5 Content Writing Demons and How to Exorcise Them

Articles and blog posts have evolved (back) to its true form in the last few years. They are no longer lightning rods that aim to absorb all search results probabilities; rather, they are now reservoirs of electricity that can sustain itself with its own power – the power of quality.

This trend poses a problem for content marketers who are not “true” writers. Most of them have been accustomed to focusing on “keywords” and shooting for high SERPs, not giving valuable content its due worth. Now that readers have become more info-thirsty, content writers need to put their thinking caps back on and start writing real stuff, so they can drive away the bad spirits that inhabit their style of writing.

Take a deep look at these content killers:

1.Broad keywords. Blogging used to be like a use-this-word-in-a-sentence game. The objective was to scatter the keywords throughout the article as much as sanity could allow it. You can’t fool readers with such a petty tactic nowadays. You need to be specific with the topics you want to talk about. Broad keywords are difficult to focus on and take away the meat of it all.

2.Using the passive voice. The Reagan-popularized statement “Mistakes were made” is probably one of the most quoted examples of using the passive voice. This kind of phrasing is generally perceived as lacking in force and sense of responsibility. Saying “We made a mistake” reflects more ownership and honesty, don’t you think?

3.Unsubstantiated claims. There’s a fine line between giving an opinion and declaring something as true without showing proof. It makes your readers think that you easily jump into conclusions based on gut feeling and overblown gossips. Back it up with references.

4.Ankle-deep writing. You commonly stumble upon articles that, after taking you into a mental maze, make you realize that you’re actually going nowhere. That’s usually the signature of writers who don’t do research or even do a quick reading session before they start writing. If you don’t have a predetermined point in mind, it’s hard to translate ideas into words.

5.Poor repurposing. Kudos to you if you DO take time to read before writing. But if you plan to curate and repurpose stuff you've read, you need to make sure first that you got the point – and we’re talking about understanding it 100%. Misinterpreting articles (and worse, crediting the source for it) could make you incompetent in the eyes of readers, a blemish in your reputation that’s usually hard to wipe out.

Spreading the Virus: 5 Categories of Viral Marketing you might wanna try

Every day, marketers think of and execute strategies to let the [online] world know that a company or brand exists. The easy part is to make sure something is put out there consistently so they wouldn’t be left behind by competitors, but ambitious bloggers are not pleased with just an ordinary mission. There are those who aim to make their content stand out above the rest, like a vivid red amidst a backdrop of black and white.

If you want to achieve that, your content must fall into a category outside of the usual, run-of-the-mill articles. And not only should it be unique; it must also be share-worthy. It must be viral. Yes, just like an infectious virus spreading throughout cyberspace, your content must be able to contaminate readers with absolute curiosity and interest that their minds begin to succumb to the urge to infect others as well.

Here are the different categories of viral content that you can blog about. Be warned: fiddling with these themes, though beneficial when done with care, may involve serious risk.

Taboo-esque. There are unwritten rules imposed by our society that say, “You can’t talk about this or that.” While it sets the standard for decency and social harmony, sometimes we need to break the ice to put emphasis on reality. Bloggers try to subtly incorporate matters of politics, corporate malevolence and even sex into their articles just to get people talking about it. It becomes acceptable as long as you stick to your goals and stay true to your principles.

“What the…?” For a blog post to elicit this kind of reaction, it doesn’t have to talk about profanity or out-of-this-world subjects. It could be something ordinary but presented with a shocking twist, like what LG did to show how incredibly realistic their monitors are by pulling a prank on elevator passengers making them think the floor was falling.

Comical. When your marketing boss asks you to think of a funny marketing blog post, you’d immediately think of posting a satirical video or a spoof, which is a logical thought, but not really a necessity. You’d be surprised to discover how bloggers could get their posts go viral even without a single touch of visuals. They rely purely on ingenious storytelling and a knack for evocative punch-lines. But videos are great, too.

Inspirational. Did you hear about the quadruple amputee who crossed the English Channel? Of course you did. Personal triumphs are bestsellers when it comes to viral content, but they should be combined with marketing ever so delicately, otherwise people will accuse you of exploiting emotions. Trendy. Of course, it’s a marketing standard to use topics that are currently trending because of the search potentials it could bring to the table. The challenge is how to make yours more noticeable amongst a barrage of piggyback-riders.

Trendy. Of course, it’s a marketing standard to use topics that are currently trending because of the search potentials it could bring to the table. The challenge is how to make yours more noticeable amongst a barrage of piggyback-riders.

