Trump launches new military strike against Syria

The united states released a navy strike Thursday on a Syrian authorities airbase in response to a chemical guns assault that killed dozens of civilians in advance of the week.

On President Donald Trump's orders, US warships released fifty-nine Tomahawk cruise missiles on the airbase that turned into domestic to the warplanes that achieved the chemical assaults, US officials stated.

The strike is the primary direct military action taken by using America towards the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad within the country's six-12 months civil battle. It represents a substantial escalation of the USA army marketing campaign in the region, and could be interpreted by the Syrian authorities as an act of struggle.
Trump on Syria's Assad: 'something must happen'
Trump on Syria's Assad: 'some thing need to manifest'
Six people were killed in the airstrike, in keeping with a televised assertion by the Syrian's armed forces preferred Command. Russia condemned the strike as an "act of aggression," and Assad's workplace Friday called it "a disgraceful act" that "can best be defined as brief-sighted."
"this night, I ordered a focused navy strike at the air area in Syria from in which the chemical attack become launched," Trump stated throughout short remarks to newshounds at Mar-a-Lago, in which he ordered the strike simply hours in advance. "it's miles on this crucial country wide security of the united states to save you and deter the spread and use of lethal chemical guns."
He introduced: "There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical guns, violated its obligations under the Chemical guns conference and left out the urging of the UN protection Council. Years of previous attempts at converting Assad's behavior have all failed and failed very dramatically."


Shift in coverage
Trump's selection marked a dramatic shift in his role on whether or not the USA must take military motion towards the Syrian President's regime -- which Trump adverse all through his campaign for president -- and came after the President become visibly and publicly moved by the pics of this week's chemical guns assault.
US warships launch cruise missiles at Syria 00:33
The strike happened at 8:40 p.M. ET (3:40 a.M. Neighborhood time), whilst there might be minimal pastime at the base. It targeted aircraft, plane shelters, petroleum and logistical garage, ammunition delivers bunkers, air defense structures, and "the matters that make the airfield operate," Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis instructed journalists. The missiles had been launched from warships within the gap Mediterranean.
Oil fees soar after US missile strike on Syria
"initial indicators are that this strike has seriously broken or destroyed Syrian plane and help infrastructure and equipment at Shayrat Airfield, lowering the Syrian authorities' capacity to supply chemical guns," the Pentagon stated in a declaration.
A US protection legit instructed CNN Friday morning that an initial struggle harm evaluation from the strike become that 58 of the fifty-nine missiles "significantly degraded or destroyed" their intended target. The reliable cautioned that that is simply the earliest assessment the use of radar and that more study assessments using satellites and different surveillance continue to be pending.
Thirty-six of the Tomahawks have been fired from the americaRoss and the other 23 had been released from the americaPorter, the authentic introduced.
Briefing journalists late Thursday night time, Secretary of country Rex Tillerson stated that the strike did not constitute an "exchange in our policy or our posture in Syria," although it marked the first time America had decided to take army movement against the Syrian authorities.

Malia Obama Vs. Ivanka Trump: Which Presidential Daughter’s Style Is Your Fave?

Both Malia Obama and Ivanka Trump have such unique but incredible personal style. So which presidential daughter is your favorite fashionista? Check out our photo gallery of the chic ladies and take our poll as to who is the bigger clothing icon!
Our nation has two incredibly fashionable first daughters, as Ivanka Trump wows with her professional style as she helps advise her father Donald Trump with his presidential duties. Meanwhile Malia Obama has made the streets of New York City her own personal runway as she arrives at her New York City internship with the Weinstein Company and she never fails to disappoint us with her cool street chic outfits. We’ve got an amazing photo gallery for you to check out and tell us which presidential daughter has your favorite personal style! Click to see pics.


Ivanka is a working mother of three, so her outfits range from casual when she’s tending to her children’s needs to high style with her professional duties. She tends to favor smart dresses over pantsuits when it comes to her work wear, and loves to show off her gorgeous toned legs with high heels.

The 35-year-old has rocked expensive designer looks on a number of occasions, but also shows she has a thrifty side to go with lower budget looks. On the campaign trail she often wore dresses from her own brand (the one that Nordstrom’s dropped) which ran between $100-$300 an outfit. She also recycled a $113 pink velvet pleated number for a birthday party on Mar. 30.

Malia Obama’s Internship Outfits — See Pics
Malia, 18, showed off her keen sense of fashion while her father was still in White House, as the teen rocked simple yet bright dresses on a number of occasions. Now that she’s got an office job, she’s stepped up her fashion game yet still has such a great, youthful flair. The 6’1″ beauty’s casual flair tends towards black leggings and jeans and she absolutely loves wearing black ankle boots. She has a collection of cool jackets that range from a tan shearling number to a burgundy parka. Malia even slays when she keeps things super simple with a pair of Converse sneakers!

HollywoodLifers, which presidential daughter’s style do you prefer, is it Ivanka’s polished glam looks or Malia’s youthful chic outfits? Take our poll and VOTE!

Congress Faces a Ticking Clock as Recess Looms

First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter

Tick-tock, tick-tock: So much to do, so little time
As House Freedom Caucus members try to resuscitate last month's failed health-care effort, here's an important reminder: Per NBC's Alex Moe, Congress goes on recess starting Friday, and it doesn't return until April 25 — three days before government funding expires on April 28. So not only does Congress have to cram to keep the government open later this month, this also means that ANY window to make another health-care push is very small this month, especially if Republicans want to minimize the noise they get from their constituents back home.

Still, if the GOP is going to try to get a deal, doing it now — as the political world is focused on the Supreme Court fight and Russia — is probably as good as any time. And we have to say, this activity from the House Freedom Caucus and the Trump White House, even if it's all for naught, appears to be a recognition of the fear of not trying health care one more time.

Trump thinks he can get a health-care deal
NBC's Kristen Welker on her impromptu Oval Office meeting with Trump yesterday: "President Trump told me he is serious about working on health care reform. He said his conversation with Sen. Rand Paul on the golf course went very well and they did discuss specifics although no details given. The president said the notion that he has given up on health care is false, noting that he is still negotiating. When I asked if he is currently eyeing Democrats to build a coalition, the president said not at this time. The president said he is talking to moderate and conservative Republicans and thinks he can get a deal."

