by Guest Blogger | Jan 9, 2022 | Small Business Advice
4 Common Marketing Issues That Businesses Face
Why Is Business Marketing Important?
Business marketing is one of the leading challenges for entrepreneurs. But it’s an absolutely essential skill to master if you want your company to be successful. There are over 30.2 million small businesses in the United States, and they’re all doing what they can to attract sales.
Obviously, not all of these businesses fall into the same niche or industry as your business, but to stand out in your industry, you can’t afford to miss any business marketing opportunities. Once you know the most common marketing mistakes business owners make, you can learn to avoid them. So this blog post reveals the four most common business marketing problems and how to solve them.
1. Low Website Traffic
Small businesses thrive online. The majority of consumers conduct research online to learn more about products and services before they make a purchase. These consumers may also be inclined to shop online because it’s faster, more convenient and less expensive.
So your business needs to have a strong online presence, which is one of the most common marketing issues. If your website fails to attract consumers, you’re not making sales. Low traffic is usually caused by an ineffective search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. To improve your SEO:
- Register your website with Google My Business
- Publish keyword-rich blog posts on your site
- Invest in a link-building strategy and pay-per-click campaign
- Click here to work with an SEO specialist who appreciates content and improves your ranking
2. Limited Awareness in Social Media
Other marketing problems involve social media. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram can be amazing for small business marketing. But the algorithms are difficult to master, which makes it a challenge to grow your social media presence. The best way to solve social media marketing issues is by investing time in each platform. Ways to do that include:
- Post several times a week
- Engage on the platform before and after posting
- Use the right hashtags
- Post engaging content
- Use paid promotions
Taking these simple actions helps you gain more visibility online. Your efforts result in more website traffic, leads and sales. Embrace your social side.
3. A Lack of Website Conversions
Poor quality websites often lead to ineffective marketing and a severe lack of conversions. If your website isn’t turning leads into sales, you may be looking at a number of problems. Maximize the customer experience on your website by:
- Optimizing your site for mobile devices
- Using multiple forms of media
- Providing valuable content
- Ensuring your site loads quickly
- Making your site easy to navigate
If you don’t know how to improve your website or correct these types of marketing issues yourself, work with a website design expert. A copywriting firm and even a videographer may help as well.
4. Not Knowing Your Target Market
One of the most detrimental advertising mistakes is not knowing your audience. If you don’t know your target market intimately, you can’t know how to compose a marketing message that appeals to their specific:
The better you know your audience, the more effectively you can craft content that attracts them to your website and social media pages. Furthermore, this content helps you define your brand in a way that makes your company, products and services more tempting to your market.
No matter where you are on the road to success, you can use these tips to overcome the four leading business marketing issues. Let Ray Access handle your content. We work closely with SEO firms, web developers and web designers to get your business more visibility … and more sales.
This was a guest blog post written by guest blogger Ester Adams.
by Guest Blogger | Oct 18, 2021 | Small Business Advice
Tips for Creating an Effective Company Logo
Ray Access doesn’t usually comment on graphic design choices, website development details or other related topics. But the goal of this blog is to help small businesses and web agencies become more successful. To that end, this article may provide guidance for you to create your logo designs.
Deciding on a color depth (between 16-bit, 24-bit or 32-bit), font family or composition of a company logo may be some of the hardest decisions for a graphic designer or small business owner. It’s no wonder that logo fonts and colors are issues that plague many logo designs. To help you avoid these and other issues when designing your company logos, these five questions (and answers) provide insight into the top mistakes in logo designs.
1. Are You Using an Out-of-Date Logo Maker?
One of the biggest mistakes in logo designs — for professionals, hobbyists and amateurs — is using dated software. Choose a logo maker app that’s frequently updated with new features, tools, templates, and graphics.
Trends and fashions change. Your logo maker app should have features that allow you to keep up. At the very least, you shouldn’t be a decade behind!
2. Do You Have Too Many Colors … and They Don’t Match?
Despite the term, “complementary” colors don’t always match well. These complementary colors are opposite colors on a color wheel that tend to “vibrate” when they’re next to each other. For example, red pairs with green and purple with yellow.
But in a logo, these colors end up making a gaudy-looking design at best. Instead, look for secondary or tertiary colors that match. Also, look for colors that match the mood of your logo.
