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Forget Keywords, This Is What Really Matters for SEO

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By Frank Wazeter,

Creating content that people want to read needs to be your priority.

Every business owner wants to rank on page one, spot one on Google. SEO can be a massively worthwhile investment that can single-handedly transform your company’s ability to reach more customers more easily and cheaply than your competitors. Using a combination of SEO and social media, I’ve helped companies grow from $300k a year to over a million in seven months and changed how multi-billion-dollar industries do their marketing.

Yet, for all that, I spend a lot of time talking people out of SEO. The reality is, until you’ve got about $50,000 a year to invest in it, you’re probably not going to get the result you want, and despite good intentions, the typical professional you find won’t be able to deliver on their promise. Even worse, for most, if you get the ranking you want and the traffic you desire, you still probably won’t get the actual sales conversion you’re hoping for.

Fortunately, what matters most to make SEO work for you is also what makes for a highly effective website and increases your online sales dramatically. It’s all summed up in one word: value.

Make value-driven content that’s compelling, wins your readers’ attention, and wows them.

The most important ranking factors never change, everything else does.

By far the most important ranking factors that Google considers are how many people visit your site directly, how much time they spend reading it, and whether or not they visit multiple pages. People visiting your website directly tells Google that you must be credible because people are visiting the page all on their own. The other two are all oriented around the quality of your content and whether or not it actually delivered value to the reader.

Google’s prime directive to make its search product better is to provide the most suitable answer to a searcher’s question. The better you answer the questions people are looking for, the higher you’ll rank and the more your conversion will be. That means that insightful, compelling, and valuable content that’s different from your competitors is always going to be the primary driver of search results.

SEO is about editing and promoting content, not ranking.

There are hundreds of optimizations that are all technical. Think of these as edits, similar to how a proof-reader edits an article. All that’s being done is optimizing and changing the language a little bit and adding metadata, schema (JSON-LD), and other technical aspects to “tweak” how an algorithm processes the data of the content.

The other piece, commonly blasted out as backlinks, is really just another way to say promotion. The more people reference your content, the higher over time it will rank because it’s valuable. People try to cheat the system by buying backlinks that are of questionable quality, which means that when a big Google algorithm hits, they start losing all the things they worked for because Google starts eliminating bad “backlink” sources.

An editor can’t make bad content good and a promoter can’t make bad content popular. That means even with the technical factors involved in SEO, the universal answer is: Make good content that people actually find valuable enough to read.

Forget keywords, write content based on customer questions instead.

The easiest way to focus on what people actually want to read is to do what you do as a professional anyway: Answer questions that matter to customers. When you create content focused around the things that your customers actually ask you, and answer them in the way that you actually do in person, a funny thing happens: You get content that people actually want to read because it matters to them.

If all you did was get in the habit of writing down or recording the questions your customer asks, answer them in the way that works for you in person, and turn those into articles, you’d be miles ahead of the competition in search engines because you’ve created valuable and insightful content to drive the whole thing.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Frank Wazeter,

Sourced from Inc.

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How to Make Sure Your Business Lasts Long After You

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Sourced from readwrite

With a Succession Plan, Your Business Can Last When You are Gone

Yet far too many small and family business owners neglect this step. A Small Business Survey conducted in 2017 by Nationwide showed that fully 60 percent of all small businesses lacked any kind of succession plan.

Failing to plan may literally be planning to fail in this case. A strategic succession plan helps you prepare your company’s future leaders so that the business can reach its goals. It helps you retain loyal employees and grow to become a more stable, resilient organization that’s prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

To help your company survive and thrive after your departure, start to create your own succession plan today. Here’s how.

Start Succession Planning Early

It pays to plan early—literally. For example, you’ll want to adjust your tax strategy in particular if you want to sell the company to an outsider. You’ll want to maximize profits to make the company more valuable and attractive to qualified potential buyers. The earlier you start your planning, the sooner you can implement the adjusted tax strategy to maximize your sales price.

The Essential Components of a Succession Plan

  1. A timeline with specific dates, if possible, and a description of what events might trigger the transition.
  2. Your chosen successor and any alternates, as your top choice, may not be able to step up as planned for any one of a number of reasons
  3. A formal document outlining all of your company’s operational and administrative policies, procedures, documents, employee manuals or handbooks, and all training documentation
  4. A formal valuation report from a professional appraiser, preferably one familiar with your niche or industry, with plans for the valuation report to be updated regularly
  5. A description of how your succession will be funded—i.e., life insurance proceeds, a note, other funds, seller financing, etc.

Choose Your Succession Method

Decide how you plan to proceed. Whether you sell or otherwise transfer control of your company to your successor, and whether the transition is triggered by retirement or unanticipated events, there are five key methods of appointing and transferring your ownership.

Sell to a Co-Owner or Partner

If you have partners or co-owners, consult your partnership or operating agreement to understand your mutual rights and obligations when you leave the company. Requirements may dictate that you offer your interest to the remaining partners for their purchase first. This arrangement can often make things far simpler and easier on your heirs and surviving spouse, if any.

It also helps your spouse and heirs realize the fair market value of the interest without the burden of running the company themselves.

Theoretically, the partner must keep adequate funds on hand to buy out your shares at any time, as an unplanned departure can occur at any time. Alternatively, life insurance or key person insurance can be used to fund this transition.

Sell to a Key Employee

Selling your interest and control to a key employee ensures you’ve got an interested, experienced party ready to take over for you while also avoiding the complex challenges of selecting a family successor out of multiple heirs.

This plan also allows you plenty of time to train and coach your intended successor in all aspects of leading your company.

Most of your employees won’t have ready access to cash or liquid assets sufficient to cover the cost involved.

To alleviate that problem, you can offer seller financing, where the employee will pay you or your heirs some amount as a down payment and then periodic payments over time. You’ll need to work out these details with your chosen successor in negotiations prior to your departure.

Sell to an Outside Party

If you don’t have a suitable heir or key employee who’s willing and able to take over, selling to an outside party is a viable option to consider. Look at other entrepreneurs or even competitors in your field and area for potential buyers.

The key challenge here is to make sure you have a proper and accurate business valuation on hand, and that it’s updated regularly.