Boy, that escalated quickly — Russia edition
The leaks and counter-leaks are something else right now. Consider these three stories in the past 24 hours:

Blackwater founder, the Seychelles, and Russia: "The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladi­mir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials," the Washington Post reports. "The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump's inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions." The Trump White House has said that it wasn't aware of Prince's meetings, and that he had no role in the transition.
Carter Page is back in the news: "A former campaign adviser for Donald Trump met with and passed documents to a Russian intelligence operative in New York City in 2013," per Buzzfeed. "The adviser, Carter Page, met with a Russian intelligence operative named Victor Podobnyy, who was later charged by the US government alongside two others for acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government. The charges, filed in January 2015, came after federal investigators busted a Russian spy ring that was seeking information on US sanctions as well as efforts to develop alternative energy. Page is an energy consultant." Per NBC's Kristen Welker, Page released this statement: "Consistent with the politically motivated unmasking standards seen in the Obama administration which have recently been exposed, my personal identity and earlier assistance of federal authorities in the 2015 case of USA vs. BURYAKOV, SPORYSHEV and PODOBNYY was framed in an easily identifiable way that amplified the reputational damage against me."

Susan Rice is back in the news, too: "White House lawyers last month learned that the former national security adviser Susan Rice requested the identities of U.S. persons in raw intelligence reports on dozens of occasions that connect to the Donald Trump transition and campaign," Bloomberg's Eli Lake reported. "The pattern of Rice's requests was discovered in a National Security Council review of the government's policy on 'unmasking' the identities of individuals in the U.S. who are not targets of electronic eavesdropping, but whose communications are collected incidentally. Normally those names are redacted from summaries of monitored conversations and appear in reports as something like 'U.S. Person One.'"

Unmasking isn't leaking — and it certainly isn't wiretapping
The New York Times: Trump's "broadside against his predecessor coincided with a string of reports in conservative news media outlets that Susan E. Rice, Mr. Obama's national security adviser, requested the identities of Americans who were cited in intelligence reports about surveillance of foreign officials, and who were connected with Mr. Trump's campaign or transition. Former national security officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described the requests as normal and said they were justified by the need for the president's top security adviser to understand the context of reports sent to her by the nation's intelligence agencies. The process of 'unmasking' Americans whose names are redacted in intelligence reports, they said, is not the same thing as leaking them publicly."

Still at DEFCON 1: Democrats now have enough votes to filibuster Gorsuch
With yesterday's Senate announcements, NBC's Capitol Hill team can now count 42 Democratic senators saying they will vote to filibuster Neil Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court — enough to filibuster Gorsuch's nomination. If Senate Democrats filibuster his nomination we will likely see Republicans use the so-called "nuclear option" to lower the threshold to invoke cloture, something Senate Democrats did in 2013 for all nominees other than Supreme Court nominees. That would likely happen on Thursday, setting up a final confirmation vote on Friday.

Democrats who support Gorsuch and cloture (3)

Joe Manchin
Heidi Heitkamp
Joe Donnelly
Democrats who support cloture but are undecided on Gorsuch (1)

Michael Bennet
Democrats against Gorsuch and cloture (42)

Chuck Schumer
Bob Casey
Bernie Sanders
Tammy Baldwin
Tom Carper
Jeff Merkley
Ron Wyden
Elizabeth Warren
Ed Markey
Kirsten Gillibrand
Kamala Harris
Patty Murray
Tom Udall
Sherrod Brown
Sheldon Whitehouse
Jack Reed
Al Franken
Bill Nelson
Mazie Hirono
Debbie Stabenow
Gary Peters
Dick Durbin
Cory Booker
Chris Van Hollen
Chris Murphy
Jeanne Shaheen
Amy Klobuchar
Maggie Hassan
Tim Kaine
Martin Heinrich
Maria Cantwell
Catherine Cortez Masto
Tammy Duckworth
Richard Blumenthal
Brian Schatz
Claire McCaskill
Jon Tester
Dianne Feinstein
Mark Warner
Pat Leahy
Chris Coons
Ben Cardin
Democrats who are undecided/unannounced (2)

Angus King
Bob Menendez
Trump's Day

At 10:45 am ET, President Trump hosts a town-hall meeting with CEOs… And at 12:30 pm ET, he makes remarks at the American Building Trades Unions National Legislative Conference.

Blatant Backfires in Sponsored

Two years have passed since The Atlantic’s spectacular Church of Scientology native content fail. While much time has passed, the incident remains a critical case study for any company dipping its toes into sponsored content waters. Of course, if you’re advertising in The Atlantic, you’re covered: the publication acted swiftly and with certainty to salvage its previously impeccable reputation by pulling the piece and creating new editorial guidelines.

Most sponsored content doesn’t appear in such weighty publications, so you may well find yourself on your own when it comes to creating native content that is truly native. In our next post, we’ll look at an example of effective, well-integrated native content (also from The Atlantic) but first, a cautionary tale.

In January of 2013, The Atlantic published a piece entitled “David Miscavige Leads Scientology to Milestone Year”. The content was marked as sponsored content, but formatted and placed like an article.

That, of course, is the nature of native content.

However, unlike the many pieces of effective sponsored content we’ve discussed in this series, the Scientology “article” read like a press release designed to inflate Miscavige. Or, as Gawker reported in the moment, the piece felt like “bizarre, blatant Scientology propaganda”.

Both the publication and the Church of Scientology got plenty of attention, but not the type either had wanted. Major news outlets like Poynter and Bloomberg reported on the 157-year-old magazine’s fall from grace, and the scab was torn off of the already controversial issue of respected publications accepting sponsored content.

Where Did The Atlantic’s Native Advertising Go Wrong?

Although the magazine quickly took down the offending content, you can still take a look at the original. It’s worth perusing as a solid lesson on what not to do when you’re creating sponsored content.

At the time, the magazine had already run several other pieces of sponsored content. In fact, The Washington Post suggested that by that point, native advertising was a critical element in the publication’s monetization. Reportedly, none of those previous pieces had triggered backlash—certainly none of the level with the Scientology advertorial, which garnered national attention.

Aside from the clearly promotional nature of the content, there are several key reasons the advertisement failed on such a spectacular level:

    The tone of the article was not consistent with the publication’s usual journalistic standards, instead presenting as promotional material.
    The content didn’t offer anything of significant value or interest to readers.
    Both the magazine and the Church of Scientology failed to take The Atlantic’s readership into account, which was all the more surprising given that the publication had run pieces critical of the organization in the past.
    Commentators suggested that the magazine was moderating comments and deleting those unfavorable to the advertiser.

What Does this Mean for Companies Creating Sponsored Content?

If you’re going to create native content, make it truly native. That means making the investment in learning the publication and its audience. It’s important that the content is formatted like the surrounding content and blends visually, but that’s only the beginning.

Successful native content will read like the editorial content on the site; ideally, the “sponsored content” label on the article or post will be the only thing that sets your advertisement apart from all the other content on the site. Sponsored content should also be something the site visitor or reader flipping through the publication wants to read, not just something you want him to read.

In our next post, we’ll look at a later sponsored content package run by The Atlantic and how the lessons from this catastrophe have informed more effective use of native advertising for the publication and its sponsors.

Creating effective sponsored content requires expertise–the type of expertise you can count on when you work with ContentWriters. If you’re ready to step into the world of native advertising with confidence, get started right now!

