A Brighter Web | Grow your business with digital marketing

Writing Perfect Marketing Headlines

We won’t bury the headline for this episode—because that’s how important headlines are. Unfortunately, they’re often overlooked and underrated in digital marketing. We’ll help you craft more effective headlines with a few ideas and suggestions.

We don’t want to bury the headline, so that’s exactly what we’re talking about. Whether its a website or an email, we spend ages on design and body copy—only to mail in the headline at the last minute. But often, that should be the first thing we think about and refine.

Headlines are underrated.

• People judge books by their covers. Your headline is your cover.
• People shouldn’t just read news headlines, but too often they do
• This is the first thing people encounter and helps them decide if they should keep going
• Writing good headlines means being able to summarize what you mean.
• Don’t just write headlines by default.

What do we mean by headlines?

• Not necessarily news headlines; although use that same idea.
• Blog post titles
• Email subject lines
• Video & podcast episode titles
• Ad taglines
• Book title (& subject line)

7 Headline writing tips

• Write about 5-6 options.
• There are templates and patterns you can follow.
• Use a tool like Headline Analyzer
• Snip good examples you find in the wild and collect for inspiration
• You get better with practice. Spend as much time as you do on the blog post.
• Use bold words that are action-oriented
• Clarity is better than brevity. You can be longer to include context.

The Future of AI and Digital Marketing

Are the robots coming for our jobs? Artificial intelligence is nothing new, but new innovations are pushing AI to the forefront of digital marketing. Businesses will need to adapt to how new machine-learning tools are changing how we do online promotions. Welcome to the future of marketing.

Why are people so excited about AI?

• It makes hard tasks quick and easy.
• There are some amazing use cases, for example: “write 500 words about the Civil War at a second grade reading level in the style of The Rock.”
• It’s fun!

How does AI impact marketing?

• It can generate content for you, both text and images (and video before long).
• It’s great for helping generate content marketing ideas.
• It’s also able to write blog posts, social media posts, emails, and more.
• AI can also create better, and more specific stock photography.
• All of the content is original and essentially instantaneous.

What are some of the AI tools people should try?

• ChatGPT for text
• DALL-E for images
• I’m signed up for the Bing beta, but don’t have it yet.

What are AI’s strengths? What are the limitations?

• It can consume and refine incredible amounts of data in seconds.
• AI is surprisingly adept at following prompts. But it can’t create prompts for itself.
• It’s not really “artificial intelligence.” At a high level, it’s just predicting the next word, but it feels like more than that.
• Not all AI tools have access to the entire database of the internet. While others have arguably too much data.

Should we be scared of or worried about AI?

• Not scared, but you don’t necessarily need to like it. As writers, we both have our concerns with it. 
• Human-written text is already becoming flooded with AI-generated text. We don’t have to like it, but it’s coming.
• It’s hard to know where it’ll take us in the next decade, but it seems likely that very soon you’ll be able to say something ridiculous like “make a 10-minute show where Tom Hanks, dressed as a firefighter, fights Jennifer Lopez for control of the moon” and it’ll generate it instantly; including text, dialog, speech, and even video.

How to Write a Book For Marketers

Most people say that they’d like to write a book one day, but few ever do. Book publishing is a challenging but rewarding process that too few get to experience. Luckily, one of our co-hosts has firsthand experience to share with any marketer or business leader looking to write a book.

Our co-host Robert Carnes has written three books, including his latest book The Story Cycle, all about storytelling for businesses. He shares his insights on the process of writing a book and how it’s more achievable than you might imagine.

Writing the book

• Choose a topic you can live with for a year
• Collect ideas and save them somewhere.
• Organize your ideas into chapters and sections.
• Write a crappy first draft to get it out of your system.
• Let it breathe for a while and give yourself a break.

Editing the book

• Aim to work on at least 4-5 revisions.
• Writing and editing are different skills.
• Knowing when to share with other people is tricky.
• Share with 4-6 people to give you initial feedback.
• Hire an editor who you trust to be objective.
• Come up with a title that’s clear and catchy.

