Instagram Captions That Drive Engagement

Social media was originally used by people to connect or establish a network with their old friends. It also served as a communication tool between people or a group of people. Nowadays, social media is more than just a sharing platform. It has become a way to raise awareness for a business or a cause.

Social media is a good platform for businesses not only because it increases awareness but also because it connects you with customers which in turn boosts leads and sales. It’s a good communication tool that can help get the word out quickly. This is why businesses should have social media pages.

One of the most popular is Instagram. According to studies, the social media platform has around 1 billion users with 500 million actively scrolling through their feed every day. If you’re not on Instagram, you should be.

However, simply being on Instagram won’t drive engagement. Here are tips on how you can write better captions to help connect with your audience better.

Take Your Time & Edit Before Posting

When you take a picture to post on Instagram you take plenty of them before choosing the best ones. Then you add a filter or two and use other photo editing tools to ensure that your photos look good.

But you write the caption in 10 seconds and post right away.

This is a big mistake because you should take just as long or even longer to write an Instagram caption. Just like writing a blog, you need to write a draft first, edit it a couple of times before posting.

Take your time. Write several drafts and then edit them until you feel they are perfect. Your photo isn’t going anywhere and neither are your followers. But don’t get me wrong, you shouldn’t take a week or a month to edit your caption. Just put a lot of thought into it because writing drafts and editing can weed out mistakes before you post them.

Spelling mistakes for instance can be disastrous. You want your followers to think you are serious and a professional and spelling blunders make you look like the opposite.

Tag Your Posts With Locations

Tell followers where the photo was taken but don’t include it in the captions – that’s a waste of space. Tag the location of the photo like so:

Had they added the location of the photo in the caption, the message of the photo would have been lost in all the words they had to say.

Another reason to add location is because it will appear with all the other photos tagged in that location. Photos with the most likes and comments will appear in Instagram’s “Top Posts” on that location page. This is a great way for people who don’t follow you to see your posts.

Put Important Info First

Be direct and always lead with the most information first. Instagram allows users 2,200 letters for the caption but followers won’t be able to see all of them right away. Longer posts are usually cut short with the need to hit “more” so that readers can see the rest of the caption.

Generally, shorter captions are better than longer ones. However, this does not mean to say that captions should always be short.

Not everyone wants to click the “more” button to see the whole caption. It’s better to put important info first so that readers can get the gist of your message without needing to click the “more” button.

Encourage Comments

You want each post to have lots of engagement. One of the ways to do this is by getting people to comment on your photos. Users can either talk to each other on the comments or reply directly to you.

Another way to encourage comments is by starting a discussion. For this method to be successful you need to get your audience to participate. End captions with a question to encourage discussion. If you don’t ask they won’t have a reason to write anything.

Drive Traffic To Your Website  

For ecommerce sites, the purpose of joining social media platforms like Instagram is to drive traffic to their main websites. To get them to buy something they should click on a link because you can’t purchase directly from Instagram.

To find out where traffic is coming from, you can create a unique URL to see the number of referrals from your IG page. This will help you gauge how successful your Instagram campaign is.

Add the link to your Instagram bio then you can use the caption to refer followers to the link.

Here is a good example:

This photo tells followers what you’re selling and if they’re interested they can click on the link on the bio that brings them directly to the item.

Run A Contest

Contests are great ways to drive engagement of your brand in Instagram. This can help drive engagement especially if write a great caption.

Good examples of a giveaways t include: lottery, sweepstakes and contests. It’s a contest when people need to do something to win a prize and a group of judges determine the winner. For a lottery, people have to buy a ticket to enter and sweepstakes are selecting winners at random.

Lotteries and sweepstakes usually require state and federal compliance and prohibit this types of giveaways so your best bet is a contest.

For example, you can ask followers to design a t-shirt and then post their shirts on Intagram using #TShirtDesignContest.

Use Hashtags

Always include hashtags in your captions. This is for the same reason you need to tag location: so that your post will appear with other images using the same hashtag.

This will expose your brand to a wider audience. If you’re not sure which hashtags to use, Instagram can suggest the most popular ones. Pick the ones with the most posts since this will help drive engagement.

Make sure that hashtags are relevant to your brand. However, use hashtags sparingly because you don’t want your post to look like spam.

Writing good Instagram captions is very important. Not only will it drive engagement, it will also drive traffic to your website.

A Sydney Social Media Marketing Team can help you build ties with your clients. Social media marketing in Instagram can help you interact with clients at a much deeper level compared to traditional advertising.

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How To Make Your Home “Smarter”

Just 10 years ago, the idea of making your home into a smart home seemed something out of a sci-fi movie. Nowadays, everything can be connected by wifi and controlled using an app on your smartphone.

