You have just graduated from college and are pumped to be out of school. However, after applying to hundreds of jobs, you only get a few interviews and continue to be unemployed. What can you do?
You’ve heard it before from your parents and your employers and — as annoying as it may be — the mantra, “You only get one chance to make a first impression” isn’t going anywhere. The worst part is that the mantra is actually incredibly true. Whether you like it or not first impression really do matter. However, businesses seem to be forgetting that first impressions are not only for people — it applies to a website as well. While creating a cool-looking design is an excellent start, this shouldn’t be the stopping point if you really want to make the best impression on your readers in seconds or less. Unfortunately, this is usually where businesses do stop so they can move on to something else.
Human brain processes images faster than text — 60,000 times faster. That makes dashboards much more effective communicators than spread sheets full of numbers. Still, pretty dashboards alone will be of little help, with no analysis, proposed actions, or a picture of a better future.
Amel will join Semrush on March 4 for a free webinar, “How to Increase Your Website Revenue Using a Data-Driven SEO Campaign.“ Learn more about the webinar after the jump! “Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.” — H. James Harrington.
If you’ve only used keywords to understand how to market your product, you’re not tapping its potential. Lists of keywords tell us what people want. They don’t tell us why. Boredom, fatigue, illness and hunger ... people buy for a reason. Maybe you think of these ideas willy nilly as you type, but how can you engineer them without fail? With the FCB Grid. Also called the Vaughn Grid, it’s a tool that was designed by the Senior Vice President of Foote, Cone and Belding way back in 1980. Since then FCB has grown to a more than $9 billion dollar company with clients like Cox Communications, Seaworld, AmTrak and Air New Zealand; they’re responsible for the Lord of the Rings on-board air safety video, and the Bilbo Baggins luggage carousel. To understand the FCB grid, I spoke with creative director Bruce Bendinger, who is the author of the Copy Workshop Workbook, and who has introduced concepts to students of copywriting and marketing the world over.
As a young marketer navigating the digital landscape, I love frameworks. Not only do they help me plan and prioritize, but they help me visualize how everything I’m working on fits together. No, I won’t be talking about (and I’m looking at you, classically trained marketers) the 4Ps, Porter’s 5 forces, or SWOT analyses. Sure, those frameworks have their place, but they don’t provide much direction for startups looking to focus their energy on growth. Plus, they’re getting pretty old. The frameworks below were developed by modern marketing gurus. Together, they’ll help you make a growth strategy, select traction channels, and influence your customers’ behavior.