Internet Marketing Versus MLM – Crucial Facts & Knowledge

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I’ll admit that this is kind of a sore subject for me becauseI really dislike MLM and network marketing.

It’s easy to compare internet marketing and MLM, because they are actually very different things, though sometimes language is used in such a way that makes them seem like they are actually the same.

This is mostly because MLM scammers do not know the difference.

MLM stands for Multi-Level-Marketing

Basically, it is a pyramid scheme that has found a loophole. Hopefully you have heard the term ‘pyramid scheme’, though you may be a bit unclear about what it actually is.

Pyramid schemes are illegal in many countries. They basic idea is that when you sign up, you pay a fee to be ‘in the group’ or ‘part of the business’. You are then responsible for getting people into your ‘down line’, i.e. the people that pay you to enter the group.

Of the fee they pay you, a percentage goes to your ‘up line’, the people who signed you up, and a percentage goes to you. Then when people in your down line sign OTHER people up, you make a percentage of whatever fees they get paid.

The more people in your downline, the more you get paid. The more people your down line signs up, the more you get paid.

The problem is that this is just exchanging money. There is no product, and no value. The last person in the ‘scheme’ is unable to make money because there is no one to pay them, and the first people that are on top of the ‘pyramid’ (probably the owners of the business) are multi-millionaires.

Multi-level marketing is THE SAME THING, except they found a loophole. By providing products along with the exchange of money, they can say that they are actually selling something.

Still, the concept works the same. I sell you some crap and an opportunity to get people into your ‘group’. Whoever pays you for the crappy products, both I and you make a percentage, all the meanwhile, the big-heads on top are becoming millionaires!

Plus, no one really wants the crap that MLM people are selling, which may be Tupperware, magazine subscriptions, or access to MLM training videos.
I’ll talk more about multi-level marketing in this video below, but lets move onto internet marketing, which is something completely different.

The Facts About Internet Marketing

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Internet marketing is a broad concept that simply refers to marketing things on the internet. Many real businesses use internet marketing through Google Adwords, search engine marketing, or YouTube. There are tons of ways to leverage the internet to market real businesses, real services, and real products.

I mentioned earlier that MLM scammers like to now call what they do “internet marketing”. In some ways, they are right; they have figured out how to use the internet to extend the reach of their scams. In some sense of the work , it is in fact, ‘internet marketing’.

The trouble is that many people, including myself, refer to the work we do online as internet marketing. In fact, I call myself an internet marketer. This is because I have several websites and do marketing for several different businesses. I do not work for just one company or promote just one product.

So “internet marketer” describes what I do.

What Will Be Your Business Reputation Online?

Furthermore, internet marketing is also closely related to ‘affiliate marketing’, which is a more specific term that refers to affiliating yourself (or website) with certain products and companies. This is what I teach in my 5 Day Getting Started Course and what I learned in the business community called Wealthy Affiliate.

In pains me to think that some people may mistake what I do as the scummy work that MLMers do. And I feel even worse when I realize that many people who are new to making money online may be tricked, or led astray by false promises of riches.

I will no doubt write more on this subject in the future because I hope to clarify the difference between building a legitimate, sustainable business on the internet and just getting a group of your friends to sell a bunch of useless rubbish to try and make a few dirty dollars.

http://onemorecupof-coffee.com/internet-marketing-versus-mlm-crucial-facts-knowledge/

These Internet Marketing Secret Weapons Will Help You Get More Sales Online

 Great Tips to help  grow the E-business by  Jimmy Rodela.

Even for seasoned marketers, converting their website traffic into paying customers can be quite a challenge.

Sure. The process may be simple. But it sure isn’t easy.

While there are a plethora of things that can cause your website visitors to simply exit your website without buying anything from you (even after consuming your content), there are also ways to make them buy from you even if it isn’t originally their intention to do so.

Of course, we’re going to talk about the latter.

Excited? You should be.