Motivate Your Market

Stats from native content platforms and publishers sound great, and it’s no surprise that they want to give you the best spin possible. In 2012, BIA/Kelsey predicted that revenue from native advertising could reach $9.6 billion by 2016. Data does suggest that the click-through rate on native ads is generally considerably higher than the rates for banner ads.

Then again…so what?

In part, I ask that question because the click-through rates for banner ads are abysmal. “Better than banner ads” isn’t a stellar recommendation. On the other hand, most advertisers were resorting to banner ads before the native content boom, simply because options were limited.

The other reason I ask is far more significant: click-throughs in the world of native content can be pretty meaningless.
The Downside to Great Native Content

When you’ve come up with some great piece of sponsored content—content that looks and feels just like the other content on the publisher’s site and holds the reader’s attention even if he’s not interested in your brand—you’re likely to attract some attention. But, is that attention helping to build your brand or sell your products?

The answer is “it depends on how well you’ve integrated your brand, your product and your call to action.”

The problem isn’t that native content doesn’t convert well. In fact, as Jeff Wayne at AdsNative has concluded, native advertising “can be used to accomplish just about any goal that exists.” The problem is that when the imperative to create high quality, editorial style content intersects with the environment in which publishers and marketers alike are conditioned to think in terms of clicks, it’s easy to lose sight of the ball.
Making Sure Your Sponsored Content Pays Off

No brand wants to invest in great content and generate thousands, or tens of thousands, of clicks and shares only to find itself without any real benefit. To ensure that you make the most of your investment:

    Clearly determine your goals before creating and placing your content. That means deciding whether you’re promoting your brand generally, promoting a product or trying to draw readers to your website, blog or some other opportunity for further engagement.
    Make your content relevant. You already know that the most effective native advertising is relevant to the readers of the site and fits well with the editorial content. However, if you want to convert, that’s only the beginning. It’s also important to make your content relevant to the market for your product or service.
    Invite the reader to act. Of course what this invitation looks like depends on your goal.
    If you’re building brand awareness/image, then a simple tie-in with your product, your company’s past contributions or current efforts may suffice (IBM has some very powerful brand-building campaigns).
    If you’re attempting to encourage further engagement, consider hosting similar content or even a continuation of the story on your own site, blog, YouTube channel or wherever you’d like to direct readers (Captain Morgan is doing a great job with this).
    Finally, if you’re selling a product, sell the product. In some cases this is best done subtly, while in others you may simply include a clear call to action for your product at an appropriate place within the content.

If this seems like a lot to think about, don’t worry! ContentWriters has experienced native content creators who can help you find the right balance to achieve your goals. Sign up today!

Find Your Niche: Targeting Your Lifestyle

The beauty of running a lifestyle blog is the plethora of topics available to you. To get the most out of your efforts, it is best to select a niche and focus your content around this highly specific area.

Writing for a core audience allows you to develop your content around one central focus, rather than trying to create multiple forms of content for a wide, generic market.

If you don’t know the perfect niche for your lifestyle blog just yet, don’t worry! Use these tips from the team at ContentWriters to get started.
Consider What You Are Passionate About

Do you absolutely love to bake? Perhaps you’re a fitness junkie. Maybe you are a DIY fashion expert. Consider the activities and areas of your life that you are truly passionate about, and how you could create several topics around those areas.

Also, think about the knowledge you could share with others within this particular niche. Let’s say you plan to start a baking blog. What tips, tricks, and advice could you provide to others using your weekly content?

Keep in mind, it’s one thing to be interested in an activity. It’s another to be passionate and knowledgeable about it.
What Content or Knowledge Do You Want to Share with Others?

You don’t have to be an expert in any particular field to have informative knowledge to share. Personal and professional experiences can lead to a large amount of content ideas. When looking for a particular niche for your lifestyle blog, think about all the lessons you’ve learned in life.

These lessons can be translated into captivating content topics related to the niche market you plan to target online. For example, if you run a lifestyle blog related to food and have previous experience working in a restaurant, you can use the lessons you learned, and the experiences you had, as inspiration for your blog posts.
Research the Niche Market

Lifestyle blogs are no longer a unique opportunity online. Bloggers now have to be hyper-specific when selecting their content topics and niche audiences. One cannot have a generic blog about fashion. Instead, you need to focus on a particular area of that industry and laser in on it.

To determine this niche area, you need to research your market and answer the following questions:

    Is the market saturated with similar content?
    What new opportunities are available in this market?
    Is there a need for my content?
    Is there a specific content angle I can leverage in the market?

If you discover that your market is saturated with content, other blogs, and influencers, you need to find a way to differentiate yourself from the competition. Otherwise, your content will only add to the noise and clutter already within the market. Finding an angle related to your passion, experience, and chosen audience will help you become successful in an already competitive space.

On the other hand, if you find that your niche market has low competition and little to no content being distributed, you’ve hit the jackpot! Start creating authentic content and distributing it accordingly.

No matter what niche you choose to pursue and write about on your lifestyle blog, ContentWriters can help you create original, powerful content. Try it out today by ordering your first piece of content.

3 Lessons from the Beauty Blogging Pros

Do you regularly check out the top fashion, lifestyle, and beauty-related blogs? If so, you can learn some important and lasting lessons from their blogging styles and strategies. Implement these three tactics into your blog to draw in more readers and facilitate website growth.
Use Stunning Visuals

In the fashion and beauty world, jaw-dropping visuals are central to almost every aspect of the business — from marketing campaigns to runway shows and more. Without visuals and imagery, customers wouldn’t know much about the latest trends and styles. Imagery allows fashion and beauty professionals, as well as writers, to convey a story that words alone cannot do justice to.

Your blog, no matter what the topic, needs to use and maximize top-quality imagery. Take a look at the imagery used by Beauty is Boring, for example. The second the homepage loads, you are presented with a large and bright image of a model wearing the latest in makeup products and style.

Be warned though, you cannot rely on pictures from a smartphone or lifted from other blogs. Not only are these images not enough for your needs, but you’ll be violating intellectual property laws. You need to generate your own eye-popping, high-quality, original images. To achieve this end, consider investing in the following:

    Proper lighting equipment
    A solid black or white backdrop
    A quality camera
    Photo editing software

Video is considered visual content too! Use stunning video to deliver tutorials, product reviews, and other forms of content for your beauty blog.
Be Descriptive

No matter if you choose to shoot a video or use a written blog to make your point, your content needs to be descriptive and provide unparalleled value to followers.

Your readers are coming to your beauty blog for advice and answers to their fashion, makeup, and style questions. While you can be to the point, you still need to explain your reasoning and provide readers with thorough answers to their questions. Check out the blog posts by The Beauty Look Book for examples of detailed, descriptive blog posts that provide a high level of value to readers.

