5 Smart Reasons to Create Content Outside Your Niche

Blogging can be a powerful way for you to build your personal brand and increase the visibility of your company within your industry. Ideally, both at the same time.

Your end goal, of course, is to become a top leading expert on the topics that matter to your niche. And when you're first starting out, committing to a niche is important. You must own and dominate it.

Yet, a day will eventually come when you've exhausted your niche. You'll realize that you have finally worked "until you no longer have to introduce yourself," as the great anonymous once put it so eloquently.

What do you do then, when the "law of diminishing blogging returns" kicks in?

If you've reached this point, you may want to start exploring topics that are outside of your core niche. After all, writing off-topic posts can have many benefits. To help you better understand this strategy, let's walk through some of the reasoning, as well as a few tips for getting started.

5 Smart Reasons to Create Content Outside Your Niche

1) You can reach much bigger audiences.

Once upon a time I was a nobody, writing for an internet marketing company nobody had ever heard of. A smart content promotion strategy changed all that.

Suddenly, I was no longer writing about marketing topics just on the WordStream blog. I was writing for major industry publications like Search Engine Land, Moz, Search Engine Watch, and Search Engine Journal about PPC, display advertising, social media marketing and advertising, and SEO.

At this point, I was thrilled when a blog post would become a "unicorn" -- getting tens of thousands of views, and absolutely thrilled whenever one would get a couple hundred thousand views.

This was a great achievement. But I soon realized I was hitting my own point of diminishing returns by writing about advertising and marketing. So I started going off-topic a couple of years ago. I started writing for Inc.com, mainly about startups and entrepreneurship -- which I'm ridiculously passionate about.

Now, suddenly, the unicorns were even more sparkly and amazing. When I'd hit a home run with a blog post, it might get a million views. And if I hit a grand slam with a blog post, it might get more than 10 million views.

And they weren't all about marketing; they spanned across topics like boosting your intelligence and making a first impression.

Bottom line: What you lose in topical relevancy you'll make up for in volume.

2) You can start biasing future customers.

When you're creating content, there are a couple of types of people you need to think about:

• People who know they need the product/solution you sell.


• People who don't yet realize they need the product/solution you sell.

Writing about off-topics is a brilliant way to reach and start biasing that second group of people toward you and your brand. And that's why I started writing about entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs probably aren't actively looking for articles about AdWords, but small business owners are definitely interested in marketing topics.

Writing about off-topics allows you to connect with people before they even need the types of services your company provides. By establishing a relationship through a shared interest now, you can increase the odds that later on those same people will come to you first and become your customers when the need arises.

3) You can increase your social media engagement.

If you're fortunate enough to write for a large publication such as Inc.com, which has millions of fans on Facebook and Twitter, you'll see your follower counts soar. All you have to do is write about interesting topics.

Every time Inc.com shares my content organically, I pick up more followers: When I started writing for the publication couple of years ago, I had less than 100,000 Twitter followers. Now, I have more than 300,000 followers.

Medium is another great platform to pick up new readers with your off-topic posts. Plus, publishing on Medium might help you get noticed by a publication with a large readership.

Just as one example, I published a post on Medium about multitasking that generated almost half a million views.

It was so successful that it ended up being syndicated on a couple major publications, and it was tweeted by the Arianna Huffington. Amazing, right?

Is multitasking killing your brain? Yes! https://t.co/n1Jne0MxxS

- Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff)
February 5, 2016

At the end of the day, having more followers gives you an even larger promotional vehicle for your on-topic content, so why not give it a try?

4) You can truly express yourself.

Going off-topic gives you the opportunity to share more about yourself.

Simply publishing generic posts doesn't cut it anymore. There's way too much competition. You need to think about the tone and style of your content.

In case you couldn't tell, I really like unicorns and memes. It's kind of what I'm known for.

I want my posts to be useful by including data and actionable tips. But it's equally important for me to write memorable posts, which is why I try to add some humor and use lots of visuals.

Remember: A little personality goes a long way and will make you more interesting. 

5) You'll keep your sanity.

Once you've been writing for a few years, you'll find that it will become increasingly hard to come up with new and interesting things to say about the same topics.

Take me, for example. If I were just writing about nothing but AdWords features and tips for years, I'd go nuts.

Diversify! For the sake of your own sanity.

How To Get Started With Off-Topic Content 

Now that we've covered why you need to write about a wider variety of topics, how do you get started?

• Do your research. Before you expand, think about how the off-topic posts you want to write will help advance your career. What audience could you reach and how could that help you?


• Find a way to set yourself apart from established influencers in the same space. How are you going to be memorable? Make sure you know what you want to accomplish and have a strategy to achieve your goals.

Once you sort through the initial research and planning, you'll need to nail down where you want to publish. To get started, do a search for popular sites that feature posts on the topics you want to write about. Read the sites and figure out their style and what types of article perform well.

To do this quickly and easily, you'll want to lean on BuzzSumo. With BuzzSumo, you can look into the top performing posts for any domain to generate a better understanding of what works well.

It's also helpful to take a look at a publication's guest blogging guidelines, as these typically offer insights around what type of content they are looking for. (Check out this post to learn more about the content submission process for 11 popular sites -- from The New York Times to Business Insider.)

When you send your email, don't just pitch one idea. Pitch a few original ideas with a unique angle to choose from. Or build off an existing article they've published:

I saw your great article on [topic] and wanted to see if you'd have interest in publishing an article about [topic] that I could write exclusively for you.

Look for content gaps and offer to fill those. Editors will be more receptive when you show that you've done your research. And if you're having trouble coming up with unique, interesting ideas outside of your niche, turn to these tips:

• Use Twitter to audition topics. If you want to know whether you should invest your time writing about a certain topic, tweet about it on Twitter. If your tweet generates lots of engagement, then you can be confident that there's an audience interested in that topic. If your Twitter audition bombs, forget about that topic for now. You can always revisit it in the future.