While these methods have already been used by other marketers, they are by no means overused. Simply because the effort and the risk that goes with using these methods aren’t quite of the ordinary.

However, if there’s one thing that I can promise you, it would be that these strategies are proven and tested to work. If you’ll just take the time to re-engineer them to fit your business’ dynamics, you’ll surely get good (to great) results one way or the other.

Let’s jump right in.

1) Add a “University” section on your site.

The first time I saw this strategy was from Neil Patel’s website. Here’s how their University page looks.

image: http://pixel.watch/y3e2

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FirmBee

Amazing isn’t it?

If you’re looking to learn about internet marketing, you’ll without a doubt find this place to be your internet marketing haven. There’s just loads of things that you can learn from on this page alone.

Of course, when your website has something very similar to Neil’s university page, your website will also become the go to place of your target audience.

At this point, you’ll be able to establish your brand as an authority in the industry, be able to pitch them your services strategically, and build a strong relationship with them; all of which are key elements to converting your website visitors into buying customers.

Here are a couple of things you can add on your University page:

1. Case studies
2. In depth how-to-guides
3. In depth video tutorials
4. White papers
5. Interviews

2) Answer questions

There are several ways to go about using this strategy. You can either go to websites like Quora.com, go to forums, or setup a google alert so you can go to the specific platform that your target audience are asking their questions about your industry.

Using this strategy is so effective because answering other people’s questions will help establish your image as an expert in your industry – all while raking in more customers for your business.

Here are some of the most critical points that you need to remember when answering other people’s questions.

1. Leave a clear call-to-action at the end of your answer. Ask the users to contact you should they need your help.
2. Link to your website as much as possible.
3. Leave your signature whenever you can.
4. Write a comprehensive answer to their questions. The point is to add as much value as you can.

3) Get influencers to talk about you.

What do you think will happen if personalities like Neil Patel or Pat Flynn will give a positive feedback about your brand to their audience?

There’s just one word that came to my mind – sales – and lots of it!

Such is the power of influencer marketing. If used correctly, not only will you get massive exposure from the influencer’s audience, but you’ll get tons of sales from the get-go (among many others).

It’s no surprise that businesses are now using influencer marketing campaigns as one of their main marketing methods. It flat out works. And its results are quite epic!

If you’re looking to learn more about proven and tested strategies on how to make your influencer marketing campaigns a success, you can check out my post about, “3 Influencer Marketing Tips That You Need to Start Using RIGHT NOW!”

4) Make your contact info visible.

If your web visitors are keen on contacting you to inquire about your services, make sure that your contact info is readily available.

Make it easy for them to contact you.

You’ll be shocked at how other businesses don’t have a “contact us” page; or if they do, the page is hidden. It just doesn’t make any sense.

More than just making your contact page visible, I suggest that you take it a step further by making sure that your contact details are visible on all of your website’s pages.

This website is a classic example of what it means to make your contact details visible. Regardless of which page you go to, you’ll find their address, phone number, and even fax number on their side bar. Doing so makes it very convenient for your readers to contact you should they want. Trust me, you’ll be surprised at how your web visitors appreciate you doing this for them. Nothing can be more annoying to them than not being able to contact you when they’re 100% eager to buy your product.

5) Use a company mascot.

You’ll be amazed at what a mascot can do. :)

A lot of influencers talk about how you need to differentiate your business from your competitors. They’ve also been sharing tip and tricks to make your brand as “sticky” as it can be to your audience.

What better way to do that than to use a mascot, right?

Mascots are unique, they’re catchy, they’re good brand ambassadors, and of course, they do such an amazing job at making your brand as “sticky” as it can be to your audience.

In just a weeks time, there’s a chance that your audience may have forgotten your company name; but your mascot? I doubt it.

It doesn’t stop there.

There are TONS of other benefits that mascot’s can bring to your business. They can also help amplify emotional connections between your brand and your audience, and help you with improving your brand awareness (among many others).

Conclusion

If you aren’t quite sure about which internet marketing methods you’ll use to help you get more sales online, then this guide will give you a good head-start.

