The Content Champion Podcast

In this episode, I’m going to look at how to write perfect headlines for your blog posts. Let’s dive in…

Listen To My Show On Writing Headlines

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The Importance of Headlines

Headlines are crucial – whatever type of content you’re producing. 

In fact, advertising legend David Ogilvy said that “on average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar.”

The Inverted Pyramid In Journalism

When I was at journalism college in Birmingham in the late 1990’s, I learned about the importance of writing good headlines in the context of the inverted pyramid.

Established in 1845 when Samuel Morse invented the telegraph, the inverted pyramid was a new way of passing important messages and breaking news from one point to another – by loading all the most important details and key information on the front end of the story. This of course starts with a great headline.

Reading the newspapers and news websites (especially the tabloids), will help you learn how great headlines are written.

Newspaper headlines include all the most important information up front, written in an enticing way that encourages you to read more – the headline then segues into the introduction or lede of the story (l-e-d-e), which covers the “who, what, when, where, why and how” of the story in the first couple of paragraphs. 

In turn, the lede entices the reader to move on to read the important elements of the story in more detail (with quotes, statistics, eye witness reports etc), and then the article finishes up with other general background information and supplemental details at the end.

So we see that in this context, all the information in the inverted pyramid is hierarchical in importance – and all flows from the headline itself.

Here are some examples of journalistic headlines and first paragraphs.

Firstly from the BBC website:

Theresa May calls off MPs’ vote on her Brexit deal

Prime Minister Theresa May has called off Tuesday’s crucial vote on her Brexit deal so she can go back to Brussels and ask for changes to it.

Secondly from the New York Times website:

U.N. Approves Sweeping Deal on Migration, but Without U.S. Support

More than 160 countries adopted a sweeping international accord on migration on Monday, after the United Nations secretary general robustly defended against the “myths” and falsehoods that critics had directed at the deal.

How Website Visitors Read Headlines

In terms of blogging then, great headline writing and having an article structure based on the inverted pyramid is ideal for the digital era of short attention spans and a hunger for fast food information. 

In this context, you may have already seen the Nielsen Research study about the F shaped pattern of how people read websites – scanning from top to bottom right to left (reading the headline first to create the top horizontal line of the F). 

Then scanning down and across from left to right in the middle of the page to get other essential information (forming the second horizontal line of the F), to finish reading down the page for all the supplementary details as the vertical stem of the F reaches the bottom of the page. 

This is literally the inverted pyramid formation in action on a web page – so there’s a direct relevance here.

Headlines In Google

The increasingly sophisticated Google algorithm is also geared for this inverted pyramid model too, especially for information based searches – with search intent realised in headlines and first paragraphs through relevant keywords and related phrases,

On today’s show I’m pleased to be discussing small business website conversion mistakes with experienced copywriter and website consultant, Gill Andrews. Let’s dive in…

Listen To Gill’s Show On Website Conversion Mistakes

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Gill’s Backstory

My story’s probably a typical one. I studied, I got a job, you know, like a normal person is supposed to do. I was working as a software developer and an IT consultant for five years and I couldn’t say I wasn’t unhappy, I kind of didn’t notice. You just think, okay, that’s what people are supposed to do.

Then I went on maternity leave and had my son, and after three years I was getting bored – so I started a blog. At first my blog had nothing to do with copywriting or websites, but I was trying to get it to rank so it would attract more visitors, so I learned so much about how a website is supposed to work, and how you get people to come to your site and stay to take action.

So for two years I was doing that and then it was time to decide whether I was going to go back to work. And I was like; “I don’t want to go back, this is so much fun, I’m connecting with people.” At that point I had already started giving advice to my friends and other bloggers about websites, copywriting and design. I then realised that so many things I know other people don’t, so there was a demand for my knowledge. And I decided not to go back to work.

I was lucky that I didn’t have to earn full income right away. This would have not been possible because I was completely unknown. Nobody knew me. I was in Germany, I’m not even in an English speaking environment, so I had to build everything from scratch. But thankfully these two years with my first website prepared me to set things up properly. From the very beginning I had a plan for how I was going to acquire customers and what I need to put on my website. 

I had very little time because I had a small child who was still at home – who only went to kindergarten one and a half years into into my business. So I had to be very focused – but after year two I saw that it was really working out and I was really happy that I’d taken the step into running my own business.