One of the advantages of turning your home into a smart home is the convenience. You can now control temperature remotely and even secure your home using your smartphone. If  you’re thinking about making your home “smarter” you’re in the right place because we have some suggestions for you.

Smart TV

Smart TVs don’t only feature high definition pictures; they are also capable of music and video streaming, voice control and universal search. Smart TVs can also be used with your smart phones and the best thing about them is that they can be set up very easily.

Being able to stream services like Netflix on a huge TV is more than enough reason to buy one. No more streaming and watching on small smartphone screens and tablets. Aside from this, you can livestream using other smart TVs when you’re not at home.

Best of all, you can browse the internet with your smart TV as a monitor. This eliminates the need to buy other devices to stream content since the operating system is built into the TV. All you need is a wifi password and your mobile device with the streaming app.

Smart Thermostats

Going home to a very cold or hot house is not very welcoming. Having a smart thermostat is not only convenient; it can also help you save money by allowing you to set the right temperature every time. This is probably one of the best investment choices you will make in terms of heating and cooling costs.

The best smart thermostats allow you to set the temperature of your home using an app on your smartphone even when you’re away from home. You can turn the heat up or turn on the a/c right before you leave work so that you arrive in a well heated or cooled home.

Since the thermostat is connected to your phone, you can adjust temperature anywhere in the world. These features save money because you can always turn off your heating or a/c if you accidentally leave it on; and turn it up according to your schedule.

Smart Lighting

This is another money-saving feature because you guessed it – lighting can now be controlled using your smartphone. Just like your thermostat you can turn on or turn off lights using your phone enabling you to save on electric bills. This is also very helpful if you don’t want to come home to a dark house.

Smart Security Camera

Security is always a good investment and having a smart security camera can help make your home safer. There are many smart security features like smart locking, motion sensors and surveillance devices. These features are usually available through a low monthly fee. Footages are stored in the cloud, making it safe for the police.

Perhaps the best feature of a smart security system is the ability to let you live stream footage of your home in real time while you’re away. Some systems require professional installation while ther are also others that can be DIY-ed.

Smart Home Hub

Perhaps the best way to turn your home into a smart home is by installing a smart home hub. This device allows you to control everything in your home from the lighting to the security system. Instead of controlling your thermostat, lighting or security system separately, you use a main hub controlled by a smartphone app or voice command.

Luckily, smart hubs aren’t expensive or complicated to set up. They are easy to install and come in a variety of settings. All you need is a wifi password and a dedicated spot to set up your hub.

Other smart devices such as Google Home and Amazon Echo can also make your home “smarter”. Just remember that these devices are here to make your home life more convenient and comfortable.

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Best Mental Health Apps

As depression and suicide numbers rise, mental health apps can be effective in making therapy more accessible, efficient and portable.

Having a plan in place that can guide you through difficult moments can help you cope and keep you safe. For some people coping with depression and other mental health issues include medication, therapy or both. For others, a mental health app can provide a complementary or separate option for tackling depressive symptoms.

Moodpath

Moodpath is a depression and anxiety test that’s available for download for Apple and Android users. This app helps you make a mental mood assessment that can help you make the call to explore professional treatment.

Unlike other assessment apps that make you reflect on your life for the last couple of months. Moodpath guides you by asking in the moment questions over the span of 14 days to weigh your emotional well-being.

The app is geared towards getting a psychological assessment to help you make the call regarding professional help. However, it also has 150 exercises and tools on the app that can help you work on your mental health.

TalkLife

Depression and other mental health issues are becoming more visible, but the stigma has not vanished completely. This makes a person feel isolated. TalkLife is a safe space where you can talk openly about depression.

It offers community support that is similar to group therapy. You can access a community of people who are willing to listen so that you feel less lonely. If you’re concerned about privacy, you can go anonymous on the app too.

Daylio

If you’ve noticed that your mood fluctuates at certain times, Daylio can help you pinpoint these trends so that you can make adjustment you need. It’s a pin-protected app that uses graphics to detail your daily activities and moods. You can watch the app churn out stats and trends to help you understand your mood a bit better.

Youper

Youper is an AI assistant for managing depression. It works by chatting with you and prompting you to think about your thought patterns and behavior. The app guides you through techniques you might need based on your response. It then summarizes your conversation and interactions through insights so that you can understand your well-being.

Depression CBT

This self-help app is free to use and is based on the tenets of behavioral cognitive therapy. It provides informational articles, diary-like mood tracking and built-in motivational features to help modify your thought patterns for a better mood.

