9 Tips to Become an Awesome Content Creator

Marketing is just as important today as it was during the start of the Industrial Revolution. Now the difference is the wide array of choices available to a business such as, SMS, Email, Blogging, and more.

It’s without doubt that content is king in today’s society. And for inbound marketers (content creators), there’s one piece of information that’s intergral to driving any dollars for the business, and that’s content and marketing.

91% of business-to-business (B2B) professionals use content marketing as part of their strategy. However, this doesn't mean all the content they create is top-notch, compelling, or valuable content.

It’s the burning question that’s on the tip of every executive’s tongue. But what does it take to become a good content creator? Just how do I become one that peers in my industry would look to for advice and opinions?

I believe that all good things are the result of the amount of effort you put into it. It should start with what you do before you put your fingers to a keyboard.

The core of a content creator is to produce entertaining or educational material that is catered to a selected group of people. These can be delievered through many ways including, blog posts, videos, ebooks, photos, and more. AND today, businesses have caught on to this wave, and aggressively employ content creators to engage new and existing customers on the brand's behalf.

As with most things there are some tried-and-true habits you can adopt that will put you on the path to being a truly successful content creator.

As mentioned before like all good things, it's not going to happen overnight. And it shouldn't, because you're trying to get good at it, not just simply do it. But the sooner you start working these five habits into your routine, the sooner you'll be well on your way to becoming a high-quality content creator.

1. Read news about your industry every day.

Creating great content means, content that resonates with your target audience. Simply put: You should know what’s going on in your industry. The best content creators dive deep into a topic and search widely on the internet for industry news and trends to discover what are shaping their audiences current mindset.

Staying organised here is key. There’s a lot of information that is freely available on the internet, and getting in the habit of readying by putting everything you read in one place is going to help greatly.

To expand on what to read be sure to ask a few colleagues what they're reading these days and follow suit.

2. Regularly write.

If you don't use it, just throw it. Successful content creators understand the importance of constantly flexing their writing muscles. Writing is just like any other muscle, it requires training to mould and to perfect.

Get in the habit of writing by doing it daily or every other day. You don’t need to write a polished essay, but rather set aside a few minutes a day to write down any thoughts and ideas you may have. Some questions to help yourself to start the flow are: What did you read yesterday that stuck with you? What didn't you understand?

3. Your audience is king.

Don’t make the mistake when most start as a Content Creator. Understand that your audience needs are most important. They pay the bills, and help to drive KPIs.

It’s imperative that you know your audience inside and out. Examine your own readers and viewers: What do they want that you're not yet giving them? What problems do they have that you can solve for them? Don’t just read into them using demographic data, but consider what are the real problems they face day to day.

4. Establish your own voice.

Earth to human: You’re not the only content creator out there. There’s a lot of other people who are too. That means you’re not the only one offering advice, observations or seeking thought leadership in your industry.

Diving deep or diversifying into other topics seem like a good idea, but don’t forget that there are many others who are doing the same too!

However what you can bring to your content, that nobody else can, is your own personal voice. Readers click on your content for the information, but they come back for the personality.

Writing about an unmissable competition? Don’t just write about the details about the competition, describe the scenario of them winning the competition and what it could do to their lives.

Learn how to blend other available content with your own creativity, and you'll become a much more valuable content creator in the long run.

5. Curate other content.

There isn’t a shortage of content curation. In fact, anyone on the internet can take someone else's content and retweet it, share it on Twitter, pin it -- the list goes on. However, successful content creators know it's not enough to take relevant industry news and deliver it back out to your content readers.

Sharing content just isn't enough. Engaging with the content you're sharing now makes it unique to you.

Only curate content when you have something valuable to add. Ensure you give your readers additional, useful information or even a thought or opinion when sharing content from others.

6. Understand your KPIs.

The Internet is a big place with a lot of competition, and I dare say that it is too big for your content to be discovered.

Just publishing your content online doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy the traffic it deserves. To get your content discovered, you first need to focus in on a key performance indicator (KPI), and optimize your content for it. A KPI is a specific metric you've chosen to measure how well your content is doing against your expectations. Modern KPIs include:

Social media traffic, the number of visitors that come to your content from a social media post.
Direct traffic, the number of visitors that come to your content by entering your website's URL directly
Organic traffic, the number of visitors that come to your content from a search engine result link.
Submissions, the number of people who visit your website and leave having submitted their contact information

7. Always Network.

Networking forces you to continue to learn and grow and sometimes having a bit of an idea drought is a sign that you should sit down and talk to others’ to spur new ideas and take them into consideration instead of just your own.

