Why bother with email? (Reasons to take the leap)

People sign up for emails because they want the inside scoop. They want to be the first to know about a new product or service, a breaking news story in your industry, or some tidbit of culture that they’ll relate to.

That means you’re talking directly to a specific group of people who actually WANT to hear from you. But you have to send emails that are interesting, compelling, and/or useful, or they’ll drop from your list like ice cream from a toddler’s cone.

Research your audience (Cyberstalking is sometimes okay)

How well you get to know your audience will determine how many of your emails get opened and how long your customers stay on your list.

Start with the basic raw data you have from the customer and from your own research. You know more than you think. Anything your customer does online can be related to email (almost).

For instance, SEO: Use searched keywords, phrases and questions to determine your next newsletter content. Take a look at which products are searched for during each month, and build seasonal email specials around your findings. And if your customers are searching for a term or product, send it directly to their inboxes. Learn more about the integration between SEO and email here.

Scheduling matters. Alter your sending time to suit the specific schedule your audience lives by. If your audience is new moms, they will probably check their email in the early morning (on their phone before the kids get up), or from about 12-3 (on the computer during nap time). Purchase time is usually during the afternoon lull.

Pro tip: Research yourself as a consumer. Pay attention to the emails you receive from companies, which you like, which you don’t, and why. Start a folder of cool emails and think about what they have in common. Are the designs cool with little copy, or do they look more like traditional newsletters? Yes, it’s nerdy. Do it.

Now that you know what your audience wants, where do you begin? Let’s build an email list.

Strategy: Building/optimizing a list (Your little black book)

What is the ultimate goal of your email campaign? Let’s say you want people to buy your Puppy-hugger-while-you’re-away-so-he-won’t-be-lonely-inator. Great. So a purchase is your ultimate goal, with an interim goal of expanding your loyal customer base.

Building your list depends on the type of campaign you want to run.

New campaigns (The new girl)

If you’re looking for new customers, try an (onsite, banner or PPC) ad campaign and then collect the customer’s email address when they purchase the product. Since they’re new customers, just send a few emails to whet their appetite.

Pro tip: Sending a limited amount of emails at scheduled intervals is called an email drip campaign. Read more details about email drip campaigns here.

If you want to retain those customers and build brand loyalty, an ongoing email campaign is best. Even if your customers don’t open your emails, they see your company’s name in their inbox on a regular basis, which will pay off when they’re looking for a puppy-hugger.

But how do you get people to sign up for emails before they buy your product?

• An email signup box needs to be either in the header or footer of every page on your site. Period. Don’t make customers search for your email campaign.
• Place an email signup box at the bottom of each blog post and at the bottom of your About Us page. Check out great tips on building an email list here.

Existing campaigns (The girl next door)

If you’re building off a current campaign, you still need to do your research. The good news is that you have lots of data. Look at how the current email list was built, what worked, what didn’t, and where you want to go from here. Look at what emails caused unsubscribes and high bounce rates. Look at day and time of day reporting, and create your strategy based on what works best for your audience.

Is your current campaign speaking directly to your target market? What does the audience want to know about? Look at Google Analytics and your Email Service Provider reports. You can learn a lot about where these users went on the site, what their activity was for each email, etc. Take your time and soak up the reporting. The girl next door is telling you a lot about what she wants in a relationship, you just have to interpret it all. Read more about this under “Testing” below.

Design (Choosing your duds)

All emails should be responsive, without exception. How many emails have you received on your phone that you couldn’t read or could read only parts of? Create and save templates (Photoshop and HTML) that are mobile-friendly so they will be readable for your subscribers who open them on their mobile phones (which is about 50%).

NOTE: There is not an email template that has been created yet that works with 100% of all smartphones or tablets. There are 10-15% of smartphone users who have unique applications that we can’t get a mobile friendly newsletter to work with.

But even if your date likes the way you look, you still need to keep her attention. Compel your audience! Interactive content, videos, or useful tools will keep them coming back again and again. The more interactive the email, the more engaged your reader will be.

Content (Remember: they’re just not that into you)

When writing content, assume your audience is dating other people. You want to be mysterious yet engaging. Remember, email is your first date. Be honest and positive, and leave them wanting more.

Pro tip: Size counts! In general, shorter subject lines are better. In Obama’s online campaign, one of their most popular emails had the subject line of three letters: “Hey.”

• Subject lines. The first step is to get people to open your emails. Duh. The subject line has to speak directly to your audience and be appealing enough to engage them. 33% of email recipients open email based on subject line alone. Learn more email marketing stats here.
• Be scan-able. Create content that gets to the point quickly and is also entertaining. I know you’re not reading this entire post from beginning to end, and you might not even if you were paid to. And that’s okay.
  Some readers might be reading your emails just to be polite (ridiculous but true). Make your point early and often enough for a reader to get the point by scanning, but interesting enough for them to be engaged the whole way through.
• Engage backwards. Think about what your end goal for each email is, and work backwards from there. Let’s say it’s Christmas time and you want to share that epic video of kids getting puppies for Christmas. Start writing with the end result (puppy Christmas video) in mind, and share it with your subscribers as if they were your friends. Let the call to action determine the tone, design, etc.