Just remember that while most of the tips I shared are quite challenging to implement, they are totally worth it. I’ve experienced it’s results first hand after using them on my client’s websites.

http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/these-internet-marketing-secret-weapons-will-help-you-get-more-sales-online-01249576

What Do the Pinterest/Instagram ‘Buy’ Buttons Mean for PR?

Last week, Pinterest andInstagram both turned heads by confirming rumors that had been floating around for some time: both would be entering the e-commerce market via “buy buttons” and related tools that connect sponsored posts directly to revenue streams for the first time.

We know this means bigger credit card bills for social media devotees everywhere. It also means that marketers can finally enter dollar amounts in the “ROI” columns of their social media spreadsheets.

But what about PR agencies and their retail clients? We asked some industry veterans for their takes.

From Marco Iannucci, director of strategy at SparkPR:

“The new Instagram and Pinterest units are about instant gratification for the consumer. It changes the whole last-touch attribution model.  You’re no longer driving people to a site, you’re delivering a brand experience within another brand.

The question for the PR paid/earned model is how do you optimize the experience? Every piece of content you put out now is critical. It’s so much more important to be on point. For launches, it could be the digital equivalent of how Beats By Dre launched with Lebron and the Olympic team showing up in Shanghai wearing them.”

From Jasper Nathaniel, VP of business development and strategy at social influence/insights platform Crowdtap:

“Pinterest and Instagram have emerged as leading channels for brand and product discovery, so it’s no surprise that those platforms are evolving their ad offerings to better bridge the gap between social media and commerce.

That said, these are places where real people–not brands or media properties–shape the conversation. Ads are secondary to the overall experience, so PR agencies need to follow the rules of the road and prioritize authenticity and relevance over disruption.”

From Dave Weinberg, CEO of Pinterest-focused influencer platform Loop88:

“We work with many agencies – public relations and advertising – and find that the firms know the value that Pinterest brings for their clients. And Buy It pins take that to the next level.

With Buy It Pins, marketing campaigns are taken to the next level for agencies and clients. Beyond brand awareness and creating original content, the Buy It pins take those pins and makes it possible for people to buy and reach the ultimate conversion.”

From Eric Berto, program director at Seattle’s Voxus PR:

“[These] announcements along with other social commerce opportunities such as Twitter’s buy button and Facebook’s attempt to offer vendors direct purchases all come with a number of opportunities and challenges.

With the exception of the Pinterest button, the others are positioned as ad units, which can be prohibitive for SMBs or those hoping to simply pilot the program. In some instances it even asks merchants to switch their payment processing services, which can be a logistical nightmare as well as an excuse expensive switch.

When looking at this as a PR person, I consider the evolution of the paid, earned, owned and shared model. With the guidance that PR should contribute to a company’s bottom line, there could be some interesting opportunities for direct-to-consumer activations. We are now able to create visual stories that target specific audiences and position a brand directly in front of a consumer, or even influencers. Data has long shown that visuals increase engagement. This is an opportunity to see if visuals increase conversions, which should be a goal of any PR program.”

The basic lessons, then, it that clients must be even more strategic about the material they share on these networks–and that the act of drawing a direct line from a brand’s story to a consumer’s point of sale has never been more important.

http://www.adweek.com/prnewser/what-do-the-pinterestinstagram-buy-buttons-mean-for-pr/114971

12 Tips for Hosting a Successful B2B Webinar

Many B2B companies are already leveraging webinars as part of their content marketing and thought leadership efforts. As with any marketing tactic, a successful and effective B2B webinar is ultimately a byproduct of proper planning and execution.

Whether you are already hosting webinars or considering adding them into your content marketing mix, it’s important to “plan your work” and “work your plan.” So it’s with that in mind that we’ve developed a list of 12 tips to consider when planning and hosting a B2B webinar.

