Create Your Content for Voice-Activated User Engagement

We saw a significant uptick in voice-activated content in 2018 with the increased popularity of Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and of course, Siri.

This is a great time to shift our perspective from just asking, “How will my audience search to find my content?” to the new question of “What are some question my audience will ask Siri, Alexa, or Google Home to try to find my content?”

One shift you may want to consider when it come to creating headlines for your content is write your headlines in the form of questions.

Instead of “5 Ways to Break Through the Six-Figure Plateau as a Health Coach” your new headline could be “What are the Best Ways to Break Through the Six-Figure Plateau as a Health Coach?”

You can also create pieces of content that are the most natural questions someone would ask about your topic. If you provide health coaching, you could create longer articles or podcast episodes that are titled “What are the Greatest Challenges to Reaching Your Ideal Weight?” or “How Do I Meal Prep for a Travel Week Without Falling Off My Regimen?”

Lead with the questions you’re anticipating your audience is asking their devices. It creates a more organic connection between your user’s voice searches and your content.

Copy and Content for Thought Leaders is presented by Jon Cook, founder of Keynote Content. Jon and his team help thought leaders, namely speakers, coaches, and consultants, craft and share their messages to better serve their audiences. Connect with Jon and his team at Keynote Content by visiting keynotecontent.com. You can subscribe to the Copy and Content for Thought Leaders Flash Briefing by visiting bit.ly/CopyContentFlash and enabling it there. Then, all you have to say is, “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?”

Our Audiences Crave Clarity

Napoleon Bonaparte made three requirements of all his couriers. For anyone trusted to carry Napoleon’s orders across the battlefield or throughout his kingdom, these were the three requirements:

Be clear.

Be clear.

Be clear.

One of the most successful military leaders in the history of the world knew the value of clarity.

As rising thought leaders, we must place the same value of clarity on our message.

What does my audience absolutely need to understand about my message?

This means we need to be ruthless with our editing, vigilant with our posts, and dialed in when it comes to knowing our audience.

The clearer we are with our message, the more effective our message will carry across different channels and conversations to the people we want to reach.

Today is about clarity with your audience. Be clear. Be clear. Be clear. And go change someone’s world with your message today.

Copy and Content for Thought Leaders is presented by Jon Cook, founder of Keynote Content. Jon and his team help thought leaders, namely speakers, coaches, and consultants, craft and share their messages to better serve their audiences. Connect with Jon and his team at Keynote Content by visiting keynotecontent.com. You can subscribe to the Copy and Content for Thought Leaders Flash Briefing by visiting bit.ly/CopyContentFlash and enabling it there. Then, all you have to say is, “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?”

Which Type of Speaker Are You When It Comes to Creating Your Talk?

There are three different types of speakers when it comes to creating the actual talk.

On one side of the bell curve is the more type-A, “I script everything!” crowd. Every word, every movement, even every inflection of the voice is carefully planned and scripted for each part of the talk.

On the other end of the bell curve is the crowd of speakers that tend to speak more off the cuff. The most structure they’ll use is bullet points. Even the idea of scripting anything feels like you’re trying to cramp their style.

And then, there’s the middle crowd, a hybrid of scripted and bullet points. I’ve found that probably 70 to 80 percent of speakers fall into this category.

Which of these three categories do you find yourself as a speaker? Are you more scripted, more bullet-pointed, or more of a hybrid?

Whichever type you are, try giving the other types a test drive. If you script all the time, try using only the bullet points and see how it feels. If you’re looser and free-spirited in your speaking, try writing out your entire talk from start to finish.

You may be surprised how much you enjoy the other ways of creating your talk.

Copy and Content for Thought Leaders is presented by Jon Cook, founder of Keynote Content. Jon and his team help thought leaders, namely speakers, coaches, and consultants, craft and share their messages to better serve their audiences. Connect with Jon and his team at Keynote Content by visiting keynotecontent.com. You can subscribe to the Copy and Content for Thought Leaders Flash Briefing by visiting bit.ly/CopyContentFlash and enabling it there. Then, all you have to say is, “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?”

Structure Your Talk

When creating your next talk, whether it’s for a webinar, a breakout session, a keynote speech, or online training, try to narrow your talk down to one sentence.

In one sentence, what is the one big idea you want to communicate through your talk?

By focusing on your one big idea, it gives your talk a solid spine to structure the rest of your talk. Each point you add to your talk needs to emphasize your one big idea.

