How to Use Stories for Your Pitch

strategies on how to use stories to pitch your business ideas

The idea may seem weird to you, but trust me on this. You can use stories next time you pitch your business to your investors. Of course, you’re not going to go down all dressed in costumes and go Shakespeare on your investors. What you need to do is to deliver your pitch like telling a story – without the dull monotony of tables, graphs, and loads and loads of data.

Stories are innately interesting to any individual. We revel in stories – real stories, with a conflict and a hero. Stories affect us so profoundly that we become more emphatic, driving us to action. You are the hero of your business’ story. All you need to do is tell. Here’s how.


  1. Tell your backstory.

Tell them how you started your company and why. Your backstory captivates your audience the same way superhero origin stories do – it builds context. It gives your investors a chance to make sense of who you are as the founder, and why you do what you do. Remember, your investors have seen more 10-slide pitches than you have ever given, but your backstory is something they have never seen before – it is yours and yours alone.


  1. Tell your conflict.

Tell them the hardships, trials, and tribulations you had to overcome in order to take your company to where you are today. Tell them how you overcame them and how you led your company through. Doing so makes the investors realize that you are a person who can take care of your company as well as the investments that they will give to your company.

Be honest about any challenges that you are facing today – do not hide any details. Tell them the whole truth, but back it up with tangible plans on how you will tackle each challenge.


  1. Share your vision.

The three words that investors hate to hear is “I don’t know”, especially if you are asked about your company’s future. Investors want to benefit from their investments as long as they can, and being unsure of your future makes them doubtful in investing their hard-earned finances on your company.

Paint a picture so vivid, so real, that they can’t help but believe it like you do. In the end, this is the most important story you can tell. The future is inevitable, and investors prefer that you come prepared for it. You’re going to get there, one way or the other, but the train is leaving the station now. Are your investors in or out?

Backlinking and Its Impact on Your Websites’ SEO

Backlinks in Search engine optimization

For anyone who works in the Digital Marketing industry and businesses that are familiar with it, no three letters are more important than SEO. Search engine optimization is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine’s unpaid results — often referred to as “natural”, “organic”, or “earned” results.

Among all the search engines that exist on the internet, ranking well on Google is considered the gem and the key to any successful digital marketing campaign. However, Google’s habit of regularly updating its algorithm makes it tough to follow exactly what’s needed to rank well.

Google uses several different standards to rank sites, and they’re known to frequently change as the company continuously revises its criteria to reduce the instances of low-value results pages. However, if there’s one thing that stays consistent on each of their massive list of criteria, it’s that links are about quality, not quantity.

White Hat vs. Black Hat Links

“White Hat” and “Black Hat” are terms used to describe two different strategies for link building. To sum it up, white hat strategies refer to the process of linking to content that targets human visitors and caters to their interests. On the other hand, Black hat strategies are aimed squarely at manipulating a search engine’s mechanics to achieve higher placement.

Among the best white hat techniques include researching effective keywords and incorporating them into one’s SEO strategy, adjusting metadata for relevancy, and writing high-quality content that human visitors find engaging and meaningful.

On the other hand, black hat strategies commonly involve spamming, keyword stuffing, and link farming or spamdexing, where each page is filled with links designed to pull the user deeper into your site. These acts do not in any way want to reach any targeted audience; they simply want to rank high.

There is no doubt that Google frowns on black hat websites and had gone to great lengths to penalize websites who exercise these practices.

If you are serious in your Digital Marketing, stay away from black hat strategies as they bring more harm than good to your campaigns.

Enter Backlinking

In search engine optimization (SEO) terminology, a backlink is a hyperlink that links from a Web page, back to your own Web page or Web site. Also called an Inbound Link (IBL), these links are important in determining the popularity of your Web site. Some search engines, including Google, will consider Web sites with more backlinks more relevant in search results pages.

Link trading is still a viable form of building a backlink profile. This is achieved by offering links to other sites in exchange for links back. This can create a vast network of backlinks. Not only that, but you’ll end up with great content exposure as well.

In the process of backlinking, building your link profile isn’t so much about how many links are needed to succeed, but more about what kind of links brings success –  all the while avoiding overusing the tactic. Though Google doesn’t deem the tactic as “black hat” they still frown upon the idea and overusing backlinks and doing so may lead to penalties from Google.

