Why No One Pays Attention to Your Marketing

Ever mass-deleted a bunch of impersonal emails from your inbox? Brand fatigue is a real threat to your marketing strategy. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand discusses why brands become "background noise" and how you can avoid it.

For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard. Click on it to open a high resolution image in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to chat a little bit about why no one is paying attention to your brand, to your marketing. It's the perilous pitfall of brand fatigue.

Brand fatigue sucks

So you have all had this happen to you. I promise you have. It's happened in your email. It's happened in your social streams. It's happened through advertising in the real world, online and offline.

I'll give you an illustration. So I sign up for this newsletter. I decide, "Hey, I want to get some houseplants. My house has no greenery in it." So I sign up for Green Dude Houseplants' newsletter. What do I get? Well, I get a,

"Welcome to Our Newsletter." Oh, okay.

And then maybe the next day I get, "Meet Our New Hires." Meet our new hires? I'm sure that your new hires are very important to you and your team, but I just got introduced to your brand. I'm not sure I care that much. To me, you're all new hires. You might as well be, right? I don't know you or the team yet.

"Best Summer Ever Event," okay, maybe, maybe an event. "Edible Backyard Gardens, you know, I don't have a backyard. I was signing up for a houseplant newsletter because it was in my house. "See Us at the Garden Show," I don't want to go to the garden show. I was going to buy from you. That's why I'm online.

Okay, thanks.

How to cause brand fatigue

It's not just the value of the messaging. It's the frequency that it happens at. You've seen this. I'm on an email list that I signed up for, I think it's called FounderDating. It's here in Seattle. I think it's in San Francisco. I thought it was a really cool idea when I signed up for it. Then I have just been inundated with messages from them. I think some of them are actually worthy of my participation, like I should have gone to the forum. I should have replied. I should have checked out what this particular person wanted. But I get so much email from them that I've just begun to hit Delete as soon as I get it.

We've actually had this problem at Moz too. If you're a Moz subscriber, you probably get a new email every time a new crawl is completed, and a campaign is set up, and you have new rankings data. Some of that's really important, right? Like if you're paying attention to this particular site's rankings and you want to see every time you get an update, well yeah, you need that email. But it's actually kind of tough to opt in to which ones you want and with what frequency and control it all from one place.

We have found that our email open rates, engagement rates have actually drifted way, way down over time because, probably, we've inundated you with so much email. This is a big mistake that Moz has made in our email marketing, but a lot of brands make it in tons of places. So I want to help you avoid that.

1) Too many messages on a medium

Brand fatigue happens when there are too many messages, just too many raw messages on a medium. You start to see the same brand, the same name, the same person again and again. Their logo, their colors, the association you have, it just becomes background noise. Your brain goes into this mode where it just filters it out because it can't handle the volume of stuff that's coming through. It needs a filtration mechanism. So it starts to identify and associate your brand or your logo or your name or a person's name with "filter." Filter that out. That goes in the background.

2) Value provided is too low or infrequent to deserve attention

It also happens when the value provided is too low or too infrequent to deserve attention. So this might be what I'm talking about with FounderDating. One out of every maybe five or six messages, I'm like, "Oh yeah, that was interesting. I should pay attention to that." But when it becomes too infrequent, that same filtration happens.

Too few of the high value messages means you're not going to pay attention, you're not going to engage with that brand, with that company anymore. All of us marketers will see that in the engagement rates. No matter the medium, we can look at our numbers and see that those are going down on a percentile basis, and that gets really frustrating.

3) The messaging can't be effectively tuned or controlled by the user

So this is the problem that Moz is having where we don't have that one email control center where you say how often you want exactly which messages updating you of which notifications about which campaigns, and newsletter and da, da, da. So your message frequency is either all the time high or very high and so you're, "I don't like any of those options."

Very frustrating.

How NOT to cause brand fatigue

Now, I do have some solutions and suggestions. But it's platform by platform.

