11 Methods That Will Make Your Content Marketing Campaign Go Viral

Have you ever wondered how some bloggers and online entrepreneurs manage to crank out tons and tons of useful and exciting new content on a daily basis, and others…

…well, others can’t even crank out one useful piece of content a month!

And don’t even get me started on marketing it.

There are a number of bloggers who actually can write AMAZING content, but they are clueless marketers and can’t get any of it to go viral.

If you have struggled with any of the issues mentioned above, it’s okay: you are not alone, and there is nothing wrong with you. Every writer, digital strategist, or content marketer has struggled with the same thing!

What you need to do is learn the necessary skills to not only write killer content but also market it like a pro.

That changes today.

To make this super-organized and logical, I’ve divided it into two major sections.

1. First, you have to plan and write awesome content.
2. Second, you have to market it.

You must do both, and I’ll show you exactly how to do both with step-by-step instructions.

Some people think all they have to do is write content and the world will come knocking at their doors, linking to their content, and sharing their articles.

Write an article. Hit publish. Sit back and make money, right?

Nope. It doesn’t work that way.

In order to succeed at content marketing, you have to do both: the writing and the promoting of your content.

Remember this:

1. Content never written won’t be promoted.
2. And content not promoted might as well not have been written in the first place.

No matter how awesome your content is, if you’re not marketing it, sharing it, and promoting the heck out of it, nobody will read it.

With this straightforward guide, you’ll learn the process I use to make my content go viral.

Part I: Planning and Writing Viral-Worthy Content

This is where things start—planning and writing.

Most people know this much. You have to plan an editorial calendar, get your butt in a chair, and write the articles.

That’s good as a start, but it’s not quite good enough. I have six points that will help you not just create content—but create viral content.

It starts with the early stages of content ideation and planning. Here’s what you need to know.

1. Define the objective of your content

The first and most important thing you can do before your pen ever touches paper or your fingers touch the keys is to define the objective of your content.

As the old quote goes,

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

If you do not have a definite goal for your content, not only will you likely write an incoherent piece, but you will also likely have difficulty marketing it in the proper channels.

As I detail in my Advanced Guide to Content Marketing, there are several goals you need to define before you start churning out content.

• Decide how you will use this content to grow your business. (Is it to generate leads, improve sales, boost your marketing, or create a community? There is no wrong answer—it’s up to you.)
• Decide on a specific goal for the content once you have determined how it will be used.
• Develop the core message that will be congruent through all your content.
• Identify your competition and analyze them.

A content marketing Excel sheet like the ones pictured below can be a huge help.

You can find samples and templates for these spreadsheets online.

Here’s one from the Content Marketing Institute. (Careful. That link will download the spreadsheet automatically.)

Econsultancy lists a variety of these free templates. Hubspot offers a few as well. I recommend you check these out before you spend hours creating and formatting your own.

A good calendar will include not just dates but the topic, the content, and the keyword focus of the article.

The level of detail is up to you. Some campaigns are pretty simple and maybe only need a date and a title. Other campaigns can be advanced and may include details such as keyword focus, persona target, author, geotargeting, product focus, seasonal push, etc.

Keep things as simple as possible, and you’re more likely to succeed.

2. Focus on the headlines

Which would you be more likely to click on?

“How to Totally Shred Pounds of Fat and Uncover Your Dream Body in Only ONE Month!”

Or

“Burn Fat with This Program!”

The answer is obvious.

No matter whether you are creating videos, articles, or podcasts, the headline is one of the most important aspects of successfully getting your content in front of your target audience.

Make your headlines juicy and enticing, and your conversion rates will skyrocket. Bottom line: your business will grow.

Make your headlines boring and generic, and the most you’ll get is maybe hundreds of views (if that).

You’ve seen the juicy and tantalizing headlines all over the web. Even something as mundane as a pipeline can seem exciting when pitched the right way.

You don’t need to be sensational to craft a great headline. Instead, you need to be hyper-focused on what your readers want and make a promise that earns their click.

In fact, you use a simple formula to make the process easier. Try this one, from Buffer.

3. Don’t B.S. your readers

In your quest to create epic content, you have to realize that your reputation online is everything. It takes hard work to maintain your reputation, and it can be destroyed in a matter of minutes. Lost reputation can take years to rebuild.

EVERYTHING you publish should be well-researched and fact-checked (or have a decent train of logical thought if the concept you are trying to explain is more philosophical in nature).

If you start creating clickbait content that makes promises you cannot deliver on, your reputation will be tarnished and will be nearly impossible to recover.

However, even if you are putting out less content than the others in your industry, your content will still outperform your competitors’ if it is grounded in hard data. Telling the truth through your content, even when it’s ugly, will earn you a sterling reputation and the trust of your customers.

4. Make your content super actionable

Have you ever noticed that I strive to offer advice you can take action on immediately?

There is a reason why.

When people read articles, especially informative articles, they don’t want theory or conjecture. They want concrete steps they can act on right away—actionable steps.

I’ve learned what my audience wants, and I try as hard as I can to deliver it.

Whether you include an “Action Step” at the end of each of your articles or simply write in a style that carries actionable information throughout an article, it’s up to you. But you have to make sure whatever you put out there, people can act on it and act fast.

The model I use for making my content actionable looks like this:

• Create value and fix pain: The headline I created for my article promises a solution to your pain and an offer of value. Heck, it’s free for you to read this article, and you get plenty of great advice, right?
• Build relationship: I’ve pulled you in. Now, I want to build a relationship with you. If you’ve been a reader for a while, or simply know about my success, you may already have a relationship with me. If not, you can check out my ugly mug on the sidebar or even email me.
• Earn trust: In my article, I’m proving the fact that you deserve my trust. How? By providing solid researched and experience-based information.
• Take action: You, the reader, can totally take action on this. In fact, based on these four bullets, you can develop your own plan of attack for an actionable content strategy.

5. Create engaging and original content

The Internet is full of crap, and if you want to succeed, you have to be the shiny diamond in the rough. One of my favorite examples of content that stands out is Craig Clemens’ article on “How to 10x Your Income Over the Next Four Years”.

Where most articles begin with something bland and generic about how you should wake up earlier, skip the Starbucks latte, and invest your pennies in some mutual fund, Craig comes out with a bang, offering the highly controversial, engaging, and original thought: the first step should be to cut out porn.

This is engaging. Why? Because most people have a visceral response to something like porn.

The content is also original because Craig is willing to say something that not many people can say.

Originality is engaging, so don’t be afraid to stick your neck out there. It’s worth it.

6. Always include videos and pictures

A picture is worth a thousand words.

So, what is a 3,000-word article with 6 photos worth to someone?

While I will leave the math to you, it is important to realize humans are visual creatures and we process images much faster than text. If you want to increase the amount of user response and the number of social media shares, adding images and videos can be one of the best ways to do this.

I try to include as many relevant images as possible in my articles.

It’s hard work finding those pictures and adding them into WordPress, but I’m willing to do it. Why? Because if this 2,000+ word article had zero images, you probably wouldn’t read it.

