Content Marketing Archives - Page 3 of 4

While you might think branding is more about your logo and other visual elements, content marketing plays an essential role in establishing your brand’s image too. Branding through content marketing allows you to tell your unique story, which can bring you closer to prospects and customers. In fact, research shows that 40% of brands stand out for memorable content, 33% for having a distinct personality, and 32% for compelling storytelling.

In this blog, we’ll explore the relationship between content marketing and branding to help you strengthen your relationships with customers and your overall brand identity.

Content Marketing vs. Branded Content

Let’s start by laying out the differences between content marketing and branded content.

Content Marketing

Simply put, content marketing refers to creating, publishing, and sharing educational content crafted specifically for your target audience. Producing high-quality content allows you to demonstrate your expertise, which positions you as an authority in your industry. Types of content marketing include:

Blogs and articles
On-page content
Whitepapers
Infographics
eBooks
Webinars
Videos

Depending on your objectives, you can use content marketing to achieve any of the goals below:

Grow brand awareness and expand your reach
Attract new prospects
Convert leads into sales
Nurture relationships with your existing customers
Cultivate brand loyalty

Consistently producing relevant content your target audience finds useful and informative helps you stand out from the competition. It also makes you more memorable, as readers will associate you with innovation and quality.

Branded Content

Branded content (and branding strategy) shares many of the same objectives of content marketing, like increasing brand awareness and engaging prospects. However, branded content focuses more on directly promoting your business’ products and services. It should still provide some kind of educational value for readers, though.

Because it helps you forge emotional connections with your audience, branded content allows you to demonstrate and connect with human feelings and values. And studies show that 71% of consumers are more likely to recommend brands with whom they have an emotional connection. Branded content is often humorous or entertaining, especially when it takes the form of videos, photos, surveys, and quizzes.

If you’re looking to quickly create a positive reaction within your audience that boosts brand loyalty, you should seriously consider branded content.

The Importance of Having a Brand Story

Every brand has a story. Customers want to know where you started, how you got to where you are, and what you believe in. Sharing your story helps humanize your brand and gives audiences a clear picture of the people behind the business.

Content Marketing Branding 3 jpg How to Enhance Your Storytelling with Content Marketing and Branding

Telling your brand story also allows you to relay what might otherwise be dry, uninteresting information in the form of an engaging narrative. At the end of the day, a compelling, relatable brand story plays a central role in customers choosing you over the competition. This can take the form of joining your email list, downloading a lead magnet, or making a purchase, among other actions.

How to Tell Your Brand Story with Content Marketing

While it isn’t as directly promotional and brand-focused as branded content, content marketing tactics can still help you tell your brand story. Here are a few ways you can tell your brand story by leveraging the relationship between content marketing and branding.

Tailor Your Content to the Buyer’s Journey

One of the pillars of strategic content marketing is producing useful content that’s relevant to users at their specific point in the buyer’s journey. For example, content in the awareness stage should educate users while gently introducing them to your brand. On the other hand, decision stage content should clinch the sale by concretely showing users what sets you apart from the competition.

Integrate Customers Into Your Brand Story

Producing helpful, relevant content starts with keeping users at the forefront of your mind (and brand story) at all times. Stay focused on your audience’s specific needs and pain points, and position your brand as the solution to their problems.

Doing so helps you build trust and makes them more likely to turn to you when they encounter similar obstacles in the future. In fact, 51% of consumers expect brands to create products and experiences they want before they even realize they need them.

Let Your Brand’s Passions Shine Through

A final effective way to establish branding through content marketing is to share your passion and excitement with users. Get them as excited as you are about your products, services, and the industry as a whole. This will humanize your brand by making you more relatable and positioning you as someone who understands their pain points.

How Your Voice, Tone, and Style Impact Brand Storytelling

Every brand has their own voice, tone, and style in both their spoken and written communication. Your company’s unique tone of voice encompasses how you speak to your audience and heavily influences how you’re perceived as a business. Your tone of voice also conveys your personality and values, both of which are key to branding strategy and content marketing.

A distinctive and memorable tone of voice allows audiences to recognize you without seeing your name or logo. It also helps you stand out from the competition because you stay top-of-mind with interested prospects.

Let’s take a closer look at the three most important technical elements of brand storytelling: voice, tone, and style.

Voice

Voice refers to the personality, rhythm, pace, and vocabulary behind how your brand speaks to the world. When creating written and spoken content, it’s crucial to remember that every choice you make impacts how your audience perceives you. Being thoughtful and intentional with your brand voice can be the difference between connecting with audiences emotionally or alienating them entirely.

As a general rule, you should avoid overly-technical language or industry jargon, unless it can be understood by most of your readers. Using simpler language also makes you feel more relatable and transparent. Don’t be too colloquial, though, as expressions change over time, making you seem dated.

Content Marketeing Branding 1 jpg How to Enhance Your Storytelling with Content Marketing and Branding

Tone

Tone (also known as tone of voice) is the emotional inflection (or lack thereof) that guides your brand voice. In other words, it’s how you express your voice within the context of a specific situation. You’ll want to adjust your brand’s tone of voice based on who you’re talking to, your subject matter, and your medium. However, your overall brand voice should remain consistent across every interaction you have with your audience.

Your brand’s tone of voice is composed of four main dimensions:

Funny vs. serious
Formal vs. casual
Respectful vs. irreverent
Enthusiastic vs. matter-of-fact

How you leverage these dimensions and blend them together to create your brand’s tone of voice is entirely up to you. But when developing and refining your tone of voice, you should pay close attention to:

The way your writing sounds when you read it out loud.
The etymology of your writing and which words are best suited for different situations.
The syntax of how your words are arranged within sentences.

Most importantly, remember that creating a trustworthy and authentic tone of voice is one of the most important facets of strategic content marketing for brands.

Style

The final piece of the puzzle when it comes to telling your brand story, style refers to what your writing looks like. Essentially, it’s the way your messaging is written and includes things like capitalization, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary.

Your style signals to readers what you’re about and gives them a preview of your brand voice when they start reading your content. Make sure your style aligns with each person’s position in the buyer’s journey to maximize your relatability.

Look to Your Audience When Developing Voice, Tone, and Style

The most effective way to develop your brand’s voice, tone, and style is to closely analyze your target audience. Ask yourself questions like:

What communication channels does my audience prefer?
What social media platforms are they most active on?
How do they communicate with one another?
What brands do they engage with on social media?
What do they “like” and “dislike” on social media?

You’ll also want to create a unique persona for each of your target audiences that includes criteria like gender, marital status, educational background, income level, and interests. Personas help you better understand your ideal customers (and the differences between them), so you can produce relevant content that achieves your goals within each stage of the buyer’s journey.

When you’re intimately familiar with your customers’ wants and needs, you can also adopt their language and work it into your messaging. This makes you much more relatable, while also helping you build trust and demonstrate empathy.

Ready to use content marketing and branding to enhance your storytelling? Our team of content marketing specialists is ready to help you achieve your marketing goals.

