What Startups Can Learn from ‘Tax Relief’ PPC Campaigns

Old-school industries don’t get the credit they deserve.

Every blog online focuses on the hot new startup.

People write case study after case study on the trendy new subscription box.

But no one ever talks about offline companies.

Even though, many times, there’s WAY more money at stake.

Take ‘tax relief,’ for example.

The latest IRS numbers show that people fail to pay $458 billion a year in taxes. That accounts for almost 69% of our annual deficit.

Obviously, people don’t get away with avoiding taxes for too long. Eventually, they’ll be caught.

And then they’ll need to pay back the IRS.

The problem, of course, is that they probably won’t have the money on hand.

So what will these desperate people do?

They’ll start looking for help from tax relief companies.

These companies specialize in helping people reduce or avoid certain debts.

What’s the problem?

This is a heavily commoditized market. Many of these providers are offering the same services, more or less.

If a ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ refers to uncontested markets, tax relief is a very, very, molten lava, red-hot, competitive market.

It’s among the most competitive in the world. You have massive companies all chasing the same few people who owe lots and lots of money.

You know what else that means?

There is no room for error.

These companies literally cannot afford to make a mistake.

They’re among the highest-priced PPC terms, for instance, reaching up to around $40-50 bucks a click.

And that’s just for a single visit!

They still have to try and convert those visitors. So the actual cost per lead is well into the hundreds of dollars, easy.

That’s why we should be studying these old school industries. They might not have the flashiest designs or most cutting-edge tech.

But they are slogging it out, day in and day out, with competitors who’re all spending a TON of money.

In this article, I’m going to show you strategies from the best in the tax relief business. At the very end, you’ll be able to take these tips and instantly increase your own PPC campaigns.

First, however, we need to start by getting a lay of the land.

How to research an industry you know nothing about

PPC is one of my favorite marketing tactics.

I love it because it produces results almost immediately. You can turn campaigns on and make adjustments on the fly.

Do it right and customers start flowing in within a few days.

I also love it because it’s consistent. You can predict what kind of results you’re going to get.

And you can predict them, because a simple competitive analysis will give you almost all the data you need.

For example, before this post, I knew nothing about tax relief. Thankfully!

My trick to uncovering the best marketing tips isn’t to watch what people say. It’s to watch what they do.

If you want to know more about ‘tax relief,’ let’s start by Googling the competition.

So far so good. The first four ad results show they know what they’re doing.

My search query was “tax relief Seattle.”

But all of them do a good job bringing up benefits of their service.

Why does that matter? Because just over a year ago, Google opened up the ‘expanded’ headline.

This way, you could hit the keyword in the first headline. And then add a secondary benefit to get people to click.

Here’s an awesome example:

“Take 60 seconds to cut taxes” helps the searcher hop over the first objection hurdle: It’s going to be too long or boring.

When this new expanded headline debuted, WordStream ran a study and found that adding an additional benefit like this can increase your click-through rate by 400%!

Just a few simple queries like this will help you quickly find a whole slew of companies.

Stick to big, popular queries at this point.

The reason? Keywords like “tax relief” will also be among the most expensive in the space.

Which means the companies you see advertising on them will have the big bucks.

They’ll be the most aggressive.

And you can use them as a benchmark.

For example, Precision Tax Relief had an excellent ad earlier. They used ad extensions like star ratings and reviews.

So you know they’re legit.

Now, I’m going to grab their URL and drop them into two tools.

First, let’s see what their site brings up in SpyFu:

Check that out.

Two seconds and you can see:

1. The number of keywords they’re bidding on
2. An estimate of clicks they’re receiving
3. Their total monthly budget

And then, you can even drill down into the individual keywords in their account.

Each one will show a cost per click, the total ad budget on each, and where they’re showing up for them.

SEMrush will show you similar data:

In this case, you’re able to sort the keywords they’re bidding on by search position.

See something interesting already?

Precision Tax Relief is paying for the #1 position of a competitor, Optima Tax Relief.

Judging by this traffic estimate, they’re also stealing a TON of their clicks, too.

Look further down the list and you see more of the same.

Why should we spend time looking up competitors?

Because these tools will uncover the strategies the best companies in the industry are using.

So far, we can see that Precision Tax is using a branded search strategy.

Instead of just dominating their own name, they’re actively bidding against the competition’s.

But that’s not the most important thing buried in here.

For starters, they’re giving us the 800LB gorilla in the tax relief space: Optima.

Which means we can now go research them to see what’s making them so successful.

Let’s start with reverse-engineering their keyword strategy.

Analyze the best in the business to see what works

There’s a trick I use to shortcut keyword research for SEO.

Instead of wasting tons of time on inaccurate tools like the Google Keyword Planner, I do the same thing every time I get a new site:

Fire up an AdWords campaign.

The reason? It saves me a ton of time.

The hardest part about optimizing a brand new website is that you don’t know the ‘money’ keywords.

You have no idea which keywords will deliver the best bang for your buck. Or hours.

AdWords can help you solve that.

You can add a bunch of keywords from five minutes of research. Set up a decent daily budget.

Then, the AdWords Search Terms report will tell you exactly which keywords are worth focusing on.

That’s what we want to replicate in this case, too.

Right now, we still have no idea which keywords perform best.

Sure, we saw that some companies are going after the competition hard.

But you often can’t rely only on competitive brand queries.

Instead, let’s look up the top keywords for Optima Tax Relief. They were one of the biggest in the space.

So they probably have a pretty good keyword strategy already in place.

Here’s what that looks like in SEMrush:

Notice what they’re doing?

They’re employing a location-based keyword strategy.

A lot of the estimate monthly volume is really low, too. ~200-300 monthly queries is nothing.

“Tax relief,” by comparison, gets over ~8,000 monthly searches alone. It’s also expensive, with CPC’s that can range up to ~$40 a click:

Instead of going after just those big keywords, Optima is going after a ton of long-tail keywords.

That’s good and bad news.

It’s good news because long-tail keywords should offer better conversions and cost less per lead.

But it’s bad news because there’s often not enough of them to go around.

In other words, you have to piece them all together to get the end results you’re looking for.

You can’t grow a business off one or two conversions each month. Instead, you need to stack those like bricks.