Some challenges to an outside party sale

Drawbacks include the difficulty involved in selling some types of businesses over others. If your company is service-based and built around your name or personal brand, it might be challenging to demonstrate the company’s true value.

It’s also a complex undertaking for you or your heirs to manage. However, that challenge can be relieved by outsourcing the sale to a professional broker or another professional who can handle the intricacies of an outside party sale.

Bequeath or Otherwise Transfer to an Heir

This is one of the most popular options (and the basis for a successful HBO TV show to boot). If you have a child or children, or other heirs, who have the interest, aptitude, and inclination to run the company themselves — this can be the simplest and easiest method to pass on control of your business to the next generation.

Emotions often run hot in family transitions, especially when the succession is occasioned by death. If you have an heir who presents the requisite skills, experience, potential, and innate interest in running the company, it may be worth the risks.

Just be very careful in the documentation you leave behind and the way in which your choices are communicated to all your heirs.

Establish Your Company’s Core Values

Define your company’s core values and make sure all of your employees understand them. This is crucial because it directly impacts the success or failure of your eventual succession plan and the transition to new leadership. If your successor doesn’t align well with your company’s values, the disconnect could negatively impact your company’s operations, employee engagement, and ongoing viability.

Define your goals in writing

It’s also important to identify your goals. What do you want for your company, both short and long term? What are your personal goals, both practically and financially? Define those personal goals and make sure they align with your business values and objectives.

Have a senior team member or manager give you input

Consider getting input from senior team members and managers at this phase to make sure you’re considering a wider perspective during the process. With their input, project your company’s future needs. Work on a five-year basis and think about what meeting the company’s objectives will mean for its changing structure.

Finally, create updated job descriptions that align with the data you’ve identified and analyzed thus far. Clarify and manage your own expectations so that your next decisions will be based on logic, reason, and current and future anticipated conditions.

Identify and Train Your Successors

To identify potential succession candidates for the position, evaluate each candidate against the list of skills and experience metrics that you created for the role in the prior step.

For top positions, you’ll want to make sure you’re choosing candidates with significant problem-solving skills and adaptability. If the pandemic proved anything, it’s that small businesses must be able to pivot quickly when the unexpected occurs.

Remember that you’re looking for potential. People can develop experience as well as key skills over time. Look deeper than the resume and keep personal biases and preferences out of the equation to the extent possible.

If you can verify interest in the succession, it will help you

After you’ve identified your successor and verified their interest in transitioning to leading your company, create and implement a plan to give them the tools they need to succeed.

Your goal is to empower your successor with appropriate training opportunities so they can gain the necessary experience and expand the skills they’ll need to perform up to their potential in the new position when the time comes.

Explore formal training courses and offer a mentoring or coaching program for ongoing support. Establish open communication and an ongoing feedback policy so that you can continue to refine the training and development program.

Give them the opportunity to learn about every aspect of the business and to ask you and your leadership team/team members questions.

Document Everything

It’s important to create a formal plan and reduce it to writing in as much detail as possible, and to do this well; you’ll need feedback from all stakeholders throughout your planning process.

Your plan documentation should include employee manuals, training plans, operating and administrative procedures, contact information (both internal and key external vendors), decision trees, and emergency operations planning.

What happens when a hurricane or the next pandemic hits? How can you keep things going? How have you pivoted in the past, or how can you do so in the future?

Periodically review and update your plan document. After all, things change all the time. Key workers might retire or take different jobs.

Your family members involved in the succession plan might lose interest or take other employment. Industry realities may evolve and change. Every year, take some time with your key group of advisors and professionals to review the plan and see if there are any places that need adjustment.

Let It Go

Once you’ve chosen your successor and implemented a training plan for that person, you may choose to begin the transition while you’re still around to help. If you’re deliberately transitioning out of your leadership position, this is the right time to ease off the gas and let go of control gradually.

Begin allowing your successor to make their own executive decisions.

Let go of the reins gracefully. Proving to the company and to your successor that you have complete faith in them now by letting them take over the helm will help bestow legitimacy and loyalty on your successor. In the long run, that will only help your company stay strong and profitable into the future.

Stay in Touch

Maintain communication with your successors after you’ve stepped down, in order to offer guidance when needed. Keep those lines of communication open but don’t abuse this or set any expectations. Let them come to you.

You can also ask if they’d like to schedule a regular, recurring lunch date to discuss their concerns and get your input. However, it’s important to make sure this is their choice. They know what they need and how they operate best.

Don’t take it personally if they don’t come to you often or at all. Recognize that they need to chart their own path in order to reassure others that they’re in control. You would not have put this individual in place if you didn’t think they could do this job. But they won’t do it your way — allow that freedom.

Celebrate Your Success

Now that you’re transitioning out of actively running your company, it’s the ideal time to take a moment to appreciate your accomplishments. Take time to look back on your journey and be proud of what you’ve built. It’s also a good time to recognize you didn’t build this alone. Being humble means appreciating that a team effort led to your business’s longevity.

Part of your success is choosing the right successor. It’s a bit like being a parent. If they’re flying high on their own, you did your job well. Take pride in their success, as well.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Cottonbro; Pexels

Sourced from readwrite

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Scientists have increased the life of fuel cells – why that matters for solar and wind

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By Michelle Lewis

In research that could jumpstart work on a range of technologies including fuel cells – key to storing solar and wind energy – MIT researchers have found a relatively simple way to increase the lifetimes of these devices: changing the “pH” of the system.

The US Department of Energy explains how fuel cells work:

Fuel cells work like batteries, but they do not run down or need recharging. They produce electricity and heat as long as fuel is supplied. A fuel cell consists of two electrodes – a negative electrode (or anode) and a positive electrode (or cathode) – sandwiched around an electrolyte. A fuel, such as hydrogen, is fed to the anode, and air is fed to the cathode.

Fuel and electrolysis cells made of materials known as solid metal oxides are of interest because in the electrolysis mode, they are efficient at converting electricity from a clean energy source into a storable fuel like hydrogen that can be used in the fuel cell mode to generate electricity when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. They can also be made without using costly metals like platinum.

