12 Tips To Increase Reach And Get More Instagram Followers

12 Tips To Increase Reach And Get More Instagram Followers

Using Instagram for business can help you reach a wider audience, build an online community, and sell your products. But you need to find out how to get followers on Instagram. And you need to know the best ways to increase your Instagram reach and convert new followers to customers.

Previously, building a marketing strategy for Instagram posed few challenges. When you discovered the right time to post, all you had to do was stick to it. However, Instagram has changed since its early days. Now marketers find it harder to reach their target audience and promote their content. That’s why you should utilize the tools this platform has to offer business owners.

So, if you seek to boost your Instagram presence and organic reach, this post will be helpful.

12 Tips To Increase Instagram Reach

1. Avoid Fake Instagram Followers

At first, buying followers from a third party may seem reasonable to make your account look more legitimate. But this method proves counterproductive because of its shady nature. Why? Because when you purchase followers as a growth tactic, your followers will most likely consist of bots or fake and inactive accounts. What’s worse – your account can get flagged.

Instead, the smart choice means using an Instagram growth service focusing on growing organic Instagram followers. This way, you build real relationships with your followers, meaning more engaged followers in the long run.

2. Create An Instagram Content Strategy

A deliberate Instagram content strategy makes all the difference when it comes to your Instagram success. It keeps you on track and ensures you’ve outlined the goals you plan to achieve.

Creating a content strategy involves creating different content themes to engage your followers. If you want to increase awareness, try including Stories, contests, behind-the-scenes posts, and brand life features as part of your main content themes. If you need help creating content, work with a freelance copywriter.

Define your specific style and aesthetic. To help figure this out, ask yourself questions like:

  • What impression do I want to be seen and felt by my followers?
  • What brand’s style guide do I follow in terms of, for instance, writing captions?
  • What kind of hashtags should I use?
  • What types of photos, videos, and reels do I want to post?

You’ll need to establish a distinct and consistent brand voice through your content strategy.

3. Know Your Best Time To Post

Remember, time is of the essence. When it comes to making the most of your Instagram reach, gaining likes and comments immediately after posting matters greatly. If the initial round of engagement charts high, Instagram will have cause to move your post up in the feed. Examine Instagram Insights to see when your followers show greatest activity.

4. Try Instagram Reels

Instagram ReelsTo discover which posts enjoy most popularity with your audience, try experimenting with Reels. Your followers might enjoy discussing and sharing the entertaining Reels you share. In creating Reels, try these tips:

  • Make your Reels pop with the tools that Instagram includes, like editing tools, music, and visual effects. Every time the platform releases a new feature, you should use it to boost your exposure. So, maximize your reach by recording, editing, and adding effects from within the App.
  • In creating Reels, be sure that the first few seconds instantly pull in your viewers. To grab their attention, try using a sticker or a flashing piece of text somewhere on the image or video.
  • Use Q&As in your Reels to keep your followers coming back for more. End with a CTA to drive taps, and for them to leave questions for you, so you have an endless supply of content ideas.
  • Don’t hesitate to shout out or spotlight your community in your Reels. This is the fastest way to get people talking.

With Instagram Reels, find out what works for you and adjust your social content strategy accordingly.

5. Optimize Your Instagram Bio

Your bio stands out as the first thing people see when they visit your profile. So make an excellent first impression. You need to create a captivating Instagram bio to get others to follow you.

Therefore, you should communicate the compelling narrative of your brand in addition to the fundamentals, including your contact information and website URL. You won’t stand out by merely stating the type of business you have. Give them a reason to identify with and follow your brand.

6. Curate Visually-Appealing Content

Curate Visually-Appealing ContentCuration includes identifying excellent content. And since Instagram users just love good visual content, curate smart and appealing visual content. Use photos, videos, carousel posts, GIFs, infographics, illustrations, memes, or animations. Also, you provide readers a broader perspective by citing sources, including links, and adding insight.

In curating content, try these tactics.

  • Create a listicle that focuses on conveying an idea visually in just two to three lines to generate shares and comments. This listicle incorporates images (preferably 5-10) and GIFs.
  • Create curated how-to posts and tutorials that entertain and inform.
  • Feature up-and-coming design professionals or artists by inviting them to share their work on your Instagram profile. Just make sure you’re aware of copyright rules.

7. Utilize Instagram Analytics

Instagram analytics help you track progress, identify trends, and understand your target audience better. Use Instagram analytics to learn which hashtags get greatest usage, which photos receive the most interaction, and which times prove most popular for posting.

Wisely, employing information from useful metrics can help you focus on the most valuable Instagram growth hacks. And can set you up for success.

8. Use Branded Hashtags

Use Branded HashtagsUsing hashtags works as a tried and true method for reaching out to more people and gaining more Instagram followers. You should explore which hashtags enjoy popularity in your niche and which have relevance to your industry, brand, and content. Then, use a combination of these hashtags for your Instagram posts to connect with users who follow those hashtags.

9. Cross-post Across Facebook and Twitter

Use cross-posting as a time-saving tactic to allow you to share content with a broader audience without putting in the extra effort. This step helps for new brands that haven’t produced much content or brands with a limited marketing budget. By multi-purposing your content, you’re increasing the chances people will see and engage with it.

10. Start Meaningful Conversations With the Audience

Your Instagram captions allow you to engage your current audience and even encourage them to converse with you. So, why not take advantage of this opportunity?

You can use your Instagram captions to tag people, ask questions, and so on. The more you encourage your audience to express an opinion, the greater likelihood they will invite their friends to join in on the conversation.

Beyond sparking conversations yourself, get mileage by joining conversations started by others. Just find a popular conversation within your niche. When you join in and comment, people reading might check your profile and decide to follow you.

11. Check Out Competitors’ Efforts

To maximize organic reach and enhance brand health, employ competitive analysis. When you check out your competitors, you can stay updated with the trends in your industry.

Keeping an eye on your competitors helps you develop new ideas and find inspiration for your content strategy to grow more Instagram followers. More importantly, you’ll find out how you can gain an advantage over them.

12. Ask Questions In Your Posts

Ask Questions In Your PostsWhen you ask questions, your followers have a better chance of getting engagement. You can ask these questions through the caption of your post, through an Instagram Story with an emoji slider. Or through an Instagram story with a poll Or through asking your followers these questions directly through an Instagram Live video.

Some great examples of questions to ask are: 

  • Do you like…?
  • Would you buy…?
  • Which do you prefer…?
  • Have you seen our latest…?
  • This or that?
  • What year would you travel back to in time, and why?
  • What’s one thing you can’t live without?
  • What are you most thankful for today?
  • What’s the one thing you do for everyone?
  • Who inspires you every day?
  • What was your dream job as a kid?
  • Are you a cat or a dog person?
  • What’s your superpower?
  • What’s the best compliment you ever gave?

Be aware that people generally enjoy naming their favorites in any category. And they love to share about themselves. As you get to know your audience better, you will find ways to ask questions that tap into their interests.

Increase Your Reach

The ideal strategy for increasing your reach and growing Instagram followers involves taking the time to understand your audience, create content that encourages engagement, and strategically use the platform’s features. Be consistent in working to meet your audience’s expectations.

You can’t build an organic Instagram following overnight, but if you have the right mindset, you can.

For more advice on using Instagram for business marketing, see these Jemully Media articles.

