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Tips For Writing a Great, Click-Worthy Subject Line

Why blog? Why email? Why send anyone anything if they’re not going to read or respond (sidenote: why did you click on this post? Was it the title)?

Most people will tell you it’s about impressions. And most people wouldn’t be wrong…per se. When you get down to the nitty-gritty of it, marketing (content or otherwise) is genuinely about impressions. Magazines are ranked by their impressions, not their subscriptions. Same goes for periodicals. Since most content and publications have moseyed on over to the world wide web, impressions are even more important. People now measure your viral to organic ratios of impressions. So, it’s pretty safe to say that impressions are pretty damn important.

But are they it? You know, the big proverbial it.

In the grand scheme of content and online marketing, we’re looking for more than just impressions. We want clicks. Conversions. Sales. So, how can you drive those things? Especially when most people, including myself, are quick to ignore a sales-driven email that arrives in our inbox?

It’s All About That Subject Line

People, in general, are pretty easy to understand in today’s world. Life is busy. Time is limited. Connections need to be made swiftly and they need to have a point. The very same goes for your email marketing strategy. You need to capture your consumer’s attention in pretty much 6 words or less (just so you know: we spend about as much time on the subject line as we do writing & designing the whole email — it’s that important). Here are some great tips to shortening up your subject line to drive a higher open-rate and generate more sales from email.

Get to The Point: Don’t beat around the bush. Keep your subject line succinct and a fair assessment of what your reader will get if they open your email. Simple is your best friend when it comes to writing subject lines. People don’t need eloquent subject lines, they don’t need stories either. The more direct you are, the faster it is for them to skim over the subject and decide quickly if they want more.

Avoid Spammy Buzz Words: Free, New, Today Only, Sale, Buy, Don’t Miss Out, Your Only Chance, Free, Once in a Lifetime, Opportunity, Free, Download, Free. While fun, these words will fast-track you to the “spam” folder in most inboxes. If you’re lucky enough to get by the spam filter, then you’re dealing with humans who have bee pitched to with enough sales-y garbage to know better.

Give ’em Something to Read About: Content, Content, Content. Despite the fact that we can all argue that people are reading less today than ever before, we can’t argue that people are reading MORE of what they want. Recent studies have shown that consumers today will read a 1200 word article on something that catches their attention but not even bother with a 200 word blog post that doesn’t quite give them something they need. We’re all looking for advice, for insight, for quality content. So, be sure to provide something useful inside your email that your audience can grow to rely on.

Think About What You Open: Take a look at your inbox. Scroll through all the emails that you receive. See which ones catch your attention. Start from there. Once you understand what you’re opening and reading, you’ll get a better feel for what others will open and read. More often than not, what you’re opening are subject lines that are providing you with something you want–while also sharing a bit of who they are. Whether it’s “The Only Bag You’ll Need” from J. Crew or “This Week’s New Music” from Spotify, there’s something in there that will catch your attention. Take a gander and then take a shot at your own subject lines.

These days, time is tight. So, if you don’t have the time to kick-off a killer email strategy, go ahead and outsource. There’s a lot going on in the wide world of online and content marketing. Make sure you’re not getting left behind.

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Quick & Easy Marketing Tips

You’re full of good ideas, and this time you’re sure you’ve captured lightning in a bottle. Only problem is you don’t have an effective way to engage your audience and let them know about it. What’s the next big thing if you can’t share it with anybody?

Getting the word out about your product or service takes both time and a plan, and the goal is ultimately not just to reach your target audience but to grow it. With that in mind, here are a few marketing tips so that you can connect with and engage your prospects and take your business to the next level.

Marketing Tip #1: Get Social

Social media isn’t going anywhere, so your marketing efforts need to meet people where they are. If you haven’t already, create business accounts for your brand on all the popular social media outlets: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Then get active.

Post articles, tweet links and pin boards relevant to your brand to get the conversation started, which will in turn establish you as an industry expert and attract potential clients. It’s also a good idea to post FAQs and How-To guides. Providing this level of customer service online will improve your business’s reputation and ultimately increase sales.

Marketing Tip # 2: Giveaways and Contests

Who doesn’t like free stuff? Whether you’re planning special event or promoting a new product or service, if there is something that can be gotten for free, we guarantee people will flock to it. Giveaways and contests are excellent marketing opportunities for many reasons. You reach a wider audience by word of mouth and sharing online. That larger audience gets to try out the product or service risk-free. And, if all goes well, you build relationships through the promotion you otherwise wouldn’t have and create customers for life. That brand loyalty is the holy grail of marketing.

