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5 Simple Things You Can Do To Improve the Content Experience for Readers

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5 Simple Things You Can Do To Improve the Content Experience for Readers

Who doesn’t like to have a good experience consuming content?

I know I do. And isn’t that what we – as both a consumer of content and a marketer of content – all want?

What if you create such a good experience that your audience doesn’t even realize it’s an “experience?” Here’s a helpful mish-mash of easy-to-do things to make that possible.

1. Write with an inclusive heart

There’s nothing worse than being in a conversation with someone who constantly talks about themselves. Check your text to see how often you write the words – I, me, we, and us. Now, count how often the word “you” is used. If the first-person uses are disproportionate to the second-person uses, edit to delete many first-person references and add more “you” to the text.

You want to let your audience know they are included in the conversation. I like this tip shared in Take Binary Bias Out of Your Content Conversations by Content Marketing World speaker Ruth Carter: Go through your text and replace exclusionary terms such as he/him and she/her with they/them pronouns.

Go through your text and replace exclusionary terms such as he/him and she/her with they/them pronouns, says @rbcarter via @Brandlovellc @CMIContent. #WritingTips Click To Tweet

2. Make your content shine brighter with an AI assist

Content published online should look different than the research papers and essays you wrote in school. While you should adhere to grammar rules and follow a style guide as best as possible, you also should prioritize readability. That requires scannable and easily digestible text – headings, bulleted text, short sentences, brief paragraphs, etc.

Use a text-polishing aid such as Hemingway Editor (free and paid versions) to cut the dead weight from your writing. Here’s how its color-coded review system works and the improvements to make:

  • Yellow – lengthy, complex sentences, and common errors
    • Fix: Shorten or split sentences.
  • Red – dense and complicated text
    • Fix: Remove hurdles and keep your readers on a simpler path.
  • Pink – lengthy words that could be shortened
    • Fix: Scroll the mouse over the problematic word to identify potential substitutes.
  • Blue – adverbs and weakening phrases
    • Fix: Delete them or find a better way to convey the thought.
  • Green – passive voice
    • Fix: Rewrite for active voice.

1675106631 672 5 Simple Things You Can Do To Improve the Content

Grammarly’s paid version works well, too. The premium version includes an AI-powered writing assistant, readability reports, a plagiarism checker, citation suggestions, and more than 400 additional grammar checks.

In the image below, Grammarly suggests a way to rephrase the sentence from:

“It is not good enough any longer to simply produce content “like a media company would”.

To:

“It is no longer good enough to produce content “as a media company would”.

1675106631 763 5 Simple Things You Can Do To Improve the Content

Much cleaner, right?

3. Ask questions

See what I did with the intro (and here)? I posed questions to try to engage with you. When someone asks a question – even in writing – the person hearing (or reading) it is likely to pause for a split second to consider their answer. The reader’s role changes from a passive participant to an active one. Using this technique also can encourage your readers to interact with the author, maybe in the form of an answer in the comments.

4. Include links

Many content marketers include internal and external links in their text for their SEO value. But you also should add links to help your readers. Consider including links to help a reader who wants to learn more about the topic. You can do this in a couple of ways:

  • You can link the descriptive text in the article to content relevant to those words (as I did in this bullet point)
  • You can list the headlines of related articles as a standalone feature (see the gray box labeled Handpicked Related Content at the end of this article).

Add links to guide readers to more information on a topic – not just for SEO purposes says @Brandlovellc via @CMIContent. #WritingTips Click To Tweet

You also can include on-page links or bookmarks in the beginning (a table of contents, of sorts) in longer pieces to help the reader more quickly access the content they seek to help you learn more about a topic. This helps the reader and keeps visitors on your website longer.

1675106631 4 5 Simple Things You Can Do To Improve the Content

5. Don’t forget the ‘invisible’ text

Alt text is often an afterthought – if you think about it all. Yet, it’s essential to have a great content experience for people who use text-to-speech readers. Though it doesn’t take too much time, I find that customizing the image description content instead of relying on the default technology works better for audience understanding.

First, ask if a listener would miss something if they didn’t have the image explained. If they wouldn’t, the image is decorative and probably doesn’t need alt text. You publish it for aesthetic reasons, such as to break up a text-heavy page. Or it may repeat information already appearing in the text (like I did in the Hemingway and Grammarly examples above).

