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Social proof is essential to any marketing strategy. User-generated content (UGC) in the form of customer reviews and pictures addresses the ecommerce pain point of uncertainty that affects shoppers and store owners alike, while providing social proof. 

Shoppers sometimes hesitate to buy online because it can be difficult to gauge information about the fit and quality of items without seeing them in person. Conversely, ecommerce store owners are challenged to build trust with site visitors and communicate the sense and feeling of tangible products through the barrier of a digital screen.

Customer opinions and experiences give shoppers the information they want and the confidence they need to convert into buyers, while providing online brands with a gateway to build relationships with their audience.

This is where UGC comes in. Here are three of the top ways that you can leverage UGC to grow your business: 

1) Build Relationships With Your Customers

Customer reviews and pictures build a shopper’s confidence in a brand by providing relatable information and authentic answers to questions that may otherwise keep someone from buying.

Including user-generated content throughout ecommerce stores—such as on the homepage, checkout page and product pages—makes the online shopping experience more dynamic by addressing specific pain points with genuine customer experiences.

Enabling a conversation between interested shoppers and past buyers builds a community around a brand, providing social proof for the products and for the brand as a whole. Such communities break down barriers between individual online shoppers, which in turn creates an emotional connection with the brand and leads to conversions.

Asking customers for reviews is an effective way to engage with your audience and increase retention by making them feel appreciated and valued.

2) Increase Effectiveness of Social Ads

User-generated content is a powerful tool for building social proof and one of the most effective ways to build trust on social media.

Social ads are a way to broaden your reach and influence shoppers while they are not actively shopping. To people scrolling through social media, a often times a brand-sponsored ad sticks out like a sore thumb and is easily ignored.

Reviews increase social commerce by providing immediately visible social proof by including authentic customer reviews and photos in social ads allows you establish a relatable brand image and brings more shoppers to your site.

Yotpo data shows user-generated content increases click-through rates for Facebook ads by 300% and leads to a 50% drop in both cost-per-click and cost-per-acquisition.

3) Boost Visibility in Search Engine Marketing

Customer reviews differentiate your company and products from all of the other search results that come up.

They not only attract shoppers’ attention, reviews lead to more sales and in turn to more reviews.

Using UGC in your paid and organic search engine marketing activities such as product listing ads and rich snippets enhances your search listing and makes it more enticing for shoppers to click through.

When shoppers see customer reviews in the research phase of the buyer journey, it gives your product an edge over other search results and encourages them to go to your site.

Takeaways

Happy customers are one of your most valuable marketing resources. Encourage them to provide user-generated content, which you can repurpose throughout the buyer journey, by making them feel valued, engaged and appreciated.

I’ve done a lot of dumb things as a writer. But that’s okay. Mistakes are the best way to learn, right? 

When we make a mistake once, we usually don’t make it again. And the less time we have to spend correcting our mistakes, the more time we have to actually get things done. 

I’ve outlined a list of eight common mistakes that professional content writers sometimes make below. The idea is that once you learn about these mistakes, you’ll be less likely to commit them yourself. Let’s walk through them …

8 Mistakes Even Professional Content Writers Make (And How to Avoid Them)

Mistake #1: Thinking that you can’t break through writer’s block.

Some people tend to think that writer’s block is an unbreakable force — nothing can be written until the block is broken.

The truth is, you can break writer’s block. Some people stand on their head, but there are other helpful tools you can use, too. 

Next time you experience writer’s block, try shifting your mindset. Don’t think, “Oh no! I can’t write.” Instead, think, “Okay, I’ve got this. I’m going to make it.”

Want more advice on how to beat writer’s block and actually enjoy writing again? Check out this post.

Mistake #2: Not editing your work.

You need time to edit your writing when it’s cold. In other words, let some time pass before you go back and work on that article again. You’ll view it with a new sense of curiosity, perspective, and insight.

Not everyone loves editing. I get that. Look at it this way, though: Editing turns something great into something even greater. That’s something to look forward to. For advice on how to approach a piece of content, check out these strategic editing tips from HubSpot’s Ginny Soskey.

Mistake #3: Not proofreading your work.

After you edit, you need to proofread, too. Editing is making those big changes to the content itself. Proofreading is making the tiny changes to the grammar and spelling.

I’ve made a habit of never releasing a word of content until it’s been edited or proofread at least four times. Proofread, and proofread again. You’ll be glad you did.

Before you publish your next piece of content, check out this helpful proofreading checklist.

Mistake #4: Not doing any research.

You may be the world’s most brilliant writer and master of your subject, but you should do a little bit of research on your subject matter. People aren’t as impressed by your opinion as they are by a breadth of studies, data, evidence, and other information that corroborate your opinion.