Legal stuff (Don’t be a creep)

A strong email list is full of people who WANT to be there. Make email sign-up options obvious so that you only get people who are actually interested in your company. 1,000,000 subscribers who were tricked into being on your list will not give you the ROI that 1,000 people who are psyched about your brand will.

Pro tip: Don’t buy email lists! Build your lists organically. Buying lists is a great way to get tagged as spam.

Here’s how to make sure you have a good, legal list:

• One way to ensure quality leads is the double opt-in. When someone signs up, send them a “please confirm your address” email. When they click through that email, you know you have someone who really wants to be on your list.
• Include an optional unsubscribe link on every email. Don’t hide it in tiny text or a giant footer paragraph. Put it plainly in the footer. If someone doesn’t want to be on your list, allow them to leave. It only makes your list stronger.
• Include the physical address of your company in the footer of every email. It confirms your company’s legitimacy, and can help keep you out of the spam folders.

For more tips on keeping it legal, check out this article.

Spam filters (Her overprotective father)

You always know a good date from a bad date: A good one leaves you wanting more, a bad one tells you about past relationships right off the bat. It’s the same with email. If you’re using all caps or filling your emails with keywords and sales language, you might get thrown in the spam folder.

If you don’t know why you’re being tagged, send some emails to the meanest techy friend you know. They’ll tell you what to improve in your campaign and a few more tips on exactly what you’re doing wrong.

For more tips on avoiding spam filters, read this.

Testing (It’s not you, it’s me.)

Email campaigns are successful when they are optimized for user behavior. They allow you to change the subject line, design layout and elements, call to action, tone of copy, interactive aspects, the means of acquiring emails, time or day emails are sent; all to give readers exactly what they want.

The best way to get to know your audience is to review how they reacted to emails over time. Let’s send two emails to the same Puppy-hugger-while-you’re-away-so-he-won’t-be-lonely-inator list. The first will be on Sparky’s depression story with a link to your blog, and the next will be a special discount email. Pay attention to who interacts with each email, and start sending them emails that are more specific to their interests.

But tests don’t have to be that obvious. Test any and every aspect of the campaign (subject line, UX, CTA, button color, etc.). Use the results of each test to optimize your campaign and/or create multiple email lists based on user behavior.

Pro tip: Think about who your audience is and why they’re signing up. Did they buy something? What did they buy? Was it through a discount offer or was it the latest release? There should be multiple lists per specific audience.

You’ll never get it perfect simply because your audience is always changing. But every test will improve your understanding of your audience and optimize your email list, improving your ROI.

Here’s where to get all that gorgeous information.

Reporting (Introducing her to your friends)

Email Service Providers (ESP) (Your wingman)

Learn to love your ESP. If you are new to ESPs, sign in and play around with the graphs and reports. See what you can learn. What do the subscribers respond to? What time of day, day of week, subject line length, etc. seems to work best for your audience? ESPs can show you all of that. You just need to know where to look.

Pro tip: An open email doesn’t always mean an open email. An “open” email in reporting means that the images display on the user’s screen or they interact with the content. So if a customer opens the email and doesn’t allow the images to be displayed, it won’t count as an open email. The user could just open an email, peruse the content, and close it without interaction.

Google Analytics Reporting (Your nosy roommate)

GA reporting gives different information than your ESP. Your wingman knows what happens while on the date (that’s him in the corner looking creepily at you all night), and your roommate knows what happens after the date. GA will tell you where customers go on your site after clicking through from each campaign.

Of course, the revenue and ecommerce conversion rates are our favorite results to look at, but all aspects of GA reporting are whispering secrets about your audience.

Was she really that into you? Your ESP and GA reporting will let you know, but in order to get the juicy details, you need a little help from UTMs.

UTMs! (Pizza to bribe the roommate)

When you have numerous links in the same email to the same page (i.e. logo, text link, and footer), it’s useful to know which link is being clicked through. Tracking on each and every link is essential to great reporting and the subsequent optimization.

Google’s UTM builder gives a specific URL for each button. Use this tool for each link in each email, plugging the new URL into the code of the email (usually through your ESP). Now you know which buttons resonate with your audience so you can design to their needs and preferences.

Good luck out there, email marketers, and remember: email marketing is like dating. It can be hard to find the right date, but once you do, the relationship can last a lifetime as long as you keep them engaged.

The post As Good as It Gets: What dating can teach us about email marketing. appeared first on Portent.

For a highly visual medium, the Internet has been slow to attract marketers with a graphic bent.  Perhaps due to proliferation of search engine optimization, or web browsers originating as text-based applications, many of us have focused on the word, not the image, video, or application.

But words aren’t attracting the attention they used to.  There are just too many of them.  So as marketers, we need to look to new content methods for garnering attention, branding our message, and engaging meaningfully with our target audience.

At Portent, we like to make things, experiment, and philosophize.  And under the “make things” and “experiment” categories falls our newest effort, the Kitten Moodinator – an app that allows a user to answer a simple question which leads to a “predictive mood.”  In turn, this predictive mood appears as a very cute kitten picture:

The idea originated from my ex-mother-in-law’s frequent Facebook “mood” posts.  “Anne is 70% happy today,” “Anne is 30% happy today.”  I thought, what better way to communicate a mood – be it good or bad – than with an amazingly adorable kitten?

