Bob Coleman is the owner and creator of Bob Coleman Recommends. He is also the principal at Rhema Web Marketing, an SEO/Social Media Marketing firm that helps small businesses get results online.
Generation Z, the cohort of people born after Millennials, was supposedly the kryptonite of every digital marketer. Gen Zers don’t check their email, they have short attention spans, and have grown up in an “always-on” tech environment.
These kinds of pronouncements are always popular in the world — someone is always proclaiming that something “is dead” with each new technology or culture shift, so this talk about Gen Z isn’t a big deal. Marketers are used to adapting and evolving as the world changes around them, and learning how to engage with Gen Z through is no different. The Digital Hyve offering marketing services in Rochester is whom you should check out as their experts guarantee measurable results.
With over 65 percent of marketers looking to increase their spending on marketing to Gen Z, you’ve got to know what channels to send that money to. You might think Gen Z only ever uses social media, and if you do, you’d be missing out on the 95 percent of Gen Zers who say email is essential to their lives. They use it to stay in touch with businesses and retailers, with large portions of them saying email marketing is an essential factor in their buying decisions.
Gen Zers have developed sophisticated content filters that come from being surrounded by mountains of information all the time. They know how to quickly discern if your email is worth their time, so you’ve got to do your best. In indexsy are a few strategies you can use to engage with Gen Z with email marketing.
Gen Z prefers only a few sentences in their emails and a couple of images — otherwise, they’ll delete it quickly. Avoid writing a lengthy email that’s just blocks of text. They won’t read it and will unsubscribe ASAP.
Gen Zers know you have access to a lot of their online data, so don’t be afraid to use it. Send them a coupon the day after they bought a new pair of shoes off your site. If you see that a particular segment always clicks on links about a certain topic, offer them additional resources about it. Look at what your readers do and adjust your campaigns accordingly.
These people get a lot of emails, so make sure to identify your brand. You can also remind them why they’re receiving the email (“You’re receiving this email because you subscribed at…”) to be extra-sure they know who you are.
Your subject line can heavily influence whether Gen Z opens your emails. You may only have a few seconds to catch their eye because of their innate content filters, so make them count.
Have a copywriter write compelling and engaging emails that aren’t the same tired messages Gen Zers are used to seeing. Skip the pushy sales messages, or risk putting them off. Use a Web design wirral professional to create a modern, entertaining email that they’ll look forward to.
Gen Z wants to know about your products, but more importantly, whether your brand is a good fit. That means talking about your company values, the language you use, the way you develop a relationship with them, and the kind of experience you deliver to them.
Most Gen Zers want coupons, promos, and special offers via email, and they will skip the company updates and links to blogs or other resources. They expect you to deliver updates elsewhere online, such as a social media channel, so keep your messages different for each channel.
You may have a lot of preconceived ideas about Gen Z, especially when it comes to email marketing. Unlike some other generations, they still use email every day. They’re used to having access to information all the time, and it’s no different with email.
Instead of shifting your marketing budget to other channels like social media, consider keeping a good portion of it for email. You may be surprised at how well it does for your brand.
Pinging is a technique that has been used for years to alert the search engines of new content published to your WordPress website. But the question is, does it work when it comes to increasing website traffic.
I bet you’ve landed on this page searching for answers about WordPress pings, possibly (secretly?) hoping it just might be the golden ticket to your blog being discovered and loved by the world. Learn more about wordpress hosting for single sites at the link.
Well, maybe not quite so dramatic, but nonetheless…
Let me ask you this: have you noticed yet how hard it is to find any current information about WordPress pings?
And the information that IS out there… might actually put all kinds of wrong ideas into that pretty head of yours!
It might even tell you that if you use a lengthy list of ping services, your blog will get TRAFFIC. Tons of it, no doubt.
