A business niche is your speciality, what makes you different from the other companies. This can either be a particular service or product you sell or the way you brand yourself. Whatever it is that makes your company unique is your niche. Without that distinct specialty, your audience will too often pass over your business in favor of another.
Finding that niche, though, feels extremely difficult. With every passing year, markets expand, sometimes to an extent that there’s no room for newcomers. You come up with a brilliant business idea, only to realize that “it’s already been done,” and by ten other companies. But there is a niche for you if you look hard enough.
Have you encountered a lot of competition in your market? That’s good! The more competition the better. Although too much competition can make it difficult for your voice to be heard, where there is competition there is a market. And with so many competitors, you can be sure that it’s a market worth fighting for. Now all you have to do is find what makes you different from them.
Ask yourself, “What does my business have/offer that customers can’t find anywhere else?” This will require you to do some research on the market. Look for places where there is a gap or unexplored territory.
Take Netflix for example: Netflix was entering the home movie market, in competition with the popular Blockbuster of the day. But Netflix offered something that Blockbuster didn’t―they offered convenience to their customers. Instead of driving to the movie store, customers could walk out to their mailbox for a movie rental, or eventually just stream it. Netflix thrived while Blockbuster died because Netflix found their niche, and they owned it.
When it’s hard to pinpoint what differences you have from your competitors, then create a niche. A good place to start is by asking your audience what they wish your market had. Write out a list of their frustrations with the current market. Are they looking for cheaper prices, better service or more information on a certain subject that is lacking? Your business can be the one that betters the market. Any of these frustrations can be an opportunity for your business to voyage into an unchartered niche.
Sometimes you find a gap you can fill but have no idea where to begin. You don’t have to fill that gap alone. Look for resources and people around you with the skill set and expertise to help you dominate your niche of the market.
Collaborate with experts to reach out to your target audience in a new way. For example, maybe your market isn’t doing well too well on social media. You notice that this may be because your industry hasn’t been using video for advertising and marketing purposes. Find and work with a video expert who can help you bridge that gap! Who said you had to find your niche alone?
In all the world, there is only one you. Make your business as unique as you are. You’ll know you’ve found the right niche when it excites you and your audience. Remember how excited and passionate you get about your business. When you find your niche, you’ll feel the same way.
The post How to Find the Right Niche for Your Online Business first appeared on Digital Altitude.]]>Building your company doesn’t have to be risky business if you know how to get enough money to be financially secure. Lucky for you, there isn’t some grandiose secret for how and where to get enough money to start a business. Each business will have different budgeting needs in the beginning, so it’s important that you know what your company needs before you go making unnecessary expenditures.
The U.S. Small Business Administration has said that most home-based businesses can get started with just $1,000-$5,000 in initial funds. Larger and more main-street startups may require $30,000 or more to get started. Wherever your startup may fall in this range, you’ll need to save quite a bit of money to start funding your business.
As tempting as it is to quit your day job and focus all of your energies on your new business, it may be more beneficial in the long run to stay at your job while starting your business. That source of steady income will be monumental when you’re starting out. However this won’t give you as much time to dedicate towards your business. Consider going part-time at your day job if you can.
Evaluate if some beginning expenses could be forgone. You may get excited about starting your company in a nice office space, but may have to wait until the revenue comes in to afford that. Start in your own home or rent out a smaller, less-expensive office space. Or perhaps you want to hire a large team of full-time employees to do the dirty work for you. When your business is booming you can definitely consider hiring more employees, but can get by with fewer employees and even just a part-time staff in the beginning.
What other expenses may be nice to have, but aren’t really a necessity for starting out?
Great empires and extraordinary companies weren’t built in one day. They started small and built their way to the top piece by piece. You’ll need to do the same, especially if you find yourself low on funds.
Before becoming a fully established business, you can start with a test period where you start building up your audience little by little. This idea is called “bootstrapping,” or starting small with the resources you have and building up from there. For example, you may consider launching your site with just a few products and a blog with sharable content before you offer all your services. See how well this does with your audience and build up revenue before you spend a ton on something that doesn’t gain traction.
