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Quick Content Marketing Howto Tips (1)
Gerd Meissner
Three Easy OneMinute Tricks to Create Pure Content Magic
By Gerd Meissner
Your new business website or blog doesn't attract enough visitors? Three simple tricks, applied in a matter of minutes, will help you draw a lot more more traffic to your site. Instantly. All you have to do is to "write by numbers."
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Sounds crazy? Consider this:
Airplane pilots learn and practice to "fly by the numbers." They memorize their plane's most
important operating parameters like their mother's birthday. To reach their destination safely,
they keep checking the cockpit instruments during flight.
In the creative field, painting by number(s) won't win any art awards. Still, the method allows
even absolute beginners to create complex pictures.
The bottom line: it gets results. So what about "writing by numbers," to reach more readers and
turn them into customers or clients?
Wait. Letting word scores or algorithms guide how we write? Ridiculous!
Hold on. Even professional writers use such digital "creativity enhancers" from time to time
because they work. (For more on the topic, check out Resources at the bottom of this tip sheet
later.)
The tricks below will take up only a few minutes of your time, but they will lead to higher search
rankings for your posts, more website visitors, and improved engagement rates.
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Concerned that input from software would make your writing formulaic? Leave that worry to
purists, who don't write for business (= for measurable results). You will be surprised how
appdriven writing can help jumpstart the creative process when you feel stuck.
Let me explain.
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Discover Proven Methods to Easily Create Powerful
Stories That Readers Will Love
For web copywriters, algorithmaided writing is nothing new. Many get paid to research,
structure and create content "to specs."
Their tools: word counters, readability programs, Internet search analytics and search engine
optimization (SEO) software. What they are aiming for: improved engagement and conversion
rates.
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Advertising copywriters rely on A/B testing, which has been around longer than the Internet.
They run the same ad copy with different headlines to see which one draws most responses.
Split testing, as the method is also known, has become ever more important on the Web.
Still, math and stats make many of us who write for business shudder. So does the thought of
accepting help from readability algorithms and text analyzers.
The tools on my shortlist below make it easy for business writers to overcome such resistance.
As for myself, I use them and put the fun back into routine writing.
Enjoy the syntax challenges or headline suggestions they throw at you. Analyze the results, edit
again. Reward yourself with high scores for readability, stickyness, and search engine
friendliness.
Here's how it works:
1) Your Free Tool for Easy Writing Success*
Everybody writes. A precious few even have spell checking activated. (You do, don't you?) But most writers lack the guidance of an editor who cares about clarity of thought and style. And it shows. Want to stand out from the writing masses? Take a page from "Papa". Cut the crap.
Like its namesake, the Hemingway Editor web tool prefers it bold and clear. "It's like a
spellchecker, but for style", explains the website.
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You can write and edit your piece on the site, or draft it elsewhere and paste it over to
Hemingway for editing. A premium version (Windows / Mac) is available for download, with extra
bells and whistles.
Illustration: howtotips.info
The Hemingway editor prevents prose from getting in the way of the message. Your writing is
too dense or too complex? The program will set red and yellow markers to rub your nose in it
like mine in these examples:
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Too much passive voice, too many adverbs? Count on Hemingway to point it out, using blue
and green highlights.
The web app draws from “readability" research and uses the Automated Readability Index. This
algorithm determines the lowest U.S. education level needed to understand what you wrote.
The formula has been around for decades. Similar editor plugins for WordPress and Google
Docs are based on it as well. The main advantage of the Hemingway editor: its simplicity. You
can access it from any web browser.
Hemingway's rigid "less is more" approach is not everyone's cup of tea. As for myself and my
breadandbutter writing, the app has become one of my favorite editors.
Why? Because the Hemingway editor makes it easy to calibrate a short post or article in a
minute or less. So I gladly put up with its taskmaster quirks.
*The subheader's "draw" was calculated before publication. Learn how to calculate and plan the "sizzle factor" of your blog
headlines .
2. The Oddest Places to Create Headlines
Next step: Create a headline and subheaders that will get your readers' undivided
attention. Make them hang up on mom. Have them dump the brewski, disregard the
squirrel, shush a unicorn. Whatever it takes.
Did the subheader get your attention? Full disclosure: I had help from the (free) Idea Generator
web tool.
Facing a dark void, where there should be flowerbeds of blossoming ideas? The Idea
Generator, a.k.a. Title Maker, by Seattle, WAbased marketing agency Portent will save the day.
Think of Portent's web tool as a web writer's inspiration slot machine. Instead of grapes, bells
and cherries, it displays headlines. No coins required. You simply feed a term that describes
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your subject into the Title Maker form, and kaching! reap the rewards, in form of headlines
that sizzle.
Easy, isn't it? Let's look at an example.
