8 Time-Saving Content Marketing Tools to Ramp Up Your Team’s Productivity

Content marketing is an effort-intensive area of business. Creating quality content, distributing and promoting it to reach the right audience, and ensuring it delivers on your business goals is no mean feat.

From digging up ideas to measuring the performance of your content, there is a lot that content teams and marketers have to strive for. Managing all of it without the right content marketing tools is like sending an army to war without ammunition.

The Content Marketing Software market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18.7% globally, reaching a market size of nearly USD 22.6 billion by 2028. So if you aren’t making use of the right productivity tools for your content process, you might be falling behind in the race. Productivity-boosting content marketing software can help you automate and speed up a lot of tasks for your content team, freeing up time for more strategic work.

From generating ideas to actually creating and scheduling content, there is a tool for almost every marketing activity that you can think of today. But picking the right tools from a sea of options is a challenge in itself. There’s a lot to consider. On one hand, you may be taking productivity up by a few notches but on the other, you’re probably paying a lot more than what you’re gaining – bringing your ROI down.

Here are a few time-saving tools for content teams and marketers that can do you justice, both in terms of capabilities and pricing.

1. Narrato – Content creation, planning, and collaboration

Content creation is by far one of the most challenging areas of content marketing. In a 2022 survey by SEMRush, some of the top content marketing challenges pointed out by respondents included creating content that resonates with their audience, improving content SEO performance, and producing authentic, high-quality content.

The scattered toolset that your content team has to use to plan, create and optimize content to deliver results does not make things easy for anyone. Often both productivity and collaboration take a hit, reflecting poorly on the final outcome.

This is where the content creation, optimization, and management platform, Narrato shines through. Narrato brings together all the key tools required for content planning, workflow, and team management, plus content creation and optimization – all in one place.

Narrato’s key features include:

• Content creation and optimization – You can create content on Narrato itself and optimize your content too. They have a powerful AI content assistant that lets you optimize content for SEO, grammar, and readability. You can also use the AI writer on the platform to generate content for common use cases like creating blog post intros, conclusions, outlines, improving your content or turning paragraphs into bullets, and so on. The platform also has a free image search tool and a Canva integration for creating graphics to go with your content.
• Content planning – The content planning tools on Narrato include an AI idea generator for generating new topics for your articles and blog posts. You can generate automatic SEO content briefs to get suggestions on keywords, topics/questions to include, references, and other SEO parameters. To help you organize and plan your content efforts better, there is a content calendar and kanban boards as well.
• Content and workflow management – On Narrato, you can assign tasks and take every task through a set of workflow statuses, ensuring you are in control of the process. Workflow automation and bulk actions boost productivity and help save time throughout the content process. All your content can be neatly organized in folders under projects to manage a repository.
• Content collaboration and communication – Users get access to on-platform messaging and in-line text commenting for easier collaboration on a content task.
• Team management – There are different user roles with custom access to give you better control over which users can access which projects. There is a Client (Guest) role for agencies and a freelance content creator team can also be easily managed including their payment accounting and management.
• Content marketplace – Narrato has a content marketplace too, with hundreds of expert freelance writers. Your order is automatically matched to the best-suited writer on the platform and the finished content is delivered within 24 to 48 hours.

Pricing:

Narrato has a free plan for individual content creators and teams just getting started. The Narrato Workspace paid plans start at $8 per user per month which include advanced features like Revision History, Automatic SEO content briefs, Freelancer payment management, white labeling, and more. The pricing for the content marketplace is bucketed under 4 service levels.

2. Easel.ly – Infographic creation

Every content marketing team needs to create visuals and infographics to go with their content. And hiring a graphic designer is not always an option, be it for budget constraints or other limitations. Neither is it easy for content creators without design experience or knowledge to learn graphic design, because the learning curve can be quite steep.

Intuitive software that allows you to easily create infographics, without any expertise in design, is a must-have productivity tool for content teams.

Easel.ly is a graphic design tool that will save you a lot of time on your infographics and visual elements. Apart from infographics, you can build reports, presentations, ads, charts, and more. There are thousands of templates for various use cases, such as health, food, travel, product comparisons, social media, financial, and many others.

The ease of use of the platform makes it convenient to operate for anyone on your content team. You can add team members to collaborate on a design. You can also share your designs directly from the platform via email, a public link, or even on Facebook and Twitter.