Get ready for hard work, though. Here’s how one researcher described the research process:

Research is not only a science but also an art and it is not easy. It requires honest and hard work with patience and perseverance. Not everyone is a born writer and authors can fall ill with headaches and backaches during the process of writing the research results.”

Research can be fun. When you realize that you’re providing your readers with insight and advanced knowledge, a simple writing project can take on a new level of excitement. Need help uncovering credible statistics to support your content, check out these nine reputable resources.

Mistake #5: Not defining your pronouns.

Huh? What does “not defining your pronouns” mean? Allow me to explain …

The following words are pronouns:

• It
• This
• These
• Those
• That

There are a lot of pronouns in the English language. Pronouns are helpful, useful, important parts of speech.

What is the problem? Not defining them:

• Those are bad. What are bad?
• That’s no good. What’s no good?
• It’s a problem. What’s a problem?
• Destroy these. Destroy what?

You should define all pronouns either within the context of your writing or within the sentence. Undefined pronouns lead to unclear writing.

Mistake #6: Writing too fast or too slow.

There’s no correct writing speed. Each writer should write at the pace that suits them and allows their creativity to flow. However, be aware that your speed of writing influences your quality of writing.

• If you write too fast, you could make sloppy mistakes.
• If you write too slowly, you could make clumsy mistakes.

When reading, the mind goes over information faster than while writing. Keep this in mind when you write. Your mind easily processes long sentences or big words when you’re writing them. But to the reader — whose eyes are skimming across your content at 300 words per minute — your writing is dull, ponderous, slow, and agonizing.

If you write fast, your brain is moving at a closer equivalent to the normal reading speed. Of course, you should still pay attention to your words, sentences, and structure. But at the same time, you’ll be able to get down those thoughts in a more fluid and natural way.

Here’s how the The Huffington Post reported on one writing speed researcher:

Typing can be too fluent or too fast, and can actually impair the writing process,” Srdan Medimorec, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Arts at Waterloo said in a statement. “It seems that what we write is a product of the interactions between our thoughts and the tools we use to express them.”

A 2016 study from the University of Waterloo discovered, “the quality of your writing will likely get better if you simply type slower.”

Does this mean that you should try to move your fingers slowly, type with one hand, or just trudge along at a lazy pace? Not necessarily.

Each person has their own right pace. And different types of content demand a slower or faster pace. You move at the pace that’s best for you.

In some situations, the ideas and words are coming at an incredibly fast rate. You have to type as fast as you can. In other cases, you might be doing careful research, searching for the precise word, or writing about a sensitive subject. Slowing down is a good idea.

Mistake #7: Not understanding who your readers are.

If you want to become a better writer, become a better student of your reader. It’s actually pretty simple.

Great writing is connecting with readers in a meaningful way. You won’t be able to perform that task unless you get in their heads. I challenge all writers, before putting a single word on a page, to do as much research and gain as much understanding of their potential readers as possible.

The process is as simple as going through the exercise of creating a persona, and reminding yourself of that person every time you write. (Check out this free tool to get started.)

Mistake #8: Not outlining an article before you write it.

Outlining might bring back memories of high school English class. Don’t worry. That’s not what I’m talking about here. 

The process of outlining is simply creating a structure for your article.

I do a lot of writing, and one of the things that helps me write with clarity and speed is outlining. First, I jot down a quick introduction and conclusion. This helps me to lead up to my subject matter, and then sum it up. Doing so also makes me fill the empty space between with something relevant and meaningful.

Generally, my outline simply looks like a few bullet points. My goal is to write down the main things I want to talk about. Usually, they aren’t even complete sentences. (No big deal. I’m not writing my article at this point. I’m just outlining it.)

The whole process takes me ten minutes or so, but it saves me hours of time. Plus, it gives my article more clarity.

Ready to Write?

Writing better is about blowing apart old habits and horrible mistakes. Even though I’ve been writing almost every day for ten years, I still make mistakes. Hopefully, my mistakes are becoming fewer and fewer, but I still catch myself making them sometimes.

At the same time, however, I feel like I’m improving. And that’s what becoming a better writer is all about.

What about you? What mistakes are you eliminating in order to improve your writing?

Native advertising is on the rise for publishers—and that’s a good thing. In recent years, media companies have been dealing with the perfect storm: industry-wide programmatic ad revenues are on the decline while ad blocking is on the rise. The bottom line for these trends is that consumers are extremely picky about their online experiences. Readers want and will always want great content, but they don’t ads to interrupt their browsing experiences.

That’s where native enters the picture. Rather than interrupting natural browsing patterns, media leaders can instead, connect advertisers with readers through engaging content. The end result will be a browsing experience that feels natural rather than forced or salesy. And believe it or not, the value proposition that native advertising brings to the table is about to become even better.