• Use BuzzSumo to discover topics. Again, BuzzSumo is a powerful tool that helps you discover which topics are super hot in any industry, and which posts are the most popular on individual websites. Yes, it's paid, but I'd consider it one of the wisest investments if you're serious about your content strategy.

Proceed With Caution

I can't leave without issuing one warning about off-topic posts: Don't overdo it.

The worst thing you can do is to lose focus. To prevent this, I'd suggest following the 80-20 rule, where 80% of the content you create covers your money "bread and butter" topics, and the remaining 20% of your efforts go toward off-topic content to establish yourself in a new niche.

Stay focused. And best of luck as you embark on your new journey and begin growing your influence in new areas.

Have you experimented with off-topic blog posts? Did you see positive results? Share your thoughts and experiences below.

12 Video Marketing & Advertising Campaigns You'll Actually Enjoy Watching

Riddle me this: Why do people buy quarter-inch drill bits?

While there are a million possible answers to this question, Leo McGinneva offers perhaps the most interesting explanation.

"They don't want quarter-inch bits. They want quarter-inch holes," he explains.

This notion suggests that as consumers, we aren't after all the bells and whistles as much as the solutions they provide. In other words, we don't want to know what brands are selling, we want to know what's in it for us.

Not only has this mentality lead to the demise of traditional marketing efforts, but it's also set the stage for more human interactions between brands and consumers. Interactions that don't feel like marketing.

And what better medium to propel this new wave of humanized marketing than video? It's one of the most effective mediums for marketers. Seventy-three percent of respondents in a 2015 Web Video Marketing Council study indicated that video had a positive impact on their marketing results.

To help inspire your own video marketing efforts, we've rounded up 12 lovable video marketing campaigns. So go ahead, grab some popcorn. These examples will be waiting here when you get back.

12 Marketing Video Campaigns You'll Actually Enjoy

1) Google Android: "Friends Furever"

Android's "Friends Furever" video is simple, cute, totally curated -- and was the most-shared video ad of 2015.

While the curation probably took a while, there wasn't much original content creation going on here -- it's really just a series of clips of unlikely animals palling around together. I mean, who doesn't want to see a parrot feeding spaghetti to a husky? Or a monkey climbing onto (and promptly falling off of) a horse's back? And yet, the video was shared more than 6.4 million times, according to video ad tech company Unruly.

The Takeaway

Even the simplest of videos can be super shareable with the right subject matter. In this case, that subject matter is animals, which the folks at Android used to focus on shared experiences. By tapping into viewers' emotions, the video has built-in broad appeal and sharability.

2) Reebok: "25,915 Days"

The average human lives for 25,915 days -- and Reebok wants us to use those days to continuously honor and push our bodies to their physical limits. Their video promoting the #HonorYourDays campaign doesn't contain any spoken words, but the message is powerful: Make the most of the days you have by, as they put it, "honoring the body you've been given."

The video follows one woman's relationship with running in reverse, from her running the Reebok-sponsored Spartan Race as a middle-aged woman, to running track in high school, all the way back to the day she was born. It's a great way for Reebok to communicate their brand mission of changing how people perceive and experience fitness at every age -- and of letting customers know they'll be there to cover their athletic gear needs throughout their lives.

At the end of the video, there's even a clickable CTA that reads, "Calculate your days."

Although it might strike some as a bid morbid, the copy is in keeping with the brand's "tough fitness" theme. Click the CTA, and you'll get taken to a campaign website where people can share photos showing how they're honoring their bodies, along with their "number." Pretty cool.

The Takeaway

Putting a sense of urgency (limited time) behind your message can be a powerful psychological motivator (take action now so you don't miss out). This makes your message not only compelling, but also actionable.

3) Dove: "Choose Beautiful"

Dove does it again. While this video marketing campaign by Ogilvy & Mather Chicago received some mixed reviews when it was first released, there is no denying that Dove is adept at crafting stories and encouraging their community to participate in those stories.

By focusing less on their product and more on their mission, Dove has been successful in creating emotional viral videos that have helped them stay top-of-mind.

The Takeaway

Think about tying your marketing to a larger mission to cultivate a loyal following. According to research conducted by Scott Magids, Alan Zorfas, and Daniel Leemon, customers who are "fully connected" emotionally to a brand spend twice as much on average than customers categorized as "highly satisfied." Take advantage of this by committing to emotionally-charged marketing that makes customers feel recognized and important.

4) Facebook: "Tips" Series

In this video marketing series, Facebook presents 12 different functions of the platform as they relate to real-life user scenarios, such as the need to turn notifications off, add a friend to a group, unfollow your oversharing friend, or use a sticker to express feelings that don't quite translate into words (explained in the video above).

While the tutorials are tied directly to Facebook's product, they're not pitchy. Instead, they aim to provide answers to users' most common questions in an entertaining and lighthearted way. It doesn't hurt that they're also simple to follow and clock in at only 20 seconds long.

The Takeaway

Understand your audience's needs better than anyone else, and play to them in your videos. In addition, don't mistake "longer" for "better" -- if your message can be expressed in just a few seconds, don't drag out the length of your video unnecessarily.

5) Intel: "Meet the Makers" Series

Intel's five-part "Meet the Makers" series looks more like the inspirational, uplifting stories you see on the news rather than videos created by a brand. Each video profiles a person around the world who uses Intel products to create amazing experiences and new technology.

In this video, for example, a 13-year-old named Shubham Banerjee tells the story of how he used Intel's technology to prototype and build an affordable braille printer to help more people who are blind read.

The common denominator? The folks in these videos use technology to help people and make the world a better and more interesting place. By providing viewers with an inspirational look at how technology is changing our experiences, they were able to drum up interest in a way that a traditional, product-centric advertisement couldn't.