You’ve probably heard of the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey, and we all move through it on a near-daily basis. But have you taken the time to think about the important role it plays in the experience you provide for your customers?

The consideration stage sits in the middle of the buyer’s journey and plays a crucial role in positioning you as a viable option for prospects. It’s the point in their journey where they’ve identified their problem and are ready to explore every potential solution.

In this blog, we’ll explore the consideration stage and the vital role content marketing plays during this period. You can take what you learn to improve your middle of funnel content and position yourself as a strong competitor moving into the decision stage.Have you read our blog about creating effective content for the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey? It provides an overview of the buyer’s journey, buyer personas, and what you need to know about awareness stage content. Check it out!

What is the Consideration Stage?

Prospects enter the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey when they’ve pinpointed a specific problem. In the awareness stage, they realized there was something in their life they wanted to change. Now, they’re ready to learn about all of the possible solutions to solving that problem. Many buyers take the time to review several options in depth before moving on to the decision stage.

It’s important to remember that consideration stage prospects are focused on finding potential solutions, rather than making a purchase. If you want them to seriously consider you as a potential solution, demonstrate empathy by showing them that you understand their problem.

Why is Content Marketing Important In the Consideration Stage?

The best way to demonstrate empathy to prospective customers is through strategic content marketing. Don’t push your brand prematurely or go for the hard sell with invasive, aggressive advertising. Instead, provide educational content that explores all of the potential solutions to their problem. Ultimately, your goal is to make the short list of options they’re considering as they move into the decision stage.

How to Create Effective Consideration Stage Content

You know that your consideration stage content should impartially educate prospects on potential solutions to their problem. But how can you go about creating that content? It all begins with understanding your audience.

Start by thinking through all of the different options your prospects might consider as the solution to their problem. Can they solve it on their own, or do they need outside help? Is the solution sold off-the-shelf, or is it customized to their specific needs? Try to put yourself in their shoes. Which questions are they asking? What are their most pressing concerns? What are their deal breakers?

Identifying the questions that prospects ask themselves in the consideration stage can help you stick out in their minds moving into the decision stage. You’ll be able to create messaging that speaks directly to their concerns and narrow your target audience to qualified leads who can actually use the solution you have to offer.

Questions to Ask Yourself As You Create Consideration Stage Content

It’s important to be thoughtful and deliberate when creating content for the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey. Your goal is to provide prospects with as much detailed information as possible about each of their options. To do so, ask yourself the following questions about your prospects’ problem:

Which specific solutions are they researching?
How do they go about researching these solutions?
How will they decide which solution is right for them?

Answering these questions helps you nurture relationships with qualified prospects who are most likely to buy from you. And research shows companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost. Ultimately, focusing on your prospects’ pain points allows you to subtly position yourself as the best solution moving forward.

What to Avoid When Creating Consideration Stage Content

The most important thing to avoid in the consideration stage is being pushy or salesy. Instead, nurture prospects strategically and consider the long game. Provide them with relevant information at the right time to stay top-of-mind as they move towards the decision stage. Here are a few things to avoid as you create consideration stage content:

Producing content that sounds like an infomercial
Overselling or underselling your brand
Overtly promoting yourself as the best solution
Creating content that’s too general to provide value

What Content is Most Effective During the Consideration Stage?

There are a variety of types of content you can leverage to your advantage during the consideration stage. We’ll take a closer look at a few consideration stage content examples below.

Live Webinars / Product Demonstrations

Webinars and product demos provide a valuable opportunity to show prospects how your offerings work and benefit their lives. And because they’re online, webinars are accessible to everyone, not just those who can travel to an in-person seminar.

Downloadable Resources

These include things like Ebooks, original research, how-to guides, tip sheets, templates, checklists, and slideshares. Providing valuable information free of charge not only helps you educate prospects, but presents you as a trustworthy authority that has their best interests in mind.

Videos

Videos can be a concise, visual way to explain your products or services. And in some cases, they’re a more effective way to tell your story than blog posts, articles, or case studies.

Testimonials / Customer Reviews

Testimonials provide valuable social proof from people who have actually used your product or service. And studies show that a whopping 90% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. Prospects are more likely to listen to their peers than aggressive marketing pitches, making customer reviews the perfect way to establish trust.

Case Studies

Case studies are a great way to showcase your past successes to prospects. They’ll be able to see exactly how your product or service benefitted a past customer, helping you build credibility. Proving your worth also helps improve your reputation and grow brand awareness within your industry.

Free Trials

If possible, offer qualified prospects a free trial of your product or services. This demonstrates goodwill and positions you as a trustworthy candidate in their search for the solution to their problem.

Ready to create consideration stage content marketing for your business? Our team of content marketing specialists is here to help.

Reach Out

You’ve just uploaded your content and it looks beautiful—the headlines are sharp, the images practically jump off the page, and the SEO is on point. Your team spent hours creating and proofing it, and now it’s finally published.

But is good writing enough to make you stand out online? Or does the real power lie in how you use content marketing distribution channels to get your message directly in front of your audience?

According to cloud service DOMO, here’s an average of what’s being created and shared in just one minute online:

Instagram users are sharing 46,740 photos
Twitter users are producing 456,000 tweets
YouTube users are watching 4,146,600 videos
Internet users are conducting 3,607,080 Google searches

And that’s only a snapshot of a few platforms. If you don’t understand and use content distribution channels, and only ever worry about publishing it online, there’s a risk the very people you put together content for will never read it amidst all the noise of online platforms.

What Are Content Marketing Channels

Content distribution channels are the places your audiences go to when searching for information, and therefore the places you should be promoting your content. There are four content distribution channels you can use to increase your reach:

media structure 01 scaled Do Content Marketing Distribution Channels Actually Matter?

Paid Media

Paid media is a method where businesses pay a channel to promote their content.

Examples: paid Facebook ads, Pinterest ads, Google ads, Podcast ads, Sponsored Instagram content, or Sponsored videos.

Advantages: Speeds up the process of acquiring audience attention you haven’t been able to reach organically.

Disadvantages: This option can become very expensive and sometimes have little ROI if you’re not targeting the right audiences.

Earned Media

Earned media is a method where third parties with influence promote or share your content by their own will.

Examples: A popular blogger links to your piece, an Instagram influencer shares your content in a story, or a news outlet promotes your content.

Advantages: Your content gains exposure to new audiences at no cost.

Disadvantages: You can’t control who promotes or shares content, which can be a problem if the person sharing it is controversial.

Shared Media

Shared media is a method where you place content on platforms, like social networking sites, and then users themselves continue distributing it. It also includes user-generated feedback. Social media optimization is continuing to be a major factor in helping businesses be found online.

Examples: Users share a Facebook post, Instagram users tag someone on your post, or someone leaves a review on Google to share with others.

Advantages: This option is either free or at a low-cost to you and since users distribute or generate content about your piece, it can build trust in your brand.

