As if that wasn’t enough, we also need to keep conversion in mind, because bold traffic makes little sense if it doesn’t generate leads. So, we have to please the search engines and the human readership alike. We are the ones responsible for the conversion rate. Well, since we are, we should keep some hacks in mind. Here is a humble list:

#1 Start them off with a killer headline

Obviously, the headline is the first thing that your reader sees about your article. So, the headline is the crucial element that influences the reader’s decision on whether to keep reading the article or just skip it like most of the web content. Of course, your reader will not reach you for the call to action (CTA) if she/he doesn’t get past the headline. So, how do we get such a headline?

• Numbers. Any factual data automatically makes information more credible.
• Language. It may take a little extra time for research, but you have to find out the EXACT vocabulary that your readership uses when talking about the issue that you are writing about.
• Emotions. This is a simple one. Emotions sell everywhere, in any niche, and to any public. So, don’t be dry.
• Arguments. It is clear by now that headlines with an argument attract more attention than headlines that make a statement. Remember coming up with argumentative essay topics for high school and college papers? Might be the right time to recall this experience.

#2 Tell a story

Imagine yourself watching TV – at best before there was the internet. You are watching your favourite show, and then it gets interrupted by a commercial break. The ads are quite informative and useful, but you still want them to end, so that you can keep watching the show. You find the commercials irritating, even though you know that a new insurance plan may be much more important than Jack and Jill’s romance. Why does that happen? Because all people like stories better than raw bits of information, they like to be told things and not just be informed, and it is a known fact. So, instead of just throwing information at your reader, it is better to wrap it into a nice story to read.

#3 Liven up your CTA

How hard can it be to get your reader to click your CTA thus converting them from ice-cold traffic to the desired lead? It gets more challenging every day. People hardly react to the lifeless and boring ‘buy now’ or ‘sign up here anymore. So, what should we do?

• Minimize the commitment. Ask the readers to do something small and simple. The classic example is ‘try for free’ denoting a free 30-day trial as opposed to a bold ‘buy now.’
• Individualize it. Don’t be generic, make your CTA as specific as it can get. For example, ‘join the 10,000 of our privileged fridge users.’
• Add the timing. People value time more than anything ever. So, why not accentuate how little time they need to spend with you? Just add “…in just a few moments,” “…in two clicks,” “…in three easy steps,” etc.

#4 Be straightforward about pricing

If you sell something, which you most likely do, be bold about it. State that a certain product or service has a certain price, and put this price tag in a visible place (or several). Openness and straightforwardness increase credibility. If you do the opposite, people are likely to regard it as hidden fees and upselling, which is irritating for them and counterproductive for you.

#5 Keep options to a minimum

That is, of course, not to say that we should leave our reader-client with no options to choose from whatsoever, we are not some evil dictators. Yet, we must keep as few options as possible. When a client comes in multiple choices with too many options, s/he experiences what is commonly called ‘analysis paralysis,’ which is not a pleasant feeling. This means that the person gets overwhelmed with the alternatives to choose from (often, to the point of stunning), which results in no decision being made at all: a lead is not generated. This is why the optimal number of options should not exceed 3-4.

#6 Remove distractions

Some people say that the Internet in itself is a distraction. This is arguable; still, one cannot but agree that the Internet is full of distractions. It is chaotic and unorganized. Browsing the web is much like an open ocean. Well, you can give a present to your reader in the form of an island of stability in this ocean by removing all and any unnecessary distractions from your landing page. This will make your reader feel calmer and, so to say, more secure, for which – have no doubt – they will be grateful. These distractions include but are not limited to the dreaded social icons. The benefits of social media presence have been known for a long time now, but you should not just blindly stuff all pages with Facebook and Instagram references. There has to be only directly relevant information.

#7 Be Negative

You have probably always tried to stay positive when writing, not to scare your reader off with false alarms. Well, now is the time to scare them a bit, just for motivation. Research shows that the fear of losing something is stronger than the will to gain something. So, the ‘don’t lose’ message will be more powerful than the ‘save’ message.