That being said, let’s get our TFG warning out of the way now. Contests also run the risk of being ‘overdone,’ not creative enough, or even not lining up well with your brand’s overall message. It’s important to ensure that any contest you run has a point (and one beyond just sending more likes to your Facebook page). Consumers know when they’re being hustled. And these days, the goal is to build a bond–not tear one down. So, just be sure that your contests are engaging and worthwhile.

Marketing Tip #3: Keep It Simple

Though it may seem scientific and multifaceted, marketing does not have to be complicated to be effective. Your customers will appreciate a simpler approach as well, for the fewer decisions they have to make when encountering your product or service, the fewer interruptions they have to the buying process. Keep your message short and sweet, and after the sale make sure you follow up. An email newsletter is an excellent way to touch base with customers to both show your appreciation for their patronage and deliver useful information about upcoming events.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to succeed at marketing your business. The wheels are already there. You just need to use them effectively to drive your business to the next level. If you need any help reaching your goals, or just want to follow up on some of these marketing tips, feel free to contact us here at The Found Gen.

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How an Editor Can Help You Save Face

Editing is the art and craft of fine-tuning a piece of writing. An editor relies on tone, style, grammar, sentence structure and overall flow to deliver a clear message. For example, they whittle a 2,000-word behemoth article into a concise 450-word article. A good editor makes any writer shine.

On the other hand, a bad editor, or lack thereof, can lead readers astray.

Instead of being guided to a particular conclusion or idea, readers are left wondering, “What is really going on here?”

At least that was the case when Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella and executive vice president Stephen Elop posted public memos announcing the company’s new direction…and layoffs. The latest memo from Mr. Elop, which followed a more-than 3,000-word novella from Nadella, came in at a stifling 1,100-plus words. But he only describes the layoffs in one paragraph. 40 words. Two sentences.

Without getting into too many details, it’s clear that these Microsoft execs could have benefitted from the expertise of an editor. How could an international heavy hitter deliver news that they were trimming 14% of their workforce in a tiny, hidden section of a sprawling, near-rambling message?

Editors see it all the time. Good ones, and strong content specialists, know when enough is enough. A writer shouldn’t be faulted for his or her wordiness. However, editing adds clarity and simplicity to a piece. It also increases the likelihood of the article or memo being read. In the age of GIFs and YouTube, it’s hard for most average readers to scroll “below the fold” of a website to keep reading, let alone embark on a 10,000-word article.

As you prepare your next email, company (or worldwide) manifesto, blog or letter, consider the impact of your writing. Does it achieve the intended goals? Does it communicate the message succinctly with an appropriate tone? Are the sentences and structure clear? Could it be shorter? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re already thinking like an editor.

Save yourself or your company from the next PR disaster. Let your words pack a swift knockout punch instead of a Rocky-esque 15-round match.

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How to Maximize Your Content Marketing Campaign

In the realm of getting your organization’s name out there, content is king. Content marketing has myriad functionality, letting you advertise your business’s expertise, fitting easily through multiple distribution channels including blogging, social media, email and so much more.

However, some businesses struggle when it comes to maximizing their content marketing campaign, stonewalling progress instead of connecting them like a superconductor to their target market. Whether you are in charge of producing your own content or you trust it in the hands of others, here are a few key steps you can take to help ensure you get the most out of your content marketing campaign.

Use What You Already Have

Quality content is not a perishable item. It does not have an expiration date or go sour after a certain period of time. To the contrary quality content is malleable. Creating several different pieces out of one is an easy way to stretch out your resources. Let’s say the original work is an article. It is not asking too much to transform it into a video, slideshow or podcast. Or why not reduce the content down to its most salient points and produce an infographic or post about it on social media? Even ephemeral content such as topical blogs can become valuable points of reference and comparison down the road.

I am not suggesting that all content translates seamlessly into every available format; but all content can, and should be repurposed to great effect.