Email

Start very conservative with your email marketing and highly personal. In fact, I would actually recommend personally sending all the messages out to your first few hundred users if you possibly can, because you will get a great rapport that you develop individually with person by person. That will give you a sense for what your audiences like and what kind of messaging they prefer, and they'll know they can reply directly to you.

You'll create that highly-engaged experience through email that will mean that, as you scale, you have the experience from the past to tell you how often you can and can't email people, what they care about and don't, what they filter and don't, what they're looking for from you, etc. You can then watch your open, unsubscribe and engagement rates through your email program. No matter what program you might be using, you can almost always see these.

Then you can watch for, "Oh, we had a spike." That spike is a good thing. That means that people were highly engaged on this email. Let's figure out what resonated there. Let's go talk to folks. Let's reach out to the people who engaged with it and just say, "Hey, why did you love this? What did you love about it? What can we do to give you more value like this?"

Or you watch for dips. Then you can say, "Oh man, the last three email newsletters that we've sent out, we've seen successive declines in engagement and open rates, and we've seen a rise in unsubscribe rates.

We're doing something wrong. What's going on? What's the root cause? Is it who we're acquiring? Is it new people that signed up, or is it old-timers who are getting frustrated with the new stuff we're sending out? Does this fit with our strategy? What can we fix?"

Be careful. The thing that sucks about brand fatigue is a lot of platforms, email included, have systems, algorithmic systems set up to penalize you for this. With email, if you get high unsubscribes and low engagement, that will actually kill your long-term chances for email marketing success, because Gmail and Yahoo Mail and Microsoft's various mail programs and whatever installed mail your targets might have, whatever they're using, you will no longer be able to break through those email filters.

The email filter that Gmail has says, "Hey, a lot of people click Unsubscribe and Report Spam. Let's put this in the Promotions tab." Or, "Hey, a lot of people are clicking Report Spam. You know what? Let's just block this sender entirely." Or, "Gosh, this person has in the past not engaged very much with these messages. We're going to not make them high priority anymore." Gmail has that automatic high priority system. So you're getting algorithmically turned into noise even if you might have had something that your customers really cared about.

Blog or other content platform

This is a really interesting one. I would strongly urge you to read Trevor Klein from Moz's blog postabout the experiment that we and HubSpot did around how much content to produce and whether lowering content or increasing content had positive effects. There are some fascinating results from that study.

But the valuable thing to me in that is if you don't test, you'll never know. You'll never know the limits of what your audience wants, what will frustrate them, what will delight them. I recommend you don't create content unless you can have a great answer for the question, "Who will help amplify this and why?" I don't mean, like, "Oh, well I think people who really like houseplants will help amplify this." That's not a great answer.

A great answer is, "Oh, you know, I know this guy named Jerry. Jerry runs a Twitter account that's all about gardening. Jerry loves our houseplants. He's a big fan of this. He's particularly interested in flowering cacti. I know if we publish this post, Jerry will help amplify it." That's a great answer. You have 10 Jerrys, great. Hit Publish. Go for it. You don't? Why are you making it?

Watch your browse rate, your conversion rate, and conversion rate.... I don't mean necessarily all the way to whatever you're selling, your ecommerce store products or your subscription or whatever that is. Conversion rate could be conversion rate to an email newsletter or to following you on a social platform or whatever.

You can watch time on site and amplification per post to essentially get a sense for like, "Hey, as we're producing content, are we seeing the metrics that would indicate that our content marketing is being successful?" If the answer to that is no, well we need to retool it. It turns out there's actually no prize for hitting Publish.

You might think that your job as a content producer or a content marketer is to make content every day or content every week. That's not your job. Your job is to have success with the metrics that are going to predict and correlate to the strategies you need as a business to acquire customers, to grow your marketing channels, to grow your brand's impact, to help people, whatever it is that your mission is.

I highly recommend finding your audiences' sweet spot for both focus and frequency. If you do those things, you're going to do a great job with avoiding brand fatigue around your content.

Twitter, Facebook, and other social media

Last one is social. I'll talk specifically about Twitter and Facebook, because most things can be classified in there, even things like Instagram and LinkedIn and the fading, sadly, Google+ and those sorts of things.