You need thousands to really take off.

Clicking on those individual keywords they’re running will also show you the different ad creatives they’re using.

And you’ll get to see the other similar search terms their ads are appearing on.

For example, here’s what it looks like when you click on “tax attorney nyc”:

Now, you’re seeing all of those little long-tail variations that go together.

And you’re looking at the exact ad copy they’re using to drive clicks.

See how this works?

With about ten minutes of research, you can start piecing together a winning campaign.

Even in an industry where you have no prior experience.

Of course, this is just a start.

There’s actually a whole lot more involved in a successful ad campaign.

We’re only scratching the surface right now.

Keywords and ads get people to click. But they’re not why people convert.

Most of the time, that happens when people start interacting with your site.

Your site’s landing pages not only determine conversions, though. They also can end up determining how much you’re going to pay for each click.

Here’s how.

Mimic the customer’s process to understand their experience

Back in the day, when I first started out, AdWords didn’t have a Quality Score.

That meant anyone could advertise on any keywords and there was no penalty.

As long as you had the money to spend, it was fine.

That created a problem for users, though. The results were often irrelevant.

Google’s Quality Score changed all that.

It factors in a bunch of different variables, like ad relevance or expected click-through rate, to determine which ads are best.

Generally speaking, the better the score and your Ad Rank, the less you often end up paying.

So while AdWords is an auction, you can sometimes pay less than the people showing up below you. If your scores are better.

Years ago, Larry Kim analyzed millions in ad spend and found a 16% cost difference based on Quality Score. A point higher and you paid less. A point lower and you paid more.

Jacob Baadsgaard repeated this experiment a few years later and found a 13% correlation.

In other words, your Quality Score can often directly influence your costs.

Now, here’s the kicker:

A huge component of your Quality Score comes down to message match.

Here’s what that means:

1. How well does your keyword selection represent someone’s search intent?
2. How well does your ad text match the keyword you’re bidding on?
3. And how well does your landing page match both the ad text and keyword?

Those three elements should be in perfect harmony.

The more they’re aligned, the better the message match, the higher the Quality Score, and the lower cost you pay.

Still with me so far?

Let’s go back to our original example from Precision Tax Relief.

Here’s what their ad looked like again:

Notice how the headline is: “Best Tax Relief Seattle”?

The ad copy below also uses “attorneys,” among other keywords.

Compare that ad to the landing page people see when they click:

Not bad, right?

Technically speaking, the headline on this page (“Best Seattle Tax Attorney”) is a little off. Ideally, you’d make them the exact same as the ad and keyword.

But think through what that means, now.

Earlier, we saw how Optima tax relief was using a bunch of different long-tail keywords, sorted by location.

That means you’d have to create unique landing pages for almost every one!

You’d probably want to keep the same overall design to make your life a little easier.

However, you’d want to at least customize the text to better reflect what sent people here in the first place.

That means you might have one example for attorneys, specifically:

And then you’d have another targeting physicians and dentists:

There are a few ways you can pull this off.

You could have designers and developers help create custom pages for you.

But not everyone has that luxury.

Instead, I also like using dynamic text replacement wherever possible.

I’m all about ROI. The best solution is often the one that scales the best.

Landing page tools like Unbounce have features that will automatically replace text on a page, depending on where they came from.

That means you can create just one single landing page template.

Then, you can simply switch up the words.

Here’s a location-based example, just like those keywords from earlier.

This landing page says “Caribbean” right now.

You can highlight the location-based text, then click the “Dynamic Text” button on the right-hand side of Unbounce.

Now, we can customize the text based on the location or “destination”:

Now, repeat this process for all of the different keywords you’re bidding on.

You’ll get a simple, customized URL to copy and place in your ad campaigns.

That way, when someone clicks on the ad for “California” beach getaways, they’re going to land on a page with “California” all over it.

And you never had to create more than a single landing page.

Let’s go back to tax relief.

Because I came across a landing page that uses another advanced feature. You have to see it.

Here’s how Optima tax relief uses qualifying questions to convert more users.

Qualify and lead new customers to your doorstep

Clicking on an Optima Tax ad will bring you to the following landing page:

Here’s what it looks like if you want to play along at home.

Notice what you don’t see here?

You don’t see a Name field. You also don’t see Email or Phone.

They’re not asking you any personal information just yet.

Instead, they’re starting with “How much tax debt do you have”?

Weird, right?!

Except, it’s not so weird when you dig below the surface.

Right off the bat, they’re qualifying new visitors.

They’re trying to see how much you owe, between 0 – $50,000+.

If you owe less than $10,000 for example, and there’s probably not enough they can help you with.

They won’t stand to gain a whole lot.

Owe over $50,000 and their hands might also be tied. They’re not miracle workers, after all.

So they’re segmenting potential visitors to customize the kind of response you’ll get.

They can automate most of the disqualifying, gently letting people know they can’t help that much.

While they can also fast-track people who do fit right in their wheelhouse.

Only then do they ask for your personal information:

Virtu did two similar tactics to skyrocket conversions.

They asked qualifying questions to figure out how to treat individual leads:

And then they add Calendly to the Thank You page for good leads to remove any remaining friction.

Their rate of leads scheduling phone calls jumped from 20% to over 60% in just the first month.

There’s another reason this inverted process works, though.

Think about it from a customer’s perspective.

They probably don’t feel great. They’re embarrassed or hesitant about reaching out.

So landing on a page that immediately asks for a bunch of personal information is a little off-putting.

Counterintuitively, asking easy questions first can increase conversions later. It lowers the barrier to entry.

KlientBoost calls this the ‘Breadcrumb Technique.’

It’s based off research from Scott Fraser and Jonathan Freedman that showed how starting with a small ‘ask’ can make it easier to get a “yes” to the big ‘ask’ after.

By as much as 76% vs. 20%!

KlientBoost tested both approaches on a mortgage landing page:

And here were the incredible results:

• The Cost Per Acquisition fell from $800+ to $35
• Total conversions went from 6 to 135 a month
• The conversion rate jumped from 1% to nearly 20%

Pretty remarkable, right?

But we’re not even done yet.

There’s still a big difference between people that apply for tax relief help, from those that go through with the service.