Part II: Marketing

Now, your article is written. You’re ready to level up to marketing.

I use the word marketing, but you can also think of it as promotion. You’re leveraging tactics to get your content in front of your audience.

Here’s exactly how to do it.

7. Get an awesome quote from an industry leader

We all know the power of social proof. This power is doubled when you can get it from an industry leader.

If you have created some epic content and already have built a solid platform to share it on (though this can work even if you are a total beginner), reaching out to an industry leader for their thoughts on your work is a great way to improve your content marketing through social proof and get your name associated with A+ players.

The process for reaching out to them is pretty straightforward as well.

Send them an email or message, and boom. Instant credibility.

8. Reach out to people you see sharing similar content

If you ever see people who are constantly sharing content related to your niche and who are your Facebook friends, reach out to them and ask for a friendly share.

More often than not, if your content is good, people will be more than happy to do this, and it will likely win you a regular “share buddy” you can go to whenever you create some pretty exceptional content (which, if you remember points 3-5, should be pretty much always).

Besides, a lot of social media people and content creators are always looking for high-value stuff to share. You’re doing them a favor by letting them know about your content!

9. Turn your content into a video or podcast to broaden its scope

Some people prefer to learn through watching or listening, and some through reading. If you limit your content to the written word, you are massively short-selling yourself and your audience. You are cutting out a whole portion of your audience who might love your work but might not prefer its format.

The same is true if you are a YouTuber, reading this guide. Get on Fiverr, and pay someone to transcribe notes from your informational videos so that people with different learning styles can also have access to that information.

10. Email the sources you quote in your articles

If you are writing articles that require you to cite lots of sources, you have yet another great way to improve your content marketing!

Contact the most cited sources with the article, letting them know how important their work was to you, and ask if they would be willing to share it along their various channels of influence.

Say please, ask nicely, and you’re likely to get a positive response.

Again, this can be a great way to boost your credibility and get your content out there!

11. Create content worth marketing

Sure, this point may seem a little redundant, but it is worth repeating.

If your content sucks, why are you even trying to market it? What you are creating needs to offer value to the world, and even if it isn’t 100% original, it should offer insights and present the information in a way that the audience isn’t used to seeing.

You need to create great content before you can be great at marketing it.

Conclusion

Content marketing can be overwhelming.

There are so many different channels to market your content on that you may feel you can’t even choose which one(s) to pursue.

But relax, content marketing shouldn’t be this scary.

What’s most important is to create good content and do what you can to share it. Once you have mastered the basics, you can worry about the hard stuff.

Until then, enjoy and start creating outstanding content today.

In your experience, what kind of content goes viral? What did you do to make it happen? Let me know about your viral content experiences! I always love a good success story.

from Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/28NDu8w

13 Daily Activities that Will Double The Size of Your Personal Brand in 6 Months or Less

How is your personal brand doing?

No really—how’s it doing?

Do you open up your inbox each day to a flood of people talking about how they love being your customer, how you changed their business, health, and life, or about how incredible your message is?

Or do you open up your inbox in the morning only to be showered with upset customers and people complaining about something you said in an article four months ago?

We live in a day and age where there is so much crap out there. People want to buy from and follow a business that has a relatable figurehead, someone who is personable and trustworthy—who speaks to their specific needs.

So I will ask again…How’s it going for you?

If you are struggling to build your personal brand and are looking for actionable steps you can take each day to double the size of You, Inc. and improve your income and impact in the world, read on.

Note that not all of these things have to be done daily. This is a guide full of different ways you can double your personal brand.

Like Bruce Lee said

Absorb what is useful, reject what is not, make uniquely what is your own.

In my experience, building a personal brand is hard work. It’s hard work to get it off the ground. It’s hard work to grow it. It’s hard work to sustain it.

So why do we do it?

Because it’s fulfilling. Not only do you get to experience personal fulfillment, but you can improve the lives of those around you. Building a personal brand is worth the effort, because it increases your positive impact in the world.

Besides, a personal brand helps you financially. Whether you own your own business or work as part of a larger business, there are virtually no downsides to building a personal brand.

Now, if you’re ready to double the size of your personal brand—and enjoy the many life benefits that come as a result—this is the article you’ve been waiting for. 

1. Write from the heart.

One of the best things you can do to build your personal brand is to write daily/regular authentic blog posts where you talk about your life, your struggles, and your triumphs while offering real value to your audience.

People love to read the authentic stuff.

You can’t fake authenticity. It’s hard to open up, to be real, to feel raw, and to share things that are, well, heartfelt.

But what does this do for your personal brand and your audience?

It will show others you are a real person just like them and make you far more relatable. People like to know the person that they are buying from and doing this positions you as a “friendly expert.”

2. Take a picture doing something you love, and post it on social media.

A picture is truly worth a thousand words. Posting regular pictures to social media of you partaking in a favorite activity will make you more relatable to everyone and will build special rapport with people who share your interest.

For example gym pics, pics at the gun range (a highly polarizing activity that will likely generate some controversy so be warned), in the kitchen, or at the movies are all great ways to seem more personable and start great conversations with your followers.

3. Create a daily YouTube video.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a billion or so, right?

Have you ever noticed how a lot of the YouTubers making millions of dollars built up their following through daily vlogs?

This was not by accident.

Getting on camera for thousands to see is hard, but if you can pull it off, people will get to see into your life. It makes you far more relatable, even to the extent that if they meet you in person they will already feel like they know you.

There’s a huge value in that. Your brand isn’t just an artificial projection of what you want people to see. With video, it becomes a portrayal of who you actually are.

4. Start a daily or weekly podcast.

If you have a radio voice (even if you don’t) podcasts can be a great option to build your personal brand.

You can talk about your life and important issues for 10-15 minutes a day and get things edited and uploaded rather easily.

This is easier than YouTube and while it is not quite as personal, it will still get the job done.

Podcasts are alive and well, and there are hundreds of thousands of people who still get their daily earful while commuting to work or while exercising.

5. Write one heartfelt Facebook post every day.

If you have a large Facebook following, then writing out a few hundred word Facebook post that intrigues readers and invokes responses is a great way to get your voice out there and develop rapport with your followers.

Often, the most engaging Facebook posts are the most sincere. Facebook is meant for camaraderie and close relationships. Use the platform for what it’s meant to do— create rich and meaningful relationships.

Creating Facebook groups is one way to ensure your personal brand stays close-knit. Take this example from a Facebook group. The person who shared this post got more than 100 reactions and comments in just a few hours.

Also, don’t be afraid to be polarizing, the more true you are to your beliefs and opinions, the more respect you will get and the more press you will receive.

6. Open up about issues that are bothering you, or challenges you’re facing.

Often, whenever you can hide behind the comfort of the internet, people decide to keep their challenges to themselves. In doing so, they limit the conversation to boring topics instead of issues and challenges that inspire readers and make you more relatable.

Nobody gets excited over a personal brand that’s flat, bland, or drama-free. That’s not personal. That’s guarded.

I mean this in the nicest way possible:  Get over yourself.