Even in posts about specific brand or product reviews, the writers of this blog go into great detail describing the product quality and experience, as well as giving their opinions. Visitors to this beauty blog can take away the realization that they have the information they need for their next purchase or style experiment.

When writing for your beauty blog, remember to provide readers with detail, specific information, and thorough explanations of your opinions, reviews, and advice.
Leverage Categories

Just like any other industry, the beauty world is made up of numerous segments — from fashion to makeup to hair, and more. While your beauty blog can cover all of these areas, you need to make it easy for readers to access and organize content within specific topics. Providing readers with specific categories is a simple way to organize content while writing about multiple topics on one blog.

Categories on a beauty blog can include:

    Hair Styles
    Products
    Reviews
    Tutorials
    Makeup Trends
    Lifestyle Topics
    Tips and Advice
    And more

“She’s in The Glow” does an excellent job of dividing their blog content into categories. This blog has even created categories branded for their website, such as “The Fragrance” and “The Glow Girl”.

Apply these three blogging lessons to your beauty content today and watch your website grow! Of course, you’ll need content in order to get started. Let the fashion and lifestyle blogging experts at ContentWriters give you a hand.

6 Strategies to Help Your Fashion Blog Get Off the Ground

Fashion bloggers know that it is no longer enough to write a few blog posts about the latest style trends and share them on your personal social media accounts. To be successful in the online fashion world, you need to develop a plan of action and leverage tactics designed to skyrocket traffic to your blog.

These six strategies will help you capture readers and direct them to your blog in short order.
Develop a Content Plan and Stick to It

How many times have you seen a blog,regardless of industry, that experiences a surge of popularity and traffic only to suddenly disappear a short time later. These blogs did not have a content plan in place. Or, they didn’t stick to the plan they created.

If you want to maintain a steady stream of website traffic and blog growth, you need to have a content plan in place. Start by creating an editorial calendar with realistic deadlines. By sticking to your calendar, you’ll have an understanding of how much content you need to create for your fashion blog, and the time frame in which you have to do it.
Write Original Fashion Content

Most likely, your audience has seen the tutorials, read the advice of influencers, and browsed through endless boards of fashion trends on Pinterest. Now more than ever, audiences are looking for new and exciting content.

With this in mind, create original content. Easier said than done, right? You can trust the fashion writing professionals at ContentWriters, as well as start thinking of new topics you can write about. Or, you can develop forms of content rarely being used by your competitors, such as:

    Infographics
    Slideshow Presentations
    Videos
    Blogs
    How-To Tutorials

If you can produce innovative and authentic content for the fashion industry, and use it in conjunction with other traction strategies, you’ll have readers flocking to your website in no time.
Reach Out to Fashion Influencers

Have you ever heard of influencer marketing? By sending influencers your content or referencing them within your content, you have a greater chance of reaching more readers. If an influencer shares your content on his or her social media channels, you have now gotten your fashion blog in front of a much larger audience. Use these steps to reach out to influencers online.

    Identify key fashion influencers who typically post about a particular topic related to your content.
    Send these influencers a link to your content by way of a social media post, direct message, or email.
    Be sure to include why you think they’d like your content and why their network will as well.
    See what happens! But be careful not to become a nuisance when reaching out.

Make It Easy for Readers to Interact with Your Fashion Blog

When you want your fashion blog to take off, you need to help your readers help you! Making it simple for readers to comment, share, join in conversations, and subscribe to your newsletter needs to be at the forefront of your website functionality.

Imagine that a reader wants to voice his or her thoughts about the article just read on your blog, but there’s no way to do so on your website. That reader will quickly become fed up with the lack of interactivity and either leave or visit your competitor’s website!

Make sure your fashion blog has at least one or more of the following reader engagement capabilities:

    A social share bar or icons
    A comments section
    ‘Click to tweet’ opportunities
    Email or print options

Monitor Trends and Elaborate

When a popular celebrity displays a new fashion trend, the Internet goes crazy. Be alert and monitor the Internet for these new trends: they will present content opportunities for you to take advantage of on your fashion blog.

If a specific product or trend is popular, you can bet that shoppers are searching online for it — so you’ll want your fashion content to appear in the search results!

Your blog needs content in order to get off the ground. Trust ContentWriters to create phenomenal fashion content for your blogging efforts!

Comments on Your Beauty Blog

You’ve reviewed the latest products, provided expert tutorials on great topics, such as the best makeup techniques, and interviewed some of the industry’s hottest professionals. Yet, you still lack a steady stream of comments on your blog articles.

The comments section of a blog allows readers to voice their two cents and participate in current online conversations surrounding a specific topic. By allowing users to interact with your content in such a manner, you have the ability to improve your brand awareness and have an increased chance of a reader distributing your content online.

If you are tired of the lack of reader interaction on your beauty blog, use these tips from the blogging experts at ContentWriters to increase the number of comments.
Ask Readers to Leave a Comment

Sometimes readers just need a gentle push in the right direction.

At the end of your blog post, ask readers to leave a comment regarding their thoughts, opinions, and experiences related to the topic. Your request doesn’t have to be a long-winded paragraph. A simple sentence will do the trick.

For beauty writers who would rather take an indirect approach to asking readers to interact with your blog, you can ask a question. The question should allow readers to take a stance or share their opinion.

You might ask questions related to your next form of content or topic, such as:

    What product would you like us to review next?
    Which beauty professional would you like us to interview?
    What makeup trend or style is your favorite?
    Is there a hairstyle you wish would go away?

As long as your question provokes a response from your readers, you’re golden.
Interact with Reader Comments

The comments section of a beauty blog is not a one-way conversation. When your readers leave comments, you should respond. This action will show your readers that you value their feedback and thoughts, and will encourage your audience to regularly participate in the conversation you are creating.

New readers will notice how frequently you are responding to comments and feel comfortable joining in the conversation at any time.

By interacting with your beauty blog commenters, you can also monitor the conversation and keep it on topic.
Make it Easy for Readers to Submit Comments

Imagine reading an informative and exhilarating article about the future of the beauty industry. You notice a few points that could be expanded upon and rush to the comments section to add your thoughts. Unfortunately, the blog requires you to submit your name, phone number, email address, and other unnecessary information. Due to the complicated nature of the beauty blog, you move on, and continue surfing the Internet in search of more related content.

Your beauty blog must allow readers a simple way to submit comments. Try to avoid having users register an account or provide personal information in order to comment.

Many blog platforms allow you to set up comment sections where users can sign in with their Facebook accounts and join the conversation. You can also allow users to submit anonymous comments!
Write Controversial Beauty Topics

Due to the complex nature of the beauty industry, opinion topics will always start conversations. When you write about a specific controversial topic and take a stand, you are bound to have readers commenting with either their differing opinions or with statements in agreement with your stance.

