How to Create Ultimate Guides to Drive Leads, Traffic, and Conversions

Ultimate guides are everywhere. You’ve probably read your fair share, and maybe you’ve even written a couple.

They can be a great way to get traffic, build links, and increase your authority, but they’re far from easy to create. The issue most people run into is the sheer amount of content out there nowadays. How do you create an ultimate guide if there are already tons of posts on your chosen subject?

In this post, we’ll look at the steps to creating the ultimate guide on just about anything.

What Is an Ultimate Guide?

What turns a lengthy blog post into an ultimate guide? Well, there are a few things that almost every in-depth guide has in common:

  • It goes very deep into a pretty broad topic.
  • It contains several chapters that look at the topic from a variety of angles.
  • An industry expert or researcher writes it.

Apart from that, what you put in your ultimate guide and how you design it is up to you.

ultimate guide advanced SEO

Why You Should Create an Ultimate Guide

If you didn’t know how powerful ultimate guides are already, here’s why you should start creating them right now.

Rank for Many Keywords

The length, depth, and authority that go into ultimate guides make them a fantastic weapon in your SEO arsenal. The fact that they are so detailed means they should rank for a huge number of keywords. Including internal links to your other blog posts boosts their rankings, too.

Get Backlinks

A big, in-depth resource like an ultimate guide can be a fantastic source of links. Not only can you use it to go out there and request a backlink as part of your link-building process, but other sites naturally start linking to an authoritative resource, too. So much so that your ultimate guide can continue to attract links for years to come.

Build Your Authority

There are few pieces of marketing collateral better at positioning your brand as an authority in your industry than an ultimate guide. This is your opportunity to showcase how much you know about your subject to the world and go above and beyond what has previously been written about your topic.

How to Pick Topics for Your Ultimate Guide

Picking a topic can be a huge stumbling block for many aspiring writers. Don’t get bogged down overthinking it, though. Here’s how you can find the perfect topic quickly.

Choose a Topic You Know About

This first point is obvious, but it needs to be said. You need to know your topic inside and out if you want to write an excellent guide. That doesn’t mean you can’t use a freelance writer to help you out, but you should give them a thorough brief and create the outline of the guide yourself.

Choose a Topic With High Search Traffic

Not every guide needs to be written with the express purpose of ranking in Google, but it can seriously help drive traffic and generate customers. That’s why I recommend you enter your topic ideas into a tool like Ubersuggest to see the keyword volumes of the main topic and the volumes of every other related keyword.

Don’t just pick the topic that has the main keyword with the highest search volume, however. You may find another topic has so many more related keywords that it could actually generate more traffic overall.

Choose a Topic That’s Trending

Ultimate guides are successful when they’re written about trending topics. When people are excited about a topic, they want to consume all the information they can find about it. Your guide should be a part of that, too.

That’s not the only reason you want to focus on what’s trending, though. The newer your post is, the better it might do in search results if someone is searching by posts made within the last week, month, and so on.

How to Create an Ultimate Guide

With your topic picked, it’s time to get to work creating your guide. Here’s how I recommend you go about it.

1. Consume as Much Content as You Can

Even if you’re an expert in your field, you’ll still want to read blog posts on your topic before you start writing. Doing so will help you understand the level of content currently out there, the common threads writers pull, and the things you need to mention.

Pay attention to the results that Google serves up, too. You’ll find that specific formats are more popular than others, and you’ll want to try to mirror these when it comes to writing your content.

2. Identify What’s Missing

While you’re reading other people’s content, make a note of everything that’s missing from the posts. If you’re writing a how-to post, be sure to go through the steps yourself after reading posts by others.

Then, jot down things you notice during the process that others might have missed or not explained thoroughly. It also might help to sit down with someone who is unfamiliar with your topic and see what questions they come up with.

3. Do Research

You can write an ultimate guide off the back of your expertise alone—but you can make it stand head and shoulders above everyone else’s content if you conduct your research.

For some, this is a case of canvassing their colleagues and contacts for their opinion on a certain topic. Others might want to commit to more detailed research and partner with a market research company that’ll carry out a study on their behalf.

The more effort you put into the research, the more valuable and link-worthy your ultimate guide will become.

4. Put It All Together

To create your ultimate guide, simply combine the basics plus the additional details you found were missing from other posts and your research. This way, people coming across your guide as the first piece of content they have read about a topic will get all of the basic information, and people who have read many other guides will be wowed by all of the missing pieces that you included.

5. Promote, Promote, Promote

An ultimate guide is no good if no one reads it. Considering the amount of time and energy you have spent on your ultimate guide, you owe it to yourself and your readers to promote it well. Do so by:

  • Sharing it on all of your social networks: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are the best. Promote it on your personal and business accounts, if possible.
  • Sharing it in groups on social networks: LinkedIn, for example, has some great groups on particular topics. Facebook has some as well, although many are full of spammers who are just there for their promotions. This will expand your guide’s exposure from just your network to all of the members of the groups you select.
  • Emailing your list: If you have a mailing list, let them know about your latest and greatest piece of content.
  • Repurposing your content: If you can turn your ultimate guide into an infographic, video, slide presentation, or PDF document, you can spread it on even more networks.

4 Tips to Create an Awesome Ultimate Guide

If you want to take your ultimate guide to the next level, bear in mind these four tips when writing.

Write Clearly and Format Appropriately

You don’t have to be Hemingway to write a great ultimate guide, but take a lesson from Ernest regarding clarity. Short, clear, punchy sentences win out here, especially when writing thousands of words on your topic. Long, convoluted paragraphs may help you get your message across, but they’ll only cause the reader’s mind to wander.

Formatting will also help in this regard. Clearly labeled titles and subheadings will make your guide much more digestible. Short paragraphs will, too. Don’t forget that most of your audience will be reading your advice on a screen, so consider how they might skim it for the information they’re looking for.

