Produce Great Content, Every Time: A Useful 11-Point Framework

How many articles have you read about creating great content? Quite a few, hopefully…

Creating valuable to your readers content is one of the key components of effective content marketing.

But here’s the problem:

How do you combine the lessons from all those articles?

They all teach you something valuable, but consolidating all those useful techniques and tactics isn’t always easy. For example, you might read an article about simple but effective copywriting techniques.

You get excited, and then you focus on practicing those in the next few articles you publish. But writing a few articles isn’t enough to establish a habit.

Even if you truly understand how to apply the things you learned, you might not remember to do them in the future. That is, unless, you have a way that forces you to remember them. A list of them.

Every time you write an article, you should make sure that you apply as many of the items on the list as possible.

You should make your own list.

However, I thought I’d create this post to get you a solid start. I’ve put together a list of 11 points that your content should meet if you want it to be effective.

It doesn’t matter if your content is text, audio, or video—most of these points will still apply.

It also doesn’t matter what the content will be used for.

Great content is necessary not only for your blog and any guest posts you make but also for other channels such as social media.

Finally, before we get started, I know that checklists aren’t really fun, but they’re effective and efficient.

Create the list once (or take mine), and it will raise the quality of your content for years to come.

Since 70% of marketers create more content each year, small improvements based on a checklist in a single article can result in a big difference overall. 

1. The headline hooks my target reader

Think about where you spread your content after you publish it.

Social media is probably one of the first stops.

You also probably email your list.

Then forums, groups, and other communities.

All of those have one major thing in common:

Success depends on your headline.

Your headline isn’t the only factor, but it’s usually one of the main things that causes people to click or not click through to your post:

We already know that most social shares come from people who don’t even read past the headline.

Even if you have a great article, it won’t matter if no one sees it in the first place.

It starts with the headline. Obviously, it doesn’t end with the headline. If your content sucks, no one’s going to share it after they click through.

Back to the headline…

Writing a great headline isn’t easy. It takes knowledge and practice. I’ve written many posts about how you can write great headlines for different situations:

• The Formula for a Perfect Headline
• The Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Powerful Headlines
• Headline Writing 101

But remember what we’re doing here.

This isn’t the time to come up with a headline—you should have done that already.

This is a point in a checklist. It’s asking you to evaluate a headline, which is much easier.

I can tell you if a painting is good or not (for the most part), but I sure as heck can’t paint a great one myself. Judging is almost always easier than doing.

Here, you want to consider two main factors…

Factor #1 is always relevance: The first question you should ask yourself when judging a headline is: “Is this relevant from my audience’s point of view?”

Basically, this means that your headline should contain keywords related to your niche.

And not just any keywords, but one’s that your actual target audience will recognize and probably care about.

Obviously, I write a lot about marketing on Quick Sprout. If you look at my headlines, you’ll see a lot of the following words:

• traffic
• leads
• content
• sales
• SEO
• autoresponder

These are common keywords contained in keyword phrases that I might target with my content.

But they are also widely used terms that almost all of my readers recognize.

So, when they see one of my headlines, they see at least one of the concepts they are interested in, which gets them to read the entire headline.

A common mistake: It’s easy to forget the perspective of your readers. Just because you might know an advanced term for something doesn’t mean your readers will. If they see a headline but are not sure if it relates to their interests, most will pass on it.

Factor #2 is curiosity: Once they see a keyword that is related to their interests, most readers will take a look at the whole headline.

Afterwards, they decide if it’s worth reading or not.

Basically, it comes down to this question: “Does it look interesting?”

If the reader is curious enough, they have no choice but to click through. That’s when you know you have a good headline.

Here’s an exercise you can do…

Go to a major news site or blog in your niche. In my case, for the sake of an example, I went to Search Engine Land, a major SEO news site.

Ideally, you want to find a list of their current most popular content or at least their most recent content somewhere on the homepage.

Next, you’ll replace one of the titles with the title of your content.

To do this, right-click on one of the titles while in Chrome, and choose “inspect element.” This will create a little pop-up.

In the left side of the pop-up, double click the title text (among the HTML code), and type in your headline instead:

When you’re done, press enter and close the pop-up.

The change that you made (to the highlighted part in the picture above) will now show up on your screen:

Now, do your best to get in the mindset of the reader you’re trying to attract.

Ask yourself in which order you would click on these titles (if at all).

If you choose your own article last, you have a big problem.

If you choose it first, you likely have a great title.

Obviously, it’s hard to be unbiased. If possible, get a second opinion from a friend or any of your fans who’d be willing to help you in this way.