We still need to see how people get over that last sales hump, then.

Here’s how you can use automation to largely set-and-forget this process.

Lastly, automate and fine-tune your intake process

After submitting your personal information, Optima Tax follows up with an automate email.

That’s pretty typical, though.

You’d expect that.

What’s not so expected is the text message you’ll receive at the very same time.

It will read something like this:

• “$NAME Thanks for your interest in OptimaTaxRelief.com, we’ll be calling you soon.”

I know, because I ran through this process and received one myself. ;)

Soon after, you will receive that call, too.

So far they’ve followed up in all three primary channels:

1. Phone
2. Email
3. Text

If you don’t pick up that phone call, you’ll receive another text message with something like:

• “We were unable to reach you. Click 800-481-3615 to call a tax relief”

Fail to respond, and they’ll continue calling you throughout the next few days.

What’s happening here?

Optima Tax knows that this space is tough.

You, the customer, could have lost interest. Or you could be on the phone with the competition, comparing rates.

So they’re persistently aggressive to get ahold of you.

If and when you do get on the phone, they’ll ask you the same basic questions:

• Why are you calling us today?
• How much do you owe?
• What do you do for a living?
• Have you filed a tax return?
• Have you filed an extension?
• How did you hear about them?

And on and on.

They will also use an interview to figure out if you own any other assets, have insurance, what your household income looks like, and if you have any dependents.

The entire thing is scripted. They’re sizing you up, determining if they can win your case and how much you can afford to pay them.

They want to close you right there on the initial phone call, with costs ranging from $995 – $2995 depending on how much you owe.

Decline their first invitation to sign up, and they’ll continue sending you messages:

All of this can be choreographed ahead of time.

Based on the answers people give you, they can receive different messages.

Based on the way they act or don’t act, they can receive more, different messages.

Best of all, you can create these sequences in a matter of days with options like Drip, Infusionsoft, or Autopilot.

There are text message apps like TextMagic that can help you customize messaging based on responses or behavior, too.

The best tax relief companies have a masterful conversion funnel.

It’s no different than signing up for a new SaaS app.

You go through the trial period. Receive a bunch of emails. Then, you’ll get upgrade notices before your information is cancelled.

The same can and should apply to all businesses. You need a well-oiled funnel like this to convert the most people.

Remember: These leads and clicks are expensive!

These companies can’t afford to spend $40,000+ on ads each month and not see a significant return.

So each step of this funnel is fine-tuned, scripted, and automated. That way, they can easily isolate and tweak the parts that aren’t working.

Conclusion

“Boring” industries don’t always get the credit they deserve.

They don’t get any major press. And they don’t land on the front page of TechCrunch.

Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll see that the best are well-oiled machines.

While they might not get a lot of attention, what they do get is a whole lot of money.

They’ve been around the block. They’re not distracted by trends or other shiny hacks.

They’re just really good at routinely turning strangers into customers.

I almost learn more from watching these old school examples than new apps.

Because they just quietly go about building a huge business.

What’s the best example of a ‘boring,’ yet highly profitable company you’ve seen?

About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital.

from The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog https://blog.kissmetrics.com/what-startups-can-learn-from-tax-relief-ppc-campaigns/

The Art and Science of Storytelling — And How to Use Both to Reach Your Audience

Marketers are a lot like those realtors on HGTV’s “House Hunters.” The same way they’re trying to find a bungalow with beach access that also has a downtown industrial-loft feel (and stays within a $50,000 budget …), we’re constantly striving to create content that accomplishes many things.

We need to create content that’s thoughtful and well-crafted — content that speaks to our audiences, deeply engages them, thoroughly answers their questions, and helps them do their jobs better. And we also have to ensure our content is effective, that it ranks in search for the right terms and phrases, and that it drives results both within and beyond the marketing department. We need the quaint-modern-beachfront-cottage-mansion in the best school district. Achieving all of this can be quite difficult, which is why we’re holding a webinar on February 8th on how to get it done.

The list of things your content can accomplish could seriously go on and on. And on. I think Celine Dion sang a song about it.

via GIPHY

Creating content that meets your audiences’ needs as well as meets your monthly KPIs can be a #struggle — especially if you aren’t applying the right insights to your content creation process. Or if marketing is asking for a fenced-in backyard and sales wants a high-rise.

The best way to create that kind of content is to uncover the answers to a couple of key questions and use those insights to guide your content process.

Question 1: What do your audiences want?
Answer: An authentic story and original, valuable content they can connect with.

Question 2: What do search engines want?
Answer: Unique, long-form content that addresses searcher intent and substantiates claims with relevant data.

Enter: Qualitative and Quantitative Insights

Creating thought leadership content that shares expert insights through a compelling story and also delivers measurable results is all about looking at both sides of the coin: qualitative and quantitative insights.

In other words, it’s about bringing together art and science for the perfect content formula.

This means applying basic storytelling ideas to your content by putting your readers in the protagonist’s seat, speaking to their needs, and giving each piece an arc that they want to follow through to the end.

It also means applying hard numbers, facts, and data to each piece of content and to your strategy overall to make it more powerful.

The Results: Evergreen Content That Serves Various Departments

At Influence & Co., we’ve applied these qualitative and quantitative insights to our own content marketing, and we’ve seen great results. We create relevant content that helps us engage audiences, build our network, and generate and nurture leads. Outside these key marketing goals, we also put our content to use in our recruitment efforts and employee training, sales enablement, client service, and thought leader brand-building efforts. Basically, we’ve built the content marketing version of an open-concept kitchen that’s as functional as it is beautiful.

Want to dig deeper and learn how to use these insights, data, and storytelling to create content that fuels your business? Then join us for our webinar with Kissmetrics on Feb. 8 at 12 a.m. CST/10 a.m. PT.

Register today!

Author description: Brittni Kinney is a VP at Influence & Co. and loves discussing how content marketing can help any marketing strategy achieve its full potential. She likes her coffee black and her whiskey straight; she also enjoys traveling.

from The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog https://blog.kissmetrics.com/the-art-and-science-of-storytelling-and-how-to-use-both-to-reach-your-audience/

5 Video Metrics to Measure Success

You’ve just shared your video with the world. The view count is coming in and looking at the numbers, you feel the investment was worth it. Should you be excited? Well, not just yet.