1. Plan, plan, plan

Any webinar that is considered a success by both the host AND the attendees is the result of careful and meticulous planning. Naturally there are a lot of logistics associated with webinars, so it’s important to carefully consider the date, time of day, presenter(s), moderator and topic, among other things. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” This is especially true of webinars.

2. Develop great content

Content is the reason people register and attend your webinar, so without great content you either won’t get people to show up or you won’t get them to come back. Carefully select your topic/title/speaker based on your target audience’s interests and needs, as it relates to what your firm does. Generally speaking, webinars are intended to be educational—not “salesy”—so be sure that you create content that your audience will find helpful and valuable.

3. Put effort into your slide deck

Along those lines, be sure that your slide deck is creative and compelling as well. Remember that it’s meant to support what your presenters are saying, not be what your presenters are saying. Similar to preparing a presentation for other situations, your slide deck should be visual, use large text and avoid trying to cover too much ground on each slide.

4. Use the right tools and equipment

In many ways, a webinar is only as good as the tools you use to produce them. And it starts with choosing the right webinar software. There are a ton of webinar tools out there to choose from (GoToWebinar, WebEx, Adobe Connect, etc.) and selecting the one that’s right for you comes down to capabilities, preferences and cost. Once you know what you need most from the software, choose the one that best aligns with your needs.

And it’s not just the webinar software that matters—having the right equipment is important as well. This includes everything from having the right kind of room to conduct the webinar in, headset microphones that offer crystal clear and static-free sound and a dependable Internet connection.

5. Get the word out

A well-planned webinar with great content, a compelling slide deck and the right tools will be of no use if you don’t have attendees! Once you’ve identified the webinar logistics (date, time, title, etc.) and have set up the webinar in your preferred webinar tool, you need to spread the word! Set up a landing page to promote the webinar and create images and graphics that can be used on the website and social media. We recommend to start promoting at least 3-4 weeks in advance of the webinar, using a variety of methods including email, social media, website calls-to-action and even paid amplification.

6. Be prepared—for everything

I can’t overstate the importance of preparation. While some might think that webinars are easier to present for than an in-person seminar, in some ways they are more difficult. The audience is virtual, so you can’t make eye contact, pick up on social cues or feed off the energy (or notice the lack of) like you can in person. And the audience only has your voice and the slide deck to hold their attention. So naturally, the more prepared you are, the better you’re going to connect with the audience. Know your material, practice and time the presentation and set up early for sound and equipment checks.

image: http://pixel.watch/y3e2

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Another component of preparation includes being ready for the unexpected. What if you lose your Internet connection? What if the phones go down? What if attendees are having trouble logging in? Identifying what could come up and having a contingency plan in place ahead of time will make it much easier to deal with should any problems arise.

7. Designate a producer/moderator

We highly recommend that you designate a “producer” whose primary role during the webinar is simply to run the webinar software console. The presenter(s) should be focused solely on presenting, but you need someone to run the software, collect Q&A submissions, launch poll questions/answers and field comments from participants. The producer can also serve as a moderator, introducing the speaker(s), making announcements and handling audience questions during Q&A. We’ve found this role to be critical to the success of our webinars.

8. Create a webinar production checklist

As we just discussed, running a webinar involves a lot of logistics and details. And forgetting to do something as simple as pressing “record” at the start of the webinar can have a negative impact on the success of your webinar. So to avoid missing any detail and to keep your webinar on track, it’s a good idea to create a webinar production checklist. This should be a list of all activities and items—both big and small—that need to be completed in order to successfully host a webinar.

9. Start on time, end on time

Your audience’s time is valuable, so be sensitive to it and honor the time constraints that you’ve advertised for the webinar. While it’s not uncommon for many webinar attendees to arrive late, it’s still best to still start on time. And it’s equally important that you end on time as well. This points back to the necessity of being prepared and making sure that the presenter has timed their presentation and can stick to the time allotted.