Disadvantages: You can’t control the spread of shared media that’s tied to negative user feedback. The best you can do is be vigilant for any negative shared media and then respond appropriately.

Owned Media

Owned media is a method where you are in full control of the content and you’re handling the publishing and distributing yourself.

Examples: Publishing a blog on your website, creating a landing page for an event, publishing a whitepaper in your resources, or producing your weekly podcast.

If you interested in learning to start your own podcast, our B2B podcasting guide covers everything you need to know before you take the deep dive into podcasting.

Advantages: This option is either free or at a low-cost to you (if you’re paying someone to manage your owned media channels). You also have full control over this channel and how content is distributed.

Disadvantages: Distribution is limited. Only audiences who are visiting that site or know about the content are finding it. It’s limited to the people who already know about your content or happen to find it while searching online.

The best distribution plan isn’t limited to one of these channels. Instead, it takes a multi-channel content marketing approach and combines the channels. Just using one channel will limit your reach, but by combining the channels you can continue driving traffic to a piece of content long after it’s published.

The Importance of Content Distribution

Envision this. Your team has spent hours working on a video. You got the staff together to make it, coached them during filming, and then spent time editing it to create an informative piece of content.

Now imagine what happens if you just publish it on your website and make one Facebook post announcing it. Ultimately, you’ll see the video’s traffic spike. That’s great right?

Except when you go to check on it days or weeks later, you’ll likely find traffic has dropped. And if you check that video maybe even a year later, it might not even have any traffic.

Too many businesses think it’s enough to post content on their site and then promote it in one post on their social media account. When you spent all that time, money, and effort creating content, did you really want it to only be viewed for just a few days after it’s posted?

Now Imagine you did the following instead with your video:

You publish the video on your website highlighting a service.
You post on Facebook to draw attention to its release.
Your followers respond to it, some comment, and a few share it.
You decide to use it in a targeted ad and it reaches a new audience.
After the ad runs, data shows an increase in traffic for that service.
You work it into an email campaign.
You later see an influential person in your industry shares the video on their own will.
After that figure shares it you see your traffic increase again.
Later you’re answering a question on Quora and link to the video to help explain.
After linking your content on Quora you notice traffic again rises upward.

Because you used a multi-channel content distribution strategy your work engaged current clients, reached potential audiences, and earned the attention of an industry influencer and his or her followers.

The importance of content marketing distribution channels shouldn’t be overlooked, because by using them you ensure audiences actually see what you create. Why create something if no one is seeing it? If you simply post content on your site and move on to the next piece, your current and potential audiences won’t know it exists.

The old way of thinking says “content is king”, but marketer Ross Simmonds has coined a more accurate mantra for content creation. He pushes creators to abide by “D.R.E.A.M – distribution rules everything around me.”

A man sits by a wall thinking with a lightbulb drawn above him.

What Type of Content Should You Be Creating?

Distribution aside, you still need to be creating good content that’s worthy of sharing. If what you’re sharing isn’t put together well, a diverse strategy across content marketing distribution channels won’t fix the fact that what you created doesn’t add value to the conversation. There are two strategies you should use to create valuable content.

First, create content that aligns with the awareness stage of a buyer’s journey. There are a lot of nuances to that journey, but clients typically move through four phases:

Awareness Stage
Consideration Stage
Decision Stage
Post-decision Stage

When you set out to make content, think about what phase your client is at when they’re looking for information on that topic. Then create and answer the questions you think they’d have at that stage.

Second, use the “Skyscraper Strategy” to create content that will perform well. A simple Google search will show you the top-performing content. Especially when writing, the skyscraper technique primarily helps you see what those articles at the top of google cover.

After reading through some of those pieces, write something better! You can see what they’ve done well and what basic information you should cover. But what do those resources miss? Now is your chance to include that information, go more into detail, and as a result become the new authoritative resource.

Pros and Cons of Different Content

So what content should you be creating to share in the first place? That looks different for every business, so you really need to pick and choose based on the resources you have and your audience.

We’ve broken out popular types of content and what you should consider before creating them, so you can decide what works best for your business:

Blogs

Pros: Good way to share educational information about your industry, easy to create and distribute, a good way to be seen as an expert source

Cons: Lots of competition online, time-consuming, requires writing skills

Videos

Pros: Visual, engaging, higher conversion rates on certain platforms (like social media)

Cons: Need special equipment, editing footage can take time, requires visual & auditory skills

Podcasts

Pros: Engages with a fixed audience, no ad competition, builds intimacy with listeners

Cons: Need special equipment, editing sound can take time, requires auditory skills

Pros: Extends your reach, allows for specific targeting, quickly increases brand awareness

Cons: Can be costly, requires the right messaging

Infographics

Pros: Engages people visually, captures attention

Cons: Take time to create, requires design and editing skills

Where to Distribute Digital Content

Once you’ve created content that aligns with your business’ ability and the needs of your audience, it’s time to get down to actually distributing it. You understand the content marketing distribution channels and have created your distribution strategy, but what are the actual platforms you can use?

There are plenty of options, and new platforms are created every year that rise to popularity. Here are some ideas of a few you can get started with to distribute your content. Remember to always look out for emerging platforms that’d be appropriate for reaching your audience.

Blogs

The best platforms you can use to distribute your blog content include:

Your own website
Facebook
Instagram
Active Campaign & other email marketing platforms
Quora (for blog link building)
LinkedIn
Tumblr
Flipboard

Videos

The best platforms you can use to distribute your videos include:

Your own website
Youtube (offers paid and organic posting)
Vimeo
Facebook
Instagram (for short content)
TikTok
Snapchat

Podcasts

The best platforms you can use to distribute your podcasts include:

Apple podcasts
Spotify
Google Play Music
Overcast
Stitcher

The best platforms you can use to distribute your ads include:

Facebook
Pinterest
Instagram
Google Ads
Bing Ads
Quora
Answer.com
Reddit
Twitter

Infographics

The best platforms you can use to distribute your infographics include:

Your website
Slideshare
Quora
Pinterest
Instagram

Paid vs. Free Content Distribution

Every business is different, so there’s no exact rule on how much of each to use. The best advice is to just make sure you use both methods. Over time collect data and see what content does better for paid vs. free content distribution. Then plan and continue experimenting to find what works.

By organically distributing content for free, you can connect with loyal followers and build relationships with influential people. It’s important to gain an understanding of this type of distribution since it will save your business money.

However, paid distribution is worth it if your budget allows for it. It offers a way to take those start pieces of content and place them into potential audiences you haven’t been able to reach organically. And it helps you grow your followers more quickly.

A woman runs up imaginary steps on a wall.

Automated Content Distribution

Content distribution can become a chore in itself. If you’re finding that it’s hard to devote enough time to distributing, consider ways that you can automate the process. Take advantage of tools that will let you schedule distribution ahead of time, so you can plan it for weeks at a time.

First, assess what task you’d like to save time doing. Then research to see if there are automated platforms you’d trust to handle that type of distribution.

