A Brighter Web | Grow your business with digital marketing

Connecting Digital and Traditional Marketing Channels

Believe it or not, there’s more to marketing than digital media. Websites can coexist with billboards, and email doesn’t replace direct mail. The best marketers learn how to leverage both of these types of marketing to work together.  

Why should people care about non-digital channels?

• Because some can be effective. 
• Not everything can (or should) be digital. You should have a balance of offline, too.
• While we’re a digital marketing firm, our main goal is to do whatever is best for our clients. 
• If that means using offline methods, so be it.

What are examples of offline channels to pay attention to?

• Direct mail
  • Mailboxes are emptier than before.
  • “Lumpy mail” can be very effective.
  • It’s slower and more expensive than email.
• Events
  • Speaking, tradeshows, conferences, networking, meeting folks, etc.
  • This is a great way to connect directly with people.
  • These require traveling and talking to humans.

What do offline channels have that digital platforms don’t?

• More of a personal touch.
• Zoom can be excellent, but it’s nothing close to an in-person interaction.
• They can survive an EMP.
• These channels can interact with your digital ones.

What’s the best way to balance offline and online?

• I try to bring one to the other. 
• We’re using online tools to drive people to our offline Meetups.
• Eg.I spoke at an offline event last week, but then connected with people online afterward.
• QR codes are another good way to point offline people back to online.

How can you effectively start to connect offline and online?

• Be intentional.
• I’m careful to “process” after events. 
• With that speaking event last week, I took time to record notes (from paper) into Obsidian, add new contacts to my phone contacts, and connect with folks on LinkedIn.

Creating Effective Video Content For Your Business

If you’ve ever been on the internet, you’ve probably seen some video content—it’s everywhere. Some platforms—like YouTube and TikTok—are completely video based. There’s a reason why video content is so effective, but it’s not that easy or cheap for every business to create quality videos. This episode is your guide to understanding video and where to get started.

Why is video so popular with digital content?

• Video is dynamic. It’s easy to consume (but difficult to create).
• Video creation is exploding which means there’s a plethora to consume.
• Video feels more personal because you can see people.

Why is video difficult to create?

• You have to account for both audio and visual.
• You need recording equipment and editing software.
• The files are larger and more complex.
• Quality is more elusive.

What kind of video content should we create?

• Video podcasts and vlogs
• Webinars and online training
• Livestreamed events
• Behind-the-scenes videos at your office
• Scripted video ads

What do I need to start making video content?

• An idea and a purpose
• A goal for how the video should perform
• A platform to share it on (eg. YouTube)
• A camera—a smartphone or webcam works, but DSLR is better
• A microphone—sometimes built into the camera, or you can upgrade
• A good shooting location
• A good on-camera subject
• Editing software

What are some marketing video tips?

• Create a plan for what kind of videos you want to create and why. Making decent videos requires an investment of time and resources, so you want to be reasonably prepared to go in.
• Start small and play around with some options. It doesn’t have to be an immediate home run.
• YouTube is a great platform for video, but it’s not the only one. Repurpose your video content across multiple marketing channels to make it more worth your time.
• Follow other companies to see what kinds of video content is effective for them. Don’t copy, but you can be inspired by brands both inside and outside of your industry.

The WordPress Magic Checkbox

There aren’t many magic bullets or quick fixes in digital marketing—but there are a few. One of them is this surprisingly powerful and sneaky checkbox in the backend of every WordPress site. Here’s how that Magic Checkbox works and why you should probably avoid it.

Today on the Brighter Web Podcast, we’re talking about the WordPress magic checkbox. We did an episode on the Magic Email, and this is another magical episode. We call it that because it’s a surprisingly simple fix that can generate nearly instant results.

What is the magic checkbox in WordPress?

• It’s the opposite of the magic email — the email is your way to get people to respond, and the magic checkbox is telling Google to go away.
• It’s a devastatingly powerful checkbox buried deep in the WordPress settings that can literally make or break your website, and it’s very easy to miss.
• Settings —> Reading —> “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”
• (quick bit about crawling and indexing)
• This adds a “noindex” to your site, and all major search engines will respect this.

Why shouldn’t most websites have the checkbox checked?

• You want Google (and Bing and DuckDuckGo) to see your site.
• Organic search is how most people find sites.
• Without being on their radar, you’re effectively invisible.
• People can still find your site from the URL, but you’re limiting your visibility.

What should you expect after unchecking the box?

• It’ll take some time—the result is not immediate.
• Google still needs to re-crawl your site to discover and index it.
• Depending on the size of your site, it could be a few weeks or potentially a few months.
• But you’ll start to see a noticeable change in the long run.

What are some reasons why WordPress has this?

• Development sites.
• Sites under construction.
• Too many of these development sites forget to uncheck the box when they go live.

What are some other things you can do to improve on-site SEO?

• Product excellent unique content, and don’t screw it up with things like this.
• Use Google Search Console for recommendations and insights.

 

Why We Never Send Cold Emails

Does anyone like being interrupted by unsolicited promotional emails in their inbox? Because that’s what cold emails are—and they’re not the only form of cold marketing. Let’s talk about why we don’t like cold emails and discuss some better alternatives.

Why we don’t like cold emails

• They’re an interruption in a place you don’t want to be interrupted.
• They feel like an invasion of privacy.
• They don’t stop even after being ignored.
• It’s frowned upon by email service providers.

Why do people send cold emails?

• Because it sometimes works (at a large scale)
• Because it’s the easy way out
• Because it’s a brute-force approach

What’s the alternative?

• Permission-based marketing lets people self-select into your marketing funnel.
• This “warms” people up before you hit them with a sales pitch
• Always allow people to unsubscribe and opt-out of the funnel.
• Introductions and networking. We send great leads to a lot of other web companies that are a better fit.
• Proper advertising (Google Ads, TV ads).
• Other digital marketing (SEO, etc).

Why permission marketing is better

• It’s more focused and has higher success rates.
• It takes more time but works by cultivating a relationship.
• People are more willing to talk to you when you provide value to them first.

How to build a permission-based marketing funnel

• Create valuable content (eg. blog posts, podcasts, videos, downloadables)
• Create a place where people can subscribe for updates
• Gate some of the content so people need to provide contact info
• Nurture this list with more value before you ask for the sale
• Create automated email series and newsletters to reel people in
• Don’t forget to occasionally make a strategic ask

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