Posts Tagged ‘article marketing’
13 Common Grammar Mistakes to Avoid in Writing
by Rahimah Sultan
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It can be embarrassing when somebody else finds a grammar mistake in your work, but don’t let it get to you. We all make grammar mistakes.
What is a grammar mistake?
A grammar mistake is any incorrect usage of a word or a deviation from established grammatical rules.
As language continually evolves, a phrase or word choice that’s used today may have been a grammar mistake in the past.
We’ll view 13 common grammar mistakes to avoid in writing so you’ll know how to identify, fix, and steer clear of them.
Your goal is to have clear, polished, mistake-free writing. So, we’ll look at 13 common grammar mistakes and show you how to fix them.
1. Who vs. that
Use who when referring to a person. That is used for inanimate objects.
Example My brother is the one who wrote the book.
Example I bought a purse that is light to carry.
Example They’re part of an organization that promotes organic farming.
2. Affect vs. effect
Affect is a verb that means to cause something to happen. Effect is a noun that indicates a result.
Example How will the continuous rain affect construction?
Example The increasing layoffs will have a major effect on the economy.
3. Who’s vs. whose
Who’s is a contraction of who is. Whose is a relative pronoun; a possessive form of who.
Example Who’s ready to go?
Example Whose bookbag is this?
4. Who vs. whom
Who is the subject in a sentence, while whom is the object.
Example Who will be going to the banquet this weekend?
Example To whom shall I address the package?
5. Less vs. fewer
Less is used to describe an abstract or otherwise uncountable amounts of items. Fewer is used for countable numbers of items.
Example The students had less time to practice today.
Example If fewer people used disposable water bottles, there would be less plastic in landfills.
6. I.e. vs. e.g.
I.e. which is short for, id est, is used to clarify statements. E.g., short for exempli gratia, is used to provide examples.
Example I’ll be off again tomorrow, (i.e., I’m still very sick).
Example I’ve read lots of books over the past year (e.g., Undaunted, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and How Green was my Valley).
Always add a comma following these abbreviations, and enclose them in parentheses.
7. Then vs. than
Then indicates when something will happen. Than is used to compare things or people.
Example First we’ll have lunch; then go to a movie.
Example All my brothers are taller than me.
8. Each and every
Each refers to two items or the individual items in a group. Every refers to three or more items or to the group as a whole.
Example Each of my children came to visit me this year.
Example Every one of my coworkers is going to the restaurant.
9. May vs. might
May is generally used in the present tense to ask for permission and to indicate something that is likely to happen. Might is used with the past tense and to describe things that either didn’t happen or are unlikely to happen.
Example May I bring a guest to the party?
Example There might have been time for review, but the fire alarm went off.
10. Farther vs. further
Farther refers to literal distance. Further means “more.”
The mountain looked farther away than ever.
We’ll have no further communication.
11. Past vs. passed
Past can be a noun, an adjective, a preposition, or an adverb. It refers to something that has already happened. Passed is a verb.
Example My cousin told us stories about the past.
Example The bus passed on our right side.
12. Passive voice
While not inherently incorrect, many writers use the passive voice when the active voice would be a more correct, clearer choice.
Passive voice: The layout was prepared by me.
Active voice: I prepared the layout.
13. Possessive nouns
Possessive nouns are versions of nouns that show ownership. They often use apostrophes.
Example That’s John’s letter opener.
For a plural possessive noun, the apostrophe goes after the s.
Example The marchers’ instruments.
There are different schools of thought about what to do when a singular possessive noun ends in the letter s. Some say the apostrophe goes at the end, without adding an s.
Example That’s Jonas’ car.
The Chicago style requires that when a name ending in s becomes possessive, you add an apostrophe and an s.
Example That’s Jonas’s car.
These are just 13 common grammar mistakes to avoid in writing, but there are many others that people make. Practice, reading extensively, and using grammar-checking tools will help you spot mistakes and make corrections. With time, practice, and patience, you’ll be able to improve your grammar skills and become a more confident writer.
I recommend Grammarly as a checking tool. It’s free.
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Blogging Trends You Should Not Ignore
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 posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
While blogging’s basic foundation is still the same (write and publish) some changes do occur that may be short-lived trends or they may become permanent. In order to remain competitive you need to stay abreast of the latest blogging trends and keep up to date with content marketing approaches. To keep you up to date on what’s going on now, this post…
11 Types of Copywriting to Use in Your Business
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 posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
Businesses have always needed to reach prospective customers and to effectively communicate what they have to offer.
In our modern information age, this is even more important. People today are constantly receiving more and more competing messages through all forms of media.
