How to Improve your Email Deliverability Rate

Is your email deliverability rate making you want to bang your head against a wall? Frustrating isn’t it?

After all, you likely spent a decent chunk of time crafting the perfect email to send to your subscribers, only to find out a large percentage didn’t even receive it!

To ensure that your emails get read, it’s important to understand the best email deliverability practices.

Several elements and practices define good email marketing campaigns, and your email deliverability rate is one of them.

Today, I’ll take you through the different aspects of email deliverability, such as:

• Is there an average email deliverability rate?
• What is a good deliverability rate?
• How to evaluate test email for deliverability?

Understanding the concept of email deliverability

Ever find all your emails land in the receiver’s spam?

This makes it challenging for your business to reach the right audience and generate leads. 

Therefore, it’s important to analyze and run tests and concentrate on email deliverability before you send an email to your audience.

Email deliverability evaluates the frequency of an email reaching the subscriber’s inbox. This process is occasionally termed inbox placement.

The ultimate goal of any company is to gain metrics on whether the email has landed successfully in the inbox and how frequently it is opened.

Several factors influence your mail’s landing in the inbox or the spam folder, and they are:

• IP address reputation
• Sender reputation
• DNS records
• SPF records

Your email-marketing process has a big effect on whether the email will land in the inbox or the spam folder.

Email deliverability is an actual rate that highlights whether the email made it to the subscriber’s inbox or not. You are bound to experience a poor email deliverability rate when your emails consistently land in the spam folder or when your email address is blocked.

Common email deliverability mistakes to avoid

In addition to the factors mentioned above, there are a few other factors that impact email deliverability, and they are:

• Bad list quality
• Low engagement
• Missing email authentication

If you aim to improve your email deliverability rate, determine what’s wrong or missing. You could have missed a single or a combination of elements shared above.

Search for authentication methods such as DKIM, SPF, and others to improve your email deliverability rate. You can implement a DMARC record setup to enable email authentication measures and protect your domain.

Simultaneously, it is important to prioritize user engagement through the content of your emails. Remember, an email engagement rate is a mix of click and open rates that indicate positive engagement signals.

One of the primary causes of poor deliverability problems is bad email list quality. For instance, a couple of inbox providers facilitate the additional services of domain blocklist lookup, where they spam your emails if you fall under the email blocklist.

Other metrics such as the sender score can have an effect on your deliverability. Sender score considers your IP reputation and domain reputation.

The difference between email delivery and email deliverability

Before sending an email campaign it is important to ask the following questions:

• Is your message acceptable?
• Is the message getting delivered to the inbox?

Understanding email delivery

Email delivery revolves around the probability that a receiver will accept your email before the spam folder or inbox. If your email does not end up in the inbox, the delivery is less likely to be successful.

For instance, you have booked a flight ticket, reached the airport, boarded the right flight, and got to your destination.

Similarly, when you deliver the email correctly, it will land in the receiver’s inbox; they’ll learn about you and hopefully buy one of your products. 

Understanding email deliverability

Is the message getting delivered to the inbox?

Your concentration is on the inbox placement; this means you have to be mindful of where your email gets delivered. Email deliverability in the spam folder, inbox, and other folders has different impacts.

Good deliverability comprises three essential elements:

Identification:  This describes the primary protocols that confirm you are a reliable authority and all you quote in the email. Some protocols are shared via SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and others.

These protocols act as a security checkpoint for your organization that helps clear your email deliverability.

Reputation:  Your sender’s reputation represents your email’s trustworthiness. Each ISP and firm have different scores for you, and curating positive behavior can help you craft a good reputation.

Content: Do you share relevant messages with your target audience? Poor copy with unorganized formatting can repel readers.

Using abrupt and unclear formatting can harm your email’s deliverability. Instead, consider what your audience is searching for and quote email messages accordingly.

The identification and reputation efforts lead the email to either inbox or the spam folder. On the contrary, if you have delivery issues, you need changes in the infrastructure. It’s time to review and work on the email addresses on the list.