There is also a depression severity test that lets you evaluate your progress. There is also an audio content available that is very helpful especially on long or stressful commutes.

What’s Up?

Like Depression CBT, it draws on cognitive behavior therapy and acceptance commitment therapy to teach you dozens of coping mechanisms from grounding exercises to breathing techniques and ways of recognizing disruptive thought patterns.

The app also features a forum where you can connect with other users so that you can get additional support.

One of the advantages of using an app to help you treat depression is the absence of traveling or appointments. You also don’t have to deal with huge bills which is very helpful if you don’t have insurance. We hope that these apps can help you treat depression or help you make the decision to get professional treatment.

A good mental health or anti-depression app can help save lives. If you have an idea for a mental health app, our software development consultant in Sydney can help you get on the right path.

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Top Reasons Why People Are Bouncing From Your Site

All website owners know how hard it is to get people to visit your website. This is why the last thing you want to do is to chase them away. Your website’s goal is not only to attract visitors; it’s actually to get them to stay which is why bouncing is a very big deal. Once they land on your site, you want them to feel comfortable so that they can check out what you have to offer, engage with you or sign up for your email list.

In order for this to happen, you need to know what bouncing is all about and why it is important.

What Is Bouncing?

Bounce rate refers to the number of people who leave your website after viewing only 1 page or post.

For instance, a person finds your site on Google and clicks the link. He then browses or skims through the site and then hits the back button to go back to the search results. This person has “bounced” from your website.

Why Is It Important?

Bounce rate is important because it is one of the many factors that Google judges when it comes to ranking your site. This can make a big difference if for instance you and a competitor have similar products but their website has a lower bounce rate than yours. Google will rank their site higher than yours.

What’s A Normal Bounce Rate To Have?

0% – 25%: Don’t jump for joy yet. This is probably a fluke. Something on your site might be broken or not set up correctly.

26-40%: This is where websites owners want to be. It means people love your website.

41-55%: Average for most websites in most industries.

56-75%: Higher than what is considered as normal. However, it could also be influenced by factors such as the industry you’re in and your target audience.

76% – 100%: Very bad. Let’s hope something is broken!

Why Are People Bouncing From Your Site?

Here are some of the most common reasons why people are bouncing away from your site:

• It’s taking forever to load

There are literally millions of websites on the internet right now. Many of them could be your competitors. This means that if your site does not load quick enough for them, they will go to one of your competitors and buy from them instead.

According to studies, 25% of users leave a website if a page does not load in 4 seconds. This is 1 in 4 people who won’t get to see your site without even seeing what you have to offer.

You can’t expect people to browse on your website and get to know you if it’s taking you an eternity to load.

• Annoying Pop-ups

Maybe your pop-up game is a bit too strong. Nothing says annoying more than having pop-ups literally pop-up every time you click a page or swipe down or up.

This is particularly annoying when it happens right after you land on the homepage. When pop-ups happen too quickly, guests don’t have a chance to figure out what you’re all about one of 3 things will happen: they’ll leave your site because your pop-up was annoying, leave because the x closing isn’t clearly visible or they’ll hit the x closing without reading what your pop-up is all about. Either way, you lose – 3 times.

• Confusing Navigation

Some website owners want to be unique so they want to try new things. However new designs can be confusing especially if users can’t figure out how to get to the next page or find what they’re searching for.

There are many amazing websites on the internet but with confusing navigation. If users can’t navigate your site easily, they will leave.

• Design Strains The Eyeballs

This is in extension to the above factor. Some owners really want to stand out so they experiment with font, font size, colors, images, etc.

The danger of this experimentation lies in the effect it has on the readers. For instance, cursive or handwriting fonts look cute but they are also harder to read. Bright colors or the wrong color combination can strain the eyes or make it hard for the user to read content.

• Not Showcasing Enough

Let’s say you’re page loads quickly and you don’t have annoying pop-ups, your navigation is easy and your site is readable – so why are you still bouncing people from your site?

This is probably because you’re not showcasing enough. People might want more content or info from you and you’re not providing them with what they need.

Consider showing related articles at the end of your blog post. For example, if you’re blogging about SEO mistakes, you can include links at the bottom of your post for more follow-up articles. You are not only keeping a visitor on your website longer, you are also building a trusting relationship with them by increasing your credibility.

When it comes to bounce rates, it pays to keep users and user experience in mind.

What’s your website’s bounce rate? A Sydney Web Designer can help provide an intelligent and innovative website so that you can avoid high bounce rates and improve user experience.

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Copywriting Advice That Can Boost Sales

A lot of factors can impact the success of a business. Businessmen need to overcome self-doubt, they need to promote their business and they also need a good copy for their website.