Easel.ly also has an unlimited graphic design service if you’re planning to outsource it, particularly handy for small businesses with a small content team. You can choose to hire a designer part-time or full-time and all you will have to do is share a brief.

Pricing:

Easel.ly pricing plans include student, individual, and business plans. The Individual plan is priced at $4 per month and the Business plan with additional features costs $5 per month.  Paid plans for graphic design services on Easel.ly start at $120 per month

3. Portent’s Content Idea Generator – Ideation and topic inspiration

The first step in content creation for marketing is generating ideas. Finding new and engaging topics for your blog posts, articles, eBooks, podcasts, videos, etc. can be tough, especially if you are creating content frequently. If you have to compete in the market, your content has to be both fresh and yet something that the audience wants to read about. And the topic is the first thing anyone would look at to decide if it’s worth their time.

A good ideation and inspiration tool can be a lot more productive than having to brainstorm new topics with the entire team every time.

Portent’s Content Idea Generator is one such ideation and topic inspiration tool that many marketers vouch for. It is a simple tool with very little to talk about. But it does what it says. All you need to do is enter your subject or keyword and the tool churns out an attention-grabbing title in seconds. If you want alternatives you go on clicking on ‘See Another Title’ to generate new suggestions.

You can also click on the title generated to get some quick tips on why the title could work and how to craft better titles.

Pricing:

Portent’s Content Idea Generator is free to use.

4. Norbert – Email finder

In content marketing, you often have to reach out to people, be it influencers in your industry or another brand you would like to partner with. Reaching out is not the hard part, but finding their contact information is. It is hard to find the right email addresses for your cold outreach, and if your messages don’t land in the right inbox, it is just wasted time and effort.

An email finder tool like Norbert can be very handy for your content team in this regard.

The tool helps you find email addresses based on the contact name and company URL you provide. The platform also has a contact database that is regularly updated. Email addresses retrieved by Norbert are also verified to check for accuracy and assigned with a ‘certainty score’.

This makes the process of contact extraction a lot faster than the manual process of digging through databases and social media accounts. Norbert also helps you build contact lists for building resourceful relationships in business. In content marketing, Norbert can help you find relevant emails for reaching out to other blogs for link-building efforts, and also for content distribution.

Norbert integrates with most other platforms like HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier, Google Chrome, and others.

Pricing:

The first 50 emails you extract are free on Norbert. The Norbert paid plans start at $49 per month for up to 1,000 leads and go all the way up to 50,000 leads at $499 per month.

5. Alitu – Audio and podcast editing

Podcasts are a raging trend in the content marketing world right now. Brands that are not investing in podcasts may soon be losing out on a major chunk of their audience if this trend sustains. But creating podcasts and especially editing them to arrive at something share-worthy is a painstaking task.

So if you are considering including podcasts in your content strategy, you will need an audio editing tool to ensure quality.

Unless you have a professional on your team, you should be looking for more intuitive and easy-to-use tools where you don’t have to put in much time or effort.

Alitu provides just that. It is a simple recording and editing tool that has some very useful features. The automated audio clean-up automatically reduces all background noise and levels the audio when you upload a file, for a crisp and clear final product.

You can record podcasts remotely with up to 5 guests using the call recording feature. The recorded call is added to the Alitu library, so no upload is required. You can also highlight any mistakes and silences that you don’t want in the final output and the tool will remove them for you. Intros and outros to your podcasts can be set once and will be added to every new podcast created.

You can also directly publish your podcast to your favorite hosting services directly from Alitu.

Pricing:

Alitu offers a free trial. There is a monthly and yearly plan priced at $32 per month and $320 per year respectively.

6. Hashtagify – Hashtag analytics

As a content marketer, your primary goal is for your content to be found by the right audience, irrespective of which channels you publish on. Your team may be creating excellent content but if it doesn’t reach the right audience, the effort is all in vain. For your social media content, using the right hashtags is one surefire way to increase your reach.

But finding the right hashtags again demands research. From finding what is trending to what your target audience may be searching for, it’s a lot for a small content marketing team to handle.

Using a hashtag analytics tools like Hashtagify can help. Hashtagify boosts your hashtag marketing by suggesting the best hashtags for Twitter and Instagram based on your target keyword. Along with relevant hashtags to use, it also shows you a popularity score for your target hashtag, a recent popularity score, and monthly and weekly trends.