However, if you notice deliverability issues, your subscribers are not interested in your content, or your practices are outdated.

Regardless of where you stand today, there is a scope to improve email deliverability.

Email deliverability best practices for 2022

This image will give you an idea about blacklist emails. If your email is on the blacklist then it will show in this list. Email service providers used to check the email blacklist to check whether your email will go into an Inbox or spam.   

Personalize your emails

Subscribers and marketers have different descriptions of spam emails. For example, subscribers prioritize relevance over algorithms or spam filters.

Are you sharing content that your audience is interested in?

Analyze your content relevance and errors before you hit the send button on your email.

Of all the marketing tactics, email is the most personal channel, and hence your content must resonate with your audience. So, naturally, this directly impacts your deliverability and reader engagement.

Informative and engaging emails can lead to long-lasting relationships with your audience.

Clear opt-in process

The way you accumulate email addresses plays a vital role in your deliverability rates. An optimized opt-in procedure is more effective and affirms that the list comprises handpicked engaging users.

When you tap the wrong audience, they are likely to mark you as spam, and the ISPs consider that you are spamming others on your list.

To avoid such circumstances, I recommend the use of a double opt-in strategy that involves dual verification for the user. This verification process ensures that you have an engaged email list and target them only. Make sure to clean the list regularly to avoid spamming boxes unknowingly.

Analyze subscriber’s expectations

It is essential to consider reader expectations to improve email deliverability. The best way to do this is to inform your readers what they are getting into through transparent communication.

This way, you can align with them and obtain better outcomes.

A few businesses and marketers prefer easy ways to expand email databases, but they seldom drive results and may hamper your sender’s reputation.

One of the key reasons for this could be that they were not ready for regular messages and end up ignoring them, marking them as spam, or unsubscribing.

ISPs can track this poor engagement and degrade your sender reputation, which gradually affects your deliverability rate.

Instead, ask readers for their consent before shooting them a series of emails and playing with your engagement.

Track your metrics

Whether the result is good or bad, it is important to keep tabs on your reader’s activity and not flood their inbox with unwanted emails.

How do you understand whether your subscribers are engaged and enjoy associating with you?

Open and click-through rates coupled with spam complaints and unsubscribes can notify you of the effect of your audiences’ preferences.

Besides, high bounce rates, negative engagement, and compliant rates are bad indicators of email campaigns. You can use email deliverability tools and hire digital experts to strategize an effective campaign for your brand.

This combination can assist you in improving your sender score and eventually reaching the desired benchmark.

Key takeaways

Hosting good email lists, updating your content regularly, and sending effective marketing emails are crucial to email deliverability. This will help increase the likelihood of having your emails delivered to your recipient’s inbox.

Managing email deliverability helps to a solid foundation for your company’s future success.

Guest Author: Bharat Patel heads the digital marketing team at Brainvire Infotech. He is armed with over 12
years of experience in the fields of online marketing and project management. He is extremely
proactive in implementing the latest technological innovations in his projects. Bharat’s core
expertise lies in search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and conversion rate
optimization, among other things. His immense flare of writing encourages him to consistently
pen down words revolving around current trends and innovations that relate to his fields of
interest.

The post How to Improve your Email Deliverability Rate appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/email-deliverability-rate/

Is Google Stealing Your Content?

It was a silent pact that happened over 20 years ago between digital creators and a technology company that changed the world. No contracts were exchanged, and it was a mutual partnership that worked for both sides.

At first, the tech was clunky and rough around the edges. But over time, it became polished, fast and accurate. And the mission of one party was clear and far-reaching. “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

The rules and algorithms for achieving this were never shared but just suggested. The riches were distributed at first so that everyone was happy, singing and holding hands. But slowly, over time, things changed and the partnership became strained. It was a slow creeping takeover. 

What happened?