Beauty blogs can create content about everything from why one brand is far superior to another, to the worst style trends of 2015! Be creative with your blog topics and watch the comments start pouring in.
Get Expert Content that Promotes Reader Interaction

Now that you have a steady stream of comments from readers of your beauty blog, you have to keep up with the multiple conversations and develop new and exciting content. Do you really have time for all of that? Our team of beauty industry writing professionals can write content for your blog that promotes reader interaction.

How to Diversify Your Content to Reach Millions More

When businesses start thinking about creating content, most are told to create a buyer persona and write everything for the ideal person.

In fact, your business may even have a Director of Audience on your Content Marketing Team, someone whose sole job is to create and understand your target audience.

But the problem with writing content to reach one person…it gets boring. Plus, consistently offering the same content could start to come off as spammy. And no one wants that.

While you still want to hone in on your target audience, diversifying your content can help you reach a much broader audience. Here are four ways to diversify your content to reach millions more of your ideal person.
4 Ways to Diversify Your Content

    Write different types of blog posts

Long-form informative posts are great for educating your audience, but there are many other types of blogs that can be used to attract new readers to your site. Even if you write about the same topics, new formats can get attention from people who may not necessarily like long-form posts.

For example, start experimenting with:

    Shorter posts. While Google does love longer posts, vary your lengths to test which word count does the best with readers.
    List posts. Consider creating top 10 or top 20 posts that list valuable resources or round up the best articles from around the web. These posts are pure value and can help many readers in your industry.
    Part image and part text, infographics mesh the best parts of both types of content to deliver data in a way everyone can appreciate.
    Case studies. Case studies offer real numbers and stats. They are a great way to give potential customers value information about what your products or services can do for them.

    Guest post on other industry sites

Writing posts for other blogs is one of the best ways to introduce your business to a whole new audience.

In fact, writing guest posts will help bring awareness to your brand and traffic to your website through other influencers and Google. And guest posting is something that can be done over and over again. Simply continue pitching ideas to new influencers and websites to continually increase your exposure.

    Create videos

With the popularity of apps like YouTube, Facebook Live, and Periscope, the audience for video has also increased dramatically.

Vast networks like YouTube give your video the power to reach billions of people across the world. In fact, video tends to get shared more than any other type of content. According to studies, 92% of mobile video consumers will share videos with their own networks.

Create videos, either live or prerecorded, and share them where your target audience is most likely to see them. Videos can be:

    Show them how to use your products.
    Informative. Think of video as an informative blog post with speaking instead or writing.
    Behind the scenes. People love a “backstage tour” of their favorite businesses.
    Question and answer. Take questions ahead of time or respond to them live. Either way, Q and A videos are great for helping people while showing your expertise.

    Start a podcast

Like video, podcasting is another outlet for building a new audience. And it’s a popular one. According to research, 21 percent of Americans aged 12 and up have listened to a podcast in the past month. Podcasts are a great blend of valuable content and entertainment that consumers can listen to while on the go.

Writing great, useful blog content is a great way to get traffic and show your expertise. But if you really want to reach a wider audience, it’s important to diversify your content. Experiment with different types of blog posts, write for other websites, and create both video and audio. Keep a variety of marketing outlets covered, and you can reach millions.

Turning Down Clients without Damaging Your Reputation

In the world of freelance writing, it can be tempting to take on every project opportunity you receive. But in reality, not all opportunities are ideal. Whether the client requests something outside your area of expertise or your workload is filled to the brim, sometimes accepting a project can lead to a bad situation. Sometimes, turning down clients can be your smartest option.

The manner in which you decline the opportunity or offer, however, is vital. Going about it the wrong way can negatively impact the brand you’ve built for yourself as a freelance writer. To keep your reputation intact and part ways with a potential or current client, use this advice.
Turning Down Clients the Wrong Way

Understanding how not to decline a client is just as important as knowing the right way to reject an offer. Avoid doing any of the following:

    Not responding to or ignoring a client inquiry.
    Abruptly leaving a client you have already started working for.
    Severing the client relationship without reason.
    Blaming the client or prospective client in any way.
    Writing your notice with a negative tone.

Any combination of these actions can lead to a sour relationship with a potential or current client. Should you decide to ignore an inquiry or abruptly stop a conversation, your reputation as a dedicated writer will be tarnished. Instead, follow these steps for properly turning down clients.
1. Explain Why You Cannot Accept the Project or Are Parting Ways

There are three common situations where turning down clients is the best option:

    The requested work/client does not fit with your workload or expertise at the moment.
    Something in your personal life has come up and you need to limit your workload.
    Your relationship with the client/project is not working out and it is best to part ways.

Regardless of why you must turn down or leave the client, you should always provide an explanation.

For the best results, make sure your explanation is concise, specific, and timely. For instance, should you receive an opportunity you cannot accept, your response should be:

“Hello [Name],

Thank you for contacting me regarding [opportunity]. At this moment I am unable to accept this project as [I am booked for the remainder of the month/It does not fall within my expertise/I am not accepting additional clients at this time].

I appreciate you taking the time to reach out and wish you the best of luck.”

Anything more becomes fluff and can muddle the message you are trying to communicate. Potential or current clients will appreciate your honesty and timeliness when providing an explanation.
2. Offer Advice or Direction

As a freelance writer, you likely have other connections in the writing world. If you personally cannot take on a project, direct the client to other writing professionals who may be available to work on it. This shows the prospective client that you are committed to helping them accomplish their goal, even if you cannot complete the work.

However, if the initial client inquiry raises a red flag in any way, it isn’t smart to send them to other freelancers. Instead, send them free resources that might help them complete their project. The last thing you want to do is send a potentially bad opportunity to one of your freelance writing connections!
3. Provide Ample Notice

If you are parting ways with a current client, it is common courtesy to provide ample notice of your departure. Along with your explanation, state what work you have already completed and what work you will finish before parting ways.

On the other hand, if you must part ways with the client immediately, inform them of what work has yet to be completed. Again, offering free resources that may help them accomplish the remainder of their project shows that you care about the well-being of the client.

Turning down clients isn’t always an easy decision. But for the benefit of all parties involved, it must be done. When you follow this advice, you’ll keep your hard-earned reputation as an expert freelance writer intact while parting ways with a potential or current client.

The Importance of Micro

Those in the content marketing industry understand the value of long-form content. Search engines and customers love in-depth content, making it an obvious choice for content marketers. While long-form content tends to rule the content marketing domain, the true MVP is micro-content.

BuzzSumo defines micro-content as “any type of public or published content delivered in a bite-sized quantity.” Anything from a social media post to a single email marketing message can be considered micro-content. It’s a vital way to capture the attention of an audience and bolster campaigns.
Attract Users

Our attention spans are decreasing, and it’s no wonder. An astronomic number of screens and content call for our attention daily. The average human attention span in 2000 was 12 seconds. Canadian researchers determined in 2015 that the average human attention span had fallen to eight seconds — less than that of a goldfish (nine seconds).

