Not having a fun time with IT? marketingIO can act as your buffer to get the job done.

Basic/ Digest...

• You have about five seconds to catch your reader’s attention. If you can’t present a compelling reason for why they should stay in about five seconds, they’re going to leave.
• A recent study by Outbrain illustrates how headline length can be linked to user engagement. The highest CTRs were witnessed for articles that had moderate headline lengths (16-18 words).
• As Bnonn Tennant found out, copy that goes far below the fold often out-converts those that try to keep selling points above the fold.
• According to the F-Shaped pattern study, most people read Web content in a very specific way. First, they read the headline. Then they read the first sentence on the page. Then they jump down and either scan paragraphs or subheads.
• When a user lands on your blog for the first time, their brain is asking, Is there something here for me? Is there a reward? Or should I leave?
• The study found that users form an aesthetic judgment about your website between 17 and 50 milliseconds. That’s about 1/10th the speed of your eye blinking.
• The more complex/cluttered a webpage is, the less likely users are to stick around.
• People have a certain expectation of what a blog should look like. If your blog varies widely from the convention, you’ll break rapport with your readers.
• In another study titled “Determinants of Web Page Viewing Behavior,” researchers found that complex website designs tended to increase “unexpected paths.” In other words, on simple blogs, people tended to follow a predictable eye pattern. They look at the headline, the first sentence, scan the page and then decide if they want to read. On complex blogs, this pattern can be unpredictable.
• The primary reason why less visually complex websites are perceived as more beautiful is because we don’t require our eyes and brain to work as hard to decode, process and store the data.
• On larger fonts, people had smaller and more frequent fixations. That means they were taking in fewer words per “visual gulp.”
• No or low margin text was read faster, but had lower comprehension. Putting a good amount of white space around your text gets people to read a little slower, but makes them understand the material a lot more.

____________________________________________________

► Receive a FREE daily summary of The Marketing Technology Alert directly to your inbox. To subscribe, please go to http://ineomarketing.com/About_The_MAR_Sub.html  (your privacy is protected).

So. You think you’ve got yourself a good blog post. You chose your writing style. You knocked out the first draft. You allowed it to sit for an hour or a day. Now it’s time to edit that bad dog — ruthlessly.

___________________________________

► Receive a FREE daily summary of The Marketing Technology Alert directly to your inbox. To subscribe, please go to http://ineomarketing.com/About_The_MAR_Sub.html  (your privacy is protected).

Five ideas and resources to help you write more unique, interesting and epic content that will allow you to break through the clutter and get noticed

Intermediate/ Digest...

Try choosing one of the ideas below:

-- >  Challenge popular opinion

-- >  Incorporate themes

-- >  Be edgy

-- >  Capitalize on seasonal and reoccurring events

-- >  Don’t be afraid of a little newsjacking

-- >  Google Hot Search: Check this list at least a couple times a week to see what topics are trending right now. If anything strikes you as something you could write about – and relate back to your industry – you’ll want to get it done as quickly as possible to capitalize on its current popularity.

-- >  Alltop.com: Alltop is an aggregated site that lists the hottest stories on a variety of popular blogs and sites. Often just reading others’ blog posts can spur an idea for a related topic of your own, so check out this site if you need a little inspiration.

-- >  Little Bird: Little Bird alerts you to the hottest emerging news in your industry, allowing you to write a blog post on those topics before anyone else. You have to “request access” before trying it out, but once approved, you can get a free trial to see if it will work for you.

__________________________________

► NEW: iNeoMarketing makes content marketing easy with the new Q8 Content. Q8 fills your content pipeline daily with relevant articles that your audience wants to read. Learn more and sign up for the beta program: http://www.Q8content.com.

► Receive a FREE daily summary of The Marketing Technology Alert directly to your inbox. To subscribe, please go to http://ineomarketing.com/About_The_MAR_Sub.html  (your privacy is protected).