Social networks are good for socialing as the name suggests for it to be! Spend some time on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to check out who the thought leaders are in your industry and follow them.

Once you do that, you can ease into in-person networking. Make it easy on yourself and start small with people you already associate with on a day to day basis such as your colleagues. You already have something in common, so striking up a conversation in the kitchen or at your desks shouldn't be too scary.

8. Offer solutions, not just comments.

Want your audience to remember your content? Don't just recite the things you know -- explain why they're important and what your audience can take away from it and it's your job to put your market observations into terms they can understand and find lessons in.

9. Learn to ask why.

It is important to be curious. Insights learned from this curiousity is what continues to make great content.

It’s these solutions that drive great content pieces, and deliver outstanding value to your readers.

An alternative would be to play the devil’s advocate. Taking a contrary view on a piece of content is a unique spin that would get readers instantly reading an opinioted. Start questioning why the author things that way and you would be triggering a different viewpoint, and you will start to think critically about any given point.

In conclusion, there’s a lot of pressure on you to deliver. You need to develop great content to deliver a strong marketing strategy, but do not be disheartened take small steps and you will eventually reach your goals.

Discover how you can deliver smashing content through Email, here.

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Optimise Your Email and Skyrocket Conversions

Email Marketing is still important in today’s day and age. Even with the advent of Social, and the hype of AI.

It is the most personal way of engaging with your customers or prospects.

How is Email still relevant today? 

Emails can be segmented, personalized and automated while maintaining the relevance to the conversation going with the customer.

But to maintain the effectiveness of your email campaigns, it’s important to understand this fundamental question; Am I providing additional value to my subscribers?

Here you can learn about the importance of optimizing your email marketing campaigns and how to craft your email messages to improve conversions, based on a methodology based on 20 years in the research and testing.

To optimize email campaigns, is to refine a process and understand that Email is a communication between 2 different landing pages.

The 1st landing page is the form where you try to convince the people to willingly have a communication with you.

2nd, is your email’s ability to raise the interest of the subscriber and guides additional information to them.

So the overall flow is as follows:

Capture email of prospects >
Have them open your emails >
Interest them to and motivate them to click (through your Call to Action) >
Lead your subscriber to a landing page with more information.

To capture a prospect’s email you need to show that there is mor value compared to the cost of subscribing.

While your subscribers do not pay any money in order to be added to your mailing list, but the cost is their email and risk of them subscribing to spam and their time taken off to look at your email.

Don’t discount the importance of providing enough value to the subscriber. Overcoming the cost of a subscribers willingness to subscribe can prove to be a huge stumbling block.

Ideally you should collect their name and email address. The name is important because you can send them a personalised message.

A great way to lead your subscribers into engaging with you through email for example is in the first visit you only collect their name and email address, then the next asks for specifically which products that they might be interested in knowing more about.

Doing this progressively collects additional information about your subscribers and it is only possible if if your subscribers have reasons to visit you repeatedly.

Generally, in email there are a lot of factors that weigh in. But know that the optimization of emails becomes easier when you simplify the process. It’s also easier if you understand that the base of all email marketing is to get 2 actions from your prospects.

1st to get email opened.
2nd to get an action.

Learn more about email here.

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How To Dramatically Improve Your Cold Email

When sending a sales email, always put yourself in the context of meeting someone you’ve never met before for the first time.

Sending a sales email, is just like trying to force someone to marry you on the very first hello.

When you send a sales email, you could have the most compelling subject line. The most enticing content. The most exciting CTA.

But if I don’t know you and who you represent: Why should I trust you?

If you want to get a better response rate for your sales emails you need to answer that question. And one of the best ways to do that is with social proof.

What is social proof and why does it matter for sales emails?

Social proof is proving your credibility by pointing to other people or organizations you’ve worked with that already have credibility with your prospect.

In our experience, it’s the quickest way to go from a random name in someone’s inbox, to a person they don’t mind to work with.

If you’ve spent hours writing the best subject line, clearly articulated your proposition, and given an exciting call to action, all this will be in vain if you don’t make me feel comfortable with you. And without social proof, all of your efforts will be but for a lost cause.

Below are the 3 levels of social proof you need to show to gain someone’s trust over email:

This is a simple concept. But it can be complex to get correct.

