SEO Defined in 60 Seconds [Animated Video]

How do people find what they’re looking for on the web?

Search engines.

And in order for business owners to ensure that their content appears as the most relevant resource for prospective customers, they must optimize web pages to show up in search engine results for specific keywords.

But let’s say you’re a beginner when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO).

What exactly is SEO?

Watch our short, fun video about SEO

With help from our friends at The Draw Shop, we whipped up 12 definitions from our new Content Marketing Glossary into short, fun whiteboard animated videos.

Check out our video for the definition of SEO:

Animation by The Draw Shop

And for those of you who would prefer to read, here’s the transcript:

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It’s a process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” or “natural” search results generated by search engines.

Google and Bing are the biggest search engines, and they use algorithms to examine the content on a given page in order to decide what that page is about. Then, based upon more than 200 factors, they decide how relevant that page is to certain keywords.

The job of a search engine, like Google, is to find content that matches your query — or, the basic question you’re asking, like:

• How far is the earth from the sun?
• Who is the lead singer of Led Zeppelin?
• What is a freemason?

Those questions contain keywords. The more your content matches those questions, the better the experience for the user. When you make people happy, you make Google happy.

Share this video

Click here to check out this definition on YouTube and share it with your audience. You’ll also find 11 additional Content Marketing Glossary videos.

SEO resources

If you’d like additional information about SEO, visit these three resources:

• SEO Copywriting Made Simple
• 10 Steps a Local Business Can Take Today to Improve Search Rankings
• SEO Is Dead: Long Live OC/DC

Learn more from the Content Marketing Glossary

Ready to master content marketing essentials? Watch all of our animated whiteboard videos right now by going directly to the Content Marketing Glossary.

By the way, let us know if there are any definitions you’d like us to add to the glossary! Just drop your responses in the comments below.

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The 7 Things Writers Need to Make a Living

If you’re a writer, you might have heard this most of your life:

People don’t make a living writing. You should find something practical to do with your life.

Smart, capable writers grimly pass around war stories on Facebook. Penny-a-word assignments, clients who don’t pay, disdain for our craft, and disrespect for our profession.

And yet, look around at this digital world so many of us spend our lives in — it’s made of words. The technology to produce digital content exists because we create words worth sharing.

Text, video, audio — it all needs great writing if it’s going to be worth spending our time on.

If writing is your profession and your passion, you can accept crap assignments for crap money and crap treatment.

Or, you can choose something better. Because there is something better.

In the time I’ve been writing professionally, I’ve noticed some necessary traits, abilities, and strengths that make the difference between life as a well-paid writer and life as someone who likes to write but can’t seem to get paid for it.

Here are seven of the most important.

#1: Love

This might seem squishy, but if you’re meant to be a writer, you know what I mean.

There is no substitute for the love of writing. For the passion of getting the words right: the head-scratching and the pacing around the house and the endless drafts that aren’t quite right yet.

If you don’t love language and your topic and the act of putting words together, none of the rest of this really means anything.

I could have just as easily used Compulsion, Obsession, or Bullheadedness for this section. Whichever word you choose, it’s about refusing to settle for weak writing, because the words matter.

#2: An attitude of service

Writing for self-expression can be high art, pursued for the sake of your own experience of truth and beauty.

As soon as money changes hands, though, the audience — the reader, listener, or viewer — becomes the focus.

Professional writers work from an attitude of serving their audiences. Serving them with truthful, beautiful words, yes. But also with language that meets their needs, language that clarifies rather than prettifies.

Novelists, copywriters, and content marketers all live in service to our audiences. No matter how clever or perfectly poetic we may find a phrase, if it doesn’t serve the audience, it goes.

#3: Confidence

It’s always struck me as odd that many of the most capable writers are also some of the most insecure.

But it doesn’t need to be that way. Confidence comes from putting the work in to become a genuinely authoritative expert. It comes from research, craftsmanship, and seeing the difference you make to your audience.

Serious craftspeople are humble and proud at the same time.

The pride and confidence come from hours of deliberate practice — the kind of work that expands your abilities and challenges you to grow. The humility comes from the knowledge that a true pro is always improving, expanding, and refining.

#4: Training

Many writers imagine that if you have a good writing voice and a strong opinion about the serial comma, you’re qualified to work as a professional copywriter.

Not so fast.

Great copywriters and content marketers are fine wordsmiths, but they’re also strategists. They understand what types of content work to attract attention, to stand out amid the sea of content clutter, to motivate buying behavior, and to help the audience make the journey from interested bystander to loyal customer.

Solid content and copywriting strategy come from training (and practice). You can get a lot of that training right here at Copyblogger, of course.

And for writers who are serious about professionalism, we have a course designed to train you about the craft of professional content creation. (The “art” is up to your talent and abilities.)

#5: Discipline

You may be a brilliant wordsmith and master strategist, but if you don’t devote yourself to the butt-in-chair time needed to produce a significant quantity of work, you won’t get where you want to go.

To a great degree, discipline is a set of habits that can be cultivated. As a writer, you can string together rituals, create the right work environment, and adopt the behaviors of productive writers.

As a working writer, you also need to throw in a set of habits that will ensure that you meet your deadlines, keep clients updated, and invoice your clients promptly.

If you care enough, you’ll do it. The habits can be difficult to put into place, but fortunately, once they’re in place, they tend to keep you on the right track. (That’s the difference between habits and will power.)

#6: The willingness to become a marketer

There is some money in writing fiction. (For the lucky few, there’s a great deal of money. Emphasis on few.)