Author: Sheila Kickstarter - sheila@kicksta.co

7 Ways to Implement a Pillar-Based Content Marketing Strategy

7 Ways to Implement a Pillar-Based Content Marketing Strategy

Pillar-based content marketing strategy follows a systematic approach to creating and delivering content designed to achieve specific marketing goals. This strategy employs the concept of creating a “pillar” or a central theme or topic. That pillar becomes the foundation for all the content that a business creates and distributes. Content creators take the pillar content and break it down into subtopics. Then, the subtopics, once developed, complete the desired result of creating a hierarchy of content. This hierarchy serves to educate prospects, engage them, and eventually convert them into customers.

First, Some Background

We can dive into some specific ways you can employ a pillar-based content marketing strategy. But first we should review the idea of content marketing in general. We’ll benefit from an understanding of the overall purpose and goals of content marketing.

Content marketing takes a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content. Done right, this will attract and retain a clearly defined audience.  Ultimately, it drives profitable customer action. Content marketing seeks to educate, inform, entertain, and nurture an audience, rather than solely promote a product or service.

Content marketing builds a strong relationship by providing your audience with media that addresses their needs, interests, and pain points. Further, it establishes the marketer or brand as a trusted expert in their field. This comes to fruition through employment of a variety of content formats. These include blog posts, videos, social media posts, infographics, e-books, and more.

Benefits of Pillar-Based Content

Now down to some specifics. A pillar-based content strategy benefits your site through the diversity of content created around a pillar topic. When you link internally between these pieces, search engines begin to recognize your site for its authority and they improve your page rank accordingly. The primary topic becomes what we call the pillar page. In the example below, the “Business Law” page acts as the pillar, or broad topic content page. The supporting, or, as frequently termed, “cluster content,” is the more narrow-focused content under the subject of Business Law. As Neil Patel, digital marketing guru, remarks, “Don’t be confused by the term “cluster content.” It’s basically just content that focuses on narrow topics related to the pillar page.”

Jemully Media law firm pillar-based content marketing example
Jemully Media law firm pillar-based content marketing example

Here are 7 ways businesses can implement a pillar-based content marketing strategy:

  1. Identifying the pillar topic: The first step in creating a pillar-based content marketing strategy calls for identifying the central topic or theme. This theme serves as the foundation for all the content. This topic should closely relate to the products or services that the business offers and should hold interest among the target audience.
  2. Creating subtopics: Once the pillar topic has been identified, decide on subtopics that can create a hierarchy of content. These subtopics ought to closely relate to the pillar topic and provide more in-depth information on specific aspects of the central theme.
  3. Developing a content calendar: A content calendar will ensure that the content gets created and distributed on a consistent basis. The content calendar should include the type of content to create, the target audience, the delivery channel, and the due date for each piece of content.
  4. Creating pillar content: The pillar content functions as the cornerstone of the pillar-based content marketing strategy. This content provides a comprehensive overview of the central topic and will educate and engage the target audience. Examples of pillar content include eBooks, whitepapers, webinars, and infographics.
  5. Creating cluster content: Cluster content consists of a series of related pieces of content calculated to provide more in-depth information on a specific aspect of the central topic. Examples of cluster content include blog posts, videos, and podcasts.
  6. Creating cornerstone content: Cornerstone content consists of articles of content that serves as a resource for the target audience. This content should provide valuable information on the central topic and should be designed to inspire trust and establish the business as an authority in the industry. Examples of cornerstone content include case studies, research reports, reference material, and tutorials.
  7. Promoting the content: The final step in the pillar-based content marketing strategy is to promote the content to the target audience. This can be done through a variety of channels including email marketing, social media, and paid advertising.

Pillar-based Content Builds Authority

To sum it up, a pillar-based content marketing strategy serves as a powerful tool for businesses looking to build trust and establish themselves as an authority in their industry. By creating a central theme or topic and breaking it down into a hierarchy of content, businesses create a consistent and effective content marketing strategy that achieves specific marketing goals.

Developing a Digital Marketing Plan for Your Law Firm

Developing a Digital Marketing Plan for Your Law Firm

Get Found. Stand Out From the Rest.

If your law firm has had a set-it-and-forget it web presence, make this your year to give that marketing philosophy another look. You will likely discover that certain tactics will increase the number of clients you serve, and ultimately increase your profits. As you assemble the key elements necessary to create a strong, professional brand in your market, it’s important to remember that the foundational component of your marketing plan is your website.

As you plan an online marketing strategy for your law firm, we recommend three fundamental ingredients. First focus your attention on your website. Then, create a strategy for a content development plan. Lastly, follow your content plan with a distribution plan.

Prepare to Make a Digital Marketing Plan for Your Firm.

Assess and Identify: What’s working and what’s not working?

Before you jump into a new digital marketing strategy for your law firm, before you think about revamping your website, before you create a social media post, take an assessment of your current site and see how well it has performed for you. Some pages likely have worked well to attract visitors to your website, and engaged them with a call to action. 

Furthermore, some pages on your website likely get very little traffic and underperform. So look at your website analytics and let the data tell the story.  If you don’t know how to do this, find an agency, like Jemully Media, that has the tools. A good agency can give you the information you need to understand the health of your current website. And they can deliver a diagnosis and a plan for a stronger future.

What questions should your website data answer?

The following questions should give your law firm some insight into how well your current website is accomplishing your marketing goals.

  • How much traffic does your site get each month?
  • Where does that traffic come from?
  • Is the traffic generated from online search, links from other websites, or links to your website from social media?
  • Which pages on your website receive the most traffic?
  • Are there pages on your website that are not working for you? Could you add more keywords and content to help those pages perform better?
  • Are there gaps in information that could be opportunities for generating new clients? Are there common questions that potential clients might ask in a search engine query that your firm could answer?
  • What keywords could be more densely incorporated into the site to help improve your SEO?
Jemully Media law firm target audience
Jemully Media law firm target audience

Identify All of Your Audience

Once you have identified the good and the not-so-good about the performance of your current website, you can utilize that information as the basis of a new plan. The next part of the identification process calls for you to establish a clear picture of your potential clients. In determining your audience, do not forget that you may actually have multiple audiences, based on your firm’s areas of practice.  As you enumerate the audience groups, keep in mind that each audience has its own unique questions. In answering these, you can get their attention. Make note of some of the questions that come to mind for each group. You can weave these questions into your marketing plan later in the process.

Create a Digital Marketing Plan for Your Law Firm: A 2-Step Process

In the following section, we introduce you to two steps in the process of creating a marketing plan. We will paint with pretty broad strokes and save the details for another post. This is not an exhaustive marketing plan. But it addresses the most important and foundational pieces. Pieces that take your firm a long way towards the success you envision. The two steps of planning can be relegated to two buckets: (1) your website, and (2) getting your website found. Another way of saying it is: (1) build your hub online, and (2) attract visitors to your hub using content.

PART 1 – Plan Your Website: Your Hub Online.

We begin with your website because it is the only place on the web where you will have total control and ownership of what is published about your firm. That’s why we refer to your website as your online “hub.” Everywhere else should be viewed more like rented property where you have to comply with the property owners’ terms and limitations. This is true of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, law firm directory listings, and such.

Your website should consist of a multi-page custom-designed site that you own. Why do we recommend a custom-designed site as opposed to a pre-built GoDaddy, Wix, or Weebly website? It’s about your professional reputation. You are in the business to project an image of trust and authority. If you choose to represent your firm online in a canned, pre-fab package, you are communicating an image of quick-and-easy versus sturdy, reliable, and forward-thinking. 

Consider WordPress

Our recommendation is to build your website on a WordPress platform. WordPress has 43% of the market share. According to W3Techs, that 43% translates to “a content management system market share of 65.3%.” The next closest competitor to WordPress is the eCommerce website platform with 6.7% of the market share.

