Dear Better Marketing readers,
There’s a lot of marketing and creative-career advice out there about “finding your niche.” They often say: You should niche down! Find the untapped niche! Grow your niche community! You’ll make more money! If you’re talking to everyone, you’re talking to no one! You NEED a niche, you floating aimless wanderer!!
But… do we, really? In Emily Sinclair Montague’s recent article, I’m a Niche-Less Abomination: Here’s Why You Should Consider Joining My Hellish Crusade, she writes: “Embracing a niche-less existence is an act of creative rebellion. You’re essentially saying ‘hey, f*** you for trying to shove my work into a box. I do what I want.’…. …
A technique to help you speak their language
Whilst writing an extraordinarily boring affiliate link post for a client, I noticed something interesting.
My topic was to write a top ten list of silicone heating pads available on Amazon. I had to search for ten different silicone heating pads (surprisingly difficult to do), and come up with unique ways to describe each of them in a few hundred words (almost impossible to do).
While this project has turned me off affiliate posts for life, it did help me discover a pretty cool trick that makes for highly effective and persuasive copywriting: review mining.
Whilst scouring the reviews section for something to say about the fifth or sixth silicone heating pad (it keeps your car engine warm through winter! It’s waterproof and durable!) I noticed that the reviews had a particular way of discussing this highly niche product. …
In less than a week, I published nine new stories, received over a thousand views, and so much more
In order not to waste your time, I am going to layout the boilerplate information up front before diving into how I learned all of this and the full step-by-step guide of my process.
Takeaways That You Can Use in Your Own Writing
- Write headlines that show personal experience and how to achieve something like How I Biked 1,000-miles by Listening to Audio Books.
- Find the biggest publication in your niche and read their most recent articles to learn voice, format, and what the readers engage with before submitting to them.
- Publish multiple times with a big publication to create a wave of views.
- Share your articles widely and at varying times throughout the day. …
Title case or sentence case? Is a call-to-action allowed? What tags should I use? Here’s your Medium formatting guide, folks.
I’d love it if every story I wrote for Medium landed in the first publication where I submitted it. But that doesn’t always happen. I get plenty of rejections. My stories attract more readers when they’re accepted in publications, though, so I follow the if-at-first-you-don’t-succeed-try-again strategy.
When I submit a story to a second or third publication, I need to make sure it’s formatted properly. And it’s a hassle to drill through all of the style and submission guidelines to figure out things like if subheads should be title case or if calls to action are allowed. So I’ve put together this Medium publication formatting guide for me to check when I resubmit stories. …
$0/month email marketing service: high deliverability, drip campaigns, and no logo branding
How much would you save from a $0/month email marketing platform? A platform that gives you almost everything you’ve ever desired from an email marketing service provider — unlimited contact, unlimited sending, advanced automation, storage for pdfs, tracking, CRM, SMS capability, etc. The number of features and capabilities is almost endless. All that for $0/month.
A few years ago when I entered the online space, as for any serious entrepreneur I needed an email marketing platform. I started my search by comparing features and looking at the pros and cons of each platform. At the end of it all, as per my situation back then, I didn’t find anything that suited me. …
WRITING
A 2-step system to demolish writer’s block
For new writers, it’s demanding to create fresh headlines. The mind’s ‘idea muscle’ is weak, so it’s a harsh grind. But to win traction on Medium, you’ve got to grow it fast. This article presents a simple brain workout, nested in a system, to speed things up.
I’m new, like many who joined in 2020. Saturating the market as we have, competition for readership is at an all-time high. To stand out, you can’t just write well. You have to write interesting.
To do so, I evolved a system to devise ideas. Every week, it generates at least five high-quality headlines. …
The truth hurts, but so does wasting time and money
I’ve been there. I’ve made some poor business decisions, ignored gut feelings on certain ideas, and trusted others only to be ghosted (or not paid) by the “client.”
Nope, none of that feels good. It doesn’t just sting — it burns.
Yes, the truth hurts, especially when it comes to your business. Yet the lessons learned from those truths can be the difference between your business’s success — or its failure.
This is why I feel compelled to be honest with you: a lot of you are wasting your money on digital advertising.
I work with a lot of brands facing the same challenge: “we’ve invested (a lot) in ads, but we haven’t gotten any results.” These businesses are wooed by ad specialists and PPC agencies promising high ROAs and ROI, only to be left wondering months later where those results are. …
How to rapidly grow your cultural organization without a big marketing budget
It’s the 17th century, Charles I of England just bought “Europe’s most talented artists, such as Rubens and Van Dyck, to paint in Britain”.
Arts and culture have always relied on funding from wealthier individuals and organizations to survive.
However, it seems that many organizations lost the connection with their roots and forgot how important collaborative projects are.
That’s why so many suffer from a lack of resources to properly market and organize their projects.
Your organization doesn’t necessarily have to collaborate with wealthy patrons to succeed.
There are other ways to increase your budget and reach, such as collaborations with other cultural institutions or artists. …
TIKTOK TIME
Take your social media presence to the next level with these content strategies
While I was drafting this article, I opened TikTok, justifying it to myself as research.
Being 22 years old and a regular Gen Z user of the app, I was immediately sucked in for 20 minutes of fun and engaging short-form video content consisting of everything from memes to viral trends and a whole lot of offbeat and self-deprecating humor.
Part of the massive appeal of TikTok is that it allows people to express themselves in a more unfiltered way than ever before.
Users create videos up to 60 seconds long and use funny video effects such as voice distortions, green-screens, and viral sound-clips. The departure from perfectly curated Instagram photos and stiff family-friendly facebook profiles makes the platform a truly unique place for self-expression. …
SOCIAL MEDIA
Marketing on smaller social media platforms
When talking about social media marketing, most people think of major social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These are some of the most obvious choices for marketers trying to reach a big audience and convert the maximum number of leads.
However, these are not the only choices out there. The social media realm is quite extensive, with several other platforms that businesses can use to attract clients and customers. So, this brings us to the big question — can marketing success be found on small, niche-based platforms?
This article will look at Quora, Reddit, and Twitch to see how you can use these platforms to increase your outreach. Sure, these platforms can’t compare with the bigwigs, like Facebook or Instagram. However, when used correctly with a smart approach, they can help marketers advertise their brand and even build communities around it. …
