Digital Marketing

Our society’s inability to unplug from technology and demand for instant gratification mean the attention and time we can dedicate to even the simplest tasks are decreasing. Even reading factual articles on the Internet is too time-consuming for us! Content shock, as we touched on earlier, is a phenomenon where readers skip reading articles in full because they are bored, busy, or disinterested. So how do we present information to readers that interests and helps them learn? Enter infographics: content that combines text and graphics into one. كيف تربح المال من الانترنت مجاناً Could infographics solve the problem of content shock, or is it just a temporary fix to our society’s short attention span?

Visualize

Content marketers and companies alike create infographics to convey boring material in a quick, creative and meaningful manner. According to Social Media Consultant Mark Smiciklas, infographics are “a visualization of data or ideas that tries to convey complex information to an audience in a manner that can be quickly consumed and easily understood.” Remember the five senses: feel, smell, see, hear and taste. All 5 senses transmit information to the brain, but 90% of that information is visual! In an average day, a person is exposed to 174 newspapers full of information, with only 1% of that information getting through to the brain. Why is this, you ask? The brain processes images simultaneously and text sequentially, meaning that visual stimuli makes it to the brain much more quickly than textual stimuli. To be specific, the brain processes visual stimuli 60,000 times faster than text. Additionally, Google search volumes for “infographics” have increased by well over 800%. I prefer to think of infographics as children’s books for adults: mostly picture accompanied by minimal text. We teach and treat children as visual learners, so why can we not do the same for adults?

Inspire

Great infographics inspire emotions – be it happiness, sadness, wonder, or surprise. Great infographics use challenging content, tell a story, take your readers on a journey, or provide readers with a fresh point of view. As a marketing tool, infographics are viral magnets. They are easy to share due to their attractiveness and versatility across social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Because of their viral magnetism, infographics are helpful to your webpage’s SEO and can ultimately help rank your website higher on Google’s algorithm. You can also easily increase brand awareness by simply placing your logo on the infographic. موقع مراهنات Placing your logo on the infographic allows you to position your brand as an expert of the topic you are explaining. العاب كسب المال If you are not creating your own infographic but simply sharing another’s, you can use the infographic to add value to your content. Just be sure to give credit where credit’s due, which may include the author’s name, website, and a link back to the website or place of origin.

Learn

Research done by Barbara Miller and Brooke Barnett of the Newspaper Research Journal showed that combining both text and graphics is the best method learning information. Their summary stated:

“On their own, text and graphics are both useful yet imperfect methods for communication. Written language allows an almost infinite number of word combinations that allow deep analysis of concepts, but relies heavily on the reader’s ability to process that information. Graphics may be easier for the reader to understand but are less effective in communication of abstract and complicated concepts. … combining text and graphics allows communicators to take advantage of each medium’s strengths and diminish each medium’s weaknesses.”

Think of your favorite children’s book growing up; it probably had tons of pictures and illustrations. Children books feature a combination of text with illustrations because the combination of the two media helps children understand and mentally visualize the story they’re being told. Children have more active and wild imaginations than adults, yet as we age, we find ourselves referencing and learning from text-dense material rather than a combination of pictures and illustrations. In the case of adults, you would think that with a less wild imagination, you would need more imagery to explain concepts. Infographics prove that the adult brain still prefers to learn with a combination of imagery and text than with text-dense information alone.

Research

Beyond having great content and imagery, you must always do your research before creating an infographic. Assuming you want to appear as an expert in your field, it is essential to provide your readers and customers with accurate and up-to-date information. Use multiple sources, but not too many, to gather your data: too much information can fatigue or disinterest your reader. Additionally, use multiple sources to check the accuracy of your information. Include plenty of statistics in your infographic; pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs, and percentages accompanied with images help clearly illustrate statistics and other complicated pieces of information.