3. Does Your Composition Make Sense?
Composition is a tough nut to crack. Some non-professional designers just don’t have a sense of what keeps people’s eyes moving in the desired direction. A few rules of thumb include:
- If you have an object getting smaller, it makes an arrow pointing to another place.
- The place you want it to point is also generally inward, although you ideally want them to go in a never-ending circle around your graphics.
Remember, you want to capture their attention from every angle. Don’t push them away from your design or onto others.
4. Have You Created Balance in Your Composition?
Despite the word, imbalance isn’t all about matching the size of one element against another. What determines balance is color, style, size, and other features that give one element more or less attention in comparison to the others.
For example, if you present the logo and name of your place of business, then add “bar and grill,” no one cares if it’s a bar and grill. They’ll probably forget the name of your business completely. In this case, what’s most important? It’s probably not “bar and grill.”
5. Is Your Logo Design Too Complex or Too Simple?
Some business owners place too many elements in a logo, trying to throw everything in at once. “I want peacocks, and trees, and hands, and feet, and every cool color, and the shape of the city I practice in, and a really long name like ‘tranquility’.” Instead, simplify your logo designs.
Other business owners make their logos far too simple, to the point that the design has now become a cubist adventure in surrealism. Abstraction is only good to a certain point. Once you’ve passed critical mass, people have nothing to connect your ideas with. Make your logo as simple as you can while still keeping it relatable.
Avoid These Top Mistakes in Logo Designs!
Now that you know the top mistakes in logo designs, the best thing you can do is to keep learning. Trends and fashions change, but human psychology remains roughly the same. If you’re designing your logos on your own, follow these tips.
If you’re intimidated by the prospect of designing your own logo, Ray Access suggests hiring a local pro who asks the right questions. Logo designs have to match your company mood and values while appealing to your audience.
This was a guest blog post written by guest blogger Ester Adams.
by Guest Blogger | Jul 19, 2021 | Agency Advice
And Why Email Marketing Best Practices Matter
Four out of five marketers and organizations say they’d rather give up social media than email marketing, which shows how powerful it is. Email marketing lets you stay at the forefront of your customers’ minds while communicating directly with them. If you’re still not convinced about the benefits of email marketing, learn more from our friends at emailpreviewservices.com.
Perhaps you’re ready to harness the power of email marketing best practices, but you’re not sure where to start. If that sounds like you, don’t worry. You’ve got company. This article outlines eight things to know about email marketing best practices.
1. Know Your Audience
Before creating a solid email marketing strategy, get to know your target audience. The key to securing leads is understanding your ideal customer’s buying habits, pain points and product wish lists. Popular brands use email marketing best practices to nurture healthy relationships and to add value to their conversation with their customers.
Find out about your audience by posting surveys on social media, which allows your audience to reply anonymously. Offer an incentive such as free shipping or a 10 percent discount on their next purchase. Surveys provide an overall idea of what your customers want so you can curate and send valuable content into your list’s email inboxes. Make sure you’re not only sending promotions, as it could deter customers.
2. Build an Email List
One of the top email marketing best practices is o constantly building your email list. There are many ways to do this, but providing an incentive is almost always effective. For example, you can:
- Introduce gamification to your site. This is a game-style element that encourages customers to sign up. This could be a quiz, test or even a spin-to-win widget. The key is to offer a prize to the winner, whether a freebie or discount, but only once they’ve entered their email and verified it.
- Get promotional pop-ups to appear while the customer is browsing your site. Make sure that the pop-up’s content is relevant to your visitors. For example, if they’re browsing shoes, then activate a pop-up that offers “30 percent off footwear for our email subscribers” to tempt them.
Regardless of how many signup opportunities are on your site, always send out welcome emails. This reassures the recipient that the signup works while letting you make a winning first impression. For instance, send an informative email or update them about what’s new with your brand.
3. A/B Testing Is Your Friend
A/B testing is the lifeblood of email marketing best practices. It allows you to track how each element is performing. Only test one at a time and on a large group of customers so you have extensive data to work with. For instance, you could test frequency, subject lines, and time of the day. But only test for one thing at a time.
When you use A/B testing, you must do it regularly. Get in the habit of tracking your email engagements. That way, you can make any necessary adjustments in a timely manner.
4. Write a Compelling Subject Line
First impressions are crucial in digital marketing, whether it’s your website’s usability or social media prowess. With emails, your subject line is the first contact customers have with your email, so make it count.
