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Spaghetti Blog
Saturday 23rd November 2024
16 Ways to Use Written Content to Drive Conversations, Leads, and Sales
Video has taken over as the cool kid on the block and the algorithms on Facebook and LinkedIn certainly favour them.
Here at Spaghetti Agency, we do love video.
But written content is not only easier for the average business owner to create, but it’s also consumed more than any other medium.
Written content is still needed to rank the video content in the first place (in titles and tags) so you have a very good case for investing more of your time and energy on the written word.
We’ve blogged obsessively since 2010 when this crazy journey started, and blogs have been at the core of our marketing.
I’d like to share some content tips which you can use to improve all of your content. Aside from blog tips and SEO advice, I want to share some very powerful ways to drive conversations, leads, and sales with written content marketing.
So here goes…
16 Ways to Use Written Content to Drive Conversations, Leads, and Sales
1. Headlines
The headline for any content is important. From that email subject line, to the blog post title, to the first sentence on your LinkedIn post and bio – headlines are read more than anything else.
Think about it. Even if you don’t read a whole email, advert, or blog post – you read the headline!
Some people even argue on Facebook about content they’ve not even read – purely based on the headline. I’m sure you’ve seen that happen.
The headline can sell for you if you get it right. Just making your headlines more descriptive tells people who never read your content what your content is about.
The title is so important that I put it in the number one spot here and I ALWAYS share it in workshops.
2. Emotion
We buy and act based on emotion. We all do. You justify it with logic. To fit their needs.
“I love those headphones.”
(They’re £250!)
“I do use my current ones a lot and I make money whilst I’m using them.”
(I bought them for the first reason!)
Emotion should play through most, if not all, of your marketing content and you should certainly aim to add it into your headlines.
Get emotional. Understanding the emotional reason someone will tap, click, sign-up, or buy from you is so important!
3. Pattern interrupt
“Stop…
… Carry on!”
Did you ever listen to ‘Mark and Lard’ on Radio One in the 90’s? They had such great catchphrases and that was one of them.
“Stop… Carry on!” is the way you should view online marketing. You’ll be interrupting the scrolling and surfing and you need to stop them, grab their attention, and then hope that they carry on after consuming your content.
Pattern interrupt is a technique to ‘change a particular thought, behaviour or situation’ and is a great way to play the online marketing world.
Don’t blend in – be different and interrupt that pattern.
4. SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) helps search engines find your content. Creating helpful and interesting written content is the best way to do this outside of YouTube.
Even sites like Facebook and LinkedIn need the copy to help rank the content.
You need to understand what your audience needs help with, and how they search for it.
If you sell X, it doesn’t mean you should rank for ‘X’ as it’s not always what your customers search for.
Head to Google and try this SEO tip to get better at this.
5. Standing out
Be different. Don’t keep creating stuff that everyone else is creating.
Stand out. There are a lot of people in your industry already doing and posting what you do.
Standing out isn’t actually that hard because most simply follow the crowd.
Stand out by being you, sharing your ideas and concepts, and mixing that up with great helpful advice about issues/problems in your industry.
6. Do more!
A lot of the content I create gets little traction. I’m just very fortunate to have had success in the past so that drives me to create more for those future successes.
You have to keep going.
Consistency and continual action are key.
Get your message, your focus, your niche, and your audience set – and keep going.
You will be rewarded for keeping going. I’ve seen this so many times!
7. Case sensitive?
TITLES CAN BE SHOUTY!
Or They Can Be Capitalised.
Or… they can have RANDOM WORDS in caps.
They stand out though. Find your style and stick to it for consistency.
8. Emoji-cal
Emojis are OK on LinkedIn. They’re OK on emails. They’re OK on video titles. They’re OK on landing pages.
As long as they’re commonly understood, they can help you get your message across and show a bit of quirkiness. Add some colour whilst also adding some pattern interrupt. This works very well in email inboxes! Try Getemoji.com to add emojis into your desktop content.
9. Rank-able
Make sure your content is rank-able by playing the game on the specific platform that you’re on.
On Google, you’ll need to focus on keywords and good on-page SEO.
On LinkedIn, you’ll benefit from popular hashtags and strong titles for your articles.
On Facebook, trending topics or topics of conversation merged with the rank you have on a particular area of the channel will help you to be seen.
Experiment to see what works for you. Work out the game and play to the rules. Work out how to win and then post to win more.
10. Stay cost-effective
Content is cost-effective because, for the most part, you don’t need tech as you do for video.
You can create content anywhere. I wrote this blog on iPhone in my kitchen, using some downtime whilst my daughter napped at the weekend.
Written copy is pretty easy to create and share when you know what to do.
11. Speak to text
Struggle to type? I hear you. It’s partly the reason I write our own blog on my iPhone. Autocomplete and my natural thumb tapping make it easier for me.
But have you ever tried dictating your blog or articles? Siri and other assistants are much better than they used to be. Speak to text apps are really effective now.
Grab a smartphone and speak your content, then email it to yourself to edit and proofread afterwards.
12. Transcribe
Another way to get content from voice to text is to record a video and then get it transcribed.
Some of the blogs on this blog are directly transcribed by Rev.com straight from YouTube videos.
You could even record a video and simply upload that to Rev.
Get the transcript back, edit and proof, and you have some content!
13. Subtitles/captions
Even in the video world, text is important. Captions and subtitles are essential to getting content seen online. Many people won’t turn on the sound for videos if they’re in an office with other people or if they’re listening to something else.
So… do use them.
14. Tags and metadata
The metadata and tags you use on social media and online content matters.
Get good at knowing what people are looking for and using those search terms in your content.
YouTube tags, LinkedIn hashtags, Facebook video tags, Instagram hashtags… the list goes on.
Written content wins here too.
15. Keep it short and sweet
Keep your content short and sweet at times.
I know; I need to take my own advice here!
Sometimes, a one-liner will be a blog.
Seth Godin’s blog is famously short but hugely thought-provoking.
Headlines are sometimes winners in the email inbox when short as they fit on smartphone previews.
Try to get your point across in fewer words. This is why Twitter was tough for some, and a winner for others.
16. We all use words to search, even with voice technology
We all use words in our search and even with Alexa, Siri and other assistants, words are still very much at the core of search and algorithms.
Get really good at working out the words that your audience use, the language that they speak, and the queries that they type.
When you understand this, and when you fix the problems they have right now, you’ll have cracked the content conundrum.
Need more help?
Download the free guide below. It’s crammed full of tips.
If this sounds a bit much, why not let us write your content for you? We have three content packages available for your blog, social media, and email marketing.
Let’s talk!
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1 comment on this article
Trade Vision at 8:07am on April 13th 2022
Very nice article with lots of information. Thanks for sharing this one with us.