Create

Not every company or business has a graphic design department that can readily turn out great infographics. As a content curator, your biggest challenge is not finding content, but rather finding a way to present it to your audience that is both exciting and informative. Fortunately, Peak Seven’s team of dedicated designers can make your infographic dreams become reality. Infographics allow endless possibilities for presenting dense information to readers in ways that are interesting, meaningful, and easy to understand; Peak Seven helps you master these obstacles while helping you stay true to your brand. As 65% of the population are said to be visual learners, we should be presenting information to readers that interests them and helps them learn, not information that exhausts and bores them. Think you’re ready to get started on your own Infographic? Reach out to Peak Seven today, and check out some of our recent info graphics below for Skypatrol.

The following post was written by our summer intern, Janeicia Neely

If you’re reading this blog right now, you may be a bored reader, skimmer, or someone glancing at the article and skipping over it. These are some of the basic issues content marketers face in 2014 and in the years to come. These types of readers exist as a result of the noisiest, or most distracting, internet to date.

“Content shock,” the cause of the newly uninterested person, describes the idea that people are now so distracted by everything else available on the internet that they struggle to stay on one page for any length of time, let alone read a dense article. Content shock also describes a tendency to view an article and immediately feel intimidated by the length, leaving the article unread and useful information unentertained.

People are much more likely to be entertained or informed by a GIF or a visual than by a content heavy article. كازينو ٨٨٨ There has been a rise in visual content in recent Internet media, attracting these type of readers and skimmers. This trend will definitely hinder content heavy material or writers. كازينو آنلاين  As “Too Long; Didn’t Read: How To Save Your Blog From Content Shock” mentions, the best way to keep readers engaged is to make the content interesting and posed in a way where readers feel inclined to keep reading; the headline must cause a double take, the image has to make a viable, entertaining first impression. There are people out there that will still read an entire article; it’s the writers’ challenge to create a reason for them to reach the end of the article.

The writers who seem to achieve the impossible are often copywriters, who have learned how to compete with the rest of the noise that will forever exist. Studying copywriters’ methods is a great way to find new strategies to compel people pay attention. Through examining their schemes, you will find that there are many different angles they use to approach the topic they are writing about. Pop culture, sports and recent events are all interesting angles to associate another less interesting topic with. Of course, the topic must be relevant and not forced: readers can tell when a writer is trying too hard to be funny. However, using these different facets will surely differentiate your article from the next person writing about the same current event.

Great copywriters write as if they are telling a story, eliciting an emotional response be it a laugh or a “hmm.” Copywriters are often readers and fans of well composed dialogue and storytelling, employing some of the same techniques to make their story worthwhile and attention grabbing. They are tasked with using space and words effectively, style.

Style is something all copywriters must employ to keep the reader engaged. The writer’s voice must encourage readers to keep going. Depending on the article shorter or longer sentences, analogies, or visual language may do the trick. Copywriters always take into consideration their topic, their readers and their goal. لعبة القمار بوكر Though there will always be skimmers and disinterested readers, content shock can be fought and managed by apt writers ready to engage their readers in the most interesting way.

I have always been one to follow a schedule: get up, workout, eat, go to work, come home, eat some more, sleep, and repeat through Friday. When I fall off this schedule by either by skipping a workout or even a meal, I become stressed, which in turn affects my productivity and mood.

Blogging and content strategy go hand in hand, and require the author to follow a schedule and have a strategy. If you go in without a plan, you are setting yourself up to fail: you can easily make excuses and procrastinate until you no longer see the need to write that blog entry from over a week ago. To learn more about blogging, content strategy, and staying on track, we read Contently.com’s e-Book called “Blogging and Content Strategy.”