Factors to consider in your web design

As you consider factors for your website design, user experience should be at the top of your list. Easy-to-navigate menus and a logical page hierarchy need to be well-planned with your web development team, as well as a selection of a professional and modern layout and typography. Lastly, in the development planning, be sure to request mobile responsiveness. While most people today use a combination of desktop device and a mobile device, Broadband Search points out that, as of early 2022, in terms of market share, mobile was commanding 56% of the global traffic. And that mobile trend will continue to rise.

What pages will you have on your website?

When you get to the place where you are planning out the pages of your site, it’s there that you’ll need to revisit the data from your existing website. Make an outline for the pages of your new site that keeps the content that worked well for you. Then add to the outline a list of revamped or new pages to fill the gaps of information that were left unaddressed on your old site.

Jemully Media law firm social media promotion
Jemully Media law firm social media promotion

PART 2 – Promotion: Plan how your law firm’s website will get found.

Once you know what information you want on your website and how you want to present it, you are ready to move to the next phase of your planning. You will determine how you will get your site in front of the various audiences of potential clients. There are fives ways your site can be reached. A visitor can:

  1. Type in the web address from a business card, billboard, or brochure
  2. Click a link from search results
  3. Click a link from social media
  4. Click a link from an email newsletter
  5. Click a link from a paid advertisement

Audience Specific

The first way visitors may reach your site is not a result of a digital communication. So we will not include direct access to your site in this discussion. The second, third, and fourth items in the list above are all “organic.” Organic marketing is also referred to as “inbound marketing.” The Business Department at the University of Alabama describes it thusly:

“Commonly referred to as inbound marketing, the organic approach is essentially the modern marketer’s way to utilize word-of-mouth messaging. The idea is to take advantage of social media and online search engines to share relevant content targeted to a specific audience.”

Think “Organic.” Think “Inbound.”

The benefits of organic, inbound marketing is that “51 percent of today’s website traffic comes from organic search and over 40 percent of revenue is the result of organic traffic.” Organic digital marketing is the most productive method when compared to direct access to your site and paid advertising. It is well worth the investment it takes to focus on a content-driven strategy that delivers solid results over time. You will find that the value of your content continues to increase and produce results year-after-year.

The last item on the list of ways to get visitors to your website is purchasing paid advertising. Paid digital advertising can be a tool to jump your website to the top of a search results page. However, for some consumers, paid digital marketing is sometimes skipped over. Some view paid ads as less trusted sources than the organic search results.

A Good Law Firm Marketing Plan Needs Content That Works

In this phase of lining out your digital marketing strategy, you will develop a plan for content creation. The fact of the matter is this. The more content you have on your site, the greater the keyword density you have on your your site. This in turn brings more opportunities for your content to appear in the Google search results, when your potential clients are using Google to deliver their search results. A thorough use of keywords within your content is important, as keywords serve as indicators to the search engine algorithm as to what your website and specifically your articles are about. This brings us to the topic of planning your content with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind.

On-Page SEO

SEO is vitally important to the viability of your website. SEO is best described as the process of helping your site stay visible to the major search engines so your practice can be found in the organic (not paid) searches. Each web page, and each blog article you will add, needs to be optimized with key words (as mentioned before), but also with other signals such as descriptions, and a hierarchal page structure that gives signals to Google, Bing, and Duck-Duck-Go. Because search engines regularly update their guidelines, it is important to monitor the latest changes to the search engine algorithm that determine which pages get to display. Then, as changes occur in the algorithm, your website may need to be tweaked to comply.

On-Going SEO

Once your website is live and you have pages on your site that tell about the firm, each attorney, and your areas of practice, we recommend a strategy of regular blogging. This is the inbound marketing, or content marketing, that we referred to earlier. When you consistently add new articles to your website, those articles signal Google that your site is not static. Google gives preference to websites that are updated frequently. Google also prefers websites that provide good, informative answers to queries that searchers ask. These articles that answer questions become a resource for potential clients who are looking for an attorney. Your website can become a go-to source of helpful information.

Develop a Plan for Distributing Your Content

Lastly, your digital marketing plan should culminate with a strategy for distributing your content. We recommend using various social media channels. These three elements, your web + your content + your social media, work together to exert a positive impact on your website’s search engine optimization, helping your firm stand out from the rest, and helping you to attract new clients. LinkedIn, Facebook, and even Instagram and Pinterest can be used as marketing tools to get your content in front of potential clients.

Maybe you are asking, “What should we post on social media?” It is always good to create social posts about your various services and the areas of law that your attorneys practice. Include some posts about your community and your attorneys’ community involvement. 

Multi-Purpose Your Content

Most importantly, create posts from the content of your blog. This is where you will stand apart from the competition.

Why would your firm want to use social media at all? It’s back to Google. Google measures your presence on social media along with your followers’ engagement with your social media posts as part of their page ranking algorithm. Google tracks each time a social media post is clicked and a visitor comes to your website. Therefore, it is another must-have in the line-up of page rank tools.

Summary of the Steps to Creating a Law firm Marketing Plan

  1. Prepare for the plan by analyzing your current website. What’s working? What is not?
  2. Identify all of your audiences.
  3. List the pages your firm needs on its website.
  4. Determine how your website will get found.
    1. SEO – On-page keywords, description, and hierarchical layout
    2. Blogging – Long-term plan for inbound/content marketing
    3. Social Media – Distribution plan to build links back to your website

These few steps will help you build a solid marketing foundation for your firm. You will reap the benefits over time if you consistently add new content and push that content out to multiple social media platforms. It is a proven formula for success.

The Rise of the Appuccino

The summer the complicated Starbucks order went viral

Baristas everywhere broke out in a cold sweat when a photo of a long, complicated custom Starbucks order viral on Twitter this summer. 

“On today’s episode of why I wanna quit my job,” a barista jokingly tweeted about “The Edward” –  a 13-ingredient caramel crunch iced and drizzled Frappuccino, extra whipped, and fortified with five bananas, seven pumps of dark caramel sauce, and one pump of honey blend. 

Starbucks fans all over were stunned by the $14 drink, and were even more interested to learn that this new “secret drink” could be re-created and ordered anytime they wished at their local Starbucks.

After all, there was a time when a mere soy latte was the punchline of coffee aficionados everywhere, an eyeroll about people not drinking “real” coffee. That time is long past, and has made incredibly complex orders at Starbucks the norm rather than the exception. Ladies and gentlemen, get out your green aprons and buckle up for the ride! The Starbucks order went viral. It was a sensation.

Welcome to the age of the Appuccino.

 

From Starbucks to Starbies

Starbucks’ Digital Rise

As is true with so many other changes in US consumer habits over the last year, the pandemic was a factor. As more and more people began to rely on apps to get their daily fun, food and fixes, Starbucks was no exception. Just look at a few of these stats:

  • From January to May of 2021, 26% of orders were mobile (up from 18% in the previous year)
  • The number of stores where mobile orders accounted for 20%+ of orders grew from 4.6k to 7.2k in just a 3-month period.

And the increased usage of the Starbucks app didn’t just increase the volume of orders, either. The Starbucks app allowed for the addition of extra sauces, syrups, and toppings. Starbucks says it’s fine with these orders and — terrifyingly for baristas — estimates there are over 170k ways to customize a drink. So, it is kind of amazing that one custom Starbucks order went viral.

 

Enter TikTok

As digital apps rose in usage during the pandemic, TikTok was no exception, and was by far the biggest contributor to Starbuck’s digital rise. Here, on TikTok, where customized Starbucks orders went viral and were made even more popular by Starbucks influencers (yep! That’s a thing!).