This was unexpected even for me – if you’d told me 10 years ago that I would be doing this then I’d thought you were crazy. But it’s been really fun. Of course sometimes there are struggles – but you are your own boss. You have to decide on your hours, on your focus, on what you do for your clients. And that’s really what I love. It’s so much better than working for some big company where nobody actually cares and you don’t get to see the difference you’ve made.

Gill’s Questions ​

Before we dive into small business website conversion mistakes, can you tell us your backstory please?

Tell us about your current business and the services you offer to clients?

There are many similar mistakes we’ve both seen being made on client small business websites – errors that can really hurt your conversion rates and the overall success of your business. So I’d like to go through the most important ones today:

Unclear or too clever copy (how to spot + fix it)

No credibility enhancers (or they’re too weak)

CTA not working out of context

Not utilising above the fold space

Visual clutter  

Too many links in the navigation 

Thanks for coming on the show, can you remind us where we can find you online?

The PS Question (subscribers only) – ​Gill shares a brilliant answer to my final question…

In this episode I’m discussing the ‘Coffee Cup Close’ 5 step sales process to help you get more clients – with entrepreneur, software creator, agency owner and founder of multiple businesses, Zach Anderson.

Listen To Zach’s Show On The Coffee Cup Close

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Zach’s Backstory

I’m actually a college dropout who turned into a serial entrepreneur. Most recently I started a company called Reputation Loop about five years ago, and we sold it in February, 2019 to a private equity firm out of Silicon Valley. This is actually my second company that I’ve sold in the last 12 years. So I really like building things. I utilise a lot of systems and process doing that and just creating businesses is kind of what I enjoy. I’m not from a formal education background or anything like that. So I just put hard work to the test and figure it out as I go.

Since I sold Reputation Loop, it gave me a chance to actually sit back and reflect on what I enjoy about everything and what I’m doing. So I’m just getting right back into it and building a new piece of software, called Ringbot, that’s kind of designed around the same concept. All of the software that I build is designed for marketing agencies to white label and then sell to their customers.

So I’m just building another platform that’s focused around that and more into the lead generation or conversion tactic for local businesses – or pretty much any website that accepts phone calls. The new software is about putting call widgets and things like that on websites, so that when people are in their most opportune time to engage with the actual business, they can be encouraged to actually contact them at that time so that you can increase your conversion rates.

Zach’s Questions ​

Before we dive into the ‘Coffee Cup Close’ sales process to increase conversions, can you tell us your backstory please?

Tell us about your current business interests?

OK, for 20 years you’ve been using the same documented 5 step sales process to close new business – let’s go through each step:

A phone call or form fill comes in – you use a scheduler to set a time to go through your sales presentation on Skype or Zoom, and you can include some pre-screening questions

The presentation – your slide deck is 20 slides long, and educates your potential client on your service process and benefits – then discovers their business goals

Proposal – you send a generic proposal with a video screen share going over the main points – and also send some testimonials

Next day, you email asking if they have any questions about your proposal – and on the same day you send a handwritten note with a Starbucks gift card inside

Ask for the sale – 9 times out of 10 they get back when the handwritten note arrives, at which point you ask for the sale

You tweak this system as you go along to increase conversions don’t you?

Why is having a documented sales process so important – it gives you confidence doesn’t it?

Thanks for coming on the show, can you remind us where we can find you online?

The PS Question (subscribers only) – ​Zach shares a great answer to my final question…

Featured Resources

RingBot

Reputation Loop

Calendly

In this episode I’m discussing the ‘Coffee Cup Close’ 5 step sales process to help you get more clients – with entrepreneur, software creator, agency owner and founder of multiple businesses, Zach Anderson.

Listen To Zach’s Show On The Coffee Cup Close

Want your episodes to look this good? Try Smart Podcast Player…

Zach’s Backstory

I’m actually a college dropout who turned into a serial entrepreneur. Most recently I started a company called Reputation Loop about five years ago, and we sold it in February, 2019 to a private equity firm out of Silicon Valley. This is actually my second company that I’ve sold in the last 12 years. So I really like building things. I utilise a lot of systems and process doing that and just creating businesses is kind of what I enjoy. I’m not from a formal education background or anything like that. So I just put hard work to the test and figure it out as I go.

Since I sold Reputation Loop, it gave me a chance to actually sit back and reflect on what I enjoy about everything and what I’m doing. So I’m just getting right back into it and building a new piece of software, called Ringbot, that’s kind of designed around the same concept. All of the software that I build is designed for marketing agencies to white label and then sell to their customers.