When self-funding isn’t enough, you can find plenty of other resources to help get your business off the ground. Here are just a few:
Never be afraid to ask for help when funding your business, and never lose confidence in your ability to start your business. So many financial resources are at your fingertips, use them to your advantage.
The post Simple Solutions to Funding a Business with Little to No Money first appeared on Digital Altitude.]]>Lots of people do. Today you’ll discover how to have an endless bag of ideas for writing great emails and banish writer’s block for good. Here we go:
One of the most powerful method that you can use to write an engaging email is to tell a story. People love stories.
Heck, you’ve probably paid money to see stories in the form movies, novels or a Netflix subscription. So what sort of stories should you tell?
People connect with people. One of the best way to come up with endless ideas for emails is to share interesting things that happen to you.
You could talk about the time your dog got into a fight with the labrador down the street or when you accidentally got locked out of your house.
So why would you do this? To build trust and rapport with our readers. However, there’s another important ingredient you need for this to work.
The key is to connect your stories with a lesson that you can teach your readers.
For example…
The sitting on the plane on your last day of your Hawaii holiday could have been the turning point that you realized you wanted to be your own boss and commit to become financially free.
The story of your child’s first steps could tie in a lesson about persistence and the importance of moving one step at a time. You get the idea.
So how do you kill writer’s block forever? Keep your ear out for moments that could become stories. Keep some paper handy or write notes in your phone. Now, here’s a great way to keep people engaged and keep their fingers away from the unsubscribe link.
Remember, people get over 100 emails per day. You need to write emails that people are excited to open and devour. There’s no need to write in a formal tone.
Be personable. Inject some of your personality that shows up at dinner parties and get-togethers into your emails.
If you’re promoting Digital Altitude (or anything for that matter) you need to make the next step crystal clear for people. What do you want them to do?
For example you could say:
“I highly recommend you check out Digital Altitude’s Aspire System. Click the link below to read about it now.”
It’s a simple step. Yet, somehow people forget to write a clear call to action for their emails. So there you have it.
5 ways to write compelling emails easily without writer’s block. When you put it all together, it looks like this. Keep an ear out for interesting tidbits to share about your life. Write them with personality. Share them as stories. Connect your stories to lessons that provide value to your readers
Finish with a call to action to do something further: watch a video, direct them to an interesting blog post or a cool product recommendation. Now I’ve saved the very best for last. Next time, you’ll discover an advanced email technique to have more people read your emails and reduce unsubscribes.
The post 5 Profit Pulling Tips To Writing Great Emails That Captivate Your Readers first appeared on Digital Altitude.]]>Do you see their subtle technique? It goes something like this:
“Tonight’s top story: 5 year old blind daughter saves mother from burning home in Chicago. But first… an oil spill off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean has caused chaos to surround the Virgin Islands…”
So when do you get to hear about the blind daughter? At the very end of the news of course. So, what’s happening here?
The news knows the curiosity-pulling power of this story so it forces you sit through 28 minute of other news to find out the answer. This is the power of curiosity and anticipation.
Simple. Tell readers what you’re going to cover in your next email. I call this “The CNN Effect.”
Neat, huh?
That way, subscribers have something to look forward to and actively look for you next email. Did you notice that I’ve been using that technique to get you excited for each Monday email? (Get our our email list here).
However in my case, I want you to consume the tips and grant yourself the gift of financial freedom. So there’ you have it.
You learned a ton of actionable info to write emails this month. Here’s what we covered.
If you’ve missed any emails in the series I encourage you to go back and read them now. (Get our our email list here).
This was a short one today; But I leave you with a free gift. Click Here to Discover The 6 Ninja Techniques To Creating A ‘Quick-Fire’ 6 Figures Internet Business.
The post Learn How The “CNN Effect” Can Improve Your Email Marketing first appeared on Digital Altitude.]]>Why not pay attention to the people who actually pay attention to Ferriss?
Here are 5 secrets to living the 4 hour work week straight from the ideas of the creator himself, consolidated into this easy to read, digestible summary!