To date, Starbucks’ biggest hit remains their fall cult favorite PSL (Starbucks even went so far as to get the acronym trademarked in 2013). By 2017, Starbucks’ pumpkin infused lattes were a $361 million dollar business. For those interested, there were several marketing lessons to be learned from that success. Today, that velvety flavor of Fall has risen to a $500 million craze and shows no signs of stopping. Now, with new platforms like TikTok, those numbers are expected to soar to new heights.

It wasn’t long ago — circa fall 2020 — that TikTok was facing a permanent ban from the United States. Now the app is on the rise and, thanks to the platform, Starbucks has entered into a new era: The era of the Appuccino.

Coffee… but make it Relevant

“I’ll take a Double Ristretto Venti Half-Soy Appuccino, please!”

So what exactly is an appuccino, anyhow? “Appuccinos” are complicated custom drink orders placed using the Starbucks app. Heavily trending, the sugary drinks, often iced, usually don’t even contain any espresso.

Thanks to TikTok, who even drinks regular coffee anymore, anyhow?

The TikTok effect is significant: some baristas report that viral drinks — like an iced white mocha with cold foam and caramel drizzle — are so popular that they account for 1 in 5 drinks made each and every shift.

 

Baristas Braving the Way

Barista by day, TikTok influencer… also by day

As you can imagine, many baristas have been frustrated and dumbfounded when customers order their complicated “TikTok” drinks. Seemingly overnight, there were two camps: baristas who embraced the hype and baristas who didn’t. Some appreciated the social media sensations that make Starbuck’s go viral. Others resisted the influence of influencers.

For those in the “didn’t” category? There was only one outlet responsible for all the hype: TikTok. On the TikTok platform, Starbucks is a lifestyle. And with no officially endorsed account, employees (those who have welcomed the hype) have stepped in to promote their favorites while also providing barista commentary. And these videos of brightly colored, creative drink recipes described from behind the counter are viewed more than 4.5 million times a day.

 

The Allure of Influence, The Power of Authenticity

TikTok is fueled by Generation Z, digital natives who value transparency, authenticity, and online influence. So much so that 86 percent of Americans aged 13 to 38 say they would like to be a social media influencer.

TikTok, the newest platform in the game, is a channel primed for the taking. It is less saturated than Instagram and YouTube for those who aim to become influencers and more welcoming to quick, replicable content that is easy to produce and make viral. And the work from inception to virality isn’t as complicated as you’d think – corporate savvy isn’t always required from global brands. Just take a quick look at the “Queen of TikTok.”

The Queen of TikTok, Charli D’Amelio, is a 17-year-old dancer from Connecticut. One dance video from Charli may easily garner 24 million views, while a TikTok from the NBA’s official account, a brand with one of the largest followings on the platform, may obtain only a few hundred thousand. This evens the playing field for regular teens and big advertisers alike to create an open space for new, uninhibited voices to rise to the top of the influence chain — many of whom are just starting their careers behind the desks and counters of our favorite retailers – Starbucks included.

 

Rising to the Top

Influence from Behind the Counter

Starbucks baristas post TikToks of themselves making new and inventive custom drinks that lead to millions of views a day. Take Lizzie Dye, a Starbucks store manager in London who posts TikToks of the creations she makes while at work. Dye’s videos  are so popular that she gets recognized by customers, and has even had some viewers drive hours just to visit her store to get a drink made specifically by her. And a conversation about Starbucks influencers wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Anna Sitar. Sitar is a Starbucks Appuccino star on TikTok with more than 9 million followers who delight in watching her taste-test various concoctions called “Starbies.” She starts the videos with a tagline — “another day, another Starbies!” then describes the drink, often suggested by a fan, and orders it from the drive-thru and drinks it in her car. Her first sip is often with a furrowed brow, then as she smacks her lips, she arrives at the inevitable conclusion: it’s delicious.

 

HASHTAG Influencer

There are dozens of barista influencer accounts; so many in fact that all you have to do is search the hashtag #starbucksbarista to find dozens of employees providing insight into not only their favorite drinks, but also why they love to work at Starbucks. Of their own volition and without any special compensation, employees representing all sectors are lifting the corporate curtain that once hid the backstage workings of major brands. The viewers of their viral videos receive raw exposure to brand values right from their device, from people they can relate to – and even order from.

And, it works.

 

Who even drinks hot coffee anymore, anyways?

Starbucks itself is perfectly fine with elaborate drink orders. In addition, it expanded its food menu to compete with other lunch places, and added more non-coffee drinks like the fruity “Refreshers” and more iced teas. Non-coffee drinks appeal to teenagers and young people who are less likely to drink coffee, even as they attract afternoon and evening customers who want a sweet treat and aren’t just looking for caffeine.

As for what Starbucks is now, the most telling indicator is a milestone: As of December 2020, Starbucks announced that iced drinks outsold hot drinks — even in its coldest, busiest winter months. Just like that, Starbucks was no longer “just a coffee place.”

 

The Starbucks Journey

In many ways, the “Edward” is just a blip in a decades-long fight for the soul of Starbucks, as to what exactly the chain is, and where its opportunity lies. To many Gen X’ers, Starbucks in the ’90s was a symbol of corporate evils, a chain with middle-class pretensions (“venti”) replacing real, authentic coffee shops. But by the ’00s, a massive Starbucks cup had become a signifier of class and gender, like oversized sunglasses or a purse dog. Almost since its inception, Starbucks has been so much more than just coffee; it’s been a constantly evolving presence in American culture. Love it or hate it, we bet you still find yourself in the long  line to Venti bliss from time to time. Next time you’re there, try the Edward. We’ll see you there.

 

For more on the interesting phenomenon of Starbucks, see our article on 6 Marketing Lessons from Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Writing Tip: Imagination Matters

Imagination matters, and yet for writers it matters in ways that are not necessarily obvious.

More on the less-than-obvious ways imagination matters in a moment. First let’s talk about rules.

Anyone who makes a living by stringing words together is someone who likely formulates “rules”—self-made, self-imposed rules—for improving his or her own writing. I’m not referring to anything grammatical or mechanical. Those conventional ideas are already established and in wide circulation. I’m referring to rules of my own devising—rules or practices that I have concocted based on my own trials-and-errors and that I feel make my work more effective. Maybe “tips” is a better term here, and if so, fine.

At any rate, I’ve hatched ideas and refined approaches and found ways to crystallize my own personal refinements into “rules” or practices that I have ingrained into my thinking. It becomes second nature to implement these practices in my own writing and to apply them at times to others’ work, as when I’m wearing my editing hat. (Editing visor? No editor wears those translucent green eyeshades anymore, along with the sleeve garters on their upper sleeves, but they were cool in their day. Editors are sometimes a little quirky.)

 

I’m also a collector of writing tips from great writers, and such tips, or even whole lists of tips, are plentifully available on the web. Helpful, too. All of this being so, it came as a surprise to me, decades into my writing life, that I would hit upon an idea, or a “rule,” that I’d not seen in lists of writing tips—an idea that I feel is as good as any other I’ve encountered or cooked up on my own.

Now you’re probably already reflecting on my article title and you’re thinking two thoughts: (1) “Imagination matters” sounds like something that would already be on someone’s list somewhere, and (2) the idea of using one’s imagination is such an obvious directive that it hardly needs saying.

And if were true that what I mean by “imaginative” is “creative,” or “original,” or “fanciful,” then I’d have to agree. But that’s not what I mean by being imaginative. What I’m referring to is the practice of using one’s imagination to envision how one’s words are actually being absorbed by readers—readers who potentially could take away different understandings from the text than the writer intended.