<a moment of silence>
Really? Traffic falling from Heavens like manna?…
<I bet you already know where I am going with this>
When you ‘ping’ a blog post, what you are really hoping for is:
to notify sites that display blogrolls that you’ve got new content to be displayed in those blogrolls for the world to see and bring you traffic. (A-HA!… that’s where the whole ‘traffic’ part comes from!)
to notify blog indexing sites (like Technorati) that you’ve got new content so that they could list it… somewhere… on their site and bring you traffic. (more traffic!)
to notify search engines (let’s face it, you mean ‘Google’) that you have new content to crawl, index, and list in their search engine page results (SERPs).
Blogrolling scripts like blogrolling.com and WordPress check update services to see if you’ve updated and then shows it on everyone’s site — usually by moving you to the top of people’s blogrolling list or putting a recently updated indicator by your link.
Problem is… blogrolling.com no longer exists and… when was the last time you saw a blogroll displayed on anyone’s site?
(By the way, if you HAVE recently seen one of those, send them the link to this post and tell them to get rid of the dang thing!)
So blogrolls as a reason to ping your blog is out and, sadly, website traffic from blogrolls is out too.
Do blog indexing sites drive traffic?
The biggest and most famous one of those would be Technorati.
Everyone knows Technorati, right? Even that official WordPress Codex page mentions Technorati as one of the services they ping… (just goes to show how outdated that page is!)
Trouble is… Technorati is not longer the Technorati it used to be. It’s now Technorati the advertising platform.
After a half-decade of helping blogs and self-published websites gain exposure, Technorati took the natural step of helping those same types of websites earn revenue through an advertising platform launched in 2008.
Are there any other blog indexing sites that still exist?
Alltop is a good example of a blog indexing site: a bunch of links from various blogs on various topics.
Out of curiosity (and nerdiness, of course!), let’s take a look at Alltop traffic sources using SEMrush.com, my hands-down favorite SEO and marketing intelligence tool.
Wow, look at how sharply Alltop traffic has dropped since last month; they’ve managed to lose nearly half of it! Hit by Google Penguin? It’s a possibility…
On the other hand, it always seems like Alltop promotion lays squarely on the shoulders of ONE person – Guy Kawasaki, Alltop co-founder, as well as the creator of Canva.
Looks like Guy is running out of steam…
Anyhoo… I digress.
Just trust me on this one – you won’t be getting any traffic from blog indexing websites.
That boat has sailed like a decade ago.
What to do to ACTUALLY drive traffic to your site?
…besides reading Traffic Generation Café?
Reading and DOING what you read about at Traffic Generation Café.
If your site’s pages are properly linked, our web crawlers can usually discover most of your site. Even so, a sitemap can improve the crawling of your site.
Can’t help but mention Casey Henry’s experiment in which he set to find out whether a sitemap can boost search rankings.
That was way, way, waaaaaay down from 1,375 minutes it took before he installed the sitemaps generator!
Creating a sitemap is easy. You just let a plugin do all the creating.
Use either Google XML sitemaps generator or, if you have Yoast SEO already installed on your site (or thinking of installing it), use its built-in sitemap functionality.
2. Share your post on social media
It’s simple: Googlebot discovers sites by following links from page to page.
When you share your content on bot-infested social media, the bots will follow your link from that page (your social media share) to your blog post page.
Also, contrary to many blog posts I’ve read, I don’t believe that using Fetch as Google function in Google Search Console will get Googlebot to crawl/index your site faster.
It’s meant to test if Google can crawl your web page, how it renders the page, and whether any page resources (such as images or scripts) are blocked to Googlebot, and is useful for debugging crawl issues on your site.
My WordPress Ping Services List
Back to the world of ‘to ping or not to ping.’
By default, WordPress pings one service called Pingo-matic; that service will in turn ping others.
Why Ping-o-matic?
Because it’s owned and run by the WordPress Foundation, a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress and current CEO of Automattic.
I’d say Matt knows what he’s doing when it comes down to WordPress… wouldn’t you?