Better Lead Generation Services Can Be Attained If Outsourcing Telemarketing Services Is The Priority

Most companies these days are dealing with bigger account or b2b transactions are still using one of the oldest and yet most effective of all marketing methods not just to close a sale but to do face-to-face appointment setting services. This is using the telephone or telemarketing services to do round-the-clock appointment setting tasks and qualify business leads, marketing leads or sales leads.

What they can just do is to let professional appointment setters to call up potential clients who were plucked out from targeted call lists that they have come up, get through the barriers like the secretaries so they can have a talk with the decision makers of the client company. This might sound pretty simple, right? But, on the contrary, doing telemarketing to do appointment setting and trying to qualify these warm sales leads or marketing leads can be very complicated. Once the telemarketers have connection with the decision maker, they only got how many minutes to get the full undivided attention of that person so that they can share to this person some kind of solution to the current needs and concerns of the company that that decision maker represents. If these professional b2b appointment setting agents can’t do that, they will lose those qualified leads and they will just be wasting their time, money and effort.

Many companies have this kind of problem and they have the solution for it: outsourcing to b2b lead generation companies that can do telemarketing services and bring it to a whole new level. These telemarketing firms have a long line of the best and highly-trained telemarketers to do not just the appointment setting task with professionalism and efficiency to arrange face-to-face appointments but can also gather and generate qualified leads by getting more valuable information from the decision maker to find out what the needs of the company are and if they have the budget to invest on the products and/or services that companies are offering that have outsourced to them telemarketing and b2b appointment setting services. They have the skills to hurdle through barriers and get the decision maker on the phone and present to them what they need to present and get the undivided attention of the person at the other end of the line.

If a company can find a lead generation company that can do telemarketing in the best way that it can, for sure, that company can enjoy not just earning huge sales revenues the soonest possible time but it can also save a lot of time, money and effort trying to make new customers and keeping the existing ones from being pulled away by competitors. Only the best lead generation marketing services can prevent that.

Is your Company website Falling into Oblivion?

No, this has nothing to do with the Tom Cruise flick.

The word “oblivion” is often used as a synonym for nonexistence, but there’s actually a slight technical difference between the two.Nonexistence is total nothingness, or the absence of existence. Oblivion, on the other hand, is a state where something did exist, yet through time it has become unknown or forgotten.

In marketing, oblivion is worse than nonexistence. When your company’s website has become “unknown or forgotten” to the online public, you’d rather wish your website had never existed at all.

This checklist will tell you whether your site might be suffering from acute symptoms of oblivion:

Scarcity or over-abundance of information.
You see, people have become so picky when it comes to appreciating business websites. They would find it either lacking of useful content that it never catches their attention, or they would find it an overkill of unnecessary blabber. Be safe; stay in the middle.

Not mobile-friendly.
PC sales are on its fast descent, and laptops are next. Soon, everyone would be browsing just through their smartphones and tablets (and when experts say “soon”, they usually mean “next year”). If you’re not planning to put up a mobile version of your site, then it’s bound for cyber extinction.

Antisocialism.
Every website today has social media links. Even imdb.com, which went online in 1993 (yes, 1993) now has Facebook links. That movie site, one of the oldest in the world, was founded at a time when Mark Zuckerberg was still in grade school; so if your site was built in 2013 and still doesn’t have social media integration, shame on you.

Questionable email/phone number disclosures.
Let’s say you hate social media and your company prefers phone or email. Fine. The problem is, people don’t trust toll free numbers or email addresses such as “info@mybusiness.com”. If you want people to take their business to you, post an office number or at least an email address with a person’s name on it.

Poor search discovery chances.
Perhaps it’s high time for you to evaluate your SEO efforts and see if people notice that your business does have a website. There’s no point in making your site pretty if no one ever gets to stumble upon it. Appearing on the 4th page of a standard Google search takes away your right to wonder why it stinks.

Cheesy layouts.
Business people look at quality and content, and while a flashy site does make an impression, it’s not a top priority. It’s better to wow them with credible data than to let the fancies do the talking.

No freebies? Giving away free stuff doesn’t mean you’re bribing them.
Okay, maybe a little. But the point is, you’ve got to give them reasons to visit your site, stay there, and then come back tomorrow. A few sample products wouldn’t hurt, and while you’re at it, get their opinion. That’s two birds with one stone.