Seriously. We’re all people here. We all face challenges. The more we open up about our struggles, the more feedback, heart, emotion, and relationships we can develop.

A great example of this is Tim Ferriss’s post on suicide. The number of responses and amount of feedback this post got was staggering, all because he was willing to be vulnerable.

7. Create an aura of professionalism.

Here is the thing, you are supposed to be the “Friendly expert” not the “Friendly loser” just because you are trying to be relatable to people doesn’t mean you should completely abandon professionalism.

Everying I explained about authenticity and vulnerability above holds true. But keep this in mind—stay professional.

Obama is a professional, holding one of the highest offices on the planet. He can be down to earth and authentic, but even in those most playful moments, he keeps it professional.

It takes skill to pull off a stunt like that. But it also takes a tight grip on one’s professionalism.

As real as you are, you’re not looking for a thousand shoulders to cry on. You’re not posing as a dramatist. You’re a professional person who does great work, and wants to help others do great work as well.

Lewis Howes knows how to create a powerful personal brand. As authentic as his writing and podcast is, he still maintains a sense of decorum and professionalism in all his publications and visuals.

You need to make sure your site, and pictures look professionally done, and the content you release is top notch, period.

8. Do crazy stuff regularly.

Want to know one of the best ways to increase your personal brand? Be memorable! The world is full of boring people trying to make it online. Don’t be one of them!

Skydive in New Zealand, make a crazy gamble, commit to learning a new language in a month and offer to give your whole email list a free book if you fail.

Richard Branson has a great personal brand, and he’s not hesitate to show pictures of himself doing crazy stuff — like posing next to a snoozing employee.

He even blogged about the experience.

Many personal brand builders are eager to open up about their hobbies and passions. That’s why they have a personal brand. Others love to get a glimpse into their lives, and maybe be inspired to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do.

James Clear runs a highly successful personal blog. One of his passions is travel—but not your touristy travel. He does ultralight travel, and he tells you how to do it, too.

Sure, it may be crazy. But it’s also engaging.

Do memorable stuff, and people will flock to you.

9. Show yourself with friends and family.

Have you noticed how the two biggest keys here are being relatable and likable? Good! Because, THEY ARE.

If you want to be super relatable, then show yourself hanging out with your family and friends.

People often get intimidated by experts, but if you show them you are a regular person who eats, drinks, and uses the bathroom just like them, you will be much more successful, and showing family and friends is a great way to do this.

10. Talk about yourself and your life.

Make sure in your content, no matter what the topic, you relate it back to your life, your struggles, your successes.

Basically, show people that whatever you are teaching is not just for the select few, it’s for everyday ordinary people.

11. Get mentions from reputable sources.

What would it do for you if I gave a shout out to your company? What about if Richard Branson came out and gave you an endorsement?

While those things probably won’t be happening anytime soon (although if you create some really amazing content we can talk) climbing the mentions ladder and catching the eye of big names is a great way to build your brand quickly.

12. Share a “lesson of the day/week” in an email.

Another great way to build your brand, especially with a large email list,  is to share regular emails discussing a lesson you have learned.

If you do these right, making them purely about giving value with no promotional cause, people will respect you more, and be more inclined to open emails that you are sending to sell stuff later on.

13. Just be yourself.

The most powerful way you can build your personal brand is to be yourself. Be authentic in everything you do.

You’ll have ups, downs, challenges, breakthroughs, scary moments, euphoria moments, and it will all be worth it. Do you.

Never espouse an opinion that is not yours, never recommend products you do not believe in, never pretend to be someone you are not, people will see through it and your brand will suffer.

Conclusion

While doing all 13 of the things on the above list would certainly grow your brand and fan base at a record fast pace, it would probably also kill you.

This is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to building your personal brand, but rather an list of ideas you can implement to grow your brand at a faster pace than you already are.

So pick 3-5 of the above things (in addition to number 13 of course) and start executing on a daily basis. Give it a go for the next 6 months, and just see where it gets you.

I’ve experienced remarkable success in building my personal brand. Why? It’s not because I’m anyone special. It’s simply because I’ve worked on it for more than ten years.

Six months is a lot shorter than ten years. But I’m confident that six months from now, as long as you do a few of the things in this list, your personal brand will double.

With that kind of success, who knows where you’ll be in ten years?

What tactics have you tried in building your personal brand? What worked? What flopped? What would you try again if you were guaranteed to get results?

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Monthly Report for May 2016: Niche Site Project 3

The time has come for an update on Niche Site Project 3!

Over the past few months, Samara, Ryan, and Colleen have been busy building out their niche sites, and as you will see below, things are definitely moving in the right direction.

For the most part, the regular coaching calls are over.  We’ve covered tons of material and honestly all of the basics (and much of the advanced) that anyone would need to build a niche site from scratch right here.

Now, we are going to try and provide monthly updates for the next several months for how their niche sites are doing; including, traffic, earnings, and other lessons learned.  Today is the first of the official monthly reports.

So, as you can see below all 3 students have provided an update for May on how their niche sites are coming along.  Enjoy!

Samara’s Update for TinyFry.com

Hey everybody!

Well, it’s been about a month since we revealed my site, Tiny Fry, so we thought we’d give you a little update on what I’ve been up to in May.

As you’ll recall, the strategy going forward is to write content, do outreach, work on social media and try to get some backlinks. Lather, rinse, repeat. So that’s essentially what I’ve been working on.

I published seven articles in May, which I think is okay, but to be perfectly honest, it’s about half the number of articles I would have liked to publish. I am hoping to beat that number in June. I wrote a mix of affiliate and non-affiliate content, and for some reason the former just takes me a long time to complete. I have 36 posts at the moment.

I have been doing outreach, and a few bloggers have offered to share my article with their followers on social media, although the majority generally respond to say “thanks”. I have started a few conversations with some people in the space, and it feels nice to connect with others and start building those relationships.

I have been a total failure on social media. I wanted to publish something every day and, sadly, that hasn’t gone as planned. It turns out that managing several social media accounts is actually more time consuming than I thought! That being said, I really do want to get active as I think there are lots of opportunities there.

As for backlinks, I snagged a few this past month. I did a guest post on a friend’s blog, which has absolutely nothing to do with kids and babies, but I was able to find an angle that made my article relevant to both my friend’s site and my own. I was interviewed for participating in Niche Site Project 3 on a great site on entrepreneurship, so I nabbed a link there.

I had an idea for a new section for my website, which I’m pretty excited about. I’ll be publishing interviews, which I think will really provide some great value for readers, and as an added bonus I may be able to get a few backlinks in the process. I’ve reached out to 15 people so far and already have 5 articles lined up, so I’m very pleased with how that’s going. I hope to launch the new section this month.

I got a handful of subscribers through the opt-in on my homepage, and I sent out my first newsletter, which will be monthly for the moment. It was my first time putting together a newsletter, so that took a bit of time and planning.

Traffic to the website peaked, unsurprisingly, when we revealed the site, and since then it’s been on a steady decline, although at the moment I’m still getting half as many visitors as I did following the big unveiling.