However, their commercial viability has been hindered, in part, because they degrade over time. Metal atoms seeping from the interconnects used to construct banks of fuel/electrolysis cells slowly poison the devices.

What the researchers did

In the electrolysis mode, electricity from, for example, the wind, can be used to generate storable fuel like hydrogen. On the other hand, in the reverse fuel cell reaction, that storable fuel can be used to create electricity when the wind isn’t blowing.

A working fuel/electrolysis cell is composed of many individual cells that are stacked together and connected by steel metal interconnects that include the element chrome to keep the metal from oxidizing.

But, said Harry L. Tuller, RP Simmons professor of ceramics and electronic materials in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering:

It turns out that at the high temperatures that these cells run, some of that chrome evaporates and migrates to the interface between the cathode and the electrolyte, poisoning the oxygen incorporation reaction.

After a certain point, the efficiency of the cell has dropped to a point where it’s not worth operating any longer.

“So if you can extend the life of the fuel/electrolysis cell by slowing down this process, or ideally reversing it, you could go a long way toward making it practical,” continued Tuller.

The team showed that you can do both by controlling the acidity of the cathode surface.

Changing the acidity

The researchers explained what’s happening: To achieve their results, the team coated the fuel/electrolysis cell cathode with lithium oxide, a compound that changes the relative acidity of the surface from being acidic to being more basic.

“After adding a small amount of lithium, we were able to recover the initial performance of a poisoned cell,” said Tuller.

When the team added even more lithium, the performance improved far beyond the initial value.

Tuller added, “We saw improvements of three to four orders of magnitude in the key oxygen reduction reaction rate and attribute the change to populating the surface of the electrode with electrons needed to drive the oxygen incorporation reaction.”

The researchers observed the material at the nanoscale, or billionths of a meter, with state-of-the-art transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy.

James M. LeBeau, another MIT professor involved in the study, said:

We were interested in understanding the distribution of the different chemical additives [chromium and lithium oxide] on the surface.

The team found that the lithium oxide effectively dissolves the chromium to form a glassy material that no longer serves to degrade the cathode performance.

Why it matters

The research, which was published this month in Energy & Environmental Science, was initially funded by the US Department of Energy through the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management’s (FECM) National Energy Technology Laboratory, should help the DOE meet its goal of significantly cutting the degradation rate of solid oxide fuel cells by 2035-2050.

Robert Schrecengost, acting director of FECM’s Division of Hydrogen with Carbon Management, said:

Extending the lifetime of solid oxide fuels cells helps deliver the low-cost, high-efficiency hydrogen production and power generation needed for a clean energy future.

The [DOE] applauds these advancements to mature and ultimately commercialize these technologies so that we can provide clean and reliable energy for the American people.

Thanks to Elizabeth A. Thomson at MIT’s Materials Research Laboratory.

By Michelle Lewis

Sourced from electrek

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The Most Consistent Aspect of a Brand Is Consistency

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By Kaushik Saha

When was the last time you trusted someone or something whole-heartedly? And, if you did, that particular person or thing most likely might be the one who is the closest to you, one very special. ‘Trust’ is the sole reason why people want to relate to you and, in order for people to trust you, they need to feel like they know you very well. In order for them to feel like they know you really well, they must first notice you, then recognize you, and thereafter keep remembering you. For people to notice, recognize, and remember you, you must always show up in a way that makes them believe it obviously is you and no one else. Making people take notice is a process. It might take them seeing you in their field of vision at least fifteen to twenty times before they actually take notice of you and register. Therefore, you will need a way to get in front of these people a second, third, or twentieth time so that you can kind of be worthy enough to prove to them that you are credible, trustworthy, and surely the best choice among all the others they might consider.

As humans, we are inherently programmed with something called the ‘context-dependent memory’ syndrome, which means that we tend to forget something very easily as soon as it gets out of context. Therefore, to remain in context, it becomes extremely crucial to showcase ourselves in a consistent manner that can aid in gaining the trust of our deserving patrons. Also according to Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman, 95% of purchasing decisions are subconscious, showing that purchasing is more of an emotional decision than a practical one. Because we as humans are usually driven by feelings. Have we ever wondered why we end up buying the same soap or visiting the same café? It is a consistent brand experience delivered every time that makes us feel comfortable with every interaction. We know what to expect and are kind of very sure of the outcome. Brand consistency does foster goodwill, helps build strong equity, and acts as the adhesive that assists viewers put you back in contextual memory.

Have you ever wondered how much you relate to a Dove or a McDonald’s commercial, every time it ends up playing on your television set or you share a glance at one of their adverts while you are traveling somewhere or driving your car or maybe simply updating yourself with the daily news, either in print or on your tech gadget? And most of these times you ended up relating to them before you even took note of their logo mark. I do not intend to promote a particular brand out here but it’s worth a mention as how such brands have been delivering a consistent brand message for years. In today’s digital era, content is truly becoming more and more dominant. I really don’t need to tell you how much of it is there for you to consume. As you read this very moment, thousands of fresh new content are being published to the web in different forms, ready for you to relate to and consume. And, the more this happens, the more it also gets difficult for you as a brand to stand out. To cut through this large chunk of noise being generated, the brand will need to differentiate itself from the competition. But while differentiation is key, it might only aid in grabbing a sizeable market share which must remain intact for the brand to prevail continuously. The brand will need something much more. Something that will stick on to the viewer’s mind, something that will build their trust and win their loyalty, not just for once but possibly for a lifetime.

The benefits of being consistent can provide significant differentials within highly competitive markets, generating authority in respective segments and thereby building loyalty for the brand. Brand consistency can truly help the bottom line of a brand. According to research by customer experience expert Esteban Kolsky, 55% of consumers are willing to pay more for a ‘guaranteed good experience’. As he clearly mentions that ‘guaranteed’ is the most important factor here, noting that customers are no longer satisfied with just being promised a good experience. There has to be something more concrete that can ensure that this good experience is being delivered each time, every time. There has to be a consistent projection and delivery mechanism in place that can validate that the promises made are being translated into trustworthy action points. And this in turn will help consumers build a strong relationship with the brand going forward.