With this in mind, marketers need to create easily consumable content. Micro-content is often called “snack size” or “bite-size” content. These nuggets of information can quickly communicate a message without requiring extensive effort from the user.

Marketers use micro-content such as images, short videos, or snappy headlines to spark the curiosity of a user. This curiosity, in turn, drives traffic to your website or to a larger piece of content with a click. Although long-form content can attract a user, its length and depth tend to steer users away unless they are truly invested in the content/brand.

Long-form content is often used later in the sales funnel once the micro-content has gained notice and convinced the user to click, subscribe, or sign up.
Part of a Larger Goal

Often, micro-content is used as part of a larger content series. For instance, it could be a series of eye-catching, relevant images with a link directing users to the campaign website. Or a quick teaser video hints at the release of a new product to garner interest from your target audience.

Let’s say you’ve created an eBook for your brand. This eBook provides vital information about a topic aligned with your audience’s interests and your company’s offerings. You could promote the eBook as a standalone piece of content, but this tactic would only get you so far. You’ll eventually reach peak download level.

By leveraging micro-content, you can increase the chances of your content being seen by more individuals. To promote this hypothetical eBook using micro-content, consider creating the following:

    Social media images containing quick, shareable snippets from the eBook.
    A short video detailing how the eBook will benefit users.
    Infographics related to the eBook topic with fast, shareable facts.
    Standalone emails informing subscribers and audience members about the eBook.
    Personalized eBook download invitations to loyal customers.
    A series of short but valuable blog posts discussing topics that are similar topics that of the eBook.

When you use micro-content as part of a larger campaign or piece of content, you effectively improve your chances of meeting your marketing goals.
Micro-Content Requires Exceptional Creativity

Considering that micro-content has mere seconds to grab and maintain the attention of a potential user, exceptional creativity is required. From the copywriting to the execution, every aspect of it must speak to the audience and convince them to take the next step. Fail to do so and it’s just another piece of noise on the Internet.

To ensure that your creative is on point, use these quick tips:

    Use concise copy.
    Ensure all design elements are aligned with your audience’s preferences.
    If using interactive micro-content, make sure it functions properly before going live.
    Make your micro-content easy to share.

One of the most well-known examples of micro-content is Buzzfeed’s Tasty recipe and food videos. These quick yet drool-worthy food videos reel audiences in by the masses. These short pieces of content make audiences want to learn how they, too, can make these recipes, so they click over to Buzzfeed’s website for the answer.

As you can see, micro-content is the key to successful content marketing. While long-form content has its place in the content marketing kingdom, be sure to leverage micro-content to drive the best results.

Anne is a copywriter and digital marketing specialist currently residing in the Greater Nashville area. Originally from New England, she leverages her three top talents (writing, marketing, and coffee consuming) for businesses and brands of all sizes across the globe.Anne is a 2013 Marketing Communications/Advertising graduate from Western New England University in Springfield, MA. She credits her launch into writing to her legendary elementary school poem about pizza that wowed the judges and won the creative writing award in her school district.When not writing or working on marketing campaigns, you can find Anne at a coffee shop, exploring somewhere new, or training in martial arts as a 3rd degree black belt.

Using Beauty Influencers to Sell Your Products

The popularity of opinionated beauty influencers and the way they use blogs to reach their readers has forever changed how consumers shop for makeup and other beauty products.
Before buying anything, consumers will turn to social media, blogs or other informational sites to find out more about a product.
In fact, online beauty influencers have a tremendous impact on the products consumers buy. According to a research study, “nearly nine in 10 consumers (84%) make purchases after reading about a product or service on a blog.” And one in four people buy products each month solely based on blog content.
It makes sense. Who would you trust more? An influencer reviewing a product or the company who makes the product? The influencer of course!
For this reason, 2017 has been dubbed the year of influencer marketing, and using beauty influencers to promote and sell your products can amp up your business and your sales. Here’s what you should do.

#1 Define Your Beauty Influencers

Since individual influencers differ for every brand or product type, the first step is to define who you want to team up with.
By definition, influencers are, “those which have the most influence over potential buyers, and orientates marketing activity around these influencers.” A beauty influencer can be a blogger, journalist, celebrity, brand advocate, advisor, etc.
Ask yourself:

• Who are the most prominent influencers in my industry?
• How big is their reach? Look at both blog readers and social media followers.
• Does their typical content match your product?
• Do their followers take action?

To find specific beauty influencers, you can:

• Turn to Google
• Search social media
• Search hashtags

#2 Decide “What’s in it for Them?”

Once you have an idea of who your beauty influencers are going to be, decide how you are going to compensate them for promoting or selling your products.
Keep in mind, compensation doesn’t necessarily have to be financial. There are multiple ways you can pay back an influencer, such as:

• Free products. You can offer the influencer some of your products free of charge to test out or review.
• Social shares. If you are asking an influencer to simply mold your product to their followers, you can reciprocate by sharing the influencer’s website on your social media channels.
• Rather than paying an influencer to work with you, you can offer a commission or percentage of each sale they bring you. This is a great incentive for both you and the beauty influencer, since both of you are making money off the deal.
• Of course, you can pay an influencer to promote your products. This is commonly seen in the form of a sponsored blog post.

#3 Reach Out!

Now that you know who your industry influencers are and what you plan to offer them, it’s time to reach out. You can do this through social media, but the most direct way is with an email.
Emails should be friendly and short. Start by complementing the influencer by mentioning something you love about their brand. The complement is a great way to show the influencer that you know a little about them and you’re not simply spamming.
Make sure your email explains what you’d like from the influencer (whether it’s a promotion or adding your product to their online store) and what’s in it for them.
Prepare to answer questions regarding your product, your brand and even your own social media following.
In today’s online world, consumers no longer trust ads. Instead, they turn to online influencers to tell them what products they should use and what items to try. To really get your business visible and increase your sales online, turn to beauty influencers to help you promote and sell your products.