So I’m just building another platform that’s focused around that and more into the lead generation or conversion tactic for local businesses – or pretty much any website that accepts phone calls. The new software is about putting call widgets and things like that on websites, so that when people are in their most opportune time to engage with the actual business, they can be encouraged to actually contact them at that time so that you can increase your conversion rates.

Zach’s Questions ​

Before we dive into the ‘Coffee Cup Close’ sales process to increase conversions, can you tell us your backstory please?

Tell us about your current business interests?

OK, for 20 years you’ve been using the same documented 5 step sales process to close new business – let’s go through each step:

A phone call or form fill comes in – you use a scheduler to set a time to go through your sales presentation on Skype or Zoom, and you can include some pre-screening questions

The presentation – your slide deck is 20 slides long, and educates your potential client on your service process and benefits – then discovers their business goals

Proposal – you send a generic proposal with a video screen share going over the main points – and also send some testimonials

Next day, you email asking if they have any questions about your proposal – and on the same day you send a handwritten note with a Starbucks gift card inside

Ask for the sale – 9 times out of 10 they get back when the handwritten note arrives, at which point you ask for the sale

You tweak this system as you go along to increase conversions don’t you?

Why is having a documented sales process so important – it gives you confidence doesn’t it?

Thanks for coming on the show, can you remind us where we can find you online?

The PS Question (subscribers only) – ​Zach shares a great answer to my final question…

Featured Resources

RingBot

Reputation Loop

Welcome to the show. In this episode I’m discussing content marketing with WordPress (for beginners), with Internet Marketing expert Andy Cabasso of OffSprout. (To get a 25% discount use code ‘Champion’ at checkout).

Listen To Andy’s Show On Content Marketing With WordPress

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Andy’s Backstory

Years ago I was in law school, realising that I didn’t want to be a lawyer – and a buddy of mine was freelancing and looking for his next project, and looking into building a business. We had been talking about this and I was applying to jobs that I didn’t want to get – and I was noticing that most of the law firms that I was reaching out to, if they had a website, they were terrible.

So we talked about building websites and starting a business around that. Together we started this company called JurisPage that was an agency focusing specifically on the niche of law firms. And that ended up becoming incredibly successful, largely thanks to our content marketing.

Having that legal background and a focus on the legal niche helped us build the brand around that. So we built a ton of content focusing on this audience – and we grew tremendously. Within three years we got acquired by another larger company in the legal industry.

Since that acquisition, we’ve been focusing our time now on OffSprout, which is a white label website builder specifically for agencies. We has been looking for tools to make creating websites easier – and we decided to just build it ourselves.

Andy’s Questions ​

Before we dive into content marketing with WordPress for beginners, can you tell us your backstory please?

Tell us about your current business OffSprout?

WordPress now powers over 30% of the world’s websites, why is it such a successful CMS?

Why is WordPress so effective for content marketing in particular, especially for startups and small business owners (SEO, blogging, social media etc etc)?

Amongst some web designers there’s a certain snobbery about WordPress – why is this (loss of control creatively, hosting, security and updates issues etc)?

Despite there being 1000’s of out-of-the box themes for WordPress, designing a truly original site with it can be hard, can’t it?

Give us an introduction to WordPress page builders and what we can achieve with them?

What sets OffSprout apart from its competitors in the WordPress page builder industry?

What have you got planned for OffSprout in the next year?

Thanks for coming on the show, can you remind us where we can find you online?

The PS Question (subscribers only) – ​Andy gives a brilliant answer to my final question…

Featured Resources

OffSprout (To get a 25% discount use code ‘Champion’ at checkout).

JurisPage

WordPress

Yoast

WP Engine

Welcome to the show. In this episode I’m discussing content marketing with WordPress (for beginners), with Internet Marketing expert Andy Cabasso of OffSprout. (To get a 25% discount use code ‘Champion’ at checkout).

Listen To Andy’s Show On Content Marketing With WordPress

Want your episodes to look this good? Try Smart Podcast Player…

Andy’s Backstory

Years ago I was in law school, realising that I didn’t want to be a lawyer – and a buddy of mine was freelancing and looking for his next project, and looking into building a business. We had been talking about this and I was applying to jobs that I didn’t want to get – and I was noticing that most of the law firms that I was reaching out to, if they had a website, they were terrible.