10. Deliver content as promised

The title and description that “sold” the attendees when they registered should be accurate to the actual content that is presented during the webinar. In other words, if they are expecting something educational, don’t make your webinar a thinly veiled sales pitch. Your promotional emails and landing page are essentially a promise, so make sure that by all means you deliver on that promise.

11. Allow time for Q&A

Be sure to allow time at the end of the webinar for taking questions that the audience can submit throughout the webinar. The Q&A provides a great opportunity to engage with the audience and give additional insight to what you have previously discussed, as well as related topics that are of interest to the audience.

12. Follow-up

Last but certainly not least is follow-up and this goes for both attendees and non-attendees. We recommend creating a post-webinar survey that ideally gets served up when the webinar has ended. Keep the survey short and to the point and seek to gauge how well the webinar met the expectations of the attendee, the quality of the speaker/content, suggestions for improvement and ideas for future webinar topics.

You’ll also want to send an email to attendees (ideally within a few hours of the webinar) thanking them for their attendance and offering links to download the slide deck and/or view a recording of the webinar. Similarly to non-attendees, you’ll want to send an email expressing your disappointment that they were unable to attend and offering them the opportunity to download the slide deck and/or view a recording of the webinar as well. You might want to consider a drip campaign as well to keep registrants engaged with additional content that is relevant to the topic of the webinar.

While webinars are an ideal tactic for content marketing, success ultimately depends on how well you plan and execute. Hopefully these 12 tips will provide some insight to help make your B2B webinars more successful.

http://www.business2community.com/b2b-marketing/12-tips-for-hosting-a-successful-b2b-webinar-01242330

Coming Soon: More Ads On Instagram, And A 'Buy' Feature On Pinterest

Pinterest will soon allow users to buy products they find directly through the app. The company says users have been asking for that feature for a while.

Pinterest

Both social apps have the announcements in posts to their respective blogs. Instagram says its new ad strategy will bring "new formats, increased relevance, and broader [ad] availability." Pinterest is more direct; the title of its post is "Coming soon: Buyable Pins!" Here's a breakdown.

Instagram

Instagram says it's going to experiment with several new methods of "direct response" in ads on the app. In its post, the company says that soon "people will be able to learn about a product or service and then take action directly from an ad to sign up on a website, buy a product, or download an app." Instagram says it will start testing those features in the coming days.

The company also announces that it will begin using demographic data from Facebook to better target Instagram users. (Facebook bought Instagram in 2012.) "Working with Facebook, we will enable advertisers to reach people on Instagram based on demographics and interests, as well as information businesses have about their own customers," Instagram's post says. "We will also improve the feedback mechanisms within Instagram to give people greater control and improve the relevance of the ads they see." Ad Age also reports that Instagram will "add the ability to target its ads based on what accounts people follow on Instagram."

Instagram also plans to open up it its Ads API, as well as Facebook's ad buying interfaces, to select "marketing partners" in the next few months.

Pinterest

Pinterest will introduce "buyable Pins" in the coming weeks. "When you spot a Pin with a blue price, you'll know you can buy it right from the app," the company says. The buyable pins will also have a price filter, options to choose different colors of products, and the availability to purchase items through Apple Pay or a credit card.

In a post to its business blog, Pinterest says it won't take a cut from sales, and businesses will handle their own shipping and customer service "the way you always have." Pinterest says the buyable pins will be available on Apple products first, then Android in future releases.

Differing Responses

So far, Pinterest's announcement has been getting a more positive response than Instagram's. Pinterest says its users have actually been begging for a "buy" button for some time. Business Insider says the move sets the company up to become "one of the largest e-commerce platforms." It points out a survey of Pinterest users that found almost a third bought something in a store after seeing it on Pinterest.

Instagram is a different story. Ad Age says the app is about to get "More Facebook-y," which might not be a compliment. And eMarketer's Debra Aho Williamson told the New York Times, "It's not necessarily going to be the beautiful imagery that fans are used to."
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/06/02/411569265/coming-soon-more-ads-on-instagram-and-a-buy-feature-on-pinterest

Encouraging Word of Mouth With Your Email Marketing

Nowadays, despite there being more marketing channels than ever, a lot of business promotion still lies in the hands of the customers. Even in this technological age, something as simple as word of mouth is still hugely effective in driving new customers to a business. Yet, many companies are reluctant to implement their own word of mouth marketing campaigns.

Why Word of Mouth?

People can be naturally distrustful of businesses. Generally, they need to see evidence of a positive track record before they will part with their hard earned cash. They are more likely to trust recommendations from people they trust, i.e. their friends and family. This is what makes word of mouth so powerful. It also specifically targets the kind of people who are interested in the products or services that you offer.

In the past, businesses have shied away spending money on word of mouth campaigns because of how difficult is it to monitor their success and ROI. However, people communicate in very different ways these days. Word of mouth can theoretically take place on social media, message boards and via email, making it much easier to track results.

Email provides a great medium to encourage word of mouth amongst your customers. Messages can be forwarded to an almost infinite number of people, and conversations that start in an email can continue on social media, or even offline. Here are just some of the ways email can be used to generate word of mouth:

Start a Conversation

Rather than just using your email marketing campaigns as a product showcase, you can use the medium to encourage conversations between people both online and offline. You can ask them to share stories, experiences, reviews or even photographs. Recently, one of the ways businesses have been encouraging conversations between their customers is by including hashtags in their marketing emails. With a hashtag, conversations can move seamlessly between email and social media, and businesses can easily monitor what people are saying about their company.

Mobile phone network Three created a hashtag to promote their customers being able to use their phone abroad at no extra cost:

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/three-hashtag-300x241.jpg

Lingerie company Bravissimo took the hashtag trend one step further by offering a prize to people who shared their stories:

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Bravissimo-300x161.jpg

As well as encouraging a discussion, this campaign had the potential to introduce Bravissimo to both the person mentioned in the post and all their Facebook friends, with very little effort on the part of the company.

As well as starting your own conversations, you can also take advantage of other popular social media ‘trends’, basing an email marketing campaign around them. The most notable example of this recently was the photograph of the dress that found its way onto social media (was it blue and black or white and gold?). When discussion about the dress took off all over the Internet, fashion retailer Roman Originals (who produced the dress in question) ‘hijacked’ the hashtag and used it in an email marketing campaign:

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/The-Dress-405x600.jpg

Reward Referrals

Not everyone is inclined to share stories about businesses on social media. Perhaps they haven’t experienced anything exceptional enough for them to talk about with their friends and family (even though they’re perfectly happy with your business). Some people need a little extra push to encourage word of mouth. A referral campaign, where you reward customers for introducing their friends to your business, is the perfect way to do this.

Many companies run campaigns like this. In this example, DW Fitness Clubs offered their members a £20 gift card if a friend of theirs joined the gym:

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/DW-Fitness-300x243.jpg

Certain people can be reluctant to spend money on a new product purely on a friend’s recommendation. They may want to try the product for themselves first. Beauty company L’Occitane used this as the motivation for their referral campaign. They emailed their customers a code that three of their friends could use to claim a free gift box:

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This is a great way to both increase mailing list subscribers and to get more people using their products.

Word of mouth campaigns offer a simple and affordable way to open your business up to a whole new audience. By using email to encourage word of mouth among your customers, you also have the added benefit of making your messages feel more personal and engaging.

http://www.business2community.com/email-marketing/encouraging-word-mouth-email-marketing-01235861

5 Big Internet Marketing Mistakes (That Are Incredibly Easy to Make)

The Internet is full of “must-do” lists when it comes to web design and Internet marketing. Click through popular blogs, our own included, and you’ll find many different tips on what you have to try, use, or manage if you want to find customers over the Internet.