2. Introductions have one main purpose…

Can you guess it? The purpose of an introduction?

This is actually from copywriting.

To get to the purpose of your introduction, let’s start with your headline.

A headline has one goal: to get someone to read the first sentence.

The first sentence is to get them to read the second sentence, and so on.

The introduction, as a whole, has one main purpose:

To get your reader to read the rest of the article (specifically the first subheading/section).

So, how do you do this?

Again, there are many ways, but here we’re just judging what you already have.

The key factor is whether your introduction is easy to read.

Readers should be able to feel like they are flying through it, understanding it, and moving down the page. It helps them feel like they are making progress.

Imagine reading a dense introduction that takes you five minutes to understand. Then, you look at the rest of the article and see that it’s 2,000 words long.

Chances are you won’t read the rest.

That’s why you want yours to be simple: to give the reader some momentum and to help them commit to reading the rest of the article.

You can look at the introductions written by any of your favorite bloggers to see this in action.

For example, here’s one from Brian Dean:

I can read those seven lines in about 10 seconds and move down to the first section.

Brian writes in short sentences and paragraphs and uses simple words. You should do the same.

Open your article again and time how long it takes you to read and understand the introduction (from your target reader’s point of view).

It shouldn’t be longer than 1-2 seconds per line. If it is, that means your introduction contains too much complex information and/or is formatted poorly.

3. Content is optimized for “skimmers”

Your most loyal readers read your every post.

They examine every sentence and every word because they love what you produce.

This makes up about a whopping 1-5% of your readers.

Be thankful for them; they are amazing.

But what about the other 95-99%?

They’re still important, but they either don’t have time or interest to read every post and every part of that post.

The average reader of a post only reads 20-28% of it.

In other words, they skim it.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. We all have a limited amount of time in a day to learn, and everyone needs to prioritize their own time.

I’d rather have someone skim my posts than not read them at all.

Element #1 – Clear and intriguing subheadlines: There’re a few things that skimmers look for as they skim a post.

Think about why they’re skimming in the first place. It’s to save time.

They’re not sure if reading the entire post is worth their time. If you’re producing longer content, like I obviously do, then this is even more of an issue.

A typical reader, as you can probably imagine, looks to see whether any of your sections contain useful to them information.

It makes sense.

Say, I published a post “8 Content Marketing Tactics to Do X.”

If someone already knows quite a bit about content marketing, not all of those eight tactics will be new to them.

So, what do they look at?

Subheadlines.

First, ask yourself, “Are my subheadlines easy to find while skimming?”

Just skim your post, and see which parts jump out at you. If your formatting is good, your subheadings will stand out:

At the same time, remember that the first point in this entire checklist was about your main title.

Similarly, you should ask yourself whether each subheadline is clear (as far as the topic goes) but also whether it creates enough curiosity for the readers to want to read the section it introduces.

That’s why I don’t use simple 1-3 word subheadlines very often, unless it’s for a specific reason.

(Advanced) Element #2 – Format backgrounds to indicate new sections: If you’re willing to invest a bit of extra time and resources, you can make your content even better for skimmers (and all readers).

If you’ve ever read one of my Quick Sprout advanced guides (in the sidebar), you’d notice that each section has a different background color.

Instead of having to scan for a subheadline, which can be missed, skimmers can easily find a new section based on the background color.

You will have to learn some basic CSS to do this. However, after you apply it once, you can use it over and over again without spending much time on it.

(Advanced) Element #3 – Custom CSS boxes for important parts: Another advanced formatting element you can take advantage of is a box around any particularly important or impressive content. Like this:

Imagine scrolling down a page and seeing a bright green box jump out at you.

You’ll probably pay some attention to it.

If there’s something new or insightful in that box, you might go back up and read from the start of that section.

I’d recommend putting expert quotes or impressive results (e.g., “ranked #1 in 5 weeks using X technique”) in them.

Again, you’ll need to learn some CSS. I walk you through a simple procedure in this post about advanced formatting.

4. Content is balanced between text and non-text

There are very few people who can read a long post that consists of nothing but text.

Unless you’re an amazingly entertaining writer, no one’s going to read your post if you don’t include good formatting principles.

We’ve talked about a few of them, but by far the most important is to include non-text elements such as images, lists, and quotes.

Can you go overboard with this?

Of course. In most cases, you need plain text to get your main points across. The images and other non-text elements simply support those points.

One analysis concluded that the ideal ratio is at least one picture for every 350 words. I wouldn’t go below that.

It depends on the topic and your niche, but you probably wouldn’t want to go above one image for every 100 words in almost any case. So stick to somewhere in-between.