One great example I can possibly recall reading about is the man Sir Richard Branson himself. A brand name in his own right, he has gradually evolved from running a record label to building a dynamic airline brand and many other successful ventures along the way with the most recent being travel to outer space on Virgin Galactic – the world’s first commercial spaceline. He has envisioned and built a multi-billion dollar brand around his core principles and though people always seem to expect the unexpected from him, what is important to note is that he remains consistent in delivering a super cool brand experience that is customer-centric and aesthetically entertaining, no matter the venture he gets involved in. It is like swearing by what to expect from any new venture that might have the brand name ‘Virgin’ associated with it.

When you are focused on brand building, the last thing that you would end up doing is to confuse your target customers and the market at large, because they would be the ones helping you drive the bottom line for your business as well as register a worthy return on investment on your branding exercise. By not following a consistent approach to brand building, you could deprive yourself of multiple chances to drive authentic figures in sales. It is very important to remember that people buy from brands they can strongly connect with and those that seem to be authentic enough to be able to trust. After all, it does become hard to connect with a brand that doesn’t seem consistent enough. Ask yourself, how easily would you be able to trust a person you have met for the first time? Even though he might have seemed to be the perfect candidate to tick off all the questions on your preferential checklist. Yet, you wouldn’t be able to do so, right? It would probably require multiple consistent interactions for you to even think of taking the next step. And that is exactly how human behaviour works, irrespective of scrutiny being for a human or a brand.

Consistency is one of the most crucial steps toward successful brand-building. And it doesn’t end at the product or the messaging only. It needs to be strictly adhered to, across all parameters of the planning and delivery mechanism. From research, development, manufacturing, delivery, human capital, finance as well as stakeholders to the last possible mile in this entire process, there has to be a unified approach and projection at all times. With every interaction at every single touch point, the brand promise needs to be loud and clear, delivering a consistent experience to consumers. It would be really good to conclude with clarity here that even a well-articulated and clearly defined branding exercise that lacks a well-planned and consistent brand projection in place, will absolutely hold no merit at all and will end up failing to deliver desired results.

Feature Image Credit: Francois Olwage

By Kaushik Saha

Sourced from Brandingmag

Kaushik Saha is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Tricycle Brand Solutions, India. A firm believer in ‘Impossible is Nothing’, he intends to deliver strategically defined, impeccable creative and design solutions to help new-age enterprises create visible impact. With Tricycle, he wants to effectively combine relevance with the magic of design, to create powerful brand expressions. He has been recently conferred with the ‘Creative Entrepreneur of the Year’ award by Entrepreneur India.

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Drone superhighways and airports are coming – let’s make sure they don’t make life miserable

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Within just two years, the UK could be home to the planet’s biggest drone superhighway thanks to the plans of a group of technology companies. It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, but it’s just one of a number of projects in the pipeline as part of the UK government’s drone ambition statement announced recently.

But it’s important not to get carried away. These plans could change British skies and people’s lives. Now is the time to think about whether the noise, safety risk and disruption to family neighbourhoods is worth it.

Right now, UK laws restrict the use of pilotless drones. But the Skyway will allow automated drones, using ground-based sensors installed along the highway. These sensors provide a real-time view of where drones are in the airspace.

The 164-mile “Skyway” aims to connect the airspace above Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Coventry and Rugby by mid-2024, and will receive more than £12 million government funding.

Some of the other aerospace projects include air taxi services which will transport people and cargo. They need landing pads as big as a small airport.

Next year a pilot for the world’s first electric urban airport will start construction in Coventry in 2023. Hyundai plan to build 200 such urban airports in the next five years.

A proliferation of delivery drones is also likely to lead to new logistic centres, which could be designed as bee hive-like hubs, as seen in a patent filed by Amazon.

UK planning rules will have to change dramatically to accommodate these new structures and the public must be consulted and the community benefit made clear. Yet the UK government has presented plans for the Skyway before it has decided on the infrastructure changes needed to make way for it.

It’s not alone in this respect. Several countries including Germany, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates are locked in a space race to establish drone and air taxis. Technological drone innovation is being approved before regulation is established and ahead of a proper assessment of the ethical implications.

Launch pad with small runways surrounded by houses, roads and a stadium.
Coventry’s planned electric urban airport.

If people are to have a proper say in the plans, they need the right information about the technology involved. A recent survey (March 2022) showed the UK public was about evenly split between those who said they had a good understanding (31%) of drones and what they are used for, those who had some understanding (36%) and little understanding (33%). The same study found 54% of participants would be uncomfortable if they saw drones regularly.

The transfer of military technology such as drones into public life leads to a marked difference between the pace of innovation and people’s understanding of its impact. Many benefits result – for example transporting medical supplies to remote areas – but ethical issues are also created and governments need to communicate this.

The darker side

One of the most obvious problems is privacy as drones often record and capture images. Another key issue arises from the fact drones are likely to fly at the bottom of airspace (up to 400 feet in the air) and so will increase noise and air pollution.

Drone flight paths are likely to be built around existing transport hubs, railway corridors and airports. The people who live in these areas will suffer the most from pollution and congested skies.

Plans to open a noisy bar, takeaway restaurant, leisure complex or even just next door’s new extension can have a devastating impact on your quality of life. Imagine if the skies above your home slowly started to fill with buzzing drones.

Aerospace is a safety-led culture, but drone cargo delivery handover and landing carries much greater risk of collision with low level objects, buildings, structures or people. We don’t know exactly how dangerous this will be because it hasn’t been done on this scale before.

Recent research shows people have other red lines when it comes to drone and air taxi development. These include protecting wildlife and taking measures to prevent pilotless drones from being hacked.

All these issues show why announcing a roadmap for commercial drone rollout is easier than winning public support for it. It doesn’t take much for people to become concerned about drone use. For example, nearly two thirds of the UK public say the 2018 Gatwick airport incident, in which drone sightings forced the airport to close for two days, negatively influenced how they think about drones.

Drones swarm over trees
The details of a drone highway are yet to be worked out. Andy Dean Photography/ Shutterstock

As a result, there is likely to be opposition to future drone delivery, but how the mechanisms of government respond is yet unclear. However, there are some key principles that could help.