It also offers hashtag suggestions based on your content and also helps identify Twitter influencers in your niche, who you could connect with.

Pricing:

The platform offers a free trial. Hashtagify paid plans start at $29 per month.

7. Tomato Timer – Time tracking

Nothing helps save time more than keeping track of time. This is why your content marketing team needs a time tracking tool that can help them be productive, take much-needed breaks between work and maintain a good balance.

The Tomato Time, recently acquired by Toptal, is a simple and easy-to-use time-tracking tool that works on the Pomodoro technique in which you break your work into 25-minute sessions followed by 5-minute breaks. With the Tomato Timer, however, you can choose between a short and a long break of 10 minutes as well.

You can change the settings to customize the work and break session times. You also get desktop alerts on Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Pricing:

Tomato Timer is a free tool.

8. Murf – AI voice generator

Adding narration to your videos is a great way to add a human touch and help the audience connect better with the content. But adding voiceovers to videos is not everyone’s cup of tea. Neither is hiring voiceover artists very pocket-friendly for every business.

This is where you can save both time and money by trying a voice generator tool instead. An AI voice generator tool like Murf can help you create quality, human-like voiceovers for all your videos, animations, podcasts and similar content.

Murf helps you create studio-quality voiceovers for different use cases within minutes. There are different options available for product developers, marketers, authors, animators, podcasters, and more. The Murf library has over 130 text-to-speech voices in 20 different languages. You can easily upload your creatives, be it a video, image, or music, and sync it with the voiceover you choose. You can also change the pitch, punctuation, and emphasis where you need to so that your message is rightly conveyed in the voiceover.

Not just text-to-speech, but you can also convert your voice recordings to AI voiceovers. With the Enterprise plan, you can add your team members to collaborate on projects too.

Pricing:

The free plan gives you access to up to 10 minutes of voice generation and transcription. Murf paid plans start with the Basic plan for individuals priced at $13 per month and can go up to $166 for the Enterprise plan for teams.

Wrapping up

In the competitive world of content marketing, time is money. The more productive your content marketing team is, the more likely it is that their brilliant ideas will be put to action.

But they cannot deliver their best unless they have all the resources they need for success. If your team is overworked and stressed, they cannot be productive. These few time-saving tools should be a good place to start when it comes to empowering and enabling your team.

With a little help from these tools, you are sure to witness a noticeable difference in both productivity and your team’s morale.

Guest author: Neelam Goswami is a content writer and marketer working with a leading content writing service – Godot Media. She has written for several reputed brands in the digital and content marketing space including Neal Schaffer, Mio, and Content Studio, among others.

The post 8 Time-Saving Content Marketing Tools to Ramp Up Your Team’s Productivity appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/content-marketing-tools/

9 Ways to Increase Your Conversions Using Popups

Lead generation is crucial for any and all businesses. But it’s the one area where most marketing efforts are seriously challenged.

One of the most effective lead generators is popups which have become ubiquitous on pretty much all websites nowadays. Popups are sometimes considered annoying, but they can work wonders if you use them properly.

Even though popups have an average of a 3% conversion rate, the top marketers record a 10% conversion rate. Considering you don’t want to have your website marketing just be “average”, here are 9 ways you can boost your popup conversion rate and start generating leads on auto-pilot.

1. Know your audience

For any marketing campaign, knowing your audience is very important. However, this is one of the most overlooked parts of a website’s efforts to optimize conversion rates.

Oftentimes, if your website is focused on a very specific niche, you need not worry about knowing your audience, because it is apparent from the products or services that you offer. For example, a phone case seller need not stress about knowing their ideal customers, because they know that they are individuals who are looking for phone cases.

However, if you offer multivariate products or services, knowing your audience becomes imperative. For example, at WinSavvy, we offer marketing and legal consultancy. However, if a user signs up for our email newsletter, we need to know whether he/she is looking for legal help or marketing help.

Most websites with a broad niche, therefore, need to conduct extensive market research to figure out their audience and categorize them into their preferences, needs, and wants.

It also allows you to personalize your marketing messages. And, this is important because 72 percent of consumers reportedly engage with brands only if they receive personalized messaging.

As such knowing your audience is crucial if you want your popups to succeed. And, if you do not know your audience and your potential customers, then none of the following steps are going to work.