But ultimately, the Internet is full of kittens.  Why would we invest time and energy into something that we’re not making any cash off of?  …Which leads to another question: why does anyone invest in content at all?  It’s not measurable like PPC or quantifiable like CRO – it doesn’t have SEO’s trackability.

In fact, unless you charge for it, there is no direct correlation between content and revenue at all.

And yet, it’s what makes your business successful.  People buy what they know about.  People buy what they like.  And unless you’re prepared to go door-to-door hocking your wares, that means content.

So I gathered our internal teams – content, design, development, social and paid search – and we set out to make something fun.  It wasn’t the worst work on earth, that’s for sure.  We chose Facebook for its sharability, hoping (of course) for virality.

But, as Portent’s president says, “so what?”  So the Moodinator goes viral – what does that achieve?

Our internal goals for the Kitten Moodinator are three-fold:

1. Attention

Most messages on today’s Internet are the equivalent of yelling in Lambeau Field.  Whether selling steak knives or online marketing services, getting the attention of an audience is daunting at best, impossible at worst.  This is why words are often not enough – at least not on their own.

The competition loosens up a bit, however, as content shifts away from the written and more toward the visual.  Not only are fewer firms doing it, a user can more quickly and easily digest images.  And who can resist a catchy, cute kitten photo?

So before the Kitten Moodinator can accomplish the two goals below, it needs to capture audience interest.

2. Engagement

On some level, all content is ‘engaging,’ even if the audience is merely reading.  But the best kind of engagement involves a back-and-forth.  The user takes action.  There is a response to that initial action that invites them to take subsequent action.  These exchanges are the best way of building the engagement, and ultimately, the buy-in of your audience.

And once you have that, you’re able to establish your…

3. Brand

This is our greatest goal with the Moodinator – to likably convey our expertise in content creation and social media strategy while differentiating ourselves from the competition.

Along with basic product or service messaging, branding is the major goal of content – it’s where you separate and elevate yourself in the minds of your core audience.  It’s why, all things being equal, they choose your offering over your competition’s.

How we’ll (attempt to) measure success

What does success look like to us?  As noted above, there is no calculable monetary ROI for the Kitten Moodinator (absent some future client stating ‘the only reason I’m hiring you is the Kitten Moodinator’).

Consequently, the metrics we’ll be looking at to evaluate success are:

• Social referral traffic, reach, shares, and engagement
• Repeat interactions
• Page views on eigene-homepage-erstellen.net
• Links
• Press coverage and “buzz”
• Client reaction now and in the future
• An expanded knowledge base in-house, allowing us to better serve current and future clients

Will it work?  We think so, but time will tell.

And for now, as the great Jay-Z says, on to the next one, on to the next one.

Have you used the Kitten Moodinator?  If so, let us know in the comments. 

The post Portent’s Kitten Moodinator: When Content Isn’t Words appeared first on Portent.

Am I a brainstorming genius? Well, I came up with this post!

The World Wide Web has robbed the world of mystery.  Its epic reach into the far corners of the collective conscious has placed long odds against unleashing amazing new information – and with every blog post and product description, these odds get longer.  As a result, it is imperative to creatively impart information to differentiate your message, and consequently, your brand.

But just how do you do that?  If it were easy, everyone’s blogs would be as clever as Oscar Wilde, tidy as Ernest Hemingway, and lyrical as Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  And yet… they’re not.

The secret to making a splash in this brave new world is repackaging and refining existing ideas in a palatable, engaging way.  Consequently, brainstorming may be your best friend when it comes to molding an attractive delivery for your core message.

Below are 7.5 Tips for Becoming a Brainstorming Genius.  Use them with careless abandon.

1.     Be self-critical

Use this perspective to anticipate criticisms of your brand, and then write content that addresses them proactively.  FAQs are a great source of topics (as well as a portal into your more discerning customers’ heads).

It is important to note this is not being negative – but “going oppo” on your product or service will expose you to a fresh perspective, and hopefully, fresh content ideas.

2.     Think about your mom

Your mom, my mom, all moms… What does she like?  What turns her off?  What confuses her?  What would the average Joe think of your product?  What message would appeal to him?  Yes, this is Marketing 101, but, while it’s amazing to imagine, many marketers exist in their brand cocoon, convinced their perspective is The Perspective.

Ultimately, ‘thinking about your mom’ is content as user experience: Consider the audience when crafting the message.

2.5 Ask a little kid

How would he or she view your product?  My seven-year-old cousin once said to me she wished she could have a “magnet in her back so she could sleep on the ceiling.”  If your content is even half as creative, you shouldn’t have a problem attracting readers, and subsequently, customers.

3.     Think about Tom Cruise

Yes, he’s Maverick.  And Jerry Maguire.  And Rain Man (technically).  But he’s also a metaphor.  And what better to make a stale topic fresh than with an out-of-the-box, extended metaphor?  “7.5 Ways Sales Meetings are Worse than Giving Birth.”  “Why Dating is the Original Contact Sport.”

Metaphor is also a great technique for explaining complicated or heady concepts, processes, products, and services.

4.     Research everywhere and everything

Knowledge begets knowledge, so be curious!  Learn things!  Explore trending news topics, check the calendar for holidays, browse Wikipedia (or yank out that old Encarta CD-ROM – ha), see movies, listen to lectures (or Rihanna… or lectures ON Rihanna), make a trek to the site of Amanda Bynes’ latest crash…

The point is, you never know what’s going to inspire, but you need to open yourself up to being inspired.