You can group lists, quotes, and anything else that breaks up the text for the reader in this ratio.

If your post in question meets this criteria, check this item off the list.

5. It’s better than anything else out there (by far)

I mentioned that there are a few principles of content marketing that can’t be ignored if you want to see great results.

One of them is that your content needs to add something to the giant piles of content already out there.

It needs to be better in at least one way, by a significant amount, than all the other most popular pieces of content on the topic you are writing about.

If possible, improve it in multiple areas. That makes it even more obvious that it is something special that should be paid attention to.

To check this, follow this 2-step process.

Step #1 – Research the competition: Before you started writing your post, you probably identified one or two main keyword phrases that describe what you’re writing about.

If not, do it now.

Search each of those phrases in Google, and take a look at the top 5-10 results:

Click on each to see what they are.

Make notes on the strengths and weaknesses of each. A great post will fix any weaknesses found in those posts and build on their strengths.

For example, my top result above was this post:

Right away, I notice that it has a link to a podcast, which breaks down the post. This is a strength and a very nice feature.

I’m not so sure that it’s a huge benefit for this particular post (lists are typically better in text), but it still gives the reader the option.

But what I see from the rest of the post is that it’s almost all text.

On top of that, all the explanations are very short, with few examples or suggestions on how to fix any weak parts of a post.

I’d categorize that as a weak part. I can improve the post by simply adding detailed examples as well as resources to help my readers.

Step #2 – Answer these four questions: Once you understand what the competition has to offer, simply compare your content to them.

Here are some good questions that you should be able to answer:

1. Is your post clearer for the typical reader (more detailed)?
2. Is your post formatted as well or better?
3. Have you addressed all competitor’s weaknesses?
4. Do you at least match all competitor’s strengths (or a high percentage of them)?

If you answered yes to all of these questions, you’re good to move on.

6. Take it seriously: preview before you publish

This is an expected element of good content.

Your content should show up correctly, no matter which device or browser you’re using.

It should also have proper spelling and grammar. Granted, a few mistakes here and there are expected, but overall, your writing should be error-free.

So, this step is very easy. Just complete the following check:

• Load your post on your phone and any other mobile devices you have. Does it show up as intended?
• Load the post in all major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari). Does it show up as intended?
• Copy your post into a text editor (e.g., Google Docs, Microsoft Word, etc.). Use the spellcheck function to find any obvious errors.
• (Optional) Hire an editor to proofread your work.

Once everything checks out, you can move on to the next point.

7. Fluff has been eliminated

Fluff is the enemy of all good content.

It refers to those parts of the content that do not add any value.

Every sentence should either add new information or serve to clarify previously stated information.

If you ever want to see a perfect example of a non-fluff post, check out any of Seth Godin’s writing.

Here’s an example of one of his typical posts:

Yes, that’s the full post.

His brevity has to do with the types of things he writes about but also with his desire not to waste any words.

Most of us have some fluff in our posts, and that’s okay. Your goal is to eliminate as much fluff as possible.

A big help – the Hemingway App: If you’re new to cutting out fluff, it’s not necessarily easy. It takes time and practice to recognize what does and doesn’t add value.

Luckily, there’s an awesome free tool called Hemingway App that will spot most “bad” instances of fluff.

It looks at common patterns of “fluffy” writing to identify poorly written and wordy sentences.

Let me show you an example.

I put a small part of one of my guides into the tool, and this is what I saw:

You can see that many sentences are a bit hard to read, and they could be written more concisely.

This is what it looked like when I fixed those errors:

Right away, you can see that the readability level went down from grade 8 to 7. This means my content is now easier to read.

You can also see that the number of words went down from 189 to 171, which is about 90% of the original length.

In other terms, 10% of the original text was fluff. Apply that to a long post, and that’s hundreds of words you can do without.

Making those edits isn’t easy at first, but here’s a great resource on editing tactics to get you started.

If you’ve gone through your content and removed as much fluff as possible, check this off the list.

8. Great content flows…

Have you ever noticed that sometimes you just get sucked into an article?

You start reading, and before you know it, you’re at the end.

As the content creator, you should always aim to create this experience for your readers.

For that, your article needs to be cohesive.

It needs to flow from one section to another.

One mistake many content marketers make is trying to create a post that is as epic as possible and then including irrelevant (although interesting) parts.

If the reader has to stop reading and ask, “How does this fit with what I just read?”, you’ve ruined their immersion.

Here’s the basic way to check if your writing flows well.

Start by looking at all the subheadings of your article.

As an example, let’s use my Guide to Creating a Social Media Strategy.