Include Images and Screenshots

One thing I sometimes find missing from other ultimate guides is good screenshots. Take yours using your account of the topic as opposed to generic stock photos. This will make it easier for others to follow along and visualize the process.

Use Real-Life Examples

Once you have the basics and missing pieces down for your ultimate guide, look for some good examples of your tips in action. If you’re talking about creating great timeline cover photos, then include some examples from pages in different industries.

If you’re talking about using Pinterest to drive traffic, then link to top Pinterest users who are doing things right. Think about your target audience and find examples that they can easily relate to so they feel they must follow your advice to be successful.

Don’t Break Up Your Hard Work

There is a lot of advice out there suggesting you should take long posts and break them up into a series, so you can get people to come back to your website over and over again. However, I find that if someone hits a piece of content that says 101 Tips on ___, and the post only includes steps 1–20 with the promise of more to come, they move on to find everything they’re looking for elsewhere.

People want to consume information now, not wait for it. When they read the words ultimate guide, they’re going to expect to get everything in one chunk, so unless you are planning to write 5,000+ words on a topic, keep it in one piece.

Examples of Great Ultimate Guides

There are a lot of great ultimate guides out there, but here are some of my all-time favorites.

The Ultimate Guide to Startup Marketing

Examples of Great Content Guides - Neil Patel

If you’re looking to grow your startup, I’m pretty sure you’ll get a huge amount of value out of my ultimate guide on the topic.

How to Design a Logo: The Ultimate Guide

Examples of Great Content Guides - How to Design a Logo

With 12 chapters and virtually every angle covered, there’s no reason to read another guide before creating your logo.

The Ultimate Guide to Cart Abandonment

Examples of Great Content Guides - Cart Abandonment

If you’ve ever wondered why shoppers are leaving your website at checkout, this mammoth guide by VWO will answer all your questions.

The Ultimate Guide to Writing & Illustrating Your First Children’s Book

Examples of Great Content Guides - Guide to Writing Your First Children's Book

Ultimate guides don’t have to be about marketing, as this guide by Eevi Jones proves.

How to Pick a Career

Examples of Great Content Guides - How to Pick a Career

While Tim Urban hasn’t called this an ultimate guide, you’re unlikely to find a more thoughtful or detailed blog post on picking a career anywhere online.

Further Resources on Ultimate Guides

This blog post isn’t exhaustive by any means. If you want to dive deep into creating high-quality long-form content, then check out these five resources:

  1. How to Create an Ebook From Start to Finish by HubSpot
  2. The Ultimate Guide Template by Copyhackers
  3. Your Ultimate Guide on How to Write an Ultimate Guide (Infographic) by Express Writers
  4. The Ultimate Guide to Creating a True ‘Ultimate Guide’ by Search Engine Journal
  5. The Ultimate Guide To Content Promotion by Marketing Insider Group

How to Create Specs for an Ultimate Guide

You don’t have to write your ultimate guide yourself. If you’re hiring a freelance writer to write your guide for you, here’s how you can create a spec they can follow with ease.

  1. Give an overview.

    A top-level overview can help a writer quickly get to grips with the topic and goals of the ultimate guide.

  2. Create a clear structure.

    Take the initiative and write an outline that includes all of the major points you want the writer to talk about. This makes sure all of the gaps you identified in other pieces of content get covered.

  3. Include keyword research.

    If improved rankings are one of your main goals, then highlight the keywords you’re aiming to rank for.

  4. Note or record your expertise.

    Where appropriate, make notes for the writer to help guide them. Alternatively, you can record yourself talking about the topic.

  5. Provide additional resources.

    Highlight a handful of top-quality resources your writer can turn to for inspiration.

  6. Set a deadline

    Expect an ultimate guide to take a fair bit longer to write than a standard blog post.

Ultimate Guide Frequently Asked Questions

How long should my ultimate guide be?

There isn’t a defined length for an ultimate guide, but most are at least 3,000 words in length.

How do I distribute my ultimate guide to my target audience?

You can use social media and email to get your ultimate guide in front of your target audience.

Should I create more than one ultimate guide for my website?

Absolutely. Ultimate guides offer a lot of value in terms of SEO and building your authority, so you should write as many as you can.

At what part of the funnel are ultimate guides most useful?

Ultimate guides can be used at any part of your funnel, but they’ll be most useful towards the top. They are great at attracting users into your funnel and converting them to email subscribers.

{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “FAQPage”,
“mainEntity”: [
{
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How long should my ultimate guide be?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “There isn’t a defined length for an ultimate guide, but most are at least 3,000 words in length.”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How do I distribute my ultimate guide to my target audience?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “You can use social media and email to get your ultimate guide in front of your target audience.”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Should I create more than one ultimate guide for my website?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “Absolutely. Ultimate guides offer a lot of value in terms of SEO and building your authority, so you should write as many as you can.”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “At what part of the funnel are ultimate guides most useful?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “Ultimate guides can be used at any part of your funnel, but they’ll be most useful towards the top. They are great at attracting users into your funnel and converting them to email subscribers.”
}
}
]
}

How to Create Ultimate Guides Conclusion

Ultimate guides are an incredibly valuable marketing resource. I’ve used them to generate huge levels of traffic, build my reputation as an authority in the industry, and improve my site’s SEO.

Follow the advice I’ve given above, and you’ll be on your way to achieving your content goals while sharing valuable insights about your chosen topic.

Have you created an ultimate guide on your website or blog? What other tips would you add to making your ultimate guide a success?

How to Use the Psychology of Color to Increase Website Conversions

You know your niche and understand your customers. You’ve also taken the time to research keywords and optimize your copy. Then you’ve checked that your website works as it should. 

Before you go any further, though, there’s an additional step to take: considering the colors and color combinations you use on your website.

We’re not just talking about branding or what looks good here: We’re talking about color psychology and the impact it can have on your visitors and subsequent conversions.