1. Automation
The primary secret to the 4 hour work week is automation.
You can incorporate automation in the production process, the marketing funnel and even in analysis. With the tools for automating business processes always expanding and improving, you really have no excuse for working long hours!
Of course you can produce and sell your own products, but if you are having trouble with the creation part, affiliate marketing is your friend.
Your first hire as a business owner should be yourself as a growth hacker. Go ahead; do it, paperwork and all! You are now your own growth hacker. The primary focus of a growth hacker is to find tools to automate your business.
The first system that you can employ is the one right in front of you, at Digital Altitude. As an affiliate of the Digital Altitude program, your have your own fully automated business processes from start to finish.
If you need help with your first business, we also you up with an advantageous commission structure, training videos, team building exercises, coaching and assistance with your sales funnel, among many other features.
Keep in mind there are higher levels to invest in as you move forward in your business career!
2. The Product
Product development can take up inordinate amounts of time, especially if this is not your strength.
Before you begin to think that you have to create what you sell, keep in mind that Bill Gates bought the DOS platform to start Microsoft – he didn’t create one line of it.
The majority of top businessmen are not creatives – they are licensors.
PRODUCT LICENSING IS A WAY TO AUTOMATE YOUR PRODUCTION SCHEDULE.
Licensing products takes a great deal of pressure off of your shoulders, because you are leaving the nuances of learning the market to the development team with experience in that area. It can take years to learn a new market.
Why do that when you can simply help someone who has already learned it? They have the passion to drill down, and they do not necessarily need your help to do that digging. However, most developers usually need a hand up out of the hole that they create for themselves in learning their audience!
3. The Mentorship
Although you should not become caught up in knowledge seeking from guru after guru, you should actively seek out the advice and company of people who have done what you want to do.
How can you expect to call people to sell to them if you cannot even call people to get a bit of a conversation going?
The statistic that everyone knows, “You are the average of your 5 best friends,” is one of the most scientific unscientific metrics ever spoken into existence. However, getting better friends than you already have can be difficult.
THE SECRET IS TO BUILD FRIENDSHIPS SLOWLY.
This article is one of the best I have seen on making friends with people who are busier than you. Read it, but here’s the summary: Treat famous people like you would treat anyone else. Here’s my personal addition: Meet more famous people than you know what to do with.
Just like the dating scene, not everyone you encounter is going to like you. You need to move among so many busy people that you gain mentors by virtue of numbers rather than making some incredible impression on a single target.
4. The Lifestyle
If you are going to live the 4 hour work week, you cannot start living it only after you get a certain amount of money. Take into account that you may have to sacrifice some of your comforts in order to truly adhere to the tenants of what Tim uses to live his life.
The first thing that you need to understand is the lie of the 4 hour work week.
The secret of working a 4 hour work week is simple: You will be working full days if you are trying to start a business.
You just can’t call that work work. This simple semantic is how Tim himself could work all day and night promoting his original 4 hour work week book while saying that he wasn’t working at all.
If you want to start a business, it is going to take some [read: a lot of] sweat equity. The lifestyle of the free entrepreneur is one that is rather self-aggrandizing. It requires a great deal of delusion.
On some level, you have to convince yourself that you actually care enough about others than you do yourself. When you walk up to them to break into their social circles and access their exclusive resources, you need to believe in your heart that you can possibly add value to the situation!
This is the lifestyle of the entrepreneur.
Better friends don’t happen automatically. More money doesn’t just fly out of the sky. If you do not open your mouth to sell your product, it will not sell.
The good news is that there are more computer automation programs and systems in place to do this for you than ever before. The marketing strategy that Tim had to initiate on foot, talking to bloggers individually at conventions like SXSW, can now be implemented from your smart phone.
Digital Altitude has the techniques that you need to live out this strategy.
5. Time Management
Automation is your friend when it comes to time management, especially if you do not have the clout to get people to work for you for free.
Your main concern should be in creating a system that handles the brainless parts of your marketing and promotion. This will free your time to accomplish the more fun and exciting legwork that still needs to be done.