#8 Rely on testimonials

This one seems like a no-brainer, yet their value needs a little clarification. Not only do testimonials from actual clients make your information more credible. They also give your reader a perspective of someone who actually uses the product or service, someone from their side of the demand-supply relationship.

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It goes without saying that regardless of who actually writes the testimonials – the real client or the copywriter, you need to make sure that they sound credible. This can be achieved, for example, by the use of slang words that are hip in your social group today.

The post 8 Copywriting Hacks to Boost Conversions appeared first on Tricky Enough.

These strategies are applied by every copywriter, content manager, and SMM manager who is responsible for content creation. So here they are, top recommendations that will blow your network and bring your SMM to an entirely new level even though you have no experience in writing!

Catchy headlines are the starting point

Every single post starts with a headline. It should be short, eye-catching, and informative. It may be slightly provocative and even scandalous. Everything depends on the strategy that you choose and your audience. Besides, the headline should be used for Facebook posts, on Twitter, and for your blog. And it should act effectively for all social media.

Always experiment with several headlines. A good strategy is to use A/B testing for each social network. Perhaps, your followers on Facebook prefer more classic headlines, while Twitter followers click only if there is something truth-revealing. Therefore, you will need to use different headlines for different networks.

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Twitter Tips to increase the reputation of your website.

Always add visuals

How to make your readers click your posts? Engage them with visuals! Visual information is easier to catch while you are just scrolling the news feed, and you always pay attention to the pictures, not to the texts. Therefore, add some images to your post that will become an anchor for the people who look through the feed.

To write stunning blog posts, do remember that the image should:

• Be relative to the content
• Support the headline and the main message
• Not to be one of thousands of stock or Google images
• Evoke some emotions
• Be based on insights

Also, the choice of the image will depend on the tone of voice that you’ve chosen to communicate to your audience. For example, if you write informative articles with no jokes, funny stories, sarcasm notes, etc., it would be a mistake to add a meme or gif with Travolta. However, it does not mean that your audience will not like this post. The effect may be the opposite, so if you can allow such kind of experiments, give it a try.

Another important thing to remember is that if you sell your products or services, it will be nice to add your own photos. In this way, you will be able to reach your audience, and your subscribers will be more likely to engage in your content.

Value is the king

Never generate social network posts just to keep up with your content plan. Your main aim should never be to write something but to delight your visitors with posts that bring value to them. You should focus on writing clickable articles for your social media.

Why do they click to read more? Because they hope that your post will help them to solve some problems. Therefore, when writing your post, you should stick to the bigger idea:

• Why do your readers need it?
• What do you want to get with this post?
• How can your readers use this information to solve their problems?
• Can a reader use this information in future?

Here, we need to talk about the importance of defining a target audience. In case you do not know who your recipient is, you will hardly create a valuable piece of content that will be interesting to him.

If you are not sure that your content brings value, please follow this checklist to find what you should fix.

Do use a call to action

People love it when you give them clear directions. If you want them to follow the link, write that. If you want them to keep reading the article, tell them about that. Call to action is a powerful tool that is commonly neglected in social media marketing. But if you want to create posts that will get more likes and shares, it’s not enough to rely upon social network buttons only.

Supporting material for the call to action is an active voice in your posts. You will definitely reach your audience if you stop using passive forms. This is all about psychology which works perfectly for SMM.

In case you have no idea what’s call to action is and how to use it, please refer to this Hubspot guide.

Follow your mission statement

Your SMM strategy should always be based on your mission. What results exactly do you want to reach with social media? Is that your means of personal branding? What your followers should know about you? How would you define your way of promoting your ideas? Keep in mind all these questions while you are writing a post.

Each of your posts should be of the same style as the previous one. Make sure that even if several writers are working on the content, they write posts that supplement each other and create a single image for your page.

Getting more clicks for every single post is the result of a strategy that lasts for months. The more valuable content you create, the more visitors and followers you get. If they like your content, they won’t ignore it and will always like and share. So take everything under your control and make sure that you do not miss the details and make content that deserves to appear in the recommended posts.