If you want to boost sales by posting on your blog, sharing on Facebook and other social media platforms or promoting on Instagram, you need to do a lot of writing.

Just like any other aspect of a business copywriting needs proper attention. A great copy will not only boost your sales, it will also grow your customer base and generate leads.

This is what you want to know if you want your copywriting skills to boost sales.

Know Your Audience

Writing for the wrong people is a big mistake. One of the biggest mistakes copywriters commit when writing is losing sight of the target audience.

The tone of the copy always depends on the demographic. For example you will need to speak differently to a millennial mom and a baby boomer mom. If you’re trying to communicate with B2B companies, then you need to be a bit technical.

Aside from this, you also need to know what your audience wants. Whether you’re writing a blog post or a copy for your website, you need to think about the person who will be reading it in order to guide your content.

Have A Strategy

Boosting sales starts with having a plan. You need a tailored message to get to the right people at the right time. A solid communication strategy is one of the best things you can do for your business.

Even if you’re creating content that resonates, it can still miss a lot of people if it is not in the right place. Business owners should create a well-rounded communication strategy that includes website content, social media, print, guest posting, email, etc.

Think about the different communication channels and how they work together as well as your target audience. Understanding how they work together can help you create a tailored message.

Grammatical Errors

Believe it or not, one of the big differences between a bad copy and good copy are the typos. Even if you have an awesome idea, grammatical errors and typos will make you lose credibility.

Readers who find typos in your blogs or copy will think that you’re not serious or a professional.

Do yourself and your business a favor and always edit and proof read your content before posting online. If you don’t have time for this, you can always hire a professional to check your work.

SEO

It’s easy to set up an online store, but without SEO, nobody will know how to find it. Copywriting and SEO are actually closely related. Even if you have the best product in the world, if your content is not optimized to capitalize on it, customers will have a hard time finding you on Google.

Boost sales by getting to know SEO and your keywords. Before posting any content, do a keyword research to find relevant keywords so that when you get to writing you can produce a seamless content that does not feel like it’s been written by a robot.

CTA

Finish off your copy with a call-to-action to boost sales. After reading about a great product a well-placed CTA at the end will entice readers into the sales funnel.

Start your CTA strongly with words like “buy”, “download” or “subscribe”.

Studies also show that showing enthusiasm such as ending sentences with an exclamation point can help boost sales.

For instance: “Download this ebook and get 50% off until November 30!”

This will play on readers’ FOMO (fear of missing out). If they know that a deal is ending soon, they will want to take it to avoid fear of missing out.

Final Thoughts

Boosting sales is good for a business because this means that your business is on the right trajectory. However, not having the right copy can make you lose money. We hope that these tips will help you create a better customer experience and help you become a credible source.

Sydney Content and Copywriting can help enhance your brand online.  A crisp and engaging copy can help boost traffic, leads and sales for your website.

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Tips For Improving Instagram Strategy For Better ROI

We all know that no online marketing strategy is complete without Instagram. This platform has 800 million users and 500 million profiles are active on a daily basis. What’s more, 70% of IG hashtags are branded.

This means that if you’re not on Instagram yet, you should sign up right now. This could also mean that your competitors are already there and being followed by your prospective customers.

Marketers and businesses with an IG account are already on the right track. However, having a profile does not mean that you’re already swimming in sales. If you want to drive sales, you need a viable marketing strategy so that you can make real money on Instagram. Here are a few tips.

Increase Followers

Without followers, you will struggle in getting your posts seen. This is why one of the first things you should do as soon as you sign up on IG is to get followers.

According to studies, 73% of users on social media follow brands they are interested in. Your current customers are interested in your brand so tell them about your profile as soon as you sing up. The next step is updating your email subscribers and reminding them to follow you in Instagram. Include your IG handle and an incentive to follow you.

Include an IG badge on your website. This will make it easy for guests to find you on the social media platform. Follow other people too, but don’t just follow anyone. Follow users that fit your target audience because this is your best bet for generating new leads and driving sales.

Finding target audience is a bit tricky. You don’t need to “steal” your competitor’s followers although following them is a good idea too. The easiest way to finding followers is to search IG profiles and posts with content similar to yours.

Focus On First Impression

First impressions always matter. This is true not only for the real world, but on the internet too.

Marketers need to know this and this is the reason why writing an irresistible blog post introduction is important for your content marketing strategy.

When an IG user clicks on your profile, they see your biography and most recent post. If you want to grow your customer base, your profile should say who you are and what you do.

Having a picture of your logo as profile pic makes sense because this it’s more recognizable than a picture of one of your products.