The use of data from drones should be ethical and transparent. Commercial operators need to tell the public about when their drones will record images and video in surveillance.

They need to reassure us that AI technology used in pilotless drones is trustworthy and whether facial recognition algorithms or other analytical tools are been used, outline how the public’s data will be protected and how third parties may use it.

Research has shown people find even small drone noise annoying. You can imagine how much worse the problem will be with air taxis and new drone designs.

Surrounding architecture and even local micro climates can amplify take off and landing noise from drones. The simple solution to this will be for engineers to design quieter models.

The EU’s safety and regulatory frameworks for drones and drone deliveries in urban environments were set out in 2020 and updated in 2022. But national governments will need to follow through with the detail and delivery of drone regulation.

Perhaps most vital, however, is that the public is given a chance to get to grips with drone technology and how it will affect them, before it’s too late to have a say.

Feature Image Credit: Alex Yuzhakov/Shutterstock

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Senior Lecturer in Design (People, Places, Products), Lancaster University

Sourced from The Conversation

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Seven tips for writing blog posts that captivate audiences

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By Tess Luke

Producing blog posts is a sure-fire way to connect with consumers and provide them with much-needed information, like FAQs or product guides. But writing posts that cut through requires an understanding of what consumers are searching for and an awareness of what makes a good story. The Good Marketer’s senior content manager Tess Luke shares some tips for improving this process.

What is a blog post, and why are they important?

A blog is an online journal where a group, individual or corporation discusses thoughts, beliefs, activities or records. There is a range of different blog styles you can choose from, and each will fit the context of your story: interview, how-to, listicle, news article, review, image-based or a more personal blog. Blogging is more important than ever when establishing yourself or your company online. Blogging is a great way to grow your online presence and help build your site’s authority over some time.

Many businesses use their blog spaces to post on relevant topics, conversational pieces, inspirational content and more. Here is where you could build on your relationships with your audience and inform them about your business.

SEO opportunities with blog posts

Blogs are more than just hubs of information, though. Blogs are also a great tool to enhance your SEO. Any SEO agency in London will understand the core benefits of optimizing your content for your business in more depth. However, we can quickly see that an optimal solution to increasing the visibility of your website in organic search results is through blog posts. Ensuring your site is a trusted resource is vital in building credibility. It is super important to take the time to create content that search engines can find.

Seven tips to remember when writing your blog post

It’s time to start writing your blog posts. You’ve thought about everything from structure to the storyline and word count, and you’re ready to start typing away. Keep in mind the following tips when constructing your next blog post. It could be the post that takes your site to the next level and reach a new audience.

Grammar

First up, grammar. Before writing any blog post, you should understand your target audience well enough to know the correct tone of voice. We can all likely relate to the frustration of incorrect or lousy grammar when reading. Take the time to thoroughly read through each part and don’t rush the process; it is always quality over quantity.

Backlinks to your website

When writing blogs, you should always use every opportunity to link the readers to other parts of your website. For example, if you discuss pink tops and sell them, you would connect them to that page. You should be wary of how much you do this, as sometimes it can become overbearing for the readers if you constantly try to push them off the page. Lightly sprinkle these links where appropriate to get the best results.

CTAs

A call to action (CTA) is a term that asks your readers or customers to do something. For example, ‘shop now.’ CTAs use direct response copywriting principles and help push your customers in the direction you want them to take. In blogs, this would look like the following:

  • Like what you see? Head over to this page…
  • Want to learn more?
  • Leave a comment
  • Subscribe to our newsletter

Keep it conversational

Avoid your readers becoming bored, and keep your article conversational. Write in ways that make them ask questions along the way or take them into more profound thought surrounding the topic. If this tends to happen when they’re reading your articles, they will indeed become a frequent reader – which ultimately is the goal.

Researching trending keywords

Keywords play a vital role in positioning your page in a Google search. Beginning your blog journey with keyword research will help you achieve this goal. It is also a great way to determine whether your topic is relevant. You don’t necessarily want to create content that a small group of people is searching for, as this will not boost your ranking or reach a wider audience.

Remove all unnecessary filler

Going back to keeping it conversational, you want to avoid writing statements to create a longer blog. Your readers will soon disconnect with the piece if they feel they are being fed information that isn’t relevant, or perhaps it is taking too long to get to the overall point. Stick to the news that matters and remove any filler that isn’t needed.

Proofread

Last but not least, proofread. And then proofread it again. Rereading your work and proofreading it all is a must. Take a break, return to the content a little while later, or maybe even sleep on it. Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can make all the difference.

Conclusion

Everyone’s writing style varies; what works for you might not work for someone else. However, keeping the above tips in mind will positively improve your writing skills for the next blog post. Think SEO, credibility and building your online presence as the overall goal when creating your content.

Feature Image Credit: Bram Naus via Unsplash

By Tess Luke 

Sourced from The Drum

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How Buyer Personas Can Transform Your Marketing and Get Results

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The right persona-building strategy can sharpen your messaging and maximize your brand’s impact on buyers.

Every business, regardless of its niche, should know and understand its customer base. After all, how else will you know who to market to?

One of the best ways to understand your range of customers is by creating buyer personas. A buyer persona represents your perfect customer based on their demographics, lifestyle and goals. Strong buyer personas are made using hard data and insights gleaned from customer survey responses.

You can and should create numerous buyer personas based on hard data that tell you who your existing customer base is. These personas help inform your marketing efforts and fuel your success, allowing you to connect, impact and persuade your ideal clientele.

Follow these four tips on creating buyer personas and incorporating them into your business marketing.

Start with the data

Before segmenting your audience into different categories or creating fictional personas that represent your customers, you’ll need to look at the data to ensure you truly understand your customer base. Both qualitative and quantitative data matter!

Start with quantitative data. Dig into transaction histories and customer demographics, including how much and how regularly customers purchase and engage with your business. Age, gender, location, career, purchase power and customer loyalty are all essential data points to gather from existing customers.

You’ll also want to gather qualitative data, primarily in the form of feedback, through customer surveys or reviews. Information about your existing customers’ goals, desires and hobbies will help inform the persona you flesh out later.