Remember, cheap tactics may move you forward a lot faster in the Google ranking race, but soon enough, they will push you back far more than they took you forward when Google discovers what you’re up to. Keep your nose clean, have patience, and focus on creating value for the humans who visit your site.

The Definitive Personal Brand Building Guide for Freelancers

well-established definitive guide to personal branding

A well-established personal brand is vital to a freelancer. Your brand is how others perceive you and what they think of when they hear your name.

Branding yourself is a form of marketing in which you communicate your value to prospective clients. Below are the steps towards building a personal brand that has the power to convince prospects you are someone who can solve their problem.

  1.    Discover Yourself

To build a personal brand, you must first know who you are. Conduct an honest assessment of yourself and determine the following:

  • Your Strengths –talents and skills that can give you an edge over your competitors.
  • Your Weaknesses – faults and limitations that may affect your career as a freelancer.
  • Your Values – beliefs and principles that govern your career.
  • Your Passions – things you like and love doing that can give you an advantage in your career.
  1.    Set Your Mission and Vision

Specify the goals your freelancing career. Your mission and vision should be measurable so you can measure your degree of success in achieving them. Here are examples of each.

  • Your Mission – your desired impact as a professional freelancer.
  • Your Vision – where you want to be in five years.
  1.   Identify Your Core Services

Determine the services that can utilize your strengths, values, and passions towards achieving your mission and vision and at the same time won’t be significantly affected by your weaknesses. Don’t be a jack of all trades and master of none. Look for one specific job that you can do effectively and efficiently by combining a few of your skills. For example, you can combine your skills in writing, editing, SEO, and WordPress to offer freelance writing services.

  1.    Identify Your Core Customers

Now that you’ve identified your core services, it’s time to determine which consumers are in need of those services. Continuing the previous example, writing is quite a general skill so you’ll need to narrow it down using the two ways below:

  • By Type of Writing – choose only one among general article writing, copywriting, content marketing, business writing, and academic writing.
  • By Industry – specialize in writing only about food, fashion, gadgets, travel, etc.
  1.    Build Your Brand on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the best place to market your personal brand right now. It has a total member count of over 467 million and an average active user count of over 106 million per month. Almost 95% of recruiters use the platform to search for potential job candidates. Here’s how you can build a strong LinkedIn profile:

  • Invest in a professional photo. Most recruiters don’t take a profile seriously unless it has a professional looking photo. You don’t even have to spend on the photo. Just take a photo of yourself using your mobile phone and enhance it using LinkedIn’s own Photo Filters and Editing feature. Keep in mind that you should look confident, likable, and influential on the photo.
  • Use keywords. Recruiters use LinkedIn’s powerful integrated search tool to look for qualified candidates. It won’t matter how amazing your profile is if recruiters can’t find it. Make your profile visible by having the right keywords in it. Learn what keywords recruiters use to find professionals that offer similar services to yours. Use those keywords in the headline, summary, and experience sections of your profile. Make sure the use of the keywords is natural and not forced.
  • Add relevant skills. You need to add at least five relevant skills on your profile. The skills section is the first section many recruiters go to in assessing whether a profile is worth contacting or not.
  • Manage endorsements. LinkedIn users can endorse other users as a form of testimonial. You can add those endorsements to your profile but make sure that each endorsement amplifies your brand. Choose only endorsements that come from users that have the same skills you do or use the services you provide. And make sure you thank everyone that gives you an endorsement whether or not you plan to add the endorsement to your profile. You should also make a habit of giving endorsements to those who deserve it.
  • Create the best headline. The headline is one of the first things recruiters look at when evaluating a profile. You only have 120 characters to present your story and state your brand promise while also using relevant keywords so you need to make each character count.
  • Make an engaging summary. Draft your summary as if you are talking to your prospective clients face to face. You can use up to 2,000 characters to convince them that you can provide exactly what they are looking for. Talk about the value you can add to their business. Don’t forget to use relevant keywords.
  • Engage. Boost your LinkedIn presence by being active on the website. Spend at least 15 minutes each day reading about what your connections are up to. Read articles that interest you and leave a like or comment on them. And avoid short meaningless comments. Leave only concise and insightful comments.
  1. Invest in Learning

Personal brand building is never over. You should always be seeking to better your brand. Knowledge is essential to a freelancer. Things are always changing and you need to be aware and adaptable to those changes. Add value to yourself so you can give even more value to your clients. Here are a few ways to learn.