Traffic in May

Earnings for May

My earnings in May from Amazon amounted to $21.51. It’s still a long way from $500, and it’s certainly not enough to pay off my mortgage, but it’s a start! I can see people have bought all kinds of things through my links, including many products that I have recommended, which is pretty cool to see.

So that’s where I am, in a nutshell. I feel that I’m off to a decent start. There are so many things I want to do with the site, but there are only so many hours in the day, and I never seem to make it through my entire to-do list. Like, ever. But this isn’t a race, and I’m confident that working consistently on Tiny Fry and growing it gradually will yield great results over time.

Ryan Update for May

Well folks, this is what failure looks like. I wish I had better stats to offer up, better insights gleaned, better news to report. But I don’t. This is what failure looks like.

Or more accurately, this is what failure on a personal level looks like, because it’s not the failure of the tactics and strategies that Jake has taught me along the way. No, this is about me not getting my work done.

Sometime around Mid-April I just hit a wall on the website and I allowed things to stand in my way. Life things. Confidence things. Depressing things.

Sure, some of these events and circumstances were out of my control, and May has been a very trying month for reasons that I won’t get into because I don’t want to seem like I’m making excuses. We’ve all got stuff in our lives that stand in the way of us achieving our goals/dreams/happiness. The successful among us power through them, learn from them, and grow stronger.

That’s all I can do at this point.

I’m not sure where the other students are at, but I’m going to assume leaps and bounds ahead of me. It’s hard not to beat myself up when thinking about it. I feel like I’m wasting a great opportunity.

STOP IT, YOU’RE DEPRESSING US!

Okay, the positives:

1. Your crazy if you think I’m giving up. I’m only going to get stronger from this point forward.

2. I think from the standpoint of the Niche Pursuits community, maybe some of you can relate to this. I think it’s good to see one of the students struggling to succeed. The idea that I could fail at this is very real. And if you don’t put the work in, you’ll fail to. I just need to refocus. Maybe some of you out there do too.

3. The content that I do have on my site is ranking, so something I’m doing is working. Right now most of it is on the third page of Google, which I can only assume is just because of good SEO. I just have to scale up my output and outreach. This is very doable.

4. Some of the big life events and circumstances that were standing in my way have been solved. These were taking up way too much mental space in my brain (and hours of my day) and I’m finally ready to move through them.

So there you go. I apologize if this wasn’t a helpful write up for you guys in terms of strategies that are working vs. not working etc, but I felt like I just needed to be real here and let you know where I’m at.

I promise you that the next time I do a write up, there will be plenty of positive things to talk about. I can still do this, and you can too.

Colleen’s May Update for Coustii.com

The month of May has been completely focused on lots and lots of link building! Fortunately, I’ve really enjoyed getting to know other artists and webmasters in the music industry. It’s crazy the connections you can make all over the world.

I’ve been doing a combination of guest post writing and targeting link and resource pages. My goal is to get to 100 links to Coustii, before switching my strategy back to building more content. Right now, I’ve got 70 live links and still growing!

In the screenshots, you can see the spike in traffic at the beginning of May. We got a little extra boost from the NSP site reveal. My organic traffic is still small (about 900 in May), but we’re still climbing and all of my keywords are now ranking. I’ve even got a few hitting the first page of Google.

Traffic for May

The past month has forced me to be a bit more creative with my link building tactics. I’ve already knocked out my “easy” targets, such as sites accepted guest posts for guitars or ukuleles. I’ve started reaching out to markets that have a small tie to my particular niche. Then creating content geared towards both of our audiences.

I’ve learned that it never hurts to ask! Maybe a topic or article pitch is really a long shot, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Even if someone says no, you can try another idea. Don’t take no for an answer!

Quick Summary from Spencer

Overall, I’m really happy with the way that Niche Site Project 3 has turned out so far!  The coaches have done some great coaching, and the Samara, Ryan, and Colleen have put in a ton of effort and are starting to see some nice results.

As Samara continues to “lather, rinse, and repeat” with content, links, and monetization I’m quite confident that her rankings and earnings will continue to improve.

Colleen has put out a ton of great content on her site, and looks like she starting to get some nice links with her outreach and other link building efforts.  Even though the site hasn’t been monetized yet, I’m sure in the long run the money it makes will be well worth the effort.

Even though Ryan has had some hurdles that have kept him from working on his site as much as Samara and Colleen, I’m still happy with the progress I’ve seen.  Ryan is an extremely busy guy with a family, full-time job, and more, but has still managed to lay an awesome foundation for a great online business in the past few months.  We are all rooting for you, Ryan!

Hopefully, this quick report for the month of May on all the niche sites is helpful as you work on and build your very own niche sites.  All of these sites are really young and so perhaps the stats and earnings don’t look that impressive yet; however, this is too be expected with new sites.  In just a few short months, I’m quite confident that these sites will have grown to a point that is much more significant in terms of traffic and earnings.

The post Monthly Report for May 2016: Niche Site Project 3 appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

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5 Experts Reveal How To Build An Email List For Huge Profits

Do you know the secrets of how to build an email list that you can turn into a reliable income?

It’s definitely not an easy question to answer.

Right?

But you probably know other bloggers that are able to build an effective email list that drives revenue back to them every month with their email marketing strategy .

Do these bloggers know something that we don’t know?

Absolutely, yes!

And probably I’m one of them

So I decided to interview five phenomenal bloggers to share their practical ideas about how to build an email list that can be turned into a reliable income.

Introducing Bill Achola

My name is Bill Achola and I run BillAcholla.com, where I teach bloggers and small business owners how to create the right content for their business.

What You Will Learn

• Where to place your opt-in form prominently in your blog
• How to persuade readers to your opt-in form
• How to create a high value free giveaway
• How to use content marketing to build an effective email list
• How to write EPIC content that attracts site visitors and sign-up to your email list

ATTENTION: Download My Email Sequence To Use In Your Own Campaigns Here!!

Let me introduce you to:

Cody Lister, Jasper Oldersom, Mike Wallagher, Matt Thomas, Zac Johnson

And lets start off with…

1. Jasper Oldersom – Opportunity Building

Q1. How do you make your opt-in form prominent in your blog?

I try not to be too invasive, yet pretty aggressive with my opt-in forms. When you visit my homepage, the first thing you’ll see is attention grabbing and curiosity generating copy with a very prominent opt-in form above the fold.

When they are on the blog, I have an attention grabbing opt-in form on the right-side. Sometimes I use call-to-actions for my newsletter within my posts.

Using an exit-intent popup has also been proven to be effective and this is the most invasive method I use. I chose to only let it show up the first time you leave my site.

I also use an opt-in form below every post, which reminds my readers that if they like my blog content, they’ll love my e-mails, too.

Personally, I highly recommend the Thrive Leads plugin for all of these things (Which Matt also uses on this blog).

It has all the lead generation tools you’ll ever need and A/B testing is surprisingly easy.

Q2. How do you persuade site visitors to opt-in to your email list?

By not focusing on what I want, but on what the reader wants.