Sorting through the data ultimately provides tons of raw data you’ll need to organize into spreadsheets to identify patterns. Many businesses offer templates that make this easier, or you can do it yourself in a spreadsheet. Working with a third party to organize the data can help identify patterns you may not notice at first glance.

Find patterns and create categories

Gathering and organizing mass amounts of raw data is often the most challenging aspect of building buyer personas. Once you’ve collected your data and assembled it, patterns will emerge.

As you separate your data into different groupings, your “rough draft” personas will take shape. At this point, you’re likely aware of a specific customer demographic, so start with a character who seems most evident from the data. Once they’re removed, continue separating potential personas within the remaining data. You’re looking for mass data overlap and similarities to group customers together.

Depending on the size of your business, you’ll be aiming for various buyer personas. Try focusing on the most significant customer groups to assemble the rough outlines of different personas, and don’t get too bogged down in tiny details. If specific buyer personas make up a much more significant portion of your business than others, note this as it relates to your marketing efforts.

Build a narrative

Now comes the fun part of building buyer personas: getting creative! To understand the different groupings you’ve organized based on data, you need to create a singular, fictionalized character to represent them. This also helps others within your business (the sales team or marketing team, for instance) to quickly get a sense of who the customer is.

If one of your data groupings is composed of millennial women who care about the environment, you might create a character to represent this persona. Come up with an entire background and personality for the persona based on your data (i.e., she’s 29, she lives in San Francisco, she enjoys yoga twice a week, she has a dog, she recycles, etc.).

Understanding this buyer persona as a fully-fledged human rather than a collection of raw data will make it easier to craft marketing materials that persuade this customer base. When creating a new campaign, your marketers should think, “Will this appeal to the persona?”

Design a marketing strategy

The final stage of developing successful buyer personas is incorporating them into your marketing strategy. Introduce your sales and marketing team to the personas you’ve created so that they’re in tune with the specific audiences of your business.

When crafting new strategies, consider your buyer personas first. What social media platforms do they use? Make sure you’re posting on the correct platforms for each persona (Gen Z buyer personas, for instance, aren’t going to be on Facebook). How do they prefer to ingest and interact with content? (Do they scroll right past photos?) What type of language do they use? (Make sure you’re not using outdated jargon in your copy). You can even craft different specialized landing pages for unique buyer personas.

Don’t forget to track data as it evolves and note which campaigns work as you adapt to target new buyer personas. Updated learnings should be incorporated into your existing buyer personas, and over time you may need to phase out or create new personas as your business changes.

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Why Producing High-Quality Content Matters for Your Business

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Creating a content marketing strategy that is consistent, relevant and valuable for your audience is the essence of a successful content marketing campaign.

Content marketing has become one of the most powerful tools used by digital markets worldwide. But to truly impact your audience, it is not enough to populate social media channels or send emails regularly. Your business‘s content must hit the audience’s pain points and deliver value.

What is high-quality content?

The Content Marketing Institute’s definition of content marketing sums up quality content. The organization believes content needs to be “valuable, relevant, and consistent.” Think of these three attributes as the pillars of quality content.

  • Providing value: after reading or viewing your content, the user knows something they did not know before. Alternatively, your content may have helped them solve a problem.
  • Being relevant: your content needs to relate to your audience’s life situation. Perhaps it helps them in their career, solves a relationship issue or serves to entertain them during a break. All three scenarios are perfect examples of content relevant to the person consuming it.
  • Being consistent: publishing an award-winning blog post once and then never again does not constitute high-quality content marketing. Consistency requires regular content of similarly high quality.

While those three pillars can help businesses develop their content strategy, users or potential customers will be the final judge of content quality. This is one of the most important aspects of content marketing to keep at the heart of your strategy. Content marketing is not about writing or shooting videos for you but for your audience.

Producing high-quality content

Several household brands have excelled at producing high-quality content and strategically using it to build stronger bonds with their audiences.

Example 1: LinkedIn

Out of all social media platforms, LinkedIn retains perhaps the narrowest focus on providing content that helps users advance in their professional careers. The platform may be a social network, but contrary to some of its competitors, its focus is on networking rather than socializing.

This focus is reflected in the content of LinkedIn’s blog, where writers produce highly targeted pieces that impact readers. The focus is not on building the writer’s or the platform’s profile but solely on solving user problems. Plus, the platform has mastered the art of repurposing content. Whitepapers become blog posts, and eBooks find a wider audience when extracts are shared.

As a result, users understand that LinkedIn provides high-value content relevant to their career development and stays up to date.

Example 2: Shopify

Shopify has become synonymous with successful eCommerce, and content marketing has been one of the company’s key growth strategies.

Like LinkedIn, Shopify refrained from pushing its brand. Instead, the team helped users and other businesses interested in eCommerce understand the field better by launching an eCommerce encyclopaedia. This online shopping encyclopaedia proved a valuable tool to others and established the Shopify team as an expert.

By creating content that helped users and customers, Shopify built its brand reputation and developed trust. Plus, the encyclopaedia drove traffic to the Shopify platform. Individual entries are kept short to suit the audience. Shopify knew users were not looking for in-depth explanations but preferred a quick read at this stage.

Example 3: TED Talks

Even if you are not an avid follower of TED talks, it is impossible not to have heard of the brand. TED talks are outstanding free video talks shared on YouTube or the brand’s podcasts. This is an excellent example of video (and audio) content marketing.

TED talks cover any subject, and all have one thing in common: they want to share thought-provoking ideas. Global experts present many, some of whom have celebrity status, whereas others cover a specific niche.

How has TED built an audience of over 20 million YouTube subscribers? The answer is simple: whether it is the global, invitation-only conference or a spin-off channel of the TED universe, quality always comes first. Speakers are engaging and have equally exciting thoughts to share. This focus on quality has helped attract some of the biggest names on the global speaking circuit and continues to grow the TED brand.

How can your business produce quality content?

As the examples show, high-quality content comes in many forms. It can provide value in a series of short Instagram or Twitter posts. Longer explainer videos can serve your brand equally well.

Before choosing a delivery format, start by considering your audience. Successful content provides value. Any brand considering content marketing needs to ask how the business can provide value to existing clients and gain the attention of others. You can better fulfill your customers’ needs by understanding what your customers want from your business.

