Research Archives - Copyblogger

Written by Sonia Simone | April 19, 2017 | 14 Comments

3 Ways to Get What You Want by Doing Your Homework

Polly Professional has a lot going on today. She has a blog post due, a podcast script to write, an employee review to conduct, two client meetings, and she’s meeting her cousin Penny for dinner.

And then it comes. Ding.

An email from Steve Stranger.

Maybe he’s a sales pro trying to set up a “quick meeting to discuss his company’s solutions,” but it’s clear he has no idea what her company does or what Polly’s role is. Or maybe he needs a job, and he figures that being her second-cousin’s college roommate has got to qualify him for something. Or he wants to write for her company’s blog, even though he doesn’t understand the audience or the topic.

Worst of all: Maybe he wants to pick her brain.
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Written by Brian Clark | January 17, 2017 | 20 Comments

How to Attract Your Ideal Customer with Perfectly Positioned Content

“Hello, I’m a Mac.”

“And I’m a PC.”

You remember Apple’s “Get a Mac” series of commercials that ran from May 2006 to October 2009?

The commercials were short vignettes featuring John Hodgman as the sweet-yet-bumbling PC and Justin Long as the creative, hip Mac.

Those 66 short spots were named the best advertising campaign of the previous decade by Adweek.

The success of the long-running campaign leads one to believe that Apple certainly knows who its ideal customer is. Of course they do … because they chose their ideal customer, right from the birth of the Macintosh itself.
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Written by Kyle Fiehler | November 15, 2016 | 6 Comments

Struggling to Write for Technical Experts? Try These 3 Powerful Content Marketing Practices

Engineers and other technical experts take to the web to educate themselves on their options now more than ever before.

When sifting through online content, engineers and other experts in their fields want facts, not a hard sell. They’re conducting serious research.

In fact, according to a study by CEB in partnership with Google, 57 percent of the B2B purchasing process has been completed by the time someone contacts a salesperson.

So, as content marketers, we need to give them the information they need to make smart purchasing decisions. But engineers have already studied for years to accrue their subject matter expertise. Can marketers actually talk intelligently to them online?

A marketer’s challenge lies in extracting the best information and translating it into relatable content, while not sacrificing accuracy in the process.

Journalists like Ed Yong and Carl Zimmer bring cutting-edge science to the masses on a regular basis, and content marketers can follow their leads.

Here are three content marketing tips that non-experts can use when writing about technical subjects.
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Written by Rainmaker.FM | August 26, 2015 | 0 Comments

How to Avoid Getting Sucker-Punched by Internet ‘Facts’

Don’t you love those Internet facts? You know, the ones that aren’t facts at all, they’re fodder for our own confirmation bias, and weapons in the Outrage Wars.

In the early days of the social web, we thought that bringing people together would create a knowledge utopia. What we got instead was a battleground of competing ideas — many of them misguided or just plain wrong.

A Straightforward Research Method for Finding a Potent Hook

You could have a great product, a revolutionary idea, or a compelling piece of content, but unless you position it with the right approach that instantly captures the imagination of your ideal prospect, forget it.

Listen. People will rush to do business with you if you can help them achieve their dreams, calm their fears, confirm their suspicions, and help them cast stones at their enemies.

Sounds simple enough, right? Unfortunately, it’s not.

Master These 10 Print Magazine Tips to Create Irresistible Online Content

Fans of the Internet love to mock print magazines.

They love to gloat and preen as the gate to Big Media’s kingdom has been thrown open — and the gatekeepers are torn from their thrones and tossed in the moat (the pockets of their blazers stuffed with rocks).

We watch from a distance as the city burns to the ground. Like there is nothing redeemable about these institutions.

That’s unfortunate. Because they actually have a lot to teach us.
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