They aren’t just going to give me their e-mail without any reason, they’re asking themselves “what’s in it for me?”.

That’s why I strictly focus on what they’ll receive when they opt-in to my list.

Q3. How do you create an incredible giveaway for your list?

I have my email autoresponder loaded with short, but super valuable lessons on copywriting that drip right into their inbox and help me build a relationship with my list.

In every email, I focus on one concept or principle, which makes it easy to digest yet very valuable to my subscribers.

Q4. What works well, when it comes to list building?

When it comes to list building, I believe in being a little aggressive to increase your email conversion rate.

If you only have one opt-in form on your website saying “subscribe to my list” in the footer of your website, naturally you won’t get a lot of subscribers.

You-

1. Have to tell them why they should subscribe
2. and provide them many opportunities to do so

Guest blogging is also a great way to build your list.

Each time you get on other people’s blogs and provide valuable content, you get in front of a new audience that opens new doors for you and adds more subscribers to your list.

Q5. How do you pay special attention to who you want on your email list?

I make sure that the copy I use on my opt-in forms appeals to the specific target audience I want to attract.

If you target a broad audience or give a big promise that you can’t deliver on, you might get more opt-ins, but they aren’t going to serve you in the long-term. You don’t need a big list, you need an engaged list.

Q6. How does content marketing help you to build an email list?

Content helps me to get in front of an audience. It also allows me to show my passion experience, passion, authority and my voice.

I always keep in mind that people do business with people they know, like and trust. I believe this to be true for lead generation, too. Because subscribe to newsletters from people they know, like and trust. Content marketing gives you the opportunity to show who you are.

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” – Theodore Roosevelt.

That quote also goes for e-mail marketing. Think about the e-mails you always love to receive. You love them. Because it’s from that particular person you subscribe to.

So I show my personality through my content. That way I stand out and don’t want attract everyone, simply those who enjoy and benefit from what I do the most.

Q7. How do you write content that attracts people and end up opt-in to your email list?

I haven’t experimented with content upgrades on my own blog yet, but in my opinion, it’s a great, non-invasive way to add value to a post and build a relevant list in the process.

However, I do always strive to keep my readers engaged. We are all fighting for attention online. I know how distracted readers can when they visit my site. I want them to be involved.

Out of every 100 blog posts you visit, how engaged are you reading each on of them? I bet you don’t read them all. But a couple of them stood out. They engaged you.

Would you rather sign up for a blog that you scan for information or one that consistently engages you?

Q8. Any tips for bloggers trying to create a loyal list?

If you attract the right audience into your list and treat them right, they could stay on your list for years on end.

Remember: people do business with people they know, like and trust.

Know: don’t be a stranger. Stay in touch. Don’t send 7 emails in one month and one in the next month. Have some consistency. Make sure that people can expect something from you. This way they become familiar with you.

Like: do your emails provide value or are they all straight sales oriented? It’s good to sell in your emails. But do they also inform, inspire or entertain? Do they keep them on their toes for your next email?

Trust: There are tons of affiliate offers to promote. Don’t fall into the trap of promoting something you would never use yourself. Do not try to trick your list in any other way.

Follow Jasper On Twitter >>

2. Matt Thomas – Insider Secrets

Q1. How do you make your opt-in form prominent in your blog?

If you only have one opt-in form on your website, you’re missing out on subscribers!

I usually use the SumoMe scroll box opt-in form instead of a full-screen pop-up. It performs at least as well and is less intrusive. It also lets readers sample my content before they get the subscription pitch.

The other three places I put an opt-in form is at the top of the sidebar, at the end of each post, and on my about page.

My advice: use less obtrusive opt-in forms, but use them in many places on your site.

Q2. How do you persuade site visitors to opt-in to your email list?

Except for family members and friends, nobody cares about what you want. They certainly don’t care that you need more subscribers or more money (or both!). When someone visits your site, they only care about one thing: what’s in it for them!

Your first step is to use your content to provide amazing value. Every time Matthew Woodward publishes a post, I know it’s going to deliver “over the top” value – I never even have to wonder.

When I get a new post notification, I stop what I’m doing and read it because his posts (and guest posts!) always give me new ideas to grow my business and increase my income.

If I accidentally got booted off his list, I’d miss the content so much I’d immediately resubscribe.

Do people say that about your content? Do they stop what they’re doing to read your posts? If a subscriber fell off your list, would they even miss your emails?

Q3. How do you create an incredible giveaway for your list?

One way is to provide a kick-b*** “lead magnet” that capitalizes on your reader’s desire to avoid loss. As Jon Morrow brilliantly put it, “it’s all about knowing what keeps people awake at night.”

What gnawing worry will keep your readers from falling asleep tonight?

Once you know this, you can create an information giveaway to help them solve that problem – and hopefully they’ll become a loyal, long-term subscriber.

Just don’t over-promise and under-deliver – you’ll quickly lose their trust.

Once you’ve formatted the information in your word processor, head on over to Fiverr’s “book covers and packaging” category and choose a cover design that roughly matches the page count of the document you’ve just created.

After your beautiful $5 cover is designed, paste the image into your document as the first full-size page, export it to PDF, and voila! – your giveaway is ready to go.

How hard was that?

Q4. What works well, when it comes to list building?

The two SumoMe paid plans offer split (A/B) testing. This lets you add a second kick-b*** lead magnet (see above) and test them both to see which one outperforms the other.

I’ve also had reasonably good results creating a call-to-action button on my Facebook Pages. It’s certainly been worth the very minimal setup effort.

Another important strategy is list retention – keeping folks subscribed. In each of my daily emails, I put a link next to ‘unsubscribe’ offering the opportunity to switch to a weekly version.

My daily list unsubscribe rate stayed level but now I’m recovering 38% of daily unsubscribers who join my weekly list. I’ve been able to salvage a large number of readers just by giving them the choice to choose how often they hear from me.

Q5. How do you pay special attention to who you want on your email list?

Your lead magnet giveaway is going to select those people interested in solving a specific problem.

If you’ve put some thought into how the giveaway relates to your product or service, your subscribers will end up aligning nicely with your desired target audience.

Q6. How does content marketing help you to build an email list?

Pat Flynn uses an interesting content marketing strategy with his ‘Ask Pat‘ podcast.

In each bite-sized (under 10-minute) daily episode, he answers just one question from a listener.

All the questions are in his niche, and by answering he builds his authority and — ultimately — subscribers to his email list.

Whether you use a blog, podcast, YouTube channel – it doesn’t really matter. This strategy can work for you in any niche.

Q7. How do you write content that attracts people and end up opting-in to your email list?

Identify a problem your target audience has and create high-quality content to help them solve it. It really is that simple.

I find it’s easiest to create this kind of content when I imagine myself writing an email to a good friend. It keeps the content conversational and easy to read.

Q8. Any tips for bloggers trying to create a loyal list?

The legendary salesman Zig Ziglar said: “You will get all you want in life if your help enough other people get what they want.” It’s that simple and it’s 100% true.