  • Take up some LinkedIn Learning courses.
  • Watch relevant videos on Lynda and other similar sites that offer online courses and classes.
  • Download and read relevant ebooks from Amazon and other online marketplaces.
  • Download and listen to audiobooks from Audible and other similar websites.
  • Find a trusted mentor who has achieved great success in the world of freelancing such as Awesome Marky, a virtual assistant who achieved much renown in blogging, web development, graphic design, and more.

Your personal brand should inspire trust and confidence on your prospective clients. And with a freelance career that is built on trust and confidence, you will never run out of good clients.

Top 5 Free Growth Hacks for Getting More Customers

Growth Hacks for getting more clients

Attracting new customers is vital to keeping a business afloat. There are numerous ways to do so for a price, a price that most small and medium businesses can’t afford with their already tight budgets. Fortunately, there are ways to hack the growth of your client base for free. Here are the best 5 of those growth hacks.

1.) Improve Site Speed

Your website is still your best marketing and sales tool. Make sure it is fast enough. Each page of your website should have a load time of under 2 seconds. Online shoppers are impatient individuals and they don’t like it when their shopping experience gets ruined by slow loading speeds. In a recent study I’ve conducted, I’ve learned that a 1-second delay in page response can cause 7% to 10% reduction in conversions while a 2-second delay can cause a 15% to 21% drop. You can avoid these losses by simply improving your site speed.

2.) Leverage Social Proof

Your site should showcase how much people love your brand and your products. Have your website wear social proof like a badge of honor on every page. Consumers assume that the action of many is the right action. If you show new visitors how satisfied your customers are, those new visitors will be eager to transact with you. Here are some of the best ways of leveraging informational social influence:

  • Testimonials –statements from satisfied customers on your site.
  • Logos – logos of your biggest clients or your most popular products
  • Customer Statistics – the number of people following you on social media.
  • Case Studies – a retelling of the story of a customer who got everything he/she needed or wanted after using your product.

3.) Implement Onboarding Programs

You should treat first-time customers differently from regular customers. You need to ease new customers into your business. First-time buyers are very critical and if they are not impressed, they will likely never return to your site again. You only have one shot to turn them into loyal patrons. Use these two techniques to maximize your chances:

  • The New User Experience (NUX) – give new customers the option to take a tour that will guide them step-by-step on how to navigate your website.
  • Email Drip Campaigns – send a series of automated emails sent on a predefined schedule to anyone who gives your site his/her email. Make sure the emails contain useful information and not just sales pitches. This is your chance to show you care and that you can be a reliable resource.

4.) Simplify Your Homepage

The homepage is rarely the first page first-time visitors see but once they become interested, they usually immediately go to the homepage to know more. All they want is to have a general idea of what your business is about. Don’t confuse them by having so many elements in your front page. If they don’t get what they are looking for on first glance, they will likely leave. Take all the clutter out of your homepage and leave only the necessary elements. Just look at the homepage of Facebook, one of the most used sites on the planet, and see how bare it is.

5.) Build Legitimate Viral Loops

A viral loop is the hardest yet most rewarding of the 5 free growth hacks for getting more customers. It is achieved when your marketing campaign is so infectious your customers can’t help but share it with their friends and acquaintances. So in effect, your current customers will bring in new customers and those new customers will, in turn, bring in another set of new customers and so on. The simplest ways to build a viral loop are:

  • Having a referral program.
  • Making your product shareable

Conclusion

You can either pay your way to growth or hack your way to it. Sure, you might need to pay to get the hacks done but they have little to no maintenance cost which still beats regularly paying for more customers. For more growth hacks, make sure to follow AwesomeMarky.

7 Powerful Content Writing Tips for 2017 Bloggers

7 powerful content Writing tips for Bloggers

Content marketing is the most powerful advertising tool in today’s internet age. And the most potent content marketing agent is content writing. Not only can powerful, engaging content generate a lot of leads, it can also single-handedly convert prospects into customers.

Here are seven powerful content writing tips that will make you a better blog writer. These are all easy to learn and apply so you can get to work and test them immediately after reading this post.

1.) Follow the Rule of Three

You have probably experienced being undecided on many examples you should cite in your article. When in doubt, go with three; use three words, give three examples, add three adjectives, etc. There is simply something about threes that is fascinating to readers.

