Episode II

Before I begin, I would like to first acknowledge my epic fail of a hero image. I saw Burk uploaded an image twice already, so I felt obligated to throw something up there (will learn proper logistics next week).

If you think I’m being ridiculous, you should know that Burk and I have an ongoing competition that spans back to pretty much the first week we started working together last summer. Here is an example of our shenanigans.

Alrighty, enough of that. Let’s look at Training Week 2:

[ Digital Marketer (EP) ]

Ok, if you’re thinking EP has anything to do with music, you’re wrong (don’t be embarrassed because I also totally thought it was going to be something like this ). In this instance, “EP” stands for Execution Plan. Basically a Digital Marketer EP is like a short lesson plan with rich content about a given topic, with videos embedded for a better “user experience” ;). The EP I finished was How to Get Your First 1000 Blog Subscribers and More . You know the drill – here are some key takeaways:

1. A blog is not a business – it’s a channel. And powerful one.
2. A compelling Lead Magnet is one of the most critical components to generating leads and subscribers quickly
3. Running traffic from a source to your Lead Magnet squeeze pages and building out your subscriber base is the #1 reason for lack of subscribers

I thought this EP was especially fitting for training given the fact that it is about blog success and, well, I’m blogging right now.

[ Copywriting. ]

copywriter

1. a writer of copy, especially for advertisements or publicity releases.

I decided to include the exact definition of a “copywriter” because often the meaning gets diluted and overused in the wrong way. Also, copywriting is not to be confused or interchanged with “content marketing”. Content marketing is a creation of valuable content for marketing purposes, while copywriting is for sales purposes. With that being said, I read two articles during Training Week 2 from Copyblogger . Both were informative, and helped me clearly define what copywriting actually is.

Master This Copywriting Formula to Dominate Any Social Media Platform

• “PAS” – Identify the problem, agitate the problem, trot out the solution
• PAS gives your writing consistency, precision, and persuasion
• Seek out the problems for a PROFITABLE market

What to Do When You Absolutely, Positively Must Know if Your Content Will Rock

• The audience knows best!
• Allow for feedback & apply fundamentals
• No gatekeepers online
• Relationship between company & customer is direct thanks to internet

[ Wistia Videos ]

For fear of being painfully redundant, I’m not going to highlight all the videos I watched and give you key takeaways. Instead, I am just going to talk about my favorite video – which is Ann Handley’s talk about “Uncovering Your Most Authentic Stories”. First of all, anyone who even remotely likes content marketing will idolize Ann Handley . She is the Queen of Content Marketing.

Here’s a side rant: tell me why women like Kim Kardashian (barf) are world famous for doing quite literally NOTHING, while educated and well put-together women like Ann Handley are only famous among the tech community? Just some things that keep me up at night.

Alright back to what I was saying. At WistiaFest, Ann talks about how important it is to get rid of mediocre content. Or as she likes to say, we need “ridiculously better” content. The part I liked most about Ann’s speech was that she kept emphasizing to make your content relatable to reconnect with your customer. The basic “jist” of Ann’s talk was that just making content isn’t enough. Going through the motions won’t help increase your number of customers or bring in revenue. Since I like metaphors so much: just like in relationship, if you go through the motions, your significant other will notice and go look elsewhere for someone that makes them feel special. The same rule applies to companies. Your customer can tell when you’re just creating content to say you did. Put some personality behind it! Engage your audience! Ok that’s enough excitement for one post. If you want to watch the other talks from WistiaFest (which I highly recommend you do), then you can poke around this site .

To all my fans out there reading this: thanks for keeping me grounded. Happy 4th, and see you next week.

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Elyse June