If your goal is to help your audience achieve their goals – helping them gain something they want or, even better, avoid losing something they have – you’ll build subscriber loyalty every time you mail!

Follow Matt On Twitter >>

3. Zac Johnson – Zac Johnson

Q1. How do you make your opt-in form prominent in your blog?

I like to use popup windows and call to actions throughout the site. Not only is this a great way to see immediate results, but also allows for quick split-testing as well.

I don’t only study how my own popups perform, I also look at what’s working for other sites in the industry as well. To see what I mean, view these 32 popups being used by other top sites and bloggers.

Q2. How do you persuade site visitors to opt-in to your email list?

Offer something of value that isn’t accessible otherwise through the site, but also making it something not too overwhelming at the same time.

For example, a single page PDF cheat sheet usually performs much better than if you were to offer something like a “50 Page Resource Guide”.

After all, who has the time to read something like that! Create something of value and make it easy and quick for your audience to use.

Q3. How do you create an incredible giveaway for your list?

Every once in a while I will hold social sharing contests for my audience to get their hands on a premium course I created. When running a giveaway, you want to make it easy and beneficial to your audience to share it with their audience as well.

Using any of the top contest plugins or apps like Rafflecopter or AppSumo makes the process seamless and easy. You can then also follow up to everyone who entered the contest (and didn’t win) to offer them the same prize at a discount.

Q4. What works well, when it comes to list building?

Running webinars and teaming up with other sites has worked very well for me. How the process works is that I would contact another site owner (or vice versa), and we would setup a webinar that would be setup on a rev-share.

The site owner then mails out to their list and sends their traffic to the webinar registration page, which then builds out a new mailing list.

Any leads referred through the webinar are then split with the site owner and myself, while also having access to a new list at the same time.

Q5. How do you pay special attention to who you want on your email list?

I try and keep a general focus on all of my lists with a main call to action. For example, if I have a mailing list on BloggingTips.com or Blogging.org, it’s safe to say they want to learn more about blogging or how to make money with a blog.

The email autoresponder series for each of these sites then provides the subscriber what they are looking for and they can also branch off into other areas (monetization, outsourcing, blogging guides) along the way.

Q6. How does content marketing help you to build an email list?

A great majority of my traffic and list subscribers are all as a result of my content. ZacJohnson.com has over 1,500 live articles on the site — many of which rank extremely well in the search results.

Knowing how to monetize your blog content and having proper call-to-actions and mailing list signup forms in place is key to long term growth that just keeps coming in month after month.

Q7. How do you write content that attracts people and end up opt-in to your email list?

Knowing your audience and what they want means everything. It’s also about knowing how to walk them through a process.

For example, if someone goes to Blogging.org and wants to start a blog, that’s the first step. Next I would walk them through how to install WordPress, chose a quality site theme, what plugins to use and so on.

The concept here is that you are building a relationship with your end user and showing them what to do next. Too many sites focus on getting the email subscriber signed up, then just leave them there with nothing to work with.

Q8. Any tips for bloggers trying to create a loyal list?

Split test the heck out of your signup forms and call-to-actions. Also provide real value.

It means a lot for a person to put their email address in and actually allow you to send them more email than they already need. Keep the conversation going and provide more value than your competition.

Follow Zac On Twitter >>

4. Cody Lister – Market Doc

Q1. How do you make your opt-in form prominent in your blog?

I use a homepage welcome gate thanks to Bryan Harris (VideoFruit).

It’s the most prominent opt-in form you could possibly use to grow your list.

Q2. How do you persuade site visitors to opt-in to your email list?

By offering a lead magnet or email course of real value that complements your site’s core topics and appeals to your target audience, you can persuade visitors to opt-in to your email list.

Whatever you offer should provide epic value, otherwise people will ignore it.

Q3. How do you create an incredible giveaway for your list?

Think outside the box while making sure that the giveaway addresses one of your audience’s pain points, such as how to get more email subscribers or build an online course.

One coveted product in your niche can make for an incredibly powerful giveaway.

Q4. What works well, when it comes to list building?

Content promotion works like a charm. Pre-outreach by using commenters and sharers of other posts.

I find that commenters of other related popular posts tend to work best for pre-outreach.

Make sure you combine pre-outreach with a compelling content upgrade embedded multiple times throughout your blog post.

I’ve gotten thousands of email subscribers in the past 30 days by performing exhaustive pre-outreach.

Q5. How do you pay special attention to who you want on your email list?

I segment my list with 50 tags and I manually tag influencers who join my list as “VIP” so I know not to send them too many emails.

I think it’s important to treat your subscribers as you would your own mother, with care and respect.

If people don’t want to be on your list, that’s fine, but give them an easy way to opt-out and don’t play games.

Also, don’t bombard your list with dozens of affiliate offers (or make them “run the gauntlet”).

Give as much value as possible and treat each subscriber like a human being, not another number on your email list.

Q6. How does content marketing help you to build an email list?

Content marketing (and guest blogging) is one of the most important things you can do to grow an email list when you’re just starting a blog.

By putting your work out into the world, people will look at you like expert and authority in your industry. You also get the chance to help people become better content creators by publishing high quality content.

In short, if you publish high quality “epic” content, your list will naturally start to grow if you promote your content to the right people and write answers to questions your audience has in mind.

By publishing high caliber content, you nurture your existing email subscribers, attract new ones and turn passive subscribers into long-term customers and friends.

Q7. How do you write content that attracts people and end up opt-in to your email list?

Focus on keywords that relate to the questions your audience tends to ask.

If you write about list building, then your audience may be interested in how to grow your list by 1,000 subscribers in 7 days or new strategies for growing your list that work best today.

Write content that helps your reader become a hero through self-transformation and personal growth. The more value you offer visitors, the more likely it is they’ll opt-in to your list.

Q8. Any tips for bloggers trying to create a loyal list?

Don’t spam your readers with offers. Segment your list in multiple ways based on where they opt-in from or how they joined your list in the first place.

Send those readers relevant content.

Avoid sending too many broadcast emails as you will get tons of spam complaints and upset a lot of people in one shot.

Be thoughtful and careful about how you engage with your audience.

Don’t be selfish, it’s a privilege to earn someone’s trust. Once you lose it, you can try to earn it back but it takes a lot more effort than earning their trust the first time.

Loyalty comes from providing lots of free value. It’s why airline and hotel loyalty and rewards programs still work well today. Offer free value and your readers will become loyal and faithful.

Follow Cody On Twitter >>

5. Mike Wallagher – Start Blogging Online

Q1. How do you make your opt-in form prominent in your blog?

Just add it below your top performing content.

Don’t stuff it everywhere, but rather make it “exclusive”. In case you publish awesome content and the “subscribe box” isn’t prominent all over the site – it makes him/her more likely to convert.

Q2. How do you persuade site visitors to opt-in to your email list?

I’m honest about what I’m offering to them. If they GET what they WANT – they are sure to not unsubscribe. It’s pretty simple and straightforward, no rocket science here.

Q3. How do you create an incredible giveaway for your list?