Here are some examples of the use of the rule of three:

  • A smart man, a religious man, and a military man walk into a bar…
  • There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
  • Read my lips: no new taxes.

2.) Use Proper Spacing

Super long paragraphs were used in print because each extra line costs money. In blogging, you are free to use as many lines as you want so don’t hold back. Use spacing whenever you think it’s applicable.

Proper spacing makes a copy pleasant to the eyes. It makes the article appear presentable and not overwhelming to look at. The most commonly used way of using blank space in content writing is dividing up ideas.

List down all the ideas you want to cover in your piece. Then, discuss only one or two of those ideas in each paragraph. Short paragraphs will make reading your article less cumbersome.

Short paragraphs also allow the reader to process each idea completely before moving on to the next one. This improves retention and enhances the power of your write-up.

3.) Write Short Sentences

Keep your writing simple and steer clear from using compound-complex sentences. Doing so will make your writing easier to understand.

Short sentences also help the reader go through your blog post faster. The reader won’t have to reread a sentence because it contained too much information. The reader will be more engaged if he can read the piece continuously.

Using simple sentences also lowers the grade level needed to understand your writing. This means that your blog posts will be more accessible.

4.) Get Feedback

Talk to other bloggers about your writing. Getting advice from other, more experienced bloggers is one of the fastest ways to make your writing better.

There are numerous places on the World Wide Web where you can converse with other bloggers. Offer feedback on their writing and you’ll get feedback on yours. This also gives you an opportunity to build relationships with seasoned writers.

Use social media to join or build a good network people willing to provide good and constructive feedback on your work. Always assume a first draft is never good enough. Good editing can take you from being a decent writer to being a great one.

5.) Practice Editing

Always assume there’s room for improvement when reviewing your first draft. Proper editing can turn a decent blog post into a great one.

Read your first draft several times. Look for areas that can be improved. Hunt for superfluous words that can be simplified.

Review your work. Edit it. Then review it again. Rinse and repeat until you are satisfied with the version of the draft you’ve just read.

Great writers spend more time editing than writing. Make editing a part of your blogging process and it will eventually feel natural to you.

6.) Let it Simmer

Avoid writing your article a few hours before the deadline. It is best if you finish it at least a day before.

Proofreading becomes more effective if you’ve already rested and slept. While what you’ve written is still fresh in your memory, spotting typos and grammatical errors won’t be easy. A good night’s sleep will refresh your mind.

Doing your proofreading the next day makes it easier to see what you’ve actually written.

7.) Learn to Filter Criticisms

The World Wide Web can be a harsh place. You will inevitably encounter criticism of your content writing. You should get used to it.

Learn to treat criticism correctly and it can become a huge asset. After all, you are getting free feedback. You just need to filter out useful, constructive criticisms from mindless, pointless ones.

Learn to ignore lone criticisms. But when you start seeing the same criticism from different sources, you should start paying attention.

Disclaimer

These 7 content writing tips will help you become a great blogger. However, they won’t be enough to make you an excellent one.

Writing is a skill. You need practice, a lot of practice, to hone it. Write regularly, using all 7 tips each time, and you will surely get better and better.

Conclusion:

It took me over 10 years to be the blogger I am today. Don’t rush it and be patient. Let these tips be the foundation of your content writing and they will guide you through your journey as a blog writer.

I wish you luck on your content writing endeavor. Let us meet on the World Wide Web soon, my fellow blogger. If you want more from me, just visit AwesomeMarky.

5 Most Effective Social Media Marketing Hacks of 2017

5 Most effective Social media marketing Hacks

Social media has become an integral part of the everyday lives of hundreds of millions of consumers. And in the past several years, many marketers have focused on leveraging the expansive reach of social media platforms into a weapon for advertising. And so social media marketing has become one of the most powerful marketing strategies ever implemented.

Generate traffic, foster audience interaction, capture leads, drive sales, and more. Social media marketing (SMM) can do this all with minimal cost to the organization.

Everyone is doing SMM now though so the competition is quite stiff. Ultimately, it all boils down to who has the better strategy and who can implement it first. Here are the five most powerful social media marketing hacks of 2017 that can exponentially increase the effectiveness of your SMM strategy.

  1.    Curate Content

Social media is more about sharing relevant, useful, and informative content than posting original content of your own. Social media users get bored easily so you need to show them something new on a frequent basis. You won’t have enough content to share if you rely solely on the content you create.