Google’s first mission statement and tagline was, “Don’t Be Evil”. For some reason, that tagline has been deleted. 

Since then, Google’s capitalistic motivation and greed to make more money have pushed it into a less benign mission statement. It’s along the lines of “let’s take the creators top quality content and make it look like we created it” 

This evolution of search is shown in snippets that appear at the top of most search queries on Google. And if you click on the question in the small text below, they reveal the website and link that created the content. The reason this happened is that Google, in effect, has become a monopoly with very little regulatory oversight up till now. They could write their own rules.

Where are we now?

When I search for the term “Should you optimize your website for search engines?” you see below the four ads that take the top position. 

Google summarizes and metastasizes the content for its own revenue purposes and provides the scraped answers from the websites. The great rip-off? Almost nobody clicks through to those links. The original content creators receive little traffic that sustains their business models in a digital universe.

Now Google’s tagline reads “Do the Right Thing“. But their mission seems to be “Rip off the best content on the web, make it look like ours, and steal ideas from content creators to maximize advertising revenue“. This strategy is disguised behind the sneering altruistic mantra of “great user experience”. 

There was a small win…

Companies, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, have been complaining for years about Google and Facebook publishing their news without compensation while making billions of dollars from advertising. While the media companies advertising revenue dropped like a stone, causing them to lose money from the content they had invested in, with journalists and newsrooms they created and paid for.

In Australia in 2021, the more prominent media companies struck a deal with Google and Facebook for the media giants to pay for the news and content from the major Australian news and media companies. 

This deal was driven by the Australian Government’s ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission), which brought the international search and social media companies kicking and screaming to the negotiating table. Google so far has paid $60m to two local media companies and an undisclosed amount to New Corporation. That’s pennies! 

Why? 

Google Australia also rakes in $7 billion in revenue while paying a paltry $85 million in taxes. The tax rate on revenue comes in at less than 1%. I would rather like that rate! And I am pretty sure that some offshore transfer pricing is happening here (entirely legal but maybe not ethical) that moves the profit elsewhere. 

But what about the small guys?

The reality is that the smaller media companies don’t receive a cent. The reason? They don’t have the bargaining power or clout to take on the likes of Facebook and Google. Google continues to optimize its home page to keep the readers there. It is all in the name of user experience. The net result is that the websites that create the content are seeing less and less traffic. 

Is SEO dead?

The short answer. No, it’s not.

Because Google will continue to use the algorithms they created to identify great content, they make sure that they minimize the traffic views or traffic to the creators to keep you on their homepage. 

So…they are doing no evil except that the content creators are knee-capped and money capped. While Google continues to make billions of dollars.

The advent of the age of search and social media seemed to promise to democratize media and remove the powerful media moguls as the gatekeepers to the creators at first. And it did for a few years, but we are now heading down the path where the big guys make more and the creators become starving artists.  

The answer to the question “Is Google stealing your content?” is not a straightforward answer. 

But do they want to minimize traffic to your site while maximizing traffic to their home page? The answer to that is “yes”. 

And if you are a small media player (or content creator), then your revenue from affiliate traffic will be reduced. And don’t expect them to pay you any time soon! The collusion between the big media players and Google is there for all to see.  

The new media moguls are now the new kings of the universe. They are the new gatekeepers to your content. 

About the author: Jeff is the owner of jeffbullas.com. Forbes calls him a top influencer of Chief Marketing Officers and the world’s top social marketing talent. Entrepreneur lists him among 50 online marketing influencers to watch. Inc.com has him on the list of 20 digital marketing experts to follow on Twitter. Oanalytica named him #1 Global Content Marketing Influencer. BizHUMM ranks him as the world’s #1 business blogger.

The post Is Google Stealing Your Content? appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/google-stealing-content/

5 Examples of eCommerce Chatbots That Will Increase Sales and Revenue

Chatbots today are revolutionizing the manner in which people shop. They are providing improved customer experiences in product selection, shopping, customer service, and more.

