explaining the content life cycle

 EXPLAINING THE CONTENT LIFE CYCLE Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle. -­‐ Marcus Aurelius By: Dave Snyder and Raubi Perilli 1) Introduction to the Content Life Cycle (An Open Letter From CopyPress CEO Dave Snyder)..3 i) Content ii) Connection iii) Curation iv) Conversion v) Content Lifecycle Iteration 2) Content: How to Create Shareable, Emotionally-­‐Driven Content………………………………………14 i) What Is Sharebait and Why Do People Share Content ii) What Does Sharebait Sound Like? (Themes and Hooks) iii) Building a Concept Bank (Collecting Research) iv) Understanding the Client and Audience Before Writing v) How to Research the Client and Industry vi) Strategies for Thinking Outside of the Box vii) Formatting Sharebait (Shaping the Outline) viii) Writing Style (How to Write) ix) Writing the Introduction and Conclusion x) Writing the Body (What to Write) xi) Writing Headlines and Subheadings xii) What Type of Visuals to Use and How to Find Them xiii) The Final Edit 3) Connection: How to Be An Outreach Expert……………………………………………………………………45 i) Platforms for Finding Sites ii) How to Search for Sites iii) Blogs that Accept Content Today iv) Outreach Management Tools v) Tools for Grading and Finding Sites vi) Preparing the Pitch vii) Outreach Don’ts viii) Case Studies 4) Curation: How To Spread Content Through Social Media…………………………………………………57 i) Introduction to Curation ii) Managing Curation Portals iii) Sample Social Promotion Report iv) Understanding Edgerank and Graphrank v) CopyPress Case Study 5) Conversion: How to Use Content to Convert Audiences into Customers………………………….75 i) Content in Sales ii) The Ingredients for Great Sales Copy iii) Creating a Honeypot: Secondary Conversions iv) Creating a Great Opt-­‐in Setup v) Creating a Great Email Sequence vi) CopyPress Case Study 6) Reflection (Another Open Letter From CopyPress CEO Dave Snyder)…………………………………80 CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 2 INTRODUCTION: THE PATH TO THE CONTENT LIFECYCLE AN OPEN LETTER FROM COPYPRESS CEO DAVE SNYDER Over the last 6 months, I have spent a copious amount of time traveling to dozens of cities across four countries and two continents talking to agency professionals and in-­‐house marketers about the offerings we are building at CopyPress. This mostly included our content placement offering (which used to be Hua Marketing) and our content creation system, CopyPress. In one meeting in London, one of our partners, Mark Hirschfield, noted that the two products were really two parts to one whole. He was exactly
right. When I arrived back in the States, I reviewed all of my notes from my trips and began to dissect what we were building across our product and company portfolios. The results from all of this reflection were interesting: 1. We had built a very scalable content placement software and system within Hua Marketing, Connection Seeker. 2. Also within Hua, we had built a solid group of digital media specialists for image and video creation, as well as a system for scaling this production. 3. CopyPress was a solid offering, but customers wanted more specialized content with easier to understand pricing. 4. Customers needed the ability to not only create great content, but also to place it on well trafficked external sites (a merger of CopyPress and Connection Seeker). 5. Customers needed the content and connection offerings to be able to serve PR and social media needs as much as SEO, because utilizing shared budgets was easier. 6. Due to the above fact, the customers also needed to be able to seed and curate content in social media for maximum visibility. 7. One issue repeatedly brought up was that while the social traffic content was great for exposure, links, and SEO benefit, clients were also interested in finding a way to convert the traffic directly. This led to a focused retreading of our entire business model. RETREADING (PRESENT PARTICIPLE OF RETREAD [VERB]: GO BACK OVER (A PATH OR ONE’S STEPS) We went back through our process, got rid of the fluff, and looked at what we could add to the mix to make things more palatable for a full marketing plan from SEO to PR. During this period the Content Life Cycle clearly presented itself as a logical concept that can, and should, be applied to every content marketing project. Dave Snyder, CopyPress CEO CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 3 CONTENT WHAT IS IT? CONTENT (NOUN): SOMETHING THAT IS TO BE EXPRESSED THROUGH SOME MEDIUM, AS SPEECH, WRITING, OR ANY OF VARIOUS ACTS The Content Life Cycle begins with the creation of amazing content. It provides the substance for any successful online presence, making content the start, supporting base, and fuel for the Content Life Cycle. Online Content is anything that expresses an idea or emotion that is meant to be digested by consumers. For this reason, everything on the Internet that we interact with daily can be seen as content. As we noted in our view of the Content Omniverse (http://www.copypress.com/blog/the-­‐
content-­‐omniverse-­‐infographic), there is an ever-­‐expanding amount of content material consisting of video, images, text, flash, and applications. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO MARKETERS? This almost goes without saying. “Content is king” is the most overused phrase in the short history of online marketing, but we thought we would still share some interesting tidbits. •
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There are over 4,500 websites that are indexed in the English language version of Google News that we know of. 125 million Americans read online news. 1 billion things are shared on Facebook every day. Based on a Search Engine Roundtable poll, Ecommerce companies were affected second most by Panda. According to comScore and Facebook, “Most leading brands on Facebook achieve a monthly Amplification Ratio of between 0.5 and 2.0, meaning that they extend the CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 4 •
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reach of their earned media exposure of Fans to Friends of Fans by 50-­‐200%. These ratios can be increased to improve brand reach by focusing on tactics to optimize Fan Reach and Engagement or by supplementing with paid advertising strategies.” According to Internet Retailer, 52% of consumers say that watching product videos
makes them more confident in their online purchase decisions. When a video is information-­‐intensive, 66% of consumers will watch the video two or more times. Online retailer Living Direct found that videos boosted conversion as well as increasing time on site by 9%. The key to our focus is creating a user-­‐friendly platform for both contractors and customers to interact. All of our contractors are thoroughly trained and given tools to maximize their output and thus earning potential, while keeping prices competitive for clients. COPYPRESS’ FOCUS Each of our products has a focus and a software to back that focus. When we were redefining our content offering, we really focused on the feedback we were getting from our customers. We settled on three forms of copy: News Blogs, Sharebait, and Product Descriptions. Furthermore we decided to bring in a very focused image and video offering. On the image side we are focusing first on data visualization and article graphic-­‐style Infographics. Our video offering will be focused on three video types: Speed-­‐Drawing Illustrations, Transitionals, and a partnership with Simple Show. While many companies are offering these types of products, our focus is on creating platforms and training programs that allow for maximum scalability regardless of media type, and offering great pricing and value for the customer. COPYPRESS’ SOFTWARE We guide all of our content creation through our CopyPress CMS, which is the original software we built for the company. It allows us to hire, train, and manage hundreds of contractors. It also allows for easy editing, revisions, and delivery. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 5 CONNECTIONS WHAT IS IT? CONNECTION (NOUN): •
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THE ACT OR STATE OF CONNECTING THE STATE OF BEING CONNECTED: CONNECTION BETWEEN CAUSE AND EFFECT ANYTHING THAT CONNECTS; CONNECTING PART; LINK; BOND ASSOCIATION; RELATIONSHIP: THE CONNECTION BETWEEN CRIME AND POVERTY A CIRCLE OF FRIENDS OR ASSOCIATES OR A MEMBER OF SUCH A CIRCLE If content is the life blood of the Internet, connections are the veins. Documents, websites, social profiles, everything, all connect to each other making up the hyperlinked web. Facebook and Google have built billion dollar businesses around this graph of connections, and because of this, it is the logical second step in the Content Life Cycle. How many connections live on the web? Well, Majestic SEO has 3,887,023,273,384 URLs in its index. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO MARKETERS? Simply put, getting traffic to your product or offering is why you get paid. Connections through links still make up a valuable core of Google and Bing algorithms for search. Users on Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and every other social media platform, connect to content and products that interest them. Journalists utilize connections to build, research, and cite their work. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 6 Content is to the online marketer, as the print ad is to the offline marketer. Connections are to the online marketer, as the circulation of the magazine with a printed ad is to the offline marketer. 2012 will forever be the year that SEOs talk about the death of linkbuilding. The reality is that linkbuilding as we knew it will never be a safe practice again. The only way to achieve off-­‐page SEO metrics is by building links via the Matt Cutts’ mantra of “quality content.” However, if you just create content and then leave it on your site to be stumbled over by happenstance, then you aren’t getting the full value of the content. You need to be able to create connections with other site owners to build relationships that get views to your content and also offer content and content concepts to get visibility on their websites. Along these lines, public relations online continues to morph. Online publications continue to take the place of their paper equivalents, and today’s PR teams must be able to create and cultivate connections with high end writers online. PR, search, and social media truly have no lines of separation anymore, and a healthy marketing campaign involves all three disciplines. COPYPRESS’ FOCUS We have a team of people creating connections today, so customers can quickly scale campaigns already having insight into the types of content they except and the types of guidelines they follow. Our process allows for marketers to quickly order content, scale organic outreach, and monitor results. Publishers can utilize the system to manage their pitch process and ensure high quality PR pitches. This process is both marketer and publisher friendly, based on transparency and honest outreach. We look to give more than we get in return from publishers, writers, and content curators, and that is a formula that always leads to success. COPYPRESS’ SOFTWARE Connection Seeker is a content marketplace for 100% organic connection creation and content placement online. It also serves as a place for journalists to receive pitches from big brands and thought leaders. We are currently crawling 2 million domains for social and search metrics to be able to allow professionals to find just the right connections for their campaigns. We also launched CopyforBylines.com, which is more of a gift to the community than an internal software project. We wanted to be able to utilize a guest blogging community that made things easy for publishers and writers, so we created it. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 7 CURATION WHAT IS IT? CURATION (VERB): THE ACT OF CURATING, OF ORGANIZING AND MAINTAINING A COLLECTION OF ARTWORKS OR ARTIFACTS