Offer something to FREE. For example, I recently ran a “free blog contest” and it literally got TONS of likes/shares and subscribers.

If you give away something for FREE – you’d be sure to have some boost in your email subscribers.

Q4. What works well, when it comes to list building?

Consistency and helping others by providing great content. Take a look at Brian Dean’s (backlinko.com) subscribe funnel – you’ll learn a ton from him!

Q5. How do you pay special attention to who you want on your email list?

I’m obviously interested in people who have money to buy some stuff from me, but not always.

For example, someone who has a lot of friends – both online/offline can bring you more followers by the simple form of ‘word of mouth”.

But the brutally honest, I don’t pay much attention on it.

Q6. How does content marketing help you to build an email list?

Every time I publish a post and do some marketing towards it, it starts to generate some traffic – mostly via Google. If people find your blog and your AWESOME content – they’re more likely to convert into subscriber.

Q7. How do you write content that attracts people and end up opt-in to your email list?

Look around in Quora, Yahoo answers and even some niche related forums. See what people main questions are.

Solve problems and help. Make sure your content is top notch, though – the longer, the actionable the better.

Q8. Any tips for bloggers trying to create a loyal list?

Be personal and help, really… Don’t stuff you emails with affiliate/product offers, provide value FIRST.

Follow Mike On Twitter >>

ATTENTION: Download My Email Sequence To Use In Your Own Campaigns Here!!

Wrapping It Up

Now that you have seen the full potential of growing your email list, it’s time to take action.

Just fire up your favorite email marketing software and apply the tips you have learned today.

And If you want to get the most value from your list building campaign through content marketing, then read this guide about How to Spend $1000 a Month for Your Content Marketing Strategy.

Do you have any of your own tips about how to build an email list to share? Please post them in the comments and feel free to ask any questions you have!

from Matthew Woodward http://ift.tt/1UhZMA5

Does Keyword Research Even Matter Anymore?

Keyword research. I’m sure you’ve done it before.

You probably know what it’s like to use keyword research tools and come up with lists of keywords to track and rank for. I’ve done it dozens of times myself. Why? Because it’s one of those “standard practices” that we do in SEO and online marketing.

But search engines today aren’t looking only at keywords! Search engines are looking at hundreds of different factors. And keywords? They are only a small part of the big picture.

Don’t get me wrong. I think keyword research is still important.

But here’s the thing…

Keyword research isn’t the only aspect you need to be researching when optimizing a website or planning your content marketing.

I want you to go a level deeper—to the level that users are searching for and search engines are indexing for.

I’m going to share with you three ways to go beyond basic keyword research. Although keyword research should still be a part of your SEO, it’s only the start.

I’m confident that these advanced research methods will add rocket fuel to your marketing, attract targeted traffic, earn valuable links, and ultimately boost your revenue.

I will explain in detail how to use each of these powerful research methods.

First of all, let me preface this by revealing something you may not know about Google: the algorithm changes 500-600 times per year.

That’s a rate of nearly 1.5 changes a day!

Even with all the marketing ability I’ve developed running my various businesses, I can’t hope to keep up with the rapid pace of change in the Google search algorithm and its machine learning. Odds are, neither can you.

So, now that you understand the why, let’s dive into the how. This is how we do keyword research in today’s world.

1. User intent

One of the biggest mistakes I see many newbie online entrepreneurs make is that they focus too much on the specific keywords in their research without focusing enough on user intent behind those keywords.

You may be thinking, “Neil, what is user intent, and how do I use it to improve the traffic and conversions on my site?”

User intent is just what it sounds. User intent refers to the user’s ultimate goal in typing a search query.

Let me make a quick point about the terms I am using.

• Keywords: A targeted phrase you’re trying to rank for. You do keyword research. You use this phrase in your content, making sure it appears in all the right places.
• Query: The phrase or words that a user types into Google. This could be a short phrase, a question, or just a string of words the user is typing.

I try to keep those two terms—keywords and query—straight, but sometimes I use them interchangeably.

As SEOs, we tend to focus on keywords, right? That’s what we want to rank for, obviously.

But users don’t care about our keywords. They just want to get the best result for their query.

And that’s my point: every query has an intent. Every time someone types something into Google, they are trying to accomplish something. They have a goal.

For example, when I am up late at night watching Gossip Girls reruns and I Google “Chinese food,” my user intent is to order some Chinese food.

And guess what? Google knows this. And, voila, this is exactly what comes up!

However, if I change the wording ever so slightly, typing “great Chinese food” instead of “Chinese food,” what appears is quite different.

By simply changing one word, I shifted the intent of my search from ordering Chinese food to finding great Chinese meals and restaurants in a given area.

See the difference? Sure, the difference involves a change in wording. But the deeper change was one of intent.

Google gets it. The whole search engine is designed to deliver really good results based on the user’s intent.

Check out this video from Google. User intent is the whole reason why Google spends hundreds of millions of dollars to refine its algorithms and enhance its machine learning process.

If the search engine is that focused on user intent, we should be as well.

So, how can you use this to improve your keyword research?

You have to take advantage of user intent to understand which keywords you should try to rank for.

Basically, you need to understand the user’s goal when they input certain queries.

Let me give you another example.

See if you can figure out the intent behind this query: “order a birthday cake”

Pretty straightforward, right?

If this “order a birthday cake” was one of your target keyword phrases, you should understand that the user’s intent is to order a birthday cake.

The great thing about user intent is that it becomes far easier to figure it out as the query becomes longer.

Long queries are really valuable for two reasons:

• We can identify exactly what the user wants and give it to them.
• We can gain targeted organic traffic for super-specific long-tail keywords.

Double whammy!

Let me show you exactly what I mean by expanding that “order a birthday cake” query.

Most users don’t simply want to order a birthday cake. They want to order a specific type of cake, for a specific type of person, in a specific location, for a specific purpose, and at a specific time.

See where this is going?

Take a look at this doozy of a query:

How’s that for user intent?

You can use this super-focused intent to create super-focused content!

For this query, you know that:

• Someone wants to order a cake…
• for a girl…
• who is probably between 4 and 10 years old.
• They don’t want to make the cake themselves.
• They want it delivered to their venue.
• And they live in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
• Most likely, it’s a mom, dad, or party planner who’s typing in this query.
• They probably have a limited amount of time on their hands. They’re busy.
• They live with or know about children and understand what children like.

I could go on and on.

This is the level of keyword research that you want to do. You’re not just spinning a bunch of variations from some keyword tool. Instead, you’re diving into the reasons, the motivations, and the desires of the user.

We could even sketch a persona based on that keyword and then target that persona in our marketing efforts.

Kelly is a 33-year-old working mom. She has a 3-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter who turns 6 on August 2. Kelly loves her kids but isn’t able to spend much time with them because of her demanding job as a paralegal in downtown Atlanta. Kelly wants to surprise her daughter with a special birthday party with a princess theme.

You might not be able to achieve this level of research for every keyword, but you can at least get a general idea of the general intent of your target audience.