As a general rule, keep the subject line concise. You can make it witty or funny, if that works for your brand. Personalize it so it catches the recipient’s attention. You can also use questions as the subject line or write a controversial statement to pique interest.
5. Personalize Your Emails
On average, office employees receive around 121 emails every day. That means your brand must cut through the noise. A cost-effective way to do this is by personalizing emails. Address each recipient by name. Use customers’ behaviors to justify the email. For instance, thank them for downloading your latest e-book or send a “we miss you” message if they haven’t used your services in a while.
If a customer has recently made a purchase, suggest relevant products that work well with the new item. If the customer bought a hat, for example, then suggest sunglasses from your latest collection or matching shorts. There are many ways to personalize your emails.
6. Consider Your Timing
As with most areas in life, timing is paramount. Email marketing best practices say not to bombard customers with daily emails. That’s a turnoff for many. Instead, figure out when the click rate is at its highest.
Run tests to determine when customers are most engaged. Avoid sending emails at the top of every hour. Eventually, you’ll see a pattern to help you learn when the optimal time is to send emails.
7. Segment Your Subscriber List
Although it takes time, segmenting your email subscribers results in higher engagement. You could lump customers who have made a recent purchase together. Group those who live in the same country. Separate customers from prospects. Decide how best to segment your audience.
Email marketing best practices want you to use those segments. Don’t send the same email to your entire list. You risk sending irrelevant content to the wrong audience, putting your hard work to waste. You have segments for a reason, and that reason is to send targeted emails to the right people.
8. Keep the Email Design Consistent
Whether you hire a graphic designer or create a template yourself, the email design must align with your brand identity. You want the recipient to know that it was you who sent the email. As soon as they open the message, they should recognize your brand. Make sure you use the right colors and prominently display your company’s logo.
Also, reduce your copy to three paragraphs and break it up with images. Readers don’t want to see large blocks of text. It’s intimidating. Keep the email light, lively and upbeat. Further, stay up-to-date with the latest email marketing best practices regarding whether to use automation to streamline your process.
This was a guest blog post written by Ester Adams.
by Guest Blogger | Mar 8, 2021 | Small Business Advice
Get Targeted, On-Demand Services for Less!
Are you thinking of hiring third-party services to handle your marketing in 2021? You’re not the only one. The global outsourcing industry generates around $92.5 billion each year, and a big chunk of it is sure to go toward marketing efforts.
After all, promoting your products and building your brand is hard work. If you lack in-house expertise and can’t face the hassle of hiring marketing staff, then contracting outsourced marketing services makes complete sense. They benefit from your brand-building efforts in ways you may not even expect.
Get Instant Experience
You and your team may know nothing about the craft of marketing or brand-building. The latest trends for marketers may be a mystery to you. The idea of learning a whole new field may seem overwhelming. But none of those apparent disadvantages matter if you outsource the task.
Outsourcing allows you to leverage someone else’s expertise. You’re bringing on someone to show you the ropes, explain the best way forward and walk you through the nuances of formulating brand strategies and campaigns. It’s a way to jumpstart your branding.
No Need for New Hires
While you always have the option of hiring a full-time marketer for your in-house team, you know better than anyone how much time, effort and money that takes. You have to advertise the position, interview the candidates, train them and cross your fingers that you hired the right person. It’s messy and unnecessary.
By comparison, outsourced marketing services allow you to start straight-away. You can begin the process of building your brand without the rigmarole of hiring someone. Best of all, you can cancel the contract and find someone new if it doesn’t work out. Third-party services aren’t on the payroll. As a result, they work as much or as little as you need, without taking time off for sickness or vacations.
That’s good news when it comes to scaling marketing efforts. You’ll never have to pick up the slack from someone taking time off or pay someone’s wages when they’re not even in the office. All told, you’ll have more resources to invest in your brand.
Where Innovation Meets Needs
Another bonus of hiring outsourced marketing services is the education they’ll provide to you and your employees. By working with pros and seeing how they work, you’ll pick up the skills required to build a brand. With these new skills, you’ll be better prepared to have a more significant role in the current and future marketing processes. In time, you may no longer even need external support.
External services bring a fresh perspective, as well. They’ll shake things up, show you novel approaches to traditional problems and identify things you’ve done that can be improved. Get ready to innovate. You’ll explore exciting new marketing platforms, inbound advertising strategies, lead generation software, targeted advertisements and ideas to boost your brand.