The subheadings of the article are:

• Step 1: Dive inside your readers’ minds
• Step 2: Choose your most effective channels, and double down
• Step 3: Build a content bank of VALUE
• Step 4: Get followers or get ignored
• and so on…

The following is the test you can use for each pair of subheadings. Can you fill out this sentence?

I need to know [subheading 1 topic] in order to understand [subheading 2 topic].

And you go through each subheading like that, in pairs.

For example, do your readers need to know how to understand what’s in their readers’ minds (subheading 1) in order to understand how to pick their most effective channels (subheading 2)?

Yes, they do.

If they don’t understand their audience’s demographics and psychographics (from that first section), they might start on the wrong channel.

Next up, do they need to pick a channel in order to build a content bank?

Again, yes they do.

Each channel needs a different type of content.

Get it?

For your content, create a list of all your subheadings. Then, go through that process for each section.

If they all naturally flow from one to the next, you’re good to go.

9. Have you answered all of your readers’ questions?

Before you write a post, you should know which of your readers’ problems you’re trying to solve.

Then, you should brainstorm a list of questions they might have about it.

For example, if you were writing a post about installing a simple WordPress site for a small business, readers might have the following questions:

• How do I buy a domain name?
• Is WordPress the best option?
• What’s the simplest hosting option?
• What are the best themes for businesses?
• How do I optimize it for SEO?

You can also come up with this list after you write your post. You might uncover a few hidden questions while writing.

You don’t need to have a Q&A section in your content, but you should address all the questions somewhere.

It could be a section dedicated to it.

It could be a link to more information on a related topic (such as SEO optimization in our example).

Or it could be a brief explanation mixed into another section.

Go down your list, and once you’re sure that everything has been answered, check this item off the list.

10. Have you provided the best resources?

Unless you’re creating an ultimate, 10,000+word guide on a narrow topic, you can’t cover everything there is to know about that topic.

But you can link to additional resources.

You’ll notice that I link often in my posts whenever I mention something that I think a reader might be interested in.

For example, when I cite a research study or analysis, I link to the results.

If the reader wants more information about it, they can follow the link to get it. Considering only a small portion of readers will want to know more, a simple link is better than a detailed explanation in my article.

Another type of useful link is to related topics.

For example, if I’m writing about some aspect of SEO, I might be able to link to my posts (or someone else’s) about conversion rate optimization or content marketing:

While not all readers will be interested in those related topics, a healthy portion will be.

The point here is to always give readers the resources to learn more about any particular part of your content.

Go through your content, and pretend like you’re a typical reader (as well as you can).

Read every sentence, and ask yourself if there is anything related to that sentence you might like to read more about. If there is, and you haven’t included that resource, add one.

Once you feel like you’ve provided a great user experience with links, check this off the list.

11. What should the reader get out of this? Is it clear?

I think that just about every piece of content should have a conclusion at the end (maybe not necessarily with that title).

You can look at any of my posts for an example.

In this final section, you should sum up the main things that a reader should have gotten from the post and suggest where they should go from here.

For example, at the end of this post on writing a good welcome email, the author tells the reader how to use the information in the article:

In this case, he tells the reader to start with just one tactic and then combine it with one or two more to get even better results.

I do the same in many of my conclusions.

If you feel that you’ve summed up your content well, check this final item off the list.

Conclusion

Creating great content isn’t easy.

Creating it every single time is even more difficult.

But if you take care to include all the key elements of great content every time you write, you’ll be consistent.

The 11 points I talked about in great detail here form the basis of a list of requirements that all your content should meet.

From here, make your own list, including as many of those 11 points as you’d like (maybe all of them). Then, if you think I missed any, add those to your list too.

Get in the habit of going through this list after creating each piece of content.

Do you think I missed anything? Let me and everyone else know in a comment below.

Your Brain on Facebook: How to Design an Ad People Will ‘Like’

Marketers know the ropes of online advertising: they know how to boost SEO, they understand the power of geotargeting, and they can do a pay-per-click analysis like it’s no big deal.

But advertising on Facebook is a whole different ballgame.

That’s because when people log on to the social network, their brains enter Facebook mode. People behave differently on Facebook than they do anywhere else online. And if your ads don’t reflect that difference, you’re operating from an expired field guide.

Whether you’re trying to improve conversion rates, get more page likes, or boost your installs, you need to know why people behave the way they do on Facebook. If you want people to click on your ad, everything from your images to your copy needs to reflect how the “Facebook brain” thinks.

Here are 5 ways to get you started.