This part of content Life Cycle has been something we have had the pleasure of watching morph over the last 5 years. It has gone from a Wild West style of marketing, to a very legit service with actionable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). As we define it, Curation is broken into two subsets: Social Seeding – We utilize existing social ad platforms to seed our content to social users. If the content is quality, this seeding should ignite a viral wave. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 8 Organic Curation – We organize our content into online collections that users may find interesting. This is platform based and can be done on Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Facebook, etc. The key to this strategy is growing an interesting grouping of Curation platforms and mingling with other taste makers. How Big Is the Curation Universe? •
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Facebook – 800+ Million users on Facebook by the end of 2011 Twitter – 250 Million tweets per day (October 2011) Tumblr – 39 Million Tumblr blogs by the end of 2011 WordPress – 70 Million WordPress blogs by the end of 2011 StumbleUpon – 25 Million registered users Pinterest – 12 Million unique visitors Reddit – 609,308 Unique visitors a day (at least 25,000 uniques an hour) WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO MARKETERS? Once your content has been created, connected, and hosted, it is time for you to expand the visibility of what you have built. PR strategists have long employed this technique by identifying and approaching taste makers to get exposure for their products. Social media has only given more power to this process and helped demystify it. Even by mixing a very small social seeding budget on appropriate platforms (like Facebook, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Buzzfeed, and Virool), depending on media and the chosen Curation portals, marketers can see huge increases in traffic to their valued content. COPYPRESS’ FOCUS Our most basic focus is to build a transparent Curation product. There is no reason that any portion of a marketer’s strategy should be a black box. We don’t beg for votes, and we don’t buy likes from bots. If the content is good and the placement location is quality, we have found that a simple, small budget for social advertising and solid Curation should be sufficient for noteworthy viral uptake at least 30% of the time. We believe a transparent service that abides by the social platform rules is the best option for marketers today, as there is simply too much to lose from anything less. COPYPRESS’ SOFTWARE Curation Reports is our newest piece of software that is still in Alpha. The concept behind this development project is to allow for two things: 1. Tremendous insight into the Curation process CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 9 2. To collect data and find out exactly what type of content works on different platforms, and most importantly, why it works This software is available at www.Curationreports.com and offers the following features: •
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Social grading for individual posts Integration with Google Analytics The ability to monitor and collect data points over time White labeled reporting CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 10 CONVERSIONS WHAT IS IT? CONVERSIONS (NOUN): THE ACT OR PROCESS OF CONVERTING; CON-­‐VERT: (VERB) TO CHANGE (SOMETHING) INTO A DIFFERENT FORM OR PROPERTIES; TRANSMUTE; TRANSFORM In marketing, our job centers around transforming traffic into customers, leads, or some other valuable KPI or conversion. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO MARKETERS? Your job likely depends on this KPI more than any other. What is the value of traffic that doesn’t convert? For most people, the answer is zero. Now that you have a serious amount of traffic pumping to your site, how do you get them to convert? For years, social traffic generation was seen as a branding or SEO play because the net benefit of direct social traffic often has no direct tie to conversions. However, today we have tools at our disposal that make this issue a thing of the past. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 11 COPYPRESS’ FOCUS At CopyPress we utilize retargeting and opt-­‐in email list creation to turn social users into acquisition targets. We help our clients create and manage marketing materials that will yield maximum results by creating content that ties audience to content and capitalizes on the emotion elicited during its engagement. This process helps transform content consumers into customers. COPYPRESS’ SOFTWARE This stage of the process is the one where we felt other companies had a stronger core competency than us. For this reason, we have synched with software such as the PAR Program to manage our conversion optimization of content. By allowing our partners to focus on the software, we can keep our eye on processes that yield the highest return for our customers. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 12 CONTENT CYCLE ITERATION As we move through the cycle we collect data, and then upon completion, we size up that data and iterate. We make changes to increase the value of each piece of the cycle. We find out how content can be improved, how our connection process can be made better, the best places and strategies for organic Curation and paid seeding, and that tweaks that can aid conversions. THE CONTENT LIFE CYCLE At CopyPress, we view content on the web as a living and breathing thing. It isn’t something you create and it goes away, out of site out of mind. It yields based on the care given. For us, the content Life Cycle is the approach to yield maximum returns on content. It allows for every portion of the online marketing team to have deep investments in the content creation process and gives ways to grow the success over time. We will now explore how we use each part of the content Life Cycle to maximize content performance. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 13 CONTENT: HOW TO CREATE SHAREABLE, EMOTIONALLY-­‐DRIVEN CONTENT The Content Life Cycle begins with the creation of high-­‐quality content. Copy, graphics, and videos provide the substance for any successful online presence, making content the start, supporting base, and fuel for the Content Life Cycle. Both readers and search engines demand an abundance of fresh, current, and relevant content, so continually posting shareable content is, and will always be, the most effective way to drive traffic, maximize online exposure, and increase brand awareness. WHAT IS SHAREBAIT AND WHY DO PEOPLE SHARE CONTENT? Sharebait is web content that gains mass attention and spreads virally across the internet. Readers move this content by sharing it with their social media friends and reposting it on other websites. Publishers love Sharebait. Why? 1. Content gets additional exposure every time it is shared. This is obviously a good thing for any publisher who wants more eyes to see their content. 2. Content gets higher search rankings when it is frequently shared. While not so obvious, this is also an extremely important step in connecting more readers with content. SO, WHY DO PEOPLE SHARE CONTENT? While there are hundreds of reasons why a given piece of content is shared online, we have determined two specific elements that factor into the shareability of a piece of content. 1. The content is valuable. 2. The content is emotionally appealing. WHAT MAKES CONTENT VALUABLE? Valuable content: Fulfills a Need – because it provides an extremely detailed solution to a problem or answer to a question (How To: Hard Boil and Egg -­‐-­‐-­‐ Real Simple.com) Fulfills a Want – because it provides satisfaction or something the reader was looking for (Usain Bolt Wins 200m Again -­‐-­‐-­‐ ESPN.com) Offers Enjoyment – because it provides something unexpected – something the reader didn’t need or want, but was happy to find (12 Extremely Disappointing Facts about Popular Music -­‐-­‐-­‐ BuzzFeed.com) CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 14 WHAT MAKES CONTENT EMOTIONALLY APPEALING? Emotionally appealing content immediately incites a strong reaction or feeling in the reader. The reaction or feeling is so intense that the reader feels compelled to share the emotion with someone else. Audiences most share content that leaves them feeling: Happy – By finding something funny Cracked.com Angry -­‐ By unveiling something annoying/disappointing ESPN.com Shocked -­‐ By seeing something surprising Mashable.com Well-­‐informed – By learning/discovering something new HuffingtonPost.com But those aren’t the only emotions that incite sharing in readers. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 15 Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion shows how each basic emotion has several levels of intensity. Each emotion can be amplified by moving closer toward the center of the wheel – toward the stronger emotional response. When an emotional attachment is more extreme, it is far more likely to incite a reaction from the reader and therefore be shared by the reader. Content that incites rage is far more likely to be shared than content that incites annoyance. Many elements work together to create a piece of content that will go viral. But at the heart of every piece of content shared across the Internet is: VALUE and EMOTIONAL APPEAL. WHAT DOES SHAREBAIT LOOK LIKE? (FORMATTING & STYLING) There are hundreds of kinds of Sharebait. Inforgraphics, memes, videos, photos, and articles are all just a few examples of the types of content that are frequently spread across the Internet. Let’s talk about two types of Sharebait. 1. Copy Focused Articles 2. Graphic Focused Articles COPY FOCUSED ARTICLES Copy focused content concentrates on the text. The images are inserted to support the text. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 16 Mashable.com GRAPHIC FOCUSED ARTICLES Graphic focused content concentrates on the graphics. The text is written to support the graphics. Matador Network.com CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 17 THE FORMAT OF SHAREBAIT Both copy and graphic focused text work best when formatted with an: Introduction Sections of Supporting Ideas (at least three) Conclusion Introductions should be brief (roughly 2-­‐3 sentences long) and support the title by stating the main topic/idea of the content and offering a short synopsis of the content to come. •
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Sections of supporting ideas should be separated by subheadings. Each section should support the title by offering detailed information about the main topic/idea. Each section should be no more than 3-­‐4 paragraphs or blocks of text. If the section is longer, it should be broken into another section or subsection. Conclusions should be brief (roughly 1-­‐3 sentences long), wrap up the content and support the title by restating the main topic. Lifehacker.com CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 18 DELIVERING THE SHAREBAIT FORMAT The Sharebait format can be delivered in the following ways: Topic Breakdown – Sections of supporting ideas discuss parts of the topic in extreme detail o Credit Score Blueprint: Everything You Need to Know -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐ Lifed.com Lists /Countdowns – Sections of supporting ideas discuss an element of the list or countdown o Only use numbers in subheadings when the numbers are relevant to the text (such as a countdown) o Don’t stick with boring top ten lists § Use random numbers in lists § Examples: 13 Largest, Top 22, 18 Shortest o Don’t make boring best and worst lists § Make use of words ending in –est § Examples: Shortest, Prettiest, Biggest, Strangest o The 7 Most Unintentionally Hilarious Movies of the Decade -­‐-­‐-­‐ Cracked.com o 30 Indispensable Writing Tips from Famous Authors -­‐-­‐-­‐ BuzzFeed.com Steps/How-­‐To – Sections of supporting ideas discuss steps for completing an activity o Use numbers in subheadings o How To: Hard-­‐Boil an Egg -­‐-­‐-­‐ RealSimple.com Evolution of Something/Timeline – Sections of supporting ideas discuss the stages of an event o Use numbers and/or dates in the subheadings o Show when, how and/or why something happened WHAT DOES SHAREBAIT SOUND LIKE? (THEMES AND HOOKS) We already know that people like valuable, emotionally appealing content that is formatted in a specific way. To take it one step deeper, consider what hooks and themes resonate with readers. One or more of the following hooks/themes will add to the shareability of content. •
