This week, create better content! Learn to romance readers, out-smart robots, and see into the future for a content strategy with real longevity. Also, warm up your cold fish content and serve it for dinner.
This Just In — Headlines Matter!
The Easy A-to-Z Guide to Writing Great Headlines via Content Marketing Institute
To write good content, you have to seduce your audience. Draw readers in from the first sentence, keep them hanging on your every word, and leave them wanting more because a bad headline kills content marketing romance faster than body odor kills actual romance. Whether your title falls flat, is difficult to read, or gives everything away in a handful of words (I mean, no one wants to read an article, if you’re giving the info away for free), you’ll have lost your readers at hello.
Here to help you romance your audience past the first few words of your content is this alphabetical, infographical how-to guide from Content Marketing Institute. With a piece of helpful headline advice for every letter of the alphabet, writing irresistible titles is as easy as A, B, C through Z.
Check Out My Human-Like Emotions
Make Your Social Media Content Marketing Sound More Human by Ditching These Clichés via Skyword Content Standard
In a digital world, controlled by algorithms and run by robots, you might think speaking in zeroes and ones is the way to go, but this kind of repetitive language (clichés) in content marketing prompts human readers to activate their “disengage from content” sequence faster than a robot can calculate the square root of infinity.
Thankfully, Skyword Content Standard is here to help all of us prevent robots (and robotic content) from taking over the (marketing) world. They forewarn us against tipping off social media robots to our shameless sales ploys by advising us to avoid phrases like “check out,” “download,” and “follow.” They also provide some helpful suggestions for disguising a marketing department of robots as actual humans by injecting emotion into these types of posts.
“Be Excellent to Each Other” and Other Advice from the Future
Emerging Technology and the Next Wave of Marketing via WriterAccess
Unlike bell-bottoms, crazy shapes sweaters, and grunge, content marketing fads of the past probably aren’t going to come back into style. That’s why it’s so important to anticipate the future of marketing. In the days of dial-up, print and radio advertising were still hot and content marketing was just hatching. Then increased internet use, social media, and smart phones arrived and completely revolutionized the way we market and brand. Now, another change is upon us.
This article from the future (WriterAccess) explores how ever-improving technologies affect the way people consume content, with a focus on video and audio first, followed by more in-depth research into written content. The article provides insightful advice on how to anticipate and prepare your content strategy for even bigger marketing revolutions yet to come.
Cold Fish Content Strategy? Poke It with a Stick
Why Responsiveness Is Key to Brands’ Content Strategies via Marketing Week
Planning and executing a content strategy takes WORK. Although it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day business of generating ideas, creating content, planning schedules, and distributing all of your hard work, you absolutely cannot become unresponsive. If you allow your content strategy to play dead, your brand risks becoming old-hat, stale, and — how dare we even mention this word — irrelevant.
This article from Marketing Week explains the importance of agility and speed in today’s content marketing world. To continue evolving your strategy, they suggest paying close attention to your brand personality, content workflow, and your metrics (you might need a robot’s help with this). Then be sure to respond, in kind, to your findings.
Jennifer G is a full-time freelance writer and editor with a B.A. in creative writing from the University of Montana. She enjoys researching and writing creative content to engage readers and developing professional voices for clients across all industries. She specializes in medical, health, veterinary, and financial writing. Having worked nearly thirteen years in finance, Jennifer applies her experience in the banking industry (marketing, social media management, consumer and commercial lending, customer