Marketing Meet Each Other Halfway

Sometimes it takes some troubleshooting to approach the right concept. Main Street Hub, founded by Stanford MBA candidates Andrew Allison and Matt Stuart, began as the seed of a great idea–a web-app meant to connect prospective customers to the profiles of small, locally owned businesses. However, after some time spent failing to move forward with their existing concept, the two decided they needed to change things up. While the existing app was perfectly fine from a design standpoint, it failed to acknowledge the very real issue of getting small business owners interested in managing their social media presence. After toying with the idea of simplifying the process for its users, Allison and Stuart stumbled on a realization–if business owners don’t want to manage their online presence, why not simply provide that service for them? Ultimately, Allison and Stuart settled on a new business model with a team of professionals managing all of the social media accounts for their clients, pairing a stellar content marketing approach–great for bringing new customers to small businesses–with an emphasis on CX, or customer experience–a key component in customer retention.
Main Street Hub is Getting the Word Out

Of course, there are ways in which Main Street Hub’s services extend beyond those of your standard issue “social media manager.” Main Street Hub uses its extensive resources to consistently engage with new customers by regularly updating social media profiles (No one likes a restaurant’s Facebook page without lots and lots of photos, after all). They also encourage others to get the word out by collecting testimonials and using posts that directly drive existing customers to share with others. One of the neat tricks in the company’s arsenal, however, is the ability to directly engage with possible customers through social media by using a unique technology that identifies tweets that are both relevant and close-in-proximity to a given business. An example taken from the Main Street Hub site shows one Twitter user tweeting about their hummus. In turn, the Twitter feed of a Mediterranean restaurant in the area (manned by Main Street Hub’s content marketing specialists) responds, touting their own hummus and thus making an unforgettable connection. The end result–a new customer, but a successful model comes down to more than the acquisition of new customers. Main Street Hub’s main strength is in keeping existing customers around.
Turning a Negative Into a Positive With Great CX

Let’s be honest: Social media’s tendency to place so much power in the hands of the consumer has been a double-edged sword. In many ways, services like Yelp have positively democratized the processes by which we choose restaurants, goods and services. However, these services have also provided a filterless pulpit for grudge-bearers to exercise their entitlement–it’s no bold claim to say that many Yelpers operate on a bias, and that the relative anonymity of being part of the internet commentariat can encourage some folks to be their worst selves. For every mom-and-pop taqueria or pizza joint that gets hoisted by great word of mouth, there’s some politically motivated insanity driving irrational hordes to leave one star reviews on the Yelp page of a generally beloved family restaurant. The whole pizzagate kerfuffle is maybe an extreme (though unfortunately increasingly not uncommon) example, but it also goes to show that Yelp can sometimes be an unexpected battleground for ideological warfare. For this reason, many people who run small businesses may loathe to even venture a look at their Yelp pages (and some who do let their own personal feelings get in the way of good business practices, lashing back and making the whole situation even worse).

This is all to say that cooler heads prevail, and that addressing social media accounts like Yelp should maybe be left to others who are not so personally attached to the business in question. Beyond simply managing these varying social media accounts, the community managers at Main Street Hub are in tune with how to make customers happy. That means Yelp reviews, whether positive or negative, are often responded to by an experienced team-member. Responding to negative reviews may not be the most intuitive step for some less-than-social-media-savvy business owners, but in reality it’s one of the absolute best ways to transform a negative online reputation. In a Wired profile, Stuart highlights one such instance: “We received a call from an auto repair shop owner who said that he was getting new customers as a result of a negative review on Yelp because of how Main Street Hub responded to it. His new customers were impressed by how much he cared about his customers’ experience and it shaped how we think about the opportunity for our customers in a response to a negative review.”

This kind of interpersonal company-customer interaction is commonplace in the start-up scene, and Main Street Hub can be seen as effectively bringing smart, tech-world CX practices to the sphere of small business. And responding to positive reviews can be valuable too. According to a Bain & Company study, 60-80% of “satisfied” customers don’t return to the business that satisfied them–and the cause for this is lack of personal connection. Main Street Hub engenders positive and personal customer-business connections through their response strategy no matter what they’re responding to.

If you want to refresh your content marketing strategy, or revitalize your social media presence, look no further than ContentWriters. Our team of expert writers and strategists have all the tools you need to boost your customer engagement.

5 SEO Mistakes to Avoid

In a way, content marketing and SEO have made the Internet one big high school popularity contest. Everyone wants to write content that gets them noticed and ranked higher in the search engines, but everyone doesn’t have what it takes to be Regina George. In fact, most companies routinely make SEO mistakes that cost them dearly.

To set yourself apart and avoid the pitfalls of unpopularity, you’re going to have to do the same thing you did in high school: avoid critical mistakes. The good news is, most of us have all been there before. Search Engine Optimization is one of those strategies that can be implemented in a few weeks, but mastered over a few months. Even though you’re still learning, with a bit of practice, your small business blog will possess front-page potential. In most cases, all you have to do is correct a few simple SEO mistakes many companies make. Here are the top five:
NOT Using Analytics to Measure Conversion

One of the biggest SEO mistakes marketers make is that they concentrate on keywords and free traffic and have lost sight of the conversion factor. When you’re writing and marketing your content, it’s easy to catch yourself watching the keyword phrases that are sending you the most traffic, then entering a state of disappointment when you can’t rank for the more competitive keywords. If you understand SEO, you know traffic isn’t all that matters. Sometimes, lower-traffic phrases convert better because they’re more specific.

How do you find out what’s working? You track it. Use an analytics package like KISSmetrics to setup conversion tracking for your target keywords and phrases, and then compare them to see which ones yields the best results.
Listing Unavailable, Inaccurate or Inconsistent NAP Information

NAP is the acronym for name, address, and phone number. Although it seems trivial, it’s one of the core metrics Google relies on to rank search results for local businesses. Not only should you have your NAP information publicly and prominently displayed on your website or blog, it should also be accurate and consistent.
Not Thinking Locally

If you’re running a business that focuses on customers within a certain city or region, SEO mistakes made by your company for your region are the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot. Incorporating region-specific keywords in your page titles and meta descriptions will help people in your area discover you. Also, you’ll want to list yourself on review platforms like Yelp, Merchant Circle, Google Places, FourSquare. Linking your website and profile can be helpful too.
Targeting Phrases Nobody Searches For

Ranking keywords that don’t bring in traffic might feel good, but really it’s just vanity. Think of it as spending hours getting dressed in front of a mirror and never going anywhere for people to see your snazzy outfit. To avoid this mistake, enter your potential keyword or phrase into Google’s Keyword Planner. If a dash pops up, the phrase was searched for less than 10 times per month within the last 12 months, meaning it’s probably time to move on.
Valuing Link Quantity Over Link Quality

While there are lots of easy ways to get a high volume of links, placing an emphasis on quality is in your site’s best interest. Why? Well, no one cares if you link back to a bunch of sites that stink.

Not only that, but links without traffic won’t do you any good. One link from a popular page may do more for your SEO rankings than hundreds of lowbrow directory links. Sure, they’re a bit harder to get, but that’s also why search engines view them so highly.