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Show a Different Side or Perspective of a Topic o Do Olympic or Competitive Swimmers Ever Pee in the Pool? -­‐-­‐-­‐ Slate.com Think “Outside of the Box” Show a Complex Idea in a Simple Way Use Specific Examples Present Something New Present Something Old in a New Way o Taco Bell’s Sophisticated Side -­‐-­‐-­‐ Slate.com Add Extra Value to Something the Reader Already Knows CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 19 •
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Provide a Useful Resource (Good for Future Reference) Include Unusual, Odd or Shocking Statistics Relate to a Trending Topic o The Chick-­‐Fil-­‐A Way: Why Brands Should Have Stronger Opinions -­‐-­‐-­‐ FastCompany.com Include Something Extremely Topical and Newsworthy Use Interesting Metaphors Include Pop Culture/Celebrity References Be Nostalgic o 15 Vintage MTV Promo Spots You’ll Cherish for Eternity -­‐-­‐-­‐ Mashable.com Tell Stories Be Controversial Include an Irreverent Topic Offer Contradictory Ideas ( That Can Incite a Discussion) Call out a Specific Group of People in a Funny Way o 20 Things Your Most Annoying Friends Do on Facebook -­‐-­‐-­‐ Mashable.com BUILDING A CONCEPT BANK (COLLECTING RESEARCH) Writing Sharebait starts with research. The research you collect will help develop an idea, support the idea, and provide proper supporting graphics for the idea. So it’s important that before you start researching, you know what you are looking for. The best way to collect ideas is to start a concept bank. Having a collection of ideas is useful when trying to develop topics for your writing. It is also a good idea to maintain a general idea bank even when you don’t have a specific assignment. You never know when it might come in handy when a future assignment pops up. WHAT SHOULD YOU COLLECT IN A CONCEPT BANK? RESOURCES/SIMILAR SITES •
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As you collect the items mentioned in this list, remember to save the link to the resource or graphic You will need to include all research and attribution in your assignment For future reference, also keep links to all blog posts or other web pages that pertain to your topic TOPIC IDEAS •
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Write down every topic idea that comes to mind — good or bad Also list ideas that have been done by competitors CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 20 •
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You may be able to elaborate on these ideas later You also want to know what has been done, so you don’t repeat an idea BUZZ WORDS •
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Write down all buzz words that pertain to your topic, industry or audience Write down all buzz words that simply attract and demand attention (that could work well in a headline) HEADLINES •
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Write down any headlines that may come to mind during your research Also write down any published headline that you find interesting QUOTES •
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If you see an interesting quote from a well-­‐known person of interest, write it down Quotes may offer inspiration for an idea or give you a good starting point STRIKING STATISTICS •
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Just one striking statistic could be the topic of a post If you find enough shocking statistics, you could make an entire post based off of the list of stats Be sure to keep track of the source of your information and refer to it within your article GRAPHICS •
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Collect any images, Infographics, videos, graphs, etc. that represent the content theme or industry Graphics may offer future inspiration Also, by collecting images for your article early, you don’t have to look for images at the end of the assignment UNDERSTANDING THE CLIENT AND AUDIENCE BEFORE WRITING Track your client research in your concept bank. COLLECT AND USE CLIENT INFORMATION Client Information may include: •
Client Website – Use the section below to understand how to use the client website for CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 21 •
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research. Website’s Purpose – May include the general purpose of the site which will help shape the direction of the content (sell real estate in California, entertain teens, inform clothing buyers, etc.). Target Audience – Use the section below to understand how to further research the audience. Content Preferences – May include client specific likes and dislikes (prefers deeply researched content, likes fun, quirky content, dislikes content about pop culture, etc.). Taboo Topics – May include a list of off limit topics, themes, etc. Competitors – If client information include a lists of competitors, do not mention or link to any competitors in the content. HOW TO REVIEW THE CLIENT WEBSITE (& CLIENT SOCIAL SITES) It is important to visit the client’s website (and social sites if available) so that you can better understand the client’s business/industry. READ THE ABOUT PAGE •
This may provide further information about the client’s audience, mission statement and purpose READ SOME OF THE CLIENT’S PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED MATERIAL •
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By reading previously published material, you will get a sense of the client’s brand voice and tone Browse the Client’s Previously Published Titles Look at the ideas that have been done Remember you don’t want to copy an idea that has already been used But think about how you can revisit a topic from a fresh angle View the site’s most popular post section (if it has one) to get an idea about what the audience enjoys VIEW THE SOCIAL SHARING RESULTS •
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Look at the posts that have provoked the most social sharing Pay attention to the value and emotional appeal that is reflected in the content Be mindful of the themes and hooks that readers most enjoy How can you recreate these elements in your own content? CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 22 HOW TO UNDERSTAND AN AUDIENCE To create content that people will share, you must think about your audience. Ask yourself the following questions and track your answers in your concept bank. Who is the targeted demographic? What is their age/gender/education level? What are their other hobbies and interests? What other sites do they like? Create a person in your mind. Visualize that person as the READER throughout the creative process. •
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What type of content would that Reader want to see? Something valuable? How can you give the Reader what they need? Want? Enjoy? What does the Reader want to know? Learn? Discover? Does the Reader want something emotionally appealing? Does the Reader want to laugh? Cringe? Cry? Would the Reader like something with a lot of images? Which hooks and themes would the Reader enjoy? Who would the Reader share the content with? •
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Their friends? Colleagues? Family? Their blog followers? Social media followers? And why would the Reader share it with those people? Because the content is something they would also enjoy? Because the content also affects them? Because the content shows off something? And the most important question of all: WHY SHOULD THE READER CARE? •
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You must constantly ask yourself, “Why should the reader care about what I am saying?” If there is no good answer to this question, you should rethink your entire strategy. HOW TO RESEARCH THE CLIENT & INDUSTRY UTILIZE GOOGLE • Google Reader o Assemble a list of relevant industry blogs o Add them to your Google Reader (or other RSS feed) o Set a time once a day to read through the headlines and posts CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 23 •
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o What topics are trending? o How can you build off of other ideas? Google Alerts o Create a Google Alert for keywords pertaining to your topic and industry o The Google Alert will monitor the web and update you with new, interesting content regarding your keywords o This is also a great way to stay on top of what is happening in the industry Google Trends o Go to Google Hot Trends and view the top 20 Hot Searches o It will give you a good idea of what people have been searching o Try to craft a topic based on what is trending with the public o Go to Google Trend Searches o If you are thinking about writing a topic, you can search up to five relevant words to see which word is being searched most Google Search o Google the Topic in a Variety of Ways § Top Ten “Topics” § How to “Topic” § Tips and Tricks for “Topic” § Infographics “Topic” o Consider the topics that have been covered o Can you revisit this idea from a fresh angle? o Make note of what has already been published o You don’t want to post something that has already been done WORK THE SOCIAL MEDIA SCENE • Facebook o Check to see what your friends are sharing § What general topics are trending? o Go to the Facebook page of the client and its competitors § Look to see what links people are “liking” or commenting on § Read some of the comments to see if you can write about anything that seems to keep coming up in discussion • Twitter o Use Twitter Trends to see what words are trending o See what people are retweeting o Follow relevant Twitter personalities within the industry or topic that you are writing about o Search for the industry to see what topics are trending in the industry • Reddit, Mashable & Digg CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 24 Reddit, Mashable and Digg are social sites that rate and list web content in order of popularity o The homepage of each site is a great place to scan the market for web content that is working o You can search for a topic or industry to see what is trending o It is also a great tool for reviewing headlines that work Trendsmap o Trendsmap allows you to see what words are trending and in what locations around the country o This may be helpful if you are writing for a client that has a very specific target location StumbleUpon o Enter your topic or industry and StumbleUpon will search the web and deliver relevant content that may spark ideas or give inspiration Pinterest o Search your main topics on Pinterest and see what kind of content is being shared on boards o
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USE TOPIC SITES • Quora o Quora is another resource for questions and answers about an industry o Search for your industry or topic to find trending questions o Can you write a post that thoroughly answers the questions people are asking? • Social Mention o Social Mention is a real-­‐time social media search that analyzes trending topics and keywords • AllTop o AllTop is a social aggregation platform that collects a variety of articles about a given topic o It is mostly comprised of copy that will help you find topics and articles to spin ANALYZING YOUR RESEARCH Now that you have an understanding of Sharebait and a concept bank of ideas and audience notes, you can start to come up with ideas. 1.