As part of my day job, I write, edit and translate content about "foreign direct investment." Most
of my writing covers companies from abroad that invest in the US.
Exciting, I know. It actually is, but how to make that point before the reader's eyes glaze over?
Let's say I am writing a blog post that targets regional economic development managers. Many
want to find out how to attract more companies from abroad to create jobs in their community or
state.
On less creative days, I can leave it to the headline generator to add glamor and pizzazz. On
Portent's webpage, I would enter "Foreign Direct Investments."
Writers can rely on Portent for headline ideas that will work for all kinds of audiences:
● "How Foreign Direct Investments Could Make Betty Draper a Better Mother." Rich
food for thought. Let's watch an episode of "Mad Men" and sleep on it.
● "Foreign Direct Investments by the Numbers." A real screamer... Bean counters,
beware your blood pressure!
● "The Insider's Guide to Foreign Direct Investments." Who doesn't want to be an
insider?
● "The Only Foreign Direct Investment Resources You Will Ever Need." Sign me up
already!
● And then: "The Hunger Games Guide to Foreign Direct Investments." Plenty of
promise here. Do we have a winner?
Now all that's left is to write the actual post (if we didn't write it yet). Fulfilling the promise can be
a tall order with more "unusual" headlines. So here's a...
Warning: On the web, headlines that overpromise are known as "click bait." If your writing
underdelivers, you will alienate your readers.
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Photo: Gerd Meissner
It is a good idea to create the headline last, or at least not before your have a solid draft of your
post. The Portent program will generate enough headline options that you can make fit.
Bonus Tip: How to verify your headline's "sizzle factor"
But how to ensure that your headline will reel readers in? The Advanced Marketing Institute
(Tucson, AZ) offers a solution with its free Headline Analyzer.
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Use this tool to calculate the "draw" of your headline. Full disclosure: I checked the headline of
this tip sheet before publishing it. Here's the result:
Just for completeness, I also ran it through the more recent Blog Post Headline Analyzer. This tool by Bismarck, ND based editorial calendar service CoSchedule dissects headline
components and presents its findings infographicstyle. I liked what I saw:
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Do online title makers and headline analyzers strike you as odd places to find headline
writing help?
I look at it this way: If nothing else, such tools can help me jumpstart my own headline
generator the one in my head.
Because, as seasoned copy editors know: the oddest place for the best headlines (or the best
place for the oddest headlines) is still the space between our ears.
3. Achieve Top Results With Rapid Search Engine
Optimization
Last step: By now, our web article or blog post hopefully lives up to its headlined promise. Now we need to make sure both deliver what Internet search engines "crawlers" and "robots" are looking for when they hit our page. Enter the Free Meta Tag Analyzer by Gilbert, AZbased Scrub the Web. This nimble tool has been around for Internet ages, and it looks the part. No responsive popups, sliders, flyins or dropdowns on this website. But don't let the lack of superficial beauty fool you. For tackling our last task onthefly search engine optimization Scrub the Web can take it up with far more sophisticated SEO tools. It is simple, fast, easy to use, and sticks to the basics. This is my preferred web destination for quickanddirty "SEO proofing." Don't let all that creativity first disciplined by the Hemingway app, then inspired by the Idea Generator, lastly refined by the Headline Analyzer, go to waste now. Submit the URL to your new blog post or web page to the Meta Tag Analyzer. Bow your head. Accept the swift judgement. Apply the edits suggested by the Meta Tag Analyzer.
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Publish. Done. As always, promote your post and start measuring. Good things will happen. Make sure to be among the first who receive more tips like this in the future!
P.S.: What's your take on webbased writing aids, idea generators, and analyzer programs? Which ones did you find particularly helpful? Share your insights in the comment section below!
Resources:
Find more helpful tools for writers in 8 Writing Tools I Use Every Day on the blog of Ann Handley, author of the bestseller "Everybody Writes". Did you know that headlines with 8 words are 21% more successful than average in catching readers' attention? Pratik Dholakiya shares survey results and practical tips on his Convince&Convert blog post Learn How to Write an Irresistible Headline. Need "power words" that will move more readers to subscribe, contact your company or buy online? Look up Kevan Lee's list on the blog of social media service Buffer, The Big List of 189 Words That Convert. Avoid cliches with the free Cliche Finder web service. No sign up required.
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About the Author How to build lasting relationships with employees, prospects, customers, clients and business partners? Useful and unique content that reflects the genuine interest your brand takes in their success goes a long way. It drives the conversation and results in more engagement with your brand online. That's the kind of content I have specialized in as a freelance business writer, (international) content strategist and globally published book author. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, travel a lot, and work in the cloud. Contact me by email at [email protected] .
© Gerd Meissner 2015. All rights reserved.
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