According to Statista, an estimated 2.14 billion people purchased goods or services online in 2021.

Image Source

The number of active chatbots is growing at its quickest rate yet. In 2017, Facebook Messenger had 100,000 chatbots, which quickly rose to 300,000 within 12 months. This rapid expansion shows that the collaboration between humans and chatbots is and will continue to improve as time passes.

If that isn’t indication enough of how useful people find chatbots, take a look at the stats below:

• 40% of millennials claim that they use chatbots daily
• 64% of internet users say round-the-clock service is the best chatbot attribute
• 67% of millennials say that they are more likely to shop from websites using a chatbot

Do you want to know how this theory of eCommerce chatbots works in practice? Let’s take a look at Masha.ai, a shopping assistant chatbot by Facebook Messenger.

Image Source

Masha.ai began as an experiment to help customers reduce the amount of time they needed to accomplish their shopping and soon grew in popularity among users. The chatbot, which was designed to assist buyers with shopping options and assist them in placing orders, also provided consultation to its users and sent them news of new stock updates.

The need for eCommerce chatbots

You can save a great deal of time for both your employees and consumers by using a chatbot while also improving your revenue.

Let’s look at the most popular eCommerce use case – placing orders online. As an eCommerce business owner, you must guide customers through the three stages of the customer journey before they make a purchase:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Decision/Purchase

On paper, the development appears to be straightforward. However, it might be challenging to properly guide online shoppers through all three stages.

So, what do you do here to help prospects along the customer journey so that they end up at the Decision stage more frequently?

Simple. You deploy a chatbot.

These bots can be built to offer a variety of services to prospects while gently nudging them towards the final stage. Here’s how to do it:

• Engage during the Awareness stage: A chatbot can go beyond simply luring prospects to your brand and the problem(s) that your product(s) solve. They can even engage them in a unique way that distinguishes your business and prepares them for the next stage.
• Inform during the Consideration stage: It is up to you to educate leads to assist them so that they progress smoothly to the consideration stage – a job well-suited to a chatbot. These bots can tell consumers your brand’s story, promote your products, and pique the curiosity of potential buyers as well. These bots can also service customer queries and satisfy the objections of prospects so that they are more ready to buy.
• Convert at the Decision stage: Bots can make the purchasing process simpler and more appealing. Furthermore, they can follow up with individuals who were on the verge of converting and encourage those who did purchase to return and buy again.

5 Examples of successful eCommerce chatbots

Chatbots that are well-designed can have a favorable impact on customer experience. The channels on which they are most popular are often the ones with the best user experience and simplicity of interaction. What role do chatbots play in the world of big brands? Let’s take a closer look.

1. Nike StyleBot

Brand: Nike

Industry: Sports apparel, accessories, and equipment.

Major takeaway: Chatbots can improve conversions for retail campaigns.

Key stats:

• The average click-through rate (CTR) is 12.5 times higher than other brand campaigns
• Conversions improved by 4 times the brand average

In an effort to promote Nike AirMax Day, Nike considered adopting a conversational marketing campaign that utilized a chatbot for the purpose. An AI eCommerce bot, aka the Nike StyleBot, the brand brought its exclusive Nike ID platform to Facebook Messenger. Customers could create their custom shoe designs or go through previously submitted versions for ideas.

Image Source

Among other things, users can communicate with the chatbot in natural language and receive multiple-choice responses in the form of text, interactive buttons, gifs, and photos. Of all the functionalities, though, the customized sneaker-creation one remains the most fascinating part of the bot. All you have to do is submit a photograph of your favorite pair of shoes and select a color theme from NIKEiD. The opportunity to play with colors and create their own sneakers all through the chatbot helped make Nike StyleBot a huge hit.

2. Michael Kors

Brand: Michael Kors

Industry: Fashion

Key stats:

• Gained more than 350,000 active users
• 55% decrease in inbound service volume
• 90% containment rate

Major takeaway: AI chatbots can reduce service volume and improve customer satisfaction.