Updating existing content should be part of your content marketing strategy if your business has already started content marketing. This is especially important if you are operating in a field like technology, where things are changing quickly. Plus, updating existing content will benefit other aspects of your digital marketing strategy, including search engine optimization (SEO).

Speaking of SEO, do you know what your potential customers look for when searching for companies like yours? SEO specialists call this search intent. Understanding how your audience looks for your products or services helps you tailor your content.

Keep your content engaging and easy to understand. If your content strategy includes longer blog posts, whitepapers or eBooks, they must be well presented and easy to read. Content that is hard to digest because it is challenging to understand rarely goes viral. Short sentences almost always beat long-winded explanations. If you offer video content, think about your presentation style and the technology used to record your content.

Content marketing is a great way to connect with existing audiences and reach new ones. As with every form of digital marketing, a strategic approach is the most likely to succeed. Content marketing means being consistent, relevant to your audience, and – above all – providing value.

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How To Become A Reviver Rather Than Just A Survivor

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By Roger Trapp

There is no doubt that the past couple of years have been challenging for everybody, but especially for leaders of all sorts of organizations. As if the pandemic, and all the dislocation and sudden shifts in working patterns it unleashed, were not enough, much of the world now finds itself in the sort of inflation-wages spiral that many economists and politicians thought had been consigned to history. Leaders who might have thought they deserved a bit of a break after steering their businesses through a once-in-a-generation crisis, now find themselves facing down another. And all the time they know that just succeeding in financial terms is no longer enough. They need to show they are doing good by their employees, their wider community and, above all, the planet.

If this looks overwhelming, the good news is that those past couple of years have demonstrated that many leaders have proved themselves to be adaptable and resilient — and so have created a platform for further change. The management consultancy PA Consulting says its teams have observed that there are “concrete ways of leading that make a tangible difference to the health and happiness of an organisation and wider society.” And research it has just published appears to back this up. The study, A New Way To Lead, says that leaders recognize four behaviors that are especially important for success. They are:

Nurture human optimism — helping people adapt to new and complex situations with innovation and creativity.

Empower teams to innovate — giving people the space and permission to imagine and deliver value-creating responses.

Build evolving organizations — creating environments where aware, inclusive and responsive teams are able to make a success out of change.

Seek inspiration in surprising places — applying new perspectives and a broader sense to existing technologies and evolving challenges.

These behaviours are seen as vital because the modern world is characterized by disruption. But along with this come what the study calls “four forces of opportunity.” These forces — purposeful, inclusive business; customer trust and transparency; innovation-based business change; and technology acceleration — are affecting everyone and so cannot be ignored. Indeed, the right leadership approach can transform them into competitive advantage, while a failure to engage with them can result in organizations being left behind.

The PA study reports that those questioned — more than 300 leaders in the U.S., the U.K., the Nordics and the Netherlands — split between survivors — leaders who are just about hanging on and content to stay “as is” — and revivers — those positively adapting and reinventing what they do. The former are focused on cost reduction and sustaining the pace of change, while the latter concentrate on continued acceleration, transformation and investment in growth and innovation.

According to the report, revivers are more likelier than survivors to recognize the value of all four of the behaviours identified earlier and are more focused on looking beyond their own industries for inspiration and on building evolving organisations. They are also more likely to act with more urgency to make a stronger link between business and societal outcomes, more focused on leaving a positive legacy, more willing to change their leadership styles for the greater good and more likely to believe that the leaders of tomorrow will be more empathetic than today’s.

The split between revivers and survivors in the survey is put at 56% and 44% respectively. But the authors reckon that it is possible to transform leadership behavior — by taking five steps:

Work in the growth zone — leaders looking to keep up with the relentless pace of change need to see leaning into acceleration as part of the answer.

Cultivate kindness — leaders need to empower people to try new things and to take risks safe in the knowledge that they will not be targeted as a result.

Catalyse internal disruptors — give them more prominence as part of encouraging diversity in all forms in order to drive new thinking and actions.

Make authenticity everything — harness the power of purpose to move from platitudes to plausibility, so inspiring all stakeholders.

Create and embrace liminal spaces — shape new ways for people to connect, fostering a mindset that is comfortable with ambiguity.

Charlene Li, chief research officer at PA, was struck by three key themes that came out of the study. The first was a need to nurture human optimism — “not optimism at all costs but in a very realistic way.” This echoes other research indicating that teams that characterise themselves as optimistic are more effective.

The second was a need for kindness. This, she said, was rather counter-intuitive, but it was supported not just by the research but also by experience. “Covid inserted a strong dose of humanity” to workplaces where it has previously been typical and expected for employees to leave their home lives at the door. It had become more accepted that it was not a sign of weakness on the part of a manager to be seen as thoughtful, empathetic or humble. Moreover, kindness created psychological safety that enabled employees to take risks. “The best leaders in history have always understood this,” Li added, citing such examples as South West Airlines and Home Depot.

Finally, she pointed to the importance of the already mentioned “liminal space.” This is a psychological notion that describes the process by which people move from the familiar to the less so. Employees typically want to develop, but at the same time they find it disconcerting leaving something with which they have grown comfortable. Leaders need to respond to this, especially at a time when there is a lot going on, by seeing change not so much as something that needs to be got through as quickly as possible but as something likely to be continuous. As a result, employees need to be given the chance to explore its possibilities rather than rushed through it.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Roger Trapp

I am a U.K.-based journalist with a longstanding interest in management. In a career dating back to the days before newsroom computers I have covered everything from popular music to local politics. I was for many years an editor and writer at the “Independent” and “Independent on Sunday” and have written three books, the most recent of which is “What you need to know about business.”

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How to Start Writing: Zap Your Reaction to Criticism and Grow from ‘Good Enough’

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By Stefanie Flaxman

You might have mixed feelings about learning how to start writing. On one hand, tips for beginner writers get you fired up about becoming a writer. On the other hand, content creators are easy targets for criticism.

Some might even say they “ask for it” by publicly displaying their thoughts, opinions, interests, and art.

