The post W is for Write appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

Why?

When writing content you might have one of those days where you stare at your monitor, desperately seeking inspiration. You re-write the same paragraph about 5 times, never happy with what you’re producing.
Just as you’re about to say FTSIQ you realise that perhaps it’s time for a new approach. So you decide to create a list based blog post.
Creating a list allows you to break down the writing process. Instead of trying to write paragraphs you’re condensing everything into bite sized information. This not only makes it easier for you to write, it also makes it easier to read.
You can of course elaborate on what you put into your list. It can be a simple no frills list where you mention the salient points and leave it at that, or it can be a list where you go into detail about the separate topics. Either way it provides a clear cut structure and helps you stick to the point. You won’t go off at a tangent and won’t run the risk of losing the gist of what you’re writing about.

How?

Of course there are lists and then there are lists. the internet is full of click bait articles with headings like The ten secrets you need to know about pasta that will change your life only to present you with a list full of useless information which you knew anyway.
A good list takes time. Here are a few things to keep in mind

1. Know your facts
   Don’t get caught out. Make sure you know what you’re talking about. Verify any stats and where possible link to your sources.
2. Length
   You can make your list as long as you want – but as a general rule try not to have a list with a random number of items – eg 23
   Go for 3, 5, 7, 10, 20, 50, 101… you get the point. These numbers look good and have an element of harmony which is more eye catching. What’s more is that writing with a pre-defined amount of points in mind helps to guide your writing.
3. Provide useful information
   People want good content. Just because you’re writing a list it doesn’t mean you can skimp on content. If you don’t have enough to talk about for a 10 point list then just go for something shorter.

These are just the basics, there are of course other things to keep in mind based on the article you’re writing.

The results

Lists are perfect for building engagement. People naturally skim through text, so if you’re writing paragraph based articles readers will probably rush through what you wrote. With lists they’ll still skim, however with each different point you re-capture their attention.
Lists are shareable – people find them useful because they automatically insinuate efficiency. It’s almost like we look for answers to life’s biggest mysteries in lists. They increase engagement and also keep people coming back for more.

To sum up

If you’re looking for a new way to boost content engagement, or are lacking inspiration about what you should be writing, then it’s high time to dabble in the world of lists. In the meantime, why not check out one of ours?

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Information made available by a website or other electronic medium- The Oxford Dictionaries
Defining the word is easy – but actually understanding exactly what it entails and how to include it in your marketing strategy is a whole other level.

What?

Though ‘content’ trends more on Google, the term ‘content marketing’ is steadily rising in popularity. This is because of the trend in inbound marketing which revolves around the creation of content in order to attract readers, followers, and, therefore: buyers.
From 2014 onwards there was a sudden surge in the use of content marketing – leaders in the industry started to realise that digital marketing couldn’t function the way traditional marketing does. You couldn’t simply shout at people in order to sell your product – the internet can’t just be used as an extension to billboards. If you really want to be successful you’ve got to engage your audience.

But how?

Content is whatever is found on your website or social media platforms. It’s anything you produce or create – from images to text to video. Great content inspires and generates interest – great content is shareable. So the main aim for you and your content should be for it to be interesting and shareable so that it creates discussions about and around your brand.
One of the best (but not easiest) ways of doing this is through a blog. These days most websites have a blog which is used as an extension of their brand. That doesn’t mean that everyone with a blog is using it properly. Posting once every blue moon won’t get you anywhere, neither will boring content which doesn’t provide any value.
The first thing you’ve got to do if you’re serious about your content is to come up with a content marketing strategy. Plan out the next three months’ content with an easy to understand schedule with clear deadlines. Don’t be afraid to plan topics in advance, but do allow for some posts which are relevant to things happening at the time.
 
For your blog’s content to be successful it must be actionable, interesting, and engaging. Remember that you’re not talking at your readers… you’re engaging in long term dialogue, and if you work at it you’ll see the same people interacting with your brand over and over again, these are the most loyal people who will take your brand to the next level.

Why should I care?

• It makes your brand more human, it shows who you are, and can be used to establish you as a leader in the field.
• It’s great for your SEO because fresh, frequent content will help you rank higher in search results since it shows you’re more than just an advertising space.
• It directly drives traffic to your website, and can boost overall engagement with your brand.

This is of course just the tip of the ice berg and there are many more reasons as to why content is king. It’s a world of many interconnected layers waiting for you to explore it – so if you haven’t delved into the world of content it’s about time you did.