5.     Use a tool

OK, really use one tool.  Our Content Idea Generator should get you off and brainstorming in no time flat.  Props to whoever posts the craziest headline in the comments.

6.     Change your world

Most of us don’t consider it, but environment affects inspiration.  Looking at the same four walls – the same wall art, computer desktop and agro co-workers – inhibits a free mind.

Ideas can be visceral, originating from all of the senses…   The smell of popcorn might inspire you to write about your brand’s favorite movies; feeling hot pavement on your feet might translate to “7.5 Places You Should Really Wear Reeboks.”

So remember: offices are stodgy.  Many of the best ideas come out of left field… wouldn’t it be a lot easier if you were already in left field?

7.     Borrow…

Steal, plunder, abscond with… then MAKE IT YOUR OWN.  No one likes a plagiarist.

Example: remember the Alamo.

OK.  You should always remember the Alamo… but also here are some specific examples (and free content ideas for my favorite rental car company!):

1. FAQ from the Alamo site – “Appeal a toll or citation”
   Potential post: “The Alamo Guide to Avoiding a Citation”
2. Your mom – “7.5 Most Comfortable Cars for a Cross-Country Trip”
3. Metaphor – “7.5 Reasons Alamo is Better than a Lion” – 1.) We rent cars.  Lions do not.  2.) Lions will eat you.  Alamo will not.  Etc.
4. Research – “Why Alamo Would Never Rent to Amanda Bynes”
5. A Content Idea Generator result – “A World without Rental Cars”
6. Environment – I can’t really give you a specific title, but I will say I’d be sitting in my car during the brainstorm – or – “Why You Should Brainstorm in Your Alamo Rental Car”
7. Borrow – Take THIS painting and have a graphic designer put some cars on the road, with a thought bubble above the main subject reading “$10 off weekend rentals!!!!”

I also gave a webinar on this topic; consider it the live, extended, slightly R-rated version:

The post 7.5 Tips for Becoming a Brainstorming Genius appeared first on Portent.

Being a novelist obviously makes it easy to incorporate narrative into writing for clients. Less obvious, though, are the ways a creative writing background can help a writer nail down a brand voice. Let’s look at one of those techniques, building a lexicon, and how it can help you learn to speak a customer’s language, no matter how foreign it seems.

What is a Lexicon?

I alluded to lexicons in a post I wrote about how to humanize your brand with a blog, but “lexicon” is just a fancy name for a list of words. I first built a lexicon for my first novel (set in Poland) so I could separate out the different dialects that groups of characters were speaking. There’s a group of skaters who say things like “zajebisty” (no, I’m not translating that, this is a family-friendly blog) and (because they lived in a certain city) insert “yo” into their everyday speech in a similar way to how an American valley girl uses “like.” This simple cluster of words distinguishes those skaters from a group of gangster wannabes whose chosen swear word is “pierdolić.”

How Can a Lexicon Help with Brand Voice?

A lexicon helps you sort out the vocabulary that’s pertinent to a customer base. Every customer has a way of speaking that’s unique to them, what us word nerds refer to as “an idiolect.” When you gather a bunch of idiolects together, the place they overlap is a dialect. The classic example of this is the regional variations between whether “soda,” “pop,” or “coke” is the correct word to refer to a fizzy drink. Use the wrong word, and those people you and your client are trying to sell to will know you’re not from around here. But if you use the right word, they might stay on your page a little longer.

How to Make a Lexicon

Because dialect is shaped by experiences, you want to build a customer profile (yes, this can be a persona if you insist) to see what language he or she will relate to. I’m going to break out some demographic factors I’d consider and the answers I’d expect for a group of customers shopping for prom dresses:

• Age: 17
• Gender: Female
• Region: Nationwide
• Education level: Almost done with high school
• Profession: Student
• Ethnicity: Various
• Religion: Various
• Favorite TV shows: Vampire Diaries (today), Pretty Little Liars (today), Hannah Montana (as a tween)
• Favorite magazines: Seventeen, Teen Vogue
• Where she hangs out online: Tumblr

There are a myriad of ways to get this information. Ask your clients what they already know about the customer. Do research. Listen in on conversations. Use your noodle.

Now that you have a picture of who the customer is, where she hangs out, and what media she consumes, you can start researching words that are used in those places and by people who are like her. Keep a list (I use a Google doc) and you have yourself a lexicon. Here’s part of mine for prom:

See that part about Hannah Montana? To connect with this audience on a subliminal level, I want to know not just what their current cultural referents are, but what they were at an even more formative age. We retain language from throughout our lives even when we don’t use it anymore.

You can do the same thing with an enterprise client who sells cloud computing; just reconsider all the questions in terms of a customer who is an IT Director.

Now What Do I Do with It?

The obvious use for a lexicon is to incorporate these words in your copy. The less obvious use is as an immersion point into the customer’s culture. If you’re a language person like I am, reading the words in the lexicon will transport you to the world of the customer. You’ll start to think like her and understand what she wants from life and the product. Every girl wants to “turn heads” at prom and for her date to think she looks “super cute.” Once you’re inside the customer’s head, you can write excellent blog posts that speak to her needs and build trust. You’re becoming her bestie who can help her find the right dress.