Many businesses are investing heavily in marketing and copywriting to stand out from the rest. Copywriting, both in print and online, is an essential part of most modern business.
What is copywriting?
Copywriting is the method of composing persuasive marketing and promotional information that encourages people to take some kind of action, such as making a purchase, clicking on a link, donating to a cause, or scheduling a consultation.
Are there many kinds of copywriting?
There are many types of copywriting. In this article, we’ll cover 11 types of copywriting to use in your business. Let’s get started.
1. Direct Response
This type of copywriting aims to get an immediate, measurable response and is very direct, as is implied. It’s clearly a promotional bit of writing that asks you to take an instantaneous action such as buying a product or service or signing up for a free newsletter.
Another key element of direct-response marketing is it’s measurable. The results of a campaign can easily be tracked whether it’s an online or print campaign. As a result of tracking, you’ll know the response rate, and how effective the campaign is.
There is what is known as “image” or “brand advertising,” which only notifies or reminds potential customers of a brand or product and cannot be tracked. So, you won’t know how effective those ads were.
2. Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
These are companies that sell directly to consumers. Some examples you’ll recognize are supermarkets, most brick-and-mortar shops, and many online businesses like Amazon Zappos, and Dell.
These businesses use a full range of copywritten materials, both in print and online including direct response and content marketing.
If you want to purchase something online, you research it, and when you’ve finished researching you decide to order online or visit a local store to buy it.
The ads or offers you clicked on were direct-response marketing in action. If you go to a store to buy, you’ll probably see some printed marketing materials, such as product sheets, brochures, special promotions, or coupons. This is all part of B2C copywriting and it’s used by every business you can imagine that sells directly to customers.
3. Business-to-Business (B2B)
As the name states, BTB businesses sell to other businesses and not to the public.
These companies tend to use even more written sales materials than the B2Cs. Their services and products are often very high-ticket purchases that need to be carefully considered. These would include manufacturers, factories, other industrial businesses, and hospitals.
4. Content Writing
Content marketing is a term that refers to using informational content to attract and build relationships with prospective customers in the short term, with the long-term goal of converting them into buyers. It’s a huge industry.
Although content marketing is done mainly online, some is done in print and some may use both.
For example, an online company will have product descriptions on its website, and may also print brochures containing the same information to hand out at trade shows or other events.
5. Social Media Copywriting
To reach their customers, most businesses use more than one social media channel. Social media has billions of users.
1. Facebook is consumer and video-focused.
2. Twitter is used for short, catchy, and sharable content, making it great for digital marketing firms and PR professionals.
3. Instagram is focused on brand awareness and audience engagement.
4. YouTube, the second largest search engine, is video-focused.
5. LinkedIn is used by job seekers and brands for networking, sharing trends, and finding employees and contractors.
6. Ad Copywriting
Ad copywriters require readers to take a specific action with copy that is succinct, informative, and in demand, such as subscribing to a list, purchasing a product, or downloading a white paper.
7. Creative Copywriting
To help build a brand, sell a service or product, or add to the customer experience, a creative copywriter adds fun, clever, witty, engaging catchphrases.
Creative copywriters help increase brand awareness, and they can also produce the perfect newsletter or product packaging.
8. Digital Copywriting
Digital copywriters create content for website pages. As a digital copywriter, you may write for a new website, write additional pages, or revise existing pages.
Since this is often combined with an SEO strategy, you need a good understanding of the use of keywords. As a digital copywriter, you can also write:
**Short-form copywriting of less than 500 words
**Video and chatbot scripts for the user experience
**Web3.0 which is related to crypto and blockchain
**Blogging for brands to raise awareness and educate
**Social media posts to share information
**Ads to run on social media channels
The focus of digital copywriting is how search engines index websites, and how users find and interact or use the content.
9. Marketing Copywriting
The goal of your writing, as a marketing copywriter, is to connect with the target audience and lead them down the marketing funnel from:
Awareness to consideration to conversion to loyalty and finally, advocacy for your brand.
Then you create content throughout the funnel around what makes the service or product unique.
10. SEO Copywriting
This type of copywriting involves creating content that’s designed to attract organic search traffic, using keywords and metrics to choose topics and optimize content for search engines.
In SEO copywriting you want to make sure you’re using the right words and phrases associated with your content.
11. Technical Writing
Technical writers create process and procedure manuals, white papers, website content, and e-books. You must be able to remove jargon or technical terms that cause readers to stumble.
Some types of copywriting are sales-focused, such as obvious advertisements like the ones you see online or in newspapers. Then, other types are more information-based and contain very little “salesy” language, such as product brochures.