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Value

Your content must provide value to the audience you are targeting. Moreover, if you really want to make a hit and get your content shared, it must significantly exceed the expectations of the user who happened upon your content.
Value comes in all kinds of forms. Whatever your industry, website, product, or blog – your primary goal is to provide very specific value to your target audience. Creating valuable content can be done via tutorials, advice for your industry, recipes, free resources, awesome content full of information, entertainment (humour, music, video), cutting edge news value, tools, imagery, commentary, fashion advice – any website for any industry can provide lots of value via the content on their site.
Think about the websites you yourself visit and see what kind of value these sites offer. Let’s start with the big ones.
Facebook – provides entertainment value for “normal” users whilst offering marketers a very targeted audience to market to.
Google – provides exceptional informational value through giving you access to the right information when you need it. It also offers marketers a very good opportunity to market their wares at the specific point when a customer is searching for them.
YouTube – provides entertainment and informational value to the end users whilst providing very good exposure to video publishers.
Your favourite news website – provides information on international and local news value.
Your favourite daily site(s) – trending and topical news about topics which interest you.
The real reason for visiting these sites if you had to think a little bit about it – they provide essential value to your everyday life at the point which you need it.
So on to the question you need to ask yourself as a content provider…

What is the essential value your audience is looking for?

Figure this out – it may be a simple question, but the definitive right answer is probably not very simple. Once you’ve figured this out – give your audience this value in the form of your content. And if you want your content to stand out – you need to give it to your audience bigger and better than your competitor.
Let’s give a few examples of providing essential value via your website

Switch Digital

We are a digital marketing agency. Our target demographic is small businesses who want to do digital marketing. So our blog (tries to) provide essential topics and content for those who are trying to figure out digital marketing – content such as “A Social Media Primer – ”, “10 simple growth hacks for your business’ Instagram feed” and “Why are people not seeing my Facebook posts any more” provide essential reading for our demographic.

BeeWits

We are an upcoming project management service for web designers. Our target demographic is web designers. So we create and share content which provides real value for web designers. Examples of some our awesome, high value content for web designers are “101 awesome tools for web designers and developers”, a quotation generator for web designers, and “The Ultimate Web Design checklist”

Switch

Our 3D designers follow these blogs: Dezeen, Contemporist. Our graphic designers follow The Fox is Black, Bored Panda, and Blood, Sweat and Vector. The reason why they follow these blogs is because these blogs provide essential inspirational value.
Being a bit of a geek I follow XKCD.com, and also The Oatmeal. Not for their value in Product Management but for what I believe is very particular entertainment value.

Let’s go on a tangent to completely different sites.
Airbnb – AirBnB provides exceptional value to two specific kinds of people. Those people who have a room/place to rent and don’t have enough clout to attract sufficient customers to their service by themselves, and those looking for cheap accommodation in the places they are travelling to
Booking.com – again, besides being a one stop shop for all your hotel booking needs, it enables small hotels to piggy back on the popularity of the site to get additional exposure and bookings than they would have been able to get if they were going it alone
TripAdvisor – Whilst customers can be well advised about the place they are about to visit, service providers can ensure that their good service is well-rewarded by getting even more exposure and customers
Amazon – widest choice and cheapest prices for nearly anything for customers, whilst being a massive opportunity for small business selling their goods
Look around you, reflect on the sites you visit, and understand the value that site provides to you. Now – figure out how to provide that essential value to your own target audience.
The more value your content provides – the easier it is to hit the spot with your audience – and the more likely it is that they will come back to you for more… Even for offline goods and services, content of your website can still provide much value for your specific customers. Just take your specific industry, and write content about questions or concerns your customers typically have.
…and yes, they will eventually give you their money. Which brings us to our next topic.

Value in your sellable goods

Whatever you are selling, whether it is expertise, services, consultancy, freelancing, digital or physical goods – you must be providing MORE value than you are selling your product for. If you aren’t providing sufficient value at the price you are selling for – you are going to have a hard-time selling. Value in sellable goods of course comes in various forms, operational efficiency, increased productivity, entertainment value…
So the question you’ll need to figure out when you are selling goods is:

• Am I providing enough value for the price I’m selling my product?
• How do I provide more value than my competitors?

At Switch Digital / BeeWits – one of my primary concerns as the Product Manager of new SaaS products, is ensuring that the product(s) we are developing deliver value to our customers.
Whether those customers are readers of our blogs, users of our free tools, or paying customers of the services we develop – we need to ensure that we provide enough value to our customer that they come back because they want to, not because they have to. With BeeWits – a project management service for web designers – we want to offer exceptional value to web designers. Rather than provide a generic project management service, we provide a service which is specifically tuned for the needs of people designing websites. And more than anything, we want to provide the service at prices which given the improved efficiency of our customers, will make it a natural selection for our demographic.