Michael Kors spent the year 2018 focusing on creating and deploying an improved chatbot for its worldwide audience. The chatbot that came about not only provided existing deals and item suggestions but also supports consumers in making the right purchase by redirecting them to their eCommerce store to complete the transaction.

Image Source

Michael Kors’ chatbot also provides FAQ help and reroutes customers to real human agents when the need emerges. The chatbot allows you to learn about the brand’s products. Users can ask the bot their questions and it will respond and keep them interested.

The chatbot not only continues to attract new clients but also accurately responds to more than 80% of consumer concerns and retains them with a 90% containment rate.

3. Sephora Kik Bot

Brand: Sephora

Industry: Beauty and makeup

Key stats:

• Achieved a 4.4-25% increase in conversions across platforms
• 18% of Sephora’s customers now make purchases online

Major takeaway: Chatbots can provide personalized recommendations to foster a unique virtual shopping experience.

Mary Beth Laughton, Sephora’s Senior VP of Digital Marketing, delivered a keynote speech in which she announced that Sephora would partner with Kik Messenger to create a chatbot to provide its clients with engaging shopping experiences. Users could now have one-on-one chat experiences via phone with Sephora’s Kik chatbot.

Image Source

If you have ever been inside a Sephora store, you’ve definitely been startled by the vast array of items. This is where Sephora’s Kik bot comes into play. Users can learn about makeup through Sephora’s video clips, special tips, and photo tutorials seamlessly. What’s more, Sephora’s Kik bot also assists users in discovering the items used in makeup tutorials and recommends top-rated items for a specific category.

4. Betty Bot

Brand: GearBunch

Industry: Apparel and accessories retail

Key stats:

• Hit $100,000 in revenue within the first month of operation
• Increased overall revenue by $5,000,000 in a span of 12 months

Major takeaway: Chatbots can act as personal shopping assistants to improve engagement.

GearBunch is a clothing company established in the United States that specializes in goods with unique patterns. Their highest-selling and most popular products are women’s leggings, but they also sell other apparel like caps, accessories, and shoes. They also designed a chatbot named Betty to assist with sales.

Image Source

Betty operates as a personal shopper for users, recommending certain products and even intervening when a user fails to convert. As a consequence, prospective buyers who would otherwise be lost can be reengaged and persuaded to buy. If a customer does not convert after their first encounter with Betty, the bot targets them by:

1. Offering discount coupons: GearBunch sends out sale notices and coupon deals to its customers. Given that 48% of consumers believe they are more likely to purchase a product sooner than usual to take advantage of a deal, this is a highly beneficial tactic for GearBunch.
2. Following up on cart abandonment: If a user adds something to their cart on the GearBunch website but does not purchase it, the bot will contact them again. It will send a cart abandonment notification to the consumer via Messenger that also contains a link to take them back to where they left off.

This has aided GearBunch in increasing conversions by offering its users a personalized shopping experience and assisting them in finding the perfect product, increasing the likelihood that they’ll convert.

5. Freddy Bot

Brand: HelloFresh

Industry: Meal-kit industry

Key stats:

• Improved conversion rate by 64%
• Increased message volume by 47%
• Decreased response times by 76%

Major takeaway: AI chatbots can decrease response times to provide improved customer satisfaction and consequently boost conversions.

HelloFresh is a meal kit startup established in Berlin. In 2017, their Facebook page released Freddy, a chatbot, to assist them:

• Increasing message volume from prospective buyers
• Reducing the time it takes to respond to those messages

Freddy began this exercise by interacting with visitors in an innovative way as they progressed through the Awareness stage. It enticed prospects with engaging, seasonal content to lure them in. For Black Friday 2017 and 2018, HelloFresh made Facebook posts containing a question or a riddle. Whenever a user gave the correct answer, Freddy would contact them over Messenger and send them a promo code. This campaign was so successful in 2018 that it had a conversion rate of 64%.