 

IMAGINATION MATTERS: EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

Seeing—anticipating—such misunderstandings requires imagination. It comes down to seeing words through eyes that are not your eyes—and that’s what requires imagination. But especially so for a writer, someone who already has in mind what he or she is trying to say. That person must mentally set aside all of his or her grasp of “where the story is going” and must imagine what the words actually do say as they unfold to someone who knows nothing of the sort, or who has perhaps different expectations of where the text may lead.

Again, it probably sounds as though I am stating the obvious. I know that it must sound as though I’m merely saying, “We need to think about the reader.” And yes, I am saying that. But I’m trying to say more. Over the years, it has become increasingly obvious to me that the biggest shortcoming in most substandard writing is a lack of awareness. Maybe one could call it a lack of self-awareness. The writer cannot, does not, fully get his mind around the reader’s own likely perceptions of what the writer has written. This is precisely why imagination matters.

It takes imagination, and practice, and concentration, to read a sentence the way that someone who is not you would possibly read it. One must mentally challenge every word choice.

 

Jesse Mullins, editing in his office. Jesse Mullins, editing in his office.

Let’s take an example. I’ll take the first such example I’ve encountered today, in my day’s work. It’s from an article about hiring employees. Here’s the context: the writer was suggesting that a hiring manager should heed the input of, for instance, one of his company’s salespeople when hiring a salesperson, and the input of a controller when hiring a controller, etc. Here is the sentence:

“Watch for the red flags and don’t ignore others’ warnings because, nine times out of ten, you make a poor hiring decision.”

And here (in italics) was my edit, which was fairly simple:

“Watch for the red flags and don’t ignore others’ warnings because, if you do ignore them, then, nine times out of ten, you make a poor hiring decision.”

My point is not about the edit I made. This was an easy and unremarkable edit. My point, rather, has to do with the type of error that we see here. And why this kind of language points up the need for using imagination.

We can easily see that the writer thought he or she was describing a mistake that could lead to a “poor hiring decision.” But nowhere, in that first version, does it indicate that anyone made a mistake. In fact, the reader could infer from the language used that not ignoring others’ warnings is what will lead one to “make a poor hiring decision.” In the strictest sense, the most literal sense, that’s what’s being said.

But that’s clearly an untruth. If one does not ignore warnings, then one is heeding warnings. If one heeds warnings, one is doing the right thing, not the wrong thing. And yet we are told, in so many words, that heeding warnings will cause us to make a “poor hiring decision.” That’s literally what the first sentence said.

I know that someone, right now, is saying I’m overthinking this matter, and overstating this point, and that the “bad” sentence nonetheless supplied enough contextual clues for us to decipher the meaning as it should have been presented. In other words, someone could say no quibble is needed. And I won’t argue that the text is decipherable. I couldn’t write this present exposition if I had not first “deciphered” what I believed the writer was trying to say. But my point here is clarity, and more than just clarity.

I’m trying to springboard from here into a larger idea. There’s another shortcoming in writing of this sort, and it is the uptick in mental activity that is forced upon the reader who must sort out the meanings of a less-than-perfectly-clear writer. Maybe the effort is slight. Mere milliseconds. But just the same, some slight hesitation occurred, and some slight judgment arose: a judgment that this writer is not as precise in his or her phrasing as perhaps he or she could be. Plus, the reader’s thought processes were diverted, if only for a microsecond, from the idea of “making good hiring decisions” to the question of “What is the meaning of these words?” A brief deflection, to be sure, but the reading experience was diminished accordingly. Something slowed down.

And if enough of this sort of shortcoming shows up throughout a document, the effect is significant.

 

 

Imagination matters wRITING TIP: DON’T MAKE THE READER WORK

The point here is not grammar or mechanics. Rather, the point is imagination. It takes an act of imagination to read a sentence as one’s reader might read it, not just as one intends it to be read.

Imagination is mental work. It also requires certain habits of mind that might not come naturally to some people. I’ll go so far as to say that some people are clearly lacking in their powers of imagining how their own writing confronts others.

In some ways, that’s totally understandable, even normal. In some ways, it is rather unorthodox for someone to excel at the kind of scrutiny that we discuss here. As Yuka Igarashi, managing editor at Granta Magazine, wrote in an article published some years ago by The Guardian, “You need to be able [as a writer or editor] to look at words in a way that goes against everything your brain would naturally do when it looks at words.”

Maybe that can’t be helped. It’s just the nature of the game. My point here is not a deep dive into the techniques to which Igarashi alludes. My point is only to say that there’s work to be done, and just knowing that much is a beginning.

The exchange that occurs between a writer and a reader is one that implicitly requires a certain amount of work if it is to succeed. And while it is clear that most of that work rests upon the writer, we cannot ignore the fact that some work falls to the reader. There’s always mental work to be done in the act of understanding someone else’s meaning. So one measure of the effectiveness of writing is the degree to which the reader is spared excessive work.

 

IMAGINATION MATTERS: CHALLENGE YOURSELF

And how does a writer spare the reader excessive work? My suggestion here is that more imagination must be brought to the task. One of the “rules” that I have cooked up for myself is this: as I spin out verbiage, I try my best to read it wrongly. I try to smell out any potential, or latent, meanings—even absurd meanings—that could be derived from the verbiage.

I call this practice “reading to mis-read.” When I’m editing someone else’s prose, or composing my own, I’m always scouring it for words or phrases that could harbor unintended meanings.

This practice really comes down to just the same one I started with: the idea of applying one’s imagination. When I “read to mis-read,” I’m really just trying to imagine some way whereby a reader could take my words in a way I never meant.

And when I find one of those possible mis-readings, I stop and rephrase the content to eliminate (as much as possible) any sort of misunderstanding.

This takes work. And thought. And imagination. Honestly, it takes a lively and fanciful imagination to be able to do this task well. One must envision worlds of possibilities if one is to rule out, or head off, all flawed possibilities.

Do you want to improve your own written communications? Acquire the mental habit of stepping outside of yourself and challenging your own message. Be ever-so-ready to go careening off on a tangent. Comb through the text like a lawyer looking for a loophole. Then, when you find a wayward wording, dropkick it into the Van Allen Belt. Replace it with concrete, compelling, pellucid prose that attains to marbled halls of immortality—or that at least works better.

Written work that refuses to be taken wrong is written work that packs authority. Imagination is the key.

 

For further reading about writing:

Check out the popular article on how to apply the 80/20 Rule of Content Marketing.

Psychology of Social Media, Part 3: How to Be More Shareable

Psychology of Social Media, Part 3 How to Be More Shareable

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SOCIAL MEDIA PART 3

 

Social media has become one of the most important aspects of digital marketing. Social media has and is monumentally changing the way we interact with others and the way we approach our audience. To really reach your consumers, though, it’s imperative to understand the driving forces behind their digital behavior. Understanding their behavior will give you the insight and the edge on how to be more shareable.

In Part 1 of this series, we dove into the psychological background of the 4 W’s of social media usage: who, what, when and why. In Part 2,  we discussed the 4 basic emotions and explored how tapping into each of them leads to further engagement. This post brings it home by addressing one final query: how to be more shareable. 

The answer comes from studying the interaction between humans and computers themselves.

 

How Understanding the Psychology Behind Human and Computer Interaction Can Make you More Shareable

“Interaction is the essence of all user experiences. It is the conversation between your marketing and your user, and if the conversation is boring, your user will leave and talk to someone more interesting.We must market for the way people behave, not for how we would wish them to behave.” -Donald  Norman

For anyone in marketing, ?an understanding of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) comes in handy. Exploring the history and trajectory of HCI will enrich your understanding of your audience. It will shape your understanding of the larger ecosystem of human behavior and digital interaction, resulting in powerful marketing success for you and your business.

