By Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links on this website. There is no expense to you.

An autoresponder is an automated system that sends a reply to a customer using certain rules. It can contain from one to a series of emails that go to subscribers’ inboxes after they sign up online for something of yours. The goal of the email is to engage people, as soon as they take an action, through a series of follow-up messages.

You can read this article for more information about using autoresponders in your marketing.

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by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links on this website. There is no expense to you.

There are three things you should do before starting to write a blog article. They are vital steps to writing the kind of article/blog posts your readers want to read and engage with, and for them to start seeing you as an authority and love your content.


1. Choose the correct topic for your article


Figuring out what your audience wants is key. To do this, you can:

Draw on your own experience. What topics were challenging for you when you were new to online content blogging?

Check out what another blogger who is a bit ahead of you writes about, using platforms like SpyFu, Semrush, or UberSuggest and Google Keyword Planner.

Whatever topic you pick to write about must be something your audience will benefit from and one that you’ll also benefit from writing.


2. Research your article topic

Even though you may feel confident and already know a lot about the topic you choose, still, earnestly take this step. You might find a few tips that you can add to your blog article.

To ensure that you stand out from the crowd—which is the objective—you have to know what others are saying. This is one way to get readers who bookmark your blog, to sign up for your email list, follow you on social, and finally buy from you.

After you’re certain about the topic, open a browser, search for that topic, and extensively research it. Do a Google search.

The result page will show you the top-performing pages. Check out the first five or ten or so posts on the SERP (Search Engine Result Page).

Just check out the main points:

Post/page title or headline – Can you write a better one?
Main points – Can you increase the value?

Length – Can you make your article longer while adding something of value?


3. Decide what you want to accomplish with your article

You must define a goal for your article.

As you plan and write your article, continually ask yourself if what you’re writing is doing what it needs to persuade your audience of the objectives.

For example: The title of this post/article is How to Write Great Blog Articles.

My objective is in the title. The process will be laid out as I proceed. I will discuss eight main steps to use when writing an article/post.



What are the steps to writing an article?


1. Outline

Now that you’ve chosen and researched your topic, you need to make an outline. An outline is an overall view of things you want to include in your article, something like a checklist of all your talking points.

2. Title

The title of your article should be 6-12 words or between 50-60 characters to be fully visible in search engine results and not be cut off.

You can use starting phrases like:

How to _ _ _ (How to create, How to start, or How to Make, etc.)

11 ways to _ _ _ (11 Reasons to, 11 Reasons why, etc.)

These are arbitrary numbers.

This is _ _ _ (This is why you should, This is why you need to, etc.)

You can use modifiers in between like easily, simple, amazingly, etc.


3. Introduction

Write an introduction that hooks readers. A great one:

Introduces the article topic

Explains what the reader will be able to do/accomplish/learn from the article

Establishes the reason the reader should trust the author/blogger (establishes the author’s authority)


4. Body

Whether you’re writing a how-to guide or a list post, the body is where you’ll give the real value.

Depending on your topic, consider the following:

Break your content into sections using headers and sub-headers.

Try to touch on more points than your competitors, but only if they’re applicable. Don’t just use filler content. Readers will see through that.

Where applicable, use visuals as some people are visual learners.

Use definitions when you’re using a term that is not common knowledge. Write a short definition to introduce the term to your readers before you write about it.

Lists are great for search engines, so incorporate them when it makes sense and when it will be useful to your readers.

Use references and links. If you have another blog article/post that will help with the current blog post, link it (an internal link). And if you don’t have supporting material, but someone else does, link to that (also called an external link).

Use short paragraphs and also vary the length to avoid monotony.

Use minimal jargon and esoteric speech.

Minimize adverbs, qualifiers, and passive sentences as much as possible.

When using numbers, spell them out for numbers 0 – 9 (three, not 3). Spell out any number over 9 (17, not seventeen).
Italicize the names of books and websites.

Write as you would speak in conversation, using contractions (don’t instead of do not), and reduce grammar expletives.

Add visual breaks like headers and subheadings, and break up long stretches of text within a header or subheader into shorter paragraphs.

Be sure that the body follows a structure and form that helps readers understand and fully comprehend the content.

5. CTA

Conclude your article with a call to action (CTA), which is asking your readers to do something. You can ask them to leave a comment, sign up for your email list, or make a purchase.

6. Optimization

Optimize your article for search engines (SEO) by using seed keywords. These
are your article’s main topic or some variation of it.

Make sure a version of it is:

In your article title

In your blog’s URL slug (the extension to the blog post’s URL after the forward-slash, which you can edit on WordPress using a plugin

In variations throughout your article (about 1-2% of the total word count). This is known as “keyword density.”

7. Edit

You can use Grammarly to edit some of the common errors, such as spelling, punctuation, etc.

When editing your post, be sure that you’ve done everything I’ve stated above.


If you want to learn how to write a great blog article/post that engages your readers and that sets you apart from the competition, focus on providing value to your audience using visual elements to make your post more engaging, and including a clear call-to-action that encourages readers to take the next step.

Although writing an amazing blog article/post takes time and effort, it’s worth it in the end.
You can learn how to write great blog articles by following the tips and strategies outlined in this article, and you can create content that resonates with your readers.


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By Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links on this website. There is no expense to you.

You can attract customers by creating valuable content and experiences rather than  reaching out to them. This digital inbound content marketing approach attracts users to your brand when you provide useful or entertaining information and experiences, usually in the form of text, video, or audio and makes it easier for prospects to find you.