2. Ensure your popups are contextual

Ensure that your popups match the look and feel of the page as much as possible. If your popup is bright pink and has glitter it’s probably not going to fit in with a serious sales page, leading many users to dismiss it before it even loads in their browser.

Keep things consistent so users aren’t distracted or surprised by what pops up.

Popups should match the content of the webpage that they appear on, so try to avoid using popups on pages with different content than the popup.

You might be showing up a popup on a page where users don’t need your help or might feel annoyed by it. Weirdly, some websites display popups with special offers when users land on their homepage. This often leads to frustrated users and low conversion rates.

“When should I show up my popup?” you might ask, and the answer is very simple: when it is needed!

For example, add a discount coupon popup on your product page.

If you’re trying to collect information from visitors (like their email addresses), make sure that your forms are only appearing on pages where they’ll be useful. If you’re trying to sell something, make sure your offer is relevant to what people are looking at, and make sure that it’s connected to whatever they just viewed or interacted with.

Make this tip actionable

When designing a popup, always ask yourself, is this relevant to whatever my users are currently doing?

If the answer is no, then ditch the popup. As it is, it won’t work – all you’ll end up doing is irritating your audience and hurting your brand.

3. Don’t use immediate popups

Try making your popup appear after a certain amount of time instead of immediately. This will give the user a more relaxed experience when they are reading your content, which may make them feel more connected to you and increase the chances they will convert.

When people are browsing your site, you don’t want to scare them off by throwing popups at them. You need to know the right time to present offers and get the visitor to take action.

One way is to look at the page that they came from. If it’s a product page, offer a related product. If it’s an article page, offer another article or even more articles about that topic. If it’s a blog post, offer other posts from the same blog.

You won’t be able to do this if you just throw popups at your audience just when they land on your website. As such, wait for a few seconds. Let your audience get into the flow of your website content and then show them a relevant popup.

It will lead to a much higher conversion rate.

4. Leverage social proof in your popups

One of the most powerful tools available to any marketer is social proof. Social proof is the idea that we look to others to determine what’s normal and appropriate.

Most people are heavily influenced by the actions of their peers. We like to believe that we make our own decisions, but in reality, it’s difficult to ignore what other people are doing.

When used properly, social proof can have a huge impact on your sales conversions. When you present prospects with social proof, you’re telling them “this product has been seen, tried, and loved by many before you”. It’s as if you’re saying there’s nothing weird or fishy about this product at all.

Jeff Bullas’s blog displays its social proof with great dexterity.

You’ll be able to see on each and every webpage of JeffBullas.com, a quote:

“Join over 25 million other readers that have been educated and inspired to transform their life and business.”

This helps develop trust with your audience.

Even if you have not got so many readers, you can just mention your guest posts and showcase them as a list of websites where you have been featured.

You can also use this concept in your popup design.

For example, if you’re running a promotion for your blog and want people to sign up for your mailing list, adding a number of followers to your popup design can make people more likely to subscribe.

Even if you don’t have any followers yet, you can still use social proof by saying that you’ll share their name with a certain number of subscribers once they sign up.

Word-of-mouth marketing is also an effective way to get people interested in what you have to offer – if someone ends up following through with your promotion after they’ve seen how many other people are already taking advantage of it, they’ll feel like they’re missing out on something important if they don’t sign up.

However, you should not overdo it. The art is providing a lot of social proof in very little space – preferably in just one line or picture.

So, just mention one of the biggest achievements of your website or business that you are very proud of and that would be it.

Here are some suggestions for you to implement as social proof for your popup:

• Testimonials from customers
• Endorsements from big names in the industry
• Awards given to you by respected entities or organizations

5. Try content upgrades for the popups on your blog

Content upgrades are one of the best ways to generate leads for your business. Content upgrades are a type of lead magnet content that you can offer to your readers in exchange for their email addresses.

A content upgrade is a special offer that is directly related to the blog post topic, such as a PDF version of the post, a checklist, or additional video content.

The popup comes up at any relevant location on your page and it offers the reader a free PDF version of the article they are reading. In fact, this tactic was one of the biggest sources of leads for Backlinko in its hay day.

Even if you can’t provide additional content as content upgrades, just repurpose your content and share the repurposed content in your popups as a downloadable to generate more leads.