 

Relational Marketing

Before diving in to discover how to be more shareable, let’s look take a look at the term “relational marketing.” “Relational marketing is a strategy designed to foster customer loyalty, interaction and long-term engagement. It is designed to develop strong connections with customers by providing them with information directly suited to their needs and interests by promoting open communication.”  It stands to reason, then, that before we can understand human-computer interaction, we must understand our interactions with each other.

 

3 Types of Human Relationships

A base level crash course 

Ben McAllister and Kate Canales, two leaders in brand strategy and social media, broke down the 3 basic types of human relationships:

  1. Authority Relationships: Power-driven, like employers/employee and parents/kids.
  2. Exchange Relationships: Relationships of equal give and take, lasting as long as both parties are willing, and usually held together via incentives.
  3. Communal Relationships: The kind of relationship between true friends, without bribes or power. These relationships stand on trust and are “propelled along by deep-rooted goodwill and shared common ground” (Imglance).
3 Types of Human Relationships

 

Historically, social media marketing has been geared towards exchange relationships. Research shows, however, that 67% of people who like a page on Facebook only did so to become eligible for offers. This proves that an exchange type relationships does not build loyalty or create true relationship, and shouldn’t be our sole target when marketing to our audience.

As McAllister and Canales discussed, by forming communal relationships, you build trust and gain a lifetime of loyalty from your audience.

Consider a large archery target: aiming for the outside edges of the target is like marketing for an exchange relationship. Shooting for numbers leaves the people on the fringe, easily won-over by the next business that offers an incentive for a Facebook like. Instead, aim straight for the bullseye- marketing at people vs. the numbers. The humanity that runs through each of us–that is the bull’s-eye. 

 

Human/Computer Interaction (HCI)

Taking all of this a step further, let’s gravitate towards the digital aspect of our marketing in order to use its impact to our advantage.

Why is Social Media Easier than Face-to-Face Contact?

Science has found that most of us find it easier to navigate our human interactions with others on our devices rather than face to face. But why? Let’s break it down.

Our brains gather emotional data in every human interaction. This data is based on facial expressions, tone of voice, and other subconscious clues. The data informs our assumptions and affects our experience in an interaction. When a person proposes an idea, we can’t help but to speculate motive. It’s a natural leap that we deduce from the data we are given. Conversely, though, we assume that computers have no ulterior motive or hidden agenda. We take a computer’s numbers, schematics and proposition at face value. Thus, our interactions with computers tends to be easier than with other humans, which leads us to trust computers more readily than people. So although we may be unaware of why it so often feels easier to interact through a computer (particularly when we are feeling tired or drained), the conclusion is clear – “a computer does not require cognitive or emotional involvement, making our interaction and ultimate trust of it, much easier“. 

For digital marketing, this baseline trust is the sweet spot. It’s the perfect springboard for designing strategies that build lasting relationships with your audience.

 

Using Science and HCI to discover how to Be More Shareable

How Understanding the Driving Forces Behind Human Interaction Can Lead to Shareable and Viral Content

Marketers, meet the Temporal Parietal Junction (TPJ). This handy little area of the brain is what drives information sharing. Its activation connects us to the thoughts of others and compels us to feel empathy. Researchers at UCLA concluded that what drives us to share, and what ultimately leads to virality, comes from our TPJs going into overdrive. It’s not the raw visual appeal of an idea or an image that causes individuals to share, but rather how the individual perceived others might enjoy the idea or image in front of them.

“We’re wired to want to share information with other people. I think that is a profound statement about the social nature of our minds. Good ideas turn on the mentalizing system[…] They make us want to tell other people.” –Matthew Lieberman, UCLA

This goes hand-in-hand with pscyhologist Robert Cialdini’s principle of social proof, which maintains that when a person is uncertain about how to behave, he/she will look to others and behave similarly. Whether the behavior is morally good or bad, people are more likely to fall in line with it, or assume the behavior is okay, based on other people behaving that way.

Social media sharing, and in particular content that goes viral, all seem to be motivated from one or both of these ideas. People share what they believe others will approve of or find helpful, enjoyable and shareable.

 

SUMMARIZING HOW TO BE MORE SHAREABLE

For continued success, not every company needs a post to become a viral trend. But you definitely want your brand to become a top-share in your target audience. Stimulating the TPJ in your audience requires the discovery of what drives, motivates, and moves them. This reason is why some successful advertising campaigns seem to have little to do with the actual product. They play on pop culture, off-the-wall humor, and celebrities to capture the audience’s attention. So tap into what your target loves to share and discuss, then form your marketing strategy around it. Who knows? The next viral trend could come from you!

SEO is a “Long Game”: A 5-Step Process for Success

SEO is a 'Long Game' - A 5-Step Process for Success

Using SEO Experience to Develop a Proven Process

Jemully Media began in 2011. Over the years, our agency has employed writers who have not only produced content marketing for our clients, but they have also treated our own agency as one of our clients. Unlike the oft-neglected cobbler’s children, we take pride in the application of the very same SEO process that we prescribe to our clients. The results are exciting! And, we are able to use our own success as a case study.

To date, our team has published hundreds of blog posts on nearly every marketing topic under the sun. Tips for using various social media platforms have been shared; best practices for website creation and SEO have been discussed. Likewise, various industry trends have been dissected. Oddities like marketing lessons gleaned from the Pumpkin Spice Latte phenomenon, the correct pronunciation of “GIF,” and our staff reading list have been published.

In conclusion, all of this writing serves the purpose. The articles provide a useful repository of marketing knowledge that sets us apart. Our content differentiates us from our competition, in the eyes of Google, with prospective clients, and with our readers at large.

 

Our SEO process positions brand authority

Through the years, we’ve refined a core 5-step SEO process that works well. Admittedly, a deep dive into SEO and its ever-changing criterion takes much more than 5 steps. Google has a list of 200 factors it weighs against a site for ranking. And its mid-2018 guide to determining search quality rating is more than 160 pages long. However, this handful of actions we focus on, if they are repeated over time, will deliver success with a sound footing from which you can submerge yourself in some of the more sophisticated SEO actions.

As to our system. Not only does it position our website as a marketing resource, but it also brings our small West Texas agency clients from coast-to-coast across the United States. As a bonus, we’ve had a couple of internationals as well.

 

The tangible impact of a good SEO process

Because we apply the strategic SEO process we developed, our organic traffic is high. Consequently, we no longer have to spend our marketing dollars on PPC campaigns to maintain our lead generation. This is our proven case study. Above all, this is our best recommendation. Similarly, it is evidence that if all the pieces of the process are employed, they work.

Unfortunately, when they look at the process, business owners often choose to just pick “this piece” of the process, or they choose only “that piece” of the process. Then, they hope for the same successful results. Their efforts fail. Why? Because success requires all the pieces to work together, in tandem and in balanced harmony. 

 

Success and savings

As a result, when you gain solid page rank on Google, you save on the advertising expenses and reduce your paid advertising on Google and social media. For anyone who has invested in pay-per-click advertising, you know the significant savings this brings. This is the power of a sound SEO process that adheres to best practices. 

 

Steady growth from the SEO long game.

This Google Analytics graph shows the steady growth in traffic our website has experienced since mid-2016. First, let me point out that in the early going of your SEO process, Google Adwords and paid social media advertising may be important tools to employ for your industry.  As you can see from the chart below, there are spikes of traffic during the times we increased our ad campaigns. 