Basically, if you know why a user is looking up a certain keyword, you will be able to determine what keywords you want to use on your website and in your content.

Using my first example, if you were a Chinese takeout restaurant, you would want to rank for “Chinese food,” “order Chinese food,” or “Chinese takeout.” Ideally, you would also try to rank for local terms such as “Chinese takeout downtown Las Vegas.”

However, if you ran a Chinese recipe niche site, you might try to rank for “great Chinese food,” “awesome Chinese recipes,” or something similar.

2. Search query type

Another important element of diving deeper into keyword research is understanding search queries and search query type.

As I explained above, a query is what a user types into Google. A keyword is what you’re trying to rank for.

Let me show you a keyword and a query example so you can clearly see the difference.

Keyword: Men’s skinny jeans

Query: Where to buy men’s skinny jeans

Do you see the difference?

The keyword is a relatively straightforward term. The query, however, is more specific because the user wants to accomplish something (user intent—as discussed above).

But there’s another remarkable thing about those queries.

Whenever you are doing keyword research, try to understand what kind of queries lend themselves to people hitting the “buy now” button.

It’s really important because if you could figure out the types of queries that lead people to purchase immediately, you would be able to get more sales.

And if you could figure out the queries that pulled people into the top of your funnel, you’d be able to structure an amazing content marketing campaign.

Here is the good news: you can find that out, and you can structure your content marketing around those types of queries.

Here’s how.

There are three basic types of queries:

1. Informational
2. Transactional
3. Navigational

Let me explain each of these so we can get clear on how to target each one:

1. Informational searches are pretty easy to figure out. The user wants to get information on a certain topic. For example, “how to structure a content marketing campaign” is an informational query.
2. Transactional searches mean that the user is trying to buy something or transact in some way. “Buy skinny jeans online,” “order flowers las vegas,” or “whole foods coupon” are all transactional queries.
3. Navigational searches take place when the user is trying to get to a specific website but doesn’t remember or doesn’t want to type in the URL. For example, if I wanted to visit the Men’s Health website, I would search for “mens health” or “mens health mag” rather than typing “http://ift.tt/xr10Oq” into my search bar.

Nearly every query fits into one of these three types.

What’s even better is that nearly every query has a specific position in the marketing funnel.

Make sure you understand, of course, that most search traffic is informational.

In other words, you’ll be gaining most of your leads in the top of the funnel through informational queries.

Informational queries build awareness and aid the user’s consideration, just like the marketing funnel predicts.

Let me share an example now so you can see how to apply this information to your content marketing and SEO strategies.

Say you are selling men’s skinny jeans and trying to decide which keywords to try to rank for.

Some possibilities:

• Men’s skinny jeans
• Top men’s skinny jeans
• Skinny jeans men’s style
• Best men’s skinny jeans
• Distressed men’s skinny jeans
• Hipster men’s skinny jeans

Now comes the important part of understanding the search query.

If you were an e-commerce store that sold men’s skinny jeans, the keywords you would try to rank for would be very different from the ones you would target if you were running a blog on men’s fashion and writing an article on why skinny jeans are appalling.

This is the difference between informational and transactional search queries.

Basically, you want to research search queries related to your industry to discover new keywords you can try to rank for.

Let’s say you are selling men’s skinny jeans. You want transactional queries. Looking at the different search queries, you will notice that common keywords that pop up are:

• Men’s skinny jeans sale
• Men’s skinny jeans online shopping
• Men’s stretch skinny jeans

Within an e-commerce environment, it’s important to understand the specific nature of a user’s transactional query. They might be looking for sizes, features, and specific product types.

Most e-commerce search functionality offers support for “non-product” queries but has limited ability in allowing “subjective” queries.

By enhancing keyword support in the most relevant areas of your e-commerce website, you’ll be able to gain organic traffic to those internal pages where the user is prepared to transact.

If, on the other hand, you run a fashion blog and are writing that article on men’s skinny jeans, you might find search queries like these:

• Fashion blog men’s skinny jeans and boots
• Men’s skinny jeans outfits
• Men’s skinny jeans
• Spring outfits men’s skinny jeans

As you can see, all these queries contain the keyword phrase “men’s skinny jeans,” but the secondary keywords you should try to rank for will change based on the user intent behind the search query.

By knowing which queries you are targeting, you will be able to come up with a more targeted list of keywords to try to rank for.

Plus, the keywords will result in greater conversions of your visitors into either blog subscribers or buyers.

3. Demographic research

The third and final part of keyword research is demographic keyword research.

You know about demographics, right?

Demographic research is a powerful marketing tool. You can use the information you gain in your demographic research to target specific types of people.

You’ve probably seen sample personas like this one:

Most personas contain demographic data:

In the persona above, it’s helpful to know that Brandi…

• is a female
• is 36
• lives in the LA area
• makes 38k a year
• has narrow feet

Personas affect everything in marketing.

• Different personas will respond differently to web design standards.
• Some personas may prefer a certain color scheme.
• Specific personas might have a specific response to certain words or headlines.

Personas affect keywords too.

Let me show you how.

Let’s say your target demographic is men ages 18-35 looking to lose weight.

However, you’ve chosen to target the keyword “easy fat loss.”

What you may find is that the majority of people searching for “easy fat loss” are women 30-45. (I’m just using this as an example, so this assumption may or may not be true.)

Thankfully, there are several excellent tools you can use for keyword demographic research, including Microsoft’s AdCenter Labs, Keyword Discovery, and, of course, the AdWords’ Keyword Planner.

Some of these tools, such as Keyword Discovery, are particularly structured to enable demographic keyword research.

The more you can segment and analyze your data, the better you will become at identifying demographic keyword trends.

A report like the one below, for example, alerts you to the fact that men and women between the ages of 35 to 54 search for “oscars” at specific times of day.

The demographic information behind some queries is obvious.

• Men’s skinny jeans. The demographic is most likely young men.
• Amazon books for teenage girls. This demographic could be either a teenage girl or the parent of a teenage girl.
• Best foods for pregnancy. Probably a mom-to-be.

By using the right research tools and figuring out which queries your ideal demographic is typing, you’ll be able to be more precise about the keywords you try to rank for.

Here’s a parting word of advice about demographics: narrow it down.

We would all like to think that our product is good for everybody. However, if you can identify your ideal client and demographic and really capitalize on this, making sure every keyword you rank for is something that demographic is searching for, you’ll have a higher conversion rate than if you went too broad with your keywords.

Specific, long-tail queries will draw in the specific and eager customers you want to attract.

Conclusion

Here is what you need to know: Keyword research still matters. It is an integral part of any successful online business.

But basic keyword research on its own will not get your as far as you need to go with your online marketing! Your standard practice of typing a few phrases into Google Keyword Planner and exporting the list into your tracking software isn’t how it’s done anymore.

You have to be willing to dive deeper into your research to uncover the who, what, and why of each of your keywords.

If you can go beyond the basics, you will improve your marketing success.

I’d love to hear about any innovative strategies you know that take keyword research to an advanced level. What methods do you use to go beyond basic keyword research?

from Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/1Yxypow