This is where curating content comes in. Find a wide variety of content that your audience will find interesting. It can be a time-consuming process to search for content, review it, then publish it on the scheduled time but the benefits will be worth it. Do it properly and you can establish your brand as an authority in your niche.

There are various tools available that can automate your content curation. I recommend Feedly. Feedly is a feed aggregator. Enter the keywords relevant to the content you want to find and it will scour the web for you. It will even organize the content it found based on your preferences.

With Feedly, all you need to do is review the content it has gathered, pick the ones you like, and then set a date for posting for each of them. You can do all of this right in the app.

  1.    Tag Influencers

It is simply not possible to achieve viral social media growth on your own, regardless of how perfect your strategy is. You need help. And the people in the best position to help you are the influencers.

An influencer is a non-competitor who has a huge social media following. Pick content that you think will interest a particular influencer’s audience, share it, and then tag the influencer. If the influencer likes it enough that he shares it, you’ve just managed to reach all of his followers.

Do this successfully with numerous influencers and your followers will increase in number at an exponential rate.

Some influencers don’t respond to tags so you can send them a direct message or an email instead.

  1.    Schedule Your Posts

Don’t just post content immediately when you find it. Know your audience. Determine when most of your followers are active on the social media platform you are using. Then schedule the sharing of your content at the optimum times.

You should automate the posting of your content for convenience and accuracy. I recommend Buffer. Buffer is a social management tool that makes it easy to schedule posts, track their performance, and manage all your social media accounts across all platforms in one place.

Buffer also organizes the data so it is easy to interpret. Analyze this data to determine your best sources of traffic and find ways to improve your strategy.

  1.    Talk About Current events

Gone are the days when people go to the websites of their favorite newspaper or news channel to read news online. Today, when people want updates on current events, the first thing they do is check their Twitter or Facebook.

Supplement your sharing of relevant, useful content with postings about current events. If you establish yourself as a reliable source where people can get the latest news and hottest information, more and more social media users will be checking on your page on a daily basis.

Keep track of trending hashtags on Twitter, Facebook Trending Topics, Google Trends, and other major social media platforms. Use these hashtags on your own posts so you can be a part of bigger social media conversations. Treat each major news event as an opportunity to connect with consumers outside of your following.

  1.    Hold Contests

Very few can match a good old contest when it comes to inspiring interaction. A social contest can make your followers feel like they are actually part of the organization. Here are the three most popular contests that you can incorporate into your social media marketing strategy:

  • Voting Contest – present a set of items such as videos, images, or a mix of videos and images and ask your followers to vote for the one they like the most. A person usually gets invested on something he has voted for. Publish the results of the poll at least once a day. This will keep your audience coming back to see how their bet is doing.
  • Photo Contest – ask your audience to submit photos of themselves doing something relevant to your niche. Tell them that to qualify, they should also share the link to the contest using your chosen hashtag. You can then pick the 10 or 20 best submissions and ask your followers to vote for which one they think should win. This will encourage the participants to ask their social media friends to vote for their entry too which is a great way of expanding your following.
  • Raffle – set up a landing page where visitors can enter for a chance to win free stuff. The prize can be a discount coupon or a popular ebook relevant to your niche. Make sharing the contest page a requirement for joining.

These five social media marketing hacks are just a few of the many techniques you can employ to empower your SMM strategy. Just follow me at AwesomeMarky for more hacks.

5 Most Game-changing Growth Hacks of All time

5 Most Successful business Growth Hacks

Growth hacking refers to unconventional means that can skyrocket a business. The term was first coined in 2010 by Qualaroo Founder and CEO Sean Ellis. Today, everyone wants to hack their way to growth. To serve as possible inspirations, here are the 5 most game-changing growth hacks of all time.

  1.       Facebook

Facebook is the king of growth hacking. It has employed numerous growth hacks that contributed significantly to why the social platform had 1.94 billion active users in 2016. Let’s talk about two of them.

  • Embeddable Badges and Profile Widgets – Facebook achieved greater visibility and improved search rankings by making it easy for its users to create badges and widgets that they can embed on their websites and blogs.
  • Service Provider Acquisitions – Facebook bought entire service providers in third world countries to get its hands on their email collection technology so it can get more email subscribers in countries where it is still unpopular.
  1.       Twitter

It took years before Twitter became a household name. In its early years, new users mostly got bored after a few days and loyal users only used it a few times each day. To remedy the situation, Twitter modified its sign-up process and required new users to select five to ten accounts to follow before they can complete their registration. The time and energy those new users invested in selecting those five to ten accounts compelled to come back and use the site. Today, Twitter has 328 million monthly active users.