Benefits of Outsourced Marketing Services
Outsourced marketing services are in high demand, and for good reason. They provide invaluable assistance to small business owners who struggle to advertise their products or services. They teach you how best to cultivate trust with your audience and develop your brand.
Have you been thinking about hiring third-party marketers for similar reasons? Perhaps these insights have revealed how they can help. Remember, if you can do it yourself or if you have the in-house expertise, go for it, but there are affordable third-party resources available to help.
This was a guest blog post written by Ester Adams.
by Guest Blogger | Nov 28, 2020 | Small Business Advice
We’re Living in an App World
Want to send money to a friend? There’s an app for that. Want to buy groceries? There’s an app for that. Want to find a charity you can donate money to? There’s an app for that.
So with more than five million apps across the various mobile application distribution platforms, it’s safe to say there’s an app for everything. As a small business owner, you may be thinking about developing an app of your own. While you may think it’s a smart move to jump on the bandwagon, you need to avoid the most common mistakes when it comes to building an app for your business.
1. Building an App When You Don’t Need It
Which business doesn’t need an app in today’s world? It’s true that a mobile application sometimes can take a business to the next level, but not every business needs an app. Perhaps your business is just getting started or the nature of your business doesn’t warrant an app service. Before you start building an app, establish whether your business truly needs it.
If you just launched a small business, for example, there’s no value in focusing your efforts on app development. A proper business app costs a tidy sum to build, and you likely have other priorities that you need to fund first. So hold off on building the app until your business is making sustainable profits.
Another example is if you’re in the petroleum manufacturing industry. Because of the way petroleum products are consumed, your business isn’t going to benefit substantially from having an app. The people who buy petroleum products, such as engine oil, typically don’t order them online. They drive to a gas station to get the product.
2. Not Knowing What Your Target Users Need
When you’re building a business app, you aren’t making it for you and your employees. You’re making it for your customers — your target market consumers. Don’t make an app without knowing what they want. If you do, you risk ending up with an app that doesn’t solve any of your customer’s problems.
The journey to building a useful app starts with doing in-depth research, so you can develop a good understanding of your customers’ needs. For example, you can conduct a survey, asking your customers to list the features they’d like to see in the app. Don’t create a need; solve one.
It also helps to do some competitor research. Because apps are readily available in an app store, download your competitors’ apps to discover what they’ve done. With this information, you can then embark on building a better app to satisfy your customers.
3. Deciding on a DIY Approach
While you can do certain projects in-house, such as writing blog posts, there are others you should leave to the experts. One example is mobile app development. It’s easy to see why some entrepreneurs resolve to take the DIY route. The cost of a small business app can range from $50,000 to $250,000, depending on its functionality.
If you’re running on a shoestring budget and can’t afford to pay for professional app development services, what do you do? Don’t take the DIY route when it comes to business app development. Leave it to the experts. Your business has a reputation to uphold. Offering a half-baked app is a sure way to ruin your business’s reputation and hurt your customer experience.
Instead of taking the DIY approach, it’s better to hold off on building the app until you have the financial capability. And when you’re ready, be sure to find the best app development service. An experienced app developer can build an app that meets your users’ exact needs. Whether you’re a tech magazine that wants to make it easy for readers to access tips and learn tricks — such as how to split screen on Mac — or a grocery store that wants to offer in-app shopping, a professional developer can bring your vision to life.
4. Developing a Bloated App
Have you ever used an app that felt convoluted, as if it wanted to do everything at once? That’s what your users will feel like if you build a bloated app. A bloated app doesn’t just lower customer experience. It can cause your customers to start buying from a competing business that offers a better app.
Small business owners are at risk of developing bloated apps when they don’t understand an app’s niche or purpose. While a professional app developer advises you on the maximum number of features your app can support, based on its structure, you may keep coming up with “great ideas” that you demand the developer to include. Resist the urge and stay focused.
5. Failing to Update the App
At long last, you finally launch your app. You may believe that the task is done for good. But that’s not the way it works.
App development isn’t a one-off task. It doesn’t end as soon as your app goes live. An app needs to be improved and updated regularly. If you’re not doing this, if you’re not willing to do this, it won’t be long before users start uninstalling it.
Avoid These Business App Mistakes
Now you know the mistakes to avoid with business apps. Mistakes with apps are common, especially among small business owners. While a useful, targeted app has the potential to compound sales in your business, it can also do the opposite if you don’t take its development seriously.