Why People & Companies Fail at Blogging

According to Contently.com, there are three main reasons why companies fail at blogging and content marketing:

1.    They don’t invest in quality content.

2.    They don’t execute consistently. موقع المراهنات العالمي

3.    They don’t promote or optimize their content.

More so than time and research, blogging is about knowing your content, knowing your audience, and having a desire to grow and share that content with the world. If you are a fashion blog whose target audience are Millennials, and you blog about mom jeans and Crocs being trendy, you not only do not know your audience, but probably don’t have much of one either. Furthermore, many fashion blogs die out because their writers fail to post consistently. موقع 1xbet How is your reader supposed to know when to check back for new updates? And even more importantly, if you don’t promote yourself and try to get your name out there, you can never grow or go beyond your current reach. Now is the perfect opportunity to look into creating a game plan and strategy to ensure you’re on the path to success.

Starting On Success: Goals

Before writing your first post, you should define goals for your blog. Ask yourself questions such as how many subscribers do I want to obtain ultimately? Who do I want to share my content and to represent me in the niche I blog for? What do I consider success, conversions or ROI? Having solid goals before even starting will help you begin your path to success.

Strategizing Your Goals

Having a strategy is crucial to your blog’s success: if you have a plan to follow, you cannot make excuses for getting lost on your way. For example, many people who swear by eating clean follow a routine called “meal prep” where they prepare all of their take-to-work-lunches on Sunday night. Having a pre-made lunch for every day of the week ensures they will stay on their diet because excuses for not having time to make lunch during the week will be obsolete. Here is where content calendars come into play: make a content calendar so you never have writer’s block and subsequently can’t make excuses for never feeling inspired. Many blogs use Monday as “Motivational Monday” and Friday as a day to post lighter more fun content.

Making Great Content Your Reality

Content is the main ingredient in your cookbook to success. After all, why else are people looking at your blog in the first place? They have a hunger to learn, and you are a chef that will teach them the recipe.

You can find inspiration almost anywhere. You can grab content from looking at news articles online, be it Google Alerts, Twitter, or even just CNN.com. You can offer your critique on current events, celebrity gossip, or try and decode a celebrity’s cryptic tweets and Instagram posts. Piggybacking off of hot topics ups your chances of your content being read.

Selecting a Headline

Never underestimate the power of a good headline. Headlines are the first item a reader sees ultimately what triggers their interest to read the article. Your headline should reflect the content in your blog post, but should also be attention-grabbing. Your sub-header should contain more information on your main points, but still maintains your reader’s interest in clicking on your post.

Luring Your Audience In

Another strategy to engage your readers is linking to related posts. If you put links to related posts on your blog at the bottom of your post, you can see an increased engagement among your readers, as they will stick around longer to check out your content. Contently.com also recommends utilizing the “Wikipedia Link Luring Wormhole” strategy, which involves putting links to previous related posts in each paragraph, engaging your reader to spend more time checking out your posts.

Influencing Your Audience

If you are a chef and your audience is your guests, you want them to leave feeling satisfied and happy. If your guests were all vegetarians, for example, you would not want to serve them any meat. Similarly in blogging, you do not want to provide your audience with content that is not relevant to them, as surely they will quit reading your blog.

Before you even begin writing, you should define your audience. Are you trying to reach the 20-somethings who love to club-hop on the weekends and frequent Chipotle? Or are you trying to reach the 30-40-year-old stay-at-home moms who are only interested in healthy, low-carb recipes? Knowing the profile and preferences of the audience you are trying to reach will help you determine your content and when to post your content. Per Contently.com, you want to be relevant to your readers’ daily lives and become part of THEIR routine.

Delivering Your Message

The tone in which you set for your blog is part of your identity and one of the reasons your readers continue to turn to you for information. When defining your tone, be distinct and stick to it. If you are that same fashion blog catering to Millenials, you don’t want to sound uptight and too formal. Instead, you would want to sound more casual, maybe pepper your writing with a little sarcasm and some abbrev’s (abbreviations, for all you non-Millennials). If you are selling a product or service, it is imperative to not sound like a sales pitch. Instead, use customers’ success stories as content strategy. Write a quick story focusing on the person, how the product or service helped them, and explain how their life improved: your product should not be the focus.