For example, on Facebook you can use the publishing tools to schedule posts promoting content. You can choose everything down to the date and time of distribution. That way you can frontload your work and not have to constantly devote time to going in and posting every week.Platforms like Hootsuite will even allow you to manage scheduling posts on different social media platforms from the same place. Other pieces of content, like email marketing, can also be automated with a third-party service, like Active Campaign.

Yes, Content Marketing Distribution Channels Matter

Look at it this way – are you creating content you want people to see? Chances are you answered yes and that’s why publishing should never be the last step when you’re creating a content marketing strategy. If you don’t have a multi-channel distribution process, you’re just wasting a lot of effort creating work that no one will engage with. There’s a risk they won’t even know it exists.

However, if you do have a distribution plan it’s likely that you won’t just get engagement from your current audiences, but that you’ll also find new ones! Your content is a valuable resource for growing your audience base — that’s why you should prioritize distributing it.

If you find your team is lacking the time and manpower to manage distribution, consider if hiring a digital marketing agency is right for you. By doing so, you have a team of experts handling the details of creating relevant content and distributing it effectively.

By relying on an agency, you can free your team to focus on product and service development instead. Your content ultimately wins too because you have experienced professionals using their industry knowledge and strategies to boost engagement and ensure it is actually reaching your audience. Remember, content is only worth it if it’s actually being seen.

Need help distributing your content? Talk with our team of experts to learn more about how you can increase your work’s visibility online for your audience.

Increase Online Visibility

If you’re familiar with the phrase UX (user experience), you probably relate it to the design elements of a website. More specifically, you may associate UX with how users navigate a site and how easily they can find the information they want. UX is such an important element to website design that it has spawned new a new career field :: UX Designer. Through user research, testing, and analysis, UX Designers create user-friendly websites that meet and exceed user expectations.

Good UX, however, goes beyond the design elements of a website and extends to the content you include on your site. The content you provide and how you serve it up to users is incredibly important to the success of your website.

What is UX Writing?

UX writing, or UX copywriting, ensures that your website includes the content that users are looking for and that it’s formatted and presented in a way that drives action. Many people believe that UX writing is solely focused on the bits of micro-copy that are often overlooked on a website, CTA copy on a button, the “no thank you” copy on a pop-up, or error messages on a log-in or contact form. These are all examples of the concise, to-the-point copy that spurs users to make one decision or another.

The principles of UX writing should also encompass other areas of web content. Even on pages that include more in-depth copy, you can still incorporate the same UX writing techniques that you would on small snippets of content. This includes writing content that users can quickly absorb (through the use of subheads and bulleted lists) and providing content that funnels users through the buying journey.

Why Is UX Writing Important?

wireframe of website homepage with no ux copy

This wireframe graphic that we use on our homepage is a great visual representation of how hard it can be for a user to navigate your site when UX copy is absent. While this is a bit of an extreme example, it shows why UX writing is such an important part of the overall user experience.

As we mentioned above, strong UX writing, when paired with good UX design, creates an optimal online experience for your web users. It encourages them to make decisions that funnel them through your site and take the desired action – whether that’s to purchase something, download material, or signup to receive more information.

Smart UX writing is essential in capturing and keeping users’ attention. If your website copy isn’t engaging, doesn’t immediately show the user how they benefit, or is too long and cumbersome, they will bounce from your site (and may never return).

Finally, powerful UX writing makes the user feel that you understand their problem or need and demonstrates how your brand can help them find a solution. When a person feels understood or if they know others have had success solving the same problem, they are more likely to trust your brand.

UX Writing Best Practices

As you begin evaluating the UX writing on your website, take a look at these copywriting tips and see how many are implemented on your site. If the answer is “not many,” don’t feel discouraged. You don’t have to go back to square one. I think you’ll find that with a few small changes, you’ll see a big improvement.

Content First

This is a “chicken vs. egg” debate that we often have internally. Should content be written first, or should design be completed first? In most cases, it’s beneficial to have content first so you can ensure that the design allows enough space for your key messages. Even when you’re working with small segments of microcopy, make sure to create your message first and build the design around it.

Humanize Your Brand

UX writing is an excellent opportunity for your brand to show its human-side. Use these points of engagement to create a conversational tone, or even incorporate humor. UX copywriting often involves bite-sized amounts of copy, but they are often memorable. This example from our Contact page shows how we incorporated Tower’s personality into our page headers:

example of UX copy on a Contact Us page header

Be Concise

The goal of UX writing is to drive action, so you don’t want your users to get lost in blocks of text. Of course, there will be areas of your website where long-form content is necessary for informing and educating users, but when it comes to the final call-to-action, you need to keep it simple. “Check Your Score,” “Watch Our Video,” or “Let’s Get Started” are short, to-the-point, and let users know what to expect.

Show That You Understand

Users on your website have a problem, and they are looking to you for a solution. So it’s important to show empathy and let them know that you understand their struggle. As we wrote the content for our internet marketing service pages, we thought about the questions and concerns that we hear most often from our clients and addressed them right from the start. It showed that we understood the challenges they were facing.

example of UX writing on a services pages

Create Hierarchy

We mentioned that UX writing is meant to drive website users through the customer journey, and to be successful, you need to organize your content using the AIDA funnel (attention, interest, desire, and action). Start with a headline that draws attention, lead into informational content that builds interest, provide an offer that sparks desire, and finish with a call-out that initiates action. It might seem like a lot to fit into a small amount of copy, but this example from Moz Pro shows that it can be done.

Focus on Positive Language

Have you ever encountered a sign-up form for a health-related product (whether it’s a meal planning guide or an online exercise program) that offers two options :: “I’d Like More Info!” or “No Thanks, I Want to Stay Unhealthy!”? It’s the worst, and it’s not a motivator. Don’t insult people who aren’t interested in your offering at this exact moment, as you may lose them as a customer for life.

Avoid Technical Jargon

Your website users will have varying degrees of knowledge about your products, services, or industry as a whole, so you need to be careful with the terminology you use in your UX copy. Avoid unfamiliar acronyms, technical phrases, or industry buzz words. If they cannot be avoided, take the extra step and provide information that your users can read, watch, or listen to learn more. Here’s an example of how we accomplished this:

While domain authority isn’t exactly industry jargon, for someone who is not familiar with the term, we included a link where they could read more about it.

Do A/B Tests

As with all elements of your website, UX copy should not be static. If you’ve identified a button, sign-up form, headline, or other content areas that users aren’t responding to, switch it up. Use different calls-to-action or headlines over the course of several months, and then review your site’s Google Analytics data to determine which copy options drove the most user engagement.

UX Writing Tools

As you get started in your UX writing process, these tools can help you implement several of the best practices outlined above.

Crazy Egg – This is just one example of a heat map tool that can zero in on the areas of your webpage that users’ eyes are lingering on. You’ll quickly see reading patterns emerge that show how users are skimming your page content. The red/orange “hot” areas are prime real estate where you should be sharing your most important content.