You may not realize there’s more to color than its aesthetic qualities.

The color scheme you use is a crucial part of the buying decision. Even minor adaptations like changing your CTA buttons’ color can dramatically increase your success rates, while your overall color scheme can increase brand recognition.

Let’s cover the impact of color psychology on consumers and how you can use it on your website.

What Is Color Psychology?

Color psychology is the science of how color affects human behavior. It is a branch of the broader field of behavioral psychology. In practice, it’s the science of how color affects human behavior and responses.

The psychology of color can influence how your customers respond to your marketing messages based on the color of your copy, call-to-action buttons, and links. 

It’s all part of understanding the customer mindset. However, not every individual responds to colors the same way. This means there are no guarantees for its effects on conversions and branding. 

However, it doesn’t mean you should dismiss color psychology and its impact. On the contrary, there are vital facts that are indisputable.

For example, studies show consumers take just milliseconds to form their views on your website’s visual appeal. In addition, color is powerful enough to elevate and evoke moods.

It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in, either. Whether you’re selling clothing, digital cameras, or tech services, it’s essential to make sure your colors work perfectly with every element in your marketing plan. Unfortunately, that’s not always straightforward, since choosing colors is an “imperfect art.”

Here’s what you need to know to make the most of this field. 

Misconceptions About Color Psychology

Although there’s little in the way of scientific evidence, there is plenty of consumer research available on color psychology. For instance, one study shows color influences the buying decision.

However, it isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. The impression a color has can vary depending on the purpose of your advertising and consumers’ age groups.

The impact can vary due to other factors, like:

  • The industry you’re selling in.
  • The culture you’re selling to and people’s personal beliefs.
  • Different genders and their individual preferences.

Additionally, you may see some articles insisting the same color will work well for every type of campaign. That’s just not true. You’ll need to test a mix of color choices before deciding what works best for each specific campaign or site. 

Where Should You Use Color Psychology?

Colors can impact consumers throughout the marketing and sales cycle. Whether you’re developing software, designing a book, developing a web design cover, or simply branding your business: colors define mood and influence responses.

This article focuses on your website color schemes and specific areas like website elements like:

  • hero graphics
  • headline type
  • borders
  • backgrounds
  • buttons
  • pop ups

However, you can apply the tips across a wide range of areas, including: 

  • logos
  • branding
  • landing page
  • menu bars
  • email marketing
  • social media posts 
  • cover photos
  • product design
  • videos

 The real problem is getting it right.

Why Is Color Psychology Important?

You can use color psychology to communicate value, as well as to sell a product. For example, when the Coca-Cola Company marked 125 years of offering excellent service, they used their classic, bold red to brand the campaign.

color psychology - Coca-cola example

Your brand personality is of utmost importance. The core benefits of careful color selection in branding include:

  • Clarity of purpose: Your web design or brand voice can be strengthened through the right color scheme. Unless you know and speak the language your prospects speak, your product may get lost in a sea of competition, no matter how valuable or effective it may be. 
  • First impressions: The careful use of colors to create an initial impression can captivate first-time visitors to your site while nurturing loyal customers.
  • Customer retention and new leads: With the smart use of color, you can boost email sign-up rates, inspire repeat customers, and give people a reason to share your brand with family and friends. 

Remember, though, color psychology is closely tied to memories and experiences. For example, if someone had an enjoyable experience while wearing a yellow shirt, eating at a fast-food establishment with yellow arches, or living in a home with yellow walls, then yellow may cause joy by memory association. 

How to Use Color Psychology to Drive Conversions

CRO is an integral part of building a successful website. The goal is to get the best ROI possible and to thrive, no matter how strong your competition might be.

Since color is the one thing most of us can relate to, color psychology is an option that should be explored and tested to give your marketing an additional edge. Below are some color psychology tips to keep in mind.

Which Colors Do the Different Genders Prefer?

Color preferences aren’t always easy to establish. You’ll find plenty of studies available, and, naturally, many of them don’t agree with one another. However, women and men do seem to have some obvious preferences.

According to one study, women prefer subtle tones of:

  • purple
  • green
  • red
  • blue

In contrast, men also like these colors, but prefer them in brighter tones.

How to Use Color Psychology to Drive Conversions - Which Colors Do the Different Genders Prefer

A case study shows much of this holds true, at least for women, with blues, greens, and lavender colors remaining popular.

For colors that can improve conversions, regardless of sex, then reds, greens, blues, purple, black, and orange seem standard. 

Also, keep in mind that gender isn’t considered as binary as it once was, so relying on a color that appeals to men versus women might not be as effective as you might think. 

Certain colors can also suggest specific qualities. Let’s look at a selection of them.

Use Blue to Cultivate Trust

Blue is heavily associated with trust, which may be why many financial institutions often choose it. PayPal, Capital One, Visa, and Bank of America are just a few of the financial companies using blue in their color schemes.

How to Use Color Psychology to Drive Conversions - Use Blue to Cultivate Trust

Although various shades of blue can suggest different things, it also symbolizes:

  • security
  • loyalty
  • responsibility

Everything most of us would look for from a financial institution. However, while blue is pretty much an all-around great color, it may not work well for food packaging. Research indicates blue is a natural appetite suppressant, but, again, not everyone agrees. 

Yellow Equals Caution

Yellow can signal caution. Warning signs, traffic signals, and wet floor signs all use yellow. That said, it’s not all bad. Yellow is a color we connect with warmth, positivity, and happiness

Yellow inspires creativity, joy, fun, and confidence, and the shade of yellow used can speak volumes, too. For example, a bright yellow incites attention and excitement, and golden yellow is correlated to curiosity. 

Green for Environmental and Outdoor Products

Green is associated with the outdoors, nature, and the environment: we see a product in green packaging, and we automatically think of it as healthy or eco-friendly. Additionally, green can inspire creativity, innovation, and balance. 