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Analyze your audience information. Decide what type of content you want to create. Valuable? Emotionally Appealing? Decide what focus you want to use. Image Focused? Graphic Focused? Decide what hooks and themes you want to include. Now look at concepts in your bank. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 25 6. Which concepts match the type of content you want to create? o A striking statistic o An interesting graphic that offers inspiration for a group of graphics o A topic that you can cover more thoroughly or from a different angle o A trending theme o Still having trouble? Use Strategies for Thinking Outside of the Box to develop good ideas. 7. Write down all topic ideas. Keep the topics simple. If you attempt to tackle too many ideas in one topic, you may lose the reader. 8. Once you have a few ideas, write down the article direction (or summary) in 1-­‐3 sentences. If you can’t explain the idea in 1-­‐3 sentences, the topic is probably too broad. STRATEGIES FOR THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX CREATE AN IDEA FLOW CHART • Start with a general topic, industry, theme or main idea o Answer who, what, where, when, why and how about the element o Use only 2-­‐3 words per answer • Then answer the same questions for each supporting answer • Do this over and over o You will be left with a huge chart of words and ideas • Remember: This is Brainstorming! o Don’t worry if the ideas are good or bad o The important thing is to have ideas o Then you can choose which ideas are worth developing • Keep in mind you may have a massive web, but only 5 good ideas or buzz words – that’s okay! THE POWER OF METAPHORS: BRAINSTORM BY CONNECTING THE DOTS Find ways to draw metaphors between your topic and an unrelated, popular topic or trend. •
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Think about an idea or concept of the topic Think about an unrelated topic Connect the traits of your topic to traits of your unrelated topic What similar characteristics do both traits share? How can you build off of these connections? Find creative ways to write based off of those comparisons Readers like to see things they don’t understand compared to things that they do understand It makes the information relatable and memorable CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 26 Example Topic: Blog Length Unrelated Topic: Restaurants Connect Traits: Short Blogs / Appetizers | Long Blogs / Entrees | Photos Blogs / Dessert Short Blogs / Appetizers – Short, Satisfies an Immediate Hunger, May Leave You Wanting/Expecting More Long Blogs / Entrees: Include more than One Topic/Food, Give you Everything you were Looking For, Leave you Satisfied Photo Blogs /Dessert: You Never want to Choose Just One, Easy to Enjoy, You Weren’t Hungry for It until You Saw It PLAY OFF CURIOSITY • Think about what you are curious about • Think about things that make you wonder • Find the answer and write about it Mashable.com GET OUT OF THE BOX • Find a way to create content that sounds odd, unique or strange • Make it something the reader has to see to believe • Start with a standard idea and stretch it • Example: Bad Content -­‐-­‐> Mean Content -­‐-­‐>Backstabbing Content -­‐-­‐> Content like a Backstabbing Friend CopyPress.com DON’T STOP AT THE SURFACE Whether you have been given or have created a topic, you are responsible for taking that idea CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 27 and building it into a stronger concept. Remember all of the concepts you previously learned about creating Sharebait. Pull from those ideas to better develop your topic. •
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Don’t stop at the surface of the idea Attempt to break the topic down into more specific detail Don’t provide the obvious material Perform extra research on the topic (don’t only use the research provided to you) Look for ways to make valuable content o Look for good examples/anecdotes, interesting/unusual facts o If you find something interesting, dig deeper into it o Look for a way to show the idea in a new way o Look for ways to create emotionally appealing content o Take the emotional aspect of the idea and push it toward the center of the wheel of emotion Attempt to connect the content to trending topics (that are shocking/funny/controversial) Find an interesting way to deliver the content Tie in one or more interesting hooks and/or themes Think about the audience and ask yourself the most important question of all – WHY SHOULD THE READER CARE? Ask yourself this repeatedly while creating Sharebait. FORMATTING SHAREBAIT – SHAPING THE OUTLINE When it comes to web content, first impressions matter. An online reader gives a piece of content about 10 seconds to catch their attention. If the content fails to lure in the reader within those 10 seconds, the reader is gone. So it is extremely important to properly format Sharebait so that it: 1. Is easy to scan (scannable) 2. Highlights important elements in the content The most important, scannable elements of content are the: The Headline Subheadings Graphics Bold, Underlined, Italicized and/or Highlighted Text Summaries (In the Introduction & Conclusion) As we previously discussed, Sharebait should be formatted in the following way. •
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CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 28 Introduction Sections of Supporting Ideas (At least 3) Conclusion We build out this basic format to highlight the scannability and visibility of important elements in the content. This also helps create an outline. •
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Take the outline and plug in your main ideas as subheadings and supporting ideas as sections of supporting blocks of text to create your content. SKELETON O UTLINE F OR S HAREBAIT Headline Introducton Introductory Paragraph Subheading Secton of Supportng Ideas (Support the Title) Graphic (Supports the Subheading) 1-­‐3 Blocks of Text (Support the Subheading) Subheading Secton of Supportng Ideas (Support the Title) Graphic (Supports the Subheading) 1-­‐3 Blocks of Text (Support the Subheading) Subheading Secton of Supportng Ideas (Support the Title) Graphic (Supports the Subheaing) 1-­‐3 Blocks of Text (Support the Subheading) Use at least 3 Sectons of Supportng Ideas The More the Beuer Graphic (Supports the Summary Paragraph) Conclusion Summary paragraph CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 29 Socialmediaseo.net SECTIONS OF SUPPORTING IDEAS The number of sections of supporting ideas varies based on the delivery and word count of the article; however, you should never use less than 3 sections of supporting ideas. The more sections of supporting ideas you use, the better. Use the appropriate numbers of sections as dictated by the word count and delivery of your content. •
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An informative, 500-­‐word article about Cell Phone Spies may include 3 to 5 sections, depending on how many main points the writer will showcase. A 500-­‐word article about Six Creative Uses for Old Cell Phones will include 6 sections (one for each phone). Gizmolord.com Include roughly the same amount of information in each section when the sections are parallel elements •
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Parallel elements discuss matching information such as: o Answers to the same question o Elements of the same list For example, Top Twelve Celebrities Dogs includes parallel elements in the sections, so each should be around the same length CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 31 DIYMarketers.com BLOCKS OF TEXT (WITHIN SECTIONS OF SUPPORTING IDEAS) • Include 1-­‐3 blocks of text (paragraphs, bulleted lists) in each section • If the section is longer than 1-­‐3 blocks of text, divide into another section or create subsections • Use logical hierarchy for formatting subheadings for subsections: H2, H3, H4, etc. • Provide an introductory sentence or paragraph before introducing a subsection EHowPortal.com CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 32 WRITING STYLE (HOW TO WRITE) There are many different types of good writing. But for Sharebait, there are specific elements that make good writing for this platform. Some of these elements are basic writing tips, but others may go against traditional writing styles. TRADITIONAL WRITINGS RULES • Incorporate logical flow o Walk the reader through an idea from start to finish o Clearly introduce ideas at the beginning of articles and sections o Properly wrap up ideas at the end of articles and sections o Don’t randomly insert ideas and concepts that are irrelevant to the article or section • Maintain the active voice o Always avoid the passive voice o With an active voice, the subject of the sentence is doing something o Active: The meeting is at seven. -­‐-­‐-­‐ Good o Passive: The meeting will be held at seven o’clock. -­‐-­‐-­‐ Bad • Don’t insert opinions that may be tied back to the client o Avoid language that insinuates the opinion of the publisher o We feel that/Our idea is/We think/etc. • Use the AP style guide o Refer to the Associated Press Stylebook for all questions about formatting and terminology NOT-­‐SO-­‐TRADITIONAL WRITING RULES • Employ concise language o Keep sentences short and to the point o Avoid flowery, fluffy, or repetitive copy o Avoid superlatives and meaningless adjectives that add no weight to a sentence (very, really, just, that, exactly, extremely, best) • Write in a conversational tone o Write the way you would talk to your audience o Write in the third person § Example of third person: “Most readers find this interesting.” o But it is okay to also use the second person and refer to the reader § Example of second person: “You will find this interesting.” • Don’t be technical o Only use vocabulary and terminology that audiences will understand CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 33 o
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The introduction should encourage the audience to read – by showcasing the main benefit of the content The conclusion should reward the audience for reading – by reiterating the main benefit of the content THE INTRODUCTION • Is 2-­‐3 sentences • Supports the title by stating the main idea of the content and offering a short synopsis of the content to come • Highlights the benefit of reading o Answer the reader’s question “What’s the point?” o If there isn’t a point, it’s probably not a good topic in the first place. • May evoke the mind’s eye o A good way to draw in the reader is by giving them a concrete image to focus on. THE CONCLUSTION • Is 1-­‐2 sentences • Summarizes the main idea of the content • Rewards the audience for reading o Reminds the audience of the benefit of reading. • Wraps up the content so the article feels complete WRITING THE BODY (WHAT TO WRITE) As previously mentioned, the body of Sharebait is composed of sections of supporting ideas. Each section is part of the body of the content and should adhere to the following guidelines. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 34 Writing Paragraphs Paragraphs should be less than 100 words each Writing Bulleted Lists •
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Introduce a bulleted list with a sentence or short paragraph Include 3-­‐10 items in a bulleted list Items in a list may be short phrases or complete sentences Write no more than two sentences for each item in a list o If there are three or more sentences, separate the items by subheadings instead Use numbers instead of bullets when relevant (countdown, steps, etc.) Use bold, introductory phrases whenever possible o Examples include: o CopyPress – Content Production Company o CopyPress is a Content Production Company. WpTidbits.com CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 35 GENERAL RULES ON WRITING • Make the content interesting to all readers – even those who would not normally care about the industry • Get the most out of a topic – don’t stop on the surface • Avoid common knowledge – give the reader something they don’t already know • Offer valuable information – facts, useful tips, anecdotes, concrete examples • Do not pad content with filler content – get to the point as quickly as possible o Don’t make the reader sort through three sentences to the get one point that could have been covered in one sentence. • Don’t repeat information – don’t give readers the same information multiple times in different places throughout the article • Be credible – don’t over exaggerate or provide information if you are not completely sure of its accuracy WRITING HEADLINES AND SUBHEADINGS Headlines and subheadings are important parts of Sharebait because they highlight main elements of the topic and add to the scanability of the article. HEADLINE AND SUBHEADINGS Headlines and subheadings use a very similar formula and style. Both: •
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Inform and lead a reader Are best with 80 characters or less Are capitalized in the following way: o Capitalize the first and last words o Capitalize all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs o Do not capitalize articles, conjunctions and prepositions unless they are four letters or longer Should include keywords (or part of the keywords) when possible (although not required) o If the client has provided keywords that must be used in the article, you should attempt to use them in the headline if possible. This will: § Help search engines identify the content § Help readers identify the main idea of the article o If you are using keywords in the content, using keywords in your title shouldn’t feel forced. They should appear naturally. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 36 HEADLINES •