Designing the book

• Collect 10-12 books whose covers & interiors you like. And explain why.
• Layout the book or get a professional to do it for you.
• Design the cover to be different from your competition.
• Focus group the title and cover with examples of your audience.

Distributing the book

• Either through a publisher or through Amazon self-publishing.
• This process is still opaque and hard to understand.
• The more versions (print, hardback, audio, e-book) the better.
• You don’t have to do every format at once- releasing a new format later is a secondary launch.

Promoting the book

• Use the book like a business card. Helps to build your credibility.
• The process of promotion never really ends.
• Break the book down into content chunks to share.
• Guest blog posts. Lead magnets. Podcast episodes. Speaking engagements.
• Create a list of everything you can think of to keep going.

Getting the Most out of Marketing Conferences

Speakers. Sponsors. And swag. Who doesn’t love getting to go to a good conference? But with so many events to choose from, how do you pick the right ones and make the most of the experience? Let’s do a deep dive into the wide world of marketing conferences.

This is related to a recent episode we did about continuing education for marketers. We wanted to take a deeper look at learning from conferences & events.

Choosing Which Conferences to Go to

• Cost: charging people actually helps more people show up
• Location: can you afford to travel? Are there conferences near you?
• Content: how broad is the conference theme? What are the breakout topics?
• Speakers: any big names or brands you recognize?

Choosing Which Sessions to Attend

• Hopefully, the conference lists some of the breakouts or sessions ahead of time.
• Take the time to print off this list and review it.
• Have a game plan on which ones you’d most like to attend.
• This is especially important if you’re going as a team, so you can divide and conquer.

Networking at Conferences

• Networking isn’t always easy, but it’s a big advantage of conferences.
• Conferences should have a space for introverts to recharge from talking to people.
• Wear that name tag and bring some business cards.
• Visit the sponsor booths, get some swag, and hear what they have to say.

Taking Notes at Conferences

• Bring a pen and paper, or a (fully-charged) laptop
• Grab something interesting you learn from each speaker.
• Mark 1-2 items that you can implement immediately when you get back to the office
• Be sure to write down their name and contact info when possible.
• Download digital notes if they offer it and make plans to review them later.

Beyond just going, you could…

Being a Conference Sponsor

• Conferences are good chances to get in front of your target audience.
• Think about attending a conference before becoming an official sponsor.
• How your booth is setup and what swag you have impacts your conversations.
• Consider doing a giveaway (that’s relevant to the audience) to collect leads.
• Setup a dedicated landing page with trackable URL for conference attendees.
• Have an automated email series ready to go for the email addresses you collect.

Conferences we like

• Digital Summit
• WordCamp
• DigiMarCon
• Inbound (by HubSpot)

Marketing Basics for Nonprofit Organizations

Nonprofits are unique organizations for many reasons, including how they approach marketing. This can be both a benefit and a challenge for the professionals marketing for nonprofits. Let’s take a look at what makes charities different and how they can make the most of their digital marketing.

What makes nonprofit marketing different?

• Your organization has a mission
• Closely tied with fundraising.
• Sometimes slower to adapt to technology
• Organizations more willing to share with each other. Less competitive.

What challenges do nonprofit marketers face?

• Limited budget & resources. Marketing is viewed as overhead.
• Limited staff. Even large nonprofits tend to be understaffed.
• Lots of different audiences. Having to appeal to all of them.
• Marketers have to do most of the work themselves.

The way we think about charity is dead wrong— a TED Talk by Dan Pallotta

What are the benefits of marketing a nonprofit?

• A mission that people (hopefully) like.
• Volunteer help. Guidance from your board.
• Easy calls to action. Donate. Volunteer. Come to an event.
• Digital tool discounts (or free)!

What resources can a nonprofit marketer use?

• Georgia Center for Nonprofits
• Nonprofit Marketing Guide
• Classy

5 Ways Nonprofit Organizations Benefit from Digital Marketing

10 WordPress Plugins Every Website Needs

When it comes to WordPress plugins, less is more. You don’t want to bog down your site with too many plugins, but you also need a few to help with your site’s functionality. Here are 10 of our favorite plugins to help your WordPress site operate smoothly.