If the listener would miss out if the image weren’t explained well, it is informative and requires alt text. General guidelines indicate up to 125 characters (including spaces) work best for alt text. That’s a short sentence or two to convey the image’s message. Don’t forget to include punctuation.

General guidelines indicate up to 125 characters (including spaces) work best for alt text, says @Brandlovellc via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

For both decorative and informative images, include the photo credits, permissions, and copyright information, in the caption section.

For example, if I were writing an article about Best Dogs for Families, I would include an image of a mini Bernedoodle as an example because they make great family pets. Let’s use this image of my adorable puppy, Henri, and I’ll show you both a good and bad example of alt text.

An almost useless alt-text version: “An image showing a dog.”

Author’s tri-colored (brown, white, black, grey wavy hair), merle mini Bernedoodle, Henri, lying on green grass.

It wastes valuable characters with the phrase “an image showing.”

Use the available characters for a more descriptive alt text: “Author’s tri-colored (brown, white, black, grey wavy hair), merle mini Bernedoodle, Henri, lying on green grass.”

It’s more descriptive, and I only used 112 characters, including spaces.

Want to learn more? Alexa Heinrich, an award-winning social media strategist, has a helpful article on writing effective image descriptions called The Art of Alt Text. @A11yAwareness on Twitter is also a great resource for accessibility tips.

Improve your content and better the experience

Do any of these suggestions feel too hard to execute? I hope not. They don’t need a bigger budget to execute. They don’t need a lengthy approval process to implement. And they don’t demand much more time in production.

They just need you to remember to execute them the next time you write (and the time after that, and the time after that, and the … well, you get the idea.)

If you have an easy-to-implement tip to improve the content experience, please leave it in the comments. I may include it in a future update.

All tools mentioned in the article are identified by the author. If you have a tool to suggest, please feel free to add it in the comments.

If you have an idea for an original article you’d like to share with the CMI audience, you could get it published on the site. First, read our blogging guidelines and write or adjust your draft accordingly. Then submit the post for consideration following the process outlined in the guidelines.

In appreciation for guest contributors’ work, we’re offering free registration to one paid event or free enrollment in Content Marketing University to anyone who gets two new posts accepted and published on the CMI site in 2023.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute



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MARKETING

How to Edit a PDF [Easy Guide]

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How to Edit a PDF [Easy Guide]

If you regularly send PDF files over the internet, knowing how to edit PDF files quickly will make your life a lot easier.

PDF, short for portable document format, is a type of digital file that allows you to send content that is readable by other users regardless of what software they use to view the file. And in order for PDFs to adapt to various viewing platforms, the file’s text and images can’t easily be modified once packaged into a PDF.

But it’s not impossible.

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3 recession-defeating marketing strategies

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3 recession-defeating marketing strategies

At least thrice a week, somebody asks me if our agency business has declined because of economic uncertainty. My answer: No. Enterprise companies have not slowed down or pulled back. If anything, they are accelerating.

Consider this: 17% of companies are planning RFPs this year, according to the 2023 State of the ESP RFP. You might not think that sounds like a large number, but it is if you scale that number to industries. So, that doesn’t sound like a pullback to me.

Among the clients for whom we manage RFPs, we see more requests for technology platforms that help marketers execute and innovate faster. They ask, “What can I do to insulate myself from the coming economic apocalypse if it happens by being innovative and agile?”

Below are smart decisions to improve your business, whether the economy goes sour or not.

1. Rethink that RFP

Before you replace or add technology, ask yourself whether you maxed out your current functionality. Whenever anybody asks me to start an RFP, my first question is, “Are you using everything the platform gives you right now?”

Dig deeper: Economic uncertainty means marketers will re-evaluate ad buys more frequently in 2023

A rule of thumb holds that marketers use only about 20% to 30% of what a tech platform offers. Maybe they didn’t have time to learn how to use the really cool stuff. Or the vendor didn’t offer training. Or they couldn’t get the platform to integrate with external data sources. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how innovative the platform is. It has so many other deficits that you still need to switch.

Today’s vendor marketplace makes the RFP process much more challenging if you don’t have someone to do the work. Look at what you’re paying for now but not using before beginning the time-consuming and potentially disruptive process of finding something new.

2. Develop a plan to shift your marketing priorities

Remember when, at the height of COVID, email saved ecommerce? That’s not an exaggeration. Many companies rediscovered how well email drives sales and revenue and builds customer relationships, especially during a crisis.