  1.       LinkedIn

LinkedIn increased its user count of 2 million a hundred fold with an ingenious growth hack. It gave users the ability to create highly detailed public profiles. The sheer amount of information a typical LinkedIn profile contains made it show up in search results whenever someone searches for the user’s name on a search engine. This made Linked in the go-to platform for career profiles. If you are a job seeker, you need to have a LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn currently has 500 million users.

  1.       YouTube

YouTube hacked its way to becoming a household name by allowing site users to embed its videos on their blogs and websites. By simply clicking “Share” then “Embed”, the site generates a small HTML code the user can copy and paste wherever he wants the video to appear. The video can be viewed wherever the HTML code was pasted, with the option of going to YouTube to view it there instead. This revolutionary feature is the primary reason why the site currently has 1 billion monthly users.

  1.       Hotmail

In the 1990s, Hotmail used to be just one of those small email service providers. Then, with a growth hack that used only four words, it turned things around. It attached the words “PS – I love you” which contained a link to the Hotmail homepage to the end of every email sent by its users. Many recipients clicked on the link and signed up for a Hotmail email account and the service provider’s user base grew to 12 million shortly after. Hotmail was later acquired by Microsoft for $400 million and currently has 360 million users.

Conclusion

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Hotmail are 5 of the most used websites today and all of them used growth hacks to reach their current popularity. You might be just one growth hack away from elevating your business to the next level. For more tips and tricks to achieving online success, follow AwesomeMarky.

Double Your Lead Generation with These Simple yet Effective Content Marketing Hacks

Effective Content marketing Hacks

Content marketing is the current king of lead generation. It is what gives lead generation the power to attract prospects and give your business a steady influx of new customers. Most business owners and marketing professionals already know the basics of content marketing for lead generation. What I will share with you today are content marketing hacks that are so powerful they can double your lead generation almost overnight.

1. Write long form, informative content.
Instead of writing several 500-word articles, write one that is at least 2,400 words long. Provide value to your readers with an in-depth take on the subject you are covering. Readers will appreciate the amount of information you’ve made available. Google and other search engines will love it too.

Long content, however, does not give you an excuse to be vague or repetitive. Make sure each sentence adds something to the article.

Internet users also love skimming so make your article skim-friendly. Keep the paragraphs short, 4 sentences max. Use subheadings. Also, use bullets when it fits.

2. Use content upgrades for your lead magnets.
Don’t just have pop-ups asking for information randomly appear on your content. Most readers will find it annoying. Offer the readers something in return for providing you with their email and other relevant information. And this offer should be relevant to the content they are currently reading.

Use content upgrades to enhance their experience. For example, if you are talking about the causes and symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, you can offer them videos of carpal tunnel exercises in exchange for their information. Or if the article is about computer programming, you can offer a cheat sheet with code snippets.

3. Link to webinars directly within the content.
A webinar is the single most effective lead generation tool available today as you can immediately get the name and email of everyone who signs up for the event. A webinar also doubles as a marketing tool. If you capture the interest of the participants during the webinar, it will be a lot easier to sell your product or service to them.

Use your content to set up for pitching the webinar. Put a link to the webinar within the content. Preferably, the reader will see the link after he’s already invested in what your content is saying. If you manage to provide the reader with a strong need to know more, he will definitely click the link and sign up for your webinar.

4. Include shareable quotes in the body of your content.
Quotes are powerful marketing tools. A memorable quote stays with the reader and is likely to get passed along. Include a few notable quotes in your article and then make it easy for your audience to share them through social media.

There are various WordPress plugins to help you with this. Click to Tweet, for example, allows readers to share content on Twitter with just one simple click.

5. Include share buttons on your web page.
Make it easy for your readers to share the article on their favorite social media site. This can be done by simply adding share buttons right after the article. If your audience thinks the content was a good read, they will be eager to tell other people about it. Help them do so.

I hope this article helps improve the results of your lead generation efforts. If you want more tips on doing business, just follow me at AwesomeMarky.