6. Create teasers for your popups

Popup teasers are a great way to build leads because they provide an incentive for the user to gain access to the entire popup without being intrusive to their experience. Popups are often compared to interruption marketing in that they both offer something of value to the user in order to garner interest from the potential customer.

However, the fact is that attention marketing is working less and less with every passing day. As such, it is important we actually put into use Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing formulae in our digital marketing practice.

When you show a small teaser of a popup, it is highly unobtrusive. As such, when individuals click on them, they have a very high chance to convert and become a lead.

Teasers are the new popups and should be used so as to make your popups much more effective.

7. Surprise your audience with exit-intent popups

Since your audience is already leaving, there’s no harm in being obtrusive at that very moment.

However, when a user is leaving your website it is very difficult to change their minds. As such your popups need to have a strong value proposition when you use them so as to make your audience stay and become leads for your business, thus ensuring your conversion rate stays strong.

Ensure it’s personalized, has lots of contrast (possibly, images/videos), and surprises your audience.

If it’s a product or service page, offer some sort of discount so that they sign up and become a lead for your business.

8. A/B test your popups

When it comes to A/B Testing your popups, you should use the exact same copy and images in each version so that you have a fair comparison between them.

However, just make one change each time.

This will help you to determine whether one performed better than the other. You’ll look at how many people clicked through from each of the two versions of your popup after being shown each one for a certain amount of time (usually 24 hours). This data is then plugged into a statistical significance calculator and you get the results right away. The version with the higher conversion rate is the winner!

That said, what are some of the key areas that you should run A/B tests for?

Well, they are:

• The popup headlines
• Positioning and placement of the popups
• Removing and adding information into your popup
• Basic popup design changes

9. Don’t overcomplicate your call-to-action

Popup calls-to-action (CTA) are an effective way to grab your visitors’ attention and encourage them to sign up. But, if you get it wrong, these can actually reduce the effectiveness of your popups, make them annoying and drive people away from your site.

The most common problem with popup CTAs is that they are not done properly. Here are a few quick tips for creating the best popup calls-to-action:

Keep it simple

When creating a popup CTA, keep it short, sweet, and simple. The more complicated the message, the less likely people are to read it or sign up for what you are offering.

Make sure you have one strong message for your popup CTA. If possible, restrict yourself to just one sentence.

Focus on the benefits

Your popup needs to clearly state the benefits of signing up for your offer so the customer knows exactly what they are getting from the deal. Focus on benefits rather than features and make sure you are describing what the customer gets out of the deal rather than what you get out of it.

For example, “Get instant access” instead of “Sign up now” or “Claim your free report” instead of “Read our blog”.

Be-relevant

A user who wants to download a free report will not be as amenable to a CTA of “Subscribe to our blog” as he will, to a CTA of “Get my free report now!”

Wrapping it up

These 9 tips are sure to set your popup in the right direction and improve your conversion rate by a huge margin.

The most important advice to follow is to make sure you provide value to your visitor at every step of the journey. These 9 tips are designed to provide just that but in different ways and manners.

If each and every popup tries to ensure your visitors can actually get the best out of your website, there’s no reason why your popup should remain at the average of 3%.

If you have any questions or feedback, let us know in the comments and I’ll get back to you. If you liked this article, give it a share.

Guest author: Adhip Ray is a startup consultant, the founder of a startup consultancy WinSavvy and an advisor at PatentPC. Although he hails from a finance and legal background with twin specializations on intellectual property rights and corporate law, he has been a marketing geek since 2015. He is also an author at HubSpot, Investing.com, Addicted2Success, StartupNation and several other business publications.

The post 9 Ways to Increase Your Conversions Using Popups appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/increase-conversions-using-popups/

A Quick Guide to Increasing Your Website Speed (Step by Step)

People are impatient. A one-second delay in your website’s load time can cause a 7% drop in conversion rates. And 40% of visitors will leave a page that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Two great reasons to ensure your website loads fast!

There are many factors that contribute to a slow-loading website. So before we begin with optimizing, let’s look at all the factors that can affect website speed.

Why speed matters

Page speed has been a ranking factor for desktop searches since 2010. In 2018, it became a ranking factor for mobile searches too.

Google has said that they are looking to make page speed a “first-class citizen”.

