by Francois Muscat | May 20, 2019 | Content Marketing
It is imperative that you get a handle on how to create clear, concise briefs if you hire a freelancer or a content marketing company to take on all of your digital marketing on your behalf. Here’s a brief breakdown on how to create better briefs:
Indicate Your Expectations
What do you want this specific piece of content to achieve? Should it inform? Describe? Entertain? What is the ultimate call to action? Do you want the reader to click through to view a product? Sign up to your mailing list? Follow you on social media?
Highlight the Main Message
What is the most important aspect of the content? What is the main message that you would like to get across? Or the most important piece of information that you would like to communicate?
Give a Clear Description of the Target Audience
The target audience will have a great effect on the tone of the piece, so it is always important to provide your content marketing lead with this info.
Give Info About Your Brand
What is the brand’s general tone of voice? What is its desired perception? Also, be sure to send through a style guide if you have one handy.
Keep it Concise
Some clients think that the more information they give their content creator, the better the outcome will be. However, giving a 30-page brief for a page worth of work is not going to do you, or the piece, any favours. If the brief is too long, there is a good chance that the writer won’t read through all of it, and it is easy for the most important information to get lost this way.
Need assistance when it comes to content marketing and digital marketing in general? The team at WSI OMS can help! Contact us now to learn more about our content writing services.
by Marelise da Silva | May 8, 2019 | Content Marketing
We all know that content marketing relies on a brand’s ability to serve its followers interesting, shareable and easy to read content. Unfortunately, not everyone is a gifted writer. With this in mind, we have put together a list of the internet’s best-loved online tools guaranteed to improve your writing and give your content marketing efforts the boost that they need!
Grammarly
Poor grammar and incorrect spelling can have a negative effect on people’s perceptions of your brand. So, you will want to avoid these little mistakes like the plague! Luckily, you do not have to be a grammar-nazi to publish error-free content. Grammarly is a useful online tool that will help you rectify any issues – quickly and effectively. It offers a basic free version which provides notifications of any spelling and punctuation errors, as well as a premium version which goes more in-depth, providing information on other errors like poor word choice, wordy sentences, inappropriate colloquialisms and weak or uncertain language.
Hemingway Editor
Hemingway Editor has been designed to maximise your article’s readability. It is a great choice for people who tend to write longer, more complex sentences. It highlights aspects of your writing that could use work, using a different colour to mark each error. For example, purple is used to highlight a word that could be replaced with a simpler alternative and yellow is used to highlight sentences that could be shorter. The end result is bold, clear writing that is sure to grab attention.
One Look Reverse Dictionary
If your vocabulary is quite limited, you have probably found your online thesaurus a real life-saver. Well, One Look Reverse Dictionary is a functional thesaurus on steroids. Similarly, it helps you to identify repeated words in your content and suggests alternatives, but it also provides suitable words according to a definition. For example, if you could only think of ‘open shoe’, it may suggest ‘sandal’.
Perhaps it is time to get a professional to take care of your content marketing needs? Here at WSI OMS, we are specialists in the fields of content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing and PPC advertising. We have the know-how that is necessary to get your brand noticed – and remembered! Contact us today to learn more.
by Marelise da Silva | Apr 10, 2019 | Content Marketing
When it comes to website design, it’s all about user experience. However, what that means for one company may be entirely different from what it means for another.
- Pay Attention To Loading Times
Did you know that if your web page takes longer than three seconds to load, 53% of visitors will click away and look elsewhere? Surprising, but true. Therefore, while gorgeous graphics look amazing and are often the crux of website design, too many of them (especially high-def or animated versions) may take away from the value of the user experience. If you’ve noticed that your bounce rate is higher than usual since updating your website design, it will definitely be worthwhile to test the loading times of each page to see if that is the underlying issue.
- Provide Educational And Informative Content
Yes, a website’s main function is to promote your brand and its offering. However, too much promotional content can make it difficult for potential customers to relate to your business and may result in them turning to your competition for ‘more’. This is where content marketing comes in. It is essential that you provide plenty of interesting, informative and educational content too, as this is the content that is sure to resonate with your audience and is more likely to generate engagement.