But I hold the position that anyone who stands by the “asking for it” belief fundamentally doesn’t understand why most people publish content.

Content creators don’t share their experiences and knowledge because they think they know it all.

How to start writing when you want to publish content

Publishing content online is an extension of basic humanity in the offline world.

We share.

We compare.

We inquire.

We communicate.

We bond.

We disagree.

We endure.

We understand.

We tolerate.

We connect.

Meaningful interactions require vulnerability, which content creators also infuse in their writing voice and online work.

Quite frankly, I think it threatens those who feel unable to communicate their own truths.

So, these critics split hairs, they give straw-man arguments, they look for weaknesses to exploit.

They attempt to strip us of our humanity because seeing someone else work on their passion reminds them how they neglect their own.

Dialogue is stronger than dissatisfaction

I’m not saying everyone has to agree or shut up.

But I do think there are productive and unproductive ways to express criticism — thoughtful versus careless comments.

The latter involves a lack of awareness that any content creator has a lot of other things going on in their life. You never know what just happened before they wrote that blog post, recorded that podcast episode, or filmed that writing advice video.

The choice The Critic makes about how to express their response also affects their own wellbeing.

Yes, I’m now caring about The Critic’s wellbeing.

I would challenge any person who has a strong, negative reaction to a piece of content to use that energy to produce their own content — to build their own platform.

Because if The Critic did that, they’d find themselves in the center of the same mix of observers, fans, and haters.

And maybe they’d develop more empathy for those who create content regularly.

Perhaps they’d begin to understand the judgment calls you have to make when content editing and the care for your presentation that goes on behind the scenes, such as following a blog post checklist to make sure you got everything just right.

Perhaps they’d realize that constructive criticism and curious questions have different tones than “gotcha” attacks and condescending probes.

All of the reasons not to start freelance writing

I’m focusing on the negative aspects of having a presence online because I think they can deter people from starting in the first place.

And when you don’t start a project you want to explore, you leave the content creation to other people who are willing to take risks and expose themselves to all of the potential criticism — as you simultaneously increase your own chances of becoming a cranky critic.

More than just the need to overcome perfectionism in your business blogging, one simple practice that allows you to create content on a regular basis is getting comfortable with “good enough.”

What’s “good enough?”

People with good intentions make errors and don’t always publish groundbreaking work.

If you publish consistently, you’re not always going to be sharing great stuff. Some of it will just be okay.

This post might just be okay. I’m publishing it anyway.

“Good enough” helps you flow with your content-creation momentum, instead of fearing unintentional mistakes or unavoidable mediocrity.

How to start writing with confidence

I’m clearly the last person to tell you it’s okay to produce uninspired, generic content, but sometimes you can be your own worst critic and stop yourself from publishing an important part of your content marketing journey.

Try these five tips for doing your best, honoring your work, releasing it, learning from it, and moving on to your next piece of content to grow as a creator.

1. Remember you’re not for everyone

If you want to get ingredients for a Boring Content recipe, look in the Try to Please Everyone aisle at your local Content Formula Store.

You’re never going to satisfy every type of reader, listener, or viewer.

I’ve seen content creators make the most thorough disclaimers to clarify their intentions and someone always still misinterprets their message and finds a way to get offended.

The quicker you remember that some people will never like you, no matter how hard you try, the quicker you stop being preoccupied with what others think of you and get back to producing solid work.

People also have the right to make snap judgments about your blog post ideas, and you never have time to win them over.

Let those people go.

Trust that the right people stick around.

And you don’t have to be “perfect” for the right people to pay attention to your brand of content; they just get it.

2. Cheer on your ideal audience member

Ultimately, it’s not about you.

If you want to help someone, focus on helping them to overcome writer’s block.

You don’t focus on the potential weak parts of your writing that you might have missed.

There’s always a reason to dislike a piece of content you just created.

If your ideal audience member gets a lot out of your content, they’d be disappointed if you stopped publishing.

When you care about who you create content for, the opinions of the wrong people pull less weight.

Wouldn’t it be a shame if you quit doing your thing because of someone who doesn’t matter anyway?

3. Add value as quickly as possible

When you provide value fast, people don’t have to search for what they need or want.

A lot of the time you’ll need to start writing first and then narrow down what you want to say.

That’s why your writing habits should include sharp editing. Don’t hold on to parts that don’t serve.

But don’t second-guess the topic you want to share, either.

Something you think is simple could be a revelation for someone else.

Clear and straightforward messages delivered with your specific style and approach is how you attract and expand your audience.

4. Set boundaries around your work when you start freelance writing

Even though you put aspects of yourself into your work, when you separate yourself from it, it helps prevent you from taking criticism personally.

It’s something you produced — a performance of sorts — but it’s not you.

It’s just a part of what you do, and if you work long enough and hard enough, you’ll be extremely proud of what you’ve created. You’ll also have a portfolio that helps you make money as a freelance writer.

No one can take that pride away from you. You earned it.

To get to that point of satisfaction, set rules for how you handle your content business.

Decide if:

  • People can contact you directly, and how
  • You’ll allow comments
  • There are some personal subjects you won’t talk about

Setting boundaries like those ahead of time reduces extra things to think about when you’re involved in your day-to-day tasks, allowing you to be more productive.

5. Befriend the improvement process

“All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last.” – Marcel Proust

Don’t pay too much attention to your own judgments of what is good or bad writing, when it comes to your own content.

Although it’s easy to be hard on yourself, conversely, something you think is great right now might seem only average to you in the future.

Embracing “good enough” allows you to finish a project so you have a starting place to grow from — regardless of your current opinions about it.

As long as you aim for producing something meaningful, making mistakes is not a reason not to publish.

If you find a mistake later on, you can always fix it (if possible) and learn from it (always possible).

And when you do look back at a piece of older content and can’t find anything to improve, it’ll become an evergreen part of your portfolio.

Start writing today to build your own thing

If you can get past doubt and criticism — from within and without — you can build something of your own.

And get excited about the endless possibilities for content that makes a positive impact.

By Stefanie Flaxman

Stefanie Flaxman is Copyblogger’s Editor-in-Chief. Check out her masterpiece blogging series on YouTube.

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