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Give the reader a good idea about the entire article Are one of the most important elements of Sharebait Are often one of the few article elements visible on social sharing sites Alone may entice someone to share a piece of content Slate.com SUBHEADINGS •
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Provide support for the main idea and give clues to what can be learned from reading more closely Signify a shift in the article May answer a question given in a previous headline or title Are used to break up sections of supporting of supporting ideas Are formatted with title tags o A title tag is a formatting feature that can be assigned to a line of text within the CMS. o Subheadings should be formatted with the following title tags: § Subheading 1 – Heading 2 § Subheading 2 – Heading 3 § Subheading 3 – Heading 4 CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 37 TYPES AND HOOKS OF GOOD HEADLINES TYPES OF HEADLINES The Copywriter’s Handbook defines Eight Types of Headline Categories that Inspire Action. •
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Direct – Come right out and state your main idea o U2 Tickets on Sale Now Indirect – Clever titles that reference the main idea in a smart way o U2 Need Tickets Now News – The announcement of a new event or product o The words New, At Last, Introducing, Announcing, and Now indicate something newsworthy. o U2 Announces New Summer Tour The How To – Offer readers a solution to accomplishing a specific task o How To Find a Deal on U2 Tickets A Question – Either a question that the reader can emphasize with or would like to see answered o Do You Want to See U2 Tomorrow? o How Can You See U2 Tomorrow for Free? The Command – Immediately tell the reader what you want them to do. The first word should be a strong word initiating action o Hurry to Get your U2 Tickets Now Reasons Why – Tell why something is happening or should happen. o Ten Reasons Why You Can’t Miss the U2 Show Tomorrow Testimonial – Uses a quote from an influential person “I never miss a U2 show,” says President Obama HOOKS OF STRONG HEADLINES • Are Useful and Relevant – While you want to attract attention with your headline, don’t forget that the headline should still inform and direct the reader. o Google Autocomplete Reveals the Fattest, Boringest, and Most Racist States in the Union -­‐-­‐-­‐ Slate.com • Play Off of Curiosity – Offer the reader something they have to see to believe. If your headline sounds odd, unique or strange, a reader will click just to see if your content lives up to their expectation. o Synchronized Swimming Faces + Music = Terror -­‐-­‐-­‐ BuzzFeed.com • Imply Urgency – Have the headline make the content sound irresistible by making it sound time-­‐sensitive and current. • Can Stand on Their Own – A really great headline is entertaining on its own. Try to make CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 38 readers laugh or smile with just the headline. • Play Off the Fear of Loss – Have the headline make the reader feel like they will miss out or lose something by not reading the content. • Offer a Benefit or Reward – Through the headline, make sure that the reader knows that the content will offer some sort of enrichment to their everyday life. • Use Engaging and/or Action Words – Just one eye-­‐catching, extreme adjective can really make a headline jump off of a page, especially on Social Sites. o 7 Absolutely Insane Animal Defense Mechanisms -­‐-­‐-­‐ MentalFloss.com • Authenticate Your Proposition – In the headline, offer a sample of what you are going to provide in the content. • Use Shocking Statistics – Make the headline eye catching by using a surprising statistic that supports the text. o Goodreads Reaches 10 Million Members, 360 Million Books -­‐-­‐-­‐ SocialTimes.com • Alert the Reader of Special Features – If the content includes a video and or infographic, let the reader know in the headline by adding [Infographic] and/or [Video] after the title. Always make sure that if you make a promise in your headline, you keep it. MAKE A PROMISE Offer a benefit or reward by using a declarative sentence instead of a question By making a statement you are telling the reader what you are going to tell them in the article • You are making a promise by offering a benefit THEN KEEP IT •
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Don’t lure readers into an article with a flashy headline and then give them content that doesn’t deliver Readers might start to read an article with an ostentatious headline, but once they find out that the article doesn’t live up to the hype, they will stop reading and likely never believe you again Be mindful of your words so that you don’t unintentionally offer something you cannot possibly produce o This Guy Made What Might Be the Coolest House on Earth -­‐-­‐-­‐ BuzzFeed.com Be credible Right away your reader will trust you because you aren’t offering them something they know can’t be true CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 39 WHAT TYPE OF VISUALS TO USE AND HOW TO FIND THEM There are many ways to graphically represent your content. Good visuals include, but are not limited to: Pictures Screenshots (from websites and phones) – Always use screenshots when discussing specific website or phone apps. • Graphs/Charts/Diagrams • Infographics • Memes • Videos As previously mentioned there are two types of focus for content: •
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1. Copy focused articles 2. Graphic focused articles Obviously, graphic focused article will have a stronger emphasis on the graphics used in the content. But that doesn’t mean images don’t play a very important role in copy focused articles too. COPY FOCUSED ARTICLES • Use graphics to visually support information and concepts in the text • Graphics are usually added after the content is written • You should search for and use graphics that best support your content • Use Google Image Search and Flickr for finding the best search results • Photos should be relevant to the topic, but do not have to be completely literal • Find interesting ways to depict the content • Don’t simply search for the general topic or keyword o When writing a post “23 Ways to Make a Living Writing Blogs” o Don’t simply search for the word Blog • Imagine other concrete ways to depict the information -­‐ then search for that specifically o Man at a Computer on the Beach, Professional Blogger, Hands on a Keyboard • Search for graphs, Infographics, memes, etc. that match the topic o Blogging graphs, Blogging infographic, Blogging memes • Take a few minutes to search for different ways to depict your content, and remember to scroll down to look through all search results CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 40 TechMaish.com GRAPHIC FOCUSED ARTICLES • Use graphics to visually represent the main theme of the content • Usually graphics are gathered before the text is written • If the content must use Images Licensed for Reuse, make sure that there are enough available images to create your content concept. • The text explains why each graphic supports the main theme of the content • All graphics usually fit a specific theme or format • Look best when images are the same size FOR PICTURE BASED ARTICLES •
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If you have an idea for a group of pictures to use as a main theme of content, first find out if there are enough images available to support the idea Use Google Image Search or Flickr for finding available pictures Start by searching for the literal theme of the content o Dogs in Hats Search for synonyms of words in the main theme o Puppies in Hats, Pets in Hats CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 41 •
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If you find a lot of search results, try to drill down the theme and search for more specific themes o Funny Dogs in Hats, Dogs in Costumes, Dogs in Glasses, Dogs in Wigs Use your findings to shape the direction of your content Depending on what your search results return, you may find: o There aren’t enough images to support your main idea o There are better, more detailed ways to reshape the main idea FOR ALL OTHER GRAPHIC FOCUSED ARTICLES Building a collection of memes, charts, videos, Infographics, etc. is a great way to build compelling content. You should first find out if there are enough images available to support the idea Use Google Image search Search for the main theme of the content along with the type of graphic o Dog Infographics • Search for synonyms of words in the main theme along with the type of graphic o Puppy Infographics, Pet Infographics • If you find a lot of search results, try to drill down the theme and search for more specific themes o Benefits of owning a dog Infographic, Dog breed infographic • Use your findings to shape the direction of your content ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT YOU SHOULD PROPERLY ATTRIBUTE THE GRAPHICS USED IN YOUR CONTENT. •
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TEST THE SHARABILITY You are done researching, brainstorming, writing and adding graphics – you may think that your work is done. But it’s not. Now that you have a complete piece of content in front of you, you can accurately analyze its shareability by asking yourself the following questions and performing the following actions: •
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Would you share the content? What could you change and/or add to make it something you would share? Stand back from the computer. How does the content look? What could you do to make the format look better? o Bold words? o Shorten a paragraph? o Add bullets to a list? o Add a different image? CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 42 •
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What word could you add to the headline to make it better? What word could you remove from the headline to make it better? How can you reword the subheadings to make them more interesting and informative? Remember the most important question of all — why should the reader care? Keep working until you can walk away from the content confident that it is something you would share – even if you weren’t the author. THE FINAL EDIT CUT, CUT, CUT THEN EDIT Cutting is a major part of the editing process – especially when dealing with Sharebait. As we have previously discussed, Sharebait should be direct and concise. Only relevant, valuable material should be included in the content. You want to remove all of the unnecessary elements of the content. Remove any blocks of text, sentences, phrases, and words that: 1. Reiterate an idea that has already been stated 2. Offer common knowledge or filler content 3. Are unnecessary WHAT TO EDIT You are responsible for creating content that will be sent directly to the client. It is imperative that you check all of the following editing guidelines before submitting. CHECK THE REQUIREMENTS •
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Match the word count Match any special client direction Include a list of resources (when available) Match all image requirements o Number of images o Proper citation o Correct quality, size and alignment IMPROVE THE CONTENT •
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Whenever possible, remove passive language Maintain the same tense throughout the content Shorten long run-­‐on or complex sentences CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 43 CHECK THE FORMATTING •
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Paragraphs are formatted with paragraph text Subheadings are formatted with the proper heading hierarchy (starting with Heading 2) All elements are separated by one space All extra line breaks are removed (including at the end of the content) CHECK THE MECHANICS Make sure that your content adheres to basic, general mechanics and English rules. Be mindful of the concepts that are frequently misused. •