Headline Analyzer – This simple tool offers so much useful feedback on the headlines or email subject lines you write. It identifies uncommon, powerful, and emotional words that will resonate with users. It also rates whether your headline or subject lines give off a positive, neutral, or negative sentiment.

Hemingway – This UX writing tool will determine how complicated your content is for your user to comprehend. It identifies lengthy sections of text that can be broken down or text that’s too dense and complicated for your average reader. It also rates your content with a grade level readability score.

If a brand new website isn’t on the horizon, implement a UX upgrade instead.

Explore Our UX Design Options

Have you ever used direct mail marketing for your business? In the digital age, many marketers avoid direct mail because they think it’s old-fashioned and can’t compete with other channels. Other companies have used direct mail before, but weren’t happy with their ROI because their campaign wasn’t well executed.

If you’ve ever asked “what is direct mail marketing?” or want to learn more about this time-tested marketing channel, we’re here to help. This ultimate guide provides the basics you need to understand direct mail marketing. We’ve also sprinkled in tips and advice that will help you execute your next campaign like a pro.

What Is Direct Mail Marketing?

Before we can get into the details, it’s important to define direct mail and direct mail marketing. Let’s start by answering a common question :: what is direct mail?

Direct mail is print marketing that’s sent out in the mail (usually via the USPS). It can come in a variety of formats, such as postcards, brochures, and parcels. Direct mail can contain coupons and offers, or it can be purely informational with a soft call to action (CTA). Direct mail is sent to a predefined group of people on a mailing list or carrier route (a smaller segment of a ZIP Code).

Direct mail marketing is a form of direct marketing that targets people with direct mail pieces sent in the mail. Like any marketing channel, it has its own set of best practices. We’ll take a closer look at two of them below.

Direct Mail Best Practice :: The 40 / 40 / 20 Rule

When it comes to direct marketing, the 40 / 40 / 20 Rule is one of the oldest plays in the book. This guideline was developed in the 1960s by marketing pioneer Ed Mayer. Basically, the 40 / 40 / 20 Rule provides advice on how marketers should break down their direct marketing efforts.

While the 40 / 40 / 20 Rule was created in the pre-Internet age, it’s still relevant today — especially for direct mail marketing. The 40 / 40 / 20 Rule breaks successful direct marketing down into three main elements :: audience, offer, and everything else.

Audience. You should focus 40% of your attention on choosing the right audience for your direct mail piece. Even if your mail piece is perfectly designed, your efforts will be wasted if you send it to people who aren’t interested or can’t use your offer.
Offer. Mayer recommends putting 40% of your energy into creating a relevant offer. Providing recipients with an appealing offer they can actually use encourages them to take action. Including a CTA with your offer is very helpful because your audience knows their next steps.
Everything else. Dedicate the final 20% of your time and energy to the details. This includes elements like direct mail format, design, and copy.

Direct Mail Best Practice :: Reach vs. Frequency

Balancing reach with frequency is also critical to any direct mail marketing strategy. Here’s what we mean by reach and frequency:

Reach is the number of people you send your direct mail piece to. In other words, it’s the number of people on your mailing list or carrier route. If you mail to 2,500 people, your reach for that campaign is 2,500.
Frequency is the number of times you send your direct mail piece to the same person. If the same person sees your ad two times, the frequency for that campaign is two.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking reach is more important than frequency. You want to get in front of as many people as possible, right? Not necessarily! According to the Rule of Seven, people must see your brand at least seven times before they notice it and take action. That’s a lot of impressions!

With this in mind, you should always prioritize frequency over reach when sending direct mail. Mail to a smaller group of people several times, instead of a large group of people one time. Like any marketing channel, consistency is key to your success because it helps you stay top of mind.

Can Direct Mail Marketing Work for My Business?

Direct Mail scaled What is Direct Mail Marketing?: An Ultimate Guide

Yes! Direct mail works for businesses and organizations in every industry you can think of. Here’s a short list of businesses and organizations that can benefit from direct mail:

Restaurants
Gyms
Grocery Stores
Churches
HVAC Companies
Landscaping Companies
Accounting / Tax Firms
Automotive Shops
Dentists
Salons

Whether you’re looking to boost sales, increase brand awareness, or reactivate lapsed customers, direct mail can do it all.

Not convinced yet? Just check out these direct mail response rates from the Compu-Mail. The response rate to direct mail can be as high as 37%. Direct mail also pairs well with digital marketing. And Merkle reports that campaigns using both direct mail and digital marketing saw a 118% lift in response rates, as opposed to campaigns that only use one advertising channel.

Who Should I Send My Direct Mail To?

Figuring out who to target with your direct mail is the first step of any successful campaign. Who you mail to varies based on the goals of your direct mail campaign, which we’ll discuss later. First, let’s look at three common methods marketers use to segment their direct mail audience.

Ways to Segment Your Direct Mail Audience

There are a variety of ways to segment your audience into groups with shared characteristics. Here are three of the most common:

Geographic segmentation. This method is exactly what it sounds like and involves targeting people within a specific geographic area. This might be people who live within a specific ZIP Code, carrier route, or radius of your business.
Demographic segmentation. This method breaks people down into groups that share specific personal characteristics. These can include gender, race, income, education, and employment.
Firmographic segmentation. This method is used in business-to-business (B2B) marketing. It breaks companies into groups based on traits like industry, location, customer type, legal status, and performance.

Putting Audience Segmentation Into Action

So, what does audience segmentation look like when it comes to direct mail marketing? Here are a few examples:

New mover campaigns. These help you drum up business with people who are new to your area. You can purchase a mailing list of new movers and get to them before the competition.
Grand opening campaigns. Opening a new location? Use geographic segmentation to target people who live within a certain area of your new location.
Abandoned cart campaigns. Use your eCommerce platform to identify people who have abandoned their online shopping cart. Mailing them a special offer for the product / service they were interested in can get them to complete their transaction. Abandoned cart remarketing is commonly done via email, but direct mail is also a great option because most companies don’t use it for this purpose.
Birthday campaigns. Obtain a list of prospects with birthdays or mail to your existing customer database during their birthday month. Making this personal connection can encourage them to take action on your CTA.
Rewards club / loyalty program campaigns. Show appreciation for members of your rewards club or loyalty program by sending them special offers. This is a great way to upsell, since they’re already brand advocates.
Upsell campaigns. Send existing customers an offer for an item that complements something they recently bought from you. For example, if someone purchases bait from your sporting goods store, send them an offer for a fishing rod. Even if they aren’t in the market for a rod at the moment, they’ll be reminded of your brand and may purchase from you again in the future.
Winback campaigns. Since you already have data on lapsed customers, it’s easy and inexpensive to create a personalized offer they’re likely to respond to.

What Are Direct Mail Formats?

So, you know who to mail to and the campaign type that’s best for you. But which direct mail format should you choose? This is a very important decision, and the format you choose can have a big influence on whether your campaign is successful. Here are a handful of the most common direct mail formats.