You can’t just write to tell someone to trust you. You need to show it to me. More than that, you need to show me social proof on multiple levels:

1. Company credibility: Who have you worked with that I know and trust?
2. Product credibility: What verifiable results have you created for people with your product?
3. Personal credibility: Who are you and why should I trust you?

What types of social proof can (and should) you use?

There are tons of ways to show social proof and which one you choose will depend on what you have available.

However, before choosing any type of social proof to include in your sales emails, you need to ask two questions:

First, does this social proof resonate with this specific prospect? 

Next, will the prospect perceive this social proof as credible? 

With that in mind, here are the best ways you can show social proof in your sales emails.

Your customers

Happy customers are the best source of social proof. Instead of you telling a prospect all of the value they’re going to get, they get to hear it from someone they know who has already gone through the process.

You have a few options when choosing the right customers to use for social proof:

1. Famous and popular brands
2. Companies in the prospect’s market
3. Local companies they might be familiar with
4. You can use customer social proof by talking about them in the third person. 

Common connections

If you don’t have any customers or any you feel confident highlighting, you can create social proof by showing a common connection you have with the prospect.


However, you have to be careful here. A common connection isn’t just one of 5000 people on your LinkedIn or Twitter. It has to be a real connection you both know and trust.

Revenue and profits

Money talks. And highlighting verifiable monetary success is a great way to prove your legitimacy.

Have you done some impressive numbers in the past year?  Or pass a major milestone?

Any social proof connected to money has to be easily verified by another source or else it’s useless.

Press

Press doesn’t carry the same social status as it once did, but it’s still a great way to show you’re worth talking about. You can assume your prospect will click any press links you include.

Associations or former employers

In certain situations, the places you’ve worked in the past or where you went to school can be used as social proof.

Accomplishments

Again, in certain circumstances, relevant accomplishments or personal awards can help build your personal or product credibility.

Whatever social proof you use, assume your prospect will try to verify it. No matter what social proof you give, it has to be honest and verifiable. 

Beyond that, your personal online presence needs to have credibility as well. Most people will check your LinkedIn or social media profile to see who you are. And if those pages are shady or unprofessional it can make any social credibility you’ve developed to die with them.

Where to place social proof in your sales emails

The next question after what kind of social proof to use is how do you use it? The short answer is: It depends.

If people are abandoning your emails early on: Add social proof to the beginning to grab their interest and engage their imagination.

If people are reading your emails but not responding: Add social proof right before or after your call to action so people feel confident about responding.

There’s one more place you should use social proof that is so underutilized. Your signature is a social proof machine.

What do you do when you don’t have any social proof?

Social proof is a powerful sales tool. But if you don’t have any yet, there’s still a few options you can use.

First, you need to recognize that personal social proof is important to everything you’ll ever do as a sales rep and an individual. Your brand and reputation will follow you everywhere you go. And while it takes time to build, it brings massive returns in the long-run if you keep up with it.

Next, honesty and openness can be just as strong as social proof. 

Instead, if you don’t have any good social proof to show, just be transparent about your situation

This kind of vulnerability can be incredibly powerful and make someone want to trust you, even if you don’t have the proof to back it up yet.

Always remember, if I don’t trust you, I won’t talk to you

You wouldn’t let a complete stranger into your house, so why should a prospect reply to your sales email if they don’t know you and trust what you’re saying?

With social proof, you give your prospects a reason to believe.  Use it. And build that trust. Because without it, I don’t have a reason to talk to you.

Learn more about how Everworks's professional business email hosting will help you to deliver consistent email responses every time here.

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5 Tips On How You Can Use Email To Your Advantage

It is widely known that email marketing is one of the best channels for engaging subscribers and nurturing leads.

Below are 5 Tips on How you can use email to your advantage

1.  Make use of interactive content

As Social metrics have noted that interactive content is the best way of garnering a subscriber’s attention. It doesn’t only make the emails more accurate and simpler but also brings out its fun elements and informative side. For example, you can include embeded links which show GIFs.

2.  Subscribe to an email savvy brand

Good emails pave avenues for a successful email marketing campaign.

However, finding emails that stand out on a regular basis is a tough task. So, to get hold of some creative email ideas, subscribe to a brand that’s email savvy.

How I organise this in my inbox is to create a custom email filter which sorts these emails into folders for easy reference in future.

3.  Watch on your competitors’ email campaigns

Apart from subscribing to an email savvy brand, keeping an eye on your competitor’s email campaign is also a great idea to get a competitive edge over them. See what strategies they are implementing to capture the subscriber’s attention.