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Spelling o Capitalization (of the Title and Subheadings) Grammar o Use the correct subject – verb agreement o Make sure modifying phrases properly refer back to the word it defines Punctuation o Incorporate proper comma use o Don’t separate a compound noun or verb with a comma o For help with comma usage, please refer to these quick comma rules TIPS FOR CATCHING EDITING MISTAKE Take a Break Before the Final Read Through – Before submitting a completed assignment, save it. Take a break from the assignment for at least ten minutes. Return to the assignment and read through it one more time before submitting. You will likely catch mistakes that you didn’t notice before the break. Utilize Your Network of Writers – Form relationships with other writers and editors. Trade out services of editing each other’s work. Both sides will benefit and end up with cleaner copy (two sets of eyes are always better than one). Get Automated Assistance – In addition to using the proofread check in the CMS, use online programs that will help catch errors in your content. While these programs aren’t always perfect, they may help you notice overlooked errors. Grammarly is a great automated proofreading program. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 44 CONNECTION: HOW TO BE AN OUTREACH EXPERT The Connections phase of the Content Life Cycle takes quality Content and places it on other high-­‐level, online platforms in order to build connections. By sharing unique content with online authorities through guest posting, you can maximizes the mobility and visibility of both the brand and the content. Each post, purposed for PR, reaches a new audience and builds brand awareness all while performing the added bonus of increasing relevance in organic search. Blogger Outreach is the process of bloggers/writers connecting with publishers and providing guest posts of content for the blog or website. Blogger Outreach is mutually beneficial for bloggers, publishers, marketers, companies, and audiences because it provides: 1. Online Public Relations – Expands and builds natural relationships between bloggers, publishers, marketers, and/or companies and the public 2. Traffic Generation – Leads to both direct and referral traffic 3. Viral Marketing – High-­‐quality, editorially-­‐driven content creates a large amount of traffic generating links 4. SEO – Direct and viral links initiated by the connection provide high SEO benefits PLATFORMS FOR FINDING SITES At the base of Blogger Outreach is a solid list of websites and blogs that accepts guest posts. There are several platforms out there to help you in the process of connecting with quality websites for guest posting. COPY FOR BYLINES – WWW.COPYFORBYLINES.COM This portal, built by our CopyPress team, is designed to make it extremely easy for publishers and writers to connect. GUEST BLOG IT – WWW.GUESTBLOGIT.COM Guest Blog It offers a premier platform connecting blog writers and blog owners for a mutual benefet. MY BLOG GUEST – WWW.MYBLOGGUEST.COM Started by Ann Smarty, this is a great place to find bloggers and connect around content. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 45 GUEST BLOGGING WEBSITES – WWW.GUESTBLOGGINGWEBSITES.COM GuestBloggingWebsites is a service to help bring together writers who want their articles to be published on new blogs and websites with webmasters who want fresh, high-­‐quality content. FIZZ NICHE – WWW.FIZZNICHE.COM Fizz Niche provides opportunities for guest posting, tools to find guest bloggers, and even a blog about guest blogging filled with guest blog posts. BLOGGER LINK UP – WWW.BLOGGERLINKUP.COM Blogger LinkUp sends an email three times a week with a list of leads that fit the user’s unique criteria and blogging needs. HOW TO SEARCH FOR SITES Search queries can also help locate outreach opportunities. Many sites have pages and posts dedicated to this concept, so use Google as a powerful outreach search tool. Buzz Blogger recently launched her list of 600 Places to Submit Your Content which included a great list of queries. Here is a list of quires for quick reference. (PDF version includes quires in link format.) •
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“Add Articles” ”Add Content” “Submit Article” ”Submit Post” “Add Guest Post” ”Bloggers Wanted” “Guest Bloggers Wanted” “Guest Post” “Guest Posts Roundup” “Guest Blogging Spot” “Write for Us” ”Submit a Guest Post” “Submit Guest Post” ”Become a Guest Blogger” “Submit a Guest Article” ”Guest Post Guidelines” “Guest Bloggers Wanted” ”Submit an Article” “Group Writing Project” CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 46 “Want to Write for” “Blogs that Accept Guest Posts” “Blogs that Accept Guest Blogging” “Blogs that Accept Guest Bloggers” “Blogs Accepting Guest Posts” “Become a Contributor” ”Contribute” “Submit Design News” ”Submit News” “Community News” ”Submit Tutorial” “Submit Blog Post” ”Suggest a Post” “Suggest a Guest Post” “Become an Author” “Contribute to our Site” ”Become a Contributor” “Become a Guest Writer” ”Places I Guest Posted” “My Guest Posts” ”Publish Your News” “Submission Guidelines” ”Guest post by” “This guest post was written” ”Guest Contributor” “This guest post is from” “This is a guest article” “Now Accepting Guest Posts” inurl:guest-­‐posts “The following guest post” inurl:write-­‐for-­‐us inurl:guest-­‐post-­‐guidelines inurl:profiles/blog/new NOTE: Some of these queries will lead to article repositories and directories, which are not something to look for in a Blogger Outreach strategy. This could lead to duplicate content and possible anchor text saturation if the article is heavily utilized. •
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CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 47 HOW TO UTILIZE TECHNORATI – WWW.TECHNORATI.COM Google isn’t the only tool for outreach searching. Technorati is a great tool for searching, especially when looking for niche-­‐specific blogs. Technorati allows users to search for keywords and show search results of entire blogs or individual posts. Once a search is initiated, you can refine your topic. Blog search results include the site’s authority rankings in multiple categories, a brief description of the blog, and recent posts from the blog. NOTE: It is useful to add RSS feeds from important searches and organize them into a reader. This is a good way to stay on top of the type of content the site is publishing as well as a great way to stay in touch with a topic or industry. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 48 TECHNORATI TAGS – WWW.TECHNORATI.COM/TAG/ Technorati also keeps a list of the most popular tags for the month. This can be useful when searching for places to post timely content, but it can also give a good idea about what content might meet a more favorable response in the pitch process. BLOGS THAT ACCEPT CONTENT TODAY There are a lot of sites looking for content today, and there are also a ton of lists out there noting these web properties. Here are some of the better lists out there: •
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http://100kresources.com/guest-­‐blogging-­‐sites/ http://figuretech.com/list-­‐of-­‐25-­‐blogs-­‐that-­‐accept-­‐guest-­‐blogging/ http://www.buzzblogger.com/600-­‐places-­‐to-­‐share-­‐your-­‐content/ OUTREACH AND MANAGEMENT TOOLS The following tools are useful for reaching out to sites as well as creating content and organizing the complete process. BLOG DASH -­‐ BLOG.BLOGDASH.COM Blog Dash is a tool for managing outreach that boasts connections with over 100,000 bloggers. Blog Dash works with bloggers to identify what they are interested in being pitched, which helps the process. GROUP HIGH -­‐ WWW.GROUPHIGH.COM Group High and Blog Dash work in a very similar space, but Group High has a slightly better feature set. RAPPORTIVE – WWW.RAPPORTIVE.COM Rapportive turns your Gmail into a blogger outreach system. It provides an easy way to view all of your targets social media actions. BUZZ STREAM -­‐ WWW.BUZZSTREAM.COM Buzz Stream, while similar to some of the resources above, has been engineered with SEOs in mind and is a great place to keep track of all of your outreach work. RAVEN TOOLS – WWW.RAVENTOOLS.COM Raven has tools that make it easy to track outreach in the same place as SEO metrics. This is a great solution for people that want one login to rule them all. TOOLS FOR GRADING AND FINDING SITES ALEXA – WWW.ALEXA.COM Alexa’s data is a bit skewed due to its reliance on Alexa toolbars for data; however, the product is great for the price point and also provides useful information on links. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 50 COMPETE – WWW.COMPETE.COM/US/ Compete can be a bit expensive, but is a great tool for researching website metrics. Matched with its amazing API, it may be worth the cost. GOOGLE AD PLANNER -­‐ WWW.GOOGLE.COM/ADPLANNER/ Google Ad Planner is a free way for finding traffic data for target websites. It gives more information than Alexa and does not have the cost of Compete. It can also be used to find more website targets by looking at what other sites people visit after leaving the site you are interested in. OPEN SITE EXPLORER – WWW.OPENSITEEXPLORER.ORG This SEOmoz tool is a useful for finding information (number of inbound links, top pages, linking domains) about websites and their competitors. MAJESTIC SEO – WWW.MAJESTICSEO.COM There are several ways to use Majestic, but the best function is Clique Hunter. This tool finds the common links among websites, providing a nice manageable list of outreach opportunities. WHOIS – WWW.WHOIS.NET WhoIS info can be really useful when trying to determine who owns a domain. At the same time, it can lead to a lot of dead ends. The best approach is to base your outreach on author and editor pages. SEER INTERACTIVE TWITTER TOOL Ethan Lyon from SEER Interactive created a simple tool for finding Twitter based link opportunities. It provides lists of URLs that are either calls for guest posts or guest posts themselves, giving you some pretty good fodder for outreach. AUTHOR CRAWLER – WWW.TOMANTHONY.CO.UK/TOOLS/AUTHOR-­‐CRAWLER/ Tom Anthony wrote up a tool called Author Crawler that allows you to find all of the authors with active authorship markup on a blog. By utilizing this tool and a Google Plus account, it’s easy to do a fair amount of target outreach. PREPARING THE PITCH Once you have your data mining and target acquisition work done, it’s time to begin pitching. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 51 The pitch is the most sensitive part of the entire process, because first impressions are extremely important. Before diving head in, let’s review some essentials: 1. Read the blog before you pitch it -­‐ People can smell someone being disingenuous. It isn’t tough to spot. Also, you can’t assume just because a site is in a specific niche, it will match your content or traffic need (i.e. an anti-­‐gambling blog doesn’t want your poker posts). 2. Tell them who you are and what you have done – The reason people want guest posts is to keep the level of content up on their site and perhaps drive some new traffic. If you can show the publisher that you are someone who can build content that gets traffic you are going to get a lot further than using a fake persona. 3. Honesty is the best policy – Don’t play games when doing outreach. Be upfront. There is no reason to start a valuable relationship based on lies. 4. Create a writer profile – Google Plus makes a great place for this. You should have an online portal that shows off everything and everywhere you write. This makes it easy for people to get a feel for what you can do. 5. Create your content before you pitch – Most publishers want to be pitched a specific post, not the concept of you posting for them ongoing. You should have a nice cache of awesome content you can use. But make sure the post you pitch matches the blog you are pitching it to. THE PITCH There isn’t a single way to handle a great pitch, but there are lots of ways to totally botch a blogger relationship before it begins. Some important notes: 1. Your first job is to get the blogger to open up and read your pitch, so subject lines are really important. 2. Your end goal isn’t to get a pitched post or idea accepted every time. Your goal needs to be to establish a relationship with every blogger or writer. This allows your list to grow. 3. Mind your grammar and spelling! This is like a job resume, and first impressions will be lasting impressions. BE FUNNY Our own Courtney Bishop gave us a great example of how this can work: CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 52 Again, some people may see this as a fail since she didn’t nail the pitch in terms of placed content or concept. However, she obviously built a rapport with this writer. BE DETAILED Some writers love really detailed pitches that show your story concept and who you are. A great example comes from the Make A Living Writing blog. Jessica Lunk wrote: Dear Carol, Sometimes to get unstuck, you just have to move, even if it is in the wrong direction. This is the heart of a piece I would like to write for the Make a Living Writing blog, The 5 Writing Rules I Broke to Get Unstuck. The 5 Writing Rules I Broke to Get Unstuck 1. Never write for the content mills. -­‐The content mill was my internship. -­‐Not lucrative, but does provide experience in meeting deadlines and meeting the needs of a client. -­‐Also is a good introduction to SEO and why content matters online. 2. Steer clear of Craigslist. -­‐Great clients can be posting anywhere. -­‐In my case, it was a retired business owner coming out of retirement to start a new business whose ad I answered on Craigslist. He is still a client today. 3. Have a specialty or niche. -­‐While having a niche is ideal, you can’t become an expert in a day. -­‐Sharing your journey is valuable. -­‐The more you explore, the more unique your perspective, and the more connections you can make between your subject and CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 53 the rest of the world. 4. Ask permission. -­‐If there isn’t a clear-­‐cut answer, go for it. -­‐It was unclear whether or not I could market my writing as “handmade” on Etsy. But, I went for it and landed several awesome clients. 5. Don’t copy. -­‐The best formulas always work, and you don’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel to write a great piece Five years ago, I was an administrative assistant with an English degree. I dreamed of breaking free and getting paid to write. Now, I am a content marketer and copywriter for a software company, with a few freelance gigs on the side. I blog at _____, and have even had a blog post featured on LinkedIn. I would love to share my experience with the Make a Living Writing community. Carol, would The 5 Writing Rules I Broke Get Unstuck be of interest to you? Sincerely, Jessica Lunk p.s. I love the Make a Living Writing blog. Thanks so much for being an amazing resource! Another important note here is that the email also lets the writer being pitched know that the writer reads their blog regularly. A little ego bump can work wonders. VARY THE PITCH Give the publisher a couple of ideas to work with. This example came from Ari Herzog’s Blog. Hi Ari, It’s interesting that your focus is on emerging media, because I own/operate a very popular forum and blog; CreditCardForum.com. On behalf of my site I do quite a bit of guest posting and take pride in the fact that I don’t write the cookie-­‐cutter and bare minimum “guest posts” that a lot of people churn out these days, ha. Is there any particular topic you would like to see me cover? I reviewed your archives showing the last 100 articles and here are a few ideas that popped into my head from looking at those… [Mike shared three sample titles and related content.] Would you like me to write up one of these? Or something else? Just let me know what’s best for you. By the way, congrats on being elected to Newburyport’s city council! Even though I live some two-­‐thousand miles away on the other coast, just want to say I dig local CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 54 politicians… I feel they’re the only politicians who actually get stuff done Thanks, Mike Note again the email writer “Mike” shows Ari he is familiar with his work. This is really important to bloggers. They don’t want to feel as though they are part of a list. FURTHER READING ON PITCHING DOS AND DONTS •