Brochures / Menus

Brochures have more space than some other direct mail formats, so they’re perfect for sharing detailed information about your products / services. If you run a foodservice business, your brochure might take the form of a menu. Menus help boost brand exposure because recipients may put them on the fridge or in a kitchen drawer.

Letters

Because they’re sealed in an envelope, letters can feel more confidential than other formats. They also offer a lot of personalization options. They’re great for things like prospecting and upselling to existing customers.

Postcards

Postcards work well for prospecting because they’re an inexpensive way to get in front of people who may not be familiar with your business yet. Make a great introductory offer, and you may just get them through your doors. You can also send postcards to existing customer lists, like people with birthdays or members of your loyalty program.

Direct mail postcards have evolved far beyond the traditional 4” x 6” postcard. Today, companies can send interactive postcards that play video content or have scratch-away stickers with special offers printed underneath.

Periodicals

According to the USPS, periodicals are newspapers, magazines, and other publications sent to a list of opt-in subscribers. Businesses use periodicals to stay top-of-mind with existing customers, boost brand awareness among prospects, and provide information on their products or services.

Packages

Businesses that sell expensive products / services might send parcels (like gift boxes) to high-value customers / prospects. This usually costs more than sending other direct mail formats, but it can pay off if customers make repeat purchases or if your product / service has a high price point.

Which Direct Mail Mailing List is Right for Me?

Once you know who you’re mailing to, you’re ready to get your direct mailing list. Like we said before, your target audience plays a key role in the mailing list you choose. Let’s take a look at two common mailing list types and the USPS Every Door Direct Mail® (EDDM®) service.

Targeted Mailing Lists

Like the name suggests, these mailing lists target specific people based on shared traits. Say your business designs and manufactures high-end navigational systems for yachts. You wouldn’t mail to just anybody, right? Instead, you’d get a targeted mailing list comprised of yacht owners or people who have expressed interest in nautical navigation systems in the past.

As you can see, targeting a specific group of people with shared traits helps you reach individuals who might be more receptive to your offer. Knowing their names and a few personal traits also helps make your direct mail more personal, which can increase response rates by up to 36%.

Targeted mailing lists can be expensive depending on how specific they are. A house customer list is another example of a targeted mailing list, but it’s free since you already own the names on the list.

Saturation Mailing Lists

Saturation mailing lists contain the names of people who live within a certain geographic area. As a result, they help you blanket specific areas with your direct mail campaigns. Saturation lists work best for businesses that offer a product or service almost anybody could use, like restaurants and auto shops.

Because they’re less specific, saturation mailing lists usually cost less than targeted lists. However, you can still do some targeting when you use a saturation list. You can remove the following address types from a saturation list:

Business addresses
PO Boxes
Some residential addresses (i.e. apartments, seasonal dwellings, drop addresses)

If you do choose to remove address types from your list, make sure you still adhere to the 90 / 75 Rule to get the best postage rates. This stipulates that you must mail to 90% of all residential addresses or 75% of all business and residential addresses on your chosen carrier route

Every Door Direct Mail® (EDDM®) (No Mailing List)

EDDM® is a DIY USPS direct mail service. Unlike campaigns that use targeted or saturation mailing lists, EDDM® does not require a mailing list. That’s because your direct mail is delivered to nearly every address / door along a carrier route.

You can still do some audience segmentation with EDDM®, even though there’s no mailing list. The USPS EDDM® tool allows you to segment by the following median demographics:

Address types (residential or business)
Age
Household size
Household income

Keep in mind that because EDDM® uses median figures, your pieces will reach people who may not be interested in your offer. Direct mail sent via EDDM® is addressed to “Local Postal Customer” since there’s no mailing list. You’re also restricted when it comes to the size and format of your pieces. You can only send flats, which are large envelopes, newsletters, and magazines.

How Do I Get a Direct Mail Mailing List?

You’ve chosen the type of mailing list you want to use. But where do you get a direct mail mailing list? There are several mailing list sources, which we’ll review below.

Use Your House List

Direct Mail Mailing List scaled What is Direct Mail Marketing?: An Ultimate Guide

Don’t overlook your house list of existing customers or people who have expressed interest in your business in the past! This free option can be very effective because you already have information on these individuals. Here are a few examples of house lists:

Active customers
Past customers
Prospects who provided you with their contact information
Members of your rewards club or loyalty program
One-time customers

You own your house list, so make sure you keep it clean and updated. Here are three mailing list data hygiene best practices:

Make sure your mailing list is CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) certified. CASS standardizes your addresses for the USPS to ensure deliverability. This process includes things like adding ZIP + 4 codes and IMBs (Intelligent Mail Barcodes) to your mail pieces.
Run your mailing list through the NCOA (National Change of Address) database. This service provides up-to-date information on people who have moved within the last four years. That way, you don’t waste money mailing to people who no longer live at an address.
Deduplication allows you to pinpoint and merge duplicate records, which saves you money because you’re not mailing to the same people twice.

If you don’t want to use a house list (or if you don’t have one yet), you can also rent or buy a mailing list.

Rent or Buy a Mailing List

If you only plan on mailing to a group of people one or two times, renting a mailing list is a smart option. While you don’t own the names on the mailing list, you do own any information you get from the people you mail to. You don’t have to maintain the list yourself, and rented lists typically cost less than purchased lists.

If you plan on using a list many times, buying a mailing list is usually your best bet. You’ll own the names on the mailing list and any information you gather from recipients. You’ll need to perform your own list hygiene, though.

There are two main types of rented or purchased mailing lists: compiled lists and response lists.

Compiled lists contain the names of people with similar interests, like rock climbing, tennis, or gardening.
Response lists contain the names of people who have purchased from or requested information from businesses offering products / services that are similar to yours.

How Do I Track My Direct Mail Campaigns?

Direct mail tracking is very important, but many marketers overlook it. Don’t make this mistake! When choosing a tracking method, make sure you consider the format of your piece and the goals of your campaign. Make sure you’re using different tracking codes for each direct mail campaign so you can differentiate between them.

Here’s a short list of methods you can use to track your campaign:

Trackable phone numbers. Adding a trackable phone number to your piece allows you to determine how many calls you receive as a result of your direct mail. This helps you tweak future campaigns because you’ll know what is and isn’t working.
Trackable URLs or PURLs (personalized URLs). These are another easy way to track the effectiveness of your campaign. Adding a name to a URL (i.e. https://www.towermarketing.net/norafulmer) and greeting them by name on the landing page helps you speak to people on a one-to-one level.
Trackable email addresses. Like trackable phone numbers and URLs, printing trackable email addresses on your pieces helps you track response rates for your campaign. Use it to look for trends that you can use for future audience segmentation and tracking.
Coupon codes. If your direct mail piece includes coupons, make sure each coupon has its own unique code. Whether recipients redeem the coupon in person, over the phone, or online, make sure employees are meticulously tracking coupon codes. This helps you determine which offers are getting results and which ones aren’t.
QR codes. QR codes are easily trackable and help you glean valuable information on your direct mail campaigns. Plus, they’re easier for prospects / customers to follow up on, since they don’t have to type a URL / PURL into their web browser. All they have to do is scan your QR code with their smartphone camera or a QR code reader app.