There’s also still a little bit of money in journalism and feature writing, especially if you have excellent contacts.

But for the most part, if you want to make a living as a writer, the fastest, most enjoyable way to do that is to write content for businesses that want to find more customers.

It’s interesting, lucrative, very much in demand, and it will get you researching and investigating as many different topics as you like.

You might think that this kind of writing is boring to do. Far from it. Creating really good content (as opposed to the mass of junk that makes up 95 percent of web copy) will call on your skills as a storyteller, investigator, wordsmith, and historian.

A well-qualified content marketer needs all the skills of a great feature or fiction writer — combined with solid marketing strategy.

You also, of course, need to get comfortable marketing yourself. This can be surprisingly tough even for writers who create superb marketing for their clients.

“Create a bunch of content and hope someone wants to do business with you” won’t work for your writing business any more than it will for your clients’. You need to apply the same strategies and frameworks to your own business that you do to theirs.

If this doesn’t come naturally to you, don’t let that worry you. It doesn’t come naturally to a lot of good writers. But it’s something that’s well within your ability to learn. And we have some resources that can help.

#7: Support

One of the tough things about living as a professional writer is that the path you walk is one you make yourself.

There’s no one to tell you which direction to go, no one to give you sign posts along the way, and no one to outline your day for you and tell you where you need to be and when.

That’s also one of the fantastic things about living as a professional writer. But sometimes Fantastic is also Difficult.

Writing is a lonely business. And it can be just a little lonelier when you don’t have colleagues to bounce questions off of or share your gripes and triumphs with.

When you do find a community of writers, though, it’s a lovely thing. They’re some of the most funny, smart, and quirky people you’ll ever meet. And it just feels good to hang out with people who get you.

(Because your friends and family actually do think you’re sort of a weirdo.)

Where to find professional writers and content marketers

If you need a talented, passionate, skilled writer with terrific knowledge of marketing strategy, our Copyblogger Certified Content Marketers are ready to help with your projects.

You can find a complete list of them here: Certified Content Marketers.

Or, are you a writer who wants to become a professional content marketer?

For you, we’d recommend participating in our Certified Content Marketer training program. It’s usually closed, but we’ll reopen it soon for a short time to invite a new group of students inside.

We’d love to see you there. Add your email below and we’ll let you know when we’re enrolling a new group of writers.

Find out when our Certified Content Marketer training program reopens:

Editor’s note: The original version of this post was published on August 30, 2014.

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3 Cs that Reveal the Quality of Your Blog Post

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of purchasing a diamond, you’re probably familiar with the four Cs that determine its value: Cut, Clarity, Color, and Carat.

As the Editor of a national online publication, I’m faced with the task of assessing the “value” of articles that are submitted to me every day.

The value of an article depends on its ability to resonate with readers.

Any editor will tell you that predicting what will strike a chord with an audience is an inexact science. But, over the years, I’ve developed my own system of three Cs that help me effectively evaluate the quality of an article.

I check for:

1. Clarity
2. Continuity
3. Connection

And the beauty is, you can also use the three Cs to decide whether or not your work is ready to be published.

Let’s break down how to use each of these factors when reviewing your own writing.

1. Clarity

Sometimes I read an article and can’t pin down exactly what the writer is trying to say. What idea is he trying to communicate? If it’s not clear, the writer hasn’t spent enough time creating a precise message.

Similarly, a writer may begin an article with one idea and then veer off on a related, but separate, tangent halfway through the text. We’ve all done it — even me.

For instance, my last post on Copyblogger was about getting comfortable with throwing away your words. In the first draft of that post, I also covered self-editing. Those two ideas are related, but the introduction of that additional idea weakened my main message. In my second draft, I deleted everything related to self-editing to bring clarity back to my primary message.

After you’ve written a first draft, here’s a three-step process for bringing clarity to a piece of writing:

1. Communicate one big idea. If your article contains two big ideas, save the second one for another piece of content.
2. Craft a magnetic headline. Your headline must make a strong promise based on your one big idea. If it doesn’t show how a reader will benefit from the article, rewrite it.
3. Cut extra text. Eliminate every word in your article that does not deliver on the promise made in your headline.

Once you’ve brought clarity to your article, you can move on to the next C.

2. Continuity

This C improves the structure of your article. Now that your headline makes a strong promise and you know the big idea you’re trying to communicate, it’s time to ensure your article takes the reader on a logical journey.

Here are three elements that promote continuity:

1. State your premise. For example, the premise of this article is that it’s helpful to have a framework to evaluate the quality of your content before it’s published.
2. Introduce and support your big idea. The big idea here is that measuring Clarity, Continuity, and Connection will help you create high-quality content. Use subheads and bullet points to reinforce your message.
3. Give readers a payoff. Highlight how the big idea will make their lives better and motivate them to take action now.

In short, your blog post needs to be structured in a way that naturally leads the reader to your desired conclusions and delivers a genuine payoff for them: a big “aha” moment.

3. Connection

This final C is the key to creating an article that readers will be inclined to share. It doesn’t matter how clear your ideas are, how well-structured your article is, or even how informative it might be … if your readers don’t connect with it, they won’t feel compelled to pass it on.

The fastest path to connection is showing vulnerability. The easiest way to get vulnerable? Share a story. It doesn’t need to be long, but the story must be honest — just like my confession above about the mistake I made when writing the first draft of my last Copyblogger post.

Speaking of that post, I told a longer story in that article about getting critiqued by a writing teacher who told me my work was completely vanilla. That made it very easy for readers to feel connected to me because we’ve all had a cringe-worthy experience like that, right?