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http://www.makealivingwriting.com/2012/05/30/guest-­‐post-­‐pitches-­‐that-­‐got-­‐the-­‐gig/ http://www.problogger.net/archives/2011/07/26/4-­‐tips-­‐for-­‐pitching-­‐guest-­‐posts-­‐like-­‐a-­‐
pro/ http://mtherald.com/guest-­‐blogging-­‐etiquette-­‐how-­‐to-­‐successfully-­‐pitch-­‐a-­‐guest-­‐post/ http://martinairing.com/blog/successfully-­‐pitch-­‐a-­‐guest-­‐blog-­‐post/ http://writetodone.com/2011/11/07/how-­‐to-­‐land-­‐a-­‐guest/ http://dukeo.com/how-­‐to-­‐get-­‐top-­‐list-­‐bloggers-­‐to-­‐accept-­‐your-­‐guest-­‐post/ http://socialmouths.com/blog/2012/03/28/get-­‐your-­‐guest-­‐posts-­‐accepted-­‐every-­‐time/ http://heidicohen.com/guest-­‐blogging-­‐tips-­‐to-­‐land-­‐posts-­‐almost-­‐every-­‐time/ http://ariherzog.com/6-­‐guest-­‐blogging-­‐emails-­‐that-­‐suck/ http://www.toprankblog.com/2012/06/the-­‐one-­‐thing-­‐killing-­‐your-­‐blog-­‐outreach-­‐
pitching/ OUTREARCH DON’TS Here is a list of things you should NEVER do when reaching out to people for any marketing purpose. •
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NEVER offer to pay for or compensate the publisher with forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions, product samples or any other types of compensation. NEVER accept compensation from the publisher. Pitches should NEVER state “I am reaching out to you on behalf of [Client Name].” When you are establishing a relationship, as noted above, this will automatically have the publisher default to feeling as though they are being used. Transparency is important in a relationship, but a relationship must exist first. Initial outreach emails should NEVER involve offers of money or other incentives/forms of compensation. If you do this you will end up being some bloggers main source of traffic for the next three weeks after they call out you and your client for being unethical. If a blogger rejects a post or does not respond to a pitch, it is in your best interest to follow-­‐up once and let it go. Cyber stalking bloggers isn’t going to help your image. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 55 CASE STUDIES •
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http://unbounce.com/content-­‐marketing/how-­‐and-­‐why-­‐you-­‐should-­‐be-­‐guest-­‐blogging-­‐
with-­‐case-­‐study-­‐kinda/ http://onlinemarketingbanter.com/guest-­‐blogging-­‐a-­‐real-­‐life-­‐case-­‐study/ http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/8-­‐brands-­‐that-­‐benefit-­‐from-­‐guest-­‐blogging/ http://thinktraffic.net/50-­‐guest-­‐posts-­‐one-­‐day http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2194396/How-­‐Guest-­‐Posting-­‐Propelled-­‐One-­‐
Site-­‐From-­‐0-­‐to-­‐100000-­‐Customers CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 56 CURATION: HOW TO SPREAD CONTENT THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA INTRODUCTION TO CURATION CURATION : THE ART OF CURATING, OF ORGANIZING, AND MAINTAINNIG A COLLECTION OF ARTWORKS OR ARTIFACTS Based on this definition, everything content-­‐based we do with our social media outlets becomes a process of Curation. Whether we are the content creators or purely the content curator, we love finding, posting, and sharing amazing content. This concept has led to the quick growth of social platforms such as Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and Reddit. Even Facebook and Twitter have become content Curation portals for many. Want proof? Facebook’s EdgeRank values uploaded video and photos above all other content to display in people’s news feeds. In the early days of social media the term utilized for seeding social media was often “promotion.” The concept was that you could use platforms as a launching point for viral campaigns. Communities like Digg.com became popular among marketers for its tactical value. The issue was that many saw this as marketers muddying the social pool. Social media purists saw the growing social platforms as existing as a place for communication, not promotion. The key development that has helped show where the platforms themselves stand is the development of social ad programs. Social platforms love content Curation and seeding as long as it is done within the TOS and community guidelines. Pinterest and Twitter have gone out of their way to make homes for brands and to give them tools for content launches. Communities like Reddit still do not like to be pitched to, but even Reddit allows for advertisers to enter the fray via ads. At CopyPress, we tend to focus on two platforms, Facebook and StumbleUpon. We will be growing out our Curation offering long term to Twitter, Pinterest and others, but the self-­‐serve capabilities of StumbleUpon and Facebook’s ad platforms, along with some other key ingredients for our system, make these our core seeding focus today. WHAT IS A CURATION PORTAL? We often use the term Curation Portal at CopyPress, so this is the first place we will start our explanation of our process. A Curation Portal for us is a place on a social platform we have dedicated to curating content in a specific niche. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 57 A niche can be as generic as “technology” and as specific as “laptops.” The idea is that we create these niche specific hubs on places like Facebook and curate the best content from around the web, allowing us to grow massive audiences with the support of social ads. Once we have content that would be a good fit for Curation we add it to the portal and begin our seeding efforts via social advertising. MANAGING CURATION PORTALS PHASE 1: CREATION Creating a Curation Portal is pretty simple. •
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Step 1: Create a Facebook Page about a niche topic o In this case I created a Facebook Page called “Curation ” Step 2: Format your portal o Add a cover photo o Add a profile photo o Begin curating content from online, and make a list of great places to get content in the niche Step 3: Utilize Facebook ads to build the Curation Portal into however large of a following you desire. Based on your knowledge in Facebook ads and budget, you pretty much have unlimited scaling ability here. We built this one to 5,000 users in 6 hours on a minimal budget .
CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 58 PHASE 2: MANAGEMENT Create a Curation calendar similar to an editorial calendar. You can use tools like RavenTools.com to schedule posts through the day, but you should organize your postings. When you schedule your postings they should match the Curation portals you have built to date. You may want to keep these as a drop down in your calendar sheet. You probably want to add in information about ad spend into your sheet. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 59 You now have a system setup for content management, but you should also focus on tracking. PHASE 3: TRACKING VIA CURATIONREPORTS.COM We didn’t really like a lot of the solutions out there to track social sharing and traffic specifically, so we built our own to share with the community. This system allows us to baseline a piece of content and then show day by day growth rather than just a lump sum of traffic. Enter the URL you are curating into the system at Curationreports.com Then create a scan by going to “My Sites” CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 60 Enter URL of a webpage Click “Scan Now” Now the site will scan daily for the report PHASE 4: CURATION Based on the category …. Choose the Curation Portal. You need to plan important Curation activity in advance to assure CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 61 you have a portal ready to match new topics. You should think about shortening your links via a tracking shortner for FB to allow yourself the ability to measure direct click traffic for things like infographics that are directly uploaded. Depending on the media type you need to handle the Curation differently. Photos and Video should be uploaded directly to Facebook with the Ow.ly link clearly displayed in the description. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 62 Infogrpahics should be cropped and have an orange or red border added. This draws the eye. Then like the above they should have the owly link placed in the description. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 63 Regular posts should be augmented to have quality descriptions and information. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 64 Once you have the community established, you will be able to use sponsored stories to promote the content at a greater value than traditional Facebook ads. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 65 STEP 5: STUMBLEUPON StumbleUpon’s ad system is self-­‐serve, but it isn’t user friendly. There are a ton of things they could do to increase utilization by marketers; the largest of which is open up an API. Here is a layout some that has worked well for us: 1. Go into the Stumbleupon ads manager 2.
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Make sure that archived and paused campaigns are unchecked. They show all of your campaigns by default. This can be annoying and can lead to leaving accounts running longer than you want. Make sure there are fund available, but don’t let them bill you recurringly. Deactivate complete campaign BEFORE starting new campaigns. Keep your dashboard clean. Now create a new campaign. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 66 CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 67 You can buy visitors at 25 cents, 10 cents, and 5 cents. We haven’t done a deep dive into the impact these ranges have over the other. A lot of this will probably be based on the content itself. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 68 SAMPLE SOCIAL PROMOTION REPORT
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Client: Verpakt URL: http://www.casino-­‐mate.com/infographics/pokies.asp Start Date: 11/7/12 End Date: 11/15/12 Total Shares: 2920 ON PAGE SHARE OVERVIEW
This is an overview of shares, likes, and tweets done on the page. These shares do not reflect all shares done on individual platforms.
CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 69 FACEBOOK SOCIAL SHARES This is an overview of the contents performance directly in the Curation platform on Facebook. The key difference here is that if we host an image or video to capture the value of Edgerank in spreading the content, we lose the ability to track the shares on the URL level. Hosting an image or video gets more virality for less, so it is important to get a full view of all shares.
STUMBLEUPON SOCIAL SHARES
Our advertising on StumbleUpon allows for maximum transparency into both paid and organic traffic created by the content OVERALL SOCIAL GROWTH ON PAGE
We track ongoing share growth from day to day. This allows you to see the full lifecycle of your content on the social platforms.
CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 70 UNDERSTANDING EDGERANK AND GRAPHRANK EDGERANK EdgeRank is the algorithm that determines what items populate your News Feed. Affinity Score (ue) CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 71 Weight Score(we) Recency Score(de) AFFINITY SCORE The affinity score measures the affinity between two users. User one who created an object (like writing a status update) or took action on an object (like sharing the status update) and user two who is viewing the post in the “Top News” feed. The more engagement between the two, the higher the affinity score. Affinity score is unilateral or one-­‐directional.
Ravi regularly likes and comments on Sid’s actions. This will lead Facebook to believe that the affinity of Ravi towards Sid is high, therefore it will try and show Ravi more actions of Sid. This means any status update or “like” by Sid will show up high on Ravi’s “Top News” feed, due to the high affinity score. Now let’s flip the case, say Ravi never like or shares any of Sid’s activities, the chances of Sid’s posts or updates showing up on Ravi’s feed is very low, due to the low affinity score.
WEIGHT SCORE
The weigh score is the importance of an object you create in terms of a resulting action like a comment, share, or like from your followers.
Different objects have different levels of interactions. For example a simple text update will have less engagement in terms of likes and shares than a photo. A photo in turn will have less engagement compared to a video.
Objects which receive more number of likes and have been shared multiple times will show up more in the news feed compared to those with low engagement.