Most businesses use both approaches in marketing materials. So, there you have it, 11 Types of Copywriting to Use in Your Business.
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Review: Beginner Blogger Mistakes (Part 2)
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 posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
The last post was a review of Beginner Blogger Mistakes (Part 1). This covers the remaining mistakes to avoid which include tying specific posts to the larger picture, writing style, relying on the conceptual, plagiarism, etc.
You can read it here:
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Beginner Blogger Mistakes
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 posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
When people actually try to blog, they find out that it’s not so easy. There are those who think bloggers just sit at home all day on the internet writing.
There are some common mistakes most beginners make that can be avoided.
Read More Here
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How to Avoid Grammar Mistakes While Writing
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 posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
So, you’re using your great copywriting skills to create sales or marketing material to influence prospects toward making a purchase.
While so doing, be sure that your content is grammatically correct. Sometimes that autocorrect, you’re using while typing, won’t catch grammar mistakes.
For information on avoiding at least ten grammar mistakes, check out this article.
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Affiliate Marketing Is More Than Just Posting Links
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 posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
Affiliate marketing is a marketing strategy with partners promoting and selling other companies’ products for commissions. When customers click on an affiliate link they are taken directly to a brand’s product or service website. Ideally, this leads to a sale, signup, or just clicks. The partner earns a commission according to how many users are redirected to the brand via that affiliate link.
But, affiliate marketing is more than just posting links and it involves much more than just joining an affiliate marketing program, promoting a link, and hoping people buy what you’re advertising….
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5 Blogging Trends You Should Not Ignore
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 posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
Blogging has been around for a long time and while its basic foundation remains the same (write and publish), some changes do occur that may be passing trends or they may become permanent. You need to be on top of the latest blogging trends and keep up to date with content marketing strategies in order to remain competitive.
To keep you up to date on what’s going on now, this post will look into five of the trends you can expect moving forward. This will help you stay current with the latest practices and may inspire you to do something different on your blog.
1) Visuals
Visuals have always been a large part of blog content and are on the rise. And that’s a plus for your brand’s visibility and retention.
Although using visuals is good, you’ll need to use custom graphics as opposed to generic images. People tend to ignore stock photos these days.
With tailored graphics, you have the advantage of branding. When you use custom-made visuals, you can choose color palettes and fonts that resonate with your blog’s design and viewpoint. This makes your blog posts and pages look consistent and not patched together. You can also design visuals like charts, infographics, and graphs that directly reference the content they are part of.
If you’re not a designer, you can still take advantage of this blogging trend with tools like Canva, Visme, and Prezi. They’re perfect for beginners who are not knowledgeable about design. These tools come with pre-built templates, fonts, and color palettes that make designing custom graphics easier. They also have an option for creating/importing your own color palettes and fonts.
Since blogs are becoming longer and more detailed, design and interactivity become more important. Visual content offers readers a way to scan your content without reading the entire post.
2) Interactivity
Since people’s attention span has increasingly dropped over the years, interactivity has become a more important way to keep them engaged. You can embed interactive videos and also interactivity to those videos like hotspots and time triggers such as popups and CTAs to move viewers to certain areas of the video in order to reach a particular time stamp. You can use the Vimeo platform that can do this right out of the box.
By using a website such as Giphy, you can use animated images called GIFs to add some color and humor to your content in order to make it less boring. Once you’ve decided on a GIF, it can be inserted into your content by using either autoembeds or add it via an image block.
3) Originality
In an environment where websites tend to repackage the same information over and over, being original adds freshness to your blog, establishes your commitment to your readers, shows your thought leadership, and can immediately make you stand out.
There are several ways to make your content original. You can talk about a distinctive topic, provide a unique perspective, or conduct your own research. Conducting your own authentic research is the easiest way to level up your blog. However, not everyone has the bandwidth to do original research. So, you can reach out to others in your industry and conduct your own surveys using Google Forms and Typeform.
You can also tweet about your queries using the hashtag #JournoRequest on Twitter.
4) Content Experience
A shift from consuming content to experiencing it is a bigger blogger trend to focus on going forward. You can no longer simply deliver accurate information to your readers. You’ll have to consider other factors to make your content more appealing. You can do this by focusing on core web vitals and improving your overall content environment. Core web vitals are measurements of key aspects of page speed and user experience that also influence search ranking.
Some examples of a bad content ecosystem (environment) are:
Lots of popups or other interruptions and distractions like multi-step cookie notices
Autoplaying audio and videos
Web design problems such as low contrast among others
Bad website or information structure that leaves visitors not knowing what to do
Your goal is to make sure that each section of content is part of a bigger puzzle that makes sense.