The post Write Clickable Articles for Every Social Network appeared first on Tricky Enough.

The reasons can be different: some might want a more flexible schedule, some might want to travel more, etc. Some simply want to write about different things instead of sticking to one niche, and some want to write about the things that they are passionate about, which isn’t always possible when you work for a company.

Here’s the good news: it’s entirely possible to leave the office to pursue a freelance writing career. However, in order for this to work smoothly, you have to understand what kind of writing work seems the most appealing to you as well as what kind of writing work will be the easiest for you to do.

There are so many ways to earn money with the help of your writing, but today I’m going to tell you about two careers: blogging and content writing. So before you start updating your resume to search for freelance writing jobs, read this article to find out which career suits you the most.

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Who is a content writer?

Content writers’ job is to create high-quality SEO-optimized content for websites. Don’t confuse them with copywriters: though copywriters can create such type of content too, they also work with various kinds of advertising content. Content writers’ duties are a bit more narrow, but this doesn’t make them easier.

If you want to become a content writer, you’ll need to understand how SEO works, how the articles can be optimized for SEO, and so on. You will also need to make sure that your writing content is researched and supported by arguments coming from reliable sources. Of course, you’ll also need to find out how to create content for a certain target audience and ensure that you’re representing the values of your client.

learn:

The importance of Content Writing.

Who is a blogger?

Many people start a blog, not because of money but because they simply want to write about things they like. While this doesn’t mean that a blogger can’t make money while doing so, this represents the job of a blogger well enough.

Basically, a blogger is a person experienced in a certain niche, who writes to deliver some kind of interesting content that is valuable to the niche’s audience. One of the most important things about blogging is that you are free to voice your own opinion in your blog – moreover, you are encouraged to do so. However, you have to be really experienced in the chosen niche so that you won’t disappoint the readers.

The audience comes to bloggers primarily because of how they write. The information matters too, but not all of the content bloggers create is truly unique. They might write about the same topic, yet voice different opinions – and that’s what attracts the readers.

What is the difference between a blogger and a content writer?

A content writer speaks for the company or the client they’re working for, while the bloggers speak for themselves. A blogger can choose their writing style more freely as well as their topics, while a content writer has to remember about client’s values and image when doing so. Both of them have to think about their audience, yet a blogger’s goal is to let their personality show, to be entertaining, and even provoking sometimes, while a content writer’s goal is to deliver a certain message the most accurately.

Sometimes bloggers have to advertise more than content writers. The last ones usually don’t have to attract the audience: when people come to a website, this most likely means they did so because of the advertising. So what’s left to a content writer is to clearly explain what can be found on the website, how it can be used, how it could benefit the visitors, and so on. The bloggers, however, need to not only catch the readers’ attention but make them return – not because of products or services that can be found on their blog, but because of the content, and sometimes this includes trying to sell themselves a bit.

The blog reminds more of a personal brand representing a blogger’s interests and views. However, it usually requires a lot of effort before a blog can become that. You have to invest time into promotion, learn how to monitor the statistics, have a clear vision of your audience, and be able to analyze which ones of your articles bring you the most organic traffic. Sometimes a blog doesn’t bring any profit at first. Sometimes it fails to bring any decent profit at all – for example; you don’t know how to make it work right. However, a blogger can still make money by offering their services to clients.

 A Content writer makes money only by offering their services to clients. Sure, the success of their work still depends on them a lot: they have to provide high-quality services and always meet the deadlines in order to keep going. They don’t have to wait to receive their first income, but it might still take time for them to build a good reputation and start earning decent money.

While these two jobs are different, this doesn’t mean that you have to choose only one of them. Actually, a content writer can start their own blog for future monetization, and a blogger can offer content writing services to earn a living before their blog becomes popular. So the choice is yours – you can either combine these two jobs, try yourself in different writing niches or settle with one of them and try to make the most out of it. Either way, I wish you good luck and hope that you’ll be able to become successful at what you do!

Also, read:

How to become a full-time blogger?

The post Making Money at Home: Blogging vs. Content Writing appeared first on Tricky Enough.