RECENCY SCORE (DE) Length of time since an object was posted. Newer objects will have a higher recency score. WHAT IS GRAPH RANK coefficient (or affinity) + weight + interactions + time decay= Graph Rank
Essentially, Graph Rank is to application owners and users, what EdgeRank is to Fan Page owners. Graph Rank consists of a set of rules that are part of EdgeRank but are only applied to updates coming from apps. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 72 An app is more likely to appear in a fan’s newsfeed if: •
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the fan has interacted with the app recently the update itself has attracted a high level of interaction the update is a video or an image the update is recent the fan’s friends have also interacted with the app or update The algorithm is designed to favor activities that attract a high level of engagement. friends’ tastes, number of people with common interests are checked into locations in the same area, another multiplication will happen that affects which app updates will appear in their newsfeeds. So, proximity and shared interests are two important factors that Graph Rank looks at to determine rankings. Video updates have more weight than picture updates, which in turn are more important than link updates, and these have more weight than status updates. When Facebook comes out with a new feature, more weight will be given to the newcomer as a way of promotion. For a clear visual of how time information ties together, check out our What is Edge Rank
Illustration (http://www.copypress.com/blog/what-­‐is-­‐edgerank-­‐infographic/). COPYPRESS CASE STUDY An infographic placed on UsabilityGeek.com was utilized in one of Curation portals on technology, and we created a case study around the content promotion. The content was both high quality and placed on a high quality site, both things we see as a must for Curation based success. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 73 A Curation like this would cost $300 through CopyPress, and is 100% organic, no bots. There is no reason for such tricks with the platforms social media have given us. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 74 CONVERSION: HOW TO USE CONTENT TO CONVERT AUDIENCES INTO CUSTOMERS CONTENT IN SALES Driving traffic is about making money. Unless you are running a CPM model, that traffic needs to be converted into money. A conversion can be a lot of different things ranging from a sale to a simple form fill out, but at the end of the day these actions have a value to the company looking to capitalize on web traffic. Great content has several benefits in terms of conversion: 1) It can sell a product on its own, converting traffic directly into cash 2) It can help lead to a secondary conversion (i.e. an email opt in) Sales copy writing is a unique art form. Take everything you have ever learned about appropriate writing technique and throw it out the window. Sales copy is about eliciting an action, and because of this, all fluff and extras need to be thrown out the window. Every stroke of the keyboard needs to be done in an effort to SELL. THE INGREDIENTS FOR GREAT SALES COPY AMAZING HEADLINES You only have a few moments to grab someone’s attention. Whether you are driving traffic to a landing page or looking to have someone open an email, your headlines must entice an action. Here are some awesome strategies for creating great headlines and examples of each: Action Oriented Headline -­‐ "They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano...But When I
Started to Play!"
Risk of Loss/Prospect of Gain -­‐ "A Little Mistake That Cost A Farmer $3,000 A Year"
How To -­‐ "How To Win Friends and Influence People"
Interrogative -­‐ "If you were given $4,000,000 to spend -- isn't this the kind of Health Club
you'd build?"
STYLING Fonts – The general rule is black on white, serif for print, and sans serif for web. Emphasis – Use bold, italics, strikethroughs, and underlines to let people know where important words are. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 75 Vary Paragraph Length – Drop a one sentence paragraph every once in a while; keep things live and punchy. Graphics – Sales copy isn’t about being pretty, it’s about selling. If you add in graphics make sure they back your copy. IDENTIFYING WITH THE PAIN People buy things to make their life easier. It is the most basic reason people become consumers. If you can identify the pain your product will fix then you will trigger an emotional reaction in your reader to learn more, and eventually buy. THE IMPERFECT HERO This is where you build a familiarity with your reader through identification. If you just came into the sales pitch riding on cloud nine and without information of what things were like BEFORE you found this amazing product, then your reader simply cannot identify with you. You must create a heroic item that is worth purchasing, but you must also create a person attached to this item whom has seen what life without it is like. CREDIBILITY BUILDER Testimonials sell. You see them on sales letters, ecommerce pages, everywhere. Knowing what other people think about a product is essential in the purchasing process, so put that power in people’s hands immediately. THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION If you follow the above steps you have pulled the reader in with your headline, identified their pain, created an imperfect hero to show how that pain could be subsided, built credibility for that pain killer, now it’s time to sell. This is where you offer the Ultimate Solution to them for all of their problems. This is where you unleash your product. CREATING A HONEYPOT: SECONDARY CONVERSIONS Not all traffic you will drive to and through your content will convert into a sale; this is a basic fact you have to accept. Even through conversion optimization some traffic will slip through your fingers. However, there are options to create what we call “secondary conversions.” The CopyPress method for creating honeypots to grab secondary conversions consists of some very basic steps: CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 76 1. Create a unique content offering that visitors will be willing to trade their email or other contact information for. 2. Set up a well-­‐optimized opt-­‐in form, landing page, and pup-­‐up system that will allow you to maximize conversions. 3. Set up a system to A/B test your traffic conversions. 4. Set up sequential sales letters via email to convert the opt-­‐in traffic. 5. Set up a system to A/B test your email traffic and conversions. CREATING CONTENT FOR THE HONEYPOT Great honeypot content is going to have a couple of key factors: •
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It is going to insight an emotional trigger – For this reason it is key to base your honeypot content offering around a similar emotional trigger as the content that drove your traffic to the opt-­‐in, this compounds the effect of the emotional trigger on the visitor. The content should be clearly explained, and its incentives clearly stated – This is still a conversion, and as such needs to be handled with the previously stated rules for sales copy in mind. The content should be extremely shareable – This may mean that you lose some conversions because of the content being distributed, but it also increases the likelihood of future downloads via new readers and traffic. For this reason you should also include more conversion opportunities into your content. CREATING A GREAT OPT-­‐IN SETUP A well-­‐optimized conversion funnel is as important for your secondary conversion as your primary conversion. 1. Only Ask for What You Need – Simple opt-­‐ins will lead to more conversions. In most cases nothing more than an email address is needed to grab all of the information you will need to convert traffic. 2. Optimize the Flow – By utilizing Google Analytics, KISS Metrics, and Crazy Egg you can setup a system that will provide insight into how your traffic is utilizing your opt-­‐in system. You can also A/B test creative and copy to maximize secondary conversion rates. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 77 CREATING A GREAT EMAIL SEQUENCE Email sequencing is a spin-­‐off of the direct marketing tactic of sequential sales letters. The idea is very basic in its principle: you create a desire to convert by slowly building the desire for a product. Email is a great platform for this, but brings its own set of challenges: 1. High Quality Subject Lines – In direct marketing, the biggest hurdle to break through is getting someone to open your letter or package. You handle this by getting creative with your packaging. In email marketing, your subject line is your package. You need to get creative. The basic rules behind making great headlines apply here. 2. Controlling Your Sequence – For us, it was easy to solve this issue through the use of the PAR Program. This software allowed us to easily manage multiple sequences across lists. We could setup the sequencing to run from day 1 of an opt-­‐in. It also pulls in great demographic information. 3. A System for A/B Testing – You need to be testing email language, subject lines, and conversion funnels from email. A similar setup can be used as your opt-­‐in analytics setup. COPYPRESS CASE STUDY BY DAVE SYNDER Anyone that has been observing CopyPress over the last few months can tell that we have put an expanded effort into our blog as a marketing tool. Some basic numbers from this 3 month duration are pretty telling about the power of the product we sell to customers: 1. 140% increase in organic search traffic 2. 382% increase in overall traffic 3. Over 400% increase in referring domains linking to our website 4. An increase of 1,000 email subscribers to our newsletter 5. 100% increase in closed sales 6. Increased our Facebook traffic by over 300% These last two numbers feed off of each other. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 78 Since our building out of the Content Lifecycle, we have looked for strong partners for the conversion portion of the cycle. The timing was perfect because a good friend of mine, Jeremy
“Shoemoney” Schoemaker was creating a product called the PAR Program. PAR enables you to build acquisition and retention sequences from your user list, and based on amazing demographic information the product has, cut your list into very targeted micro-­‐lists for laser precise acquisition funnels. As soon as we launched our blog in August, we began using PAR. From the outset of the new blog, the concept has been to use our own services to scale revenue, essentially putting our money where our mouth is. Until October we simply used PAR to harvest emails and collect demographic data. During this time period our VP of Operations, Stefan Winkler, started to get a bit nervous because he didn’t see the value in the service. I let him know that it would all be worth it come October. In October, we built and launched our first acquisition sequence. The sales letters for the sequence were written by me using what I had recently learned from Dan Kennedy’s book, The
Ultimate Sales Letter. The sales letters revolved around our new and growing digital media offerings, especially infographics. I actually used a very honest approach to these letters and my general distaste for infographics as a content type (which is true), but based on how awesome our illustration staff is and our copy-­‐backed process for data and information creation, I wanted people to try the offering at a 25% discount. The first email went well, and was followed by a series of emails introducing a new package product involving our Sharebait product. We saw our inbound lead rate for that week soar off the charts, leading to our strongest web lead-­‐to-­‐sale month ever at CopyPress. People responded in different ways to the letters, but money talks. We closed 100% more sales in October than we did in August and increased monthly revenue by over 5%. This case study is a great example of how the entire Content Lifecycle works. 1. We created awesome copy and content for a 90-­‐day span of time that led to large increases in traffic. 2. We connected this content with other websites which led to even more traffic. 3. We curated the content and grew our Facebook audience allowing for …. you get it. 4. Then we used PAR and our webinar series to capture passive traffic and turn it into customers. The core was understanding the value our content had, and how to mold it into a conversion. Based on this write-­‐up, you can see we spent between 60 to 90 days to yield the benefit of the sales increase, but now it should grow incrementally month over month. CopyPress Presents “Explaining the Content Life Cycle” 79 REFLECTION ANOTHER OPEN LETTER FROM COPYPRESS CEO DAVE SNYDER For me, this is what we are trying to build at CopyPress: A high quality crowd-­‐sourcing solution that allows every single business online to achieve these kinds of results. That is why our core value of Quality over Profits is so important to us. It would be easy to outsource content for pennies, and phone in the rest, however that isn’t going to get the job done. We look for the best writers, and now through the opening of CopyPress Community we train them on how to increase their skills. Crowd-­‐sourcing doesn’t have to be synonymous with, “cheap”, it should mean, “scalable quality.” CHALLENGE I would offer a challenge to anyone that wants to test this concept. We have a special package we are soon to launch that you can email us about today for more information. If you sign up for this monthly package and you don’t see results in 90 days, we will refund your money. Just contact us and ask about the ContentSphere . Dave Snyder, CopyPress CEO Coming soon…
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