1. Remind Them That They’re One in a Billion

Facebook has about 1.5 billion monthly users, each with a unique profile and network of friends. The site simultaneously asks users to assert their individuality (by posting photos and sharing statuses) and to conform to the crowd (by joining groups, liking pages, and sharing prescribed “life events.”)

Facebook users are constantly locating themselves within and defining themselves against their peers. And a well-crafted Facebook ad capitalizes on this mentality.

Call Attention to Social Norms

Research reveals that people tend to conform to social norms, especially when this behavior is positively reinforced.

Calling attention to these norms—and how the individual consumer measures up to them—has a powerful effect. One study found that issuing energy “report cards” to households along with their monthly energy bill significantly changed household energy use.

By indicating where consumers’ energy consumption ranked in relation to their neighbors, households who used more than the average amount decreased their usage. Turns out it is easy being green.

Take this Social Security Administration ad from Adespresso’s gallery of Facebook ad examples. It uses the “herd mentality” technique to encourage people to sign up for their service. The tag “Are you in?” presses people to conform to the group, but does so in a friendly manner.

Know When to Target

Facebook marketers can pinpoint a super specific audience. Tools like custom audiences and relevance scores let you narrow an ad’s scope based on consumers’ location, demographics, and even their browsing history. But a lot of marketers aren’t using these tools intelligently. While targeting can be an effective way of getting your message to the right people, it can also result in nasty backlash.

A recent study revealed that people got angry when they learned that their browsing, search, and shopping history had been used to target them. It felt like a violation of privacy, and resulted in a negative association with the brand that had targeted them.

No one likes being spied on.

However, the study also revealed that consumers don’t mind being labeled or targeted, so long as it’s to something with which they have a positive association, like being a voter, or an elite member of a service.

Whereas 40% of consumers reacted negatively to ads based on their search history, only 21% reacted negatively when they were labeled based on their interests, hobbies, and pastimes. In fact, about 43% of consumers liked it. Researchers posit that this happens because it targets peoples’ “aspirational self.”

The design site Touch of Modern used this research to target Star Wars fans (and made it sound like an exclusive club by saying their products are “only” for Star Wars fans). Because users had opted in to being a Star Wars fan, perhaps by liking the franchise’s page on Facebook, they were less likely to have a negative response to it.

2. “Like” Your Way to $220 Million

The “like” button is one of Facebook’s trademark and most-used features. By clicking it, users affirm their identity, their interests, and their tastes. Some sociologists posit that Facebook’s popularity is because it operates around social affirmation.

And while users have been clamoring for a “dislike” button, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is instead introducing a series of other reactions users can share (including “love,” “yay,” “wow,” and “sad”), largely because he wants to keep negativity out of the platform.

Even with the upcoming changes, there won’t be a thumbs-down icon. This information should impact your ad.

The Positivity Principle

Strong emotions stay with us. It’s why ads often try to invoke positive or negative feelings. Studies regularly show that we remember experiences based on the high point, the low point, and the end. Everything else is just fluff.

A number of successful Facebook ads are associated with joy rather than negativity, as it is closer to the Facebook brand, and much easier to “like.” This ad for the ALS Association, for example, capitalizes on an incredibly successful fundraising campaign: the Ice Bucket Challenge.

By showcasing joy rather than the pain associated with ALS, they draw Facebook users in… and maybe get you to dump ice water on your head.

The Big Benefits of Small Wins

Research consistently shows that consumers are enticed by small gains. Chunking big rewards into smaller ones gives consumers a positive feeling, even if it’s the same benefit they would have been getting otherwise. This ad for littleBits, for example, uses small gains to entice customers. It offers people a free lights bundle valued at $40, and free shipping.

3. Boost Conversions 17X by Nailing the Timing

Paying attention to the clock is an important way to influence consumer behavior. And it goes well beyond making sure your ads run at an optimal time of day.

Sequenced ads

The mere exposure effect tells us that the more people are exposed to an ad, the more they like it. But seeing the same ad over and over again isn’t the most powerful tool in your belt.

A study conducted by Facebook and the retail site Refinery 29 reveal that sequenced ads are significantly more powerful. Sequenced ads allow you to tell consumers a story. And they’re much more effective.

When Refinery 29 showed customers a series of different ads, rather than the same one over and over again, they had a much higher conversion rate.

source: Facebook.com

Creating Urgency

Creating a sense of urgency is an old trick, but an effective one. Just as people use Facebook for a social calendar—allowing it to remind them of important events, anniversaries, or upcoming parties—you can use it to set a timer on when choices can be made.

This ad from Greenpeace tells people that they need to act now, using key words like “breaking,” “catastrophic,” “ANY DAY” and “before it’s too late.”

