Are you frustrated with your blog?

Do you ever wonder if you’re wasting time doing the wrong things?

A lot of work goes into creating a high converting blog. And part of being successful is knowing what rules you should follow, and which ones you can break.

So, here are 3 blogging taboos that you should break instantly.

1. Using Exact Images

People love pictures.

In fact, we process visuals 60,000 faster than text and we remember pictures 6 times more easily.

But in some industries exact images are hard to find. Sure, if you’re a real estate agent, a nutritionist or a fashion expert you can probably find perfect images of what you’re talking about.

However, if you’re a book keeper, a massage therapist or you’re in online marketing (like us), it’s harder.

That’s okay.

I’m a huge fan of online marketing.

That’s obvious.

But I also know that it’s one of the most frustrating things small businesses deal with.

Because it’s confusing. 

The rules change too quickly. There’s a lot of conflicting information. There’s an endless amount of work to do. And it takes time to see results – especially with inbound marketing – so it’s hard to know what’s working, and what isn’t.

But the most frustrating part is that online marketing does work. And most of us know that, which is why we struggle along.

Even if our strategies aren’t working, even if we’re not driving traffic or sales, even if we’re not increasing our online reach, we keep going. Because sometimes the task of analyzing our online marketing campaigns can be too daunting.

So, here are 3 things you can do to get control of your online marketing.

In December of 2013, Warner Brothers teamed up with Facebook and dwinq for the premiere of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with the goal of reaching thousands more people than just the 500 VIP guests.

At the premiere in Berlin, Germany, each of the guests that had won tickets to the premiere were given RFID-enabled passes.

With the RFID-enabled passes, professional photographers on hand were able to scan the passes then post the pictures taken to the guest’s Facebook News Feeds, allowing all of the VIP’s friends to see them in real-time, documenting the experience.

It was a hit.

The guests enjoyed that their friends could see them with the movie stars on the red carpet in real time, as the event unfolded, through updates on their timelines and News Feeds. They had a great time, and their pictures reached thousands of people. 

In fact, the 500 VIPs had an average of 240 friends each. The ads reached 132% of their total friend count – reaching over 150 000 people.

You’re probably wondering what this event has to do with advertising and marketing. 

Have you ever wondered what the perfect tweet looks like?

I know.

There are a lot of answers here.

So I’ll be more specific.

When you’re sharing articles, blogs and other content on Twitter that you think your followers will love, have you ever wondered what you should say to get the best response?

And have you ever wondered how do to that quickly on an ongoing basis?

The key is having an effective curation strategy that you can follow. Because while what you say will change, the formula won’t.

So, here are 4 things you need to do to curate the perfect tweet on Twitter.

It’s true.

Most of your Twitter fans never go to your Twitter page.

Except the first time they follow you.

This is one of the biggest missed opportunities to convert people on the social web, because frankly, most backgrounds (including ours) are just this side of embarrassing.

How are you going to stay on top?

More has happened in the last 12 months than anyone we could have predicted, and the next year sounds like it’s going to move just as fast.

There are a lot of challenges to a executing a successful content marketing strategy. So, I put together a collection of the best resources for you to reference on each aspect of creating a world class content campaign.

Here are the top 7 content marketing blogs to read in 2014 to get more customers and boost your sales online.

On Blogging

Boost Blog Traffic 

This blog is written by Jon Morrow, former chief editor of Copy Blogger.

If you haven’t read Jon’s posts, you’re missing out.

He’s one of my favourite bloggers – funny, accurate and always keeps you wanting more. While Jon covers a range of topics, his golden egg is blogging. He also has a good roster of guest bloggers, who constantly add fresh content to an already rockin’ blog.

My 3 Favourites…

• 11 Lame Excuses That Successful Bloggers Never Make 
  

• From Zero to Hero: Make These 3 Small Tweaks and Dominate Your Niche 
  

• How to Be Smart in a World of Dumb Bloggers 
  

We want to wish the entire Spokal community a very Happy Holidays!

In the spirit of sharing, we thought we’d share 5 of our favourite marketing blog posts about the holiday season.

Enjoy!

Why You Shouldn’t Publish New Content during the Holidays (and What to Do Instead)

By Jon Morrow via Boost Blog Traffic

I had a frustrating moment yesterday.

It was one of those times when I realized how far most businesses are from delivering amazing marketing on a continual basis.

It started with a conversation about content marketing.

I was chatting with a business owner about their company, and part of their service is delivering content to their customers as a retention program to keep them happy. But that’s a small part of their business. And they mentioned it as if it were simple.

Like adding 1 + 2.

When I hear someone saying, “We’ll deliver relevant content,” I can’t help thinking that’s like saying, “We’ll deliver great customer service.”

It’s easy to say.

Just “create high quality content that your customers will love, and be relevant.” 

It’s extremely difficult to do.

Things are about to get messy.

Really messy.

Especially in content marketing.

A lot will happen in 2014, and understanding these 3 content marketing trends will help you stay ahead of the game and ensure you get more customers than your competition.

1. Creating Content That Converts

Soon it won’t be enough to create “great” content – by that we mean quality, relevant content delivered on a consistent basis.

That will be important.

But it will become the price to play the game.

It’s easy to want to jump on the latest bandwagon – especially when the promises are so alluring. Get more leads, more customers, and save time.

Before you do – recent surveys found that although many people do have success with marketing automation, the results often don’t justify the investment and people who buy it rarely use it fully.

Why?

Probably because of a lack of education and understanding around what tools are appropriate for your particular circumstances. It is not a question of one size fits all, no matter how much the Marketing Automation vendors (and we’re one!) try to convince you otherwise.

Part of the problem is vocabulary. 

Different companies use the same terminology to mean different things. For example, Act|On calls itself a marketing automation platform (and it is), however it is also an outbound-only automation platform. Hubspot also calls itself a marketing automation platform, however it’s an inbound-only automation platform. They both call themselves marketing automation platforms, yet they are almost opposites in philosophy, and how they work to bring you new customers. 

To further complicate things, there are providers who are neither inbound or outbound, and simply rely on you having an existing steady stream of leads that they’ll help you nurture and score so you or your sales team can be more efficient by only engaging with those most interested in your product or service.

So, what exactly is Marketing Automation?

I’m a terrible artist, however, I’ve drawn up a few ‘funnels’ so you can see how this might work given an inbound model and an outbound model. Click to see the larger version.