So we talked about building websites and starting a business around that. Together we started this company called JurisPage that was an agency focusing specifically on the niche of law firms. And that ended up becoming incredibly successful, largely thanks to our content marketing.

Having that legal background and a focus on the legal niche helped us build the brand around that. So we built a ton of content focusing on this audience – and we grew tremendously. Within three years we got acquired by another larger company in the legal industry.

Since that acquisition, we’ve been focusing our time now on OffSprout, which is a white label website builder specifically for agencies. We has been looking for tools to make creating websites easier – and we decided to just build it ourselves.

Andy’s Questions ​

Before we dive into content marketing with WordPress for beginners, can you tell us your backstory please?

Tell us about your current business OffSprout?

WordPress now powers over 30% of the world’s websites, why is it such a successful CMS?

Why is WordPress so effective for content marketing in particular, especially for startups and small business owners (SEO, blogging, social media etc etc)?

Amongst some web designers there’s a certain snobbery about WordPress – why is this (loss of control creatively, hosting, security and updates issues etc)?

Despite there being 1000’s of out-of-the box themes for WordPress, designing a truly original site with it can be hard, can’t it?

Give us an introduction to WordPress page builders and what we can achieve with them?

What sets OffSprout apart from its competitors in the WordPress page builder industry?

What have you got planned for OffSprout in the next year?

Thanks for coming on the show, can you remind us where we can find you online?

The PS Question (subscribers only) – ​Andy gives a brilliant answer to my final question…

Featured Resources

OffSprout (To get a 25% discount use code ‘Champion’ at checkout).

JurisPage

In this episode it’s my pleasure to be discussing the boutique agency business model with experienced marketer and lead generation expert, Dan Englander of Sales Schema.

Listen To Dan’s Show On Growing A Boutique Agency

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Dan’s Backstory

I started out here in New York about a decade ago working on accounts for an agency that was focusing on big consumer accounts. I worked on Monster Cable back when they used to make Beats by Dre, and I would just come up with pitches all day, and do strategy, account services and social media stuff.

Then I wanted to do something new, so I fell into a startup role for a creative services shop and we were selling into the big enterprises – and I was kind of in this accidental sales role. So we were getting most of our business through Adwords and through inbound. And then we had to start doing outbound because the market got so flooded that I had to learn how to do sales without realising I was in the sales role.

So I got some great training and had the fortunate luck of getting to practise on thousands and thousands of calls and meetings over the course of a few years. And I sort of figured out how to scrape together an ideal sales team when you’re strained for resources in an agency situation. We made it work very well – and it obviously wasn’t just me – but I was a big part of getting them from zero to seven figures.

Dan’s Questions ​

Before we dive into how to grow a boutique agency, can you tell us your back story please?

Tell us about your business Sales Schema?

What’s the new era of the boutique agency?

What’s wrong with the traditional agency model – and what does a stagnant agency look like?

What does a highly effective agency look like?

Can you give us some action steps on how we can transform our agency to make it more successful?

How does your methodology at Sales Schema help agencies generate more leads and business?

Thanks for coming on the show, can you remind us where we can find you online?

The PS Question (subscribers only) – ​Dan shares a great answer to my final question…

Featured Resources

Sales Schema

Gary Vaynerchuk

VaynerMedia

Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross & Marylou Tyler

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Ahrefs

Watch The Video Podcast

Key Show Quotes

There’s more and more agencies that are doing better by niching down and focusing on key areas – and doing specific sets or bundles of services for a specific type of business. So that’s where I think the new era of the boutique agency is – a setup where if you’re a brand and you’re a COO thinking about what’s the least amount of risk,

In this episode it’s my pleasure to be discussing the boutique agency business model with experienced marketer and lead generation expert, Dan Englander of Sales Schema.

Listen To Dan’s Show On Growing A Boutique Agency

Want your episodes to look this good? Try Smart Podcast Player…

Dan’s Backstory

I started out here in New York about a decade ago working on accounts for an agency that was focusing on big consumer accounts. I worked on Monster Cable back when they used to make Beats by Dre, and I would just come up with pitches all day, and do strategy, account services and social media stuff.

Then I wanted to do something new, so I fell into a startup role for a creative services shop and we were selling into the big enterprises – and I was kind of in this accidental sales role. So we were getting most of our business through Adwords and through inbound. And then we had to start doing outbound because the market got so flooded that I had to learn how to do sales without realising I was in the sales role.