If your website’s focus has anything to do with nature, the environment, organic, or outdoors, you might want to select green colors.

Orange Is Positive 

Orange is a positive color linked to happiness, success, and determination. In addition, it gives a sense of warmth while appearing less aggressive than red

Like other warm colors, orange can feel energetic, and it may gain shoppers’ attention, leading to impulse purchases. 

For example, Amazon.com uses orange to trigger action. The color suggests urgency, which makes the message more noticeable and actionable.

The color works best with other warm shades, but remember to use it sparingly. Try it on conversion elements of your site, so it stands apart.

Black Means Elegance and Luxury

Although we sometimes see black in a negative light, it’s a frequent choice for luxury retailers.

Aside from the mystery associated with black, the color suggests elegance, luxury, and sophistication.

In color psychology, black represents authority, power, and prestige. This would explain why Prada, Rolls Royce, and Chanel use it in their logos. 

How to Use Color Psychology to Drive Conversions - Black Means Elegance and Luxury

However, brands like Chanel are careful not to let black dominate on their websites, although it does play a part in their overall color schemes.

Use Bright Primary Colors for Your CTA

Multiple studies have looked at the best colors for CTAs, and as you may expect, many of them disagree with each other.

However, brands often favor bright colors like reds, blues, and greens. Then there’s Amazon, who famously uses its orange CTAs.

Nevertheless, the most important thing about your CTA isn’t necessarily the color itself: you need to look at the contrast, your audience, and your branding.

What About White in Color Psychology?

White space is paramount to good website design. It reduces clutter and gives a clean appearance, and there’s plenty of ways you can use it.

For example:

  • in simple, minimalistic designs
  • for typography and adding contrast
  • with a splash of color for that extra “pop”

If you don’t like pure whites, consider adding some warmth by using off-whites like ivory.

Color Psychology Best Practices

Updating your colors doesn’t mean starting from scratch. You may not be in a position to rewrite your style guide and pick your website color palette or font colors on the email template, but you still have some options.

Here are some solid takeaways you can use as you implement color psychology into your marketing and increase conversions: 

If the Colors Don’t Work, Suggest Changes

If you’re working with designers or decision-makers, speak up if you feel the overall design scheme won’t work. For example, if you’re selling a high-class designer product, you won’t want to pair a sophisticated color with an amateur-looking logo.

Explain why some color combinations won’t work and how the right mix can positively influence conversions.

Use Psychologically-Appropriate Colors to Complement the Existing Color Scheme

Sure, you need to adapt to the color scheme. Just make sure you use colors that blend well with the current choices, the brand, and the feelings you’re trying to evoke. For instance, if you use blue, combine it with a sunny yellow for a pop-up for a positive feel.

Test Several Colors

To improve conversions, try different colors until you find the one that works for your brand. For example, HubSpot found red outperformed green CTA buttons, but that doesn’t mean it will be the same for you. Whatever color you go with, just make sure the color “pops” for greater visibility and higher conversions.

Don’t Forget; Color Is a Conversion Issue

Yes, you’ll want input from a designer, but don’t let them dictate your website colors. You’re not just looking for something that looks good: you want a color scheme that converts. Therefore, you should be heavily involved in the color selection of your landing pages to improve your conversions.

Avoid Color Overload 

Too many colors can create a sense of confusion, so don’t go overboard: reign in your color scheme with white. 

Conclusion

It’s easy to overlook the potential of color psychology. However, the colors you choose for your website, branding, and marketing may be more powerful than you realize.

When choosing your color scheme, take an active part and don’t leave the decision down to a designer. Only you know what you want your website to say and what you want your visitors to do when they visit your website.

If you aim to increase conversions, for instance, then you may want to use specific colors, like reds, blues, and orange.

However, remember that the psychology of color doesn’t give guaranteed results, and the same colors won’t have the same impact on everyone.

Do you take color psychology into consideration in your website design and marketing? Tell us how you use it below.

How to Leverage Storytelling to Increase Your Conversions

In the not so distant past, I embarked on a journey to grow NeilPatel.com to 100,000 blog readers. At the end of every month, I shared my traffic stats and the changes I’d made. That storytelling strategy went on to help my blog reach over 100,000 views a month — in only about eight months.

As marketers, we use storytelling to help make our ideas stick. We create stories to help prospects understand our products, use company stories to build trust and transparency with consumers, and include stories in sales pitches to help persuade.

Why does it work?

Competition in native advertising and social media marketing is fierce. And, the rate at which great content is being produced and published on the web and across the media channels is expanding. Our readership is drowning.

Most people scan web content, looking for something that stands out. If they don’t find it, they’ll leave.

Visual stories and corporate storytelling can connect the dots and get people to ACTUALLY read your great content and take action. This is the essence of successful media marketing.

If you want to increase your potential customer conversions, then start captivating your target market by making emotional connections through storytelling.

Storytelling is like a vitamin. When it gets into your readers, it permeates their whole being and fights every objection that might otherwise stop them from becoming loyal customers.

In short, it’s an amazing secret weapon when it comes to your marketing strategy.

In this article, I’ll explain the five simple steps you can improve your potential customer conversion rate by combining storytelling and data.

The breakdown of what you’ll learn is:

  • What Storytelling Is
  • The Elements of Storytelling
  • How to Use Storytelling to Increase Conversions
  • Build Authority Through Storytelling
  • Storytelling Success Stories

Step #1: What is Storytelling?

Storytelling is the art of communicating your idea, message or event, by creatively weaving words, images, and sounds into a narrative. Visual stories, written stories, and verbal stories – this is the content we love.

When you tell a true story, your message is perceived as authentic. In the same way that live events get more retweets than general tweets on social media channels, your content will impact the lives of your target market, and improve your credibility.

storytelling benefits

Why should you use corporate storytelling in content marketing? We breathe visual stories. Even in the Stone Age, humans understood how to tell stories that evoked interest and made that emotional connection.

And, it’s one of the most effective ways to engage and persuade your audience.

storytelling infographic

Humans are born storytellers and adore visual communication. Storytelling gives life or meaning to a scenario and makes that emotional connection, provoking feelings of ecstasy, sorrow, or peace, and captivating your audience. This is exactly what you need when it comes to your digital marketing strategy.

It is little wonder that posts with visual stories and visual communication generate more Facebook and media channel shares than any other content type.

As it turns out, visual stories and communication (e.g., infographics, videos, memes, screenshots) get widely shared on major social media channels.

image30

Your potential customers aren’t looking for another sales pitch or a proposal that sounds too good to be true. They’ve heard enough of those.

For example, when you write, use relevant images and great visual stories that pique people’s interest.

Or, if you’re recording a podcast, you could use emotion-triggering music and sounds. For video creation, you can use words, images, visual stories, and sounds at the same time.

A study conducted by Forrester Research found that 88% of executives and organizational decision-makers long to have conversations, not pushy sales presentations.

With visual stories, you can create and promote infographics, which have collectively generated over 2,500,000 million visitors and 41,142 backlinks for me, over a two-year span.

I usually publish new infographics every Friday, and the results have been amazing.

use storytelling to drive traffic.

You can also create visual stories and content and submit it to authoritative media sites and platforms, such as Slideshare, Vimeo, and Animoto. This helps you gain a new target market and potential customers for your business.

image38

Corporate Storytelling in Persuasion

Persuasion is the master key that will unlock your conversion vault with your potential customers. Robert Mckee was right when he said that “Storytelling with persuasion trumps statistics.”

Marketing is for people, and people are emotional beings.

Our brains are wired to respond to emotional connections and triggers. Storytelling is the most natural source of those triggers.

image04

When you understand how to persuade others, you’ll no longer struggle to get more traffic. Instead, you’ll focus on improving conversions, because that’s what matters.

So, how do stories persuade a targeted group of readers or potential customers to take action? That’s the goal of setting up a content marketing strategy and writing in-depth content.

Moment of truth: What potential customers perceive to be true will ultimately guide their actions and decision-making processes. Consumer perceptions may or may not be accurate, but they’ll live by them, nevertheless.

When people visit your website or your media sites, what truth do you instill in them? Do you give visitors the hard sell, when they’re still trying to get to know you?

Instead of starting with “once upon a time,” or some variation of it, weave your story into your content. Stories can even appear on your headline, introduction, and, most importantly, on your landing page.

Add experiences, case studies, research studies, and significant results that you’ve helped your customers achieve. These are the foundation of your story.

I’ve used storytelling in the past to engage my readers, as well. For example, I shared a story on how spending $162,301.42 on clothes made me $692,500.

example of storytelling in marketing

Personality: The Norwegian author Rune Belsvik once said that the concept of story was “one of the first things that came to the world.”

Our personality is born out of stories. We’re created to share and listen to stories, to fall in love with visual stories. So, storytelling is a natural tool to help grow your audience and increase your conversions.

In the same way, storytelling gives your content new flavor and amplify its benefits, because it’s coming from a “personality” – a set of characteristics that makes you special and appealing to others.

In the beginning of your content, open strong, and establish your story. In the middle, build interest in the message.

Highlight the benefits of the topic and close with a call-to-action that’s persuasive, not pushy.

David Siteman Garland, founder of The Rise To The Top, uses this strategy to write his copy. He starts out his story on a strong note, gradually evokes interest by showing the results in the middle, then calls his readers to action at the end.

Here’s the beginning:

storytelling example
st

Here’s the middle of his copy, where David builds interest through success stories:

storytelling example in marketing

And finally, the call-to-action at the end:

storytelling example

Note: Established bloggers and internet marketers who have built solid businesses use content segmentation to improve their conversion rate. And, because they’re creative at storytelling, they’re able to experience greater levels of success.

The sooner you master the art of storytelling, the better for your brand and online business. Social media is redefining storytelling in a significant way. Know your audience and be authentic in your written and visual stories.

You’ve already gone through a lot in life and have endless stories to share.

I don’t believe that you should make up stories; instead, you should tap into the wealth of stories from family, friends, customers, entrepreneurs, and brands.

Then, align those stories to the audience you’ve come to know like the back of your hand.

Step #2:  Learn the Elements of Storytelling

When you’re telling or sharing a story with your potential customers, you want to achieve a specific outcome.

You want enough general knowledge to take your content marketing efforts to the next level.  Then, make sure to include the following elements of storytelling.

A Defined Target Audience

Have you defined your audience yet? Before you can successfully tell a story, there must be a qualified audience to enjoy it. Most people get it backwards, if they do it at all.

But, you have to define your target audience first, because they’ll, in turn, define your product both in and out of social media marketing.

As time goes by and you build relationships and engage with your potential customers and target audience, they’ll send you great feedback that will help define and improve your product.

So, how do you define your target audience and your potential customers clearly? There are several ways to go about it, but I’ve personally found that demographics are the first step.

If I can truly understand who my target audience is and where they’re browsing my site from, I can align my content and tell a better story.

Your audience demographic is just a market segment, but it will give you a great understanding of their complete persona or profile.

image08

Here are the four simple steps to define your audience, based on demographics:

Go to Alexa.com. Type in your site URL (e.g., lewishowes.com) and click “Go.”

image57

To find your results, scroll down the Alexa result page and you’ll find this:

image22

From the screenshot above, you’ll notice that LewisHowes.com visitors are mostly female, are college graduates, and browse the site from home.

If I were Lewis, now that I know my audience is predominantly female, I would align my content with storytelling nuggets that will appeal to both males and females, but weighted towards the females. I might not do anything further on the education aspect, because college graduates can effectively read and live their dream lifestyle.