For instance, you cannot possibly send yourself out on mentor-finding missions if you are always behind on your emails every day.
First of all, you should always look to eliminate processes from your day that do not work, both automated and live action.
Use Pareto’s Rule on the processes that you initiate on a daily basis: You will get 80% of your productivity from 20% of your processes. Find that 20%, duplicate those processes, and eliminate the other 80%. This will free up so much of your day that you will surprise yourself at how much time you have to get your real work done.
Once you have freed up your day to start making new connections and using a non-location specific lifestyle to be where the action is, you need to learn how to manage your time in those environments.
If you want to build up to better friends, you will have to learn how to manage your time to get around people with a higher value than you. Tim might say this in a slightly more politically correct way, but this is basically what you are doing!
One of the best uses of your time is to befriend the filters of the decision makers. Contrary to how many people interpret the advice above, time management in social circles does not mean putting up a Hollywood front and ignoring “the little people.”
The little people are the ones who have the ability to get you to Mr. Big, and in most cases, their introduction to Mr. Big could be more effective than you introducing yourself.
Give these decision makers the ability to screen you, and make them feel important. The more that you allow them to do their job, the easier path you will have to the top. On top of this, you will make friends with the people who are also on the way up, giving you a network of associates along with mentors.
If you are not great at meeting people, cheer up. Digital Altitude has a built in network of smart, capable and successful friends and mentors for you to cut your teeth.
These are people who understand your struggle because they have been through it. They will be the first to help you and point your feet in the right direction when it is time to leave the nest.
Putting It All Together
THE WAY TO FREEDOM AND PROFIT IS TO BUILD SYSTEMS THAT WORK FOR YOU INSTEAD OF WORKING FOR A SYSTEM.
When you have the right system-building system behind you, building your own systems becomes quite easy. Automation is your ticket to more profit in less time, leading to the 4 hour work week that you are looking for.
Remember that you must incorporate all of these strategies concurrently. You may have trouble keeping all of your balls in the air at the same time, but you will find the balance.
Everyone has to, because this is the only way that entrepreneurs survive in the first place! The biggest test that you will face as a new entrepreneur is giving yourself the time to learn this balance. There is no telling when everything will click, and you have to be patient enough to let it happen.
Follow the tips above to accelerate your move into the world of free living entrepreneurs. It is your time right now, so stop seeking permission and move into the life that you were born to create for yourself. Use the resources that Digital Altitude offers you, and expand yourself bravely every day without fear of failure. See you at the top!
The post 5 Secrets to Living the 4-hour Work Week first appeared on Digital Altitude.]]>Marketing expert and New York Times bestseller, Jay Baer, gives this sound insight: “Big companies are embracing big content, and in so doing they are changing the expectations of YOUR customers.” Baer’s right: everyone is connected in online business. One company can change the entire nature of marketing for everyone else. Currently, that shift is leaning towards powerful and shareable content, although it has been leaning that way for some time now.
To get your content marketing strategy heading in the right direction, we’ve created this step-by-step guide. Every strategy will be different, but following these guidelines will help you to cover your bases.
If you don’t know where you want to go, you will have a difficult time knowing how to get there; just ask Alice from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Clearly defining your objectives gives your content marketing strategy its necessary direction.
Pinning down what those objectives are requires you to ask yourself some questions. Why are you wanting to do this campaign? What is your end goal? What do you hope to accomplish? Perhaps you want to create an identity for your company that resonates with your audience. Design your content then to promote that image. Or maybe your main goal is to generate more leads and increase customer conversion. Once you know the direction you want to head in, you can start making plans and actions to get there.
Your creative brief will be the game plan to reach your objectives. A creative brief is a document generally used between a designer or creative team and their client to set expectations and layout a detailed plan of action. This brief is shared among all team members and clients with the purpose of having everyone on the same page.
Ideally, your content marketing strategy should follow the same formula as a creative brief. In essence, you will be writing a creative brief of your own. Along with your main objectives, here’s what else to include in your creative brief:
This first section is where you explain your purpose and drive as a company. Include a business vision, or a condensed version of your mission statement as an overarching theme to your marketing projects.