This means that if your profile page does not grab user’s attention you won’t get many followers. So keep your profile short but to the point and professional.

Post On A Regular Basis

Posting once a month is not an effective strategy. It can’t even be called an active IG presence.

Remember that you always want to be on the mind of your followers. However you also don’t want to flood their timeline with spammy messages. Our recommendation is to post once a day. If you have a lot of content to share in 1 day, it’s better to add it to your Instagram story.

Go Live

Instagram has a live streaming feature that you should take advantage of. Users love it and brands are using it to their advantage. This is because going live gives you the opportunity of connecting with followers more intimately and in real-time. Followers can also comment while you broadcast.

Make sure to try to comment back to commenters and to acknowledge those who do. This will help to increase your engagement metrics.

Going live also has endless possibilities. You can demonstrate new products, host a Q&A, give a tour of your facility or work with other brands.

Partner With Social Influencers

94% of marketers say that their partnership with an influencer was an effective strategy for their brand. This is because many followers trust social influencers.

According to studies 82% of people are likely to follow recommendations from influencers and 94% of followers believe that influencers are credible.

Add Hashtags To Captions

It’s best to learn how to write Instagram content captions that drive engagement and hashtags are an IG necessity. There are different approaches to this. You can use existing hashtags or write your own.

Use hashtags with your brand name or brand campaign. This will make it easier for followers and users to find your product.

Encourage UGC

UGC is user-generated-content. This type of promotion uses photos or videos of users that they uploaded that’s related to your product or content.

This is a good marketing strategy because your brand gets exposure from their followers. It acts like a recommendation which we already know through influencer marketing to be an effective promotion strategy.

Run Targeted Ads

How can you reach followers on IG that don’t follow you? Run targeted ads.

This strategy targets users outside your audience giving you the ability to reach more prospective followers and customers. Furthermore, Instagram has been acquired by Facebook, giving you the opportunity of running ads on both platforms.

For paid ads, you have to set parameters like age, gender or location to select your ad preference.  You can also take it a step further by targeting users based on their interests.

Take Away

Competition is can be in cyberspace so having a foothold in social media platforms such as Instagram is important. Not only does it have millions of active users every day, it has shifted from a photo sharing platform to a business related one that makes it easy for marketers to network and connect with prospective clients, influencers and like-minded brands.

Sydney Social Media Marketing Company can help you connect with clients. Our experts will collaborate with you to create persuasive social media pages and content to give you advantage over your competition.

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6 Reasons Why You Should Build An Email List

Do you think email lists are outdated? Are you considering building one but you have some doubts as to their usefulness?

Many businessmen and bloggers have doubts where email lists are concerned. This is usually because they don’t realize the importance of building one when they’re just starting out. However, they usually change their minds when they see the impact an email list has on somebody else’s traffic and revenue.

If you’re still in doubt, we have 6 convincing reasons why you should start building your email list right now.

What Is An Email List?

Basically, an email list is a list of email addresses from persons who gave their consent so that you can send them updates and promotions regarding your business or service.

Email lists can be used with an email marketing software so that you can send emails in bulk regarding blog updates, online sales, product launches and other related marketing paraphernalia.

Why Is It Important?

Studies by the Direct Marketing Association reveals that email lists have an average of 4,300% for businesses. Because people have given you permission to send them updates regarding their products, this means that they are interested in what you have to offer.

Here are reasons why emails are an invaluable communication channel.

• Email Is Personal

Each email you send lands in a prospective customer’s inbox. There is no limit or ranking system for your reach. It is a direct and personal way to communicate.

• It’s Purposeful

To get emails from you, people need to sign up using a form and they confirm their email addresses. Somebody who takes time doing this means that they are interested in hearing from you and are much more receptive to your communication efforts.

• Email Is Targeted

Since subscribers are interested in hearing from you, you can send them updates on products or service that they are interested in. this means you can offer them highly relevant products that can deliver better results. This is what we call segmentation.

• You Own That Email List

Nowadays, it is normal with businesses to interact with their customers using Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. However, you social marketing efforts and your SEO campaign can go down the drain should any of these channels change their policies. On the other hand, you own your email list so you can continue with your email marketing campaigns because it is not influenced by the decisions of other businesses.

• It’s One-On-One

People read their emails in the privacy of their inbox. Unlike posts in social media, only the intended person has access to what’s in your email. They can ask questions directly and in private. This type of communication builds rapport and trust.

• We Use Email All The Time

Many people know that Facebook has over 1 billion users and Twitter has 100 million daily active users. What they don’t know is that there are over 3.8 billion active email accounts all around the world. This is roughly half the population of the Earth.