The Takeaway

Think in terms of macro and micro in your video marketing. Evaluate the macro effect that your product or service is having on your industry or the world as a whole, and then hone in on someone's micro experience to deliver a relatable and compelling story.

6) Artifact Uprising: "On Legacy"

Artifact Uprising is a company that helps you create custom photo books, albums, cards, and print photos. As you can imagine, there's a lot of special meaning and emotion connected to each book -- and that kind of emotion is hard to capture with just words.

That's exactly why Artifact Uprising creates videos like this one: to showcase some of those touching, individual stories. In this case, it's an elderly man who created a photo book to leave his children and grandchildren as part of his legacy. At one point, the man is moved to tears as he reads the book, saying, "I haven't read it [in] a while."

The Takeaway

Find out how people are using your product or service to better their lives, and share their inspiring stories with the world through video. They'll do a much better job of advocating for your product or service's value than a piece of purely fact-based marketing content ever could.

7) GoPro: "Fireman Saves Kitten"

If you're familiar with GoPro's user-generated content, you probably noticed that this isn't their typical video. GoPro has done a great job of defining their brand as adventurous and extreme -- and the vast majority of the user-generated videos they repurpose and put out on their own channels involves stuff like jumping out of airplanes and surfing giant waves.

But this video of a firefighter saving a kitten from a fire doesn't have any of that. So why did GoPro chose to cut and polish this video for their own marketing? It helps them appeal to a wider audience outside the realm of extreme sports. It's still a unique and inspiring video like many of their others, and the "everyday heroism" theme is intact, but it goes beyond the brand's typical athlete persona.

The Takeaway

Don't be afraid to push the boundaries of your brand's image. Find ways to change the way you exhibit the various themes in your brand's personality, and experiment with different topics and formats that could help you widen your audience.

8) Google Earth: "Homeward Bound"

This emotional account of Saroo Brierley's journey to trace back his original roots after a tragic separation from his family is nothing short of powerful.

By inserting their product into a story of loss, love, and restoration, Google Earth was successful in positioning its capabilities as life-changing -- but it doesn't feel too showy. The video makes you feel that Google Earth isn't out to make money, but rather, they're out to build a service to improve the lives of their users.

The Takeaway

Again, appeal to emotion. While you don't want to abuse this approach, emotion is an incredibly powerful driver that can influence the way people act and respond to your product or service.

9) Always: "Like a Girl"

Like Dove, Always has been approaching their marketing by combining empowering messages with realistic -- as opposed to idealistic -- portrayals of their target audience. In their "Like a Girl" campaign, the company uses the famous insult to grab your attention -- and then change the conversation about what it means to run, throw, and fight "like a girl."

They've gotten a lot of praise since the campaign began a few years ago and have since won an Emmy, a Cannes Grand Prix award, and the Grand Clio award.

The Takeaway

Marketing that empowers the consumer -- rather than making them feel inadequate -- resonates. Acknowledge those all-too-familiar human emotions like anxiety or self-consciousness, and turn them on their head.

10) American Greetings: "World's Toughest Job"

This video campaign from Mullen and Cardstore by American Greetings is another excellent example of emotion-driven marketing.

Aside from the small quip about getting your mom a card for Mother's Day at the close of the video, the bulk of the content is seemingly free of sales innuendo and product placement. Refreshing, right?

By using a creative, faux interview process to bring to light the impressive day-to-day routines of moms everywhere, it's hard for viewers to walk away from this video not feeling appreciative. (Now go call your mom and tell her you love her!)

The Takeaway

Leverage a plot twist. When the audience can't predict the outcome, they'll be more likely to remain engaged throughout the entirety of your content.

11) Nike Women: "Better For It"

This series by Wieden + Kennedy and Nike Women uses honest humor to shed light on the "inner thoughts" women experience at the gym (though I'm certain there is a male equivalent to these types of situations).

This instinctively human account provides viewers with an opportunity to bond with the brand. This ultimately gives them a leg up on the competition, as a sense of empathy often goes a long way when it comes to influencing a consumer's preferences.

The Takeaway

Add a little humor into your messaging. Though it can be tough to pull off, it can lower the barrier between you and your audience and establish a sense of relatability.

12) BuzzFeed for Purina: "Puppyhood"

Although this video is about a man who adopts and raises a puppy, it's not meant to be inspiring -- it's meant to be entertaining. And entertaining it is: BuzzFeed did a great job writing a script that takes all the classic puppy stories you've heard (puppy chewing on the furniture; puppy keeping you up all night) and turns them into a delightful story of a man and his dog spending time together.

Although it's obvious to today's trained consumer that Purina's Puppy Chow brand is behind the video, the product placement is so subtle that it's not bothersome at all. Video marketers, take note.

The Takeaway

Create stories that show your product or service in the context of an average customer's daily life without making it feel like an ad. That way, the video gets its point across and moves the marketing needle while still delighting viewers.

Now it's your turn.

Video can do wonders to increase content engagement and clickthrough rates -- but we know that actually making videos can be intimidating. Many marketers get paralyzed by the "no time, too hard" fallacy of creating video content.

But if you think you need fancy camera equipment and editing software to make video work, or that video seems like a luxury you can't afford ... it's time to take a new approach to your video marketing strategy. You can create great videos for social media without all those bells and whistles. (Ever heard of Facebook Live? It was made for creating videos using just your smartphone!)

So use these marketing videos as inspiration, and create some cool visual content of your own.

Which marketing videos from this list were your favorites, and why? Share with us in the comments.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in April 2015 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

 

Is Your Inbound Marketing Website Failing Any of These Basic Accessibility Tests?

As an Inbound Marketer, driving targeted traffic and leads to your website should always be your primary goal. Whether you're improving your content for SEO, tweaking your Adwords copy to boost click throughs, or testing messaging in social media updates, every incremental gain in traffic and leads matters.

