Optimizing Your Youtube Channel with Erik

Love this guy! Very insightful video if you're just starting out with your channel, you want to follow these tips.

Video SEO - How to Rank #1 in YouTube (Fast!)

Definitely some "golden nuggets" in here guys, take a look. 60,713 views in 3 months says it all! What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Effective Email Subject Lines & How To Write Them

Good advice on how to get your emails opened. Do you have any further tips to add? Leave a comment below.

David Ogilvy’s 7 Tips for Writing Copy That Sells

David Ogilvy is an advertising legend.

Often described as the “Original Mad Man,” and “The Father of Advertising,” Ogilvy is known largely for his advertising work while serving as the founder of Ogilvy & Mather. In addition to building a multibillion dollar company, he also helped create hugely successful campaigns for clients such as Dove, Shell, and Rolls-Royce.

If you spend any amount of time reading or watching David, you’re sure to be inspired to write better copy, so I’d encourage you to read his book or watch some of the videos floating around the web. In the meantime though, I’d like to present you with what I believe to be the best of Ogilvy’s arsenal:

1. Go Big or Go Home

Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals. -David Ogilvy

The product you represent is depending on you, and if you allow yourself to take shortcuts or present a less than compelling argument, then you’ve failed. As an entrepreneur or business owner, you simply cannot afford bad copy. If you cannot achieve perfection on your own, then you should hire someone who can.

2. Do Your Homework

Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals. -David Ogilvy

Ogilvy spent years working for George Gallup, founder of the Gallup Poll, and it was during this time that he realized the true value that comes with knowing exactly what your target audience is thinking.

You cannot write copy unless you know:

• Who you’re writing it for
• How that person thinks
• What that person needs

If you haven’t done your research, then you’re simply faking it, and it’s that type of copy that gets marketers in trouble, either with the government or with their boss.

To write great copy, you need to understand your audience to the letter, so that you know how you can best serve them. Nothing else will do.

3. Never Talk down to Your Customers

A consumer is not a moron. She’s your wife. Don’t insult her intelligence, and don’t shock her. -David Ogilvy

This is a great Ogilvy quote (for the video, click here), speaking on behalf of consumers everywhere. As great as your product may be, speaking down to your audience is going to turn them away, and as much as you’d love them to be infatuated with your charming pitch, understand that, at the end of the day, they simply want to solve a problem.

Treat your customer with respect and dignity. You’re on equal footing, or perhaps a bit lower, considering you’re the one who needs the sale. Reflect that position in your copy.

4. The Headline is 80%

On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar. -David Ogilvy

Headlines are as close to a magic bullet as you’re going to get, and if you’re going to be perfect in only once place, do it here. Write a strong headline that works.

Here’s how:

• Use headline templates, which are based on headlines that have worked in the past
• Lead with a strong benefit, making them want to read more
• If you can, split test different headlines to see what works best

5. Don’t Get Distracted from Making the Sale

If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative. -David Ogilvy

Couldn’t be more true. Marketers love to be cute and funny, original and innovative, but it’s also dangerous.

People don’t set aside time to read ads; they are probably in a hurry, just taking a quick glance before they move on to something else. If your point isn’t immediately obvious, chances are they won’t get it, and you’ll lose them forever.

If you want people to buy, you need them to see your product in their hands and be able to envision how it’ll improve their lives. Everything else is secondary. If you can awe them with your words in the process, fine, but don’t do it at the expense of the sale.

6. Explain Why They Should Buy

The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be. -David Ogilvy

You’ve hooked them with the headline, and you’re telling them all about the product, but before they decide to buy from you, they want to know one thing:

Why?

Why is the product important? Why is it a good deal? Why should they be interested? Why should they buy it from you? Why should they buy it now, rather than later? Why should they trust you?

Consciously or subconsciously, all of those questions are going through a customer’s head. If you want them to act, you need to answer them, and that means making your copy informative.

7. Your Copy Is Important. Treat It That Way.

Like a midwife, I make my living bringing new babies into the world, except that mine are new advertising campaigns. -David Ogilvy

All too often, business owners treat their sales copy like an afterthought. They scribble down a few notes, have someone check it to make sure it’s grammatically correct, and send it out. Then they wonder why it doesn’t get results.

David Ogilvy, on the other hand, looked at each of his campaigns like his babies. He nurtured them, fought for them, helped them develop. And he produced some of the best-selling campaigns in the history of advertising.

The truth is, writing great copy takes time and energy. Some of the best copywriters will spend weeks just crafting the headline, and they might take months to write the body copy.

It’s not because they’re slow. It’s because they know the importance of getting it right.

Are you committed to that type of excellence?

If not, you should be.