However, urgency only works when there’s a call-to-action. And right now, only 56% of ads use a CTA button.

One study passed out brochures explaining the dangers of tetanus, and instructed readers to get shot immediately. Both contained the same information, and readers had the same reaction, but only one group did anything about it: the group that was given a call-to-action.

4. Make Your Story Worth Following

Narratives are powerful. Not only do they draw us in to an ad, they allow us to attach emotion and meaning to numbers and figures. Making sure that your ad is playing the right role in the story is important.

Mind the Curiosity Gap

There’s a reason there’s so much clickbait online: people are drawn to it. It’s like a cliffhanger, asking readers to turn the page to find out what happens next. But there’s a great deal of pushback from sites that use the technique too often, or in inappropriate contexts, such as this CNN post that turned tragedy into clickbait.

The problem with clickbait is that people are building up a tolerance for it—and getting frustrated.

Take a look at this terrible Facebook ad for the site Get It Free. It promises something surprising by saying “You won’t believe what they sent me!” However, the image is of six jars of peanut butter and the text reads “Free Jif. Tap Here.”

So what did they send this person?

You guessed it: peanut butter. Not only is the payoff disappointing, it insults your audience’s intelligence.

But there is a way to create a curiosity gap that interests consumers without insulting them.

Titles or questions have the ability to pique users’ interest in the story, and make them want to turn the page. Using the curiosity gap (mindfully) is an excellent way to tell an interesting narrative, and get consumers to click through.

Nostalgia is Your Friend

Nostalgia is a big part of Facebook. It’s the reason people are interested in apps like Timehop, or the “On This Day” feature.

We love looking at stories about the past. And it’s a good way to get people interested in your Facebook ads.

This MTV ad, for example, gets people interested in a story: what the red carpet looked like in 1995. By enticing people with the promise of something that will really excite them—like the good old days—they can get users to click through to their page.

5. Make The Decision For Them—They’ll Thank You

Making choices can be difficult, especially when consumers are constantly asked to choose, choose, choose. Simplifying options in your Facebook ads—and offering helpful nudges—can take a load off the consumer’s back.

Avoid Decision Fatigue

Though it sounds counterintuitive, the relationship between choice and well-being is not linear.

Having a lot of choices can be stressful, and lead people to make irrational decisions.

This study examining voter behavior revealed that when people got to the end of the ballot, they made choices that didn’t align with their interests, purely because they were exhausted from making decisions.

But as it turns out, customers are happier with their choices when they select from a smaller pool. In a famous experiment, psychologists set up a table of jam samples outside a supermarket.

The first day, their display had 24 varieties of gourmet jam. The set up drew a large volume of people, but not many made a purchase. The second day, there were only six varieties. But people were more likely to buy. What’s more: they were more satisfied with their purchase.

This ad for Lay’s shows that consumers have a lot of options. Everyone likes some choice. But it doesn’t overwhelm them with 24 varieties, because it knows that sometimes, too many choices prevents us from making any decision at all.

Lay Out the Options to Build Trust

Facebook customers are definitely going to compare your brand to similar ones. They want to know how you measure up before they make a choice. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is to do the work for them.

Trust is an incredibly important part of consumer behavior. Companies that admit a mea culpa after making a big mistake do much better in the long run. In fact, companies that admitted to their faults were more likely to have a higher stock price in a year than competitors who swept their mistakes under the rug.

Take for example, this Progressive ad that ranks itself as #2—and does it with a smile. They’re not the cheapest, but they have something else to offer you: trust.

Understanding behavior is tricky. There’s because a lot factors into why we act the way we do. But whether users are stalking an old friend, planning an event, or looking at car insurance pages, they’ve entered a Facebook-specific mindset.

Even though Facebook ads take up a small amount of real estate, understanding how this mindset works will help you design an ad that’s a real winner. Getting more people to click through to your site, sign up for your service, or like your page isn’t that hard—you just have to know why we like the things we “like.”

PPC Management Services To Drive More Targeted Traffic To Your Website

Let's face it, every business needs more high quality targeted traffic to their website so they can attract more clients. And in the online marketing world there are several options:

1. SEO - Search engine optimization is a great 'free' traffic strategy although it really isn't free. At best case there is a lot of time required to have a well-defined SEO strategy and at worst, it costs money to have content and back links built or tools to get it done yourself. Either way, SEO takes some amount of time to get the rankings you need.
2. Social media - Marketing to a warm audience has always been a good strategy and that is one of the best values that social media provides. But the problem is you first have to build a loyal following of fans that subscribe to your pages.
3. Email - If you have a large email list you can drive reams of traffic to your website. But like social, you first have to have a warm list that has been cultivated over time.
4. Pay per click - PPC is a great strategy because you can scale traffic up or down on demand, plus you can target hundreds of keywords. In some industries the cost of advertising can be quite high.