 

Jemully Media has invested in SEO to grow our website traffic and save on paid advertising dollars.

 

You will also note that by the Fall of 2017, our organic content had gained enough traction that we were able to stop spending large amounts of funds on our paid ads. Then, we were able to invest even more heavily in writing content.

Pro Tip: The content we develop for ourselves (and that we develop for our clients, if they avail themselves of that service) serves two key purposes. One purpose is to write to generate general organic traffic. These pieces can be fun or editorial pieces that are loosely related to your industry. The other purpose is to write content that helps your potential customers. This content will generate targeted traffic that produces business leads. Together, these two kinds of content continue to increase our website traffic, return high Google page rank, and deliver new customers to our door. If you will apply all five steps of this SEO process, you can achieve similar results for your business.

Read on for a step-by-step guide to playing the “long game” that SEO requires and setting yourself up to reap these benefits for your own company’s website.

 

The 5-Step SEO Process: How to Play the Long Game

Let’s say you’ve got a website that is not showing up well on Google. Maybe you’ve got a brand-new website. Or maybe your business has had a website for a while, but you don’t have good page rank. You’re thinking… “What’s the quickest way for me to grab the number one spot on Google for my most relevant keywords?” If that is the question you are asking yourself, let me impress upon you that there is not a quick SEO / keyword formula to get your site to appear on the first page of Google’s search results. In addition, if you have been told there is a shortcut to good organic page rank, then you have been misled. SEO is a long game that takes time, effort, and strategic planning. But, you will discover that the results are well worth the investment.

 

The fact is, SEO is the opposite of a quick solution. SEO is an on-going process that bears fruit over time. The process starts with a decision to commit to investing in your business for the long haul (something you, of course, want to do). Then, you engage in a process that does not end.

 

 

Step One: Know Your Keywords

To begin, step one is to make a list of all the relevant and desired keywords (KWs) that you would eventually like to rank well for. If possible, rank these by how relevant they are to your individual business. For example, any keyword or phrase that includes your company/website name, and/or perhaps your specialty and location would be extremely specific and relevant to you. This type of list, ranked by relevance, doubles as a list of the easiest keywords for you to rank well for.

Pro Tip: This is the place to start. There will be other keywords that you’d like to rank for, but it’s important to start with the KWs holding the most specific relevance to you (i.e., the easiest ones to rank for).

It can take up to a week for search engines, like Google, to index your website, but within the week, you stand a good chance to begin appearing on the first couple of pages in the search engine results (SERP) for searches that are uber-specific to your site.

 

 

Step Two: Basic On-Page Optimization

Step two is to make sure your site has excellent on-page SEO. This means your page titles, URL, metadata, images, etc., are all optimized on every page of your website. Each page should be optimized for one of your most essential keywords. This is actually not difficult if you are a good writer and you know the key elements to optimize. 

Pro Tip: Some of the key elements of on-page SEO include how the content is written. Keep your paragraph length under 150 words. Then, keep most of your sentences to less than 20 words. Weave the related keyphrases into your content so the message flows naturally. Keep the voice active and use transition words frequently.

Back to your ranked list… Once you are showing up on SERPs for basic searches (like your company name), you have a baseline.

 

 

Step Three: on-going Content Creation

Step three should be executed concurrently with step four. Focus this phase of your optimization efforts on a very small number of things you do best. In the early stages of your site’s operation, you may be looking for ways to increase your site’s content offerings and overall footprint. Depending on your business and goals, this principled expansion of your website may come in the form of blog posts, new services pages, FAQs, or a combination of these and other types of content.

 

Write to benefit your industry. Write naturally.

This is the time and place to begin systematically creating content optimized for those more specific KWs in your industry. Take time to develop readable and sharable content that is educational, informative, and even entertaining for your audience. Do not be afraid to establish a point of view that will set you apart.

As you write, incorporate keyword groups, lumping together KWs, phrases, and close variations that can all work together on a single post. Given the limits of metadata, you can only truly optimize each page for one KW. The key is to include these words in a way that makes sense to readers. You may be trying to please Google, but Google is trying to please readers. Google’s goals are all about reader service in the end. Therefore, write naturally.

 

Keep writing to lay a foundation of content.

In time, search engines and internet users alike will gradually begin to associate your site with all of the well-written and KW-rich content on your pages. Eventually, your site will be seen as an authority on your subject matter. This is one of your goals. Laying this sturdy foundation takes time. Therefore, writing fresh content on industry-related subjects will pay off in the SEO long game. It does not happen all at once. And, the span of time will be different based on for each industry.

Pro Tip: After you address most of the important topics in your industry, you can begin to write additional, more in-depth content on each of the subjects. This is a good place to be because you’ve laid the foundation of a website that can address as many tentacles of your field as you care to. Once you’ve established this breadth, anything you add in your continued content marketing efforts will bolster your depth.

 

Step Four: Persistence

Step four is to remember that good, impactful SEO takes time and discipline. To bridge the gap between humble beginnings and becoming established, enhance your content development by deploying pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. For example, invest in some occasional paid ads to get in front of a new audience.

PPC should not be mistaken for SEO. However, PPC it is a complementary component. It essentially lets you buy your way to the first page of results while you build your website’s valuable content resources.

 

Landing Pages

A strong PPC campaign starts with a strong website. If you are going to start paying for clicks, then your ad must link to a strong landing page. For some, your home page says it all. For others, you want to promote a specific blog post or services page. Invest the necessary time to create a well-conceived landing page for your ad traffic to land on.

The landing page should meet and exceed the expectation created by your ad. If your ad promises one thing, and your landing page communicates another message, then your money is not well spent. You will only be throwing away your ad budget and driving up your bounce rate. There should be no dissonance between your ad and its landing page.

 

PPC is not SEO

Potential pitfalls aside, PPC advertising has many virtues. Again, it is not to be confused with actual SEO, but PPC, especially Google AdWords, does allow you to bid for whatever ad placement you like. Through bid optimization, you can be sure to snag the top ad spot. Or, you can simply bid high enough to land somewhere in the top 2 or 3 slots.

Pro Tip: Paid ads only display in the areas Google has designated for ads. And, they are labeled as “ads.” The ads do not appear among the 10 organic results per page. Some users will not click the ads. They prefer to click the unpaid results from the organic list. Organic placement must be earned. It cannot be bought.

 

Step Five: Build Links, Analyze, Repeat

Link building is the process of getting your content out on the web and linking readers back to your website. If you have a lot of content, then you have the opportunity to share it across all of your social media platforms. Another important tactic in link building is to repurpose your content in email marketing campaigns. These external links drive traffic back to your website. And, the social media and email marketing give readers easy ways to spread your content around the web to others.

These and other link building techniques are key components in Google’s eyes. The question Google’s page rank algorithm seems to ask is, “are people sharing and talking about this site’s content?” If so, this indicates a site that has more potential value to a reader than a site that is not dynamic and engaging readers.

A website of relative breadth and depth is designed to attract readers. Many readers will be repeat visitors who remain on the site longer and read multiple articles in each session. These people are either potential customers or likely to recommend you to their friends. You might consider them fans. Engage with them when possible.

Pro Tip: Keep an eye on your website’s analytics. Watch which content is working the best. Equip yourself to make data-driven decisions about future writing topics. The more content you have, the more data you have to guide you.

 

Persistence is the key to a successful set process.

Keep your content machine running at all times. You don’t have to publish daily or even weekly. Jemully has averaged just under 2+ posts per month dating back to the beginning of the company. Sometimes you post more frequently, sometimes less. You only need to publish often enough to keep in touch with your readers.