Use the 3 Cs to transform the quality of your content

The three Cs remind you to remain audience-focused when creating content, and you can use them when you write content for clients as well as when you’re promoting your own business.

They’ll help you produce useful content readers will engage with and share.

What techniques do you use to evaluate your writing?

Share in the comments below.

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Freelance Writers Share the Surprising Keys to Their Successful Careers

We talk about the lives of professional writers and content marketers a lot on these pages.

And we’ve done our fair share of interviews with well-known writers and top-notch content marketers.

But what about those writers whose names you may not know, but who have discovered the secrets to running profitable freelance writing businesses?

We thought it was time to shine the light on these folks so you could learn from their journeys. And to find them, we didn’t have to go far: our Certified Content Marketer page is full of them.

Welcome to our Certified Stories series, where we’ll share insights and tips from successful freelance writers.

Here’s who’s joined us today:

• Terri Cruce is a copywriter and content marketer for small business owners and solopreneurs who understand the need for well-written, engaging content, but lack the desire, skill set, or time to create it themselves. Contact Terri
• Mark Crosling offers content creation, plus content, social, and search strategy. Contact Mark
• Sharlyn Lauby is a Master Level Certified Content Marketer who offers human resources content marketing that focuses on strategic campaigns to increase engagement and lead generation. Contact Sharlyn

Read on as Terri, Mark, and Sharlyn spill their professional secrets.

Who’s your favorite type of client to work with?

We all have clients who are secretly our favorites.

It’s probably in our best interests to hide the fact that we enjoy working with them so much, we’d almost do their work for free.

(Don’t work for free. Read our Pricing for Service Businesses series instead.)

The definition of a “perfect” client will be different for all of us. For our three featured Certified Content Marketers, their perfect clients reflect what they value most.

Terri says it’s all about flexibility:

“As long as there is give and take, a willingness to be open to new ideas and approaches, I can work with that person. Inflexibility drives me crazy and I usually will steer clear of any potential client who is unyielding and demanding.” – Terri Cruce

Mark looks for clients who want to embrace the fact that content marketing is one part of a greater whole:

“My focus is strategy, so I love working with a client who’s receptive to a holistic approach to their content marketing efforts.” – Mark Crosling

And for Sharlyn? It’s all about avoiding boredom at all costs (something I can relate to personally):

“One of the reasons I started consulting was my low tolerance for boredom. I love that my clients are different. They each have a unique personality and working style. So the variety is great. I work with terrific people on fun and challenging projects. The clients who challenge me the most are probably my favorites.” – Sharlyn Lauby

What can clients do to get a writer’s best work?

One way a client becomes a favorite is when you develop a working relationship that brings out the best in both of you. You enjoy your interactions and produce excellent work together.

For Sharlyn, this type of relationship develops when clients make the effort to educate her about their businesses. A writer who’s familiar with a client’s goals and culture can do a better job expressing their messages.

“My clients do a great job of pulling back the curtains and showing me their businesses. It might be sending me to attend an event, speaking with employees, or listening in on an analyst call. It’s essential to learn about their products/services but even better when you understand who they are and what they stand for. It makes it easy to write about them and I think the results show it.” – Sharlyn Lauby

For Terri, it comes down to the simple art of communicating clearly — and managing expectations at the beginning of the business relationship.

“Communicate! Open lines of communication about client needs and expectations, both from me as well as to me, are crucial to a successful working relationship. Also, it helps when a client understands that every working relationship must go through what I call a ‘break-in mode.’ There’s usually some adjustment on both sides when it comes to brand voice, writing style, and expectations. But patience on both ends smooths things out pretty quickly.” – Terri Cruce

Mark emphasizes the importance of open lines of communication as well:

“Talk to me and talk to me. Be totally open and transparent so I’m able to empathize with you and understand your concerns and what you’re hoping to achieve.” – Mark Crosling

What writing habit has helped you the most?

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again (and again). If you want to write better, write more.

The advice to write more sounds too simple to be useful, but the reason we hear it so often is that it really works.

Mark says:

“I’ve made a habit of writing every day. Whether it be random thoughts or structured articles, writing is part of my daily schedule.

At first, it was a chore and I struggled to put pen to paper (or fingers to keypad). I was unshackled once I had the attitude, ‘Stuff it; just write anything!’ This led to free-form writing about whatever came to mind.

Scheduling 20-30 minutes a day made all the difference. It was liberating and writing no longer felt like a burden. It also enabled me to develop my writing voice — and with that came confidence.” – Mark Crosling

Sharlyn stays organized by toting around a place to drop her ideas when they strike:

“I recently started carrying a journal in my bag to capture ideas when I think of them. (I used to do this with bar napkins but decided maybe it’s time to step up my game!) Later, I organize them into client folders or my editorial calendar for the blog. I have more ideas than time to write. That’s a nice place to be.” – Sharlyn Lauby

What trait makes a writer a pro?

In addition to their basic writing abilities, professional writers need to possess other characteristics:

• Writers need to understand and empathize with businesses of all stripes.
• Writers need to be able to synthesize a wide variety of clients’ needs and turn them into compelling words.
• Writers need to approach their work like professionals in order to have profitable businesses.