That's why it's so critical to ensure that your website meets these widely accepted accessibility standards. By maximizing your accessibility, not only will you be ensuring your website can be viewed by the largest audience possible but you'll also be providing a better overall user experience for each of your visitors.

That said, when you're focus on driving inbound marketing results evaluating your website for accessibility can seem like a daunting or unnecessary task at first glance.

Region dependent accessibility legislation can further complicate this matter - different countries may have their own preferred accessibility standards. However, by focusing on four core areas-text contrast, form structure, image tags, and navigational pathfinding-you'll improve the overall accessibility of your site and nurture inbound and design best practices at the same time.

In this article, we will take a closer look at these four core areas. 

Along the way, we will offers tips on how to maximize the accessibility of your website. We'll also provide you with a collection of helpful tools that can ensure your website is meeting the lofty accessibility standards you have set for it.

Before we get started, every year we dig into the latest research, trends and opportunities in the field of inbound marketing. If you'd like to brush up on your current knowledge of inbound marketing download a free copy of our recently released 2016 Edition of the Executive's Guide to Inbound Marketing. The 40+ page document is packed with actionable insight to help you accelerate your inbound marketing results.

Without further ado, let's go over the four basic website accessibility tests every inbound marketer should be aware of.

1) Contrast

You put a lot of time and thought into writing great copy, so why risk it not being accessible to a portion of the visitors to your site? Ensuring that your text content is readable for your entire audience by checking its contrast can improve the overall accessibility of your website and could even help drive down your bounce rate.

Similar to how contrast can be used to allow a CTA to really “pop”, it's important that the contrast ratios of text and background pairings facilitate ease of readability. Generally speaking, the following standards should be met:

Small Text (less than 18 point, or 14 point point bold) - Minimum ratio of 4.5:1
Large Text (18 point or 14 point bold) - Minimum ratio of 3:1

Strictly speaking, these minimums are borrowed from a set of web accessibility guidelines called Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) but similar guidelines are common to ISO and ANSI standards.



While the example above is a bit exaggerated, it clearly demonstrates how a less than ideal contrast ratio can impact the readability of your content. Ensuring that the ratio between your text and its background meets these minimums will help improve your website user experience, especially for those visitors with low colour vision.

While a variety of semi-automated tools exist for checking contrast, they can often get tripped up when checking text placed over a background image. As a result, doing a manual check using a tool like Colour Contrast Analyzer is often the best approach. Remember, page copy is not the only element that should be evaluated. By checking CTAs, menus, tooltips and forms, you will support the best possible user experience.

2) Images

Like copy, you depend on the images within your sites to convey a tremendous amount of information, so it's critical that visual site content be accessible to all traffic.

Visitors to a site with a visual impairment may be reliant on assistive technologies such as screen readers which convert content to audio descriptions and cues. If an image is added to the site “as-is”, they will be ignored by these types of technologies and you risk subjecting that segment of traffic to a less than ideal experience.

So how can you prevent this from happening?

Tagging images within your site with a particular type of notation called “alt text” allows assistive technologies to parse images within your page. This ensures your content can be consumed by the widest possible audience.



Review the two images above. While they are both images of an apple, they are not entirely the same. If you inspect the underlying code for each image, you'll discover the one on the right contains alt text that describes its content. This simple addition makes a tremendous difference to users relying on screen readers:



When evaluating your image content there are two further things to keep in mind (per W3):

• Avoid using images of text, for example, an image of a word. While alt text can be used to enhance the accessibility of this content it is often better conveyed as some form of text.


• If you're confident that a given image is purely decorative, use a null alt text attribute to allow screen readers to ignore the content.

You can easily identify missing or poor alt text on your website by using the Wave Toolbar.

Taking the time to effectively include alt text tags has an added benefit beyond addressing accessibility. Search engines employe automated tools called spiders which index the content of your site. These tools can easily parse the images within your page, ensuring your page is ranked based on the full value of its content.

3) Forms

The use of forms in websites, with an inbound marketing focus or otherwise, is ubiquitous. Ideally, the data you collect through the use of forms will be accurate and complete, especially when that form information is being used in the context of e-commerce or in generating inbound leads.

You may think that the accessibility of forms would add another layer of complication, but the opposite is true. In fact, ensuring forms follow accessibility guidelines actually works to improve the quality of data you're collecting and should encourage completion rates.

Let's look at three ways to address form accessibility:

Labels

Ensuring all forms within your site have a label element allows visitors using assistive technologies to identify the purpose of the form prior to providing input. Without a label element, the intent of a given form could be lost or misunderstood by a segment of your traffic. This technique can be taken a step further by including an example of the data a field is requesting (ex. MM-DD-YYYY) within the label itself.

Instructions

Providing instructions for forms can be addressed in a number of different ways besides the form label. The two further common methods would be the use of a placeholder tag with associated placeholder text, or adding instructions in the page itself. These form instructions can be linked to single form element or a group of inputs depending on the the information being requested.

Error correction/validation

Although it may not be suitable for all form types, validation or error correction can provide one last safeguard against incorrect or invalid data being submitted by a visitor to your site.

On a text entry field for an e-mail address, you can verify the address a visitor provides meets a basic set of criteria before accepting it (for example, does it contain an “@” symbol). Taking the email example a step further, free API's can be leveraged which provide rich feedback for a wide set of error conditions like common email domain misspellings.

More broadly, required field should also have a means of drawing attention to themselves if left empty. Effectively using highlights and alerts will ensure no form is abandoned before submission.

Once again, the Wave Toolbar is an excellent tool for reviewing form accessibility on your website.

It is important to note that you do not necessarily need to implement every one of these strategies for every form - improving accessibility should not hinder the overall usability of the page. Conversely, excessive or incorrect use of these approaches can cause further accessibility problems. For example, adding multiple or conflicting form labels will cause more harm than good.

