Marketing Content Creation

Transcription

1 Marketing Content Creation Writing your way into the inbox.

2 marketing is primarily a textual medium focusing on phrases, stories and sentences that are used to gain attention and hold it until finally introducing a call to action where readers are able to purchase a product or service. However, writing good content is more challenging than it sounds. Spam filters, short attention spans and competing s make the inbox a competitive space! content writers have to keep the content short, interesting and still be able to get a point across in an appealing way to a reader who is distracted by other aspects on their computer and surroundings. Maintaining that kind of writing standard can be difficult - that s why this white paper will detail how to write for inboxes, avoid being labeled as spam and use your reader s attention to your advantage. The basics of great content writing focus on four simple steps: Get attention, generate interest, raise desire then encourage action.

3 Before getting into the content itself, it helps to go over basic formatting and length requirements for marketing. Keep it Brief If your readers know they can read your newsletters in just a few minutes - you ll have them hooked! Write as if you d be making a speech: 5 words a sentence, and use repetition. Stick to Three to four content pieces Aim for a news headline article that is a bit longer, followed by shorter announcements. This adds variety to your and appeals to a wider audience than a single topic newsletter. Use Simple Language With marketing, you want to appeal to as many people as you can. In order to do this, your language must be clear, to the point and easy to understand. We suggest going over your content and trying to shorten phrases and words with easier to understand language.

4 Avoiding the Spam Folder Your isn t going to do any good if it gets banished to the spam folder. content is a major factor that all spam filters take into account when deciding whether to send your to the spam folder or the inbox. Tips to get Past the Spam Filter Avoid repetition of words in proximity to each other (EG sale sale sale sale) Avoid exclusive use of capitals (EG DON T TYPE LIKE THIS) Avoid excluding all capitals (EG the whole of ben s for america. starting with small caps) Try to keep spammy words to a minimum when sending to a new customer (such as one-time-offer, you won, sale, guarantee, act now! etc) Avoid spelling errors Use paragraphs Keep your text black in colour 3 Tips to Avoid Being Reported as Spam Tip #1: Make sure that what you say in your subject line relates to the rest of your mail. Don t surprise your readers with unexpected content. Tip #2: Fulfill the expectations you set at signup. Don t send more content than you advertise, or you may end up flagged as spam.

5 Tip #3: Keep your content relevant to the reader and you will reduce the likelihood they will perceive it as spam. Segmenting your lists can help! Grabbing Attention Once your subject line has done its job and your has been opened, you have to keep the attention going. Think of the subject line as tinder for their interest, but your content are the logs that keep it going. This section will focus on gaining and keeping attention from readers. Relevance No matter the scale of the event or how seemingly shocking or amazing it might be, if what you re writing about doesn t resonate on a psychological level with your target audience, then there s very little chance that they will engage with your work. As with all marketing activities, understanding who you are communicating to will influence your product placement, campaign directions and the content of your external communications; so understanding who you re talking to will immediately steer your writing in a direction that people can relate to on a higher level.

6 Ways to gather information on what s relevant Social media statistics, Mobile technology Flash surveys Google Search Word Research News sources Google Analytics These are great ways of gathering the necessary information needed to get to grips on your target market and what they find relevant. Timing Whereas proximity peaks the interest of your readers, timing automatically moves your content to the front of the queue. When covering an event, product or service launch it s of the highest priority to ensure that your content goes out in a timely fashion, preferably a few days before, with a lead-up period of social callouts. It s called news for a reason - it has to be new. You don t necessarily have to be the one breaking the news, but for as long as the topic remains relevant you should at least be sharing fragments of information.

7 Timing Tips Prime readers with social media before releasing the story For new offers or features, the content should be released at the same time, then slowly trail off (in future s) as it becomes older Take state of mind into account - do people want to read your offer when they ve just finished work or before they start? Take advantage of holidays. Write about how great your product or service is as a gift for father s day or christmas etc. Facts Research everything on the topic, making sure you know what s been written on it and what can be added. Don t rewrite old news and facts with clever new phrasing. In addition, you need a new, fresh angle that will make your topic interesting - ask yourself, what facts make what I m writing about unique to what everyone else is saying? While understanding your topic is important, it s just as important to understand the demographic you re writing for. Find out what their interests are, what their problems are and how best to address them.

8 Generating Interest This is where you begin to plant the idea that your product or service is a good idea in a general sense and where you explain how your product or service is the best one available. You can do this through a couple of ways. Popularity and Trends Mentioning the effects your kind of product has had on businesses in recent years and how popular your product or service has grown is an ideal way to generate interest in your . Highlight current news and trends that may affect your customers, your services or your product. Build Investment Make sure to share your own opinion, and ask them for theirs. Don t just regurgitate other people s opinions - encouraging interaction builds investment, which in turn builds interest. An ideal way to do so is to host a competition, encourage users to share their pictures of them with your product or include a survey and share your results in your next newsletter!

9 Personalize your content A great way to stand out from the crowd as well as generate interest is to give your writing a unique voice. Unless you re a legal, financial or medical company, the days of formal writing are over! Speak to your clients as you would anyone else, use humour and maybe a story about a situation that happened to you or your company. Raise Desire and Encourage Action This is where you start actually selling your individual product rather than the idea of your product. Write about what they want to know Answer your customers questions. If you re not the one dealing with your customers, head over to whoever is manning the phone or support center and ask them. Customers will want your product if they solve their problems or improve their lives somehow - so be sure to mention how it would be able to do this.

10 Highlight unique selling points What makes your product a better purchase? Perhaps your promotion makes it cheaper, maybe it performs better? Whatever it is, be sure to provide proof in one form or another or you ll just sound like a cheap salesman. Include a call to action Finally, you want to include a call to action. This would typically be a button or image that links the reader to a landing page where they can complete their purchase or browse what they can purchase. Generally this should be at the bottom of the , but you re allowed to be creative as long as it is visible and clear.

11 Conclusion The content of your mail is what makes the sale and keeps your readers opening future - so one could say that it s the lifeblood that keeps your marketing campaign going. What s important to remember is to keep monitoring and improving your content to become more relevant and effective. Just as the circumstances of your clients change, so should the content of your . In order to test your content performance and improve your marketing campaign, you need to use A / B split tests and report functions to see what your customers respond to. As a leading Service Provider, GraphicMail not only offers advanced reporting and testing functionalities, but also detailed resources and guides designed to give you the edge in content and creation. Create a free account today and dominate the , social media and mobile world with our professional solutions - no contracts, no deposit, no problem! Expect the best - give us a try and find out why! Contact details e. info@graphicmail.com w. t