Terri riffs on the “professional” angle:

“Oddly, I don’t believe that writing ability is at the top of this list. Professionalism, to me, is being accountable, responsible. Meeting deadlines. Going the extra mile to ensure that the client is happy. Discipline, when it comes to working with clients and meeting their deadlines and expectations, is sadly not always present in freelance culture. Reliability and responsibility are critical. Writing skills are as well, and writers should continue to hone their skills. There’s always room for improvement.” – Terri Cruce

For Sharlyn, it’s about how she approaches her craft:

“For me, it was where writing fell in my priorities. It’s important to write every day. That’s when I realized I’m a professional writer. After that, it’s all about ongoing improvement — identifying tools and development opportunities to make me a better writer.” – Sharlyn Lauby

Tips from professional content marketers to aspiring content marketers

Our careers unfold over time and eventually we look back and see the person we were at the beginning — and marvel at how we got to where we are.

We asked our Certified Content Marketers what they wish they knew when they were first starting out:

“Oh good grief. Where do I start?

It would be brevity. How to get to the message and develop a story with as few words as possible. That’s when I first started out.

Over time, it’s work in progress. I continue to learn and adapt, and in doing so become a better writer.” – Mark Crosling

Sharlyn mentions the role editors play in helping your content shine — a lesson we all have to learn in the early days.

“The role of your editor is to make you look good. It can be tempting to think of editors as critics. But really, good editors are masters at providing suggestions and feedback to make your writing and the finished piece stronger.” – Sharlyn Lauby

What was your favorite aspect of the Certification program?

Finally, we thought you might enjoy hearing about our Certified Content Marketer training program direct from three people who have benefited from taking the course and becoming certified.

For Mark, the course material itself provided a major revelation:

“The Certification program pulled it all together for me. It was truly my ‘aha moment’ — I got it!

Not wishing to be melodramatic, but all the components of content marketing aligned for me.

The pinnacle of the Certification program was understanding the buyer’s journey. That was the golden nugget.

The journey of taking your prospective customer from maybe not even knowing you, through to wanting to buy from you. That’s extremely powerful and it’s all achieved with effective content.” – Mark Crosling

Sharlyn learned an important skill and — surprisingly — learned something from the Certification application process itself.

“Two things. I loved the conversation about writing headlines and the importance of writing the headline first. Sometimes it means staring at the screen with your hands on the keyboard for a few moments, but once you figure out the headline, the rest seems to fall into place.

The second was the submission. I spent a lot of time thinking about what to submit, which was a very good exercise. In addition, the feedback I received was well-written and thoughtful. To have someone outside of my industry give me feedback was insightful.” – Sharlyn Lauby

And from Terri, we see appreciation for the exclusivity of the Certification program:

“I actually liked the fact that passing and getting the certification was not a given. I’ve done other certification programs where you just needed to complete the course to get certified. That in itself can be a huge accomplishment as it is so easy to get sidetracked and never finish. But knowing that certification was not necessarily a given meant that I had to knuckle down and do the work. And do it well. That made receiving the certification that much more valuable to me. And to my clients as well.” – Terri Cruce

The Content Marketer Certification program is for serious writers

If you’ve read all the way down here, you’re seriously interested in growing your writing business.

For you, we’d like to recommend our Certified Content Marketer training program. It’s usually closed, but we’ll reopen it soon for a short time to invite a new group of students inside.

Want to be one of them? We’d love to see you there. Add your name below and we’ll let you know when we’re enrolling a new group of writers.

Find out when our Certified Content Marketer training program reopens:

The post Freelance Writers Share the Surprising Keys to Their Successful Careers appeared first on Copyblogger.

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Rainmaker Rewind: 3 Simple Hacks for Better Copy and More Conversions in Less Time

This week on Rainmaker Rewind, Jerod Morris welcomes copywriting and content marketing expert Joanna Wiebe to The Digital Entrepreneur.

Joanna is the brains behind Copy Hackers: a copywriting resource for digital entrepreneurs and online business owners. On this special episode of The Digital Entrepreneur, Joanna offers up a handful of simple copywriting hacks.

And, as always, be sure to check out the other great episodes that recently aired on Rainmaker FM.

1. The Digital Entrepreneur. Joanna Wiebe of Copy Hackers joins Jerod Morris to share a few copywriting hacks that work especially well for digital products: 3 Simple Hacks for Better Copy and More Conversions in Less Time
2. Copyblogger FM. Rainmaker Digital COO Tony Clark hops on the show with Sonia Simone to discuss the powerful new tools that can make marketing messages more effective: The New Age of Marketing Automation: Powerful, Simple, Cost-Effective
3. Confessions of a Pink-haired Marketer. Sonia Simone explores transparency, authenticity, and the point at which sharing becomes oversharing: Things I Love / Things I Hate #4: Trade Secrets, Transparency, and Lemonade Stands
4. Elsewhere. Jerod Morris sat down with Mike Chan on the Go and Grow Podcast to chat about the power of developing a valuable brand: Jerod Morris on the Go and Grow Podcast
5. Zero to Book. Pamela Wilson and Jeff Goins dive into the art (or science) of titling your book: Name Your Book: How to Go from a Working Title to a Title that Works
6. The Writer Files. Jane Friedman joins Kelton Reid on the show to discuss her own writing process as well as the business of being a scribe: How Publishing Consultant, Educator, and Author Jane Friedman Writes: Part One
7. Hack the Entrepreneur. Jon Nastor and Trivinia Barber talk about the importance of avoiding complacency and finding value in your work: Work Like You Are Going to Lose It All
8. Youpreneur. Chris Ducker welcomes Jason Resnick to the show to discuss the power of creating and nurturing valuable relationships: Building a Successful Freelancing Business, with Jason Resnick
9. The Missing Link. Jabez LeBret unravels the world of public relations on LinkedIn with guest Lisa Buyer: How to Handle Public Relations on LinkedIn Like an Expert
10. The Showrunner. Jerod Morris and Jon Nastor expand on why many of your podcast’s listeners might not stick around for the long-term and what you can do about it: Listener Life Cycles: A Podcaster’s Guide

And, one more thing …

If you want to get Rainmaker Rewind sent straight to your favorite podcast player, subscribe right here on Rainmaker FM.