To be honest, the view count is the least important metric because it doesn’t really come close to the only metric driving your video strategy. In fact, what counts as a video view on many social platforms is 3 seconds or more, or just opening the video. Fortunately, there’s a list of other metrics that actually expose how viewers perceive your content, how much time they spend on a video, the percentage watched, their concerns, and more.

Before we delve into the what metrics you should be considering, be sure to outline the goals and objectives surrounding your video strategy. Savvy marketers always have objectives they hope to achieve with video. Goals should be tied to the specific metrics that relate to them. Obviously, you will want to pursue more than one metric to ensure you get a holistic view of how your video is performing.

In the blog, I have identified five of the most essential video metrics to measure the success of your campaigns and utilize to move the needle for future video strategy.

Remember: some video platforms may not present all the five metrics we will examine. In this case, go ahead and work with those you can access.

1. Play Rate

Play rate represents the percentage of people who clicked play and watched your video.

Here’s the formula:

Play rate = % of people who clicked play/ total  number of visitors who access the video landing page

This metric is tied to how effective the position of your video was, its size, the video thumbnail, and whether the copy around the video convinced visitors to press play and watch your content.

For an optimal play rate, here’s what to keep in mind:

• Your video has to be positioned in a sweet spot (above the fold in a landing page)
• The size has to be moderate (Wistia encourages 401 pixels x 600 pixels)
• Your video thumbnail must be eye-catching, engaging, and relevant
• The copy around your video should be persuasive, accurate, and brief

2. Social Sharing

Social sharing reflects the number of people sharing your video across different social platforms.

Consider these three aspects:

• If someone feels they should share your content with their friends and the world, it means they appreciate it
• Shares add credibility to your content because it’s evidence that there are lots of people who believe in your content
• Shares lead to the creation of a broader community that is brought together by your content

If your goal is to create brand awareness, more shares mean that your brand or business is recognized by a ton of people, not to mention that it presents an opportunity to access more leads and convert them into customers. It’s in your best interest to create video content that is worth being shared.  If you have, you may find viewers or influencers will happily share your content because they found it to be valuable. Be ready to do whatever it takes to create shareable content.

3. Engagement

Engagement metrics typically include the average view time and the percentage of your video that people actually watch.

Here’s the formula for average view time:

Average watch time = total watch time of your video / total number of video plays, including replays

Some platforms even display the different times where your video is being rewatched. Remember to note the drop-off times as this will help you figure out what your audience liked or disliked.

Your goal is, of course, for people to watch your video to completion, especially if there’s a call-to-action at the end.

For this to happen, you must:

• Share information that is valuable to your audience
• Make the information clear and interesting
• Keep your videos short and to the point

Something else to note is that engagement also arises out of loyalty and familiarity with your brand, content, and chosen channels. Initially, the numbers will be low, but as your audience and following grow, you’ll see improvement. Great brands weren’t built in a day, just like Rome.

4. Comments/Feedback

Comments and feedback are a little different from the other metrics because they involve qualitative data as opposed to numbers and rates. Observe how your target audience is reacting.

Best Practices:

• Listen to your audience’s thoughts and respond when appropriate
• Find out if your content resonates with viewers
• Interact with those who leave feedback, even negative feedback

All of the information you gather will help you to create content that is more customized to your target audience.

5. Bounce Rate

If you’ve placed your video on a landing page, this is another metric to watch out for. Bounce rate represents the number of visitors who access your site but then leave without checking out other pages.

Here’s the formula:

Bounce rate = total number of visitors viewing one page only/ total number of visits

Assuming that your landing page consists of a video and includes links to pages or forms to fill out to complete the conversion process, the more significant responsibility lies with your video. It should convince the viewer to stick around and complete the conversion cycle. If the rate is high, it means your video landing page needs a makeover.

To correct this, optimize the following:

• Page load time
• Navigation
• Video position, size, and quality
• Landing page design

You will likely come across many other metrics across the web. After all, we all have different goals we hope to achieve with our videos. Nonetheless, what’s clear from the five we’ve looked at, is that they have the potential to leave a tremendous impact on a video strategy, and eventually, revenue.

Beyond quality metrics, those who create quality and well-thought-out videos stand a chance of experiencing better results. So, as you’re developing goals and tieing them to metrics, remember to dedicate just as much time and resources to the video creation process.

What metrics do you use to measure the success of your videos? Do your metrics differ from the ones I’ve described above? I’d love to hear about your process in the comments.

The post 5 Video Metrics to Measure Success appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from Marketo Marketing Blog https://blog.marketo.com/2018/01/5-video-metrics-measure-success.html

Latest Instagram Update Lets You Schedule Posts in Advance

Although the exact day and time you post content to Instagram matters less than it used to -- since your followers’ newsfeeds are now organized by relevance, engagement, and other factors versus post age -- it’s definitely still important.

Here’s why. Let’s say 10% of your audience is online on Tuesday at 3 p.m. You post a creative GIF showcasing your latest product. Because not many people are scrolling through Instagram, it gets fewer likes and comments than your average post. Instagram’s algorithm interprets this as the post is less appealing than your typical content, so it’s displayed to a smaller percentage of your network.

For this reason, it’s a good idea to figure out when your followers are most active and post on those days and times. (Need a tool for this? Try Iconosquare or Squarelovin.)

While having this information is useful, you do have to wait -- poised over your phone or computer -- for the specific hour to strike. I don’t know about you, but I prefer the “set it and forget it” approach.

Luckily, Instagram’s latest update makes that a reality. The company announced a change to its API that will let third-party tools enable post scheduling. In other words, if you use an app like Hootsuite, you can upload your content and choose when it will go live on Instagram.

Post scheduling isn’t available for Ads, nor will you be able to use it within Instagram itself (meaning that unless you’ve got a tool hooked up to your personal account, you’ll still have to time that picture from brunch strategically).

How to schedule a post on Instagram

• Step 1: Connect your business Instagram profile to a third-party tool like Hootsuite.
• Step 2: Go to your tool’s dashboard.
• Step 3: Compose a new post with the visual assets, captions, and/or hashtags as you want them to appear on Instagram.
• Step 4: Preview your post to make sure it looks right.
• Step 5: Use the scheduling feature to select the date and time you’d like the post to go live. 