So I got some great training and had the fortunate luck of getting to practise on thousands and thousands of calls and meetings over the course of a few years. And I sort of figured out how to scrape together an ideal sales team when you’re strained for resources in an agency situation. We made it work very well – and it obviously wasn’t just me – but I was a big part of getting them from zero to seven figures.

Dan’s Questions ​

Before we dive into how to grow a boutique agency, can you tell us your back story please?

Tell us about your business Sales Schema?

What’s the new era of the boutique agency?

What’s wrong with the traditional agency model – and what does a stagnant agency look like?

What does a highly effective agency look like?

Can you give us some action steps on how we can transform our agency to make it more successful?

How does your methodology at Sales Schema help agencies generate more leads and business?

Thanks for coming on the show, can you remind us where we can find you online?

The PS Question (subscribers only) – ​Dan shares a great answer to my final question…

Featured Resources

Sales Schema

Gary Vaynerchuk

VaynerMedia

Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross & Marylou Tyler

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

On the show this time I’m delighted to be talking SEO predictions and trends for 2020 with world renowned SEO, blogger, speaker and online entrepreneur, Matt Diggity.

Founder of the Chiang Mai SEO Conference, Matt is not only famed for the amount of SEO testing he does, but also for his in-depth industry experience and multiple high quality SEO businesses – so when it comes to SEO trends for 2020 he’s definitely the man in the know.

Listen To Matt’s Show On SEO in 2020

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Matt’s Backstory

Before I ever got into this SEO game, I was an engineer. I went to school at UC San Diego and got a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, got my masters degree and did that whole thing – and it was bloody torture for I’d say six to seven years.

There’s nothing wrong with being an engineer, but there is something wrong with being in a cubicle 60 hours a week and seeing your whole life mapped out for you and just seeing that whole trajectory.

So I think it was around 2009, I started to get stir crazy and one of my buddies handed me the four hour work week and was like, yo, check this out. There’s other ways to make money in this world. And I was just like, okay, four hour work week – yeah, right buddy, let’s see. And I read it and I learned about how to make money online.

I got my feet wet and eventually stumbled upon SEO. My first flavour of SEO was getting into affiliate marketing. The whole concept of passive income struck a chord with me – you rank something high on Google and it’s going to get traffic – then you can make sales while you’re sleeping.

I love gaming and had a gamer type mentality – I was a big world of Warcraft player. I looked at Google search results as like a leaderboard. So it was, SEO just had all these magical elements that just addicted me right off the bat, and I still do affiliate SEO to this day.

Show Notes

​Learn how Matt got into SEO

Discover the story behind Matt’s multiple SEO businesses

​Matt’s technical SEO predictions for next year

Where we’re headed with on-page SEO in 2020

What trends Matt sees in content marketing going forward

Matt gives his predictions for off-page SEO and link building in 2020

* What Matt sees happening in the wider online marketing industry in the year ahead

* What the future holds for Matt’s own SEO businesses

The PS Question (subscribers only) – ​Matt shares an ace answer to my final question…

Featured Resources

Diggity Marketing

The Search Initiative

Authority Builders Co.

Chiang Mai SEO Conference

Welcome to the Content Champion podcast. On the show this time I’m delighted to be discussing evergreen link building techniques with award winning SEO and digital marketer, Matthew Woodward.

Renowned for his in-depth SEO tutorials and case studies, Matthew has been helping business owners grow online since 2012.

So with that all said, let’s dive in…

Listen To Matthew’s Show On Link Building

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Show Notes

​Discover Matthew’s backstory

Get the lowdown on Matthew’s renowned blog and SEO company

​Our quick fire run down of the 12 link building techniques

Matthew’s approach to outreach for link building

Why you should only focus on your favourite two link building techniques

Find out where you can find Matthew online

The PS Question – ​Matthew gives one of the best ever answers to the PS Question!

Featured Resources

Matthew’s renowned blog

The original link building strategies post

Search Logistics

Matt Diggity

Brandon Gaille

Authority Hacker

Ahrefs

Link Assistant (SEO PowerSuite)

FAQ Rich Snippets (this works as I tried it right after the call – proof below)

Watch The Video Podcast

​Subscribe, Rate & Review The Content Champion Podcast

Many thanks ​for listening to ​this episode on link building techniques with Matthew Woodward. If you enjoyed the show, please head over to iTunes to leave us a rating and review.

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