SEO Copywriting Top 10 Tips of 2017

Top 10 successful tips for SEO Copywriting

Google processes an average of 40,000 search queries per second from the more than 3 billion internet users worldwide. Leveraging Google’s massive user base is the best way to drive traffic to your website. And the most effective way of reaching Google users is through SEO Copywriting.

SEO Copywriting is the process of creating excellent content that will rank well in Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and generate highly qualified leads for the organization. SEO-friendly content can be informative, entertaining, persuasive, controversial, etc. i

The primary goal of SEO copywriting remains the same – establish the business as a trusted and reliable resource and convince readers to take a particular action.

Writing quality content that appeals to both readers and Google’s algorithm can be quite challenging. It is both a science and an art form. Here are top 10 SEO copywriting tips of 2017 that will help boost your rankings and connect to your target audience more effectively.

1.) Research Relevant Keywords

Keywords serve as the foundation of any copywriting campaign. You should be aware of what your target consumers are using to search for the product or service that you offer. Below are some of the best keyword research tools available today:

Take note of a keyword’s search volume and level of competition. The ideal keyword is one with a large search volume and low level of competition. Choose a mix of short-tail (currently popular search terms) and long-tail (currently unpopular search terms that might become popular in the near future) keywords.

Check the websites of your biggest competitors and analyze their choice of keywords. Check the search volume and competition of these keywords using your keyword tool to determine which of them you can also adopt.

Use one high search volume keyword as the focus keyword of each of your webpages. Each page should also have a few minor keywords.

2.) Target Both Humans and Search Bots

Your content should be aimed, first and foremost, to human visitors. But don’t ignore search bots either. They should be your secondary targets.

Focus on making your content useful for your readers. If you write only to sell, your audience will surely notice and leave. Use a personal, organic touch to convince readers of your sincerity.

Don’t stuff your content with keywords. It will annoy your readers and search bots will penalize you for it. And don’t do any black hat tricks either. Don’t try to outsmart Google search bots because it is something you can never do.

3.) Present the Facts

Use evidence to back up what you’ve written. This will help establish your credibility. Present statistics and other objective forms of evidence. Cite your sources and give credit where credit is due.

Don’t steal the content of others. Write your own. Copy-pasting content will get you in trouble with both search bots and influencers.

4.) Provide Answers

Internet users do Google searches to look for answers. Find out what questions your target prospects are asking and provide those answers. Make it your job to address their needs and concerns and satisfy their interests.

Your content should be informative. There should be no senseless fluff. Each sentence should add something to the copy. Your content should also be engaging. Get your readers invested so that when you make a call to action, they will make the response you want them to make.

Describe how your product or service can satisfy what your readers want or need without sounding like you want to sell them something.

5.) Speak the Language of Your Audience

Know your audience and speak their language. If your vocabulary is too fancy or too technical, your reader will get confused and leave. On the other hand, if your content is too simple and you explain each term, your readers will be annoyed and insulted because they’ll feel as if you are treating them like children.

Speak to your audience in a natural voice. Make it conversational and personal. Make them feel as if they are having a normal face-to-face conversation with you. Review your draft and make sure it is something can say to someone comfortably.

6.) Keep Your Titles Brief and Concise

Writing click-worthy titles should also be part of your SEO copywriting strategy. Your titles should represent accurately what is contained in your article or blog post. Avoid super long titles or they will get truncated when they are shown on the SERPs.

Max title length is 71 characters for desktop and 78 characters for mobile but keeping your title tags to around 50 characters is ideal.

Your title should be catchy and descriptive. Most internet users generally scan a title then decide if they want to check out the article or blog post or not so make sure your title contains your focus keyword. Use the focus keyword in the URL too.

7.) Do not Ignore Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions have no effect on search bots and therefore do not influence your search ranking. However, they can have a huge impact on convincing the user to check out your content.

Without a Meta description, Google will simply display the first 156 characters of your content. The first 156 characters of your copy might not be encouraging enough to compel the reader to click. Write a Meta description that can do the job.

Organically incorporate your focus keyword on the Meta description and make sure it says exactly what your content offers. After the Meta title, the Meta description is the next thing a Google user looks at when choosing which page to open.

8.) Make Proper Use of Internal Links

Internal links not only make it easier for users to navigate your site, they also make it easier for search bots to crawl your content. Include links to other pages that provide relevant information to a page’s content. This will encourage the reader to explore your site more.