But, since the majority of this target audience browses from home, I’d also try to give them worksheets or actionable tips that they can implement right away since they would have no boss around to audit what they are doing.

Armed with your audience demographics, you’ll want to dig deeper. Knowing your audience’s interests is a critical step in unearthing their biggest challenges and using storytelling to solve their problems.

The suggestions below paint a clearer picture of how you can best utilize each social media channel:

  • If you deal in fast-moving consumer goods (i.e., not luxury goods), Facebook is your ideal social media channel for attracting an audience, because the users are mostly young people.
  • Twitter is a microblogging platform for news-like updates. Use the social media channel Twitter to keep your target audience abreast of what’s happening with your site, business or community. It’s not for selling.
  • Besides clothing and decorative arts, Pinterest favors food and drink-related products. Family and relationship-related products also tend to receive more likes and repins.
  • Clothing, accessories and entertainment-related products do extremely well on Instagram because the users are primarily female.

Finally, LinkedIn is the platform of choice for business-related communications. So, if you’re looking to acquire business-minded customers, LinkedIn will out-perform Twitter and Instagram, by a long shot.

storytelling on linkedin

Measurable Goals

The second most important element of storytelling is a measurable goal.

Anybody can set a goal, but how many people can effectively measure it?

Smart marketers want to track their progress.

When you set a goal that you can’t measure, you’ll miss out on the potential of expansion. For example, you won’t know what other factors are required, when you set a bigger goal.

Here are some tips for setting measurable goals:

Start small: I believe in thinking big, but you should also keep your goals realistic. When you start on a smaller note, you’ll certainly hit the target and know exactly where you’re going.

storytelling have measurable goals

“10,000 visitors in a month” isn’t realistic in the beginning.

But, you can set a smaller, specific, and measurable goal, such as “Generate 1000 blog visitors per week, by targeting 25 long-tail keywords and spending an hour every day at relationship-building on discussion boards and social media platforms.”

This latter goal is measurable because you can check your Google Analytics to determine which keyword phrases are performing well in the search engines. You can also track your social media marketing activities and understand the best times to tweet.

You also want to measure your progress when using storytelling to meet marketing goals. Otherwise, you won’t be able to know whether or how your conversion rate is growing.

Set a schedule: For your goals to be measurable, you have to set a schedule. What will you do daily to achieve your goal?

A schedule gets you organized and increases your productivity.

storytelling set a schedule

Your schedule should match your deadline and help you focus on the most important tasks.

For example, if you’ve set a measurable goal to generate 1,000 search visitors per week by targeting 25 long-tail search queries, your daily schedule could be:

  • Research and select five longer tail key phrases: If I were in the weight loss/fitness niche, I could select these easier-to-target key phrases: how to lose 20 pounds, I want to lose weight, best weight loss exercise that works, top 10 fat loss programs and help me lose weight fast.
  • Read books, blogs, watch videos, etc.: I want to learn about the topic as much as I can before writing. There are helpful resources that I can easily access with a quick Google search.
  • Write my headlines: This is critical if you want people to click, read, and share your content. Spend 20 minutes to an hour on your headline, because if you don’t nail the headline, you’ll waste a lot of potential. In order to save time on headline writing, find a headline in any industry that catches your attention, then use it as a model to create a better one that’s relevant to your own industry.
  • Write the content: First, create an outline for your content, then expand on it to create your content or video.
  • Set a deadline: According to Nolan Bushnell, “the ultimate inspiration is the deadline.” Without a deadline, you aren’t inspired to act now to achieve a significant result, because the clock isn’t ticking.
image65

In leveraging storytelling to increase your conversions, every piece of content that you write and every landing page that you create should have a measurable goal with a schedule and a deadline.

Relatable data: The grudge match between storytelling and statistics rages on. But instead of choosing one or the other, why not combine both when creating your content?

I rarely write content without using data to back up my claims. Personal opinions have a limited ability to engender trust in your target audience. But, if you can prove what you say with statistics, then you win loyal customers.

Take a look at my recent post, to see how I positioned myself as an authority, by referencing something that Google said:

storytelling example

Sharing a story on how you went from being broke to being a millionaire may not do much for your customers unless you use data to prove it.

If there’s no data or case study relating to the story that you’re sharing, you can share your own data.

Go ahead and create charts and make it plain that this is what you found after a series of experiments.

Persuasion

The fourth element of effective storytelling is persuasion. You can’t influence people if you can’t persuade them. 

In his bestselling book, Influence, Dr. Robert B. Cialdini noted that reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity are the strongest factors in the psychology of persuasion.

The focal point is this: these six factors move people to change behavior, follow the course that you’ve set, subscribe to your email list, and buy your product, even if they don’t necessarily need it right now.

Let’s see an example of how social proof can increase sales.

Cialdini defined social proof as “the art of doing something because you see others who do the same thing.” You simply follow the crowd.

Here’s an example of how social proof increases conversion: Modcloth is a clothing commerce site.

It’s a great community, where shoppers vote on the styles that they believe the site should sell more of in the future. Such styles have a “Top-Rated” badge.

storytelling example modcloth

The evidence of this unique form of social proof is that products with this badge sell twice as well as products without it.

Here are other examples of top brands using social proof:

storytelling using social proof

To learn how the other five principles of persuasion increase conversions, see Peep Laja’s resourceful post, how to use Cialdini’s 6 principles of persuasion to boost conversions.

Use Storytelling to Increase Conversions

I’m amazed at how Huggies used storytelling to increase their conversion rate.  Huggies and Ogilvy had a definite and measurable goal – to connect with and deepen a relationship with expectant moms. They wanted to build engagement even before the baby is born.

To accomplish that goal, Ogilvy decided to get expectant moms involved. Through their campaign, “Delivery Hugs,” they created a powerful video that triggered a strong emotional response from people – especially mothers and moms-to-be

The video was viewed by millions of people. When those people shared the video and the story behind it, people were moved to tears.

Here are actionable ways to increase conversions through storytelling:

Develop a Content Strategy

Your content strategy simply refers to a structured plan by which you create content, promote it, test your campaigns, and track your progress.

The content structure gives you ample opportunity to boost the effectiveness of your content strategy.

And, you can easily achieve that by leveraging social media. Taking inventory of the leads that you acquire, the sales that you get, and the underlying trends in your industry is critical, when you’re developing a content strategy.

Leverage a Story People Already Know

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You could leverage other people’s stories to create a powerful, high-quality, evergreen piece of content. Stories are the secret recipe for other people’s success.

In All Marketers Tell Stories, Seth Godin poses three essential questions to every marketer:

  • Do you have a story?
  • When the right people hear the story, will they believe it?
  • Is the story true?

The harsh reality is that if your story is great, but you can’t tell it well, no one will believe you. All marketers tell stories, but only those who have mastered the art of storytelling catch our attention.

Millions of other people’s stories are available online. All you have to do is find one or more, create tailored content around the stories and reference original content.

This has nothing to do with duplicate content, plagiarism, or content curation. You’ll be creating unique content based on other people’s stories.

image06

For example, I’ll be creating an in-depth article on how Shopify tripled their sales. I’ll give all due credit and appreciation to Shopify, but the content will increase my search traffic and probably bring in clients.

You can read people’s stories on blogs or by listening to their presentations, reading their books, or engaging them in one-on-one conversations.

There should be a beginning, a narrative to show what happened and the lessons learned, then a conclusion that shows exactly how the same story can change the reader’s life for the better.

Lead With Dialogue

Storytelling that focuses on two-way communication will yield faster growth.

image51

Seth Godin says that “fast growth comes from overwhelming the smallest possible audience with a product or service that so delights them that they insist that their friends and colleagues use it.”

I have to agree because when your product isn’t worth talking about, no amount of marketing will help. Both the content and the product have to be highly useful first, then everything else follows. It’s all about getting feedback from your target audience.

Vanessa Van Edwards, the founder of The Science of Things, uses dialogue in storytelling.

storytelling example

Vanessa understands that when her audience gives honest feedback by taking a quiz, she can use the data pertaining to body language from 5,000 readers and create high-quality information products for them.

storytelling example

She even goes the extra mile by accepting research studies from readers. This single act gives the readers a sense of belonging. They’ll look forward to getting Vanessa’s newsletters and participate in anything related to body language because they’re a part of the community.

QuickSprout provides an interactive tool, as well. It literally talks to you, when you plug your URL into the search box.

storytelling example quicksprout

Sonia Simone tells thought-provoking stories by leading with dialogue. A few years ago, she posted a simple question that got my neurons fired up:

storytelling example use dialogue

If you already have an audience via social media networks, an email list, or a mastermind group, you can get feedback from them by sending questionnaires through SurveyMonkey.

Focus on Emotions

Our brains respond to stories more than anything else. Robert Plutchik’s “wheel of emotions” reveals some of the underlying emotions that influence your customers, which – when leveraged – can boost your conversions.

wheel of emotions in storytelling

Lisa Feldman noted, in her book The Science of Emotion, that for the most part, people have little control over their emotions. Often, they’re automatic responses to our experiences. What we like or hate and what we perceive as pain or pleasure are just two kinds of emotional triggers, among many.

Happiness is one emotion that makes us want to share. Psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott noted that our response to our mom’s smile with a smile of our own is usually the first emotional response we make in life.

When your content drives people to a state of happiness or joy, they will automatically respond to your offers, feel obliged to share your content, and will stop at nothing to tell others about you.  

image67

This is because happiness is hard-wired into the human brain. When experienced, it’s found in the left prefrontal cortex of the brain.

It literally functions from there. But, it may remain dormant until something – such as a story – triggers it.

A baby’s social smile further tells us that when happiness is shared, it ultimately increases and creates an atmosphere that encourages more happiness. What you share will actually come back to you multiplied.

Speak to your customer’s mind, but appeal to both logic and emotions.

Measure the Impact of Your Story

If you’ve ever wondered why most brands get media publicity with ease, while others stay on the sidelines, it’s because they were able to use storytelling to its full potential. You have to measure your success – because it’s critical to making smarter content marketing decisions.

image79

Planning, execution, and consistent learning are key factors that will help you increase your conversions.  But, you have to measure the impact of your brand story.

Measuring social media activities is easy. But, measuring the impact of storytelling is a little more difficult, because it has so much to do with emotional communication.

Step #4: Build Authority Through Storytelling

Social networks influence nearly 50% of all IT decision makers. Truly, the world as we know it is changing.

It was all about mass media in the past.  But today, social media is taking over. We’re living in the age of authority. Traditional media might still be popular, but it lacks effectiveness because it’s a one-way communication channel.

Social media is different. When you send a tweet, you can get a retweet or comment from a follower and, over time, build trust.

When it comes to building authority through storytelling, you need a level of influence in your business, family, society, and spheres of contact, before people can trust you.

What you believe in can be amplified if you’re able to convince a select group of people.

So, how do you start building your own authority? Here’s a simple three-step game plan that’s proven to work:

  • Affirm that you’re an authority in your industry
  • Focus on your creative voice
  • Share stories that pull people instead of pushing them

Affirm You’re an Authority in Your Industry

There is power in affirmations. When you affirm to yourself what you want to happen in your life or business, you can see it come to pass when coupled with smart action. Of course, you can’t just fold your arms and expect miracles to happen.

But, if you think you’re not qualified, competent, or decisive enough to influence people, it’ll show in your conversation.

Affirmations are positive statements that describe or convey a strong desire to achieve a specific goal or state of being, which is then repeated consistently until it’s imprinted on the subconscious mind.