Image Source

The HelloFresh team also gave Freddy a few amusing features in order to offer visitors a distinctive brand experience that would retain them by keeping them interested. Freddy’s Breakfast Quiz, for instance, is the perfect example of an engaging way for users to learn about HelloFresh’s products.

Freddy paid off big time as part of this bot effort in the following ways:

• Once configured and deployed, the process of delivering discounts, generating leads, and closing purchases were essentially totally automated, saving the team at HelloFresh both time and energy.
• It provided users with a memorable, delightful experience with the brand, increasing their likelihood of conversion and/or re-engagement in the future – an important part of this stage in the customer journey.

To bot or not to bot?

As the chatbot examples above demonstrate, the future presents nearly endless possibilities for eCommerce companies.

Irrespective of the industry you are from, a chatbot may increase your brand’s performance and revenue by attracting new customers, teaching them about your offerings, and improving customer satisfaction by lowering the time it takes to respond to support issues.

So, regardless of which method you adopt, this revolutionary technology can help your brand improve its performance to reap substantial benefits.

Guest author: Srushti Shah is an ambitious, passionate, and out-of-the-box thinking woman having vast exposure in Digital Marketing. Her key focus is to serve her clients with the latest innovation in her field leading to fast and effective results. Working beyond expectations and delivering the best possible results is her professional motto. Other than work, she loves traveling, exploring new things and spending quality time with family. Reach out to Srushti Shah on Twitter or LinkedIn

The post 5 Examples of eCommerce Chatbots That Will Increase Sales and Revenue appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/ecommerce-chatbots/

How to Write Effective Content for Conversational Search

Hey Siri, how do I write for conversational search?

Conversational search is a search method that allows people to ask questions in natural language. This search method is becoming more popular because people are using voice-activated assistants like Siri and Alexa more and more.

That’s why content writers need to know how to write for conversational search, as this kind of search is changing how people find information online.

When people use conversational search, they are more likely to ask questions in full sentences than to type keywords. For this reason, the content needs to provide helpful information that answers said questions specifically.

Learn more about conversational search, how it’s changing the way we use the internet, and what that means for content writers below.

What is conversational search?

Conversational search refers to the act of searching the internet using natural language rather than keywords or specific search terms.

A keyword-based search might be something like “pizza delivery near me,” In contrast, a conversational search may sound like, “I’m looking for a pizza place that delivers.”

Conversational search requires a different approach to writing content. When someone uses keywords to search, they usually look for a specific piece of information. But when someone uses conversational search, they are more likely to look for an overall understanding of a topic and need a specific question answered.

The rise of conversational search and voice-activated assistants

The rise of conversational search can be attributed to the popularity of voice-activated assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. People are more comfortable talking to these devices as if they were humans, which reflects the way we search for information online.

Statistics show that the number of voice assistant users rose from 79.9 million in 2017 to over 135 million in 2022. These numbers suggest that people use their devices more often to make phone calls, set alarms, and search the internet.

Image Source

Why is conversational search important?

Some of the most notable benefits of conversational search include:

1. Reduced search friction: When users can ask questions in natural language, they are more likely to find the information they need without feeling frustrated.

2. Increased engagement: Conversational search makes it easier for people to find the content they’re looking for, which can lead to increased engagement. 

3. More personalized transactions: Customers can change their interactions with search; from transactional to personalized.

4. Better recommendations: Users will get better recommendations for what they need.

Challenges of conversational search

There’s no doubt that writing using conversational search terms can be challenging. Phrases like “where can I find pest control services near me” don’t slip into content as easily as “local pest control” does.

Some of the most notable challenges to be aware of are:

Conversation search requires a different writing style

When writing for conversational search, you need to use natural language rather than keywords. This new concept can be difficult for writers who use straightforward keywords to optimize their content.

Be aware of the user’s intent

To write compelling content for conversational search, you need to be aware of the user’s intent. What are they trying to accomplish? What do they need to know? Think about the context behind the words.

It can be difficult to rank for conversational keywords

Conversational keywords are often long-tail keywords that tend to rank low in searches. This is especially true if you’re competing against more prominent brands with more resources.

Conversational search is still evolving

The landscape of conversational search is still shifting and evolving. As more people use voice-activated assistants, the way they search will continue to change. You need to be prepared to adapt your content accordingly.

You need to write for questions

People use conversational search when they want to find answers to questions. As such, your content needs to address these types of questions directly and succinctly.

Tips on writing content for conversational search

Despite the challenges, there are a few things you can do to make sure your content is effective for conversational search. Here are a few tips.

Use long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are the bread and butter of conversational search. Use them throughout your content to ensure that you’re ranking for the right keywords.

Know your audience

As with any writing, it’s essential to know your audience. What are your readers’ concerns? Why are they looking for those specific answers, or in what context? You should understand your audience’s desires, triggers, gaps, and motivators. A writer for any strong emotional design brand should always weave these dynamic elements into the content.

Predict possible searches

When you know your audience, it’s easier to predict the sorts of searches they’ll perform. Try to anticipate their needs and questions, and craft your content accordingly. Think about the different ways a user could pose a question and incorporate these into the content. Using an AI content generator to create content might be difficult here, however, it can give you ideas for creating conversational phrases.

Use natural language

As we mentioned before, conversational search relies on natural language. Using natural language means no keyword stuffing and focusing on writing conversationally. If you wouldn’t say it out loud, don’t write it.

Use an answer-first strategy

Start with the answer to the user’s question and then provide more information. Think of it as an inverted pyramid, with the most important thing first and details that follow.

Focus on localization

There is another layer to knowing your audience when creating localized content. Localization means using the right language variation for keywords, being aware of cultural differences, and understanding the local context.

Keep it concise

People don’t want to read a wall of text when they’re searching for something. Keep your content concise and to the point, focusing on the answers that they’re after.

By keeping these tips in mind, you can ensure your content is ready for an increase in conversational search.

Up for the challenge?

Conversational search is the newest challenge for content writers. It’s important to understand the benefits and challenges of conversational search and how to write compelling content for it. When you do, you’re ready to take on this new challenge and produce relevant and high-ranking content for your audience.

Guest author: Romy Catauta works in the marketing field and is passionate about writing on web design, business, interior design, and psychology.

The post How to Write Effective Content for Conversational Search appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/write-content-conversational-search/

5 Psychological Strategies That Impact Content Marketing

Did you know that around 7 million blog posts and 500 million tweets are sent out every single day?

That equates to almost 5000 blogs per minute and 6000 tweets per second. In addition, you also have over 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.

That’s a dizzying amount of content to compete with, and if you’re a content marketer, you’re at some point going to ask yourself the exasperating question, how am I going to cut through the noise and reach my target audience?

One thing to remember while creating content for your audience is that, in the end, they are human beings. To cut through the noise you can tap into human psychology. Here are 5 actionable strategies that can help you do just that.

1. Social Proof Theory

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that consciously and unconsciously persuades you to adopt a belief or mimic the actions of a group of people you happen to like or trust.

According to Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, he states “we view a behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.”

How to apply it in content marketing?

Social proof can be incorporated in several ways to boost your content marketing, you can either add social plugins or provide sharing buttons to your blog that displays the number of shares your content has generated. If your readers can see that some people have shared your post already, it’s quite likely that they will follow suit. Another quick way to apply social proof to your content marketing strategy is to highlight milestones on social media.

User-generated content like testimonials, reviews, and social media mentions each offers amazing avenues for leveraging social proof. Why? because they all highlight positive experiences and effectively signal to others that your content is trustworthy. Therefore, if you are lucky enough to boast these or any other forms of social proof, you should not shy away from it!