A slow website will not only rank lower in search engine results but also lead to a high bounce rate. Over 40% of visitors will hit the back button and check another search result if they see the loading screen for longer than 3 seconds.

There are many factors that contribute to a slow-loading website, including large image sizes, heavy scripts or code, and poor quality hosting.

What is considered a fast page load time?

Most experts agree that anything under three seconds is considered fast. This is especially important for mobile users, as Google recommends a load time of three seconds or less for optimal user experience.

The goal should be to get as close to two seconds or less. But, anything under three seconds is still considered fast.

Keep in mind that this is for real-world load times, not just in testing.

Tools for measuring and monitoring website performance

Let’s now look at some of the tools you can use to measure website speed.

Google Pagespeed Insights – Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool analyzes the speed and content of a web page and provides suggestions on how to make that page faster.

GTMetrix – GTmetrix is a free tool that analyzes your page’s speed. The report gives an overview of how your page fares in terms of speed, including PageSpeed and YSlow scores, page load time, and the size of pages.

Pingdom – Pingdom is another free tool that lets you test load times. The report will show you the page load time, size, and number of requests.

WebPageTest – WebPageTest is a free tool that tests the speed of your website from multiple locations around the world. You can choose from different browsers and connection speeds to simulate real-world conditions.

While these are just a few of the many tools out there for measuring website performance, they provide a good starting point for understanding your website’s speed and how to improve it.

Factors that affect page load speed

There are a number of factors that can impact the speed of your website. Some of these are within your control, while others may be out of your hands.

Here are some of the most common factors that can impact website speed:

• Large image sizes: A lot of websites use full-size images which are not necessary on the web. This can cause slow load times.
• Heavy scripts or code: Adding too much functionality via custom code snippets or plugins can slow your website significantly.
• Poor hosting: If you are using a slow or unreliable hosting service, this can also cause your website to be slow.
• Slow or no caching: Another common cause of slow website speed is slow or no caching. This can be addressed by using a caching plugin.
• Redirects: Redirects tell browsers to go from one URL to another. While redirecting pages cannot be avoided when your website grows, we recommend you keep them to a minimum.

Let’s now look at how you can optimize your website for these and other factors!

Tips for optimizing your website for better performance

Let’s look at some of the easiest ways to get your website to load faster.

Choose a lightweight theme

One of the easiest ways to speed up your website is to choose a lightweight theme like Astra. The default Astra setup scores an A grade from GTmetrix with just 167ms load time.

With Astra, your website loads quickly and efficiently, so you can focus on your content.

At less than 50KB of the default size, compared to 300kb for most WordPress themes, load times are as low as 0.5 seconds. This makes it one of the fastest WordPress themes available.

Astra also uses Vanilla JavaScript to help improve load times.

The recent updates to Astra have made the theme faster than ever before. We have worked hard to ensure that even the subtlest of tweaks are implemented for improved performance.

Astra is a great choice for faster websites because it is responsive, and easy to customize. It’s also fully compatible with popular plugins like WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, and many others.

Limit the use of plugins

Another way to speed up your website is to limit the use of plugins. While plugins can add valuable features to your site, they can also slow it down.

Many functions of a basic website can be done within 10 plugins if you choose them well.

If you are using a lot of plugins like in the screenshot above, try to find ways to limit their use or replace them with more efficient alternatives.

Enable browser caching

Another important step for improving website performance is to enable browser caching. This allows browsers to store certain resources locally, speeding up the loading process when those resources are needed again.

You can use a plugin like Litespeed cache which helps you ensure caching at all levels is functioning in the right way.

Simply install and activate the plugin and go to Settings > Browser tab and switch the Browser cache on.

From here, your visitors’ browsers will automatically store a cached copy of your website in their local storage. When the visitor comes back to your website, they’ll see the local copy first before the new one is downloaded from your server.

Avoid URL redirects

You should also avoid URL redirects whenever possible. Redirects can add extra time to the loading process, so try to keep your URLs as simple and direct as you can.

If you do need to use redirects for any reason, make sure that they are set up correctly and are not causing any unnecessary delays.

A simple redirection manager plugin like Redirection can help you ensure that all your URL redirects are properly configured. Other SEO plugins like Yoast SEO or RankMath also offer URL redirection.

The most important thing is to keep track of all the links that you’re redirecting and remove any unnecessary redirects or redirect loops that may be present.