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/schedule-instagram-posts-update

2 Simple Frameworks That Will Make You a Better Storyteller

As content strategists, we spend a lot of time talking to business people about the importance of storytelling to their business. When the subject comes up, a lot of folks get nervous. They say things like, “Well, I’m no Hemingway!” or some other nervous response.

The pressure of storytelling can keep a lot of people from even trying.

But here’s the thing: we don’t have to be Hemingway to be good at stories. Storytelling is part of what makes us human. If you have human DNA, you’re built to tell a story. Unfortunately, some of us give up on our storytelling ability too early. But even if you’re not a professional storyteller, there are a couple of storytelling frameworks that can help you bridge the gap. The two frameworks discussed below will help you regain some storytelling confidence, and start telling engaging stories in business and in life.

The Hero’s Journey

See if you can guess what story this is.

We have a hero who starts in humble beginnings and answers the call of adventure. She leaves home, gets out of her comfort zone, receives training from a wise old mentor, and then goes on a great journey. On this quest, she faces a bad guy, almost loses everything, but eventually succeeds and returns home having changed for the better.

What story are we talking about?

Is this Star Wars? Harry Potter? The Hunger Games? The Odyssey? The Matrix?

It’s actually all of them.

This is a template for storytelling called The Hero’s Journey. It comes from author Joseph Campbell, and it’s everywhere. It’s one of the most relatable storylines because it basically mirrors the journeys of our own lives. Understanding The Hero’s Journey can give you insight into how to frame your own stories, whether it’s the true story about your company or a fictional story that stirs your imagination.

The following diagram breaks down this Hero’s Journey template, step by step.

We start in an ordinary world. A humble character gets called to adventure and initially refuses, but meets a wise mentor who trains them and convinces them to go on said adventure. They’re then tested. They meet allies, and they make enemies. They approach a final battle and almost lose but, eventually, find it within themselves to succeed. They return home to an appropriate hero’s welcome, transformed by the journey.

Let’s walk through this from the lens of the greatest story ever told.

Yes, we’re talking about Star Wars. Let’s step through a crude synopsis to see how well it matches Campbell’s pattern:

In the first Star Wars film, we begin with the rather ordinary Luke Skywalker. He lives on a farm on a desert planet. One day he meets some robots who need help. They need to find a local hermit named Obi-Wan Kenobi. So Luke takes the robots to Obi-Wan, who basically says, “Luke, you need to go out and help save the universe.” Luke initially says, “No, I have all this stuff going on,” but Kenobi, who becomes Luke’s mentor, convinces Luke that he should go. Kenobi trains him how to use a lightsaber, and Luke goes on an epic space adventure.

On the journey, Luke meets the villain, Darth Vader. He battles evil stormtroopers. He makes friends: Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia. And then he has to help defeat the super-weapon, the Death Star. Nearly everything goes wrong, but in the end, Luke succeeds in blowing up the Death Star. The last scene of the movie is of Luke getting a metal put over his neck by the princess, who kisses him on the cheek. Now he is in his new home, a changed man, emboldened by the great power of the Force, which he can use on future adventures.

This is the Hero’s Journey, which—modified in various ways—we see repeated in stories throughout history. The simple version of this is that pattern of tension that we learned from Aristotle. We have an ordinary person (what is), and we have adventure that lies ahead (what could be). The transference from one to the other is the journey.

In business, the case study is a rather common way marketers use this kind of story to sell a product or service. (Most of them are a little less entertaining stories than Star Wars, unfortunately.) A case study is the story of where a customer was, where they wanted to be—the tension!—and how they overcame that gap.

If you listen to podcasts, you’ll hear this story told in most every ad. One of the most common ads is for Harry’s razors, which tells the story of “Jeff and Andy, two ordinary guys who got fed up with paying way too much for razors at the pharmacy and decided to buy their own warehouse to sell affordable razors.”

The problem with most brands’ stories is they either don’t fully utilize the four elements of great storytelling, or they don’t walk us through enough of the steps of the Hero’s Journey to capture our attention.

That’s why these frameworks are so useful. They’re a really easy way to ensure that we’re more creative when we’re coming up with stories or trying to convey information.

It’s sort of like a haiku: If we told you right now to come up with a poem on the spot, you would probably have a tough time. But if we told you to come up with a haiku about Star Wars, you’d likely be able to do it. This framework helps you focus your creativity.

Another great story template comes from comedy writing. It starts similarly: A character is in a zone of comfort. But they want something, so they enter into an unfamiliar situation. They adapt, and eventually get what they’re looking for but end up paying a heavy price for it. In the end, they return to their old situation having changed.

This is the plot of pretty much every episode of Seinfeld.

For example: During the sixth season of the show, George gets a toupee. This new situation is unfamiliar, but he likes it and quickly adapts to it. Once he has what he wants, though, he starts getting cocky. He goes on a date with a woman and behaves like a haughty jerk.

It turns out that his date, under her hat, is actually bald, too. When George is rude about this, she gets mad. His friends also get mad at him. “Do you see the irony here?” Elaine screams at him. “You’re rejecting somebody because they’re bald! You’re bald!” She then grabs George’s toupee and throws it out the window. A homeless man picks it up and puts it on.

The next day, George feels like himself again. “I tell you, when she threw that toupee out the window, it was the best thing that ever happened to me,” he tells Jerry. “I feel like my old self again. Totally inadequate, completely insecure, paranoid, neurotic, it’s a pleasure.”

He also announces that he’s going to keep seeing the bald woman. He returns to apologize to the woman, only for her to tell him that she only dates skinny guys.

So then George goes back home, having changed. He has his regular bald head now, but he’s learned a lesson. (But because it’s Seinfeld, he goes back to his old habits by the next episode.)

Both of these types of journeys are the journeys that we all go through in our lives, our businesses, and our families. As a storyteller, you can rely on these journey templates to shape your plots so you can fully unleash your creativity within.

The Ben Franklin Method

When Benjamin Franklin was a boy, he yearned for a life at sea. This worried his father, so the two toured Boston, evaluating various eighteenth-century trades that didn’t involve getting shipwrecked. Soon, young Ben found something he liked: books. Eagerly, Ben’s father set his son up as an apprentice at a print shop.