Security and Spam

Content wins, and just producing solid content and keeping your site safe is the key.

• Akismet: filter for spam comments
• BlogVault: site backups
• ManageWP: a single dashboard for handling multiple sites

Search Engine Optimization

You can’t depend on these exclusively for SEO, but they can be a good guide.

• SEO Press: all-in-one website ranking plugin
• Yoast: The opinion of an algorithm from some guy in the Netherlands.

Content

These plugins can help you create great content and format your pages well.

• Beaver Builder: our preferred page builder
• Redirection: helpful for redirecting pages and blog post URLs
• Gravity Forms: a robust form creator
• WP Rocket / Imagify: speed up your website with caching and smooshing
• WordPress Editorial Calendar

Read More

• GreenMellen's Favorite Plugins of 2018
• All Things WordPress: The Essential WordPress Plugins that You Need to be Using
• All Things WordPress: The Best WordPress Plugins for Everything

Finding the Best Note-Taking Techniques

We encounter so much information daily—it’s easy to get lost or confused. One of the best ways to combat this is to have a good note-taking approach. But how do you take effective notes and keep them organized enough to be useful?

Why is it valuable to take notes?

• Our brains are quite fallible.
• We work hard to keep it strong, and you can still forget things.
• Notes are a great way to know what was said, and what that meant to you at the time.

What can you take notes for?

• The two big ones are meetings and books, for different reasons:
  • Meetings, to remember what we said and serve our clients appropriately.
  • Books, to help me learn.
• This could be reframed as learning and logistics.
• Other things can include conferences, podcasts, task lists, etc.

What do you do with your notes after writing them down?

• For many people, just writing notes down is a huge first step.
• For me, it depends on the type of note:
  • For meetings, I’ll make sure they’re cleaned up and in a place where the team can benefit from them.
  • For books, I’ll add more context around them and put them in a system where I can use them later. I also try to pull out any gems and turn those into future blog posts.

Why do you prefer digital notes to physical ones?

• I’m digital all the way, mostly for the ability to share with others and do some great cross-referencing on my own.
• There are advantages to hand-writing notes, though some of the stated ones are a bit over-blown. The three big advantages that I hear about are:

1. Handwriting slows you down, in a good way. Handwriting forces you to write about the topic rather than copying verbatim, which makes you think more. Be careful not to just type word for word.
2. Digital shows too much information/distractions. This is true, but easily solved.
3. Digital shows too many tasks — the list never ends. Well, configure it differently and make it end.

I tend to go with a hybrid. I’ll often take notes by hand, and then move them into a digital system later. This serves two purposes:

1. I can be more present. Depending on the environment, a laptop may not even be appropriate, but manual notes are always find.
2. The migration of manual notes to a digital system is gold. I take church notes by hand, but processing them is an enjoyable Sunday afternoon activity.

How is note-taking relevant for marketers or business leaders?

• It goes back to the two core reasons:
  • For clients and meetings, you want to know what they said and remember what you promised.
  • On the other hand, as a marketer or business leader, you should be constantly working on your skills.
  • I recently wrote a post about the different ways someone might take notes about a book. It gives more detail about how to capture information that you read.

Professional Development Made Simple For Digital Marketers

The best marketers are constant learners. We must keep up with plenty of trends to remain relevant. To help with that, let’s take a look at the six most popular ways to stay on top of digital marketing professional development.

Why is learning important for marketers?

• It’s always changing.
• There are no experts.
• It keeps you sharp and curious.
• You can be more well-rounded.