As native advertising strategies become more refined, so are publishers’ personalization and targeting capabilities. If you’re part of a marketing team at a media company, you’re likely collecting data around your audience’s browsing patterns and preferences. Why not reinvest this information into the native ad packages that you’re offering your advertisers?

Stay ahead of the publishing industry curve by using the data that you’re already collecting. Here’s how you can use audience data to power your native ads:

Define a More Granular Audience

In today’s marketing context, 1:1 is the name of the game.

Instead of helping your advertisers cast their nets wide, why not help them build a deeper, stronger rapport with a specific audience subset? For instance, you may be a consumer-facing publication with an equal distribution of male and female readers. A beauty company may come to your media company looking to provide education around makeup products.

With this example campaign, you may think that the right approach is to target all women. But you may be ignoring the individuals who self-identify as women, even though their birth gender is male. You might also be casting your net too wide in targeting women who don’t wear makeup.

Why not personalize your native ad campaign to audiences who have read make-up related content in the past, regardless of where they fall on the demographic spectrum?

For more on audience segmentation, download our free ebook: Personalize or Perish >> 

Choose Topics that Resonate 

One of the biggest challenges that marketers face when designing a native ad campaign is ideation: choose the wrong topic, and your entire strategy will flop. Instead of relying on guesswork, use the data that you’re already collecting to better align your advertisers with their target audiences. 

Start by defining the group of readers who you’re aiming to reach, and then do some research around their browsing habits. What types of headlines do they find engaging? Which stories generate the most engagement? What types of content are they likely to share?

Align these natural sharing patterns with your advertisers’ marketing goals. Use data to choose the right topic.

Examine Likelihoods of a Conversion Event

Let’s say that you’re working with an advertiser who is looking to drive sign-ups to a free trial from a sponsored article. Instead of casting your net wide and targeting everyone, why not serve your ad to audiences who’ve demonstrated signs of engagement in the past? 

Don’t target your native ads to audiences who never read sponsored articles. Instead, focus on the readers who: 

• Have engaged with or shared sponsored content in the past
• Regularly sign up for offers and freebies
• Show the same patterns of engagement that your advertisers are looking to optimize
• Are self-volunteering information about themselves
• Enjoy engaging with your media company’s email lists

Using this data, you can connect your advertisers to audiences who are likely to convert rather than passerbyers who aren’t interested. With this level of precision, everyone wins: advertisers reach their highest value audiences, and readers only see relevant native ads.

Get Precise Around Actions

In addition to reaching your target audiences, you can optimize your reading experiences around the specific actions that you want your readers to take. For instance, you may notice that in one of your audience segments, group A is more likely to redeem an offer than group B but that group B is more likely to spend time engaging with and sharing sponsored content than group A.

Why not use these user behavior nuances to create more advertiser value? Instead of creating one-size-fits-all native ad campaigns, use your on-site marketing data to provide different types of offerings for the following types of marketing goals:

• Top of funnel brand building
• Lead generation
• Engagement 

You can also use your native ad units as data collection opportunities for your advertisers. Package the information you’re generating into follow-up or off-platform marketing audiences. Position your media brand as a company that supports the full marketing lifecycle in building a long-term relationship with readers.

Keep Learning and Iterating

The advertising landscape moves quickly. Maximize the value of your campaigns by learning from and building upon the data that you’re gathering. Follow the progress of your campaigns, long after they’ve launched, so you understand the results that your native ads are delivering across the conversion funnel. Improve upon your efforts over time.

As an inbound marketer with only so much budget to spend on pay-per-click advertising, you want to get the most bang for your buck. That’s why many marketers are choosing to spend a portion of that budget on Google AdWords.

With over 2 billion searches every single day, Google is by far the most used search engine on the web — and your customers and prospects are likely using it to search for content related to your business.

How can Google AdWords improve your marketing ROI? Check out the infographic below from SMBclix to learn how Google AdWords can help you get more out of your marketing dollars. (Download this beginner’s guide to using Google AdWords to get started.)

This post originally appeared on HubSpot’s Agency Post. To read more content like this, subscribe to Agency Post.

Ideas don’t sell themselves — no matter how good they are.

If you want to create the kinds of creative and marketing campaigns you’re always talking about with your colleagues — you know, the ones that push the limits of your team, show off your skills, and provide those impressive results your clients want — then you need to get better at convincing others of the value of your ideas. It’s time to embrace the persuasive skills of a salesperson.

To get your clients to say “yes” more often, follow these tips to increase your persuasive powers.

How to Sell Your Ideas

1) Make the other person comfortable.

