying supporting content and resources.

Finally, search for supportive third-party sources with existing content on your site.

9. Actionable Tips Or Steps Will Place Your A Step Ahead Of Your Competition

If you prioritize your writing to give value to your readers they are more likely to share and return to you in the future. When you do it right, you also greatly increase the chances that they will join your email list as well.

You need to become an expert in your field. Not just someone who is well read. You need to actually be out there doing what you are teaching other people to do. I teach people to utilize blogs for traffic, here is my blog. I teach them how to use Facebook, here is my account. 

Want to see how we use groups on social media? Take a look! 

I think you get the idea.
Simply stated, write about what you know - not about what you read.

10. Let Them Trust You

There's is no shortage of content online today. Even if you are working in a little known niche, there are likely thousands of options for people to choose from. Why should they choose you?

Why should readers choose your content over anyone else's?

Make your content trustworthy to stand out from the crowd. When people know that you take the time to do your research and plan out your content, they will most likely search it out and click on it.

Having a name that is known in your field will definitely help you in business and that is not as hard as you may think. It just takes some strategic planning and some foresight. Come back because I will be going over a couple ways to do this in upcoming posts.

We all have to start somewhere just like you. So make sure that when you use resources, you link back to them. These are called backlinks. They have multiple purposes.

1. They let the readers know you care enough to do thorough research, hence the trust.

2. It lets the search engines know that you are connected with other large content sites  that are popular - thus you must be as well.

3. People do check for backlinks to their sites and they are likely to return the favor an link back to you as you write valuable content. This will benefit you both in many ways.