Twitter, generally speaking, more forgiving as a platform. Facebook has more of those algorithmic elements to punish you for low engagement.

So, for example, I've had this happen on my personal Facebook page where I've published a few things that people just didn't really find interesting. This is on my Rand Fishkin Facebook page, different from the Moz one. It turns out that that meant that it was much harder for me next time, even with content that people were very engaged around, to reach them.

Facebook essentially had pushed in. They were like, "You know what? That's three or four posts in a row from Rand Fishkin that people did not like, didn't engage with. The next one we're going to set the bar much higher for him to have to climb back up before we decide, 'Hey, we'll show that to more and more people.'"

Lately I've been having more success getting a higher percentage of my audience into the impression count of people who are actually seeing my posts on Facebook by getting better engagement there. But that's a very challenging platform.

Users of both, however, are pretty sensitive, nearly equally sensitive. It's not like Facebook users are more sensitive. It's just that Facebook's platform is more sensitive because Facebook doesn't show you all the content you could possibly see.

Twitter is just a super simplistic newsfeed algorithm. It's just, who posted last. So Twitter has that real time kind of thing. So I would still say for both of these, aim to only share stuff that gets high engagement, especially as your brand.

Personal account, do whatever you want, test whatever you want. But as your brand's account, you want that high engagement over and over again because that will predict more people paying attention to you when you do post, going back and looking through your old social posts, subscribing to you, following you, all that sort of thing, considering you a leader.

You can watch both Twitter Analytics and your Facebook page's stats to see if you're having a dip or a spike, where you're having success, where you're not.

I actually love using Twitter and a little bit LinkedIn or Google+ to see what gets very high engagement and then I know, "Okay, I should re-share that on Twitter because my audience on Twitter is very temporal." Two hours from now it's going to be less than 1% overlap between who sees a Twitter post now and who sees a Twitter post 2 hours from now, and that's a great test bed for Facebook as well.

So if I see something doing extremely well on Twitter or on Google+ or on LinkedIn, I go, "Aha, that's the kind of thing I should post on Facebook. That will increase my engagement there. Now I can go post and get more engagement next time and build up my authority in Facebook's newsfeed algorithm.

So with all of this stuff, hopefully, as you're producing content, sharing content, building an email subscription, building a blog platform, you're going to have a little less brand fatigue and a little more engagement from your users.

I look forward to chatting with you all in the comments. We'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

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Why Our Brains Love Visual Content [Infographic]

Posted by Chelsea Hejny on 23 Jul 2015 /

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Have you ever wondered why infographics are so popular?

In the last few years, infographics have become one of the most widely used forms of content marketing. No matter the industry, businesses spanning from health and fitness categories to software and technology love to create them to communicate their marketing messages.

But, again, why? Why have infographics become such a marketing phenomenon?

As it turns out, our brains are wired to love infographics because they’re wired to love visual content.

In fact, according to today’s featured infographic from the visual communication agency Column Five, humans are biologically wired to process the world visually, which is why making content more visual increases its impact and efficacy.

Here are few highlights from Column Five’s infographic:

• Your brain takes 1/4 of a second to process visual cues.

• The average consumer attention span is 8 seconds.

• Color images capture more of a person’s attention span than black and white images.

• Our brains are pre-wired to automatically interpret relationships between objects, allowing for almost instant comprehension with minimal effort.

• The brain interprets visuals faster than it can process the language associated with them.

Has your business ever invested in creating an infographic? If so, share with us your stories and comments below.

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5 Subtle Yet Super Powerful Copywriting Tips

Copywriting is a bit like martial arts; you don’t need to take aggressive
action to see results. 

Marketing can be like martial arts.
In a fight, you can floor your opponent with brute force.
You can throw a burst of punches and strikes, or grapple until you’re blue
in the face. Or you can calmly step back, target one of your opponent’s
pressure points, and quickly end the fight with one swift strike.

Marketing your business is the same.

You can grow by taking aggressive action. You can crank out more content,
or pay for ads and leads to increase traffic. Or… simply step back and
target the “pressure points” in your marketing by finding small
tweaks that create big wins.