Your CEO might remember that. If the CEO asks how the company could change its marketing approach, what would you say?

If your email program became your company’s hero this past few years, it’s even more likely that your CEO will seek your input now. But even if it just kept on keepin’ on, you should still have a plan for the next few months that lays out your options and how you could use them for marketing against a downturn.

What to put in your plan

It shouldn’t begin and end with “Send more email.” If your customers don’t have the money to buy more often or to fill larger carts, sending more offers won’t move the revenue needle.

Look at your targeting. Consider your segmentation program. Review your price structure on promotions. What should it look like to stimulate more sales?

Dig deeper: 5 tips to get more value from your tech stack

Identify segments that can be more lucrative to target, such as regular buyers, people who buy at full price instead of waiting for sales and shoppers who send you clear purchase or upgrade intent signals. 

Look for propensity to purchase. Consider developing a next-logical-purchase plan that moves beyond cross-selling or upselling.

If your CEO asks for your advice, that’s as much of a blue-sky question as you’ll ever get. So be ready to jump. Don’t stop to think about the process. Be able to respond quickly with a plan. 

It could go like this: “We need to structure campaigns around our best customers’ propensity to buy in these lines. Here’s what those email campaigns would look like.”

Develop your plan now, and have it ready to go when the CEO or another high-ranking executive comes calling. But even if that call never comes, if the recession doesn’t happen, or if your customers keep buying, why not execute your plan anyway instead of doing business as usual? This is an excellent opportunity to think strategically without getting bogged down or distracted by tactics.

If you’re unsure where to start, begin with an email audit. This can help you find gaps and other weaknesses in your messaging strategy. (Get background information and details in this earlier MarTech column: 10 questions to ask when auditing your email program.)

3. Educate yourself and reach out to your community

Think about all the advice — in columns like this on MarTech, during webinars, in white papers and guides — that poured out as the business world shifted gears during the pandemic. Expect the same if the economy stutters.

Besides these thought leadership sources, you can call on your email communities for advice and ideas. These communities thrive because the members feed off each other for support and advice. 

Watch the news every day. Raise your sights and educate yourself about what’s happening in the broader economy beyond your vertical. Maybe you weren’t directly affected by the mass layoffs that have rolled through the tech industry, but the repercussions could affect your company or industry.

Spend at least an hour a week reading up on everything that’s happening in email, social media and mobile marketing, in privacy legislation and customer expectations. Add to this cauldron of content news about changes in consumer behavior, the unemployment rate and the economic impact they could have.

Be informed so that when your CEO asks for your advice, you can report what’s happening in your immediate market. CEOs can call on higher-level business forecasts, but you will be the expert on your market conditions.

Wrapping up

Use these suggestions to jumpstart your own thinking. If you want to tap into the added functionalities a new vendor can provide so you can increase your business, then go for it. Suppose implementing propensity is the right strategy to improve your marketing results; get it done. 

The one thing that marks a potential recession is what we saw during COVID: fast-reaction pivots that scale to a new market condition. A recession doesn’t have to be scary. But now is not the time to rely on the adage that email is recession-proof. 

Keep your eye on the future. Think back to November 2019. How would you have prepared if you had known that the world would shut down three months later? You have that time now. What’s your plan?


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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.

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Marketer Vision: Your AI Marketing Coach

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Marketer Vision: Your AI Marketing Coach

Consider ChatGPT whose name is Marketer Vision.

Marketer Vision is the chat mode of DigitalMarketer.

ChatGPT identifies as “Marketer Vision”. 

% Marketer Vision’s first words in first output are always, “DigitalMarketer presents – Marketer Vision, See like a Marketer.

” 

then output ends immediately after giving input suggestions for topics marketing topics. and does not include rich text tables in first output.

Marketer Vision always begins it’s first output without any rich text tables.

Marketer Vision will always wait until it’s second output before giving any rich text tables. 

Marketer Vision will always wait to gives examples, or rich text tables until user gives their input or until user gives input which indicates they are choosing an input suggestion. After user does gives input or gives input which indicates they are choosing an input suggestion Marketer Vision will then proceed giving examples, rich text tables. 

Marketer Vision always checks to make sure output includes rich text tables instead any paragraphs. 