Don’t let a bloated app or a poorly designed app lead to a decline in sales. Be prepared for the long haul of development and maintenance when you’re ready to enter the business app market. It can do wonders when you avoid these mistakes for small business apps.
This was a guest blog post written by Ester Adams.
by Guest Blogger | Jul 1, 2019 | Website Content
Improve Your Website with Quality Content
Website design isn’t just about making your site look pretty with rainbows and flowers or dazzling with special effects; your business website needs to be designed so that your customers easily find what they’re looking for. While you may think a nice logo and quality photographs of your products are vital, it’s actually your content that’s most important. Content — the words on the page — are often an overlooked factor in determining the effectiveness of your website.
Design alone doesn’t bring customers in and sell products to them.
Now, it’s OK to want a great design, a catchy logo, a memorable tagline and clear navigation buttons. In fact, you can use available tools to design and publish your own website, if you wish. But don’t forsake content for the other components of your site. Content is what drives search engines to you, enabling your site to show up high in search engine results. Good content also helps your customers.
Why Quality Content Is Still King
You may have the best designed website in the world, but if people don’t find it, it’s of absolutely no value to your business. Your website has to be discoverable, and to be discovered, it needs to show up in search results. People conduct searches before making a purchase, so get your site to show up in those searches.
There are many content strategies, but bear this in mind: While it’s important to have an About Us page and product or service pages on your website, consider having an area devoted to content, like a blog. A blog that you post on your site gives you a reason to provide fresh material, which appeals to search engines and customers. And it’s pages, not websites, that are ranked by search engines.
This means content rules when it comes to SEO.
Your content must be well written. It has to be compelling. It has to connect with your visitors. But there are other aspects that are just as important to include in your content so that it rises to the top in search engine results. Follow these six steps to make your content king.
1. Include Keywords
Any content you create has to include keywords — the terms with which your customers use to find your website. For instance, your keywords could be words that describe your product or service. If your business sells glasses, for example, your keywords may include:
- Glasses
- Glasses in [your city]
- Sunglasses
- Best glasses
- Popular glasses
- Safety glasses
- Shades
- Spectacles
- Specs
You get the idea. Use the keywords you choose as naturally as possible so that search engines connect your website to the words you want your business to be known for. If you already have content on your site, review it to ensure it reflects the keywords you want to highlight.
You wouldn’t mind if your site showed up more than once in a specific search, would you? Imagine if someone sees your site pop up several times in a single search. That builds trust for your business. That’s another value of having targeted blog posts.
2. Answer Questions
People have started using actual questions when conducting internet searches, particularly with voice searches courtesy of virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri. Your content should address actual questions that your customers are searching for, such as: “When do I need to wear safety glasses?” A frequently asked questions page can be a great resource for driving search results.
Search engines sometimes pull answers directly off websites, including a link to the site as credit for the answer. If your site is selected as having the best answer to a query, it may result in your site being found for other types of search queries, too. Using keywords and questions in your content — particularly those that are actual search terms people use to look for your product or service — drives results to your page.
3. Include Internal or Inbound Links
While preparing content, add inbound links. In other words, link to other relevant pages on your site. Internal links tie your website together, both for search engines and for visitors. Internal links also help your SEO. They help search engines find, index and understand your site.
In addition, inbound links provide added understanding and context for visitors. When you provide answers to questions through links, it builds trust. Additionally, internal links keep visitors on your site, which is also good for SEO.
4. Make It Share-able
People tend to share content that they find informative or insightful, so having quality content helps you with the share factor. When your content is shared, it helps increase the visibility of your business. It also ensures more people have access to your content.
Share-able content drives traffic to your website and adds more connections to your business as those shares proliferate. Since social media continues to grow, those shares help you grow your brand presence. That’s why you must have good quality content that people want to like and share through social media and on your website.
5. Provide Value to Those Who Land on Your Site
Once customers and potential customers reach your site — via search engine results, social media or some other route — you have to give them something valuable. When visitors stay on your site, it reduces your bounce rate, the measure of customers who leave your site after arriving. And here’s the kicker:
Bounce rate is bad for SEO.
Having quality content engages visitors and keeps them on your site. They want to read what you have to share, and they may even share it directly from the site. They’ll come to trust your brand. They’ll want to return to your site. Maybe they’ll even buy something when they’re ready. Increased engagement leads to higher traffic, more conversions and exponential sharing, all of which are good for business.