Boom! There you go. Done.
I officially declare that Ping-O-Matic is the only update service your blog needs.
All you need to do is to go to Settings > Writing > Update Services to make sure http://rpc.pingomatic.com is the only update service listed there.
And just in case you still insist on holding onto that huge list of update services of yours (or more like another blogger’s list you’ve copied, trusting them to know what they are doing… really?), read on.
Too Much Pinging Could Cost Google Rankings?
Back in the day when a crappy backlink seemed to be better than no backlink at all, we had mile-long lists of update services we just had to ping.
These days, that (let’s face it) shady tactic could be outright damaging to your site.
Take a look at what Glen Allsopp wrote in one of his ViperChill.com posts after he had sent out a tweet concerning his lower than expected search engine rankings:
“I received a personal reply from Google’s head of web-spam, Matt (Cutts), who asked me if, when a blog post goes live, I ping certain services…
Though I wasn’t pinging the services Matt asked me about, I was pinging a few with a foreign domain extension that he had mentioned and a lot of others, so I decided to remove all but a couple of them from my list.
A few days later and my rankings were back where they should be.
How crazy is it that some behind the scenes WordPress setting was costing me search rankings for my own brand name?”
So… while I wouldn’t worry too much about pinging too little, pinging too much could potentially be a problem.
Could You Be Pinged as a Spammer?
There’s one more thing about pinging too much.
WordPress.org pings update services like Ping-O-Matic EVERY time a post is edited.
Our relentless editing could result in excessive pinging.
There are plenty of disagreements on the issue.
However, let’s be reasonable here.
Have you ever heard of any site penalized by Google or any other search engine for excessive pinging? Neither have I.
But if you are a “better safe than sorry” kind of person, installing a ping-controlling plugin like WordPress Ping Optimizer will give you peace of mind. That’s what I’ve done.
Marketing Automation Tools, Content Marketing Tools & AI Content Creation
GrowthTribe shares great content marketing tips on their YouTube Channel. In light of the topic, I think the video below is worth sharing.
5 Writing Tools to Maximize the Impact of Your Content
Some people might like to think that writing happens organically. It sure would be nice if we could just sit down in front of the blank page and get paid for whatever pours from our minds. Sadly, being a professional writer requires a great deal more.
Research, fact checking, keyword strategizing, search engine optimization, influencer outreach –- these are all crucial elements of successful writing for the web. Not to mention the tedious proofreading, revision, and polishing process that goes into crafting a publication-ready piece. Luckily there are some excellent tools and services out there to help you master this process efficiently, such as the use of a Marketing company in Miami that can help promote your services and products.
Before you even begin to write a piece, you should know exactly who you want to read and promote it once it’s published. Content doesn’t just go viral or start trending on its own. There are movers and shakers who are connected with the audience you need to reach. In order to get your piece in front of readers’ eyes, you’ll first need to find where your ideal audience already hangs out.
Click on over to BlogSearchEngine.org and type in a keyword phrase pertaining to your piece. For example, if you want to write a piece about a new way to approach writing press releases, you might type in “press releases.” The top three results are PR Newswire, HubSpot, and CopyBlogger. This tells you that people who might care about your article are already reading these three blogs.
The next step is to connect with these blogs –- this is what we call “pre-outreach.” Request an interview with one of their top contributors or ask for their opinion on your idea. By getting the leaders in your topic involved before you even write the piece, you can guarantee more success than if you go it alone.
BuzzSumo is synonymous with keyword optimization. However, how to use it isn’t obvious. In a nutshell, BuzzSumo allows you to search for a keyword or phrase and see what content related to that search term is being shared the most. You can sort the results by social media platform or type of content. For example, if you wanted to see what blog posts and articles people on Facebook were most interested in related to Lynda.com, BuzzSumo could tell you.