Narrow down your objectives to your top three goals to focus on. Clearly specify your goals and answer the following questions: what is going to be done to meet these goals? Based on who you are as a business, why are you the people to accomplish these goals? What do you have to offer?
Write down who the intended audience is. This is one of the key components of quality content creation and distribution. You’ll see more conversion if you take the time to identify your target audience.
Who is the competition you are going up against? Find something that differentiates you from them, a unique selling point that they don’t offer.
Every piece of content has a voice. Some voices are witty, some are professional or informative, while others are optimistic and empathetic. You need to decide which voice best fits your brand and resonates with your targeted audience.
Content can come in many different forms, such as written in an article, filmed on a set or presented through visual experience on your website. Be overly specific about how you want the content to be, such as determining article or video length so it matches again with your brand, audience and platform of distribution.
Create a timeline for when certain pieces of content are to be completed and by whom. The calendar should also include when the content is to be distributed or promoted and on what platforms. This calendar can, and probably will be frequently updated. It is a crucial element for keeping team members and clients accountable. Everyone on the content marketing team knows who will complete what assignments and by when. This accountability is one of the best benefits of your creative brief.
Keeping in line with accountability, this section lays out how you will measure out your progress. This could be through a certain number of pageviews, leads generated, number of sales, etc. Pick your metrics based on what best projects progress towards your projected goals.
Include smaller details here, such as more nitpicky items of what to include in the content and what to leave out.
For more information on how to write a creative brief in relation with your marketing strategy, check out this article as a resource to bridge any gap between content production and the business of marketing.
After making your creative brief, you’re ready to move on to actual content creation and promotion. Make sure that you promise quality content to your audience, or they won’t want to engage with it. If you make that promise, though, you have to live up to it. All your content should be content that matters, and not just fluff. Think about content that resonates with you and create a similar caliber of content for your audience.
A common mistake among content is a lack of a call-to-action (CTA). If content doesn’t have a CTA, what’s the point of your strategy other than brand awareness? Go back to your creative brief and refresh yourself on your objectives. Do you just want to bring people to your site for daily inspiration and advice? Or do you want them to follow you, receive your emails or download your ebook for real customer retention and engagement?
If a viewer is not driven to act from your content, then they will walk away from it without being changed. Don’t let that happen! Your content marketing strategy can have the potential to change your audience, if you give them that chance in the first place.
The post A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Content Marketing Strategy first appeared on Digital Altitude.]]>In fact, it is predicted that by this year, approximately 74% of all Internet traffic will be video. In addition, using the word ‘video’ in your email subject lines increases open rates. With 78% of people watching online videos every week and 55% each day, it is easy to see that video marketing is quickly taking over the marketing world.
What is video marketing? Basically, video marketing is just incorporating videos into your marketing strategy. The concept is simple while the execution takes a bit more effort. If you haven’t set up a video marketing plan as part of your marketing strategy, you better get on it right away. Many experts claim that 2017 will be the year of the video.
Setting Up a Video Marketing Strategy
Setting up a video marketing strategy is not all that different from creating a marketing strategy in general. However, it can seem very intimidating. Like any basic strategy, you’ll need an objective, an audience, and a place to promote your video at the very least.
Types of Video Marketing
Video marketing has become so pervasive because there are so many ways to do it and new opportunities continue to become available. Social media platforms, such as Facebook Live, Instagram video, and Snapchat, for video use continue to be popular among audiences and marketers are taking advantage.
Not only are there many places to share videos but there is a variety of video marketing types as well. You can create storytelling brand videos, online ads, customer testimonials/stories, product videos, and so much more. Just make sure your videos align with your strategy for the best results.
Video is the Key to Your Business Success
If you still aren’t convinced you need to invest in video marketing, consider this. Not only are the vast majority of people watching videos every day but also, your competitors are likely investing in it. In fact, 96% of B2B companies are planning to use video in their marketing efforts within the next year. You don’t want to fall behind and lose customers because of it.