Pro Tip: Stick with your strategy. Utilize all the steps in the SEO process. You will be able to scale back your paid advertising spend. Then, you will have the flexibility to reinvest the ad dollars into your business in other ways. You can create richer content and/or strategically boost specific posts on social media. 

This is the path that Jemully has taken, and the results speak for themselves. It is also the path that we recommend to clients. Get serious about content marketing. Be your own media. Create and expand your brand’s persona and expertise through thoughtful content generation. It’s something we’ve been saying for years, but content marketing and SEO are intertwined more than ever before.

 

Connecting the Dots Between Psychology and Font Selection

psychology font selection

It takes less than two-tenths of a second for an online visitor to form a first opinion about your website and your brand. The psychological reason that an impression is communicated so quickly is that good design has a mood and a personality. Subsequently, fonts, as part of your design, express them with non-verbal cues. This is where you can benefit from the application of psychology to your website font selection. 

So let’s play a game.

Of the fonts above, which is better for a fitness class, for a board game, and for makeup?

Ten to one odds you chose C, A, then B.

But why?

They just FELT right, didn’t they?

Fonts also have their own unique personalities, as different fonts have been designed for different purposes. But how do you know which font is right for your own brand? Something conventional? Bold? Quirky? Your font choices will undoubtedly influence your audience’s expectations, so making the right choice is crucial.

Let’s take a look at how typefaces hack our brains and how you can hack its code, influence more people, and take your brand to new heights.

 


INTERSECTION OF PURPOSE & PERSONALITY

In the intersecting worlds of marketing and design, the first thing to know is that there’s purpose behind each font style. Interestingly enough, they intersect to the degree that each has their own personality. A study conducted in 2006 at Wichita State University looked at the personality traits people associated with different fonts. They asked participants to rate the personality of 20 fonts using 15 adjectives.

The results? More basic fonts, such as Arial and Courier New, were considered “stable” and “mature” as well as “unimaginative” and “conformist.” In contrast, other fonts like Kirsten and Comic Sans were considered “happy,” “youthful,” and “casual.”

Here are the top three fonts for each descriptive word:

 

THE RIGHT FONT IS VITAL TO YOUR BRAND

See how vital the right font is to your brand’s overall message and success?

Go back and look at the traits given to the fonts in the chart. Notice something? Every trait is an adjective that describes stimuli outside of the font world. THAT’S THE KEY! Fonts share visual characteristics from the real world. You can harness that key and employ the psychology in font selection.

What’s the first lesson in choosing a font for your brand? If you want to choose an appropriate font, choose a font that visually resembles your context.

 

NARROWING IT DOWN: THE SIX MAJOR FONT FAMILIES

Though the list of fonts may seem endless, there are actually only six main font categories, each having a distinct personality of their own:

  • Serif
  • Sans Serif
  • Decorative
  • Headline
  • Handwritten
  • Modern

All fonts fall under the umbrella of one of these six, so choosing the right one for your brand isn’t as complex as you might think. First, identify which of the six styles fits your brand or company best, then choose a typeface within that family for the perfect fit.

 

Font Families 1&2: Serif and Sans Serif

Serifs are those little embellishments that make fonts feel a little more traditional and respectable. Here’s a dictionary definition of “serif”: a slight projection finishing off a stroke of a letter in certain typefaces. In the “D” of DejaVu, below, notice the little projections, top and bottom, on the left side of the letter. Those are serifs. The capital “V” in the same word has two little bars that cap the top extremities of the “V.” Those flourishes are serifs. Designers of lengthy documents, such as books, generally favor serif types because they are believed to aid in readability.

Meanwhile, Sans Serif fonts, defined by their lack of serif embellishments, are generally more minimalist and straightforward.

 

Font Type 3: Decorative

Decorative fonts tend to be quirky, creative, and fun! These are used to add flair to a design and to evoke a specific mood or vibe.

 

 

Font Type 4: Headline

Headline fonts are meant to grab your attention. They are weighty, bold, and dramatic. And ideal for, of course, headers.

 

 

Font Type 5: Handwritten

Handwritten fonts are pretty self-explanatory. They’re fonts that look like they’re written by hand, which gives a personal, fancy touch.

 

 

Font Type 6: Modern

Modern fonts look clean and straight, with sleek, efficient lines that give the impression of forward thinking.

 

Furthermore, whether or not we realize it, design plays a huge role in how we perceive the value of a product. From books, to snacks, to beauty products, and even groceries, the power is often in the packaging.

Okay, as a result, we see fonts definitely play a role in what we buy and what brands we tend to favor. But surely there are some areas that are off limits to typographical brain hacking… right? Wrong!

 

LIGHTS, CAMERA, FONT SELECTION:

What Netflix Teaches Us About Fonts

For that reason, you will notice that even Netflix has a firm understanding of a font’s power and its ability steer people along a certain trajectory. Whether we realize it or not, one of Netflix’s main tools to grab our attention is its choice of fonts. Just take a look through Netflix’s menu and you’ll see dozens of different fonts, each one designed to give you a specific feel that’s consistent with the branding of that particular show or movie.

 With that said, the next time you’re browsing Netflix’s selection, take a few minutes to examine the fonts used for each option—it might help you find your next favorite show!

 

FROM “NETFLIX AND CHILL” TO KEEPING IT REAL:

How to pick the best fonts for your marketing designs

Though there are only six main font families, there are still a ton of fonts to choose from. It can be difficult to know where to start when picking your own. Just remember the mnemonic TAPET, and you’ll be sure to hit a home run with whatever selection you choose: Target Audience (TA), Pairing (P), Emotions (E), and Trends (T).

 

Psychology, fonts, and your Target Audience

Whenever you create content for your brand, it’s important to consider who the content is for. Think about the solutions your audience desires. In addition, consider their expectations. Then conclude, what might they be looking for from a company, service, or product like yours?

For example, would it make sense for an insurance company to use a quirky decorative font? Probably not.

Instead, people will be expecting more standard, classic fonts that convey a sense of efficiency and trustworthiness. 

PAIRING

When landing on a font pairing, always pair a decorative header font with a nice, easy-to-read body font. The header should grab your audience’s attention while your body text should be easy to read.

EMOTIONS

Furthermore, it is wise to consider what emotion you want your design to evoke. Fonts have a unique and subtle psychological way of eliciting an emotional response from readers. The emotion a font evokes often has to do with the shape of the letters and our associations with those shapes.

Consider this:

If you had to choose which font seems happier, which one would you select?

Option 2, right?

Now choose which of these fonts seems more trustworthy:

Probably, not the playful font used in the first example.

As you can see, your font choice has a surprisingly big impact on how your audience perceives you.

 

Trends in Your Industry

When choosing your font, a good way to start is to look at typography trends. Also, learn how your competitors are designing their branded content. What kind of impressions do they make in logos, ads, and social media content? Then, once you have an idea of what other brands in your industry are doing, you can look for opportunities to stand out from the pack.

 

PUTTING PEN TO PAGE

Font psychology isn’t an exact science, but brand identity begins (or dies) with font selection. Harness what you know about your brand and your consumers in such a powerful way that your selected font becomes your brand’s visual figurehead, launching you into the next hemisphere of success.

In conclusion, when choosing your font, a good way to start is to look at typography trends and how your competitors are designing their branded content. What kind of impression do they make in logos, ads, and social media content? Once you have an idea of what other brands in your industry are doing, you can look for opportunities to stand out from the pack.

The world is your oyster. And with the right font – it’s yours for the taking.

 

Interested in more on this topic of psychology? 

Check out these articles about psychology and marketing.

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