One of the best ways to get big wins from small tweaks is to focus on
converting more prospects into customers by strengthening your copy.

But not all copywriting tweaks are created equal.

You can spend hours tweaking the wrong things and get weak results, so
here are five simple but effective ways to ramp up your conversions by
cranking up the power of your copy… Mr. Miyagi style.

1. Use open loops to seduce your prospect

Ever had an awesome TV show that you couldn’t stop watching? A series
of books that you couldn’t put down?

You have? Congratulations, you’ve experienced the power of open loops
(also called the Zeigarnik effect).

Open loops prey on our brain’s natural desire for completion.

You see, the brain enters a state of confusion or tension when it views
something as incomplete. The cause could be a story, a question, even a
household chore that you forgot to complete — and the only way to
overcome that confusion and tension is for your brain to close the
open loop.

When it comes to writing copy, an open loop is a part of your sales
message that doesn’t tie up immediately.

You can apply open loops to any copy and instantly make it more
magnetic.

Here’s an open loop example from the CopyHour landing page.

The writer starts the sales letter with talk of a mysterious little secret
that top copywriters used to sharpen their chops, and as a result make
bucket loads of cash – instantly making you wonder what this secret is.

But it doesn’t stop there. The sales page goes on to constantly dangle
this secret right in front of your face. This strengthens your curiosity
and makes you more invested in finding out what the mysterious secret
is – increasing the chance of a conversion.

Open loops aren’t hard to implement.

The easiest way to get started is to ask more questions in your copy
and vaguely expand on the question, just like the example above. This
lack of completion makes your reader feel curious and more invested in
your copy.

2. Make your first sentence hypnotic

Your first sentence has to open with a bang.

It has to immediately snag your audience’s attention and drag them
into your copy. If your readers don’t make it past the first few
sentences, they sure as hell ain’t making it to your call to action.

Shortening your sentences (and your first sentence in particular) is an
excellent way to make your copy a little bit more engaging.

The trick is to make sentences so short and easy to read that they
instantly suck your reader into your copy. In his book Advertising Secrets
Of The Written Word, legendary copywriter Joseph Sugarman even said:

My first sentences are so short, they almost aren’t sentences.

Take for example the opening sentence on Chartbeat’s landing page for
their study on audience development.

Have a look at how short and simple the opening is:

It’s not enough to just count clicks and page views anymore.

When someone begins by reading that, they’re naturally inclined to
wonder, “What is enough then? What’s wrong with counting clicks and
page views? What should I measure?” 

These questions then fuel the reader with enough coals of curiosity
to make him want to read on.

Also, shorter sentences look like a piece of cake to read, which increases
the chances of someone actually getting through your copy. This is a
huge benefit because it’s harder to stop reading copy once you’re already
interested and curious.

3. Deploy power verbs for maximum impact

Good copy paints pleasing pictures in the minds of your prospects. It
dives into their brains and engages their senses and emotions.

This is where most writers make a fatal mistake. They rely on adjectives
and limp words to add flavor to their copy, but as killer copywriter John
Carlton said in his book Kick Ass Copywriting Secrets:

Good copy goes light on adjectives. And heavy on action verbs.

The right action verbs give your copy a muscular, grab-you-by-the-
throat effect that keeps your reader glued to the screen.

The example below shows the difference between fluffy adjectives and
power verbs in creating vivid mental images:

The stomach-turning news was extremely shocking. All of a sudden, he didn’t
feel very good. He quickly sat down on the large black sofa and passed out.

After powering up with verbs:

The news hit him like a sharp hook to the stomach. He felt his heart rip,
and an ocean of darkness washed through him as he collapsed into the sofa.

Big difference, right?

When it comes to descriptive power and sharp imagery, the second
paragraph leaves the first, adjective-infested one coughing in the dust.