By David Ogilvy

Article Source: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/david-ogilvy/

How to create an Ad banner using Canva

So interesting, I love creating my own artwork and canva.com makes it so quick and easy. What would usually take hours takes just minutes to create and best of all, it's free! I used to get mine done on websites such as fiverr.com but now I just create my own. What do you guys think? Have you any useful tips? Leave a comment below.

5 Killer Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Post summary:

• The number of promotional emails
• Why should readers open your email?
• 5 email marketing mistakes to avoid

Most businesses do email marketing.

In fact, more than 294 billion emails are sent daily, which means each morning you wake up and check your inbox you will most likely see a lot of unread emails.

How many emails did you wake up to this morning?

It’s important that when your business sends an email to your customers, you stand out from the other hundreds of emails that your reader will inevitably receive the same day you send yours. Sending an email requires an investment and it’s important that this time is not wasted on an email not being read or acted on.

In my last post on email marketing, we covered tips on what you can do the next time you send out a newsletter. This post will cover five tips on what NOT to do.

1. Sending From donotreply@yourdomain.com

No-reply@ or DoNotReply@ sender email addresses are uninviting and unwelcome. If you send an email from one of those email addresses, don’t be surprised if your open rate is low.  Always send an email from an address your customers can reply to and be sure to include phone numbers, and links to your social profiles as well to let the customer contact you in any channel they want to.

If you’re the Managing Director of a large corporation, you’re most likely not the one sending your emails out, however, you are the person that people in the industry will know. Whether or not they’re written by you or not, emails should be sent from a recognizable name.

2. Sending Image-only Based Emails

Only 33% of email subscribers have images turned on by default. This means that your email will display as one long empty box and cannot be read by up to 67% of your email list (see example below). There are times when image-only emails make sense. If you sell visual products such as clothing, or travel then going with an image only based email might be the most obvious choice.

The two examples below are with images not enabled. The example on the left is an email that is image-only whereas the image on the right is 50% image and 50% text. Which one do you think is easier to read?

Text only mails have a 40% higher click through rate than those picture emails. If you do use images, make sure you repeat everything in simple text so that readers can take action and ensure you link to a web version of your email (You can get more tips on on how to create the perfect email marketing template here)

3. Not Linking to Your Website

The average number of links within an email marketing campaign is 23.3 links – That’s a lot of links!
At the other end of the scale, you have marketing campaigns with zero links! The goal of the email is to get people to click through to your website, but if your link sends subscribers to your home page they are less likely to scroll through your website to find the offer.

Your email should include at least one link and it should link to a dedicated landing page that continues the message within the email. Similar to search marketing campaigns, build a dedicated landing page for your email marketing campaign that makes it easy for readers to buy from you. KISSmetrics do a great job at linking to an email-focused landing page. The email includes one call-to-action, which sends me to this page:

4. The ‘One Size Fits All’ Approach

The most effective form of marketing is relevance.  The one size fits all approach no longer works (did it really ever work?). Your message needs to be relevant to the reader. A CEO of a Fortune 500 company in New York does not have the same needs as a small business owner on a farm in the middle of England. Being relevant shows you care and as only 11% segment their email lists, relevant marketing is a competitive advantage.

Segmentation can be basic or it can get complex. If you segment your list into different groups and customize your messaging to each reader, you’ll see higher click-through rates—and more-engaged customers.

5. Ignoring Mobile

43% of people check emails on their smartphones every day and more than 40% of mobile email users check email four or more times per day. Whether you use mobile for reading emails or managing customer contacts, mobile is here to stay. If your email is not optimized for mobile devices, regardless of how relevant your message is, people will not be able to read it.

However, optimizing images in emails is only one part of the mobile marketing process. The second part goes back to the purpose of email marketing; driving traffic to your website to convert. Keep the process as easy as possible. Make sure that readers can complete their desired action such as registering for a webinar or completing a purchase.

By Steven MacDonald

Article Source: http://www.superoffice.com/blog/5-killer-email-marketing-mistakes-to-avoid/

8 Essential Concepts Every Digital Marketer Should Understand

There’s an old story about a reporter who visited a skyscraper construction site. He approached one worker and asked what he was doing. “I’ve got to pour this cement before it sets, don’t bother me,” was the reply.

The reporter asked another man the same question. “I’m setting this rebar, don’t bother me,” the man said. Over and over, when asked what they were doing, each worker irritatedly explained their task at hand.

Finally, the reporter interviewed the lowest man on the job totem pole—the hod carrier. His job was to scoop up clay on a flat board, then hold it for someone to trowel it onto a wall. Not exactly the most interesting or inspiring work. “What are you doing?” the reporter asked.

The young man stopped and looked up to where the top of the building would be someday and said, “I’m building a skyscraper.”

There is no shortage of specialties in an average marketing department. There is certainly no shortage of small, incremental tasks to be completed, either. But it’s important to ask yourself: Am I pouring cement, or am I building a skyscraper?