Frequently, the most critical functions of websites depend on form data - implementation of these basic accessibility strategies will help all visitors complete them.

4) Navigation

Implementation of well thought out site navigation and location cues is an exercise that serves many masters. Effective execution of this design element can have a positive effect on SEO, general usability and adherence to accessibility best practices. Similar to the other accessibility areas discussed previously, you do not want to hide great content behind unclear navigation.

Staying with the theme of easy wins, let's review three aspects of navigation that can have a substantial positive impact on your site:

Multiple Ways to Navigate

While it is often overlooked, there should be multiple paths for users to browse to any given page. Where possible, inclusion of a search mechanism will ensure that pages at all levels of your site can be accessed with a minimum number of required actions from users. Further supporting the idea of minimizing impediments to content is the implementation of a sitemap, which offers a simplified representation of your site architecture to those who need it. Last, the use of breadcrumbs (as shown below) can support two goals. 

First of all, navigation breadcrumbs provide a supplementary means of accessing content, while indicating to the user where they are currently located with respect to the site structure.

Location is Always Clear

A user should never feel lost while browsing your site and great design can go a long way to support this goal. As noted previously, breadcrumbs are a common solution to this problem as they address multiple accessibility concerns and require minimal effort to implement. Existing menu elements can also be updated to provide navigational cues by highlighting the current location (page and sub-section) of the user with respect to the site layout as seen in the example below: 

Now that you've put the time into an effective menu, search and breadcrumbs, you need to make sure that they are consistently displayed from page to page.

Consistent Navigation

Assume for a moment that a user is visiting you site for the first time and is searching for information, starting at its homepage. They briefly assess the menus available then navigate to where they believe they will find the content they came for. If they don't find the information they wanted, or they require further information, what is their next step?

Ideally, they should be able to refer back to their previous navigational assumptions and continue without returning to the homepage. In this scenario- and to support an overall accessible design-it is imperative that the location and behaviour of your site's navigational elements are predictable from page to page.

Beyond removing hurdles between users and your site content, navigational design elements like sitemaps, breadcrumbs and search provide additional avenues through which your site sub-pages can be found and indexed by search engines.

In Closing

By focusing on and addressing these oft-overlooked accessibility problems, you can confidently lay the foundation for a fully accessible website. In doing so, you can improve the overall user experience of visitors to your website, resulting in an increase of traffic, leads, and-most importantly-customers.

How a Knowledge Discovery Program Elevates Your Content Curation

Marketers need to keep their pipeline full of the most relevant and cutting-edge content that will effectively speak to their audience and convert them into qualified leads. The problem; however, is that curating that content takes a lot of time - and if you're manually searching the web for new ideas, it's likely that you're missing some impactful gems.

Content curation tools can help speed up your searching by serving you relevant articles based on pre-selected keywords; however, these tools are missing one vital component of a sound content curation program: internal content.

A strong marketer is equipped with the content ammo they need to excel. Ideally, they'll leverage the collective intelligence of their organization (Sharepoint, databases, etc.), and integrate that with relevant content from external sources (web, blogs, social, etc.) and premium subscriptions.

The key reason that knowledge discovery promotes this notion is that it naturally allows for an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise's information assets. Knowledge discovery is the ability to find the right information and deliver it to the right people at the right time, reinventing how organizations discover, collaborate, and share knowledge. By using a knowledge discovery tool, marketers can pull the most relevant content from three primary sources:

• The web - Blogs, social media, etc.


• Premium subscriptions - Paid access to premium content (Forrester and Gartner)


• Internal content - Sharepoints, databases, wikis, etc.

With all of this awesome knowledge at your disposal, not only will you keep your pipeline full, but you'll be able to ramp up onboarding, training, and continued learning.

Knowing that you need to curate relevant content from a number of sources is one thing, but identifying the most relevant content on an ongoing basis is a whole other beast. Knowledge management is a long-time need, but marketers need to do more than simply "manage" knowledge. Being able to discover and use the knowledge in context is the key.

So, how can you pull the right information at the right time without spending hours upon hours digging through data? Using a knowledge discovery platform is the best way to understand novel topics deeply and quickly. Not only will this help you keep up with current trends, but it will help you gain a competitive advantage. With capabilities like competitive monitoring and faster contextual discovery of knowledge, getting a leg up on your competitors is inevitable.

There are a number of tools in the KM marketplace. Software like SmartSupport and Confluence help organizations find, share, and collaborate on information, connecting people with the answers they need. Brainspace for Enterprise is the only knowledge discovery tool that allows business users to discover the latest and most relevant content from any internal or external sources, spearheading innovation.

Marketers that leverage these tools will continuously receive internal and external content relevant to their industry, roles, and competitors - which will help them elevate their skillsets and capitalize on strategic marketing opportunities for their organization. Teams will then be able to:

• Understand novel topics deeply and fast


• Keep up on current trends


• Continuously learn and develop


• Gain competitive advantage

Knowledge discovery increases the level of connectedness between people in organizations, thus accelerating innovation. If your company is striving to innovate, they'll be onboard with implementing KM tools.

If marketers striving to unlock the knowledge trapped within their organizations leverage knowledge discovery, they'll have all the best content they need, in real time. Knowledge for onboarding, content curation, continued education, competitive monitoring, and other “everyday” marketing tasks will be right in the palm of their hands, saving countless hours of inefficient searching. So, if you think it's about time to reinvent yourself as a content curator, start discovering!

If you're interested in a more in-depth review of how knowledge management and discovery can be leveraged for marketing success, continue learning now with this eBook, 4 Ways to Leverage Knowledge Management for Marketing Success.

Emotional Advertising: How Brands Use Feelings to Get People to Buy

This post originally appeared on HubSpot's Agency Post. To read more content like this, subscribe to Agency Post. 

Ads that make people share and buy can usually be summed up in one word: emotional.

That should be no surprise. Studies show that people rely on emotions, rather than information, to make brand decisions -- and that emotional responses to ads are more influential on a person's intent to buy than the content of an ad.

As Douglas Van Praet, author of Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing, wrote in Fast Company, “The most startling truth is we don't even think our way to logical solutions. We feel our way to reason. Emotions are the substrate, the base layer of neural circuitry underpinning even rational deliberation. Emotions don't hinder decisions. They constitute the foundation on which they're made!”

Unruly, which ranks the most viral ads each year, found that the most-shared ads of 2015 relied heavily on emotional content, specifically friendship, inspiration, warmth, and happiness. Examples include Android's Friends Furever and Kleenex's Unlikely Best Friends.

This emotional awareness from brands hasn't always been the case, though. In the 1990s and early 2000s, advertisers were more concerned with humor and sarcasm. 

Pereira & O'Dell's chief creative officer PJ Pereira said: "I think what's happened is that the ad industry has spent the last decade celebrating bitterness and cynicism and being mean to people. For a while it was great because it was different from everyone else, and then it became a trend and people got sick of it. It wasn't funny or interesting anymore. So when things started to pop with a totally opposite voice, the customers totally reacted."

How Emotion Is Used in Advertising

Historically, people have recognized six core emotions: happy, surprised, afraid, disgusted, angry, and sad.

However, in 2014, the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology published research stating that the distinction between four of these emotions were based on social interactions and constructs. Instead, human emotion is based on four basic emotions: happy, sad, afraid/surprised, and angry/disgusted.

Based on these four categories, let's look at how brands are using emotions to drive connection and awareness:

1) Happy

Brands want to be associated with smiling, laughing, happy customers, and positivity has been shown to increase sharing and engagement. A study in 2010 of the most-emailed New York Times articles found that emotional articles were shared more often, and positive posts were shared more than negative ones. 

The most-shared ad of last year -- and of all time -- was Android's Friends Furever, showing clips of unlikely and undeniably cute animal friends.

When Coca-Cola recently changed its tagline from “Open Happiness” to “Taste the Feeling,” it maintained its focus on happy images of people connecting and engaging one another, such as the below ad showing the bond between siblings.

2) Sad

I watch a lot of ads. (Hey, it's a requirement for the job.) I've noticed that, increasingly, those ads have turn me into a blubbering, emotional wreck. There's nothing like a good cry at work on a regular basis to make your desk neighbors question your stability.

In the past few years, as brands have recognized the popularity of emotional content, more and more companies have focused on creating inspirational and moving ads.

MetLife Hong Kong produced this heartbreaking ad featuring a daughter who describes all the things she loves about her dad, yet the story breaks down when she also describes all the ways he lies to her.

For the Sochi Olympic Games in 2014, P&G continued its theme of recognizing mothers and their unwavering support.

3) Afraid/Surprised

Fear is a natural instinct -- one that helps us to react appropriately to threats to increase our chance of survival.

Fear creates urgency and prompts us to take action; to change or more importantly for this story, buy something that will prevent terrible things from happening. As Don Draper said in a Mad Men episode, “Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is okay. You are okay.”

A lot of scare-vertising tactics can be seen in commercials to prevent drunk driving and cigarette smoking. The World Wildlife Fund is one brand known for its controversial and fear-inducing imagery.

Image Credit: Trend Hunter Eco

However, this approach is risky. In 2015, Nationwide released an ad during the Super Bowl to promote conversations about child safety and preventable injuries in the home. The ad was disturbing to many viewers. The video features a young boy who talks about all the things he'll never do, and ends with the line "I couldn't grow up because I died from an accident." While attention-grabbing, the ad was called depressing and insensitive by viewers and the CMO of Nationwide resigned from his position just a few months later.

Surprise can also take a positive form as can be seen in one of the best ads of 2015.

4) Angry/Disgusted

Most people think that it is best to avoid anger -- it's a negative emotion that will cause negative associations. But in some cases, anger can wake people up and spur action. We become angry when we see another person hurt or an injustice. Disgust and frustration can cause us to reconsider our perspective and ask important questions.

A study of the most popular images on imgur.com found that while negative emotions were less common in viral content than in positive, viral success happened when the negative images had an element of anticipation and surprise.

Always' Like a Girl campaign, which won an Emmy, a Cannes Grand Prix award, and the Grand Clio award, uses a famous insult to grab your attention. 

Save the Children's ad reminding people of the effect of the Syrian crisis on children provokes both sadness and anger.

Which emotions do you associate with specific brands? How have you used emotion in your client's advertising? Let us know in the comments below.

How Emotional Targeting Converts More Leads

A study found “that websites with a stronger emotional impact produced a greater intent to buy.”

Appealing to your audience's emotions creates a connection. Whether you're designing product descriptions or landing pages, your team must aim to evoke emotion into your messaging.

That's why storytelling works so well. It's a powerful way to engage your customers.

Research by Pringle & Field found that “emotional campaigns outperform on almost every metric,” including revenue, profit, and share gain.

Emotional targeting produces authentic content that speaks the consumer's language. It's those irresistible stories that touch people's hearts and propels them to purchase your products.

Ready for a challenge? Learn how to convert more leads with high-impact emotional messages.

1. Psychological Triggers

Emotions determine our everyday decision-making. We buy when we're sad. We buy when we're happy.

However, most brands miss the opportunity to develop an emotional link with shoppers. They focus on product features, rather than understanding the feelings behind the purchase.

In 2014, Facebook “revealed that it had manipulated the news feeds of over half a million randomly selected users to change the number of positive and negative posts they saw.”

This controversial psychological study found that people mimic the emotions expressed in online content. So, if people read a positive post, they are more likely to respond positively.

With that in mind, prepare your SaaS to develop digital marketing campaigns ingrained with psychological triggers. For instance, happiness induces people to share.

Serial entrepreneur Neil Patel says, “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.”

Here's an example from Moz. Their Whiteboard Friday videos express excitement as experts teach SEO and online marketing skills, and they receive thousands of YouTube views.

Also, A/B test your campaigns based on behavioral and emotional marketing, not tactical elements.

Talia Wolf, the Founder and CEO of Conversioner, states, “Great marketing campaigns look at the entire product as an ecosystem. Rather than just changing the headline, or the colors of individual elements, they approach the product as a whole.”

There is real value in tapping into people's emotions. Work with your team to develop digital content that connects to your shoppers' sentiments. It will help maximize your lead conversions.

2. Memorable Experiences

Memories are precious moments in our lives.

We remember graduating from high school, breaking up with our first romantic partner, or even that embarrassing moment when we flopped a presentation. These experiences evoke us to think about how we felt at that particular time.

To harness the power of memorable experiences, associate your brand's shopping experience with your customer's life events. For example, transfer the same emotions customers felt when they got married or bought their first home.

For instance, chocolate is usually associated with joy. Hershey's is keeping that alive with its #HelloHappy campaign.

Stacie Stauffer, senior brand manager at Hershey's, told AdFreak the following:

“The second you say 'Hershey,' the most amazing thing happens. This giant flood of emotions and memories happens-when I made s'mores camping, or stirred up chocolate milk with my mom. That solidified that we should be speaking more as [one] brand, and from a much more emotional place.”

This type of emotional targeting makes consumers feel subconsciously connected to your brand. They are compelled to read more, click on your offer, and even purchase your services.

Chris Dalton recommends offering value without expectations.

He said, “Sometimes, the best sales pitch is no pitch at all. Consumers have become savvy to ignoring direct sales tactics or sleazy methods. If you offer information relating to your products with honesty and transparency, your customers will notice.”

Buffer does an effective job by giving its customers an inside peek at their operations. Check out their BufferOpen blog about their “journey to greater productivity, more transparency and a happier work culture.”

Map out a path to connect your customers' memories with your brand. And sometimes that means not selling, just providing value.

3. Visual Storytelling

DemandGen Reports noted that video content for B2B marketing increased by 8% to 54%, and infographics jumped 9% to 52% in 2014. It's becoming a necessity to use visuals as part of your marketing strategy.

A good visual stimulates people's senses. It can create fear, elicit pity, or showcase friendship. Font styles make a difference, too. People consider clear, readable font as trustworthy.

But you can't just plop any picture on your website or Instagram account. Freelance writer Dawn Papandrea agrees:

“To make visual storytelling work, however, you can't simply slap a few stock photos onto your blog or social media posts. Just as headlines and calls to action must be crafted carefully, your visual content deserves more than a second thought.”

From screenshots to actual photographs, think about how to convey emotion to your audience. Do you need a wide-angle shot? Will a big red arrow show more impact for the viewer?

In the above picture, Nike displays the endless possibilities customers can experience with their apparel. It's all about the adventure and the limitless options the brand offers its consumers.

In addition, be aware of diversity in your visuals. Cultural shifts happen within our society.

Not everyone will be on board with your company's inclusiveness. But don't let that stop your eCommerce store's progression.

General Mills faced negative backlash for featuring an interracial couple in their 2014 Cheerios Super Bowl commercial ad. Despite some disapproval, there was also an overwhelming positive response applauding their diversity efforts.

Use visual storytelling to communicate emotion to your customers. From infographics to videos, give your shoppers a better understanding of your brand's culture.

4. Social Proof

We're humans. We want to belong.

Social proof in marketing activates those desires to be affiliated with a specific group of people or worthwhile cause.

Social media strategist Michael Sherman, says, “For many, a proven testimonial or example is the emotional trigger a person needs to say yes on buying your products and using your services.”

Old Navy appeals to shoppers' sense of belonging. They focus on offering trendy clothes at affordable prices.

In the tweet below, the retailer implies that if you want to get ready for spring and be happy with your friends, purchase from their wide-selection of clothes.

Here comes spring…
Nab thousands of items from $5: https://t.co/nGQ9Pji1pN pic.twitter.com/XX7nIsfyXs

- Old Navy Official (@OldNavy) March 5, 2016

For social proof to work well, your brand must truly understand your consumers' motivations and intentions.

For example, expert social proof may emotionally influence your consumers to take action. This happens when an industry influencer or well-known blogger publicly approves a product. Those endorsements look like a basic quote or a video testimonial.

Rent the Runway experienced a 200% higher conversion rate from mentions by a fashion magazine or blogger than paid search.

Learn what riles up your consumers. Identify experts that appeal to your audience and coincide with your brand's values. Give people the social proof they need to buy your products.

Target Emotions

Strive to build an emotional connection with your buyers. As a result, customers will feel connected with your brand and purchase more.

Strategize on how to add psychological triggers. Ditch transactional relationships for memorable experiences. And invest in visual storytelling to express your brand better.

Target people's emotions to convert more leads.

About the Author: Shayla Price lives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology and social responsibility. Connect with her on Twitter @shaylaprice.

How Emotional Targeting Converts More Leads

A study found “that websites with a stronger emotional impact produced a greater intent to buy.”

Appealing to your audience's emotions creates a connection. Whether you're designing product descriptions or landing pages, your team must aim to evoke emotion into your messaging.

That's why storytelling works so well. It's a powerful way to engage your customers.

Research by Pringle & Field found that “emotional campaigns outperform on almost every metric,” including revenue, profit, and share gain.

Emotional targeting produces authentic content that speaks the consumer's language. It's those irresistible stories that touch people's hearts and propels them to purchase your products.