How Much Does Direct Mail Cost?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to direct mail marketing. However, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. As you’ve learned, there are a wide variety of components involved in any direct mail campaign. Everything from your mailing list type to the format you use affects your cost. That’s why working with an agency that offers direct mail marketing services (like Tower!) is a great way to lower your expenses. We use our experience and connections with vendors to get you the best results at the lowest price point.

Want to try a direct mail campaign for your business? Contact our print media experts today to start the conversation!

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This post was originally published in October 2016. It was updated in November 2019.

Eight seconds. A website user’s attention span lies somewhere around eight seconds. In the time it’s taken you to read these opening lines, you’ve probably picked up your phone at least twice, were distracted by something in your peripheral vision, or started mentally making a to-do list.

There’s a lot of competition for users’ attention online (and offline), so here are a few ways you can fight against short attention spans and entice users to stay on your website for longer than a goldfish can concentrate on something (which, for the record, is nine seconds).

Shorter Attention Leads to Higher Bounce Rates

Bounce rates reflect whether your website visitors click through to the second page of your site, or if they leave after viewing just a single page. These are called single interaction visits. They can often be a sign that your website is too difficult to use, information is not easily found, or the information within is uninteresting/unappealing to your users.

Average bounce rates can vary between 20 – 90% depending on the type of website you operate or even the type of page users are viewing. The chart below, created by Conversion XL, shows that eCommerce websites average a 20 – 45% bounce rate, while blogs and special landing pages average a bounce rate of 60 – 90%.

bar graph showing bounce rate of different types of websites

Online shoppers typically spend a longer average time on a website as they browse multiple products. However, blog posts or landing pages can have a considerably higher bounce rate, especially if they are not designed, written, or formatted to grab visitors’ attention.

But, also consider that a high bounce rate doesn’t always mean your website is in trouble. A visitor looking for your address or telephone number can quickly visit a locations page, contact page, or even the homepage and find the information they need very quickly. While it may result in an average bounce rate of 70-90%, it also results in satisfied users.

How to Keep Visitors on Your Site Longer

The Faster the Better

The very first way you can lose a website user’s attention is by keeping him or her waiting. The speed at which your site loads can make or break you in terms of keeping a user on your site. And users have the need for speed.

47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less.
40% will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
33% expect load time on a mobile device to be equal to or faster than their desktop.

You can test a page’s load speed by using Google PageSpeed Insights or Varvy. If your results come in higher than user expectations, you may want to pay attention to the following elements of your site:

Reduce server response times
Condense images and media
Prioritize visible content
Enable browser caching
Optimize CSS, HTML, and JavaScript
Minimize redirects

Know Their Habits

One of the best ways to keep web users’ attention is to build your site and present your content to mirror the way they read (or, more than likely, skim) through your site. There’s no shortage of research on how people interact with websites, but here are some of the highlights we pulled to help you harness your readers’ attention.

Readers Follow An F-Pattern

When researchers conducted an eye-tracking study, looking at how users viewed thousands of web pages, a dominant reading pattern emerged. The F-shaped pattern showed that readers typically scan three main areas of a web page.

A horizontal movement along the top of your content area.
A second, but shorter, horizontal movement further down the page.
A vertical movement, which researchers called a “slow and systematic scan” down the left side of the content.

They Go Beyond the “Digital Fold”

Because of a website user’s short attention span, marketers often feel they need to cram as much information as possible into the top part of their website, which is often referred to as “above the fold.” And yes, it is important to provide key information to your readers as quickly as you can, but the main point here is “key,” not “all.” Smart web users know they need to scroll down a web page, and they will happily do it. In fact, analysis from over a billion web visits shows that 66% of attention on a normal media page is spent “below the fold.”

Users also know that the call-to-action and suggested next steps are found at the bottom of the page, which is why the bottom is the second most-viewed section of a web page. Give them what they’re looking for with a strong call-to-action to round out each web page.

Engage With Video Content

There are many good reasons to incorporate video into your website. Video allows you to tell the stories that help users learn about and trust your brand. Video also provides users with short attention spans with an option beyond reading through pages of long-form content. Videos are quick and colorful and keep users engaged longer.

Don’t be intimidated by video. Not everything you create needs to be splashy, high-production content. Here are a few ideas for video content to include on your website:

Homepage video
Product demonstrations
How-to videos
Brand story/history video
Client testimonials
User-generated video

Grab Visitors’ Attention with a Friendly Reminder

How many browser tabs do you have open right now? Is the article you started reading with your morning coffee still there? You may have already forgotten why you went to those sites in the first place. A multi-tasking audience with a short attention span can be hard to overcome, but we discovered a fun way to make your site’s browser tab stand out from the rest and encourage visitors to return to their session. Just take a look at these two browser screen grabs…

Snip20161018 6 Winning the Fight Against a Website User's Attention Span

Snip20161018 9 Winning the Fight Against a Website User's Attention Span

Did you catch the difference? The “Thoughts on Users” tab changed to “Don’t Forget to Read This…” when I clicked over to another tab. A small touch, sure, but in that eight-second span, it may be just enough to bring back an attention-challenged user.

P.S.

I’ve hidden eighteen typos in this post to ensure that you were paying attention. Just kidding, I didn’t.

If you need help creating the written, visual, or video content that grabs visitors’ attention, contact our digital marketing specialists!

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Research shows 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing to reach customers, and 86% of B2C marketers say content is key to their overall marketing strategy. But less than 50% of marketers are creating content that aligns with the buyer’s journey.

So, why is this the case? It starts with the confusion surrounding the buyer’s journey. How many stages are there? Is it a funnel, an infinite loop, or something else entirely? And perhaps most importantly, how is it relevant to you as a content marketer?

I understand that the buyer’s journey can be complicated. To make it more digestible, I’m breaking it down into a series of four blogs: one for each stage of the buyer’s journey. I want to make this topic as easy to understand as possible. In turn, you’ll be able to take what you learn and apply it to your own marketing strategy.

Before getting too far into awareness-stage content marketing, I’ll lay the necessary groundwork. Let’s start by discussing the buyer’s journey, buyer personas, and the crucial role content marketing plays in the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey.

What is the Buyer’s Journey?

The customer buying journey is the steps a prospect goes through on their way to purchasing a product or service. While there are several models of the buyer’s journey, I’ve broken it down into four main stages.

Awareness Stage

This is the first step in a buyer’s journey. At this point, the prospect becomes aware they have a problem or something missing from their lives. After coming to this realization, they start doing research to pinpoint their problem.

Consideration Stage

In this stage, the prospect has defined their problem and is ready to find a solution. They’re continuing to do research because they want to understand all of their options.