The most successful marketers tend to be skyscraper builders. They understand how their role fits into the overall plan. Which means they have a base understanding of what everyone else is doing, too. Having that context can only make your work better. What’s more, you can avoid being commodified—being thought of as “the content guy” or “the SEO woman”—and expand your role.

You don’t have to be an expert on everything, of course. But even if you never touch one of them in your current role, it’s important to have a basic understanding of these eight concepts:

#1 – SEO

SEO is rapidly becoming a highly specialized field. It’s one of the fastest-changing aspects of marketing, too, as search engines continue to refine their algorithms to provide a better searcher experience. A major part of SEO now is simply having content that is the best answer for your potential customers.

That said, there are some old-school basic SEO elements that every piece of content should have:

• A title tag fewer than 80 characters long, to avoid being shortened in results pages
• A meta description that describes the content in 160 characters or fewer
• Header text (H1 tags) for the most relevant text
• Alt descriptions for images that describe the content of the image
• Descriptive text for links (not just “Click Here” or “More”)

If you want to dig deeper into SEO basics, Google’s SEO starter guide is a great resource.

#2 – Optimizing Content for Web Reading

Even if you’re not a content creator, it’s important to know how people read content online versus print. Online reading habits affect everything from SEO to design.

People tend to ‘scan’ online content rather than read it top-to-bottom. Long paragraphs and lack of navigational elements can send readers back to their search engine results for a more reader-friendly page.

Keep paragraphs short and to the point. Just two to three short sentences is enough, for the most part. Make sure there is plenty of white space breaking up your content into snackable sections.

Add headers (with the H1 tag, as above) for each topic. That way, skimming readers can see your most important points at a glance.

#3 – Content Planning

As a content creator, this is an important bit of context that I sometimes have to go out of my way to get. It’s easy to relax into being told, “here’s your topic; fill up a bucket with words and send it off.” But that’s ground-level thinking. It’s important to know how content planning works, where the topics are coming from, and how to do that research for yourself.

Learning the process of content planning can help you achieve content mastery. You’ll write better content because you fully understand the need you’re trying to meet.

#4 – Full-Funnel Content Strategy

We have a three-stage funnel model at TopRank Marketing: Attract, Engage, and Convert. Buyers in the Attract stage may not be actively looking for a solution. They might not even be aware they have a problem. Those in the Engage stage are looking for a solution, researching their options. Those in the Convert stage have made a decision to buy, and need a final nudge to our client’s solution.

That model drives nearly everything we do. We develop content for each stage of the funnel, each with radically different SEO strategy, amplification strategy, and targeting. It’s important to know your funnel, and how your role fits into the overall full-funnel strategy. 

#5 – Paid Social Media

It used to be simple to get reach on social media. You put out great content, build an audience of followers, and they shared your content to their networks. Easy. Simple. And above all, free.

Now, the big social media guns like Twitter and Facebook are undeniably pay-to-play. Without advertising, you’re only reaching a fraction of your followers, let alone attracting new ones. Even on LinkedIn, which has yet to embrace the algorithm scourge, you can reach a much broader audience with a little strategic boosting.

Learn the basics of social media advertising with this post.

#6 – Online Advertising (Pay Per Click)

Pay per click (PPC) is for organic search what your paid social media is to your organic reach—a way to reach a broader audience and prioritize your content over others. For a price.

This LinkedIn Marketing blog post has a ton of resources to help you grasp the basics of PPC.

#7 – Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is rapidly becoming a go-to solution for co-creating great content and increasing content amplification. It seems simple enough—find influential people, get them to share your stuff, profit—but each of those steps has plenty of sub-steps built into it.

Influencer marketing involves content strategy, content creation, and amplification. Since it touches multiple roles, it’s a good idea for every marketer to at least have a grasp of the fundamentals.

#8 – Measurement

Unless your role specifically requires it, you may not need to know exactly how to track, measure, and report on the results of your marketing efforts. But it is important to understand your department’s overall goals, the goal for each piece of content, and how progress will be measured. Goals and metrics vary widely, so I recommend tapping the metrics & analytics experts in your organization for an overview.

Reach for the Sky

The difference between a ground-level grunt and a skyscraper builder is a sense of context. That knowledge of the bigger picture can inform how you do your day-to-day tasks, set you up for future success, and even inspire you to build a taller skyscraper. If you’ve had your eyes on the ground, get together with your team and share information about each other’s roles. Learn a little bit of what they all do, and make sure you’re all building the same building.

Need help with any of these 8 areas of expertise? Our team of skyscraper builders is standing by.

By Joshua Nite

Article Source: http://www.toprankblog.com/2016/05/essential-concepts-digital-marketer/