Are There Other Applications?

Lexicons are great for blog posts, but they work for any kind of copywriting. Use these customer-specific words in an email subject line or in onsite copy. Try them out on Twitter and see if you get more bang for your 140 characters. Remember that a lexicon is a living document that should continuously be honed and updated. If you do any multivariate testing, share the results so we can all learn from them.

How do you learn the language of your clients and customers?

The post Why You Should Add “Building a Lexicon” to Your Copywriting Toolkit appeared first on Portent.

Don’t.

Remember the real reason you’re creating a blog is to connect with your customers readers. You may think it’s to educate customers about your brand and to get them to buy your stuff—that’s true (to a certain extent) but none of that happens without a connection. The best way to do that is to…

Be human

You want readers to trust you. That means you have to let them know that you share their values and beliefs and that they know what to expect from you and your brand. Potential customers need to know that you are in it for them. Then, when they are ready to buy, they will come back to you—that friend they made on the Internet that one time.

Don’t sell products, tell stories

People relate to people, not to companies. The more your writers can tell specific stories about real people, the easier it will be for the customer to empathize with the stories and thus the brand. Kate Spade uses their blog to introduce readers to the people behind the brand.

Be a resource

Sometimes a consumer doesn’t even know the solution you offer exists. Be the friend they need. For example, MomAgenda, a company that provides organizing solutions for busy families recently wrote a post about how to create family time. Notice that the post doesn’t mention their products at all. Friends give before they ask.

What about the blog voice?

Companies often worry about how much the blog should reflect the established company voice and how much should reflect the employees’. My vote is for the employees (and not just because I’m a writer). Remember, relationships are all about the personal connection. Introduce your employees, use bylines, and establish Google Authorship for your writers. You hired good people who believe in your company. They might need a few editorial guidelines (see below), but let them surprise you (plus, this is a great way to not sound just like your competitors).

Create a style guide

About those guidelines… think of a style guide not as a rigid set of rules that confine your writers to a corporate voice. View it instead as a strong platform that makes sure your writers are all playing on the same field. Once everyone knows the rules, set them free to find new levels of excellence.

You’re going to want to include nitty-gritty grammar quirks and also some fun stuff.

Grammar choices to make

If you aren’t a copy editor, this bulleted list might read like gibberish. Trust me, it’s not. Many people who do know what all of these are care less about which camp you choose than that you are consistent.

• To Oxford comma or not to Oxford comma?
• En dashes or em dashes?
• Smart quotes or straight quotes?
• One or two spaces after a period?
• How do you spell industry-specific jargon (e.g. e-book, ebook, or eBook?)

Find a good copy editor and let them help write your style guide. Your blog will achieve a level of consistency and organization that 99% of readers will only appreciate subliminally, but it’s worth it.

Lexicons and other fun topics

I’m not kidding. Building a lexicon (a list of words you will commonly use) is really fun and can be a great tool to get your writers to stick to a consistent tone. Consider the difference between a blog that refers to weddings as the “big day” “celebrating you and your beloved” and one that uses phrases like “ball and chain.”

What else do you need to consider?

• Pick three things your blog is about and insist that every blog post include one of them. In the above wedding example, I’d suggest wedding etiquette, fashion advice, and planning tips. David’s Bridal covered planning tips by adding their voice to the “do wedding websites make for generic weddings?” fray.
• Create a persona for your ideal audience member(s). For weddings, write for the bride, bridesmaids, and ideally, the groom too. Not all posts will speak to all people, but make sure your content targets the right people. A “How to Do a Bachelorette Party Right” post appeals to a very different readership than one providing event set-up tips for caterers.
• What can’t be said? Some writers respond best to knowing exactly how far they can push things. Will your bridal blog acknowledge shotgun weddings? How about gay weddings? The idea isn’t to make a list of every prohibition. Instead, you are providing parameters for success.

You’ll be amazed at what a good writer can do with these little tidbits of information.

The bottom line

Because you’re a business, it ultimately comes down to money. Here’s how that works. You use the blog to connect with your customers (readers) as human beings. Once they learn to trust you, your name is top-of-mind when they need the services you offer.

Don’t believe me? Use Google Analytics to see how many people convert after visiting your blog once, twice, or many times. Which posts keep people coming back? Write more of those.

What are your favorite blogs written by humans? Tell us about them and dish about corporate blog fails in the comments.

The post How to Blog: Humanizing Your Brand appeared first on Portent.

”There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.” – Audre Lorde

At SearchFest on Friday, Ian Lurie debuted a fantastic new tool, the Content Idea Generator. I could tell you about how amazing the tool is and how influencers like Jonathon Colman shared it all over social media:

How did @portentint find out all my deepest secrets?! vine.co/v/bgAFdqLXLgd

— Jonathon Colman (@jcolman) February 23, 2013

Instead, I’m going to tell you the secret story behind the Content Idea Generator and how you too can create awesome new ideas.

Origin story of the Content Idea Generator

In the beginning was Jaelithe Guillette, Portent’s Associate Director of Content. She wanted a way to make brainstorming easier and came across this link bait generator:

It was a pretty efficient way to get a title. But Jaelithe wanted something flashier… something that would inspire greatness from even the most worn-out copywriter. Something that would explain the strategy behind each idea so others could mold the titles based on their individual goals.