Getting Your Name Out

Sharing is caring, and that same phrase applies to blogs and content. Sharing your content across multiple social media platforms increases your search engine rank, which means people will see your content sooner when they use Google or Bing. However, different social media platforms should communicate your post in different ways as each platform reaches a different audience. On Twitter, for example, you have a very brief amount of time to grab the user’s attention, and here is where having a strong headline comes in. Tweet the article title as well as a link; without a provoking headline or an interesting image to go with it, you could easily be overlooked. However, on LinkedIn, however, you have slightly more time to make an impression on your readers, so you could include an interesting quote plus a link to the blog.

Another way to spread your content is by reaching out to an “Influencer.” An influencer is somebody who can influence the actions or thoughts of others; be it a popular blogger, a site like Mashable, or a popular Twitter account. While you are ultimately writing for an audience, you want the big influencers to be part of that audience as well. Having an influencer share your content can mean increased traffic and subscribers to your blog. Beyond just increased subscribers and traffic, reaching a larger audience can mean more sharing across social media platforms, exposing even more readers to your content that you would never have otherwise reached.

How do you know where your readers are being directed from to your blog? This brings me to my next point of tracking.

Tracking & Beyond

How you view your blog’s success is ultimately up to you, but before you even write your first post, it is imperative that you establish tracking for your blog. Tracking allows you to see how many readers are looking at or signing up for your content, where they came from, and how long they stayed there. Knowing what types of content clicks with your readers as well as doesn’t will make content generation much easier. Many bloggers use Google Analytics to get key insights their blogs, such as how many visitors, percentage of bounced visitors, and time spent on the blog entry. So whether you measure your success in the number of blog visitors, ROI in the form of opt-ins to newsletters or conversion of leads to the completion of sales, tracking will help you see your milestones and set goals.

Each instruction of this brief guide is imperative to your blog’s success. Again, I visit the idea of a cookbook: if you follow all of the instructions and ingredients for your red velvet cupcakes, you will have red velvet cupcakes. If you skip an ingredient or undercook your cupcakes, you probably won’t be very happy with your product. ربح فلوس First, define your goals and create a strategy that you will follow. This strategy should include a pre-determined content calendar, as well as frequently checking top headlines. Next, decide on your tone and stick with it – it is how your readers with identify you and identify with you. Create your content, create strong headlines, share your content, and be sure to utilize as many social media platforms as possible. Put links to previous posts on your page as well as in each blog’s paragraph to up your search engine rank. Reach out to the influencers to expand your content’s reach to readers beyond your scope, and don’t forget to track all of your results! Practice makes perfect, and your blog’s success may not be immediate, but with trial and error as well as dedication and passion, you will eventually get there. Now, where are those red velvet cupcakes you were baking?

We’ve heard that orange is the new black, 90’s fashion is back in style, and everybody’s juicing. These days it seems that everything we once knew to be true is being replaced by new and shiny trends. But does that mean social media is replacing email as the #1 direct marketing tool? According to CopyBlogger.com, no. We read their latest e-book “EMail Marketing” for further insight.

E-Mail vs. Social Media
The good news is that today email is still the #1 direct marketing tool. Even with the 1.13+ billion monthly users on Facebook, only 664 million of these people are logging onto Facebook on a daily basis – meaning that more than half of Facebook users are missing content and material in their newsfeed. The status update that you so cleverly crafted is buried after only a few moments under newer, more relevant information from other Facebook users, making it easy for you to miss your target audience.

Unlike Facebook, 9 out of 10 people check their email on a daily basis. That marketing eblast that you sent over the weekend to your consumer on vacation will still be there when they decide to check their email first thing Monday morning. But how can you ensure that people read your email?