2. Information Gap Theory

Characterized as a disparity between what is known, and what needs to be known to make a comprehensive and reliable decision. This strategy can be used tactfully, to impact your content marketing.

Human psyche is such that when an individual identifies a gap in his/her knowledge or on a topic they care about, they will take the necessary course of action to find out what they need to know. This sort of behavior is fueled by natural human curiosity, which when tapped into strategically works wonders for content marketing.

How to apply it in content marketing?

You can leverage this theory by making your target audience more interested in your business. To help create an information gap, make sure to use gripping headlines and select engaging topics that pique your target audience’s interest. All your headlines must be ultra-specific, unique, and useful, they need to be able to fuel a sense of need and curiosity, take a cue from Neil Patel’s content.

Therefore, when you fashion a headline, try and test out a variety of options until you find a blend that encompasses all the attributes mentioned above. Then, the main too should do justice to the headline and provide the reader with valuable insights they desire.  You can also utilize this psychological strategy to determine the answers your prospects are looking for and create content that addresses those topics.

3. Theory of Reciprocity

Within social psychology, reciprocity is described as the tendency of human nature to want to offer something when something is received. Essentially, when your content can offer individuals copious amounts of value, they might be fuelled by gratitude and might choose to return the favor. The key to this strategy lies in using the principle tactfully to trigger customers to behave in the way you desire.

How to apply it in content marketing?

When you think about it, with every blog post that you create, you give away valuable insights to your readers for free, but why just stop at that! You can go a step further to take advantage of reciprocity, you can create a few free podcasts, webinars, e-books, etc too. These insightful freebies, when used for performance support can get you a mention or a shoutout on their social media or a link back to other blogs. They also act as amazing lead magnets that lure readers and potential customers to share their contact details. In short, if you can ingrain a sense of gratitude in your content, reciprocity will help you secure loyalty.

4. The Nudge Theory

Developed by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, this theory suggests that indirect suggestions and positive reinforcements play a pivotal role in influencing people’s decisions and actions. The success of this strategy relies on clever placement and timing to reinforce the prospect’s momentum. This approach guides prospects towards your content by launching them from other related services or products.

How to apply it in content marketing?

You could tactfully place call-to-action buttons or suggested articles on relevant content and advertising platforms with related products or services. A nudge can provide suggestions of what other converted users did or clicked next to streamline the customer journey. If a nudge towards an action happens to pop up at a natural point during the user experience, they are more likely to take the cue. Embedded nudges are useful for getting people to sign up or subscribe to your content.

5. The Frequency Illusion

The frequency illusion, or for many the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, is a sense of analytical bias wherein after you notice something for the first time, there is a tendency that it starts cropping up everywhere. The trick about this illusion is that your selective attention goes into overdrive. When it comes to content marketing, you can use it strategically to retarget your consumer.

How to apply it in content marketing?

To trigger the illusion, you need to make potential customers aware of your content through integrated campaigns. Distinctive headlines and short sharp hooks within the content supported by attention-grabbing visuals are crucial. You should create multiple pieces of content across several platforms that can reinforce the marketing message conveyed in each, which in turn creates the feeling of frequency.

Parting thoughts

At its core, marketing is in fact psychological manipulation, from color palettes to hook phrases to streamlining the user experience, psychology helps marketers anticipate and even influence behavior.

The reason behind using these psychological tactics is that it helps create a competitive advantage by providing audiences with valuable content­ that speaks to their wants, needs, and challenges.

You too could utilize these strategies to unravel the minds of your target audience and better grasp the universal motives that fuel human behavior and desire.

Guest author: Aditya Kathotia is the CEO of Nico Digital and the founder of Digital Polo. A polyglot of the digital marketing business, he has powered 500+ brands through transformative digital marketing strategies. His work has been featured on Entrepreneur, Hubspot, Business.com, Clutch, and many more. You can find him on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn

The post 5 Psychological Strategies That Impact Content Marketing appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

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