Tag Archives: Marketing Tips

January 12, 2017 · 1:11 pm

7 Content Marketing Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make in 2017

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Many of us are still in the leaf-turning phase of the new year, eager to identify and implement key areas for personal and professional change. Perhaps some of your own resolutions include improvements to your company’s content marketing endeavors. And if not—well, maybe they should.

There is never a bad time to revise your content marketing mechanisms—to be more strategic about consumer outreach, relationship-building, and thought leadership. Getting more serious about content marketing can yield many benefits, and the good news is, making constructive content marketing resolutions doesn’t have to be anything too nebulous or complex: It can be as simple as learning from yesterday’s mistakes.

With that in mind, we’ve got some suggestions for you: Some content marketing mistakes we’ve seen before, and ones we encourage you to learn from as you move forward toward bigger and better content endeavors.

Mistake #1: Blogging Inconsistently

Anyone can resolve to start a blog. Even writing that first post can seem pretty easy. Maintaining robust and regular blog content, though, is another matter altogether—yet it requires consistency for you to keep your audience engaged, increase our search engine exposure, and develop your brand’s authority.

Mistake #2: Making Grade-School Grammar Mistakes

Be honest: Have you ever posted a company blog that interchanges your with you’re, or that mixes up their and there? These aren’t just little errors. They make your business look shoddy and unprofessional. Make sure you have a skilled editor proof your content before it’s posted.

Mistake #3: Overlooking SEO Opportunities

You don’t have to be a technical whiz to fill in the meta description for your company blog post (WordPress and other content management systems will offer you a place to do this), or to include a few judicious keywords in your posts and your titles. Don’t forfeit these opportunities to tell the search engine what your content is all about.

Mistake #4: Missing Email Marketing Opportunities

Remember that when you post a really good entry to your blog, it’s something you ought to be promoting everywhere—and that includes in emails. Your email marketing list is a great place to turn when you want to get attention for a new piece of content. Spread the word, and make sure you’re conveying real value to your readers.

Mistake #5: Misusing Social Media

Your Facebook and Twitter accounts aren’t just for promoting your latest products or sales, though that’s certainly a good use for them. You should also be using them to spread meaningful, value-adding content, though—not just your company blog posts, but curated content from other industry resources, too.

Mistake #6: Poorly Formatting Your Content

Are your company blog posts difficult to read—or difficult to skim? Sub-headings, lists, and bullet points can really make life easier for your readers. If nothing else, shorter paragraphs are generally recommended.

Mistake #7: Not Offering Value Through Your Content

It ultimately comes down to what you’re writing about: You should be developing content that truly makes life better for your readers, answering their questions and posing actionable solutions to their problems. Otherwise, why would they bother?

Content development happens to be our strong suit—so if you’re looking for a hand in making big content improvements in 2017, give Grammar Chic a call at 803-831-7444, or visit us at www.grammarchic.net.

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December 14, 2015 · 11:16 am

4 Things That Will Guarantee your Emails Don’t Get Opened

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Email marketing can pay off big time—but only if you do it right. And obviously, if you’re spending a lot of money on emails but not getting any of them opened by your target audience—if those emails go directly from inboxes to trashcans, contents unseen—then you’re doing little more than wasting money.

So what can you do to ensure that those emails get read? We’ve shared some email marketing best practices before. Today, what we’ll offer is a set of don’ts—some common email marketing elements that are sure to get your messages promptly deleted.

In other words, these are rookie errors—boneheaded mistakes—that will basically squander whatever effort you put into your email marketing campaign. Naturally, we recommend avoiding them at all costs!

Email Elements it Pays to Avoid

  1. Spelling and grammar errors. Yes, it sounds like common sense—but you’d be amazed at the number of business owners who take time to proof their messages but not their subject lines. If somebody receives an email from you and it’s got a glaring error in its subject heading, that immediately undercuts your authority—and all but guarantees your email gets rejected.
  2. Impersonal greetings. Here’s something else that can wreck your subject line—and thus, your entire email: A greeting that’s obviously impersonal and unspecific. Any message that comes with a title like Dear Sir or Madam will look like spam, and likely be treated as such.
  3. Spammy words. Along the same lines, spammy buzzwords located in your subject line will get your emails buried and your servers blacklisted. Avoid saying click here, % off, order now, sale ends at midnight—anything that clearly marks your marketing email as cheap or salesy.
  4. Bombast. Finally: Remember that a subject line is meant to be short and snappy. If your subject line lacks brevity, it may turn off busy readers who’d rather you get straight to the point.

There is plenty you can do to make email marketing a more effective tool for your business—but also plenty you shouldn’t do. Keep these tips in mind as you strive to achieve email marketing success.

For help crafting an effective email marketing campaign, contact the Grammar Chic team at 803-831-7444, or www.grammarchic.net.

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August 1, 2014 · 9:22 am

Not All Marketing is Digital Marketing

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We probably shouldn’t be saying this. Grammar Chic, Inc. is, after all, a digital marketing company, focusing on social media and content creation. It needs to be said, though, that as digital as our world gets, as Internet-addicted as we all come to be, as viral as marketing becomes, there’s still a place in this world for analog stuff. Not all marketing is digital marketing.

Don’t get us wrong. It’s probably fair to say that most marketing is digital marketing. Moreover, there are plenty of old-fashioned marketing techniques that just don’t work anymore. We’re not saying that billboard ads, newspaper placements, and radio jingles are always a waste of money, but they’re certainly a poor investment for most brands, especially smaller businesses. These antiquated formats are getting more expensive but less effective; that’s not the kind of margin you want to see.

With that said, it’s important to us that our readers and clients take advantage of all the marketing tools available to them. Start with our content marketing checklist, but also make sure to augment it with a few traditional strategies and tools—like the following:

  • Face-to-face networking. If your aim is to form meaningful connections and build trust with potential clients or partners, content marketing can go a long way. There’s still something to be said for face-to-face communication, though. Go to conventions in your city. Spend some time in nice restaurant bars and lounges. Talk up your business, and focus on forming value-adding relationships with other professionals. Always have business cards on hand to pass around; old-fashioned though they may seem, they still work!
  • Take advantage of your receipts. Do your business receipts encourage customers to visit your Facebook page, or leave you positive reviews on Yelp? Perhaps they should. People really do look at their receipts, and while this won’t be as effective as including links on e-mailed invoices, why waste that paper real estate?
  • Press releases. Yes, the press release is sometimes used as an SEO tool, and can also generate Google News traction—so you might say that this counts as digital. Press releases can also be great for drawing the attention of local papers, though, and may be a more cost-effective way to get your name out there—online and in print—than taking out paid ad space.
  • Word of mouth. Yes, online word of mouth is important—it’s a big part of content marketing, actually—but plenty of word of mouth goes on offline, too. The best way to generate it? Unflashy though this may be, the best advice we can give is simply to focus on providing value-adding products and superior service.

Again, you don’t want to drop your content marketing for any of these strategies—but neither do you want to ignore them altogether.

To learn more, contact Grammar Chic, Inc. today: Visit http://www.grammarchic.net, or call 803-831-7444.

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