Keywords rule the world now. Know how to use them. BuzzSumo lets you see if the keyword you’re planning on using is being shared around the net. For instance, if you were to write a piece about LinkedIn’s online learning platform, you could search for either “LinkedIn Learning” or “Lynda.com.” While the two are heavily integrated, they do have separate spaces online. However, BuzzSumo tells us that “LinkedIn Learning” has more sharing potential lately. Now you know where to focus your keyword usage in your article.
BuzzSumo can also tell you who the key influencers are on that very topic. This helps you with your influencer outreach as well as your keyword planning.
Headlines are the most important part of any online content. Whether it’s an infographic, blog post, or news story, the headline has to be a winner. Readers only click on articles that sound interesting, and they only read (rather than stockpile dozens of “saved” articles for later – whenever that may be) what they feel is relevant to them immediately. Don’t miss your chance to snare your audience.
CoSchedule’s Blog Post Headline Analyzer helps you craft perfect headlines every time. The Headline Analyzer scrutinizes your headline for word balance, headline type, length, keywords, word quality, and how your headline and its meta description will appear on a Google search. The Headline Analyzer will even show you what readers will focus on when they see the headline appear in their email inbox. To delete or not to delete, eh?
CoSchedule gives your headline a score on a scale of zero to 100. Depending on where your weaknesses lie, the tool will make recommendations. Perhaps you have too many common words and need more sentimental or powerful choices. Maybe it’s too long and Google won’t be able to display the whole title as is. Get your headline into the green zone and you’ll be more likely to see your post go viral.
Now that you have a solid promotional base with your influencer outreach, killer keywords, and a dazzling headline, it’s time to do the writing. For some writers, the blank page is the most daunting part of the job. The same words roll around in our heads and seem to make an appearance over and over again. But readers don’t like the same ol’ language.
One Stop for Writers is an online library of better-writing resources. Though most of One Stop’s tools are designed with fiction writing in mind, everything One Stop has to offer can be adapted for non-fiction writing for the web. If you want your piece to be share worthy, it has to be memorable. That’s where One Stop can help.
“Understanding how to describe content in a way that allows the reader to form a vivid picture is really important,” says Angela Ackerman, one of the three co-founders of One Stop for Writers. One Stop is all about making the writing process easier with powerful word thesauri, mapping and outlining tools, an idea generator, and tons of templates and worksheets to get your creative juices flowing.
A writer-favorite, the Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus can help you craft headlines that will hold readers’ attention and carry them through to the comments, liking, and Tweeting. Readers want excitement, even if the topic is how to take care of a car engine. Give it to them.
(Bonus: another One Stop co-founder is Lee Powell, the creator of the game-changing writing program Scrivener for Windows.)
Finally. Your piece is researched and written. Now on to editing. Expresso is your editing sidekick. Just copy-and-paste your piece into Expresso and the online app will tidy up that cluttered writing. Expresso is on the lookout for lengthy or complex sentences, unclear language, and easy-to-miss grammar and punctuation problems.
Once you click “Analyze Text,” you’ll see stats on problems such as weak verbs, filler words, entity substitutions, passive voice, frequent words, stems, and phrases, and a readability score. Don’t submit a draft without a last look through Expresso.
Even the most talented writers need a hand sometimes. The key is knowing where to look for help. Use these tools and watch your content come to life with greater clicks, engagement, and social media shares.
Back in the good old days, blogging served as the primary vehicle for content marketing. That ship has sailed. Now you need a more diverse content marketing strategy if you hope to increase brand awareness and boost your sales. You have many options, depending on the type of business you run, and you might need a partner to help you select proper content channels and manage them effectively.
It’s true that you can’t sustain an effective content marketing strategy on blogging alone, don’t abandon your blog entirely. Writing for Doz, Dylan Kissane affirms that blogging hasn’t died. Conversely, it’s simply changed course to meet the modern content consumption patterns.