Here are some examples of powerfully “verbed-up” sentences from Jon
Morrow’s Serious Bloggers Only landing page:

Pay attention to some of the verbs he uses:

• Because they stumbled into popularity
• They are desperate to seize the opportunity before it slips away
  from them.
• If you’re a serious blogger, you’re tired of wading through thousands
  of articles, reading contradictory advice, and trying to figure out how
  to piece it all together.

See how alive and vivid the writing becomes with just a few well-placed
sharp, powerful verbs?

Keep a thesaurus handy at all times, and be sure to have a swipe file
on standby. This will help you inject strong verbs and words into your
copy without ripping your hair out in frustration.

4. Adhere to the AIDA formula

When writing copy, it’s easy to find yourself staring at a blank page
wondering, “What’s next?”

That’s where the AIDA formula (by copywriter Gary Halbert) comes in
handy.

It’s a formula that allows you to consistently create a smooth, strong
sales message that latches onto your reader’s attention and keeps them
interested.

So what does AIDA stand for?

• Attention. This is where you snag your prospect’s attention with a
  benefit-driven headline and introduction to make him want to read
  on.
• Interest. This is where you’ll pique the interest of your prospects
  and nudge them deeper into your copy by describing how your pain
  solving product/service benefits their lives.
• Desire. After arousing your prospects interest, here’s where you
  pump up his desire for what you’re selling. Usually with a bullet
  point list that describes all the juicy benefits of your product/
  service.
• Action. After your reader is blown away with the amazing benefits
  your product, you then invite him/her to take action. Usually to
  make an order or fill in a form.

Here’s an example of the AIDA formula in action from the
webprofits.com landing page.

Attention

The headline is curious and grabs the reader’s attention by suggesting
that the SEO game has changed.

Interest

Once the page catches the reader’s attention, it cultivates interest
with paragraphs which explain how SEO has changed (next to the
laptop).

Desire

After that, it arouses the prospect’s desire by describing the benefits
of the product.

Action

It finally closes with the “Get Free Analysis Now” call to action.

Following the AIDA formula inserts a smooth compelling flow into
your copy and keeps readers glued to your sales message.

5. Harness the power of reframing to shoot up perceived value

A 1999 study by psychologists Davis and Knowles showed the shocking
persuasive power of a technique called reframing. In the study, they
went door to door and sold note cards for charity.

• In the first pitch, they said that it was $3 for 8 cards. They made
  sales at 40% of households.
• In their second pitch, they told people that it was 300 pennies for
  8 cards, which was followed up by, “which is a bargain,” resulting
  in 80% of the households buying cards.

This tiny change in the pitch had a huge effect on results, but how and
why was it so influential?

Here’s what happens:

When people are told the cost of the cards is 300 pennies instead of 3
dollars, their routine thought process is disrupted. Now, while they’re
distracted trying to process the odd sounding “300 pennies” and why
anyone would use pennies instead of dollars…

They’re immediately told that it’s a “bargain.” And because pennies
sound so easy to spend in comparison to hard-earned dollars, they are
more likely to accept the suggestion that the cards are a bargain.

This is known as reframing.

Reframing is a wickedly effective technique. It allows you to manipulate
the perceived value of a product by making comparisons and shifting the
focus of your reader.

Here’s an example of what reframing looks like:

You wouldn’t rush to buy something that’s $500 a year right? I mean for
most people, it’s a decent amount of change.

How about for $42 a month?

Or $8 (the price two lattes) a day?

Sounds much more appealing doesn’t it?

This landing page reframes the price of a brand new car in terms of two
lattes per day ($8), which serves to soften the blow of the price and
make the offer more appealing.

Here’s another example from the CopyHour landing page:

The landing page reframes the price by comparing the total price of the
course to how much it costs per day, instantly reducing the weight of
the price in the prospect’s mind.

Crafting seductive landing page copy doesn’t have to be painful

Powerful landing page copy doesn’t have to be painful to create. Pick a
couple of strong techniques and tips, focus on the needs of your
prospects, and you’ll be fine.

Now it’s your turn. How do you go about cranking up your copy
power to increase conversions? What’s the weirdest conversion
boost/decline you’ve had with regards to copywriting? I’d love to
know!

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