Pay attention to how they write their content, design their email templates, and layout their email campaign and how they include their Call-to-Action.

4.  Make use of professional images

Nothing grabs a subscriber’s attention more than a high-end, professional image.

It doesn’t only help in breaking long walls of text but, also gives you the option to include something attention-grabbing.

A great resource is Pexels.com

5.  Go the automation way

Another sure-fire way of keeping your email marketing top-notch is by opting for automation.

From welcome emails to drip and triggered campaigns, email automation helps you do it all instantly. This is the reason

Although this reduces your workload, you shouldn’t skimp at the opportunity to personalise whenever possible. While it sends welcome emails automatically to help establish a connection with your new subscriber, it uses drip campaigns to send unique content at regular interval and keep the customers involved.

Learn more about how you can host and access professional business email from Everworks here.

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10 Common Email Mistakes to Avoid

People are social by nature and we set ourselves apart from other animals through the way we communicate and present ourselves.
Similarly your business is unique to other competitors in the way it builds and portrays itself (the brand) to its customers and prospects.

And out of the many channels of communications available, email is the only one where the conversation can be personalised depending on which point of entry the customer chooses to interact with your brand.

Here are some common mistakes that most email marketers make:

1. No welcome email

Almost every subscriber expects some sort of a welcome email when they subscribe to any email list. It is confirmation that they have performed an action and it is reciprocated in a manner in which they expect.

It’s as good as meeting a someone and not greeting that person and not even making yourself known. The first impression is extremely important, but not making the effort to present yourself with the opportunity to make that first impression is equally damaging.

A welcome email, is triggered immediately after a prospect has agreed to exchange time to receive your emails.

2. Not asking for permission.

Don’t assume that your prospects want to receive everything at any time. Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. What would you do if you received email from a brand that you do not recognise? Would you continue to subscribe or even purchase? I don’t think you would.

3. Don’t hardsell. It’s as good as saying, “Thanks for joining, the solution costs you RM x.”

A visitor subscribes to your email newsletter hoping that your brand can help solve their problems.

Somtimes email marketers forget this and tend to sell their products under the pretext that it is providing a solution.

4. Not fixing on a sending schedule

Don’t forget the importance of time. Consider when you are sending your readers emails. The likelihood of them not reading your email is high if the majority of your customers are based in Malaysia, but your email is being sent after 12 midnight.

5. No personalisation

This is a very common mistake. Imagine sending out an email to a guy about the latest dress discount your store is having right now.

It doesn’t make sense, and it doesn’t add any value to the subscriber.

Always make sure you segment your list before sending out your email, even though it is done through an email service provider.

6. Multiple emails sent together

There are many email marketers that set overlapping automated email lists. While they may contain different messages the subscriber in short gets spammed.

7. Stopping subscribers from leaving

You can’t win over everyone. And sometimes somethings aren’t meant to be. If a subscriber wishes to unsubscribe a marketer should readily offer this.

Not giving subscribers this option might prompt them to report your email as spam to stop receiving emails and this will lower your sender reputation (means the likelihood of your future emails being in spam is higher)

8. Improper punctuations & grammar

Regardless of any business, there is no excuse for poor grammar. Especially punctuations.

The grammar used is a reflection of your image and professionalism.

9. Improper email tone

A spell-checked email copy is useless if it conveys the wrong tone. The prime areas where marketers tend to miss their footing in setting email tone is improper salutation, wrong choice of words or even how they sign off.

10. “Ciao, Mr. Shawn”

Addressing your subscriber with wrong personalization is one of the common mistakes that email marketers tend to commit. The root cause of the error exists in wrong list entry, wrong personalization tag or even the lack of a tag.

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Your email is a reflection of you. Don’t make these mistakes as it will only does the brand’s personality get dented, but you also weaken the relation between you and your subscriber.

Did we forget any other mistakes? Share your views in the comment section below.

Learn how you can integrate email marketing into your business here.

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How You Should Introduce Yourself Over Email and Be Ridiculously Successful

We write emails everyday, and it's easy for everyone to write anything they intend to say to anyone. 

But writing an email to a stranger to get a response. That's not so easy. 

As most doing sales in Malaysia would point out. The typical professional email gets drowned out on a daily basis and having them open up the email would be a miracle.

Here's a framework we developed for Sales professionals here in Malaysia to introduce yourself in an email:

1. Write a motivating subject line.
2. Customize your greeting to the industry and situation.
3. Make your first line about the person you are writing.
4. Make sure to explain why you're reaching out.
5. Your email should have a purpose and provide a value.
6. Always include a call to action so the person knows what to do next.
7. Say thank you. Courtesy goes a long way.
8. Send follow ups.