Content is King
Providing your readers with valuable content is the MOST important aspect of email marketing campaigns. After all, why do you think they signed up for your newsletter? Don’t push your business onto the consumer. موقع رهان كرة القدم Don’t overload your emails with too much text or too much information. View your e-blasts or newsletters as a recipe for success for readers, and breakup said recipes into 7-10 steps. Each step should be valuable and be completed by itself so that readers can reach success through your campaign step-by-step.

Attention-Grabbing Subject Lines
You will need a good subject line to get your audience’s attention. Play around with different titles, and even push the envelope using words that can normally redirect your message to spam, as long as the content is truly valuable to readers (i.e. “Make Money Doing *Action Here*). The best subject lines are short and to the point and solicit a reader’s interest.

Segment and Engage Your Readers
Reader segmentation can ensure a successful email campaign. Not all readers should be treated equal. For example, if you have a lifestyle blog with an e-newsletter, some readers may only want to receive emails with content about restaurants and nightlife while others may prefer only fitness and health information. It is important to give your readers the option of what content they can receive, as well as the frequency.

Reader engagement is dependent on the time and day on which you send an email. Contrary to belief, there is no universal time or day of the week that is optimal. الرهانات Depending on your audience and multiple rounds of trial and error, you can engage what time of day and what day of the week results in the most opens, click-throughs, and sales. Tracking these aspects, your emails will help you determine the optimal time for your audience.

Tone Selection
You will also need to set your tone. Find a happy medium between casual and informative, as readers respond best to a friendlier tone. الكازينو You want your reader to feel as if they are a valued individual that is part of a community, not just another face in the herd. Encouraging social media interaction amongst the company and readers reinforces a sense of community, as does including customer testimonials.

Format for Mobile Devices
Formatting your emails to be friendly for mobile devices and tablets is crucial; this is “Responsive Design.” Nothing is more discouraging to the reader than opening an email, only to find a distorted text and images on their screen. While your reader may open the email, the click-throughs and conversions will not be nearly as high because they cannot engage with the content.

The Call to Action
Lastly, if you are seeking engagement from your readers, whether it is to download an e-book, buy merchandise, or to sign up for another email list, put your call to action button (CTA) at the bottom center of the email. This way, when the reader finishes with the newsletter, they can click and engage your CTA immediately.

Email is one of the most valuable assets a business has. Putting together an e-newsletter can seem daunting, but if you follow these simple guidelines, you are already setting yourself up for success. What are you waiting for? There are thousands of hungry readers waiting for your content!

Peak Seven helps push Lennar’s Southeast Florida division to number one for digital leads in May 2014 amongst all of Lennar’s 28 divisions in 18 states. “We are excited about this accomplishment and plan to maintain and grow this position for our client utilizing our unique and sophisticated systems and strategy” said Darren Seys, CEO of Peak Seven. Lennar’s Southeast Florida division, which has 29 active communities in four counties, retains Peak Seven as their full-service creative agency for both traditional marketing as well as the strategy, architecture and implementation of their online campaigns which consists of content development, adwords, social, referral networks and the division’s specific website.

“We were pleased to see the results after implementing our strategy just a few months prior. العاب سباق الخيل We have another strategic program we are getting ready to launch for Lennar in the next sixty days that deals specifically with a users persona and how we can effectively convert them into leads” Seys added. Peak Seven is currently working closely with Lennar’s internal marketing team to revamp the way Lennar Southeast Florida’s division manages and rolls out social marketing campaigns. “Peak Seven has been great with taking our corporate vision of “going digital” to the next level and we are excited about the future” said Nury Rodriguez, Marketing Director Lennar Southeast Florida Division. رهان الخيل

Visit all of the great communities Lennar Southeast Florida has to offer today at: www.lennar.com/floridadeals

Lennar Corporation, founded in 1954, is headquartered in Miami, Florida and is one of the nation’s leading builders of quality homes for all generations. Lennar builds affordable, move-up and retirement homes in Communities that cater to almost any lifestyle – such as urban, golf course, Active Adult or suburban Communities. موقع المراهنات Learn more at www.lennar.com