For example, you can wake up every day and affirm, “Today will be an awesome day.” And, it most likely will be for YOU (though maybe not for EVERYONE).

guide to storytelling in marketing today will be a good day image

Affirmations work because when you continually repeat a statement verbally, it influences your thoughts and actions.

For example, repeating to yourself, “I’m increasing my sales this month,” plants the thought into your subconscious mind, which then begins to imagine the amount of money that you’ll make.

Repeat to yourself, “I’m telling better stories” and again, your mind will call you to order and nudge you to search out a powerful story for your next blog post or product.

In his bestselling book, You Are A Writer (So Start Acting Like One), Jeff Goins said that “becoming a writer starts with a simple, but important belief: you’re a writer and you’ve got to start writing.”

storytelling affirmations.

And today, Jeff Goins runs a successful online self-publishing business. Even if no one ever believed in him, he affirmed it to himself repeatedly and it became so.

Jeff’s latest book, The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do, is also full of affirmations. Goins’ work has been endorsed by the biggest names in the internet marketing world.

If you want to truly become good at something, you first have to believe in it.

Focus on Your Creative Voice

Storytelling is an art and therefore requires uniqueness and creativity. Your creative voice is what sets you apart from the crowd, just like your Unique Selling Point.

A post on Oprah’s website suggests that you find a quiet place to meditate and assimilate all of the information that you’ve accessed during the day.

When everything else fails, your creative voice will give your story a rhythm. It’ll alleviate boredom and take people on a journey of experience.

I love how the creative Gary Vaynerchuk builds authority through social media and blogging. He even advocates growing your brand by leveraging someone else’s.

In summary, here are a few ways to discover your creative voice and focus on it:

  • Heed Oprah’s advice. Set aside quiet time to meditate.
  • Learn from other people. Position your brand to benefit from their own.
  • Know your target audience inside and out.
  • Use storytelling to express your worldview, not to impress anybody.

Share Stories That Pull People, Instead of Pushing Them

Storytelling is meant to pull people in, not push or repel them. It’s about helping people become better.

Your story shouldn’t just be about you. Instead, it should relate to your audience and customers. It should pull them in and retain them.

use storytelling to pull people in

When using stories to capture an audience, keep in mind that they may not necessarily want to know every detail – the outcome is what counts. Many people don’t want to know how painful giving birth to a child is, but we all want to hear the cry of a baby, right?

Seth Godin has authored over 20 books. His style of writing, which incorporates storytelling, pulls people in. Godin has many brand associates, who regularly refer clients to him. Take a look at this opening in a post:

seth godin storytelling example.

As a content creator, writer, and business owner, you’re in this world to make a difference.

It’s not all about the money that you’ll make, but the joy of seeing your target audience and customers improve their lives, meet their goals, and smile again.

Step #5: Learn from Storytelling Success Stories

I’ve shared several success stories of how brand distinguished their products, customer service, and relationships with customers, all by telling real stories.

But, there are more storytelling success stories left to tell.

ITV’s Storytelling Launch

ITV had plans to create a new multi-screen ad format, which could be synced into other platforms. Their audience was mostly composed of smartphone and tablet users.

ITV storytelling example

When ITV combined this innovation with visual storytelling, they were able to merge the benefits of broadcast TV advertising with modern tablets and smartphones.

ITV storytelling example

During the X-Factor finale last year, the ad format was launched and it resulted in over 1,300,650 page views, with an average click-through rate of 8.75%

Jon Morrow

Jon Morrow is one of the bloggers that I deeply respect.

image29

He once shared a powerful guest post on Problogger, telling the story of how he was hit by a car in April 2006.

His leg was broken in 14 places. For the next three months, he endured significant pain and misery.

Then, he got brave and quit his job. He sold everything he owned and stopped paying most of the usual bills. The story got even more interesting, when he recounted how he moved to paradise to get paid to change the world.

In that post, Jon persuaded readers so strongly that it generated over 72,000 visitors.

Today, Jon runs a very profitable online business and his flagship blog, Boost Blog Traffic, gets over 100,000 monthly visitors. In fact, he earns over $100,000 per month.

Dallas Morning News

Dallas Morning News, a regional media company in the U.S., wanted to expand its reach through social media. They understood that traditional media is fast becoming tiring for viewers and fans unless it’s integrated into their social lifestyle.

dallas news storytelling example

Using Hootsuite, they were able to control their social activities from one portal, streamlining their endeavors.

They empowered and persuaded their team to cultivate the habit of sharing news and updates on social media platforms. This strategy increased the company’s engagement with a growing local readership.

And, they succeeded. Here’s the result of their social media integration:

image05

Conclusion

The human brain is wired to remember memorable and visual stories.

The sooner you start using storytelling in your content creation and marketing, the easier you’ll find it to increase your conversions.

There is no shortcut to improving your ROI as a content marketer and blogger. You have to consistently feed Google and your target audience with fresh, high-quality content.

As you do that, you’ll get more organic traffic and improve your long-tail keyword rankings significantly.

Have you leveraged storytelling to increase your conversions? What is your experience and how do you respond to other people’s stories?

The post How to Leverage Storytelling to Increase Your Conversions appeared first on Neil Patel.

Bounce Rate Analytics: How to Measure, Assess, and Audit to Increase Conversions

Your bounce rate can be such a scary number, right? It’s common knowledge that a high bounce rate is bad, and a low rate is good. Every time you log into your Google Analytics account, it’s right there waiting for you. I understand the feeling when you see that number creeping up. But the problem is …

The post Bounce Rate Analytics: How to Measure, Assess, and Audit to Increase Conversions first appeared on Online Web Store Site.

The post Bounce Rate Analytics: How to Measure, Assess, and Audit to Increase Conversions appeared first on ROI Credit Builders.