5) Cross-Channel Promotion
One of the trends that will be dominant is cross-channel promotion, a marketing strategy that integrates all your marketing channels and unifies their plans, data, and goals across the board.
Just churning out blog posts is no longer enough to be successful on the internet. You now need to invest your efforts in other marketing channels like social media, SEO, and email marketing.
Unlike multi-channel marketing, which also uses several channels to attract customers with each channel working independently, this cross-channel promotion uses all channels to push out the same message at the same time.
The first thing you need to accomplish this is a Customer Data Platform (CDP). CDPs can help consolidate and organize consumer data from all your channels in one place. Three good sources are Bloomreach, Insider, and Segment.
Then you can use micro-segmentation to group your audience by different demographic details, characteristics, and buying behaviors so you can hyper-personalize your content and marketing channels to suit prospects where they are in their journey.
Some examples are starting an email with the reader’s name, writing content to target readers’ needs, adjusting mailing frequency to suit their needs, and otherwise catering to whatever else your audience is looking for. This is a great way to stand out while blogging.
Even though blogging is a well-established medium, there are trends that come and go. Staying on top of these developments allows you to decide which ones you want to use and when. Most of these 5 blogging trends you should not ignore heavily focus on user experience. The best trend to follow is figuring out how to better serve your readers with the content you write and how you present it. In doing so, you’ll end up with a better blog than when you started.
The Ideal Length for Blog Articles
by Rahimah Sultan
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Because your business strategy is in place, you should have already determined your audience.
Your audience should be a determining factor when deciding on an ideal blog post length as well.
You need to consider these questions when determining your audience and your ideal blog post length.
** Which social media platforms do your audience share content from the most?
** What types of media sources are they following?
** What types of content are they sharing?
** How long are the blog posts that they are engaging with?
Word count is not a standalone ranking factor. It only has value if the content is of great quality.
A few years ago, the average blog post was usually somewhere between 500 and 800 words or even less.
Now long-form content is dominant.
There is no magic number for every post every time.
What is the average length of a blog post?
Although there is no average length per se, there are suggested lengths for different industries.
Financial technology (FinTech) – 2,000 – 2.150 words
The topics in this industry are fairly complex so they require a lot of depth. For adequate coverage, you should aim for between 2,000 – 2,250 words with a significant number of data-driven images like graphs and charts.
Finance – 2,100 – 2,500 words
Research has shown these numbers to be ideal for the largest volume of organic traffic in the finance industry.
Manufacturing – 1,700 – 1,900 words
The manufacturing industry includes chemicals, textiles, machines, and heavy equipment. There might be differing opinions regarding the word count. But, on the whole, 1,700 – 1,900 is a safe number.
Sales – 2,500 – 2,700 words
Sales is a wide umbrella covering many different areas. The most successful posts in this industry have a high word count.
Retail – 1,500 – 1,700 words
Retail drives the U.S. economy, whether it’s massive chains or mom-and-pop stores.
Online retail has experienced massive growth over recent years, and like manufacturing, the retail industry can involve a lot of different types of content.
So, 1,500 – 1,700 words or even less is sufficient to explain a product or service.
While images are always important across the board, for retail-based articles they’re especially critical.
Real estate – 1,800 -1,900 words
Real estate is an incredibly competitive industry in which you’ll need to specialize in a few strategic areas and be able to deliver expert advice to your readers.
You’ll need to master local SEO.
Home and garden – 1,100 -1,200 words
The word count for this industry is much lower than for the rest because these types of posts are more visual-centric and use lots of pictures and how-to videos to demonstrate their products.
Tech – 800 – 1,000 words
Most tech articles are a short commentary on a product, technology developments, or events, so 1,000 words is a reasonable count.
Gadgets – 300 – 500 words
After talking about long-form content being best, this seems incredibly low.
There are always exceptions. You probably don’t need to go on and on about a new gadget. Just be practical and cover the background, key features, nice images, pricing, etc.
You want to give readers a clear idea of what to expect if they buy it.
Marketing/advertising – 2,500 – 3,000 words
Just about everyone in marketing engages in content marketing. Which means a lot of content.
In this area, giving value with a high word count will help you to stand out from the competition.
Healthcare – 2,000 – 2,150 words
Healthcare is a huge industry. Not only are there major publications, but there are so many scholarly articles that feature original research from top universities.
To get your content noticed and shared, you must create top-level articles that are filled with valuable data.
Fashion – 800 – 950 words
As with tech gadgets, there’s no need to over-state fashion content. This number of words will allow you to adequately discuss fashion trends, styles, or industry models.