If a piece of content doesn’t have a clear connection to your one big idea, it’s probably adding more noise than anything else. Get rid of that part altogether or rework it to create a clear connection.

This approach also gives you a clear lens through which to gauge if your audience understands what you’re sharing. If you’re unsure, ask someone ahead of time to read your speech or watch a pre-recording and then, ask them to share what they think the one big idea of your talk is.

The clearer you can make your one big idea, the easier it is for your audience to follow that thread through your talk from beginning to end.

Copy and Content for Thought Leaders is presented by Jon Cook, founder of Keynote Content. Jon and his team help thought leaders, namely speakers, coaches, and consultants, craft and share their messages to better serve their audiences. Connect with Jon and his team at Keynote Content by visiting keynotecontent.com. You can subscribe to the Copy and Content for Thought Leaders Flash Briefing by visiting bit.ly/CopyContentFlash and enabling it there. Then, all you have to say is, “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?”

Setting Up Facebook Messenger Bots

Over 1.3 billion people use Facebook Messenger on a regular basis. More and more brands are turning to messenger marketing over email marketing to connect with their crowds.

Messenger Marketing is projected to become the most popular form of marketing in the next five years. The click-through rates and open rates for Facebook Messenger are as much as four times as high as they are for email marketing.

So, how do you get started?

There are a number of messenger applications you can set up that take less than an hour. I recommend starting with Chatfuel by going to Chatfuel.com, and no, I’m not an affiliate of any kind with them.

It takes less than 30 minutes to set up a simple Facebook Messenger Bot to start connecting with people who like your page on Facebook and want to connect with your message.

Start by setting up a simple Welcome message series and see how it goes from there. You can always build more messenger series and make it more robust, but start simple and build out a logical, friendly experience.

Have fun, give it a try, and if you get stuck, just reach out to me and my team at Keynote Content. We’re happy to walk you through the process together.

Copy and Content for Thought Leaders is presented by Jon Cook, founder of Keynote Content. Jon and his team help thought leaders, namely speakers, coaches, and consultants, craft and share their messages to better serve their audiences. Connect with Jon and his team at Keynote Content by visiting keynotecontent.com. You can subscribe to the Copy and Content for Thought Leaders Flash Briefing by visiting bit.ly/CopyContentFlash and enabling it there. Then, all you have to say is, “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?”

Connecting Automations to Actual Conversations

Automation in marketing is more popular than ever, but are we missing something?

From email autoresponders to marketing funnels, messenger bots, and chat experiences, it’s fun to see your message connect with people around the world at any moment.

The challenge is making sure we’re connecting automations to actual conversations.

How do we show our audience that they’re connecting with an actual human being? One example of how this can happen with automations is by shortening the length of our replies to only a few sentences.

Shorter replies with more questions included in automations create a more conversational experience when people are going through our automations.

The most effective automations are the ones with intentional checkpoints where our prospects can connect with us through a phone call or video call. It lets them know we’re here to step up the conversation if they’re ready to move forward now.

This approach allows us to leverage the convenience and streamlined experience of automations while also letting our audiences know we’re human, too.

Copy and Content for Thought Leaders is presented by Jon Cook, founder of Keynote Content. Jon and his team help thought leaders, namely speakers, coaches, and consultants, craft and share their messages to better serve their audiences. Connect with Jon and his team at Keynote Content by visiting keynotecontent.com. You can subscribe to the Copy and Content for Thought Leaders Flash Briefing by visiting bit.ly/CopyContentFlash and enabling it there. Then, all you have to say is, “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?”

Why Are You Sending Your List an Email?

Yesterday, I shared about ‘spring cleaning’ your subscriber list, giving your crowd a chance to opt-out of your emails if they’re not absolutely in love with what you’re sharing.

That thought alone may make you feel more pressure. You may feel like every email you send has to be absolute gold. It doesn’t have to be gold; it just has to be good.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of sending a video or email to our subscriber list because we ‘should’ send an email.

Let’s flip that thinking on its head by saying, “What do I get to share with my audience today?”

Every email you send to your list needs to answer the question: what will my audience benefit from reading this content?

When you identify your email’s purpose, then try to pour even more value into why you’re sending that email. If your answer doesn’t blow you away, it’s absolutely okay not to send that email and wait until you know what you’re sending has great value for your audience.

Copy and Content for Thought Leaders is presented by Jon Cook, founder of Keynote Content. Jon and his team help thought leaders, namely speakers, coaches, and consultants, craft and share their messages to better serve their audiences. Connect with Jon and his team at Keynote Content by visiting keynotecontent.com. You can subscribe to the Copy and Content for Thought Leaders Flash Briefing by visiting bit.ly/CopyContentFlash and enabling it there. Then, all you have to say is, “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?”

