Online Marketing for Local Business
Posts tagged subject lines
Great Web Content Writing
013 years
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
At one time or another, every successful writer asks themselves (or should) “What makes great email copy?”
We online marketing communication writers need to be ever mindful of the content we develop, its impact on those who read it (whether intentional or not), and how to make it better.
The fact is that marketers are human just like anyone else. And this means that even the best of us can forget the key tenet of marketing: understand your audience. This simple yet inevitable fact sometimes causes us to write content that may achieve our business objectives (of our own companies!), but may not be relevant to our audience.
The truth is, content matters, a great deal in fact. As more and more email fills the Inboxes of our target audience, we need to continually make our email marketing messages stand out even more. That means understanding our audience – their needs, wants, motivations, interests, etc. And, perhaps more importantly, we need to put our audience ahead of our own priorities at all times. Which also means never falling too much in love with your own writing, but in whatever is most meaningful to recipients.
The Three S’s are recommended when developing email marketing content. They are:
1. Subject – make the subject line (very!) appealing to the recipient so they’ll open the email, the most critical component of ANY piece.
2. Sender – make it a mystery that the email is coming from someone your audience knows or cares about, never make them guess.
3. Significance – make the email content relevant, and significant, to the recipients. If you were a recipient, how much would YOU care?
There are also 4 criteria that every web writer should keep in mind for creating relevant content. Make sure the writing is:
- Branded
- Urgent
- Brief
- Enticing
And focused on your audience, of course. Don’t allow your own preferences and opinions to affect what you write. It’s a constant struggle with our human urge to see our own needs met first, but content should matter more to our audience than it does to us, right?
How are you making content more relevant to your audience?
Every Web Page Should Be A Marketing Page
14 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
Your website’s content will get noticed (read) if you use your headline and first paragraph to let readers know precisely “what’s in it” for them. Here are some techniques to make that happen.
First, you can’t know which page web visitors will see first, since there are many different ways to enter a site. Some will land on the homepage for sure, but blog posts and other content will show up in search engines (that’s the hope, at least!)…so don’t assume that any one page is more important than the rest, although the homepage does deserve the most attention.
Second, only a tiny percentatge of visitors will be responding to even the highest quality ads. You’ll have to work a bit harder for the rest of your readers. To get conversions, you’ll have to use the content on all your web pages.
Who Is Your Site For, What Do They Want?
When you’re busy creating content, it’s easy to focus on SEO and forget that your website exists to sell your products and services! Even if you don’t forget such a thing, can the same be said of everybody who writes for you? It’s sometimes hard for experts in a field to put themselves in the shoes of a visitor, who will spare just a few seconds to find a reason to read the content.
When constructing an argument or presenting a product, it seems logical to first present the building blocks of your case before giving the end result. The end results should be something that will make your readers’ lives better.
People Purchase Benefits Not Features
You should always spell out the benefits before describing features. A feature is a description of what you’re selling or offering. Benefits are more important, they are the things that those features do for your customers.
For instance, people don’t purchase light bulbs for features like being long lasting, bright, and cheap! People purchase light bulbs because they don’t want to live in the dark, and for benefits like “saving money” or maybe “saving the planet”.
Your Headline Is The Most Important Part Of Your Content
If your headline does not promise something of interest, then your article won’t get read and you’ll struggle to sell. This is because most visitors arrive at a page, read a headline and then make a decision to stay or go.
*Also, please note that these guidelines are just as appropriate for blog posts, e-newsletters and other online communications!
A few good guidelines for headlines:
Promise benefits – tell readers exactly what your content will do for them
Don’t make readers think too much, don’t be overly clever, obscure or ironic
Don’t make visitors read the story to then understand the headline
Do ask a question about a problem and then entice with a solution
Do provide things Top 10 lists or 3 Best Ways To…
Do make sure your first paragraph is as clear as possible, elaborating on the most important idea you’re trying to get across
Write Keyword Rich Article Titles and Subject Lines
15 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
Ask yourself a quick question, “Do I write keyword-rich article or subject titles?”
Example 1: “Home Theater”
* This article title is too short to get any hooks and the reader has to simply guess what your angle to the topic is.
Example 2: “Home Theater Components”
* This is better, yet still does not explain why someone should read the article.
Example 3: “Home Theater Audio and Video Components That Will Make Your Friends Envy You”
* Now we have picked up a 2 more keywords, “audio” and “video” and a reason why to read the article.
Example 4: “Home Theater Audio and Video Components, Speakers and Setup – 7 Tips to Amp Up Your Sound”
* Here you see multiple, high-value keywords, gave a good reason to read the article, and even used a high-value keyword as a verb, “Amp.”
Not sure what keywords to use? For good keywords to use in your article titles, use an online tool such as Google Suggest, GoodKeywords, or Wordtracker to help identify them.
Also ask yourself another question: “Do the first three or four words of my article title introduce the topic of the article?”
More tips:
1. Avoid starting your title with ‘throw away’ or ‘junk words’ and conjunctions, like “a” or “the.”
2. It’s perfectly acceptable to start your article title with a verb and then roll directly into a dense keyword relating to the subject of your article.
3. Consider using multiple article topic hooks in your title or subject line.
Example: “Yoga Moves – 7 Tips To Flatten Your Abs With Vinyasa Yoga Techniques”
Topic Hook #1 is: “Yoga” / “Yoga Moves”
Topic Hook #2 is :“Flatten Your Abs” and/or “Vinyasa Yoga”
Always help your reader understand what the benefit will be if they invest the time to read your article.