It goes without saying; be sure to include plenty of images.
Recruiting – 900 – 1,000 words
This industry content tends to be statistics-heavy but fairly short.
Food – 1,400 – 1,900 words
There are a whole lot of people writing about the food industry, and food blogs have increased.
Be sure to include beautiful images to make an instant connection with readers.
Travel – 1,500 – 1,850 words
This should be long enough to entirely cover topics like travel tips, destinations, useful gadgets, and more.
Film – 1,500 – 1,700 words
This industry keeps growing. To stand out you have to create substantial, long-form posts.
Producing content is not all about length. There are other variables that determine the success of your blog articles.
** Substance – The most basic consideration is what you’re trying to say. It may require 150 words or 10,000 words.
** Style – Of course, writing styles vary and will affect your content. Some styles will use content that is short, brief, and to the point, and other times it’s conversational and interactive. The style will affect the length of your content.
** Frequency – It takes time to write good content. Some bloggers post once a week while others put out short posts daily. The frequency depends on how much you can manage.
** Format – Your format has a great impact on its readability. You should break your content into small sections so readers can easily skim it. You can do this by using lots of subheadings, a few images throughout the article, and short paragraphs.
** Purpose – What is the purpose or purposes of the article? You may want to spread brand awareness, drive social engagement, provide education, grow email lists, or improve SEO. All these are sub-goals related to your ultimate goal of making conversions.
** Audience – You have to create content based on what your particular audience needs and wants. It should be based on their passions, interests, and their problems.
** Medium – When you post a video, meme, or infographic, word count doesn’t matter. With an infographic, you might use around 100 words to introduce the topic.
Why is long-form content best?
You can cover your topic with a level of depth that’s clearly impossible in a shorter post. So, long-form is perceived as high quality.
As most people don’t read word for word, long-form content is perfect for skimming. What people do is scan and check out headlines, subtitles, and bullet points, and look at the images.
Research shows that most visitors only read about 20 percent of an article.
It seems that creating content with a high word count leaves readers feeling as though they’ve just read something very impressive when they’ve finished.
Short, thin content can’t provide this certain sense of satisfaction.
As long as you provide value to your readers, they’ll appreciate a short or long article. So, use this information to determine the ideal length for blog articles that works for both you and your reader.
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Are You Using Content Curation for Your Articles?
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.
As marketers, we are responsible for generating massive amounts of content every day. But most of us don’t have the budget, staff, or time to publish enough great (or even good) content. So, we do what we can, but it’s frequently impossible to stay ahead of the demand.
Enter content curation
Are you using content curation for your articles?
Content curation is the process of gathering information that is relevant to a particular topic or area of interest, with the intention of adding value through selection, organization, and sharing relevant high-quality digital content with a target audience.
Is content curation a good idea?
Adding content curation to your content marketing mix provides the following advantages:
~ Improves SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Curated content becomes added indexable pages that offer more entrances into your site through search engines.
~ Establishes Credibility as a Thought Leader
Curated content from high-quality third-party sources helps you create go-to web resources that improve your credibility and trustworthiness as an impartial authority on your subject.
~ Supports Lead Generation
Curated content powers incremental site visits that increase the potential for landing quality leads.
~ Simplifies Lead Nurturing
You can easily repurpose curated content via emails, newsletters, and other avenues to make lead nurturing easy and consistent.
~ Complements Blogging and Social Media
Curated content enhances your social media publishing schedule and helps ease social media conversations with prospects, customers, and also with peers.
What are some curation sources?
You can use a variety of online resources for content curation, social media profiles, trade publications, blogs, news outlets, scientific journals, and more.
Here are some sources for finding relevant and fresh content to curate.
1. Industry-specific email newsletters
For industry-specific newsletters, you can do a Google search using inurl:newsletter. For example, autoresponders inurl:newsletter or whatever niche you desire, and a list will pop up from which to choose.
2. To keep up with current trends and more, all in one place, try Feedly.com
3. Buzzsumo
4. Curata
5. Social media platforms like Pinterest and Digg
6. UGC (user-generated content)
7. For high-quality, relevant content, you can also research authoritative websites.
You can curate content from a wide variety of sources, including blogs, social media profiles, trade publications, news outlets, scientific journals, and more.
Once you’ve curated content, organize it using a well-developed system that’s far more detailed than just the basics. It should include detailed and interconnected information about ideas or things that are related and grouped accordingly.
Content curation isn’t aggregation or content farming – unethical plagiarizing of third-party content.
This article is by no means an in-depth look at content curation, but more of an overview or an introduction to aid in generating content for your target audience.
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