Don’t overdo it. All the links should lead only to highly relevant content. Too many links will make your page look cluttered.

9.) Include Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

Ultimately, the mission of SEO copywriting is to drive the reader into performing a particular action that will contribute to the realization of the business’ objectives. Such action may be providing his email and other personal information, downloading an eBook, or making a purchase.

Your content needs to get the reader invested. When he is fully convinced of your credibility, you should present him with a call-to-action to advise him on what he should do next. Your CTAs should be strong and succinct. Include a few of them on each page.

10.) Keep It Simple and Clean

Keep your copy simple and clean. Don’t overdo the use of formatting and don’t use too many images. Make it easy to read and avoid any distracting elements. Use fonts that are pleasant to the eyes such as Arial, Impact, and Times New Roman.

Use these 10 SEO copywriting tips and you’ll establish yourself as an authoritative resource in no time. For more useful tips on how to grow your business online, check out AwesomeMarky.

Bet you can’t solve this Google interview question.

Good news, everyone! There’s a report on TV with some very bad news! Then we’ll go with that data file! Daylight and everything. If rubbin’ frozen dirt in your crotch is wrong, hey I don’t wanna be right.

Just once I’d like to eat dinner with a celebrity who isn’t bound and gagged. I am Singing Wind, Chief of the Martians. No, she’ll probably make me do it.

Say what? Who are you, my warranty?! Yes, except the Dave Matthews Band doesn’t rock. Or a guy who burns down a bar for the insurance money! Leela’s gonna kill me. Son, as your lawyer, I declare y’all are in a 12-piece bucket o’ trouble. But I done struck you a deal: Five hours of community service cleanin’ up that ol’ mess you caused.

Introduction

But, like most politicians, he promised more than he could deliver. Why not indeed! Daylight and everything. And then the battle’s not so bad? Hello, little man. I will destroy you! No, I’m Santa Claus! Kif might! Man, I’m sore all over. I feel like I just went ten rounds with mighty Thor. I found what I need. And it’s not friends, it’s things. Then we’ll go with that data file!

Calculon is gonna kill us and it’s all everybody else’s fault! We’ll need to have a look inside you with this camera. I’m just glad my fat, ugly mama isn’t alive to see this day. Now, now. Perfectly symmetrical violence never solved anything. Morbo can’t understand his teleprompter because he forgot how you say that letter that’s shaped like a man wearing a hat. You’ve killed me! Oh, you’ve killed me!

DON’T WATCH THE CLOCK; DO WHAT IT DOES. KEEP GOING.

Sam Levenson

Small Stuff

So I really am important? How I feel when I’m drunk is correct? Then we’ll go with that data file! Good news, everyone! There’s a report on TV with some very bad news! And yet you haven’t said what I told you to say! How can any of us trust you?

I had more, but you go ahead. But I know you in the future. I cleaned your poop. There’s one way and only one way to determine if an animal is intelligent. Dissect its brain! Kif might! Hey, whatcha watching? Five hours? Aw, man! Couldn’t you just get me the death penalty?

UI DESIGN

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, test link adipiscing elit. Nullam dignissim convallis est. Quisque aliquam. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, emphasis consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nullam dignissim convallis est. Quisque aliquam. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus.

MUCH SMALLER STUFF

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, test link adipiscing elit. Nullam dignissim convallis est. Quisque aliquam. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus.

This is some text that will wrap around the image that sits on the right side of the text that you are writing about the leaf that is there. That is, if you are writing about leaves in the first place and you want to write about this specific leaf. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, emphasis consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nullam dignissim convallis est. Quisque aliquam. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus.

just an image

This is some text that will wrap around the image that sits on the right side of the text that you are writing about the leaf that is there. That is, if you are writing about leaves in the first place and you want to write about this specific leaf. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, emphasis consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nullam dignissim convallis est. Quisque aliquam. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus.

This is some text that will wrap around the image that sits on the right side of the text that you are writing about the leaf that is there. That is, if you are writing about leaves in the first place and you want to write about this specific leaf. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, emphasis consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nullam dignissim convallis est. Quisque aliquam. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus.

MUCH SMALLER STUFF

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, test link adipiscing elit. Nullam dignissim convallis est. Quisque aliquam. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, emphasis consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nullam dignissim convallis est. Quisque aliquam. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus.