How to Write to Convert with Pam Neely @PamellaNeely #VCBuzz

How to Write to Convert with Pam Neely @PamellaNeely #VCBuzz Writing is art. But these days it’s also a marketing tactic.

So how to write content that achieves the most important goal: Conversion? Let’s discuss!

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About Pam

Pam Neely @PamellaNeely content creation powerhouse: part writer, part marketer with a background in publishing and a Master’s Degree in Direct and Interactive Marketing from New York University.

Pam wrote the Kindle book, “50 Ways to Build Your Email List”

Questions we discussed

Q1 How did you become a content marketer? Did you ever plan to earn your living by writing? How did you manage to build such an impressive writing career?

Evolved into it. Started in journalism as beat reporter, then wrote for trade magazine. Then worked at book catalog – copywriting and bizdev.

Built first website there in 1998. Went on to 2 advertiing agencies during/after grad school (for direct and interactive marketing).

Then helped small businesses with marketing. Then built my own sites for AdSense/other income. Then started writing for marketing companies.

Re: plan to earn living by writing? – Yes

Re: how did I build writing career? – Typing. Lots of typing 🙂

Q2 What would be your #1 advice to content providers: How to produce top-quality content?

Serve your audiences’ needs first (not yours).

Aim to create the best answer to their questions that’s been published.

Q3 How to achieve higher conversions with content?

Add “content upgrades” or #leadgen offers, for starters. Amazing how many
sites don’t do that.

Then customize upgrades so they are closely related to the content/blog posts
that drew the traffic in 1st place.

Then test, test, test. Opinions mean nothing – test to prove your suspicions.

Also try #interactivecontent. Like an assessment. Then followup with a
personalized #email drop campaign based on assessment results.

A3. Make sure your content solves a specific pain point. #vcbuzz

— Cheval John (@chevd80) September 5, 2017

Great point! If you don’t know those pain points, surveys can help you find them.

Good point. Being in the conversation will play out in the data. Data let's you know if you're accurate. Shouldn't drive content #VCBuzz

— Not In My Colour (@NotInMyColour) September 5, 2017

Multiple Variant Testing is a good option for that outperforms A/B by testing several criterial / combinations at once. #vcbuzz

— 24 Hour Translation (@24hrtranslation) September 5, 2017

True – but you need A LOT of traffic to do it

Q4 What are some of your favorite conversion optimization tactics?

Button copy. Doubled conversion rate for an old client by testing button copy.
Saved them nearly $1 million adspend per year with 1 test!

Test how different traffic sources respond. For example, Facebook users respond to landing
pages differently than email subscribers or search traffic.

Test headlines and offers.

@PamellaNeely best tools for A/B testing? or easy tutorials? still over my head! #vcbuzz

— Jessy Troy (@jessytroy) September 5, 2017

@Optimizely is good. @conversionxl has awesome testing / optimization info. And @BEHAVEdotorg has great weekly tests.

Just test one thing at a time. Testing takes patience.

Q5 What are your favorite content writing and marketing tools?

Use @HemmingwayApp and @Grammarly on everything.

Love @BuzzSumo for headline/topic research.

Also @Feedly and Twitter for research.

Also liking @Quuu a lot for content promotion these days.

Probably wouldn’t get half as much writing done without the #pomodoro technique.

Buzzsumo and Coschedule! RT @vcbuzz: Buzzers! Share your favorite content #writing and #marketing tools as well! #vcbuzz

— Jessy Troy (@jessytroy) September 5, 2017

https://t.co/fwCJ14HBj3 is good stuff. Now with a keyword exploration function. #vcbuzz

— Don Sturgill (@DonSturgill) September 5, 2017

Definitely. They’re an awesome resource.

@VCBuzz is great, too! Lots of people have recommended it #contentpromotion #vcbuzz

— Pam Neely (@PamellaNeely) September 5, 2017

A5+ Content marketing tools: @MyBlogU @VCBuzz @Trello @Serpstat @Buzzsumo (<-they have a new great question analyzer feature!) #vcbuzz

— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) September 5, 2017

@PamellaNeely Could you share your favorite lead magnet examples? #vcbuzz

— Jessy Troy (@jessytroy) September 5, 2017

@Hubspot has a really sophisticated #leadgen / magnet examples – and research of what’s worked for them. Also like @ScoopIt Content Grader assessment tool. Requires an email to use… the “magnet” is getting your personalized results.