Compress images

One common cause of slow load times is large, unoptimized images. There are a number of tools and plugins that can help you do this, such as TinyPNG or the WP Smush plugin.

They automatically compress your images once they’re uploaded and serve compressed images to users.

Plugins like Smush even let you set the maximum width and height of your images. So if you have larger images, the plugin automatically resizes them to fit within the maximum limit.

Minify your CSS and JavaScript

Optimizing your CSS and JavaScript can also help speed up your website. This can be done by minifying your code, which is the process of removing unnecessary characters to make it smaller.

While it’s a very simple process where you can run your existing JS and CSS files through a new line remover, plugins like Litespeed cache can make it happen in the background.

Simply install the plugin and go to Litespeed Cache > Page Optimization > turn on the Minify settings for CSS, JS, and HTML.

The speed impact is noticeable as every space is an additional bit which quickly adds up in terms of the page size.

Just make sure to test your site afterward to make sure it didn’t break anything!

Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network)

A content delivery network (CDN) is a system of distributed servers that deliver web content to users based on their geographic location.

By using a CDN, you can improve the performance of your website by delivering content from servers that are closest to your users.

There are many different CDN providers, such as Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront, and StackPath. The most popular choice is Cloudflare because it’s free of cost for small websites and offers great value in the free tier as well as the paid tiers.

The major benefit of adding a CDN to your website is that you no longer have to worry about where the audience comes from.

If your server is located in the United States and your audience is in Europe, the CDN will automatically choose the closest server to visitors.

Switch to better hosting

If after trying all the tips above, you still have a slow website, one solution may be to switch to a better hosting provider. There are many different hosting options available, and it’s important to choose one that is optimized for speed and performance.

Some popular managed hosting providers include SiteGround, A2Hosting, and InMotion Hosting.

If you have a higher-traffic website, it may be time to move to a dedicated hosting service or even a VPS.

Services like Vultr and Linode offer great VPS at as low as $5/month making it very affordable to host high traffic sites.

By choosing a reliable hosting provider, you can ensure that your website will load quickly and consistently, regardless of traffic volume or user location.

Embrace a minimalist approach

Using a minimalist design approach can help you optimize your site’s performance and speed up loading times.

Some ways to implement a minimalist approach include minimizing the number of plugins you use, using a simple theme, and removing any unnecessary features or elements from your site design.

This is one of the hundreds of templates that are offered by Astra’s companion plugin, Starter Templates that you can import with a single click. The best part is they’re all designed to be simple and beautiful to behold.

Conclusion

It’s a well-known fact that speed affects your conversions. So, speeding up your website is one of the easiest ways to increase conversions.

Fortunately, there are multiple ways to speed up a website. A few of which we have shared here.

So go ahead and give them a try. You’ll see the difference they can make to your site’s speed and performance!

Do you have any other tips for speeding up your website? Share them with us in the comments below!

Guest author: Sujay Pawar is the CEO and Co-Founder of Brainstorm Force, the company behind Astra. He’s passionate about the online space and writes articles to help entrepreneurs and freelancers succeed online. A father, a Youtube addict, and the brain behind numerous world-class products, you can connect with him on Twitter. @sujaypawar.

The post A Quick Guide to Increasing Your Website Speed (Step by Step) appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/increasing-website-speed/

Top 5 Tips for Successful Copywriting in 2022

Copywriting is a great career option because it’s a high-income skill and offers numerous opportunities for working from any part of the world. As a result, Copywriting is highly sought after by several industries. However, to become a copywriter, you must hone specific skills and follow certain steps/tips.

As you read on, you will fully grasp the concept of copywriting, its skills, and the steps to follow to become a good copywriter.

The concept of copywriting

Copywriting is simply the creation of textual content that meets the needs of a target market. Copywriting is broad and includes creating written content for product catalogs, blogs, emails, advertisements, print media, and websites. Good copywriting involves communicating with your clients to know what they require and the objective of the copy you are writing.

Copywriting entails the creation of clear and concise copies that talk about the requirements of a client or target market while drawing readers’ attention. To excel in copywriting, one must understand the target market or audience for which they are writing a copy.