Actually that wasn’t the beginning. We were first inspired by Ross Hudgens’s 2012 SearchLove presentation, “LinkBuilding by Imitation: How to Steal Your Way to #1.”

We realized that inspiration, actually, is all around. But that wasn’t the beginning either. You see, Hudgens was inspired by Austin Kleon’s Steal like an Artist which was in turn inspired by a variety of his favorite artists.

I guess Audre Lord was right. There are no new ideas. Here’s how you can make that work for you.

Old ideas felt anew

The point is that even our shiniest new tool isn’t an original idea. You’ve seen headlines like these before. You may understand some of the emotional triggers they are pulling, but you haven’t had time to do the research. All we did with the Content Idea Generator is take an old idea, transform it using Jess Walker‘s eye for design and use Christopher Bachmann‘s expertise to make sure the tool worked. Bryden McGrath and the rest of the copy team added writing tips; we made the tool flashy and fun. Oh, and you don’t need a login to get to it.

Your turn to steal

Jaelithe’s original idea stands. The Content Idea Generator is a great resource for creating crazy and wonderful titles. The Content Idea Generator is our gift to you and your team. Use it, learn from it, improve upon it. Here is a quick guide to some of the link bait strategy behind the titles you’ll find in the Content Idea Generator. We’ve borrowed these too (from Stuntdubl), but we think you’ll like what we’ve done with them.

Ego hook

Remember how we used Jonathon Colman’s Vine up above? And Ross Hudgens’s presentation and Austin Kleon’s book? To be fair, we referenced these guys because they are excellent resources, but you have to know they are that much more likely to share our content because we gave them a shout out. What pickle experts do you know?

Attack hook

By going on the offensive, you can spark interest. This hook requires a solid sense of judgment, though. Replace the first mention of “pickles” with the name of a celebrity or expert and you are good to go, as long as it doesn’t hit too close to home. “Why Anderson Cooper is on crack about pickles” is funny. “Why Whitney Houston is on crack (about anything)” is not.

Resource hook

You know what a resource is. Provide one for your reader.

News hook

News hooks are all about hitting what’s happening right now and this title would be even better if you inserted a trending topic into it. Try “Why Pickles are the New Black at the Oscars.”

Contrary hook

Some people like pickles and some people hate them. If your title is set up to create a debate, you’ve got yourself a contrary hook. Readers want to click through to argue with the blog post or find out why they were right all along.

Humor hook

Any of the headlines above qualify here because pretty much anything is funny as long as you write about pickles. Remember that people like to share things that make them happy. Do you need an illustration or are you ready to steal create your own titles now?

Go forth and steal (wisely)

The Internet is based around sharing and building on the ideas of others. That is a beautiful thing. Remember, though, that it’s up to you to create something new out of old ideas instead of stealing them outright. And it’s always a good idea to credit your sources.

Have you used our Content Idea Generator for inspiration? Tell us about your experience in the comments.

The post The Secret Backstory of Portent’s Content Idea Generator appeared first on Portent.

When he’s not streaking through the Danger Zone on an Impossible Mission, the world’s biggest movie star (yes, still arguably) veers Far and Away from his core competency, occasionally taking a mega-risk with his Eyes Wide Shut.

Corniness of that opening sentence aside, Tom Cruise makes for a compelling model of how to run a brand: while his trademark relates to an über-successful motion picture career – and yours (likely) doesn’t – there are many things a business can learn about reputation management and content strategy from him.

And just what is the “content strategy” of Tom Cruise’s career?  It’s fairly simple.  Mr. Cruise delivers to his core audience while attracting new fans with moderately risky creative choices, still keeping himself fresh for critics and colleagues with strategic, iconoclastic roles that challenge the core Cruise brand.

70-20-10

My boss Ian Lurie subscribes to a 70-20-10 approach to on-site content (a slight refining of Jonathan Mildenhall of Coca-Cola’s famous value and significance strategy).  I also subscribe to this philosophy for the following reasons:

1.)    It is a deliberate and thoughtful method of planning useful, entertaining and responsive branded material.

2.)    He’s my boss.

Just what is the 70-20-10?  Per Ian:

• 70% of our content should be solid, standard stuff: Basic how-tos and advice that’s very safe and is easily justified as supporting SEO and other efforts.
• 20% of our content should riff on the 70%, but take some chances. This is the content that expands on 70% content, but may flirt with controversy, or try appealing to a new audience, or otherwise be moderately risky. It may also take a bit more effort. It also offers a higher potential payoff.
• 10% of our content should be completely innovative: Things we’ve never done that, if they work, could become part of the 20 or 70%. 10% content often requires a lot of work or audience interaction. Or, it’s just risky. Most of the 10% will fail. You still have to do it. It’s really important, because without it, the entire strategy stagnates.