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Choose a target and a topic

If you’re a fashion blogger, don’t write about bad news in the world, write positively and bring some happiness to your reader. You have to be consistent with your main subject. We are a Digital Marketing Agency, so we write about what we know, giving you some advice on how to develop your digital marketing activity. It’s that simple.

Have fun

If you write about something that does not interest you, your post won’t be easy to read and your readers won’t crave to finish it. But remember to be consistent with your main subject (see the point above). Having fun doesn’t mean writing something crazy. You just have to love what you do, so that you’ll do it well.

Know your audience

This is true for every business. Knowing your audience is the key to catching their attention, to be relevant and meet expectations. You have to see your blog as a business (because that’s clearly what it is). Your posts are the products, the readers are the clients. The more they read your posts the more they will talk about you to their family and friends and the more opportunities you’ll have to actually sell your products/services.

The blog is an open window on what you do

It has to reflect the company atmosphere, present what you do, what you sell, and who you are. But don’t misunderstand, this is nothing to do with a basic brochure. On your blog you can use a tone which is less professional, you shouldn’t have to speak a specific language that could be hard for readers to understand. The goal is to catch everyone’s attention. Even if it took you four hours to write a post, don’t let it show, be natural, friendly and easy to approach.

Don’t follow rules

Yes I know, at the beginning of this post I said that I encourage you to follow these rules, but I made a mistake…To err is human! Instead of rules I should have said “best practices”. Because on your blog there is no place for conventional writing. You have to enjoy writing (see point number two) and your readers have to enjoy reading. Don’t hesitate to speak with really simple sentences, avoid endless and technical phrases, otherwise you’ll be boring which is the last thing you want.

Be Offbeat

Don’t write the same thing everybody else is writing, find subjects that are really engaging so that your readers feel interested in what you have to say. Encourage them for feedback, comments, or ideas they would add. By the way, what are your own secrets to make noise above the noise? Share them with us in the comments!

The post How to be heard above the noise appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

1. Take a break

This might sound like the most counterproductive thing to do, but if you’ve been staring at your screen for the past hour then it’s safe to say you’re not going anywhere. So take a break – brew yourself a cup of tea, and stretch your mental muscles by focussing on something else for a few minutes.

2. Look back

Okay, break over – sit back down  and take a moment to re-visit old posts, check the analytics and find out what worked and what didn’t, after all a little bit of pruning can make all the difference!

3. Plan

Now that you’ve figured out which aspects work for you, start planning a strategy. Decide on how frequent your posts will be, whether they’ll have themes, or whether they’ll be split into a series or categories.

4. Visualise

Imagine what your audience would want to read about, check out what the latest market trends have been and what kind of articles people shared. Think of what kind of end result you want your post to have – this will help you decide on your direction of writing.

5. Skip the title

Don’t confine yourself to a title before you’ve written a single word, it will only limit you. Try having a general idea of what you’d like to write about and then work around that. Adapt the title to your content – never the other way around!

6. Skip the intro

Seeing as we’ve skipped the title, why not also skip the intro and leave it for last? Get started with the main elements of the text and your intro will form itself…just don’t forget to actually write it!

7. Go back to basics

You’re obviously going to be writing your work digitally, but sometimes it’s easier to draft it out on a piece of paper first. Jot down a variety of points, drawing inspiration from different sources. This gives you a different perspective and makes adding ideas and notes much easier. Plus, it’s always rewarding to scrunch up the paper or rip it into shreds before tossing it into the (recycling) bin.

8. Ask for help

You don’t have to go it alone, ask a colleague or friend to read your work, suggest ideas, or provide helpful edits. It could be that you just need a fresh pair of eyes!

9. Prepare in advance

Sometimes you know you’re going to have a tricky topic to deal with. Start working on it in advance so that you can tackle it in stages. This gives you time to go back and re-read your work, change the layout, or add better images.

10. Go into isolation

We’re not talking about becoming a nomad – but if all of the above hasn’t helped then it’s time to sit down, block out all distractions (like e-mails, your phone, or Facebook notifications) and just get into the zone. Maybe music will help, or a big mug of coffee – find what makes you work and use it!
We’ve shared our knowledge with you, now it’s up to you to make it work. If you’re still completely stuck why not drop us a line and maybe we can offer some solutions.

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