Decision Stage

The prospect has chosen how to solve their problem and created a list of companies that can help them. They’ll eventually narrow this list down and make their purchasing decision.

Post-Decision Stage

The buyer’s journey doesn’t end after the decision stage. At this point, customers are reflecting on their decision and evaluating their choice. If they’re pleased with your product or service, you have the opportunity to bring them back through the buyer cycle again.

What are Buyer Personas?

Buyer personas are an integral part of the buyer’s journey stages. Buyer personas aren’t actual people, but they’re based on the real market research you’ve collected about current customers. It’s important to be as detailed as possible when building your personas, since they play a big role in attracting qualified leads and winning new business.

Buyer Personas and the Buyer’s Journey

You might be wondering just how buyer personas relate to the buyer’s journey. Start by creating buyer personas for each stage of the buyer’s journey I outlined above. When creating your personas, determine what prospects are looking for and how they go about solving their problems. What questions should you be asking about them? Prospects are learning about you, and you should always be learning about them.

Understanding your audience also helps you demonstrate empathy because they’re more likely to trust you and consider your products or services. Think about Google and the trust they’ve built with their users. By providing free services (i.e. Google Drive, Gmail, Google Flights, Google My Business, etc.), they’ve established their value in the minds of consumers. They’ve also kept themselves top-of-mind and clearly aren’t going anywhere any time soon.

You now understand the buyer’s journey and the role buyer personas play in guiding customers through that process. But how does content marketing fit into the customer acquisition process and the buyer’s journey?

What Role Does Content Marketing Play in the Buyer’s Journey?

Content marketing plays a key role during all stages of the buyer’s journey, but don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach when creating your content. Instead, produce and share buyer’s journey content that provides the most value for prospects in that specific stage.

As I said above, in the awareness stage, prospects realize they have a problem and are trying to pinpoint it. If you want them to seriously consider you, it’s crucial that you provide upper-level educational content to help them.

Never go for the hard sell with your top of funnel content marketing. Prospects don’t want to hear about why you think your company is the best thing ever. They want impartial, expert knowledge and advice on the problem they’re trying to identify (and eventually solve).

Another way to think about this is by reflecting on your logic when it comes to choosing a digital marketing agency. You probably aren’t ready to partner with us at this point, and your prospects probably aren’t ready to sign on with you either.

Ultimately, you want to subtly nurture awareness stage prospects towards conversion. Providing them with comprehensive, useful content builds trust and increases the chances they’ll move towards a purchase decision involving your company.

How Do You Create Content for the Awareness Stage of the Buyer’s Journey?

We’ve reviewed the buyer’s journey, buyer personas, and how content maps onto the buyer’s journey. You already know the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey is the point where prospects realize they have a problem or something missing from their lives. Their next step is doing research and looking for top-level educational content and thought leadership.

Most of your prospects use Google to gather information and do research. That means it’s important to understand what their search queries look like. The prospect doesn’t know a lot about their problem at this point, so their questions are usually more open-ended. For example, they’ll probably search for “new shoes,” not “Sperry women’s striped loafers size 8.”

So, you know people are asking broad questions. To capture that traffic, anticipate their queries and address them in your content. Don’t get too detailed, though. Instead, provide quick takeaways that aren’t buried in long walls of text. Think like your user. They want to develop their understanding of their problem so they can move towards pinpointing it and preparing to find potential solutions.

Google Autocomplete

One way to think like your prospects is by utilizing Google Autocomplete. As users type questions into the search bar, Google Autocomplete suggests queries it thinks are relevant.

Google Related Searches

Google Related Searches also gives you insight into what users are thinking. Related searches show up at the bottom of every search engine results page (SERP) and have queries Google thinks are similar to the users.

What Content is Most Effective During the Awareness Stage of the Buyer’s Journey?

Awareness stage content marketing can come in a variety of forms. Here are some examples:

White papers provide detailed informational content on complicated topics or problems. This makes them perfect for the awareness stage. Here are twenty examples of well-written, effective white papers.
eBooks are electronic versions of printed books that can be read on personal technology devices. They’re a great way to disseminate helpful information during the awareness stage. Here’s some more information about eBook reading, creation, and distribution.
How-to videos are another excellent way of providing educational content without pushing your brand too much. Here are some examples of and tips for creating effective how-to videos.
Blog posts are the perfect place to share top-level educational content that helps prospects learn about the problem they’re experiencing. Check out this blog post for examples of top marketing blogs and what they do well.
Infographics use a variety of visual images (illustrations, charts, diagrams, etc.) to convey information and data. When done right, they’re eye-catching and provide helpful, impartial takeaways for prospects in the awareness stage. This blog has a list of 40 infographics that effectively explain complex topics.

Always remember that providing engaging, useful content during the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey helps nurture prospects towards the consideration stage.

What Are Some Examples of Awareness Stage Marketing Campaigns?

Along with particular pieces that work well during the awareness stage, there are several awareness stage campaign types that can yield great results. Here are just a few:

Awareness campaigns are the perfect opportunity to provide prospects with valuable content that shows empathy for their situation. Demonstrate expertise and authority without being salesy, and you’ll start to gain their trust. End with a soft closing CTA and link to a piece of educational content so users can learn more if they want to.
Grand opening campaigns are great for prospects who haven’t heard of your business yet. If you’re opening a new location (and most of your customers are local), consider a grand opening campaign.
Invite prospects in for a free seminar, educational course, or webinar about your company that provides helpful information without being pushy.
Birthday and new mover marketing campaigns are perfect for businesses who know their prospects’ birthdays or have access to data on new movers. Try targeting these people with free offers and discounts on the informational events we mentioned above. Again, don’t be pushy or try to advertise your brand too heavily in this stage.

Want help with your content marketing efforts? Our team of digital marketing specialists is here to help!

If you’re an email marketer, you might as well add the title “Warrior” to your email signature and resume. You are constantly fighting for higher open and click rates, changing up tactics and strategies, and defending your email campaigns from bounces and unsubscribes.

Unfortunately, no matter how mighty your sword or how hard you fight, you may find that your bounce rate is continuing to increase. Don’t surrender just yet, warrior! We have the tools you need to become an email marketing champion. Take a look at the reasons your emails have bounced back, discover whether they are hard or soft bounces, and learn how to fix them with our tips and tricks.

Your Email Bounced Back Because…

1. There Are Deliverability Problems

Bounce Type: Soft (Temporary Issue)

If your email bounced back, it could be due to a variety of temporary issues. These issues tend to resolve themselves automatically. The issues are often caused by the following:

Recipient’s inbox is full
Recipient’s server timed out and is unavailable to receive the email
Recipient has a vacation or auto-reply set up

2. Your Email is Too Big

Bounce Type: Soft (Temporary Issue)

If you’ve sent a large email and the recipient’s inbox restricts incoming email sizes, the email may bounce back. Be sure to double check your email size. Are you using large photos? If so, decreasing image sizes can help.