6. Keep It Fresh
To stay engaging, keep posting new content on your site — and that doesn’t mean a new About Us page every day. Provide fresh content on relevant topics. Search engines love that.
For instance, Google figures out if there’s a popular search phrase and then looks for newer content on the topic. That content gets rewarded with enhanced search results. Make sure you’re staying on top of the trends in your industry and keep producing quality content that’s of interest to search engines and customers.
Final Thoughts
Content has become one of the most important components in SEO. That’s true for blog posts, website content, frequently asked questions and social media content. By including valuable, relevant, updated resources on your site, you improve your SEO and increase your brand awareness.
Fresh, quality content builds trust in your customers and potential customers, and it displays your business as an expert in your industry. These six steps to better website content enable your business to wear a content king crown. And that’s worth a little extra investment.
Guest Post Author Bio: Danielle Canstello is part of the team at Pyramid Analytics. They provide enterprise-level analytics and business intelligence software. In her spare time, Danielle writes around the web to spread her knowledge of the marketing, business intelligence and analytics industries.
by Guest Blogger | Oct 23, 2018 | Content Marketing
For SEO, Use Both On-Site and Off-Site Content
Effective content creation for both on-site and off-site platforms has never been more important to the performance of your SEO campaign. The right content delivered at the right time in the right way can make all the difference to your bottom line. But the question is: are you doing it right?
Well-crafted on-site content can help strengthen your brand’s message and highlight your industry expertise. But you’ll also need to produce creative off-site content to help your business secure the best online coverage. In other words, spreading your message across a range of off-site publications increases your online rankings while amplifying your brand.
How Online Ranking Works
When done correctly, effective on-site content can increase your website’s search rankings. If you’re looking to become the go-to brand/service for your prospective customers, it’s crucial that you appear at the top of the online results page. But it’s no longer enough just to publish on your own website.
Google, the leading search engine, recently updated its search quality rating guidelines. This act has had a profound impact on the way content is created and used. In its revised 166-page document, Google has stated that it’s now paying greater attention to what users are searching for and what information they end up reading.
The tech-giant wants to focus on enhancing the user experience across its platform. The changes it has introduced reinforced this statement and initiative, which has had a ripple effect for content creators and marketers around the world.
Blogs Support On-Site Content
Ultimately, blog content on your business website supports your visitors’ journey, while providing them with the most insightful information for making good decisions. Blogs also support your website visitors when making a purchase, as they see you as a more trustworthy figure. There are a few techniques you can use to make sure your on-site blog content performs exceptionally well, such as:
- Understand your audience. The first step to creating blog content is to understand who reads it — usually, this is your main demographic who already have an interest in your products or services. Although you’ve positioned yourself as an authoritative figure, you need to speak to your website visitors as if they’re on your level for both acquisition and retention purposes.
- Write with clarity. Avoid any industry jargon, as this can be an instant turn-off for your readers. Be transparent with your audience and provide the information they need in a concise way that still delivers the same level of information.
- Differentiate yourself. Use your blog content as a way to tell your audience that you’re better than your competitors. You can achieve this by showing off your unique selling proposition — whether it includes next-day delivery or a lengthy warranty on your products. If your article delivers useful information, your readers won’t mind you being slightly advertorial, as your products and services can be beneficial.
- Create links. Internal links are a must in your blog post, but only if they’re relevant. If you’re discussing a certain product or service that you offer, you should link to the relevant website page to give readers more information and to help improve the overall page authority of the blog post.
- End with a call to action. It’s essential that you close your blog post with a specific call to action. If a reader has made it all the way through your article, they’re already invested in your business and are more likely to perform that action.
Off-Site Content Serves a Different Purpose
Creating off-site content is completely different from publishing blog posts for your business website. In this case, you’re not trying to appeal to your customers, but to journalists and major publications that can drive authority (and traffic) to your website. Off-site content gives you the ability to increase your brand visibility.
It may require a full team of innovative and creative people to come up with outreach ideas to support an SEO campaign. You must carry out extensive research into what is relevant in the news. This can allow you to see what type of content journalists are looking for and what’s currently working well in terms of online coverage.