Spring Cleaning Your Subscriber List

Today is the first day of March 1st, so happy March first to you, you beautiful, sexy person you.

The official start of spring is three weeks away, and for many of us, that means spring cleaning.

So, while you’re opening the windows, doing a deep clean, or trading out your wardrobe, it’s time to think about spring cleaning your audience.

When was the last time you did an audit of your subscriber list? Who’s truly engaged and who’s more of a passive recipient?

Here’s one tip to start some spring cleaning for your list: send a confirmation email to your entire crowd giving them an option to unsubscribe.

Now, I know that probably sounds counterintuitive: “Wait a minute, Jon, you’re telling me I want to ask people if they want OFF my list?!”

Yes, and here’s why: I would rather have a thousand raving fans who can’t wait to hear from me than a hundred thousand subscribers who don’t really care if I send them a message.

Sometime this week put together a simple email to your subscriber list that gives them the chance to hop off your list. It shows even the most passive reader that you’re committed to connecting with only the people who want to connect with you.

Copy and Content for Thought Leaders is presented by Jon Cook, founder of Keynote Content. Jon and his team help thought leaders, namely speakers, coaches, and consultants, craft and share their messages to better serve their audiences. Connect with Jon and his team at Keynote Content by visiting keynotecontent.com. You can subscribe to the Copy and Content for Thought Leaders Flash Briefing by visiting bit.ly/CopyContentFlash and enabling it there. Then, all you have to say is, “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?”

Do Your Clients Feel Heroic?

Over the past two weeks, I’ve shared each of the twelve stages of the Hero’s Journey.

And, you may be thinking, “But, I don’t really think my product or service is that heroic.” Maybe you even doubt the impact you can create, or you’re buried in Imposter Syndrome, starting to second-guess your impact.

Here’s the one truth I want you to hold onto today: you are extraordinary.

If you give an ‘ish’ about your audience, then you are already prepared to help your clients, your readers, your subscribers, whoever it is that’s listening to you, you’re prepared to help them have a heroic experience.

It may not seem that flashy and you may even think your topic or industry is boring. I guarantee that you hold a heroic message inside that people are starving to hear from you.

It starts with believing that what you have to offer has the power to change someone else’s world. Don’t even worry about changing the whole world right now - focus on changing one person’s world. And another’s. And another’s.

And then, you’ll start to see that what you’re creating is a heroic experience where your audience has the confidence and peace to conquer the challenges right in from of them.

Believing you can is the kickstart you need to change someone else’s world with your message today.

Copy and Content for Thought Leaders is presented by Jon Cook, founder of Keynote Content. Jon and his team help thought leaders, namely speakers, coaches, and consultants, craft and share their messages to better serve their audiences. Connect with Jon and his team at Keynote Content by visiting keynotecontent.com. You can subscribe to the Copy and Content for Thought Leaders Flash Briefing by visiting bit.ly/CopyContentFlash and enabling it there. Then, all you have to say is, “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?”

The Hero’s Journey - Stage 12: Returning with the Elixir

The twelfth and final stage of the Hero’s Journey is what I call Returning with the Elixir. If your audience is a client, this is the stage where their best friends or spouse or siblings start commenting on the difference.

It’s when people see the transformation, they see your client is different than a few months ago.

What is the reason your client will give for their transformation?

The story you want them to share is their Hero’s Journey.

Most importantly, it’s where you show up in their story that shows they had the strength and you simply showed them the way and walked with them through every stage of their journey.

This is where testimonials are so essential. Try to capture your client’s journey in a video or a written testimonial that you can share. The best testimonials are where the before-and-after details are shared. That shows other prospects and audiences that they can have the same type of experience because we find our stories in the stories of others.

And that’s the Hero’s Journey, twelve simple steps that show the world you will do what it takes to help your audience have a better tomorrow starting today.

Copy and Content for Thought Leaders is presented by Jon Cook, founder of Keynote Content. Jon and his team help thought leaders, namely speakers, coaches, and consultants, craft and share their messages to better serve their audiences. Connect with Jon and his team at Keynote Content by visiting keynotecontent.com. You can subscribe to the Copy and Content for Thought Leaders Flash Briefing by visiting bit.ly/CopyContentFlash and enabling it there. Then, all you have to say is, “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?”