So, focus on getting links that:

    Are relevant to your site and business
    Don’t feature a bunch of outgoing links
    Don’t contain links to inappropriate pages

Craving Clients Happy

When it comes to attracting and retaining content-craving clients, it’s not enough to just be an amazing writer. What clients really want is fresh, relevant content— and they expect a steady flow of it. It’s easy to see why there’s such a demand for content when you consider all the possible forms of content distribution you can use to get a message to the right audience. To keep your clients happy, you’ll definitely want to develop an effective strategy by considering these tips.
Be on the Same Page with Expectations

A surefire way to keep clients happy is to know what they expect. Don’t make assumptions though. If you’re not sure how much content is expected, ask them. View such conversations as an opportunity to offer advice, insights, and suggestions. And if a client is a little off the mark, tell them why you think more content is needed. For instance, the client’s blog may have posts that aren’t current or there may be room for more engagement on social media accounts. Of course, each client will have different content needs and reasons for their specific desires. Just make sure you’re on the same page with what’s expected.
Reimagine and Refresh Content

It’s not always necessary to start from scratch every time you need to produce content for clients. Explore their existing posts and articles to see which ones received the most attention. If possible, update the content or add fresh insights and data. Articles that are particularly data-heavy, for instance, might be reimagined into an infographic. Or bits and pieces of the data could be sprinkled into a fresh article or social media post.
Stay on Top of Trending Topics

Clients usually like to be a part of tends and hot topics. Do your homework to see what’s trending within a client’s field. Extend your research to include news in related industries, current events, and even pop culture trends (if it makes sense). Also be flexible and open to exploring new ideas and different ways of tying trends back to a client’s brand.
Make Your Content Easy to Digest

Unless your client expects highly technical and detailed articles, you’ll probably be writing for consumers with short attention spans. Keep your clients happy by making content easily digestable to accommodate those impatient readers. Go beyond looking at the text itself and consider how visually appealing it is. Use short, descriptive headlines, keep paragraphs concise, and use bullet points or numbered lists to highlight key points.
Get Inspiration from Comments

Take your cue for the content you should be producing from the people who are already reading, sharing, and commenting on articles and blogs. Use those comments as a guide for the topics you write about or as a jumping off point for related topics. Go a step further and encourage feedback or suggestions in the content you produce for clients, when appropriate (e.g., a simple, “What do you think? Feel free to share your comments,” at the end of a post). Blogs and social media posts tend to leave more room for such interactions.
Maintain Regular Communications

Don’t just wait to be given another request for an article, blog, social media post, or another type of content. Actively stay in touch with your clients. When they’re not requesting anything specific, make some content pitches. Base your suggestions on what you know appeals to them and their intended audience. Also avoid making assumptions if you’re not sure how to approach a specific content request or if instructions are vague. It’s best to seek clarification before you get started with a project rather than making your best guess and hoping the client will like it.
Find Opportunities to Exceed Expectations

Sure, you want to follow your clients’ instructions. But you’ll likely have an opportunity to do more than what’s expected now and then. For instance, stats you were given to use in an article may be slightly out-of-date. Why not find similar ones that are more current? Or do some research to find other relevant facts or stats you can use. Your clients will definitely appreciate the extra effort. And you may be rewarded with more work or referrals.

Finally, clients appreciate good communication skills. So, give regular updates about how you’re coming along with projects, especially ones involving a lot of content. If you have a chance, show examples of your previous work. A client may like something you wrote for another client and request something similar.

Looking for a better way to connect with clients looking for the kind of content you produce? Consider joining the team at ContentWriters. You’ll also benefit from an assortment of useful and convenient resources you can use to build and maintain mutually beneficial client relationships.

Why Brands Need to Be Personal in 2017

Consumers no longer want a brand entirely focused on getting the sale. Or to put it bluntly, they want relationships, not just products. And many consumers also want their preferred brands to have a social conscious, which means actively doing something good for the planet or the people living on it. What does all of this mean for marketers? It means brands must be personal and relative to consumers in a way that’s warm, inviting, and purposeful. Here are some reasons why personal equals a better return-on-investment (ROI) and increased online visibility in 2017.
It’s What Consumers Expect

Millennials love purpose-driven marketing, but they’re not alone. According to one estimate, 40 percent of consumers want purposeful brands. And more than 90 percent of consumers would switch brands if a competitor were to support a cause they believe in. And it’s a trend that knows no boundaries. Another survey suggests more than half of all global online consumers feel the same way. Breaking the stats down even further, women tend to be more purpose-driven with brand preferences than men. However, calculated purchase decisions are not largely affected by demographics.
Customer Retention Is Increased

Not surprisingly, customers are more likely to keep coming back to a brand that shares their values. These same customers are also more likely to encourage their friends to check out those brands. And they’re just as likely to leave positive feedback and mention purchases from those businesses in their social media posts. It’s a domino effect that can do wonders for brand visibility and reputation.
Google Likes Interactions

Google likes content that customers actually care about. Relevance is determined by many factors, with many aspects centered around how consumers are interacting with various brands online. For instance, Google rewards brands with many active social media followers. They also look at how many people are commenting and sharing what they view. All of these interactions are viewed as evidence of relevance, which translates into better online visibility.
Customers Are Equally Motivated by Relevance

Sure, some customers are attracted by a lower price or a special deal, but this isn’t what encourages brand loyalty. People respond to what’s relevant and personally important to them. They also actively seek out content from a brand they feel relates to their needs, attitudes, and values. Using social media alone, 60 percent of consumers actively interact with their preferred brands. Of course, social media posts can easily include links back to a brand’s website, blog, or other source of online content—and that means more opportunities for interactions! Get the picture?
Consumers Reward Brands They Feel Personally Connected To

Once a brand has a consumer on their side, they are rewarded with more purchases. In fact, nearly 50 percent of consumers will buy more from brands who personalize their shopping experience. For marketers, this means more incentive to create an engaging brand experience. Fortunately, most consumers who develop their brand connections online leave plenty of data behind. This allows other businesses (and the marketers and content writers who help with their messaging) to successfully engage their own customers.
It Levels the Playing Field for Smaller Brands

Brands don’t have to be giants like Disney, Ford, or Coca-Cola to establish a personal connection with consumers. A huge, multi-million dollar marketing campaign is no longer necessary to connect personally with consumers. Content that connects with customers in a personal way can easily be distributed online. Because of all the methods of content distribution available today, particularly with social media, both smaller and larger businesses can successfully display some personality behind their messaging. Consider a handful of ways a brand can establish a human connection:

    Connecting with influencers (people within your niche who have some credibility with followers)
    Staying active on social platforms
    Distributing useful, informative content
    Actively responding to customer comments in real-time
    Sending out emails with very specific offers based on customer preferences

Transforming a business into a brand that engages with consumers personally is an ongoing process that involves constant communication. Telling a story with content rather than just making a sales pitch is key. As with other aspects of marketing, content is always going to play a big role. For instance, brands using a common style or tone throughout their content are often more successful at connecting with consumers. Why? Because branding is all about creating emotions and encouraging mutually beneficial (and interactive) relationships.

If you need some help producing meaningful and consistent content for your brand, the team at ContentWriters is always here to help. We have a staff of dedicated and diverse writers who bring fresh, unique ideas and perspectives to the content they produce.