Big brand names understood this a long time ago which is why they spend thousands of dollars on social media campaigns to get people to sign up on their list. They know that email marketing is a very good long term investment with a higher return because people will continue to get the message for a longer time at a very low cost.

A personalized digital marketing strategy can be very rewarding for your company in the long run. Contact Creativ Digital for digital marketing strategies in Sydney.

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Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Campaign Is Failing

Content marketing is all about information dissemination. It is a type of marketing that relies on sharing educational, entertaining or insightful information that can help readers improve their lives.

This decision can change their behavior or it could influence their purchasing decision. Content marketing is not about forcing a sale, it’s about helping them move towards the best course of action.

Content marketing is a marketing strategy focused on distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content designed to attract and retain a targeted audience.  

However, the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy can make or break your business. If you’re finding yourself in the latter, these could be the reasons why your content marketing strategy is failing.

Not Understanding Buyer Personas

A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data on your existing customers. When forming your buyer persona, it should be based on demographics, age, buying behavior, motivations and goals. The more details you have, the better.

However, not all marketers take time to do the research and not knowing your audience can have a disastrous effect on your content marketing efforts.

Content marketers should develop buyer as well as reader personas so that update recipients will find newsletters and blog readers will find information that they need or find relevant to their situations.

Always remember that blogs are not just about educating readers and buyers about your product or brand so that you can push them down the sales funnel. When you understand your audience, you know what topics will grab their attention.

Failing To Provide Quality

The primary goal of content marketing is to get leads through quality information. Keep your content fresh and to publish consistently.

When you don’t post new blog articles, people will stop going to your website or blog. Post as often as you can and remember to post quality content.

It’s also alright to post once a week, so long as you focus on quality over quantity. It’s also best to post at a regular time so that people will know when to expect updates.

Not Proof-reading or Editing

Wrong grammar is one of the biggest pet peeves of readers. Misspelled words, no commas or periods can be irritating. These little mistakes can send some readers over the hill. Moreover, it makes your blog look unprofessional.

Always spell check, proof-read and edit your content before publishing. There are also tools like Gramar.ly and peer-readers who can check your work for you.

Not Reusing Or Repurposing

If you’ve been producing content for a long time, chances are you have a ton of it. Many marketers usually product content that covers a lot of topics and the good news is that you can recycle them over and over again.

How to repurpose old content: You can make a slideshow or video of your “how to’s”, transcribe your video and audio format, update reports so that it’s current or build on existing content by expanding certain points or building on new ideas and share older content to new audience.

No Call-To-Action

Even professional content marketers forget to add a call-to-action button from time to time. However, there is no better way to guide people to other parts of your website than a well-placed CTA.

Without CTAs visitors will have no way to know about your products or services. Consider placing CTAs in your blog, email messages, Facebook page, every page of your website, within webinars and ebooks and presentation.

Avoiding these email marketing mistakes can help your campaign succeed. Always remember that readers are always looking for information that’s quick, easy to digest and engaging.

Website Content Marketers in Sydney can provide a crisp and compelling content that can engage readers and showcase your brand personality.

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10 Reasons Why You Have A Sucky Blog

We all know that blogging is not for everybody. Many people fail at blogging while others are intimidated and don’t know where to start.

The good news is that with dedication and planning, you can start a blog that can someday supplement your income so that you can quit your full time job. This is because blogging is risky and does not involve a significant amount of financial investment. If done correctly, blogging can be rewarding. The profit margin has no equal which is why it’s good to start blogging right now.

However, before you expect to make thousands of dollars per month, make sure to avoid the following blogging mistakes.

No Objective

For many bloggers, the goal of blogging is to address issues that concern them. For example, if your blog is about people who want to lose weight; your content should be related to weight loss. The same is true if it’s for cat lovers, then it should be about cats. If your blog is about cats and then you post weight loss tips, readers will leave your site.

Before starting a blog, find a niche you’re interested in. You should be passionate about the subject you want to blog about so that you can effectively communicate what you want to say to your readers.

Thinking That Blogging Is Easy

This is perhaps the most common misconceptions about blogging. Many people think that because there are many blogs on the internet, it must be easy so they think that spending 30 hours per week on a blog is insane.

The truth is that blogging requires a lot of time and effort. You don’t only want to write quality content; you should also spend time promoting your blog. After all, what’s the point of creating great content if nobody reads it?

More importantly, more and more blogs are being created every day. This means more competition in an already crowded space. Not promoting your blog can make it irrelevant.

Before starting a blog, take time to figure out how much time you’re willing to devote to your blog. The more work you put into your blog, the faster you will reach your goal of having a passive secondary income stream.