Ready for a challenge? Learn how to convert more leads with high-impact emotional messages.

1. Psychological Triggers

Emotions determine our everyday decision-making. We buy when we're sad. We buy when we're happy.

However, most brands miss the opportunity to develop an emotional link with shoppers. They focus on product features, rather than understanding the feelings behind the purchase.

In 2014, Facebook “revealed that it had manipulated the news feeds of over half a million randomly selected users to change the number of positive and negative posts they saw.”

This controversial psychological study found that people mimic the emotions expressed in online content. So, if people read a positive post, they are more likely to respond positively.

With that in mind, prepare your SaaS to develop digital marketing campaigns ingrained with psychological triggers. For instance, happiness induces people to share.

Serial entrepreneur Neil Patel says, “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.”

Here's an example from Moz. Their Whiteboard Friday videos express excitement as experts teach SEO and online marketing skills, and they receive thousands of YouTube views.

Also, A/B test your campaigns based on behavioral and emotional marketing, not tactical elements.

Talia Wolf, the Founder and CEO of Conversioner, states, “Great marketing campaigns look at the entire product as an ecosystem. Rather than just changing the headline, or the colors of individual elements, they approach the product as a whole.”

There is real value in tapping into people's emotions. Work with your team to develop digital content that connects to your shoppers' sentiments. It will help maximize your lead conversions.

2. Memorable Experiences

Memories are precious moments in our lives.

We remember graduating from high school, breaking up with our first romantic partner, or even that embarrassing moment when we flopped a presentation. These experiences evoke us to think about how we felt at that particular time.

To harness the power of memorable experiences, associate your brand's shopping experience with your customer's life events. For example, transfer the same emotions customers felt when they got married or bought their first home.

For instance, chocolate is usually associated with joy. Hershey's is keeping that alive with its #HelloHappy campaign.

Stacie Stauffer, senior brand manager at Hershey's, told AdFreak the following:

“The second you say 'Hershey,' the most amazing thing happens. This giant flood of emotions and memories happens-when I made s'mores camping, or stirred up chocolate milk with my mom. That solidified that we should be speaking more as [one] brand, and from a much more emotional place.”

This type of emotional targeting makes consumers feel subconsciously connected to your brand. They are compelled to read more, click on your offer, and even purchase your services.

Chris Dalton recommends offering value without expectations.

He said, “Sometimes, the best sales pitch is no pitch at all. Consumers have become savvy to ignoring direct sales tactics or sleazy methods. If you offer information relating to your products with honesty and transparency, your customers will notice.”

Buffer does an effective job by giving its customers an inside peek at their operations. Check out their BufferOpen blog about their “journey to greater productivity, more transparency and a happier work culture.”

Map out a path to connect your customers' memories with your brand. And sometimes that means not selling, just providing value.

3. Visual Storytelling

DemandGen Reports noted that video content for B2B marketing increased by 8% to 54%, and infographics jumped 9% to 52% in 2014. It's becoming a necessity to use visuals as part of your marketing strategy.

A good visual stimulates people's senses. It can create fear, elicit pity, or showcase friendship. Font styles make a difference, too. People consider clear, readable font as trustworthy.

But you can't just plop any picture on your website or Instagram account. Freelance writer Dawn Papandrea agrees:

“To make visual storytelling work, however, you can't simply slap a few stock photos onto your blog or social media posts. Just as headlines and calls to action must be crafted carefully, your visual content deserves more than a second thought.”

From screenshots to actual photographs, think about how to convey emotion to your audience. Do you need a wide-angle shot? Will a big red arrow show more impact for the viewer?

In the above picture, Nike displays the endless possibilities customers can experience with their apparel. It's all about the adventure and the limitless options the brand offers its consumers.

In addition, be aware of diversity in your visuals. Cultural shifts happen within our society.

Not everyone will be on board with your company's inclusiveness. But don't let that stop your eCommerce store's progression.

General Mills faced negative backlash for featuring an interracial couple in their 2014 Cheerios Super Bowl commercial ad. Despite some disapproval, there was also an overwhelming positive response applauding their diversity efforts.

Use visual storytelling to communicate emotion to your customers. From infographics to videos, give your shoppers a better understanding of your brand's culture.

4. Social Proof

We're humans. We want to belong.

Social proof in marketing activates those desires to be affiliated with a specific group of people or worthwhile cause.

Social media strategist Michael Sherman, says, “For many, a proven testimonial or example is the emotional trigger a person needs to say yes on buying your products and using your services.”

Old Navy appeals to shoppers' sense of belonging. They focus on offering trendy clothes at affordable prices.

In the tweet below, the retailer implies that if you want to get ready for spring and be happy with your friends, purchase from their wide-selection of clothes.

Here comes spring…
Nab thousands of items from $5: https://t.co/nGQ9Pji1pN pic.twitter.com/XX7nIsfyXs

- Old Navy Official (@OldNavy) March 5, 2016

For social proof to work well, your brand must truly understand your consumers' motivations and intentions.

For example, expert social proof may emotionally influence your consumers to take action. This happens when an industry influencer or well-known blogger publicly approves a product. Those endorsements look like a basic quote or a video testimonial.

Rent the Runway experienced a 200% higher conversion rate from mentions by a fashion magazine or blogger than paid search.

Learn what riles up your consumers. Identify experts that appeal to your audience and coincide with your brand's values. Give people the social proof they need to buy your products.

Target Emotions

Strive to build an emotional connection with your buyers. As a result, customers will feel connected with your brand and purchase more.

Strategize on how to add psychological triggers. Ditch transactional relationships for memorable experiences. And invest in visual storytelling to express your brand better.

Target people's emotions to convert more leads.

About the Author: Shayla Price lives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology and social responsibility. Connect with her on Twitter @shaylaprice.