Ben went on to become a revered statesman, a prolific inventor, and one of the most influential thinkers in American history. He owed most of that to his early years of voracious reading and meticulous writing—skills he honed while at the print shop.

Franklin wasn’t born an academic savant. In fact, in his autobiography, he bemoans his subpar teenage writing skills and terrible math skills. To succeed at “letters,” Franklin devised a system for mastering the writer’s craft without the help of a tutor. To do so, he collected issues of the British culture and politics magazine, The Spectator, which contained some of the best writing of his day, and reverse engineered the prose.

He writes:

I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, try’d to compleat [sic] the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand.

Basically, he took notes at a sentence level, sat on them for a while, and tried to recreate the sentences from his own head, without looking at the originals.

Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them. But I found I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting and using them.

Upon comparison, he found that his vocabulary was lacking, and his prose was light on variety. So he tried the same exercise, only instead of taking straightforward notes on the articles he was imitating, he turned them into poems.

I took some of the tales and turned them into verse; and, after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them back again.

As his skill at imitating Spectator-style writing improved, he upped the challenge:

I also sometimes jumbled my collections of hints into confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best order, before I began to form the full sentences and compleat [sic] the paper. This was to teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts.

He did this over and over. Unlike the more passive method most writers use to improve their work (reading a lot), this exercise forced Franklin to pay attention to the tiny details that made the difference between decent writing and great writing:

By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many faults and amended them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky enough to improve the method or the language, and this encouraged me to think I might possibly in time come to be a tolerable English writer.

When he says a “tolerable English writer,” he’s being humble. In a trivial amount of time, teenage Franklin became one of the best writers in New England and, shortly after that, a prodigious publisher.

But more importantly, being a better writer and a student of good writing helped Franklin become a better student of everything. Good reading and writing ability helps you to be more persuasive, learn other disciplines, and apply critical feedback more effectively to any kind of work. When we’re hiring for Contently, our first impression of a candidate is dramatically impacted by the clarity of their emails.

After building his writing muscles through his Spectator exercises, Franklin reported that he was finally able to teach himself mathematics:

And now it was that, being on some occasion made asham’d [sic] of my ignorance in figures, which I had twice failed in learning when at school, I took Cocker’s book of Arithmetick [sic], and went through the whole by myself with great ease.6

Perhaps Ben’s little secret for learning to write isn’t so dissimilar from what MIT professor Seymour Papert’s research has famously revealed: that children learn more effectively by building with LEGO bricks than they do by listening to lectures about architecture. It’s not just the study of tiny details that accelerates learning; the act of assembling those details yourself makes a difference.

This is an excerpt from the Amazon #1 New Release, The Storytelling Edge: How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming Into the Void, and Make People Love You by Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow. Order it today to take advantage of some awesome pre-order bonuses.

 

 

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/two-simple-frameworks-thatll-make-you-a-better-storyteller-in-business-and-in-life

The Ultimate Social Media Holiday Calendar for 2018 [Resource]

Whether it's International Cat Day, Pizza Day, or Talk Like a Pirate Day, it seems like almost every day, the internet is celebrating a holiday.

Whenever I log onto Twitter, I quickly scan what's trending on the left-hand side of the screen. Have you ever had this experience -- when you see an obscure holiday or observance day trending, and you think to yourself "Yup, I'm celebrating that"?

Some of these holidays might be simply too silly for your brand to engage with (and we certainly don't suggest sharing content on social media and then tacking on a completely irrelevant hashtag for the sake of traffic -- that's just plain annoying). But others might not be. You could be missing valuable opportunities to take advantage of trending topics with fun and relevant "holiday" content on social media.

From food to politics to animals and everything in between, there is a plethora of observance days worldwide during which marketers can share content relevant to their industries, get involved in a movement, or simply generate more awareness.

To help you plan for trending holidays, we created a list that you can bookmark, as well as a downloadable calendar so you can get automatic reminders. The list isn't exhaustive (there are a lot of food-specific holidays out there) and these dates and hashtags may still be subject to change. But this is a great starting point for social media marketers who want to learn more about what's trending and how they can plan their content in a way that will be fun and engaging on Twitter and other social platforms.

Tap the + symbol in the lower right-hand corner of the calendar below to add it to your own Gmail calendar.

Downloadable Holiday Calendar

National & Global Holiday Calendar: 2018-2019

January 2018

February 2018

March 2017

April 2017

May 2017

June 2017

July 2017

August 2017

September 2017

October 2017

November 2017

December 2017

January 2018

2: Science Fiction Day #ScienceFictionDay

4: National Trivia Day #NationalTriviaDay

5: National Bird Day #NationalBirdDay

8: Clean Off Your Desk Day #CleanOffYourDeskDay

11: Human Trafficking Awareness Day #HumanTraffickingDay

13: National Sticker Day #NationalStickerDay

15: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day #MLKDay

National Hat Day #NationalHatDay

18: Get to Know Your Customers Day (third Thursday of every quarter) #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay

20: Cheese Lovers Day #CheeseLoversDay

World Day of Social Justice #SocialJusticeDay

21: National Hugging Day #NationalHuggingDay

24: National Compliment Day #NationalComplimentDay

25: Community Manager Appreciation Day #CMAD

Opposite Day #OppositeDay

28: Data Privacy Day #PrivacyAware

National Pie Day#PieDay

February 2018

2: Groundhog Day #GroundhogDay

World Wetlands Day #WorldWetlandsDay

4: World Cancer Day #WorldCancerDay

Super Bowl Sunday #SB52

5: National Weatherperson’s Day #NationalWeatherpersonsDay

7: National Send a Card to a Friend Day #SendACardToAFriendDay

8: National Boy Scouts Day #BoyScoutsDay

9: National Pizza Day #NationalPizzaDay

11: Inventors Day #InventorsDay

13: Mardi Gras #MardiGras

World Radio Day #WorldRadioDay

14: Valentine's Day #ValentinesDay

16: Chinese New Year #YearOfTheDog

17: Random Acts of Kindness Day #RandomActsOfKindnessDay

18: National Battery Day #NationalBatteryDay

19: Presidents Day #PresidentsDay

20: Love Your Pet Day #LoveYourPetDay

21: International Mother Language Day #IMLD

March 2018

1: National Peanut Butter Lover's Day #PeanutButterLoversDay

2: National Read Across America Day #ReadAcrossAmerica & #DrSeuss

National Employee Appreciation Day #EmployeeAppreciationDay

3: World Wildlife Day #WorldWildlifeDay

4: National Grammar Day #NationalGrammarDay

National Pancake Day#NationalPancakeDay

6: National Dentist's Day #DentistsDay

7: National Be Heard Day #NationalBeHeardDay

National Cereal Day #NationalCerealDay

8: International Women's Day #BeBoldForChange

National Proofreading Day #NationalProofreadingDay

Popcorn Lover's Day #PopcornLoversDay

10: National Day of Unplugging#NationalDayOfUnplugging

National Pack Your Lunch Day #NationalPackYourLunchDay

National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day #NWGHAAD

11: National Worship of Tools Day #WorshipOfToolsDay

Daylight Savings#DaylightSavings

12: National Girl Scout Day #GirlScoutDay

National Napping Day #NationalNappingDay

14: Potato Chip Day #NationalPotatoChipDay

Pi Day #PiDay

15: World Consumer Rights Day #WCRD2018

16: National Freedom of Information Day #FreedomOfInformationDay

World Sleep Day#WorldSleepDay

17: St. Patrick's Day #StPatricksDay

18: Awkward Moments Day #NationalAwkwardMomentsDay

19: National Let's Laugh Day #NationalLetsLaughDay

20: International Day of Happiness #InternationalDayofHappiness

World Storytelling Day #WorldStorytellingDay

First Day of Spring #FirstDayofSpring

21: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination #RacialDiscriminationDay

World Poetry Day #WorldPoetryDay

22: World Water Day #WorldWaterDay

23: National Puppy Day #NationalPuppyDay

24: Red Nose Day #RedNoseDay

Earth Hour Day #EarthHour

25: Tolkien Reading Day #TolkienReadingDay

26: National Spinach Day #NationalSpinachDay

Purple Day #PurpleDay

27: American Diabetes Association Alert Day #AmericanDiabetesAssociationAlertDay

30: Doctor's Day #NationalDoctorsDay

National Take a Walk in the Park Day #NationalWalkInTheParkDay

31: World Backup Day #WorldBackupDay

Transgender Day of Visibility #TDOV

April 2017

1: April Fools Day #AprilFools

2: World Autism Awareness Day #WAAD

3: Find a Rainbow Day #FindARainbowDay

National Walking Day#NationalWalkingDay

4: Hug a Newsperson Day #HugANewsperson

7: World Health Day #LetsTalk

10: National Siblings Day #NationalSiblingsDay

Encourage a Young Writer Day #EncourageAYoungWriterDay

Equal Pay Day#EqualPayDay

11: National Pet Day #NationalPetDay

12: International Day of Human Space Flight #InternationalDayOfHumanSpaceFlight

16: National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day #PJDay

17: Haiku Poetry Day #HaikuPoetryDay

National Tax Day#TaxDay

18: National Columnists' Day #NationalColumnistDay

19: Get to Know Your Customers Day#GetToKnowYourCustomersDay

National High-Five Day#NH5D

20: National Look-Alike Day #NationalLookAlikeDay

22: Earth Day #EarthDay2018

23: National Picnic Day #NationalPicnicDay

World Book Day #WorldBookDay

25: National Telephone Day #NationalTelephoneDay

World Malaria Day #EndMalariaForGood

National Administrative Professionals Day #AdministrativeProfessionalsDay

Denim Day#DenimDay

26: National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day #COUNTONME

27: Arbor Day #ArborDay

29: International Dance Day #InternationalDanceDay

30: National Honesty Day #NationalHonestyDay

National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day #AdoptAShelterPetDay

International Jazz Day #JazzDay

May 2017

1: May Day #MayDay

International Workers Day #IntWorkersDay

World Asthma Day #WorldAsthmaDay

3: World Press Freedom Day #WPFD2017 #PressFreedom

World Password Day #WorldPasswordDay

4: Star Wars Day #StarWarsDay

International Firefighters Day #InternationalFirefightersDay

Space Day#SpaceDay

5: Cinco de Mayo #CincoDeMayo

6: National Nurses Day #NursesDay

8: Thank a Teacher Day#ThankATeacher

9: Europe Day #EuropeDay

National Receptionist Day #NationalReceptionistDay

12: National Limerick Day #NationalLimerickDay

13: Mother's Day #MothersDay

15: International Day of Families #FamilyDay

16: Love a Tree Day #LoveATreeDay

17: International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia #IDAHOT2017

18: National Bike to Work Day #BTWD

Endangered Species Day #EndangeredSpeciesDay

20: National Lemonade Day#NationalLemonadeDay

21: National Memo Day #NationalMemoDay

24: National Scavenger Hunt Day #NationalScavengerHuntDay

Heat Awareness Day #NoFryDay

28: Hamburger Day #NationalHamburgerDay

Memorial Day #MemorialDay #MDW

29: Paperclip Day #PaperclipDay

31: World No-Tobacco Day #NoTobacco

June 2017

1: Global Day of Parents #GlobalDayOfParents

International Children’s Day #ChildrensDay

National Donut Day #NationalDonutDay

3: National Cancer Survivor’s Day#NCSD2018

4: Leave The Office Early Day#LeaveTheOfficeEarlyDay

Civic Day of Hacking #HackForChange

5: World Environment Day #WorldEnvironmentDay

6: Higher Education Day #HigherEducationDay

8: World Oceans Day #WorldOceansDay

Best Friends Day #BestFriendsDay

14: World Blood Donor Day #GiveBlood

National Flag Day #FlagDay

17: Father’s Day #FathersDay

20: World Refugee Day #WithRefugees

21: National Selfie Day #NationalSelfieDay

World Music Day #WorldMusicDay

International Yoga Day #InternationalYogaDay

First Day of Summer

22: Take Your Dog to Work Day #TakeYourDogToWorkDay

27: National Sunglasses Day #NationalSunglassesDay

28: National Handshake Day #HandshakeDay

30: Social Media Day #SMDay

July 2017

1: National Postal Worker Day #NationalPostalWorkerDay

2: World UFO Day #WorldUFODay

4: Independence Day (United States)