The following things are needed for copywriting:

• A computer or smartphone
• Internet connectivity
• A document app or writing tool such as Google docs, Draftable.com as well as access to a content management system
• A tool for checking plagiarism, e.g., CopyScape
• Tools for checking grammar and sentence structure, e.g., Grammarly

Copywriting skills you must have

There are specific skills every good copywriter must-have. They include:

• Attention to Detail: This skill requires being able to assess your work or copy from a neutral point of view. This skill is necessary to properly proofread and edit your work to improve or enhance its quality.
• Writing: Everyone can write, but not everyone can write well. To become a good copywriter, it’s a must to hone your writing skill. You don’t have to be a top-notch writer before you can venture into copywriting, but improving and fine-tuning your writing skill will go a long way in helping you become good or even great at copywriting.
• Creativity: Clients always rely on the creativity of the copywriter to make a copy appealing or engaging to a target audience. Creativity involves being imaginative and able to view things from another perspective. Creativity is also essential because it makes the development of copy ideas easier.
• Listening Skill: A good copywriter must first be a good listener because you need to understand your client’s needs and meet those requirements clearly. Being a good listener helps you become an authority in copywriting. A good listener can interpret the goals and objectives of their client and write accordingly.

Steps to good copywriting

Ensure you follow these steps to become a good copywriter:

1. Acquire Academic or Professional Certifications/Qualifications

Copywriting doesn’t necessarily involve a formal academic certification. However, several clients and agencies prefer to hire applicants who are graduates in specific disciplines. So to enhance your prospects in the industry, get a qualification in a relevant field. In addition, Copywriting is a very competitive industry, so employers may lookout for applicants with professional qualifications or certification in related fields such as mass communication or marketing.

Aside from enhancing your prospects in the copywriting industry, the knowledge gained from studying in these fields can prove very useful to a career in copywriting. For example, mass communication or marketing can effectively enhance your skill to communicate, engage, and appeal to a target audience.

2. Discover and Stay in your Niche

As I mentioned earlier, copywriting is very broad, and it encompasses other forms of writing or content creation. You don’t have to try and master all of them. Instead, make things easy and focus on a niche. This is an effective way of building an engaging audience. Be known for a niche, don’t keep your audience guessing your area of specialty.

You can decide to major in emails, product descriptions, technical documents, advertisements, landing pages for websites, etc. A key to identifying your niche is to know the form of writing that appeals most to your natural areas of interest. Having a niche also makes it easier for you to generate copy ideas, have numerous samples, and build a solid portfolio.

3. Be Familiar With The Fundamentals of Copywriting

Before you get ahead of yourself and start applying for copywriting jobs, ensure that you’ve fully grasped or understood copywriting workflows. You must have a well-versed knowledge of human psychology and what your target audience needs. If you don’t understand human psychology, your copy will not be able to draw them in or be relatable.

Also, while it’s good to have a unique style, tone, or voice in your copy, ensure that the requirements and instructions of your client take top priority in your copy. In summary, focus on the process before the earnings.

4. Build your Portfolio

This is another step to follow up on before you begin sourcing and applying for copywriting jobs. You can’t expect to start applying for and landing copywriting jobs when your portfolio is empty or scanty at best. In addition, clients will want to see your work samples to assess your skill and compatibility with the job you’re applying for.

Once you have identified the niche you want to focus on, for instance, writing advertisements, get to work on content relevant to that niche. This is what will make up your portfolio. Also, take advantage of free mentorship programs and internships to improve your portfolio. It will be your selling point when applying for copywriting jobs.

Once you’ve enough samples of your work, collate them into a portfolio attached to a well-written and organized resume. You’ll present this to prospective clients or employers when applying for jobs.

5. Apply for Jobs

Before clicking on the ‘apply’ button, ensure you read and understand what the job entails. Also, ensure that your portfolio contains work samples relevant to the job you’re applying for. This will significantly improve your chances of landing a job. Another benefit of having relevant work samples in your portfolio is that your resume will pass the screening process carried out by a resume parser. Many clients and employers use this website to review and screen candidates’ resumes.

Conclusion

Copywriting is one of the most in-demand skills. You just need to follow the tips I have mentioned above and you will be able to enjoy a stable income and work. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let us know in the comments.

Guest author: Lori Wade is a journalist and content writer from Louisville. Lori creates news and informative articles about copywriting, freelance, and creative writing. You can find her on LinkedIn.

The post Top 5 Tips for Successful Copywriting in 2022 appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/successful-copywriting-tips/