Choosing A Niche Based On Money Making Potential

Blogging takes a lot of trial and effort and sometimes feels like a full-time job. So before you choose a niche, make sure that it is something you are truly passionate about. This means that if you don’t like to cook or don’t know how to, don’t start a blog about cooking or baking. If you’re not into fitness, you shouldn’t start a blog about body building.

This is why you should only blog about topics you know about. If you like basketball, you should start a blog about improving your jump shots, free throws or dribbling abilities.

No Domain

Web addresses like yourblogname.wordpress.com or yourblogname.blogger.com is basically telling your readers that you’re not a professional. There are some bloggers who succeeded using these types of URL but they are one in a million.

It’s better to start a blog using your own domain. Luckily, there are many hosting providers that offer affordable solutions for bloggers.

Nobody Can Find Your Blog

What’s the purpose of writing quality content if nobody reads it? One of the most common reasons why blogs fail is that bloggers think they only need to write good content and people will automatically know how to find it. This is not true because blogging is 30% quality content and 70% promotion.  Google and other search engines won’t rank your blog high just because you launched it.

There are many ways to promote your blog. You can use social media, guest blog or get syndicated.

Believing You Will Be Rich Overnight

As we said above, you can’t expect to make thousands of dollars after just a month or two of blogging. The truth is that there are blogs that make over $5,000 per month but it took them at least 3 years of dedication and hard work to reach that level.

But don’t give up. Try it for at least a year but make sure that your dreams are realistic. $5,000 salary per month is worth the effort so make sure that you dedicate time and effort to our blog.

Being Inconsistent

Readers will expect regular blogs once they become regular visitors to your websites. So if you want to be a successful blogger, you need to stick to a schedule.

You have 2 options when it comes to posting regularly: promise yourself that you are going to post on a regular basis or write a large number of blogs ahead of time and use an auto posting app to update regularly.

Bad Design

Design is just as important as content.  As they say, first impressions count and you only have 1 chance. Before guests read what you have to say, they have to take a look at how your blog looks like so if it looks like it’s designed by a 5-year old they’re not going to take you seriously.

Invest in a paid theme rather than a free one. Make sure that the colors complement each other and the font as well as the typeface is readable.

Having Ads

Having ads on a brand new blog makes it look spammy. Yes, ads mean money but it also affects the trust and recognition of your readers. Unless you’re an established blog, readers will think of ads on a blog as spammy.

Stay away from ads until you have around 50,000 readers. This number might seem large but remember you only get 5-50 cents per ad click so unless you have massive traffic, it won’t matter anyway.

No Opt-in Or Subscription Forms

When you start a blog, start building your email list too. Email should be a priority because people don’t always remember what website they’ve been to and an email can help them remember your blog.

Make sure they subscribe to your email list by asking them through popups, slide-ins and opt-in forms. They might seem intrusive (especially the popups) but they are really useful.

One of best ways to ensure that your blog gets noticed not only by readers but also by search engines is through SEO. An SEO Company from Sydney can help you optimize your website so that you don’t only have blog readers but customers too. They have a wide range of strategies and services so that your blog gets noticed by the right people.

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New UX Books To Help You Succeed

UX or User Experience is an ever changing field. There are always new practices and theories that keep cropping up and explaining them can take some time because it’s not something that can be tweeted or just blogged about on social media platforms.

Keeping your UX skill up to date is an ongoing process and one of the best ways to be on top of industry standard is by reading books. Luckily, there are always new books on UX so learning and keeping abreast of the latest trends and practices is easier.

These books on UX were selected because not only are they the latest, they are also written by industry experts. If you’re a manager, designer or just somebody who likes learning or staying informed, these books on UX are worth checking out.

Strategic Writing for UX

Writing is just as important as visual design in UX. This is very important because writing usually gets neglected and this can make the difference between success and failure of your website. This book will help fill the gap by addressing how to include UX content works in the software development process, how to use framework to align UX content with principle and how to explore first-content design to root UX text in conversion.

Strategic Writing for UX was written by Torrey Podmajersky. In this book she also explains how UX patterns work using different voices and how to product text that’s purposeful, concise, conversational and clear.

Building Design Systems

If you want to learn how to unify shared UX through a shared design language, Building Design Systems makes for a good reading choice. Design system is one of the most talked about topic in UX because it allows a design team to build a framework that addresses their needs by bringing together all the design elements including style guides, UI libraries, CSS frameworks and other resources.

This book is by Sarrah Vesselov and Taurie Davis, leaders of the design field and this book guides you through the process of defining a design language that can be understood across teams. It will also explain how to sell it to key stakeholders and other contributors.