Video marketing is not that complicated and can have a huge return if done correctly. 52% of marketing professionals claim that video has the best ROI. So what are you waiting for? Start investing in video marketing for your business.
The post The Ins and Outs of Video Marketing first appeared on Digital Altitude.]]>In the recent Age of Information, the sheer amount of articles available on the Internet is staggering. The average internet user will be bombarded with articles all day long.
Search engine results can turn up thousands upon thousands of results, making the competition to be seen extreme. In addition, even if users click on your webpage they may not stay to read all your content if they feel like they could save time or learn more somewhere else.
Poor-quality content will result in little traffic, while top-notch articles will have internet users flocking to your page to absorb your knowledge. Before the vastness of the web discourages you, rest assured there are a few tricks of the trade.
Revealed below are the secrets of creating articles that drive traffic to your page.
1. Know Your Audience and Meet Their Needs
Writing general content to the general public will probably not get you the traffic you desire.
There is simply too much information out there. View your articles the same way you would view a tangible product in a brick-and-mortar store—through the lens of the simple economic principle of supply and demand.
THERE IS ALWAYS A DEMAND FOR SOMETHING SPECIFIC AND A PRODUCT TO SUPPLY THAT DEMAND.
The information you share in your articles must meet specific needs of a certain audience. Even if you feel that everyone everywhere could benefit from your articles, pinpoint who your exact audience is and write content they want to learn about.
To nail down your exact target audience, you’ll have to do a little market research.
The best way to do this is to create a profile for your average buyer. You can get the information for this profile by having your audience fill out online surveys. With this profile, you’ll narrow down your audience’s background, their demographic information such as age, gender, and race, and the terms they use to identify themselves.
Once you have a profile built, determining your audience’s needs and the type of content they like should be more targeted and less of a mystery.
Meeting the needs of your audience has two benefits.
The first and most obvious is that your readers will want to keep returning to your articles because they know you offer sensible solutions and great discussions.
The second involves the Law of Reciprocity, which is a psychological term describing how people respond to favors and kind acts. If you do something nice for someone, that person will be instilled with the deep-seated desire to do something nice in return.
In the business world, this translates into sales and customer loyalty. If you provide them with a solution to their problems, your audience will feel compelled to buy your products instead of someone else’s. Supplying information in this manner ends up yielding a return on investment simply by being of value.
Once you have established who your audience is, you can delve in a little deeper and see specifically what they’re searching for.
Doing this will in turn increase your knowledge of your audience, giving you even more details to help you hone your content and tweak your audience profile. You must write your articles with keywords in mind.
Keywords are what search engines pick up on to direct traffic to your site. Having the right ones in the right quantities is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and can make or break your traffic numbers.
When creating content based on keyword searches, include the keywords themselves along with a few other variations of those keywords in the article. By doing this you will maximize your search engine optimization, sending an increased amount of traffic your way.
Keep in mind, the keyword searches you will be using will need to be pretty specific, as the audience you will be writing for is a specific niche and not the general public.
The more specific the search topic, the more likely your published content will see higher traffic volumes. There will always be stiff competition for content views and website traffic.
With this in mind, the more specific your keywords are, the better you’ll direct your target audience to your site.
One great tool for deciding which keywords to use is Google AdWords. It allows you to see the search volume and competition for any word or phrase you type in.
3. Research
SIMPLY PUT, THE MORE VALUE YOU CAN OFFER YOUR AUDIENCE, THE MORE YOUR FOLLOWING WILL GROW.
Writing articles that say nothing unique will offer little to no value to your readers.
In light of this, do your research to find out what has already been said. If you’re an expert in the subject your audience is interested in, you will be able to offer a lot of value automatically, but if the territory is unfamiliar you’ll have to educate yourself first to keep from parroting other sources.
Creating a steady flow of content is extremely important for driving traffic to your sight. Make a habit of brainstorming article topics and ideas.
Use online trend tools such as Google Trends to see what issues are current and what questions people are asking on any given day.
While the demand for articles may exceed your natural knowledge and expertise, you can always do your research and keep up with the latest trends and information, blending your own experiences with what you learn to create unique content.