Content marketing is valuable because it builds relationships and trust with your potential and existing customers.

So, it’s easier to sell your products faster.

Those who use content marketing, to build a following, see higher returns for each additional piece of content they publish.

This article is an overview of content marketing moving forward.



How does content marketing work?

Informative content marketing draws people to your brand.

If you publish a video, podcast episode, or a blog post and interested people use it they become acquainted with your brand.

Once you have their attention you can build a relationship and later sell them your products and/or services.


Content marketing can help your business by:

1. Reducing customer acquisition costs

Although quality content creation isn’t cheap, you’ll see a stronger ROI (return on investment) from each piece you produce because your audience will increase.

Your first blog post, video, or social media posting might not be seen by many people. As more prospects find your content and become followers, each addition al piece of content you publish will be seen by more people and produce a stronger ROI.

Unlike paid ads, where you and your competitors can earn roughly the same ROI for each dollar spent, your brand with a strong content marketing strategy and a larger following can earn much more for each piece of published content.

2. Improving the quality of leads

With content marketing you can categorize the kind of customers you attract based on your content production.

For example, if your target audience is exclusively gardeners, you can discuss only topics that a gardener would be interested in, like soil preparation or garden layouts. You might also offer access to exclusive reports on industry benchmarks that would interest them.

Contrast this with using paid ads where you have to depend on platforms to accurately identify your target audience. As privacy concerns are on the increase and there is less accurate audience targeting, paid ads are producing lower returns.

3. Building a stable lead pipeline

If you produce evergreen content (content that’s relevant for years) you get higher returns over time, because you can continue to generate returns from it for years after it’s published.

You’ll still probably have a steady pipeline of leads, due to your evergreen content, even if you stop producing content for a while.

4. Increasing customer loyalty and retention

Essentially, content marketing is a cheat protocol to build trust with your potential customers at scale.

The more familiar your potential customers become with your brand, viewpoints, and identity, the easier it is for them to trust your brand and the more likely they are to continue to buy from you.



How do you create a content marketing strategy?

You have to attract the right customers in order for content marketing to work.

1. Your Ideal Customer

Your first step is defining your ideal target customer. To do that, ask yourself these questions:

a) What’s the position of the person who buys your product or service?

b) What is the person’s job?

c) What pain points does the person need resolved?

What is the person’s knowledge of the subject? (This is important to know to avoid beginner-level keywords when you’re targeting advanced customers)

Answering these questions will give you an excellent sense of your ideal buyer persona, and that will make the rest of your content strategy clear.


2. Your Marketing Funnel and Choice of Content

Customers don’t generally buy the first time they visit your website, and that’s okay.

The aim of content marketing is building relationships and leading prospects to make a purchase.

This happens in several stages from awareness of a problem to be solved to learning about solutions, and then to a decision to purchase a product or service.

3. Content Ideas and Brand Voice

Next, you should generate content ideas and establish your brand.

An effective marketing content strategy requires more than just mapping out the types of content you will need to produce. In order to get prospects to pay attention, you need must to have something unique and interesting to say to get people to pay attention to your content.

So the next step is determining how to consistently generate content ideas that are unique and interesting to your ideal audience.


4. Content Calander and Work Flow

If you publish new content consistently your content marketing strategy will scale.

The formula for a great content marketing strategy is:

An outstanding content idea, plus
A high volume of content publishing, and
Consistency for a long time period


5. Measure Results

The final step is to test and measure your results.

Since content marketing is a long-term play, and you probably won’t see any immediate returns on your investment, this is tricky.

But, here are some content marketing metrics you can track to make sure your strategy is going in the right direction:

Your generating higher quality leads that close faster

Your general brand awareness has increased (more social media mentions, backlinks, brand queries, etc.)

Your website is driving more traffic

Your existing customers are staying longer and are generally happier


Some of the many benefits of having a digital marketing strategy include:

Improved efficiency

Insights

Boosted productivity

Knowing your audience

Increased ROI


You can use an action plan to set up goals, budgets, tactics, timelines, etc. With a strategy in place, you’ll have a great basis to work from and you can adapt your plans if things change. Use your strategy as a blueprint you can return to for guidance.

Following are some useful resources to stay on top of trends and developments in the area of digital marketing.



1. Newsletters

As consumers are being more vigilant about cookies for tracking, being able to connect with and influence your customer base via email marketing is vital. Here are a few popular ones.

The Daily Carnage

Neil Patel

Google Think

Search Engine Land

The Rundown AI


2. Online publications and blogs

Here are a few from the host of great online publications and blogs that offer a variety of content, from podcasts, articles, guides, and handy toolkits.

Econsultancy

Adweek

HubSpot

Search Engine Watch

CoSchedule


3. Social Media

Social media is an effective way for marketers to communicate, influence consumers, and engage. You can monitor conversations and trends, and keep an eye on your competitors.


Social media platforms are inclined to change. It could be the name or the look of the platform or the replacement of a feature.

Generally, these changes have little effect or impact on how you use them in your day-to-day activities as a social media marketer.


4. Google Trends

Google Trends and Alerts is a valuable free tool for you, as a marketer, to stay on top of the news and industry announcements. It allows you to check the web and notifies you through email when a new result matching your search query appears.


5. Podcasts and webinars

Podcasts about digital marketing and technology can be an outstanding source of news and information.


These are some thoughts and an overview of content marketing moving forward.

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