The post Rainmaker Rewind: 3 Simple Hacks for Better Copy and More Conversions in Less Time appeared first on Copyblogger.

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7 Advanced Tactics Pro Facebook Marketers Use to Boost Conversions

It’s time for better results – more leads, more revenue – with Facebook ads.

Today, you’ll get 7 advanced tactics for Facebook ads.

These are the best of the best techniques I use to increase conversions for myself and my clients.

Before we dive in, there’s one essential piece of “pre-work” for you. To help you track sales and conversions, you’ll need to have the Facebook Pixel installed on your website as well as one of two methods of conversion tracking implemented.

Start with the Facebook Pixel

Facebook Pixel is just a bit of code (also known as a script) that you put on your website that sends messages back to Facebook for tracking purposes.

When you install the pixel, you’ll be able to retarget people who have visited your website, track events that happen on your website and attribute that activity directly to the specific ad that brought the website visitor to your site.

You can find your Facebook Pixel (unique to every ad account) in the Assets area.

I won’t rehash the step-by-step Facebook Pixel installation, but what you do need to know is how to then measure your conversions at every stage of your funnel. You can measure conversions on your site with either the Standard Event code or a Custom Conversion.

The Standard Event is an additional line of code you add to the base pixel code and place on the “thank you” page of your website (or the intermediary place in your funnel).

A Custom Conversion is a URL Rule that’s set up to indicate the desired action has been met. Each account is allowed 40 Custom Conversions.

Make sure you have one of the measurement strategies in place before you place your ads. Once you have your tracking system, you’ll know how much it costs to get a lead, to get a sale, and to have other actions take place from each ad. Then you get to continue to test and run the ads that give you cheaper clicks, leads, and sales!

Now, on to the Advanced Facebook Ad Tactics…

#1 – Use Video Ads to Build Audiences

Video on Facebook. So hot right now.

Facebook is making a play for YouTube and giving preferential treatment to videos.

…So that’s one huge benefit to using videos in ads.

That said, the higher engagement video ads can create doesn’t always lead to the best cost per website click. So be sure you do your own tests to get the best results for you.

Using video also works well with one of the newest features of Facebook marketing—the ability to target people who have already engaged with your content. This feature is just rolling out and isn’t available to all marketers yet, but it should be coming soon if you don’t already have access.

To use this feature, go to the menu in the upper left corner and select Audiences.

Then select Custom Audiences from the dropdown menu.

And then you can select Engagement on Facebook to create an audience of people who have already engaged with your videos in the past. 

(If you don’t see this option, this feature isn’t available to you yet, but it should be soon.)

You can choose the engagement level for your videos so you are targeting people who have watched a larger portion or a smaller portion of your video.

I prefer to go with at least 10 seconds so that you know a person is more engaged. One limitation is that the video needs to have a decent amount of views (over 1000) to retarget people who have watched it. As a general rule, you can’t target an audience size of less than 1000 with Facebook ads.

But with video views costing around $0.01 or $0.02 each, getting your initial video up to 1000 views will only cost you around $10-20 and possibly less depending on your audience. Plus, you can group a set of videos into one audience so you capture anyone who has seen your recent videos.

By creating an Audience of people who have already viewed your videos, you’ll be showing your ad to a warm audience who is familiar with your content.

#2 Sequence Your Messages

Another powerful technique that advanced marketers are using is message sequencing. This gives people a series of tips or directs them to different content based on how they interact with your first ad.

I used a combination of an ad with an image that went to a free mini-course then a series of 3 Video tips.

Then I scheduled the ads so that they would go to the same audiences, but I also used the Custom Audiences to re-target the people who had already seen my first Video tip and my second Video tip.

I ran ad #1 throughout the campaign but then sequenced the three Video Tip Ads to run 1 day each on sequential days.

You probably noticed that my retargeted video views were more expensive, but that’s because a very narrow audience costs more.

 

On the final day, I ran two ads that retargeted both people who had visited my website and the people who had seen any of my videos. What resulted from this sequenced campaign was an increase in sales of 350% over my last promotion just four months earlier!

You can also do this sequencing slightly differently by directing people to content on your website, creating a custom audience of people who have visited that particular page on your website and then show them a different message.

Jon Loomer does this particularly well with a Carousel Ad with three different images, each leading to different “tests” on his website. When you select which type you are, he is then able to build a Custom Audience from your website visit and direct different type of content just to you.

One limitation of this approach is that you will have to have over 1000 visitors to each page to then use that custom audience for additional advertising. So something to keep in mind!

#3 Only Sell to Warm Audiences

Selling on Facebook is challenging. It’s different than Google because people may not actively be looking for your solution. You are targeting by interests and demographics, not search terms that someone is looking for right in that moment.

Custom Audiences can be set up to connect to your email subscribers who have opted in on an offer, website visitors who have viewed particular pages, or people who have watched your videos. Doing so keeps your costs down by only showing your ads to people who are more likely to convert.

#4 Use Breakdown Reports to Spot Weaknesses

Many people aren’t using the Breakdown Report to see what segments are converting better for them. While we can’t see things like which keywords are converting best (separate those out into different Ad Sets if you want to compare that), you can break down results by Placement, Age, Gender, and even Time, as well as other segments.