Ruined by Design

Ruined by Design is by controversial web designer Mike Monteiro. This book is half rant half call-to-arms and explains how designers can help fix the world by taking the right attitude to design.

The good news is that this book isn’t just one long rant. It’s also a call-to-action for designers to make better decisions so that we can change the world. It also provides the tools to help you do so. Monteiro explains how to evaluate the potential benefits and harm of your design and how to present your concerns using data and good storytelling to decision makers so that they will actually listen.

Emotionally Intelligent Design

In her book Emotionally Intelligent Design, design researcher and author Pamela Pavliscak probes new technologies and techniques that can help you engage emotionally with users while probing the moral and ethical issues of UX design. She examines new technology that engages emotion and new emotional design practices. Her book depicts her experience and latest research in psychology, neuroscience and behavioral economics.

You will also learn different methods of blending well-being interventions with design patterns, new principles for merging emotional intelligence and design thinking and how to use relationship model for framing product interactions and personality.

Think Like a UX Researcher

Think Like a UX Researcher by David Travis and Philip Hodgson takes a deep dive into theory and practice of UX research and offers practical advice on how to plan, conduct, analyze data and persuade people to take action based on the results.

This book is a good read for UX researchers, designers, project managers, scrum masters, business analysts and marketing managers. It also includes workshop ideas so you can build on your UX maturity.

These books are all available via Amazon so that you can boost your UX books with groundbreaking skills and insights.

We at Creativ.com.au use the latest UX design principles so that your website is responsive and modern. Our designs are strategically personalized so that you can grow, launch and scale your online business.

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Learn Secrets To Outranking Your Competitors

Let’s face it, the internet is so full of ecommerce stores, bloggers, influencers and what not that it’s getting harder to attract your target market’s attention. There are simply too many competitors and standing out is even more important nowadays.

Competitive analysis is a critical part of a business marketing plan. Competitor analysis will  not only give you an insight to what your competitor is doing, it will help you compare and ultimately capitalize on it.

Whether you’re just starting out or expanding, knowing what your rivals are doing can help you devise a marketing strategy that can help you outrank them because it identifies their weaknesses and strengths so that you can benchmark them against your own.

If you’re looking for SEO tricks that can help you outrank your competitors you’re in the right place because we have some tips for you.

Investigate Their Online Presence

Get details on how the competitor behaves online. For example, do they use PPC, do they have multiple landing pages, do they use schema data, who are their referrals?

It’s best to identify the strong and weak points in their marketing strategy.

Analyze Their Reputation and Reviews

Analyze how customers think of your competitors. You can find these by going to their Google reviews, social reviews or comments left on their blogs. Read positive and negative reviews.

This will give you an insight on what needs to be improved, how customers perceive a product and other information like what customers don’t like. You can then apply what you have learned to better your product or service.

Track Mentions Of Your Competitors

Remember the saying: keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Aside from monitoring customers or other websites that mention your brand, you also need to track mentions of your competitors online.

You can use Google Alert to monitor new stories or mention of your competitors , your brand and other related subjects.

Analyze Their PPC Efforts

Learn which keywords your competitors are bidding on. Use both secondary and primary keywords within the search engines. You can also use 3^rd party tools to save time. They will help you breakdown which ads are image, text or HTML. It will even analyze the pages the ads lead to.

Evaluate Content

Take a look at your competitor’s content. This will give you insights on what you need to improve in terms of your own. Scan all their content: online, offsite, landing pages, copies, blogs, news, white paper, FAQs, infographics, ebooks, webinars, podcasts and other content forms.

Snoop On Their Social Media

Take a look at which social media platforms your competitors are using, what type of content they post, how often, who their audience are and how the engage with their audience. This will give you a good idea of how customers feel, what type of engagement works well so that you know which styles work and what techniques will work best for your own social media campaigns.

Engage With Them

Having an insight as to what your competitors are doing well can help you capitalize on it. Behave like one of their customers and add yourself on their email newsletter subscription, blog and social media platforms. This will give you the opportunity to review their content, call to action as well as their engagement style.

Benchmark Yourself Against Them

Compare your competitor’s key matrix against your own. From your insights as well as from data gathered you will get an idea of how your competitors market themselves against you in your shared industry. Now that you have an idea of their marketing strategy you can formulate plans so that you can position your brand against them and stand out.

Comparing yourself against your competitors can show you new opportunities for improvement and growth. Knowing what they are doing and how they are doing it can help you do better so that you stand out

A Sydney SEO Company can help you optimize your website so that you have customers on your doorstep. Our strategies can help you attract the right kind of traffic so that you can boost leads and sales.

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