1. Books

• Books are undervalued.
• Expand your definition of reading: audiobooks count, too.
• A few reading suggestions:
  • This is Marketing by Seth Godin
  • How to Write Copy that Sells by Ray Edwards
  • Marketing Made Simple by Donald Miller
  • The Story Cycle by Robert Carnes

2. Podcasts

• Podcasts are easy to listen passively.
• Practice active listening: take notes, and take action
• Some suggestions:
  • WorkLife with Adam Grant
  • Hidden Brain with Shankar Vedantam
  • All It Takes is a Goal with Jon Acuff

3. Conferences

• Conferences are more active and offer an experience
• These are a quick boost of inspiration and encouragement
• Create a plan to get the most out of your time & investment
• Some suggestions
  • Digital Summit
  • WordCamp
  • DigiMarComm
  • Inbound by Hubspot

4. Email newsletters

• They’re making a comeback
• Good way to curate lots of online content
• Avoid content overload by subscribing wisely
• Suggestions:
  • Daily Carnage
  • Total Annarchy
  • The Hustle

5. Mentor

• They help to shortcut experience.
• Help you focus on a relationship
• Find someone you want to be more like
• Find a professional program to help connect you
• They’re mutually beneficial for both of you

6. Make it stick

• Make learning a regular habit
• Take notes to help it remain in your head
• Take action - implement what you learned
• Share what you learned

Building a Robust Business Website Strategy

Did you create a strategy before building your business website? Perhaps you skipped this step to save time or because you weren’t sure why it was needed. However, creating a website without a strategy can leave it aimless and ineffective. Let’s talk about why you need a website strategy and what it should look like.

Why is it important to have a strategy before building a website?

• So you build the website for the right reasons.
• A common way to spot strategy-less sites were clearly built for the business, not their customers.
• Think about what information your audience needs before you even begin.

But doesn't that slow the process down?

• Absolutely, but that’s ok. 
• Speed isn’t the goal here. Or if it is, that’s a different conversation.
• You could go on Squarespace right now and literally have a site in a matter of minutes.
• Slowing yourself down can be a good thing to get the content right.

What should the website strategy include?

• It’s a deeper process, but it comes down to understanding who you’re trying to serve.
• Who are they?
• What are you trying to help them with?
• Why should they listen to you?
• What do they need to do to get started?

How can you implement this strategy into the site build?

• One, clearly, is the content. Speak to them in the right way—don’t use internal jargon (unless it helps with your audience).
• The other is the site hierarchy, the sitemap. Knowing your audience will give you a better insight into what kind of content would be beneficial on the site.

How does this benefit your company in the long run?

• We get a lot of clients that come to us with sites that you can tell were solid when they started, but they didn’t have a clear direction. 
• The navigation has become overcrowded, there are a bunch of CTAs on the home page, three or four big buttons at the top, each trying to overpower the other. 
• With no direction, it’s hard to know what to prioritize.
• A strategy gives you a road map for how to build and grow your website.

Setting Achievable Marketing Goals in the New Year

What are your business goals in the new year? You don’t have to wait until January to set new goals—but you should take the time to make sure these goals are effective. Join us as we examine the best way to set goals for your marketing this year.

Why is proving ROI in marketing so difficult?

• It can be hard to follow multiple visits all the way down to your bottom line.
• Increasing likes and followers is nice, but how does that help you?
• There are any number of marketing touches that can lead to new business.
• Increasing those touch points with your audience helps.
• But set goals around things that you know impact your business.

How many goals should you have? How often should they change?

• Layers. Bottom-line revenue is often the main one, and work up from there. 
• You want more revenue? You need more leads. 
• Want more leads? You need more traffic. Want more traffic? You get it.
• Build a marketing funnel and continue to optimize each layer.

What makes an effective marketing goal?

• SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound
• This helps you add context so you know what role it plays in your marketing.
• Keep your goal something you actually want to achieve so you’ll stay motivated.

What’s a bad example of a marketing goal?

• Eg. Increase revenue for next year.
• It’s notspecific enough and leaves out the context of how to get there.

How do you keep track of these goals?

• Set about 2-3 goals each quarter to stay focused.
• Write them down somewhere you’ll see regularly.
• Create a weekly scorecard to keep you focused regularly.
• Hire a solid CPA to help you figure out your money stuff.