When you use the breakdown report, you can stop the underperforming segments. In this example, the Mobile News Feed placement is converting at a 26% better rate!

You can also separate out your placements into different Ad Sets so that those budgets are controlled more tightly. When you choose multiple placements in one ad, the budget is optimized across all of them and is not spread evenly.

Notice in this set of ads, the Right Column placement for retargeting does better in terms of cost per conversion compared to the News Feed on Desktop.

The right column placement usually doesn’t get high visibility because it only shows up on Desktop, but I find that it does well in Retargeted ads because people recognize your brand.

#5 Segment Audiences and Tailor Copy

Segment your audiences to test which ones are converting better so that you can tailor the copy in your ads specifically to that market. You can draw attention to your ad by mentioning that segment by name.

For example, these ads featured images with industry-specific equipment with copy like “Are you a plumber that is frustrated with …” Some of the segmented ads are even converting better than the retargeted traffic, which usually converts at the lowest cost.

We used Job Titles and fields of study for the targeting.

Using a combination of demographic and interest targeting can help you reach your perfect customer, but be sure to do a variety of tests.

#6 Use Engagement to Spot Content that will Get Cheaper Clicks

Boosting your Posts can be an “easy” way to push your content into the News Feed with the decreasing organic reach. But I’ve always been a proponent of only boosting your content to your current Fans. That way your Boosted Post is naturally optimized to get engagement on that post only. Plus, you don’t waste money getting Likes on a post from a non-fan who will never see your content again.

Dennis Yu recently showed me some cases where using Boosted Posts combined with great Custom Audiences and Targeting helped increase fans and conversions.

In this case, $20 in spend led to huge interaction and 20% conversion for apparel of the Golden State Warriors. (Images courtesy of Dennis Yu.)

And by using targeted keywords that specifically relate to the post, along with a video, they’re getting big reach and video views on a small budget.

How does Dennis determine if a post is worth boosting? He looks at the current Reach of the Post and if there is already 10% Engagement (at least 10% of the people Reached have interacted with the post), they know that by giving that particular post a “Boost” it will essentially go viral and cost very little for big interaction.

His rule of thumb might not be right for everyone. Look at the Engagement Rate of your Posts in the Insights area and see which posts got good engagement. Your magic number might be something like 8% or 7% or whichever posts you decide are already getting good engagement.

#7 Watch All Parts of Your Funnel with Conversion Tracking

If you have a multi-step funnel, make sure you track each step of the conversions by using the appropriate Standard Event codes. 

Add the Standard Event code to the base Facebook Pixel that’s installed on your web pages to see where people are dropping out of your process.

Now when someone adds something to your cart but doesn’t purchase, you can see that in the Facebook reports. In this example, the top ad converted to a sale at almost twice the rate of the 4th ad down, which had a lot of Add to Carts but not as many full conversions. 

Now you can create a Custom Audience of all the people who added your product to their cart but didn’t buy. Then target a special ad to that specific group – super powerful!

Facebook ads can give you crazy-good return on the money you spend, but you also have the potential to waste a lot of money if you take a “set it and forget it” approach. Make sure you’re vigilant about watching the right stats, running a variety of tests, and putting a stop to what isn’t working.

Hope that gave you some great ideas for improving your next Facebook Ad campaign. Have I missed any fave advanced Facebook ad techniques??

~Andrea

 

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Podcasting Defined in 60 Seconds [Animated Video]

Perhaps you’ve reached a stage in your business where you are ready to do something new.

You have a story to tell or education to share, but you’d like to do more than just writing. Or, you may feel that your audience isn’t growing as quickly anymore.

If you relate to any of those scenarios, then you might want to consider launching a podcast.

But what exactly is podcasting?

Watch our short, fun video about podcasting

With help from our friends at The Draw Shop, we whipped up 12 definitions from our new Content Marketing Glossary into short, fun whiteboard animated videos.

Check out our video for the definition of podcasting:

Animation by The Draw Shop

And for those of you who would prefer to read, here’s the transcript:

A podcast is audio content you can subscribe to and listen to on demand. This American Life is a podcast. The incredibly popular crime-investigation show Serial is a podcast.

In fact, you can think of a podcast as portable radio. Once you’ve downloaded the episode, or subscribed to the show, you can listen to your favorites anytime, anywhere — as long as you have a smart device like a phone or tablet.

Some podcasts follow an interview format, like Marc Maron’s WTF. The podcast Stuff You Should Know uses a rotating panel of experts to discuss different topics. Some are sheer entertainment, like The Truth, which is essentially a movie for your ears. And then there are long-form monologues like Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History.

Rainmaker Digital has an entire network of podcasts around the themes of digital business and marketing. You can find all our shows on Rainmaker FM.

Unlike reading a blog post or watching a video, podcasts are the only truly mobile medium. You can listen to them while walking, driving, or lying down with your eyes closed.

Share this video

Click here to check out this definition on YouTube and share it with your audience. You’ll also find 11 additional Content Marketing Glossary videos.

Podcasting resources

If you would like to learn more about podcasting, visit these three resources:

• How a Podcast Is Born [Infographic]
• Why a Comprehensive Content Strategy Includes Podcasting
• The Showrunner Podcasting Course: How to develop, launch, and run a remarkable podcast

Learn more from the Content Marketing Glossary

We’ll feature the rest of the videos soon, but if you don’t want to wait, you can watch all the videos now by going directly to the Content Marketing Glossary.

By the way, let us know if there are any definitions you’d like us to add to the glossary! Just drop your responses in the comments below.

