For a writer, nothing’s worse than getting hung up on a blank slab of paper — staring at that blinking cursor, lacking fruitful words to share. Inertia. For a business, nothing’s worse than churning out a stream of superfluous content that has no real purpose for its intended reader. Quantity. Fortunately, there are many approaches to brainstorming excellent blog topics that your readers will find insightful. We’ve found that a simple comment, testimonial, email from a friend, or conversation we’ve had can be the “magic bean” for our best articles. Consider these eight methods of topic curation to burn the fires of inspiration. [clickToTweet tweet=”8 Quick and Easy Ways To Brainstorm #Blog Topic Ideas Your Audience Will Love” quote=”8 Quick and Easy Ways To Brainstorm Blog Topic Ideas Your Audience Will Love”]
Clients often ask me, “How in the world did you find your team of writers?” Mod Girl Marketing has had the same solid, effective gang of content marketers for the better part of a decade. In this industry, that achievement is a nugget of pure gold! Bloggers may be a dime a dozen these days, but finding true masters of the writing craft who also know a thing or two about marketing is quite another matter entirely. Truth be told, in the early months of founding my company, it took a lot of sorting, weeding and prospecting to find the right partners. What ultimately worked for me was looking for self-motivated people with entrepreneurial spirits who worked for themselves and had degrees in professional fields like business, marketing, teaching or journalism. They were people with a passion and a natural intellectual curiosity. They read the news every day. They had spent some […]
The Content Marketing Institute reports that “70% of B2B marketers are creating more content than they did one year ago, even those who say they are least effective (58%) and those without any type of strategy (56%).” In 2015, only 38% of B2B marketers rated themselves as “effective” at content marketing — which is down from 42% last year. Most marketers seem to think they are not completely ineffective — but rather, fall somewhere in the middle. As an experienced digital marketing firm, we’ve seen all manners of content — the good, the bad and the ugly. We’ve worked with some amazing companies that just needed the right presentation of their brand to boost their bottom line and gain more customers. Good B2B content is informative, unique, inspires action, and attracts an eager audience that is most ready to buy. Easier said than done, though, right?! In today’s post, we’ll take […]
In the early days, it’s natural to question what you’re doing and wonder, “Is anyone even reading our blog at all? Why bother?” Understanding why your B2B business should have its own blog and what your goals are is essential to keep building your brand’s presence online. So if you don’t already have a blog, create it through any CMS (WordPress, for example), choose a reliable WordPress hosting provider and start blogging. However, don’t be fooled: B2B business blogging is about so much more than how many comments your blog receives. 8 Distinct Goals for B2B Blogging 1. Tell a story. Blogs are not like advertisements. Your audience is looking for a good story. They also want something that is interesting to look at, so all your posts should be highly visual if you want shares. A business blog is a great place to tell the story behind your products […]
According to a widely-cited Forrester Research report from 2008, most corporate blogs are “dull, drab, and don’t stimulate conversation.” Ouch! Furthermore, they found that two-thirds of corporate blogs hardly ever get comments, 70% stick strictly to business topics, and 56% just republish press releases or already public news! Many of the worst business blogs in 2008 have since cleaned up their acts in 2014. (Orbitz being one of them!) In today’s post, the Mod Girl team shares 8 tips for corporate content marketing success. 1. Content is not just “marketing.” It’s a valuable revenue stream. When we think of “publishers,” we think of newspapers, magazines, and book publishers. Yet, these days, any business can be a “publisher” even if it is not considered to be one’s central business. If you were to ask Hubspot “what they do,” they would tell you they “create software for business marketing.” Yet, they also publish e-books […]
The dream of every writer is to get as many eyes on a piece of written content as possible. Nothing is better than a blog that has “gone viral.” After a small amount of effort, fan sharing and buzz is the gift that keeps on giving long after the pen has been put down. So how does one encourage friends to become content-sharing fans? The answers are surprisingly simple. Check out this great infographic by Mari Smith on ways to boost Facebook shares: Here are #8ways to get more social media shares: 1. Do your homework. Nothing beats ORIGINAL, INTERESTING, INFORMATIVE content. Naturally, people want to share something they like. One of our writers helped a client bring in over 5,000 visitors literally overnight by writing a well-researched piece about Zumba Dance injuries that was picked up by Zumba instructors on Facebook and shared to the masses. The post really […]
Search Engine Optimization is an interesting field. Certain elements are ever-changing — and yet, there are many methods that remain tested, tried and true throughout the decades. Of course it’s one thing to simply say “WRITE GOOD CONTENT” and quite another to actually implement that advice. A couple weeks back we offered 8 tips to starting a blog. In this post, we’ll try to give you some more specifics on what makes a quality blog post these days. If you’re still not 100% clear on it, then contact us about hiring one of our experienced SEO copywriters. 1. Write witty headlines geared toward people. In Olden Times, we believed that packing headlines with keywords was the top priority in attracting search engine attention. As a result, the internet ended up with horrible headlines like “How to Generate Leads With Facebook, Run Facebook Ad Campaigns, and Get More Likes on Facebook.” […]
Did you know that 77% of all internet users read a blog, and that 23% of internet time is spent on blogs? Better yet, 61% of consumers have made a purchase based on information they received from a blog. Companies that blog have more indexed links, more indexed web pages, more inbound links, better search engine visibility and more leads than companies that do not. Check out this awesome infographic for compelling reasons to get blogging today: Starting a blog is the sort of DIY project you can do in an afternoon if you have the time and patience. Here’s how: 1. Buy a domain. Once you have a good website URL in mind, you can buy the rights to that domain name at www.namecheap.com. There are other domain sellers, but Namecheap is our favorite and most widely-respected sources — not to mention, one of the most affordable! You can expect […]
If your business has a blog up and running, then you’ll be happy to know you’re headed in the right direction. Each day, 128 million users are reading blogs on their laptops, desktops and mobile devices. Furthermore, research shows that 3 out of 5 businesses who blog see an uptick in prospective customers, particularly in the 21 to 35 demographic. Check out this infographic for more compelling reasons your business should be blogging and continue reading to learn 8 vital tips for making your efforts a smashing success! 1. Develop an editorial calendar. It’s easy to get lost out there. Without a clear sense of direction, you may find it easier to abandon ship than to keep plowing through uncertain waters. Your first step should be keyword research to find out which search terms are likely to bring targeted traffic to your site. In Excel or on a Google […]