7: World Chocolate Day #WorldChocolateDay

11: Cheer Up the Lonely Day #CheerUpTheLonelyDay

12: Malala Day #MalalaDay

15: Give Something Away Day #GiveSomethingAwayDay

17: World Emoji Day #WorldEmojiDay

18: Nelson Mandela International Day #MandelaDay

20: Get to Know Your Customers Day #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay

Moon Day #MoonDay

27: Talk in an Elevator Day #TalkInAnElevatorDay

30: International Day of Friendship #DayOfFriendship

August 2017

1: Respect for Parents Day #RespectForParentsDay

2: National Coloring Book Day #NationalColoringBookDay

8: International Cat Day #InternationalCatDay

9: National Book Lovers Day #NationalBookLoversDay

10: National Lazy Day #LazyDay

11: National Sons and Daughters Day #SonsAndDaughtersDay

12: International Youth Day #YouthDay

World Elephant Day #WorldElephantDay

13: International Lefthanders Day #LefthandersDay

15: National Relaxation Day #NationalRelaxationDay

16: National Tell a Joke Day #NationalTellAJokeDay

19: World Photo Day #WorldPhotoDay

World Humanitarian Day #WorldHumanitarianDay

20: National Radio Day #NationalRadioDay

26: National Dog Day #NationalDogDay

National Women’s Equality Day #WomensEqualityDay

September 2017

3: Labor Day #LaborDay

4: National Wildlife Day #NationalWildlifeDay

5: International Day of Charity #CharityDay

6: Read a Book Day #ReadABookDay

8: International Literacy Day #LiteracyDay

9: National Grandparents Day #NationalGrandparentsDay

11: National Day of Service and Remembrance #911Day

12: National Day of Encouragement #DayOfEncouragement

National Video Games Day #NationalVideoGamesDay

14: Stand Up To Cancer Day#KissCancerGoodbye

19: Talk Like a Pirate Day #TalkLikeAPirateDay

21: International Day of Peace #PeaceDay

Miniature Golf Day #MiniGolfDay

22: Car-Free Day #CarFreeDay

Hobbit Day #HobbitDay

First Day of Fall

26: European Day of Languages #EDL2017

National Women’s Health and Fitness Day#FitnessDay

27: World Tourism Day #WTD2017

28: World Rabies Day #WorldRabiesDay

National Good Neighbor Day #GoodNeighborDay

30: International Podcast Day #InternationalPodcastDay

October 2017

1: International Day of Older Persons #UNDOP

International Coffee Day #InternationalCoffeeDay

World Vegetarian Day #WorldVegetarianDay

World Habitat Day#WorldHabitatDay

2: International Day of Nonviolence #InternationalDayOfNonviolence

3: National Techies Day #TechiesDay

4: World Animal Day #WorldAnimalDay

National Taco Day #NationalTacoDay

5: World Teachers Day #WorldTeachersDay

World Smile Day #WorldSmileDay

10: World Mental Health Day #WorldMentalHeathDay

11: International Day of the Girl #DayOfTheGirl

World Sight Day #WorldSightDay

13: National Train Your Brain Day #TrainYourBrainDay

14: National Dessert Day #DessertDay

15: Global Handwashing Day #GlobalHandwashingDay

16: World Food Day #FoodDay

Bosses Day #BossesDay

17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty #EndPoverty

18: Get to Know Your Customers Day #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay

20: World Statistics Day #StatisticsDay

21: Reptile Awareness Day #ReptileAwarenessDay

24: United Nations Day #UNDay

25: Greasy Foods Day #GreasyFoodsDay

29: Internet Day #InternetDay

30: National Publicist Day #NationalPublicistDay

Checklist Day #ChecklistDay

31: Halloween #Halloween

November 2017

1: World Vegan Day #WorldVeganDay

National Authors Day #NationalAuthorsDay

National Cook For Your Pets Day #CookForYourPetsDay

3: National Sandwich Day #NationalSandwichDay

4: National Candy Day #NationalCandyDay

Daylight Saving Time Ends #DaylightSavings

7: Stress Awareness Day#StressAwarenessDay

8: National Cappuccino Day #CappuccinoDay

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine (STEM) Day #STEMDay

11: Veterans Day #VeteransDay

13: World Kindness Day #WKD

14: World Diabetes Day #WDD

15: Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day #CleanOutYourRefrigeratorDay

America Recycles Day #BeRecycled

16: International Day for Tolerance #ToleranceDay

17: International Students Day #InternationalStudentsDay

19: International Men’s Day #InternationalMensDay

20: Universal Children’s Day #UNChildrensDay

National Entrepreneurs Day#EntrepreneursDay

21: World Hello Day #WorldHelloDay

22: Thanksgiving Day #Thanksgiving

24: National Day of Listening #DayOfListening

Small Business Saturday #ShopSmall

26: National Cake Day #NationalCakeDay

Cyber Monday #CyberMonday

27: National Day of Giving #GivingTuesday

29: Electronic Greeting Card Day #ElectronicGreetingCardDay

30: Computer Security Day #ComputerSecurityDay

December 2018

1: World AIDS Day #WAD2017

3: International Day of Persons with Disabilities #IDPWD

4: National Cookie Day #NationalCookieDay

5: World Soil Day #WorldSoilDay

6: Microwave Oven Day #MicrowaveOvenDay

8: Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day #PretendToBeATimeTravelerDay

10: Human Rights Day #HumanRightsDay

Nobel Prize Day #NobelPrize

11: International Mountain Day #InternationalMountainDay

14: National Salesperson Day #SalespersonDay

21: Crossword Puzzle Day #CrosswordPuzzleDay

First Day of Winter

30: No Interruptions Day – Last Work Day of the Year #NoInterruptionsDay

31: New Year’s Eve #NYE

Sources: National Day Calendar, Sprout Social, TrackMaven, Holiday Insights, Brownielocks, National Peace Corps Association, Sparkflow

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-holiday-calendar-2017