Knowing which mistakes to avoid is just as important as realizing which best practices you have to follow, however. For that reason, we’d like to point out five big Internet marketing mistakes that are incredibly easy to make:

1. Pestering your customers. Email marketing is incredibly valuable, but lots of companies use it to simply badger their customers week after week (or even several times per week) with one offer after another. Be sure to mix up your sales pitches with some informative articles and ideas, so your customers don’t feel like you’re just contacting them when you want something.

2. Sounding just like your competitors. A lot of business owners and managers are at a loss when it comes to describing or differentiating their companies, so they adopt the approach to either copy their competitors or come up with web content that is similar to what they’ve seen. The end result, though, is a set of pages that doesn’t set a business apart from the competition.

3. Promoting too many sales or discounts. When you’re constantly having sales and offering discounts, you don’t just give your business a short-term revenue boost – you also teach your customers that they can get your products or services for less if they are willing to wait long enough. In other words, discounting too much or too often can make it virtually impossible for you to find customers for your normal prices.

4. Not building trust. Today’s consumers have a lot of skepticism when it comes to what they read and see on the Internet. That’s why it’s up to you to do everything you can to build trust and credibility on your website. Show them that their transactions are safe, that you’ve been in business for a long time, and that other customers are willing to vouch for you. That brings us to…

5. Ignoring online reviews. The online reviews your company has are your most important marketing tool, because they essentially amount to word-of-mouth advertising. Do everything you can to encourage buyers to leave good reviews for your business, and take immediate action to clean things up if the feedback you get is less than stellar.

Are you working against your own Internet marketing success by making these common mistakes? If so, the first step is realizing that they’re holding you back and deciding to be smarter in the future. The second step is to call us today and let us show you how we can make your website more effective and profitable at the same time.

http://www.washingtontimesreporter.com/article/20150522/BLOGS/305229999/1662

4 Steps to Tell a Great Story Through Visual Content

This is a guest post by Mario Mejia, senior designer atEastwick.

Today we are constantly bombarded by content – and it’s only increasing. In fact, 70% of today’s marketers plan to increase their use of original visual content in 2015. This is no surprise, as visuals are not only more engaging and digestible, but 86% of buyers actually express desire to access interactive/visual content on demand.

Good content always leads with a strong story that’s relevant to your audience and provides actionable insight. When shaping stories for our clients, I tend to follow the pattern that asks four questions:

1. WHAT?

Readers are busy and don’t have time to spare. Grab their attention and let them know what your piece of content is promising to deliver right away. Is your infographic a guide on how to better target millennials on mobile? Perhaps it is a Slideshare on environmental issues and how technology can help reduce your footprint? Whatever it is, get to the point and optimize your title with keywords to help accomplish this.

2. WHY?

Now that you have your reader’s attention, you must keep it. Why should they care about your topic? Why is it important in the bigger picture? Why is this a problem? This is the ideal place to include meaningful data to back up your point. Help the reader connect the dots with other related topics to fully illustrate the extent of its impact. Be sure to include data that is not only meaningful but also current and accurate.

3. HOW?

How can your reader use your expertise to better help them? A brand’s communication is no longer a one-way stream, and readers now expect to get something out of their engagements. If your piece is about the subscription economy targeted for product managers, give them actionable tips on how they can improve and achieve their goals. Remember to make it about the reader and not about you. This should not be a list of all the reasons your product or service is the best, but how the information you deliver is helpful to your audience.

4. NOW WHAT?

What action do you want the reader to take once they’ve successfully engaged with your content? Do you want them to follow your social channels? Do you want them to share your content using a special hashtag? Should they visit a landing page to get more information about your product or solution? Let them know and make it easy for them to do so.

At the end of the day, we’re all consumers too so follow your intuition and produce content that is truly engaging and helpful. Look through your audience’s lens and ask – what would be generous to offer them? If you wouldn’t want to spend time with your own content, chances are no one else will either.

Lead with a great story, back it up with interesting data, package it in a visually pleasing way, and get ready to impress your readers with great visual content!

http://www.adweek.com/prnewser/4-steps-to-tell-a-great-story-through-visual-content/114444