Graphically represented:

Tom Cruise’s 70-20-10

• 70% of his roles represent The Movie Star.  The Tom Cruise™ brand:  That cocky, loveable scoundrel who is exciting and risky, but inevitably on the side of right.  These Cruise personas – Maverick in “Top Gun,” Ethan Hunt in “Mission: Impossible” – often have tragic backstories that enable us to look past their initial conceit, waiting for a denouement which always proves the Cruise character to be heroic, self-sacrificing and truly good.
• 20% of his roles represent The Actor.  Tom is still Tom – generally looks like him, sounds like him, acts like him – but he’s taking a chance.  Maybe it’s a period film like “The Last Samurai,” or working in an unfamiliar genre like “Minority Report” or spending half the movie in a mask (“Vanilla Sky”).  Tom does these films both to challenge himself AND to increase his “brand reach” to various demographics who may find his 70% films cloying or predictable.
• 10% of his roles represent The Iconoclast.  Tom isn’t Tom.  In fact, Tom is trying to tear down Tom Cruise™.  Here’s where the “art” happens.  He takes big risks like ranting about his manhood in “Born on the Fourth of July,” or playing a misogynistic, manipulative motivational speaker in “Magnolia.”  Both of those films landed him Oscar nominations.  There is a HUGE upside to 10% content, but the downside is just as large.  This also is where you can fall on your face (see “Eyes Wide Shut” and “Rock of Ages”… on second thought, don’t).

Awesome infographic by Jess Walker.

I should care because…?

Like Tom Cruise, you must manage your brand identity through choices in content. The days of the “EAT HERE” ad campaign are no more.  There are too many alternatives.

Like it or not, everyone is now in the content business.  Involve and evolve… or dissolve.

But 10% content scares me…

Risk mitigation doesn’t mean you don’t TAKE risks… It means you manage them, deciding where to pull your punch, and where to hit ‘em with a massive uppercut.

I’m sure 10% content scares Tom Cruise, too… And do you what?  Those movies generally DON’T do as well… at least at the box office.  But what they do REALLY well is improve his brand – its reach, its durability and its reputation.

The role of Les Grossman in “Tropic Thunder” SAVED Tom Cruise after the notorious couch-jumping incident.  The performance made him accessible; it showed people he could laugh at himself.  Now they’re talking about developing a Les Grossman movie… and having tried and succeeded with that role, Les Grossman no longer represents 10% content for Mr. Cruise.

The most successful 10% content can (and should) be replicated, joining the 20, and sometimes even the 70 (for a good example of that, consider Tom Hanks… from comic goofball to two-time Oscar winner).

The takeaway

Unless you are happy with your business’ status quo (and OK with the risk that status may decline), you need to put out content that occasionally scares you.  Not foolishly, but strategically, deliberately, measurably.  The audience gets bored of the same old, same old.  Growth can be painful, but it’s worthwhile.

Let Tom Cruise be an example for your content strategy, or understand that you’ll never attain A-list status.  Instead, you and your business will be relegated to the direct-to-video shelf.

But, then again, maybe you like Jean Claude Van Damme.

The post Why Tom Cruise Should Be Your Content Strategist [Infographic] appeared first on Portent.

Some writer-editor relationships are legendary. Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe had Maxwell Perkins (rumor has it the Wolfe-Perkins collaboration is about to be dramatized in a film starring Colin Firth and Michael Fassbender). John Cheever and John Updike had William Maxwell. Here’s how to be a good editor—how you can protect and enhance the creative voice to become your copywriter’s best creative partner. Even if your name isn’t Maxwell.

Step 1. Do an initial read-through

Read over the entire document to get a sense of the writer’s style and the approach he or she has taken. Pay attention to the effect the writing is having on you. Make a note anywhere your attention wanders or you are confused. This is your time to get to know the document. Heavy edits will come later.

Step 2. Edit for grammar, spelling and punctuation

An editor should have no qualms about editing for general grammar, punctuation and spelling. Some quirks like the Oxford comma (that comma before the “and” that I did not use in the previous sentence) or American versus British spellings are editing no-brainers and should conform to the style guide or brand identity rather than the copywriter’s usual style.

British clothier Boden plays up its Briticisms for the US market. Customers are asked to “befriend” the company on Facebook.

Step 3. Perform a thorough edit

This is the tricky bit. You are going to have a lot of ideas about how you would have written the copy. The more you can put that feeling in a drawer, the better the final result will be. You are working with the writer to create a seamless document in his or her voice. Your fingerprints should be invisible.

“Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.” – Neil Gaiman

Here are three places where it is easy to accidentally edit out creative solutions:

Word choice

Marketers prefer feeling words to thinking words and editors often prefer words with Anglo Saxon roots to those from Latin. Ask yourself what the effect of the word choice is on the sentence. “Juxtaposing” two ideas does have a different sense than “weighing” them against one another.

If you notice the writer using stilted vocabulary, ask why.

Sentence structure

When writing a sentence, some writers use dependent clauses up front. As in the previous sentence (and this one), dependent clauses placed at the beginning ease the reader into a topic. While starting sentences with dependent clauses can be a stylistic tic that is easily overdone, it is also a great way to suggest something without being too aggressive.

Dependent clauses are only one example. Also read for compound sentences and overall sentence length. Ideally, the writer is using a variety of sentence types to achieve the desired effect. Are they?