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How to Land Writing Clients with Advanced Facebook Ad Targeting

The idea of spending money to make money can be a bit scary.

Especially if you’re in a freelancing slump.

After all, Facebook Advertising is certainly not free.

But there is one thing that Facebook Advertising is, and that is specific.

Unlike Google, Facebook is not going to have you competing against Scripted, Outsource, and Upwork, who are likely going to outbid you for the term freelance writers. Instead, I’m going to have you targeting your ads to very specific people. People who fall into one of three categories.

1. Clients who are already interested in hiring you. They just need a little gentle reminder.

2. Clients who are in need a freelance writer, but they don’t know it yet.

3. Clients who are in need of a freelance writer, but they are looking in all the wrong places.

You can target all three of these types of clients using advanced Facebook Ad Targeting. Here’s how.

Quick note: I’m going to assume you already have a website and a Facebook Page at this juncture. If you don’t have a website, skip step 2. If you don’t have a Facebook Page, you’re going to need one ASAP. The short and sweet of it is to go here. Choose the Artist, Band or Public Figure category. Choose the Writer subcategory. Use the wizard to fill out your basic info and upload a professional headshot. Grab a stock image of someone writing at a keyboard for your cover image. Post links to your page to your best articles and backdate the posts for when those articles were published. Invite your friends to become a fan. Now continue.

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have you tried finding clients using Facebook ads? @kikolani shows how on @copyhackers
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Step 1: Set up your Facebook Ads Pixel.

I don’t even have to tell you how to set up a Facebook Ads account, because if you don’t have one yet, Facebook will set one up for you the second you click on this link to go to Facebook Ads Manager. If you do have one, you’ll just click on the account you want to use for your advertising.

Next, you’re going to look for Pixels under the Ads Manager menu.

When you click on this, if you’ve never set up a Facebook Pixel before, you’ll be greeted by this.

Click the Create a Pixel button and name it. You can only have one per advertising account, so don’t worry about confusing it with other Pixels.

When you click the Create Pixel button, you will get the option to install your pixel by getting the pixel code now or emailing the pixel code to the person who manages your website and having them install it for you. The code has to be added between the opening and closing HEAD tags of your website.

Depending on how you created your website and how well you know your HTML code or website platform, this could be an easy or tough task. Many WordPress themes, for example, have a setting somewhere that allows you to add scripts to your header area. It’s sometimes just a matter of finding that setting. Other platforms are the same – you may just need to contact support and ask here you should add scripts that need to be placed between the opening and closing HEAD tags.

Once you’ve done this, Facebook will start tracking visitors that come to your website. This will allow you to target the first type of clients I mentioned in the introduction: clients who are interested in hiring you. They just need a gentle reminder.

Here’s how this works.

Once you have the Pixel installed, you’re going to create an audience using the Create Audience button on your Pixels screen. This audience will track all the visitors to your website.

Now, let’s say that you offer more than one product or service. Maybe you just want to track people who visit your freelance writing service page in particular. You can do that as well by doing this.

Or you can get super specific by tracking visitors to multiple pages, but not the page that designates that the visitor inquired about your services.

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now i know how to create custom audiences on facebook. thanks @kikolani (via @copyhackers)
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Speaking of designating who inquired about your services, you can also use the Create Conversion button to tell Facebook when someone has submitted a lead form on your website. All you need is a thank you page URL that visitors land upon when a potential client submits your contact / lead submission form. Use that to create a Custom Conversion like this.

It will help Facebook get to know the type of people who are most likely to become your clients. Once it gets to know those people, it will be able to show your ads to the people more likely to convert into your clients.

Note that the use of your Custom Audiences will depend on how much traffic you receive. Facebook will let you know when you’ve reached an appropriate sized audience to start advertising to. To find out, check your Audiences.

And look for the green light.

Once you get the green light, you can start your ads to people who have visited your website. To do this, you will click the green Create Ad button that should appear at the top right of most pages in the Ads Manager. Then choose one of the following objectives, based on whether you chose to track conversions in Facebook.

Next, you’ll name your campaign something memorable.

You’ll choose the Custom Audience for the website traffic you want to target.

If you think all of your traffic is on point (aka, all of your leads are typically good), then you can continue to setting your ad placement and budget). If not, you might want to further narrow down your audience based on specific interests, job titles, or other specifics to ensure that only your ideal clients can click on your ad. You’ll know if you’ve narrowed it too far by watching the indicator bar to the right of your audience targeting.

Facebook won’t let you be too specific or too broad in most cases.

Next, you can choose your ad placements. While my website is mobile-friendly, I can look into my Google Analytics and tell you that 88% of my lead form submissions happened on a desktop browser. So why would I waste any of my ad budget on mobile ad placement? This may not be the same case for you, it is something to consider.

Next, you’ll choose your budget and scheduling. While automatic bid optimization might ensure your ad will get shown above everyone else’s, you can switch over to manual mode to find out how much you are likely to pay based on your audience targeting.

You can literally put any amount in that box that you want. Then watch your results. If you don’t see anything happening, go in and modify the bid later. Better to see if you can get away with a dollar per click at first than $6. This guide on Facebook will give you a better understanding of how bidding works and best practices for specific ad objectives.

The next part is the fun part.

Here’s where you design your ad.

At this stage, you’re designing an ad for people that have already visited your website. They already know they want a freelance writer, a copywriter, a ghost writer, a blogger, or whatever service you provide. You just need to give them that gentle nudge or re-trigger the pain point that brought them to your website in the first place.