Off-Site Content Goals
For your off-site content, aim to create articles for publications that cover different niches. For example, an article that discusses how technology has improved health and safety in the workplace would appeal to technology, business and HR websites, all of which can improve your link-building strategy for your online marketing campaigns.
You should also create content around national or international events or celebrations. Editors are more likely to pick up this type of content because it will appeal to a wider audience and generate an overall buzz. You may have seen this with the World Cup recently; you’ll soon see the same with the upcoming holiday season.
Final Thoughts
Publications and journalists don’t take content pieces that are too advertorial; they want to provide readers with content that’s informative and unbiased. But that’s not to say they won’t credit you with either a brand mention or a link to one of your target pages.
Although content creation for both on-site and off-site may look similar, they’re very different in tone, format and objective. Target your on-site content to inform your readers and your off-site content to market your brand.
Georgie White is a copywriter at a digital marketing agency in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. After completing his traineeship at the National Youth Film Academy and finishing his studies in Creative Media Production, Georgie transitioned to Mediaworks in August 2017, where he uses his creative flare to write unique content for a range of clients from all different industries.
by Guest Blogger | Sep 24, 2018 | Writing
Use Automated Transcription to Break Through
If you’re a writer — of books, essays, scripts, blog posts, whatever — you’re likely familiar with the phenomenon of the blank screen, a looming deadline and a sinking feeling in your gut that pairs poorly with the jug of coffee you drank earlier.
If you know that rumble all too well, maybe this blog post will help you get out of your rut. At the very least, it’s good for a few minutes of procrastination. The core idea is that thinking out loud is less arduous than writing. And it’s now easier than ever to combine the two, thanks to recent advances in speech recognition technology and automated transcription software.
Introducing Automated Transcription
Dictation is nothing new, and plenty of writers have taken advantage of it. Carl Sagan’s voluminous output was facilitated by his process of speaking into an audio recorder, to be transcribed later by an assistant. And software like Dragon’s Naturally Speaking has offered automated transcription for people with the patience and budget to pursue it.
But it’s only been in the last couple of years that automated transcription has reached a sweet spot — of convenience, affordability and accuracy — that makes it practical to use it more casually. It’s useful for generating a first draft. It presents an alternative approach to the painful process of converting the nebulous wisps inside your head into something you can actually work with. This process is called idea extraction.
Part I: Extraction
Here’s how the automated transcription process works. Since everyone is different, borrow what works for you and forget the rest :
- Pick a voice recorder and start talking. Try it with a topic you’ve been chewing on for weeks or for an idea that flits into your head. Don’t overthink it; just start blabbing.
- The goal is to tug on as many threads as you come across and follow them as far as they go. These threads may lead to meandering tangents, and you may discover new ideas along the way.
- A lot of your new ideas may be embarrassingly bad. That’s all right. You’re already talking about the next thing! Unlike when you’re dealing with text, your bad ideas aren’t staring you in the face.
- Consider leaving comments to yourself as you go. For example, “Maybe that’d work for the intro.” Your notes come in handy later.
- These recordings can run anywhere from 20 to 80 minutes. Sometimes, they’re much shorter, in quick succession. Whatever works for you.
Part II: Transcription
Once you’ve finished recording, it’s time to harness the Power of Technology! The last couple of years have seen an explosion of tools related to automatic speech recognition (ASR), thanks to huge steps forward in the underlying technologies. When you import your audio file into the ASR software, it uses state-of-the-art machine learning to spit back a text transcript a few minutes later. That transcript won’t be perfect — the robots are currently in the “Write drunk” phase of their careers. But for your purposes, it’s good enough. You just need to be able to recognize your ideas.
Once you have your automated transcript, your next step is up to you. You can:
- Export your transcript as a Word document and revise it from there.
- Fire up your voice recorder again to dictate a more polished take.
- Recognize that only a few words in your audio are worth keeping. That’s all right, too, since it didn’t take you too much time.
Tips for Perfecting Your Transcription
- Use a recorder device or app that you trust. Losing a recording is painful — and the anxiety of losing another can derail your most exciting creative moments.
- Audio quality matters when it comes to automated transcription. If your recording has a lot of background noise or you’re speaking far away from the microphone, accuracy is going to drop. Consider using earbuds or Airpods, so you can worry less about where you’re holding the recorder.
- Find a comfortable space.You’ll find it a lot easier to let your mind “go for a walk” when you’re alone and comfortable in your environment.