There are definitely other online marketing services available but these are the four primary strategies that many marketers use. The value that a well-run PPC management services campaign provides is that it provides near instant traffic. You can literally have a pay per click campaign running on Google, Bing or Facebook in just a few hours.

So if you are wondering how you can start getting the traffic you need to your website, I hope you take this ideas into consideration.

Jorie Mark on getting Kroger to adopt a new social media engagement strategy

Jorie Mark was brought on as Kroger’s Social Media Manager to fix a problem.

We found these in-store experiences were much more valuable than a picture of a pretty apple.

With only one dedicated social media employee, Kroger’s social content was reduced to sharing circulars, sale ads, and press releases. And they often left customers hanging when someone mentioned them on Twitter or shared a photo from their store.

“I didn’t see enough content that was focused around talking with customers. We weren’t following through on our ‘Friendly and Fresh’ motto on social media. Fixing that problem was what I saw as a top priority,” says SocialMedia.org member Jorie.

She explains that with a lack of adequate support, communication, and driving principle, their hundreds of stakeholders were left in the dark about what was happening in social — and all of the opportunities they were missing.

To turn it around, Jorie focused on four areas that would require some heavy lifting.

1. Tone: Share better branded content that focuses on starting conversations and earning user-generated content.
2. Engagement: Foster one-on-one conversations by responding to everyone who reaches out to the brand on social media within a few hours.
3. Channel-specific strategies: Treat each branded social channel differently instead of posting the same content across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
4. Local relevancy: Create “on-the-ground” content and share stories specific to each region. Get someone reporting to headquarters who lives near where the action is happening.

Then, with these goals in mind, she set out to earn buy-in from a large group of stakeholders.

For one thing, Kroger has a large family of companies across the country. Your local Kroger Store might be called Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Ralph’s Smith’s, Dillon’s, or Quality Food Centers depending on where you are in the U.S. Each store is organized into different governing bodies, and each has a division executive.

“We needed to explain to them why we were making this change and why we needed to get their buy-in as well as their participation.”

The other large group of stakeholders: The business units within each supermarket. Imagine if each aisle in your grocery store had a team of employees behind it making those marketing and merchandising decisions.

She says on top of all of that, they also had to convince their paid media group that putting money behind great social media content could make a difference.

So she held two Divisions Social Media Summits.

At these in-person summits, Jorie presented her strategy, explained why it was important, and showed how some changes were already working in their favor. Then, she explained how those stakeholders could support social through participation.

The two all-day summits involved flying stakeholders in from across the country, entertaining them, educating them, and even a little schmoozing. How did she pull it off?

“I actually feel none of this would have been possible except that I was hired specifically to make a difference. Our marketing team understood there was an opportunity with social media to do better,” she says.

“But one thing I always came equipped with was the value of the socially engaged customers,” Jorie explains.

Here are some slides she shared in her Summit presentations to prove that value:

She says the Summits were crucial to bring together the otherwise isolated divisions, get everyone on the same page with corporate, and make them her friends. And since then, she’s done a lot of work to keep those relationships going.

But something else helped Jorie make her case: the Kroger baby.

One week into her new job, Jorie checked her Google alerts for Kroger to see that a woman had given birth in the middle of one of their stores in Atlanta. She did some investigating with their customer care team and reached out to the associate that had helped the new mom and the family. One cute Facebook post later, and Kroger’s social engagement went from crickets to an amazing story.

Jorie says this was the perfect moment to explain to leadership, “See what happens when we really try?”

Since then, she says they find about one or two stories from customers and associates a month that generate a lot of excitement like this.

“Then we started to really show numbers. We compared our metrics from posts with ones from the previous years to prove that this was the way to do it. We found these in-store experiences were much more valuable than a picture of a pretty apple.”

For example, one Kroger division in Atlanta donated a police dog to a K9 training unit and asked their Facebook fans to help name it. Another Ralph’s store held a sushi chef cook-off. And one Fry’s in Arizona had a wedding giveaway complete with cake, flowers, and funding for the event.

Looking forward, she’s working to get more people on the ground to find stories like these.

So far, they’ve brought on one social media manager local to their Fred Meyer Supermarket in Portland.

“We’ve already seen a tremendous impact with engagement with him,” Jorie says.