Again, remember that your content should solve a problem your audience has or provide a solution to their questions.
It is unlikely that you will produce completely original content, which is why it is important to put your own spin the content you produce. Find an angle to write from and do your best to ensure it is as fresh and unique as possible.
Writing with a fresh angle makes the content interesting and memorable, and most importantly setting you apart from the rest.
The angle you take will be the beating heart of your company’s identity. In other words, creating a unique voice for your content helps establish your brand.
Make sure that your style of writing is in line with your target audience. By doing so you will be strengthening your brand as well as creating a loyal following.
4. Empathy and Engagement
The most important duty your article should perform is solving a problem, but how it does this is important as well.
YOU MUST CREATE A CONNECTION WITH YOUR READERS FOR YOUR CONTENT TO TOUCH THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS.
To do this, start by establishing a voice of empathy and engagement. Writing as if a robot dictated commands into a word processor will alienate your audience, even in the information is extremely valuable. Make your article relatable to your audience, keeping in mind the subject matter and who is reading it.
Don’t make the mistake of overusing humor instead of creating a real connection.
While humor can be compelling at the beginning of your article, building rapport, and decreasing the intensity of boring facts and statistics, use it sparingly unless the purpose of your writing is to provide entertainment. Some subject matter may require you to completely leave out humor, such as writing advice to grieving family members or coping with a mental disorder.
A better connection can be established by being empathetic to the audience’s problems, engaging that problem in a heart-felt way, and offering unique solutions that are insightful.
Empathy is a marketer’s most powerful tool.
If you feel unprepared to engage an audience whose needs are completely foreign to you, never fear—empathy can be learned and improved by building a detailed audience profile.
The better you know your audience, the better a connection you can forge. The problems you’ll tackle in your articles are the types of issues that matter most to your audience. They are the thorns in your readers’ sides, the problems that keep them up at night, and the issues they discuss with their friends over cups of coffee.
Never underestimate empathy.
5. Simplicity
The best advice for formatting your articles is to keep it simple.
More than likely your target audience won’t be Ivy League professors or medical researchers. Using long, complicated paragraphs will keep your audience from finishing your articles.
If your readers click on your article and are bombarded with a screen full of text, they won’t feel compelled to read on. Make your content as user-friendly as possible.
Use charts and graphs. Have hand-picked, on-topic pictures to break up blocks of text. Use headings and lists to abridge your bountiful thoughts and advice.
Give enough information without being excessive or verbose.
There’s a fine balance you’ll have to strike between adding important details and writing a thesis. Don’t wrote a thesis. Your articles should be backed up with facts, figures, and simple statistics, but don’t overload your readers with dry information.
Sprinkle your writer’s voice and personable storytelling in to keep readers engaged.
6. Hook Your Readers
You might find yourself pouring so much effort into the article itself that you forget to hook your readers in with a compelling headline.
Never assume your content will speak for itself; an interesting title will compel readers to click on your content regardless of the information you provide.
The best types of headlines pose a question or a challenge.
Psychologically, this offers bait that most readers can’t resist. Keep in mind to match your headlines with the type of article you’re writing. Your headline shouldn’t sound like sensational tabloid journalism if you’re trying to have a distinguished, upper-crust appeal, but neither should your headlines sound stuffy or boring.
Another winning formula for an attention-grabbing headline is to use a list. A s online readers’ attention spans grow shorter and shorter, offering a list delivers information quickly.
Article titles such as “5 Reasons Why…” and “8 Daily A ctivities to…” are great ways to pull readers in.
Try to capture the essence of your article in the headline.
If you could summarize the outcome of your article in a few words, use that summary. Tell the reader what they should learn after reading your article or what questions your article will answer.
Essentially, people judge books by their covers and make snap decisions without even thinking. Don’t have your article overlooked because the title didn’t sound compelling.
Putting it all Together
Content marketing is an excellent way to drive traffic to your website and expand your brand.
By following the tips outlined in this article, you can increase the effectiveness of the content you publish, attracting more eyes to your articles and ensuring that your content achieves its desired effect. See you at the top!
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