From here, you just have to wait for Facebook to approve your ad! You also have the option to click on the Create Similar Ad button to do just that – create similar ads that go out to the same audience, but with different headlines, descriptions, and images to see which ones perform best with your target audience.

Oh, and if your ad gets approved, but the lowball budget doesn’t work, you can come back to the Ad Set and hover over it to edit it. That’s where you can change your CPC bid.

And at anytime, you can stop your ad campaign by clicking on the blue slider next to the campaign, ad set, or an ad itself.

You can always restart it if you’d like too, assuming it’s not an ad that references any set time.

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3 easy steps to landing writing clients on facebook – by @kikolani on @copyhackers
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Step 2: Use Saved Audiences for clients who don’t know they need a writer… yet.

You’ve seen them. You are randomly browsing the internet for pleasure, not business, when out of nowhere, a horrid landing page appears. A landing page so horrid, that it almost turns you off of the product you wanted to buy, even though it’s a great product. But the only reason you’re so turned off is because you’re a copywriter, not an average human being who can just be amazed by the flashy graphics and amazing testimonials.

There’s a good chance that the owner of the company behind said bad landing page thinks one of three things.

A) The landing page is awesome, and it converts well – what do you mean it sucks?

B) The landing page sucks, but it converts some, so why fix what ain’t broken?

C) The landing page was written by my friend, and she’ll be so hurt if I get it changed (but it really sucks).

Or maybe it’s not a horrid landing page. Maybe it’s a company with a blog that was last updated two years ago. Or a company with an email opt-in box but no lead magnet (i.e., a free ebook to entice you to sign-up for that list).

So what do you do, you glorious writer with newfound advanced Facebook Ad targeting skills? You add said company to a Saved Audience. This Saved Audience is going to be a Saved Audience that you call Clients in Need.

Stepping back for a second, a Saved Audience is simply creating a Facebook Ad audience before creating a Facebook Ad. To create a Saved Audience, you will go to your Ads Manager and select Audiences from the Menu.

Then you will click on the Create Audience dropdown and select Saved Audience. You’re going to name your Saved Audience, such as Clients in Need – Blogging, and you’re going to down to the Detailed Targeting, click Browse, and go to Demographics > Work > Employers.

Then you’re going to start adding in the companies who needed blogging help. Or, if you’re doing Clients in Need – Landing Page, you’re going to start adding in the companies who needed landing page help. Or, if you just simply want to write for specific companies, you can start listing them here as well. You never know who might be hunting for a writer.

The best part about this Saved Audience is that you can always come back and edit the audience as needed. So if you find more companies in need or you get hired by one of the companies on your list, you can modify your Saved Audience by checking the box next to it and selecting Edit under the Actions dropdown.

When you’re ready to create an ad for your Saved Audience, you go through the normal ad creation process of clicking the green Create Ad button and selecting your objective. When you get to the Ad Targeting area, you select your Saved Audience.

Then you make sure your ad creative matches your goal – to get the company’s attention that you can get their landing page or blog up to date again. Either the right person at the company will see your ad and take action, or someone at your company will forward your information to the right person. And say hello to your newest client!

Step 3: Use Saved Audiences to get the attention of prospects already in search of writers.

This is similar to the above step, but could be considered a bit more devious. I don’t know about you, but I have had a lot of people come to me saying that they have tried various freelance services, and the work they received was less than desirable. So don’t look at this as poaching from freelancers on freelance service networks. Look at this as saving other businesses from potential disaster.

You can start your search on freelance networks that allow freelancers to sign up for free and view job postings at their leisure.

If you don’t like that idea, poach off job boards and classifieds instead.

Take Craigslist, for example. Start by Googling site:*.craigslist.org “freelance writer” remote or site:*.craigslist.org “freelance writer” telecommute and take down as many company names as possible.

Or hop over to the ProBlogger Job Boards and get companies off of there. Because after each advertiser is done digging through the resumes, they might be refreshed when they see a great ad cross their path. Maybe even hit up the big career sites like Indeed, Monster, LinkedIn, etc.

Then take the approach from above using the Saved Audience technique, except this time, you’re aiming for companies who are obviously looking for a freelance writer. Label this Saved Audience accordingly.

You might be thinking: why run an ad when you can just apply for the job?

Well, I’ll tell you this – creating a Saved Audience and running an ad to 100 companies at the same time is faster than applying to 100 different jobs. Maybe not cheaper, but much faster. And if they come to you, you get to skip the application process.

Depending on where you get all of your information, you may want to tailor your ad text very carefully to really get their attention and steer them away from their job listing and towards your website and services.

And more importantly, you want to prepare them for the fact that you are going to cost more than what they were originally looking for.

You don’t want to say outright “Don’t hire from a writer from [SERVICE], hire me instead.” Instead, think subtle and emphasize quality over cost.

• “Searching for the right copywriter for your business? The search is over!”
• “Tired of sifting through one bad application after the next? Then stop sifting.”
• “Don’t trust your copy to someone who doesn’t know your industry inside and out.”
• “Don’t hire just any writer. Hire a writer who has 15 years of legal experience so that your website is as professional as your service.”
• “There are plenty of ways to save money for your business. Discount copy shouldn’t be one of them.”

With advanced Facebook Ad targeting, you can land clients who might just need a gentle nudge, might not realize they need a writer until one is presented to them, and might need a writer but not know where or how to find one.

The best part? Depending on your current workflow, you can always turn toggle the ads on when you need new clients and toggle the ads off when you don’t. Just remember to keep updating your Saved Audiences. You never know when you will need them.

~Kristi

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