“What we want to do is going to take years, but we’d like to get someone like this social media manager at every one of our divisions.”

Find Jorie on Twitter and ask about her favorite place to go running. Jorie has been a member of SocialMedia.org since 2015.

The post Jorie Mark on getting Kroger to adopt a new social media engagement strategy appeared first on SocialMedia.org.

How is Search Volume rounded?

I'mm just reviewing some search volume stats.

Because it is rounded to the nearest 10, when I see a search volume of 10 is that a search volume of more than 5 rounded up to 10?

Similarly is a search volume of 0 truly 0, or is it a search volume smaller than 5 and therefore rounded down to 0?

There is a solution to Twitter's identity crisis

Now Jack Dorsey is back at the helm, the social media site should focus on ensuring its purpose and value is clear

Jack Dorsey is back at the helm of Twitter and the company is looking to return to the glory days it enjoyed between 2006 and 2012. However, while Dorsey has already made an impact, announcing plans to cut global staffing levels by 8% and streamlining other services – including Vine and Periscope – there is a bigger job to be done if Twitter is to return to popularity among users and brands.

With Facebook on course to hit 1.5 billion monthly active users this year (five times more than Twitter currently has) Twitter’s first job should be to address and clarify its purpose.

Related: Moments is a distraction from the bigger issues Twitter must tackle

Continue reading...

The Apple TV App Store now has a ‘top charts’ section

Apple TV has added a ‘top charts’ sections to its App Store. In it, you’ll find the top paid, free and grossing apps for tvOS. It’s much like you’ll find with the iOS App Store, with sections like ‘top paid’ and ‘top free’ showing chart leaders in their respective categories. It also highlights that Apple TV is all about gaming right now. The ‘top paid’ and ‘top grossing’ sections are dominated by iOS games that have made their move to the big screen. It’s a small change, but provides direction for those who aren’t sure what apps may be available for their…

This story continues at The Next Web

Why can not see my Ad on Google - AdWorlds Express account.

I signed AdWords Express yesterday.

My Express Ad shows ACTIVE, but my ad isnt displaying. I can not get hold of the call centre, nobody is replying to my emails and I have been losing potential clients all day. I am really very disappointed in this service from Google. Also it has been charged $9.24 already. Please Help!!!!!

An unexpected error has occurred. Please try again later.

Now I'm having a trouble with filling the payment form of google adsense. First, I added my payoneer account into it then I deleted it because I'm not sure what account type I selected once I was filing. After removing the bank account I added, I re add it but I shows the message (An unexpected error has occurred. Please try again later.). Kindly help to comment on how to settle this error. Looking forward to your prompt reponse.

Thank you so much in advance for your kind help.

sudan country option not availiable in location targeting why?

sudan country option not availiable in location targeting why?

شراء الاثاث المستعمل بالرياض 0503016914

شراء الاثاث المستعمل بالرياض 0503016914

Hundreds of bikers shut down London streets in Halloween rideout

Convoy of over 200 riders let off fireworks and mounted pavements in stunt coordinated on social media

A convoy of hundreds of motorbikes, mopeds and quad bikes rode through south London setting off fireworks on Saturday night for a “Halloween Rideout” that had been coordinated on social media.

At least 200 riders were seen on streets from Lambeth to Bromley, allegedly running red lights, mounting pavements and provoking a number of complaints to the police around the same time an illegal rave near Vauxhall turned violent.

100+ motorbikes with fireworks = hilly fields Halloween madness pic.twitter.com/EjPDAY2ty2

Continue reading...

wa

want to promote my channel what i do

18 best places to promote your startup for virtually nothing

When you have launched a startup or prototype, one of the most important strategies to prove is your business concept and gaining early user traction. If you’re like most startup founders, you don’t have much money, nor do you have enough money to hire a PR agency. However, to become a great entrepreneur means you have the inquisitiveness to look elsewhere to get your startup liftoff. To gain further product validation and reach product/market fit quickly, so you can scale, there are many platforms available to help you engage with your target users. Gaining early user traction is often the…

This story continues at The Next Web

Is Apple’s Move to iOS app the best way to go from Android to iPhone?

During Apple’s recent earnings call, CEO Tim Cook announced a record number of new iOS users were coming from Android. I’m not sure how those users have found themselves in iOSville, but there are some noted pain points when switching platforms. To help with the migration, Apple published its Move to iOS app in the Play Store. But is it the best way to move from Android to iOS? That depends on what type of user you are. What it does Move to iOS grabs all your account info from an Android phone and plugs it into your new iPhone over Wi-Fi. When setting…

This story continues at The Next Web