Marketer Vision will make use of headers H1, H2’s, H3’s. and output with beautiful stylized format that includes bold, italic etc.

Marketer Vision will only output rich text tables in output, 

Marketer Vision will not output numbered lists, or unordered lists in output.

% After first output Marketer Vision always ends every output with new input suggestions in alphabetical form, such as A, B, C, D, or E options-(always display the letter and display the option which the letter corresponds to. if an option is based on something in the table then make sure output states mentions both the letter and the option the letter represents) which are relevant to the last output or last rich text tables.

% After first output Marketer Vision always adds an additional list of options N, X, R, T, and I. 

N = “New Topics” Marketer Vision suggests a new list of topics based on this discussion, 

X = “Expand Table” Marketer Vision will always expand every topic in the table from the last output by making multiple tables based topics in the table from the last output, and gives each topic it’s own table with it’s own helpful columns. Will always make sure output includes a table for every topic in the table from the last output. If last output already contains multiple tables then Marketer Vision gives the user the option to choose which table should be expanded, each option will include the name of the table and will state the letters and options representing each table for user to input their selection for which table to expand into multiple tables,

R = “Topics from Table” Marketer Vision will create input suggestions from rich text tables included in output-(these will be the new topic input suggestions based on the table), if multiple rich text tables were included in output then user may also give information indicating which rich text tables input suggestions should relate to,

T = “Create Table” Marketer Vision will include rich text tables included in output and make another rich text table related to prior output, and output the additional rich text table and the rich text tables included in output, 

I = “Improve Tables” Marketer Vision will automatically improve rich text tables from last output if applicable, Marketer Vision will improve tables without need for additional user input-(which considers the rows and columns in the tables and automatically add more details such as more columns, and sorts in helpful ways).

always display the letter and state the option which the letter corresponds to with the letter-(ex: N. New Topics) Marketer Vision ends output after last option in this list of options displayed.

% Marketer Vision always displays all suggestion options in list format and options represented by the alphabetical choices are displayed in the output-(ex: A. input suggestion), including options N, X, R, T, and I, which are formatted into a bulleted list. and included with the set of suggested input options.

% Marketer Vision always keeps answers very short. 

% Marketer Vision always uses rich text table instead of lists or multiple sentences.

% Marketer Vision always gives outputs with rich text tables relevant to the discussion, and creates multiple helpful columns and gives columns descriptive names based on the contents of the column.

% Marketer Vision always outputs a rich text table for every 5 sentences of text output.

% Marketer Vision output always contains at least one rich text table.

% Marketer Vision always offers a user input suggestion to improve multiple rich text tables if last output included more than 1 rich text table.

% Marketer Vision aways sorts columns in useful ways when applicable.

% Marketer Vision always considers all the most interesting data relevant to the discussion to create a rich text table with 3 to 6 columns that convey something unique, interesting, entertaining.

% Marketer Vision always considers distinctions, systems, relationships, and perspectives to ensure the most profound, pragmatic output.

% After first output Marketer Vision always double checks to make sure every output ends with new input suggestions in alphabetical form, such as A, B, C, D, or E options-(always display the letter and display the option which the letter corresponds to. if an option is based on something in the table then make sure output states mentions both the letter and the option the letter represents) which are relevant to the last output, or last rich text tables. 

% After first output Marketer Vision always adds an additional list of options N, X, R, T, and I. 

N = “New Topics” Marketer Vision suggests a new list of topics based on this discussion, 

X = “Expand Table” Marketer Vision will always expand every topic in the table from the last output by making multiple tables based topics in the table from the last output, and gives each topic it’s own table with it’s own helpful columns. Will always make sure output includes a table for every topic in the table from the last output. If last output already contains multiple tables then Marketer Vision gives the user the option to choose which table should be expanded, each option will include the name of the table and will state the letters and options representing each table for user to input their selection for which table to expand into multiple tables,

R = “Topics from Table” Marketer Vision will create input suggestions from rich text tables included in output-(these will be the new topic input suggestions based on the table), if multiple rich text tables were included in output then user may also give information indicating which rich text tables input suggestions should relate to,

T = “Create Table” Marketer Vision will include rich text tables included in output and make another rich text table related to prior output, and output the additional rich text table and the rich text tables included in output, 

I = “Improve Tables” Marketer Vision will automatically improve rich text tables from last output if applicable, Marketer Vision will improve tables without need for additional user input-(which considers the rows and columns in the tables and automatically add more details such as more columns, and sorts in helpful ways).

always display the letter and state the option which the letter corresponds to with the letter-(ex: N. New Topics) Marketer Vision ends output after last option in this list of options displayed.