Sharing is Caring

Now that you have the various forms your content has taken, it is time to get it out there to your target audience. The more exposure you give your content, the more traffic it is likely to generate. Keeping in mind the various preferences people will have in engaging your content, there really is no such thing as oversharing. expired domain list . What I mean by this is that some people will prefer to read about the “5 Leadership Lessons from True Detective” while others will be more interested in watching a video dedicated to deciphering Rust Cohle’s nihilistic ramblings. Therefore it is totally okay to post links in your blog to your Twitter account, from your Twitter to your YouTube channel, from YouTube to your Facebook page and everywhere in between.

As an added bonus, simply being active on these various distribution channels allows you to maximize every slice of content you publish. The more you share the more likely someone else is to share your content. After all, putting your information out there is really the heart of marketing. The more seeds you scatter, the greater the chance some will find results in social and online soil.

Stick With It

Perhaps most important of all is maintaining consistency with your content. Like with any well-intentioned decision, your content marketing campaign requires both time and attention to reach its goals. Do not fall into the trap of letting your content die a predictable, New Year’s resolution-like death. Set a realistic publishing frequency and stick with it. Whether it’s once a day, once a week, or even once a month, the number does not matter as much as the consistency does. You can always produce more content later when you have more time, but if you halt production, it can take a serious toll on your traffic. Staying active by regularly publishing quality content is a tried and true way to build a following. Then once people start to expect and look forward to your content, you can initiate and participate in conversations with other leaders that benefit your business. And the positive feedback loop just keeps circling.

If the content is good, accessible and consistent, they will come.

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Tips for Creating Mobile-Friendly Content

Trendsetting (adj): doing it before it’s cool.

Trendsetters are always thinking ahead and pondering what’s coming next (if you hear someone say, ‘That’s so 2014,’ you can safely assume they think of themselves as one). These are the folks in online marketing that have been heralding the onslaught of the mobile web for the last couple of years.

Thanks to these forward thinkers, we now have responsive design that formats our websites and emails to the device people are using. And while mobile-friendly design is great and all, there have been a dearth of posts about making mobile-friendly content that fits in the palm of your reader’s hand.

Where do you start? Well, I’m glad you asked.

Focus on Your Audience

The first question to ask is why are people browsing the web on their phones. Is it to pass the time because they’re bored? When they’re waiting in line/for the elevator/at the doctor’s office?

More often than not, people are passing the time. So help them.

Entertaining and engaging mobile-friendly content drives traffic. Now, this isn’t saying you need to try and be Buzzfeed or UpWorthy, just realize this is why those sites do so well.

Once you figure out what your audience wants, create that content.

Content on the Go

As we’ve talked about before, few things get people to stop reading more quickly than long blocks of text. So shorten up those paragraphs.

Next, make sure your content is engaging. I would say to make it entertaining, but that’s probably not the best move if you own a funeral home.

Then, once you’ve gotten your post (or email) perfect, Strunk & White it. For those of you that don’t regularly nerd out on grammar, edit it down so you are omitting needless words. Don’t overcomplicate things.

Finally, give it one last read-through to ensure you’re sending the right message. You won’t seal any deal unless you actually propose one.

From your email marketing platform to your website, everything should format itself automatically, save the content. But if you keep your audience in mind and engage them, you’re well on your way.

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10 Common Myths About Social Media

It seems like everyone today has got an opinion about how you should use social media to find success online. And like most topics where opinions are shared readily, most of these points will lead you astray.

The fact of the matter is social media is a lively, vivacious entity where you are allowed to connect, build relationships and engage with your audience while simultaneously establishing your brand’s overall tone, personality and message.

The key is, don’t get weighed down by the onslaught of ridiculous advice that many charlatans are trying to spew in attempts to label themselves as “social media experts.” No one is an expert in social media—we’re all learning, playing, engaging. Social media, like most marketing and tech-based tools and tactics today, is ever-changing—and the one guaranteed true piece of advice for any brand is to stay true to yourself.

In the meantime, I’ve broken down the top 10 most ludicrous myths about social media. These are stories we’ve heard and things that you should be weary of when launching your own social strategy:

10 Big Social Media Myths:

  1. The More Followers, The Merrier: This is probably the most common thing we hear day-in, day-out. Businesses are constantly in search of garnering thousands of new followers, instantly. Brands typically go to the point of buying followers from fake accounts to give the impression that they’re popular on a given social platform. This is absurd. While we’re all big fans of the “fake it til you make it” mantra—this takes it just a step too far. One hundred loyal fans, who interact with your brand regularly and who buy your product, are 100x more valuable than a list of a thousand subscribers who either don’t know you exist or worse, don’t exist themselves.
  2. Social Media Is Your Own Personal Broadcast Channel: As much as any given person may be the biggest fan of your brand—they do not want to hear all about you, all the time. Just like in any relationship—social media is a give and take. It’s something we say to all our clients—with social media you have to earn the right to bring the conversation back to you. You cannot start off just talking about you, your product, your service. People tune it out. Rather, start a dialogue with your audience about them. Get to know them, their interests and then find a way, once you’ve established a connection, to bring it back to your goals.
  3. Social Media Can Replace Your Website: While Facebook, Twitter, and even Google+ are great platforms to showcase your brand and your services—these are just platforms. They’re compliments to your overall online identity. A website is your first and last line of defense online. When a potential customer searches for you—they immediately check for your site. After that, they go to your Facebook or Twitter profiles—which should inevitably send them back to your site. Social media provides a fun foray into the mind of your brand—but your site will always serve as the main place for converting a lead to a client.
  4. You Can’t Track Success or ROI: Fiddlesticks. There are plenty of cool assessment and analysis tools out there today. Good content marketing experts will provide you with monthly, bimonthly or quarterly assessments—where you can track where users are coming from, demographics, psychographics, and even identify actions taken on your site (purchases, article devouring, listening to a podcast or watching a slide-show). From there you should be able to leverage all your known data and apply it to create a more streamlined and targeted approach to your marketing.
  5. Blogging Is a Waste of Time: No matter what anyone tells you—blogging is never a waste of time. It’s the most essential part to any social & online strategy. We’ve talked about it before—keeping a regular blog schedule helps raise your rankings on Google, establishes you as a thought leader, and generates a loyal following of readers. If time is really an issue, you can hire a content marketing team (ahem, cough, cough—like us), to handle all the writing, management and strategizing behind your blog.
  6. You Have to Be Everywhere! The only person who has to be everywhere at once is Santa Claus. And even that’s only one night a year. Beyond that, no one has to be everywhere and certainly not at once. Certain platforms are better suited for certain businesses. Some platforms shouldn’t even be considered for certain brands, as it’s a drain of energy and resources. It’s best to create a social strategy that focuses on your brand’s strengths and target audience. It’s better to be strongly situated and active on 2 platforms, than spread out across 6 or more where you rarely, if ever, post or interact.
  7. There’s No Point to Google+: Oh, silly you. Did you fall for that line? It’s okay, that’s a pretty common occurrence. Google+ (now Google My Business) is either being heralded or slammed—it seems like it just depends on the day. In fact, Google+ is a great platform for multiple reasons, the main being it’s relationship to SEO rankings. Posts from Google+ are being indexed in the SERPs, and authors’ profile pages show up next to results, improving click-through rates on any given search. But again, like I mentioned in #6 above, this isn’t a site to just set-up and leave. Make sure that if you pursue G+, that you understand your audience, community and how to leverage the SEO benefits.
  8. Respond Immediately, Or Else: Despite popular belief, social media will survive—and people will be able to handle it—if you don’t respond to a tweet or Facebook post instantaneously. Like email, the invention of smart phones has destroyed us a bit on what we deem an acceptable lead-time with response rates. But social media, in essence, is managed by real people. We all have a myriad of things going on at any given moment. The world will continue to revolve, and your brand will survive, if you wait an hour or ten. Promise.
  9. The More Hashtags, The Merrier: Oh dear lord. When was the last time you searched for something solely by looking up the hashtag? #justinbiebergotarrested. Well, this may come as a shock, but social platforms are getting better at search. You can find a subject matter without the cute little pound sign. And hashtagging up a tweet just distracts people from your message. Granted, who doesn’t love a good hashtag? Just, use them wisely. #no #sense #going #overboard.
  10. Social Media Gives People a Space to Bash My Brand: I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if someone wants to say something negative about your brand, they already have a venue. And it’s a big one: the internet. Not having an active Facebook, Twitter, or Yelp page doesn’t protect you from angst-ridden wrath. In fact, social profiles have proven to be more beneficial in helping brands get through a negative moment. Skype grew their following by being aware of issues, talking directly with customers during a service blackout and more. Surprisingly enough, you can build more credibility for your brand by using social media than by avoiding it all together.

So there you have it. Ten myths that you can now set free as you embark on your social strategy for the year. The bigger message is: jump on in, the water’s great!