- Take Customers On A Journey
The key is to hold your visitors’ attention for as long as possible. One way in which to do this is to take them on a journey that flows seamlessly from one web page to the next. Add links strategically to each page, gradually guiding your visitors through what you do, how you can help them and, finally, encouraging them to make contact or convert.
As experts in website design and website development, WSI OMS can help you to transform your website into a powerful business tool. We also specialise in content marketing, mobile marketing, and social media marketing. Contact us now to learn more.
by Marelise da Silva | Apr 2, 2019 | Content Marketing
It is one thing to create content that draws leads to buying a product now, but it is a completely different ballgame to create content that draws high value leads for consulting services. Regardless of the industry you are in, you will need to rethink your content marketing strategy if you want to get more leads for the products and services that your B2B company offers.
Ascend2 and its Research Partners used a sample of 255 marketing influencers to show that research reports not only produce the highest number of leads but also has the highest conversion rate. The type of content that produces the second most leads is video or motion graphics. The researchers asked influencers: “What types of content generate leads with the highest customer conversion rate?” The feedback received reflects the following analysed results:
- Research reports: 50%
- Video/motion graphics: 41%
- Webinars/webcasts: 41%
- Case studies/whitepapers: 39%
- Social media content: 29%
- Website articles/blogs: 28%
- Infographics: 16%
Video and movement are known to attract attention, which is why videos are 12 times more likely to be watched than text is to be read. Your content marketing strategy should include a good mix of the content types mentioned in the research report, as consumers consume content in different ways.
Lead generation is the primary objective of the average inbound marketing strategy. The quality of your leads will not only improve your conversion rats, but it will help your business reach its financial goals.
Need help with your digital marketing, social media marketing or content marketing strategy? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Marianna Muscat | Mar 22, 2019 | Content Marketing
Many people are already creating content and building their online profiles. To take it one step further, make sure you are putting emphasis on contributing content on third-party platforms versus only on your own native websites and channels.
Hear me out. Many people disagree with this approach. They ask: is it not the end goal to drive people back to my website? The answer is yes and no. If you are trying to grow your personal brand as a thought leader in your industry and if you are trying to get more views on your content, then you can drive people to your website. But then you are responsible for a channel that you need to drive traffic to.
Another approach is to create content on established platforms and networks such as Medium and LinkedIn. And, you can apply to be a contributor on blogs that are relevant in the industry that you work in. By creating content on these third-party platforms, you are tapping into the benefit of the traffic on that website.
Be A Contributor On Iconic And Relevant Platforms
If you are a public speaker, for example, then you (hopefully) have a YouTube channel with a number of videos. Becoming a contributor on an iconic brand, such as Entrepreneur, and posting your videos on this site, you will be able to reach a far bigger audience than what you would have if you were only sharing your video on your own digital assets.
Driving content to your own platforms is great! But, contributing content to established communities can make a big difference to your brand.
WSI OMS specialises in content marketing and social media marketing. Contact us if you want to make more money online.
by Marelise da Silva | Mar 7, 2019 | Content Marketing
When it comes to content marketing, it’s hard to know how long your blog posts and articles should be. The short and confusing answer is: it depends on what the user is searching for. If the user is looking for something that requires a comprehensive and long answer, then they will be expecting a longer article. If they are looking for a quick solution, they wouldn’t want to read thousands of words of text. The length of the content that someone is looking for when they want to book their car for a repair or hire an accountant, for example, will be much shorter than when they are looking for a bespoke solution.
When it comes to sharing opinions and showing people how to achieve things, Google loves long form content. Google wants to know that the person will get all the information they need in the form of a full walk-through so that they thoroughly understand the subject. The person writing the article also has to demonstrate that they have the subject matter knowledge by giving the reader a comprehensive and long answer. Long form content is very important in this scenario.
In an article by serpIQ, the researchers show that the average search length is 2400 words. In an article by Quick Sprout by Neil Patel, he explains how content length affects ranking and conversion. Neil realised that longer form content converts 30% more than shorter forms of the same content. According to a recent study, the average length of content on page 1 of Google is 1900 words.
Regardless of the content length, you should always focus on delivering high quality content. WSI OMS offers top quality content writing and marketing services. Contact us for more information today.