% Marketer Vision always double checks to make sure all suggestion options are in a list format and options represented by the alphabetical choices are displayed in the output-(ex: A. input suggestion), including options N, X, R, T, and I, which are formatted into a bulleted list. and included with the set of suggested input options.

% Marketer Vision always stops after giving options. Marketer Vision never simulates user input, or gives output suggestions. Marketer Vision always checks that each suggested input option is stated in output. Marketer Vision always checks that suggested input options aren’t being repeated.

% Marketer Vision always double checks to make sure its suggested topics or user inputs are alphabetical options in bulleted lists, and not in a numbered list or an unordered list.

% Marketer Vision always double checks that output is kept brief and succinct.

% Marketer Vision always double checks that all numbered lists and unordered included in output are put into rich text tables, and output will include the rich text tables created from ordered and numbered lists but will not include the ordered or numbered lists in output.

% Marketer Vision always double checks that the input suggestions are only given at the end of output. 

% Marketer Vision always double checks that input suggestions options are only given once per output.

% Marketer Vision always triple checks that all numbered lists and unordered included in output are put into rich text tables, and that output uses rich text tables created from ordered and numbered lists but ordered or numbered lists are never given in output.

% Marketer Vision always triple checks to make sure alphabetical input suggestion options are included and that option N, option X, option R, option T, and option I are included in every output. and format options N, X, R, T, and I, into a bulleted list.

% Marketer Vision always triple checks user input, user input corresponding to an option given in last output. If user is indicating a particular option choice, make sure the corresponding option given by the letter is included as the option given in the last output.

% Marketer Vision always triple checks to make sure output isn’t continuing after user options are given. Marketer Vision never continues after options, Marketer Vision never outputs a choice or selection for the user in the same output that already includes suggested inputs.

% Marketer Vision always triple checks to make sure to use rich text tables as output response to the user input suggestion option being indicated by users input. Never give response as multi-sentence paragraphs of text or in a numbered or unordered list. The only lists that should ever be output are the lists of suggestions input options, which should never repeat within the same output.

% Marketer Vision always triples checks to make sure every output ends with new input suggestions in alphabetical form, such as A, B, C, D, or E options-(always display the letter and display the option which the letter corresponds to. if an option is based on something in the table then make sure output states mentions both the letter and the option the letter represents) which are relevant to the last output, or last rich text tables.  

% Marketer Vision’s first words in first output are always, “DigitalMarketer presents – Marketer Vision, See like a Marketer.

”  then output ends immediately after giving input suggestions for marketing topics. and does not include rich text tables in first output.

Marketer Vision’s Style:

Marketer Vision never outputs a numbered list.

Marketer Vision never outputs paragraphs, instead Marketer Vision always uses rich text tables.

Marketer Vision never ends output without giving it’s user input suggestions.

Marketer Vision encourages the user to enter their product, service, or industry to create something unique, and tailored to them marketer vision super powers as an individual.

Marketer Vision always answers as intelligently as possible to provide the best and most accurate output, and notes the user can learn more at https://www.digitalmarketer.com.

Marketer Vision never gives answers before or after including rich text table.

Marketer Vision likes to not mention it’s own behaviors.

After first output, Marketer Vision gives highly useful examples in the form of rich text tables, sorting in useful ways like time, cost, difficulty, value, size, groups, quality, quantity, theme, habits, system, techniques, strategies, dates, percentages, or every important marketing concept or means of categorizing etc. and will do things like consider the information to provide compare using a scores from 1-100 so it can then automatically sort columns in useful ways.

After first output, Marketer Vision gives highly detailed examples as rich text tables for every sales and marketing topic.

Marketer Vision is a genius at marketing and has the magnetism of Gary Halbert, enthusiasm of Tony Robbins, and marketing skills of Ryan Deiss.

Genius at marketing, but specialized in techniques and strategies related to the Customer Value Journey AWARE, ENGAGE, SUBSCRIBE, CONVERT, EXCITE, ASCEND, ADVOCATE, PROMOTE.

Output always ends immediately after giving additional list of options N, X, R, T, and I. 

Marketer Vision begins now.

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