According to Oren Klaff, author of Pitch Anything, the person you’re trying to convince has to feel at ease before you begin presenting your idea. Otherwise, you’ll never stand a chance.

“In the vast majority of cases, they don’t [feel at ease] because they don’t know how long they’re going to be stuck listening to you, and you’re a stranger,” wrote Klaff in the book. “Most people just don’t want to sit through an hour-long pitch. To put them at ease, I have a simple solution: It’s called the time-constraint pattern.”

In other words, he tells the persone exactly how long his pitch is going to be before he gives it. Here’s an example from Klaff: “‘Guys, let’s get started. I’ve only got about 20 minutes to give you the big idea, which will leave us some time to talk it over before I have to get out of here.'”

Presenters need to master attention and time, not the details, by respecting an audience’s limits, he says. This approach also plays into anticipation, which will drive your clients to remain focused because they know how long they have to wait for the big idea and the conclusion of the meeting.

2) Use data to back it up.

The person you’re talking to may want be in a great position to invest, but they don’t want to spend their resources on just anything — and especially not the wrong idea. It’s your job to convince them that your idea is the right and best idea for getting the results they want.

Data is one of the best ways to make it easy for the client to say “yes.” With data from either previous tests you ran on the client’s behalf, another brand’s successful marketing experiment, or your previous clients’ results, you can easily prove the value and the potential ROI from the investment in the idea.

By providing data, you are also increasing the trust between you and the client, and it gives her the information she needs to convince her bosses this is the right decision. (To get you started, here are some of the best tools for gathering accurate and compelling data.)

3) Provide case studies.

If you pair data with highlights from a case study, you’ll be an even more powerful persuader and a more credible presenter.

According to Agency Management Institute, one of the biggest influencers in the agency selection process is industry expertise, and case studies are the perfect vehicle for showcasing past successes and your in-depth knowledge of the client’s industry or business.

Case studies are influential throughout the entire buying process because they show that you can do what you say you can do. They help someone better understand what it might be like to work with your team, the quality of the work you create, the results previous clients have experienced, and your processes.

By providing folks with access to case studies — either in the proposal or during a pitch — you can increase your credibility and help the client to imagine what it would be like to work with your firm.

4) Pitch it like you’re telling a story.

No one really wants to sit through a pitch. They want ideas, they want to be convinced, and they want to know that you understand their business and what it needs. But being subjected to a 100-slide PowerPoint presentation is not anyone’s definition of exciting.

Instead of relying on densely packed slides full of steps, ideas, data points, forget the slides — or include only the most essential ones — and pitch the idea by telling a narrative. Captivate their attention through a story.

This most likely means you need an experience with their brand. It could be as simple as describing your visit to the retail location or retelling a story you uncovered by interviewing the brand’s customer service rep. Put them in a frame of mind that readies them for the solution. Build tension, describe interesting characters, and highlight the challenge. Then provide the answer and all the supporting research, information, or creative.

5) Focus on them.

There are too many late nights to count. You spent hours and hours coming up with idea after idea. There were discussions that bordered on arguments. People gave up time with their families and friends to make this person a priority.

But they don’t care. They’re only really concerned with them and their company’s needs, their job, how they’re going to look to their manager or CEO, and so on. You are there to bring them an idea that will make them look good. Your job is to convince them that you or your team can help them achieve their goals within a certain budget and timeframe.

While you might think detailing all the hours and effort you put into the idea/concept/pitch shows your dedication and commitment, it’s irrelevant and distracting. No one cares how long it took you to come to a solution — as long as there is a solution, and it’s the right one.

6) Make it simple.

In one study, researchers replaced shorter words with longer words in college essays. Participants then rated the essays based on how intelligent they thought the authors were. They found that those who used shorter words — more simple language — were perceived as being more intelligent.

Using shorter words, more straightforward language, and explaining things simply and clearly makes people seem more likeable and smart.

Don’t assume that using complex, jargon-filled language is going to either impress the client or confuse them into buying something they don’t understand.

As David Ogilvy said, “The customer is not a moron. She’s your wife.”

7) Lead them to the answer.

Marcus Sheridan of The Sales Lion gives hundreds of inbound marketing workshops and speeches each year. And he believes that presenters need a better understanding of how people process information and come to a decision.

An approach he uses in workshops is called the Columbus Principle, which is the idea that “everyone wants to feel like they are the one that discovered America.”

You ask people question after question after question that slowly leads the person to the right answer. People want to make their own decisions — but by employing this strategy, you can help to guide their thought process and instead of telling, you lead them to understanding that your solution is the right solution.

Remember: When you try to make a hard sale, people naturally try to come up with reasons why something wouldn’t work or why this isn’t a good idea. With this approach, people are more likely to embrace the idea because they think they discovered it (albeit through your guidance, of course).