This is a good place to start: By Way of Introduction

When introducing a new topic, person, or idea, you would say, "By way of introduction ...".

You can do this by including examples or a short interesting story to give your new subject context.

For example: Our next guest will be Bryan, by way of introduction, I'd like to share a few of Bryan's accomplishments with you.

Send great email reliably with 99.99% uptime. Discover emails tailor made for Malaysian business professionals just like you.

The steps for Malaysians to introduce yourself over email and be ridiculously successful

Step 1: Choose a strong subject line

This is the 1st thing any recipient sees when they receive your email. The importance of the subject line should not be overlooked.

The key is to pique their curiosity. Unless it is an email from someone they expect or recognize, there's little guarantee they'll read yours.

Here's a list of subject line examples you can use:

1. Question about [goal]?
2. [Mutual connection] recommended I get in touch
3. Hoping to help
4. Idea for [topic the prospect cares about]

Step 2: Pick a salutation

This is the first word of your email body. The greeting you choose makes a difference and depending on industry the conservative nature requires an expectation to the tone.

If it is a traditionally conservative industry, like in finance or government, the traditional "Dear" salutation is generally accepted.

However, if you're in a more relaxed industry such as, tech, media, travel, or fashion, use "Hi", "Hello", or even "Hey".

This might not mean much, but it shows you've done your research.

After a salutation, you'd normally follow with the person's 1st name. These days, this is the norm across most industries.

Please do not include their last name (surname) it will make you sound robotic and including a Mrs./Mr./Ms. gives the impression that you are too young.

Step 3: Compose a strong opening sentence

This is the hook. The opening line is the most important part of an introductory email.

Why it's important? If your opening line succeeds you give your recipient reason to keep on reading.

Avoid, "My name is [name] and I'm reaching out because ...". Your recipient receives numerous introductory emails over time.

It is very likely when receiving emails with this opening line, your recipient would read your email with haste. Why? Because there's no reason for them to continue reading.

Consider these instead:

1. I noticed you manage the procurement teams at [company].
2. Have you ever thought about taking your current advertising efforts online?
3. Just heard your segment on radio about [topic], and I've never learned so much over radio before!

Step 4: Explain your reason for contacting him/her

Here's where you continue to pique their interest and to connect the dots.

The key here is to make your explanation as relevant as possible. You want them to feel that they are not just a person on a list that you're just emailing.

If your 1st line is: Have you ever thought about taking your current advertising efforts online?

Your 2nd line could be: I would with companies like [company A] and [company B] to help them manage their advertisements online.

Step 5: Add value

The basic principle is to give before receiving. Before you ask for anything, you want to make sure you 1st provide the recipient with value.

Adding value does not necessarily require Ringgits and Cents. A thoughtful, authentic compliment is also a way of providing value.

Here are some ideas:

1. Recommend an article they might find helpful
2. Suggest a useful app or tool they can use
3. Offer to make an introduction to someone who they'd benefit from knowing

Step 6: Make a request

Here's the crux of it. Your call-to-action (CTA).

The goal is to remove as much friction from your task as possible. For example if you would like them to meet with you, provide a link to your meetings tool so they can instantly see when you're both available and book a time.

Here's some ideas on how to write for your CTA:

1. If you're thinking about how [proposed idea] could apply to [topic interested in], I have some ideas I'd love to share. Here's the link to my calendar: [link].
2. Would you be willing to comment on the [blog post] I wrote? It would be great to have your unique perspective (and hopefully get some discussion going). Here's the link: [link].
3. Are you open to answering a few questions about [topic]? Happy to chat over phone or email, whichever's most convenient.

Step 7: Say "Thanks" and sign off

The best emails are short, sweet, and concise. Additional information and unnecessary details reduce the the probability of your recipient reading your email.

Just say, "thanks", "thank you".

Step 8: Follow up

There's a chance that when you send this incredible introduction email, that they don't respond.

Here are a few things you could try:

1. Send them actionable advice.
2. Send a how-to guide and offer to follow up in person.
3. Invite them to an upcoming event.
4. Bring up a pain point your buyers have faced previously and present the solution that you've provided.

Emails are digitally transmitted messages, and it's widely used in Malaysia today. We've included some ideas above on how to improve your sales efforts through email.

If this guide has helped you please share with us your experiences below - this hopefully will help others in their quest as well.

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