Rhetorical devices

“Pederson was dead and Rudy Chassler was dead. Buff was dead. Ready Mix was dead. They were all among the dead.” – Tim O’Brien, Going After Cacciato

Many editors would be tempted to clean up the redundancy in this passage. But Tim O’Brien is deliberately using epistrophe (the repetition of a phrase at the end of a clause). Here’s how that passage could be destroyed by removing his rhetorical device:

“Pederson was dead and Rudy Chassler was dead had died. Someone shot Buff was dead. A grenade got Ready Mix was dead. They were all among the dead casualties.” – Tragic butchering of Tim O’Brien

Rhetorical devices are more than just beautiful language. In the hands of a skilled copywriter, they are powerful influencers of tone. Pay attention to areas where your writer is under or overusing any of these elements. Other rhetorical devices include:

• Alliteration – Repetition of initial consonant sounds
• Delayed sentence – A sentence that holds the main idea for the end
• Ellipsis – Omission of words that are easily understood
• Hyperbole – Grand exaggeration
• Motif – Recurring element, theme or situation
• Parallelism – Balance of words or phrases

A Matter of Trust

You are your copywriter’s partner in creativity. Nothing makes a writer feel more frustrated or lose confidence more quickly than to be arbitrarily rewritten. It’s like falling in love with someone for who they are and then trying to change them. Once you’ve hired the right copywriter, work with his or her strengths to help develop that unique voice and your audience will follow.

Has your work ever been edited to oblivion? We’d love to hear your story about that and other copywriting nightmares in the comments.

The post Editing for Creativity: How to Enhance the Writer’s Voice appeared first on Portent.

SEO vs. Branding: Avoid marketing mud pies

This can lead to everyone walking away covered in mud.

Avoid that unclean situation by creating a win-win situation. Check out our tips for finding a balance between branding and SEO that will keep the whole company out of the mud.

Scenario #1: Adding New Product Pages

Marketing just spent the last several weeks filming a video that demonstrates how your new product works. It’s thoughtful, creative and sure to be bigger news than Donald Trump’s challenge to the president.  Additionally, they created a rad instructographic with how-to instructions for use. Bam.

That’s sure to be a very pretty page. At least until the SEO team stomps out your enthusiasm by complaining that there isn’t any actual text on the page. Sure, they dig the visuals, but Google is going to need an instructographic of their own to decipher this page.

The Solution:

1. Adding a few paragraphs of copy to the page will not only benefit SEO, but it will be a great way to tell your customers more about your product. Add at least 5-6 sentences describing the product and remember that this content should be 100% unique from any content on your site or the Internet.
2. To help search engines see your video content, add a descriptive title or annotation and a few sentences above or below the video plugin. If you can, type up a transcript to add to the page.
3. There are many image optimization factors that can help search engines rank your image. For starters, write alt tags that fully describe the image and add relevant captions.

Scenario #2: Writing Content for the Blog

Blogs are a great tool for creating a sense of community on your site as well as a fantastic resource for content generation.  The battle here comes from different approaches in content strategies. How can you achieve long-term SEO objectives while reinforcing the values and vision of your brand?

The Solution:

1. Write blog content that is casual, friendly and non-promotional.  Diversify your content to include topics your readers would expect you to comment on while also implementing content that is completely innovative to your industry. This will help prevent your blog from becoming stagnate and will help appeal to new audiences.
2. Posting an image with only a few sentences is not enough. Not only does this give search engines very little to crawl, but it doesn’t create an opportunity for engagement and conversation. Create content that can start a conversation. And don’t forget to write a descriptive alt tag for your images.
3. Ask your reader to contribute to the conversation. At the end of the post, include a question that encourages the reader to share their experience or suggestions.
4. Ask your reader to share your content through social media. Not only can this help to increase brand awareness among your reader’s connections but we’re seeing more and more correlation between social signals and better keyword rankings. Yahtzee.

Finding a balance between SEO and brand voice in your internet marketing strategy can do much more than keep you out of the mud. It can increase traffic to your site and allow all teams to achieve their company goals. Share your tips for finding balance in the comments.

The post Balancing SEO and Branding to Avoid Being Covered in Mud appeared first on Portent.

Friends, SEOmans, eMad Men—

LEND IAN YOUR EARS.

Tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. (PST), Ian Lurie, CEO and Webfather of Portent, Inc., will give an exclusive webinar at SEOmoz.  His free-to-all-comers presentation “Data-Driven Content” will illuminate, educate, inform and otherwise rock your search marketing world.  (We hope.)

Topics Ian will cover include:

• Why great content is no longer optional
• How to analyze content efficiency and maximize eyeballs using Google Analytics
• What makes a compelling SEO proposal
• Why conventional rankings aren’t as important as you think
• How to make Timely and Hootsuite your new best friends
• Why you should be worrying about your mobile marketing campaign RIGHT NOW

But like a late-night infomercial for the Magic Bullet, THAT’S NOT ALL!  Look forward to added bonuses like:

• How to Build an Audience
• Why Google+ might be the greatest thing to happen to the world (or not)

UNLIKE the Magic Bullet, however, you can get Ian’s webinar for the low, LOW price of FREE.  That’s right.  Nothing.  Nada.

For the Full Monty*, sign up HERE.

*The webinar.  Not the other Full Monty.

The post SNEAK PEEK: Ian Lurie to Present Data-Driven Content Strategies at Tomorrow’s SEOMoz PRO Webinar appeared first on Portent.