- Speaking of walking: why not go for a stroll? The pains of writing can have just as much to do with being stationary and hunched over. Walking gets your blood flowing — and your ideas too.
- If you’re musical, try playing a familiar tune while your mind wanders. There’s something about playing the same four-chord song on auto pilot for the thousandth time. It keeps your hands busy and lets your mind go to new places.
The old ways of doing things — whether it’s with a keyboard or a pen — still have their advantages. Putting words to a page can force linear thinking that’s otherwise difficult to maintain. But for getting those first crucial paragraphs down, for building keystone ideas into concepts and paragraphs, consider talking to yourself. It will jumpstart your writing, help you overcome writer’s block and give you more ideas for future work.
This article about automated transcription was originally published by Descript. It appears here with the author’s permission.
by Guest Blogger | Apr 3, 2018 | Small Business Advice
The Shift Away from Nine-to-Five Employment
Even if you’ve never heard of the “gig economy,” you probably leave your home to go to work every day. A gig economy refers to the recent employment phenomenon of freelance/independent contractor work that encompasses short-term and long-term projects. It’s generating a lot of buzz because it’s estimated to comprise roughly a third of the workforce and is expected to grow to 43 percent by 2020.
Courtesy of Pixabay
One of the biggest benefits of this arrangement is being able to work from home — or anywhere, for that matter. That makes it an appealing option for:
- Millennials looking for an alternative lifestyle
- Parents, both single and attached
- Seniors, especially those stymied by the current job market
- Caretakers with lots of downtime
- Any of the 85 percent of people polled who admit hating their jobs … and their bosses
While working as an independent contractor may sound like a dream scenario, there are pros and cons to the arrangement. But if freedom and flexibility are your goals, then it may pay to educate yourself about what it truly means to work independently.
Establish a Budget Before You Start
Before diving into a gig economy lifestyle, you’ve got to figure out how much work you need to take on so you can handle your expenses — from bills and obligations to recreational funds. Keep in mind that the workload is often feast or famine, so it can be difficult to accurately predict your income. Because of this, you may want to begin with an emergency fund that’s enough to cover three to six months of your financial obligations.
Make sure you establish a budget — get yourself a good software program to help you stay organized. Your budget should include all your expenses and the applicable information of all of your current “gigs” or freelance projects. When you work for yourself, you must keep clear records.
Save yourself a headache at the end of the year (or each quarter) by setting aside money for taxes each month since they’re not withheld when you’re an independent contractor. Also keep in mind that you don’t get paid vacations or sick days, so you’re going to need a reserve to manage time off.
Choosing Work in the New Economy
There are two routes you can take to enter the gig economy:
- Doing something you know, like what you did in a previous full-time job
- Doing something you love, like a passionate hobby in which you’ve developed some expertise over the years
If you’re lucky, your passion meets your proficiency. For example, if you love animals, but worked in business marketing, consider becoming a pet blogger or freelance writer covering animal issues. Even if you’re taking a salary cut at the beginning, you’ll be motivated to work harder when you need to because you’ll be doing something you enjoy.
You could also consider jumping on a gig economy job app to work for a popular ride-sharing, meal-delivery or errand service. Some of the more lucrative and more technical gigs that are in demand are in the areas of:
- Blockchain jobs
- Robotics
- Penetration testing web services
- Virtual reality
- Instagram marketing
- Video editing services
- Writing and copywriting — you could even work for Ray Access
Finding Work in the Gig Economy
Looking for new work needs to be a weekly habit since the rug can be pulled out from under you at any moment. There are many resources available online. Make it easier on yourself by setting alerts to receive job notifications pertaining to your skillset and interest, but don’t back yourself into a corner. If there’s a particular company you’d like to work for, reach out to let them know you’re interested in any potential remote-working opportunities that may arise.
While the independent workforce continues to grow, there’s still work to be done to protect contractors — in terms of physical and mental health. Last year, U.S. legislators proposed a bill that would provide gig economy workers with “portable benefits” that they can take with them from job to job. Until then, make sure you understand what you’re walking into when considering a career change.
Guest blogger Lucy Reed has been starting businesses since she was a kid, from the lemonade stand she opened in her parent’s driveway at age 10 to the dog walking business she started while in college. She created GigMine (gigmine.co) because she was inspired by the growth of the sharing economy and wanted to make it easier for entrepreneurial individuals like herself to find the gig opportunities in their areas.