For instance, Kissane predicts that blog post length will continue to increase. Readers want in-depth articles that answer all of their questions so they don’t have to follow Google results after Google results in search of valuable data. If you’re creating blog posts shorter than 500 words, you might disappoint your readers. Aim for 1,000 words or more if possible.
Kissane also notes that conversations that used to take place in blog posts’ comments sections now occur on social media. The blogger posts a photo and link on Facebook, for instance, and readers share their thoughts on the social media site itself. While some bloggers still leave comments open, monitoring those comments has become far too much work for the potential payoff.
Imagery Needs to Accompany Text
People learn in different ways. Some can read a few paragraphs of text and keep a clear memory of the words. Others need to hear someone else speak on an issue, while still more prefer to see visual representations of data or information.
There’s another type of learner: the kinesthetic learner. These people need to take a hands-on approach to learn if they want to fully absorb the information. You can’t necessarily target these learners through diverse content marketing, but you can help by asking them to follow along.
Imagery targets visual learners. For instance, you could give a list of statistics in paragraph form, which would appease reading and writing learners. However, a simple graph that displays those statistics in a visual format will target visual learners and increase your content’s effectiveness.
Audio and Video Content Can Engage Viewers
Have you ever clicked on a YouTube link or a favorite podcast, then looked at the clock several hours later in complete surprise? People consume audio and video content at stunning rates. They get absorbed by the movement, colors, sounds, and voices that these mediums offer.
Best of all, you can share video and audio content via multiple channels. Post a video on YouTube, for instance, or post a podcast. You can also post the content on your blog or in an email marketing message to give it even more visibility.
You can now use video content on sites like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. Audio content works particularly well, even if it’s an exclusive webinar for which interested consumers must sign up. You’re targeting a different set of learners here, which diversifies your content strategy and opens up a whole new audience.
Data Can Attract Links
Everyone wants to know specifics these days. What percentage of Americans commute to work every day? What percentage of customer service workers like their jobs? How many men get prostate cancer every year? Specifics always beat generalities, especially when it comes to content marketing.
While data satisfies your readers and engenders trust, it also helps attract high-quality backlinks. More than anything else, backlinks correlate strongly with Google rankings. However, backlink volume doesn’t necessarily matter as much as backlink quality.
For instance, which site would you rather link to your latest blog post: an educational institution or a generic site with three pages of content?
The educational institution is the correct choice. Fortunately, you can often attract backlinks from high-quality sources if you back up your content with relevant data.
To reel in the visual learners, consider adding infographics to your content. Not only does it engage the reader with imagery, but it also provides lots of interesting data that others might want to know about.
Email Marketing Still Matters
It’s often the black sheep of the content marketing game, but it still matters. Email marketing allows you to speak directly to your audience. The recipient doesn’t have to click on a link or scroll down a website to find your message. Neither does he or she have to give the email any attention right away.
Think of email marketing as the modern equivalent of telemarketing. It offers all the advantages of cold calling prospects, but without the drawbacks. You’re not interrupting customers during dinner or waking them up from a sound sleep. They can consume your content when they wish.
It’s also a form of permission marketing. Unless you take the low road and buy email addresses, your contact list is made of people who have asked to receive messages from you. Since you’re not violating any social norms, you can expect a high open rate.
Diverse Content Marketing Demands Your Full Attention
Most firms don’t have the staff or the time to create a full-scale, diverse content marketing strategy. You need a well-known partner who can help you generate great content. Whether you’re interested in interactive media or intriguing blog posts, the experts can take these tasks off your plate so you can focus on what you do best: running your business.
Hiring an in-house content marketing team can quickly get expensive. You have to pay salaries and benefits, and you’ll need to train your staff. By working with a third-party provider, you get results faster and enjoy higher-quality content, which boosts your content marketing efforts. The best providers even help you create a diverse content strategy so you reach the broadest possible audience.
If you’ve already started a blog, you’re on the path to greatness. However, diversifying your content makes you more appealing and visible. Try these other types of content to see how well they do in your industry.
