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One of the most important parts of a content marketing strategy is offering fun-to-read, informative and interesting content that make your readers excited to click and find out more. However, the title of your content can have a huge impact on how successful it is at generating interest and motivating your readers to take action.

A listicle or list article is one of the most effective formats for an article or blog post. A listicle is enticing, because it promises upfront to condense any subject matter into a manageable number of bullet points or steps that a reader can use and implement.

The listicle is a favorite for good reason: it works. The main reason for this is that it has the power to grab the reader's attention simply from the power of its headline.

This kind of content often lends itself well to evergreen topics and tips that are very popular. Readers love easy headlines that are also quickly consumable. Lists that offer a number of reasons, secrets, types or ways to do something will capture an audience's attention, because they make a very clear promise about what’s in store for the reader. They also entice the reader to click, but you'll have to deliver quality content if you want to keep the reader engaged. Listicles can do that effectively, time and time again —plus, they're usually very easy to build in your favorite blogging or marketing automation software.

These types of posts are perfect for building your authority in a certain field or demonstrating mastery in a specific area of expertise. When it comes to business blogging, it's key to show what you know and put it in a format that's easy to consume. Ask us how we can create weekly, SEO-friendly blog content (including listicles!) for you or look at the examples below to learn more.

Did you miss my livestream today?

Check it out on Facebook now to learn five specific ways we helped Freestyle Solutions attract more traffic and get more leads:

• Generating multiple types and formats of content more easily and effectively
• Promoting the content that you already have

Not getting as much traffic as you need to meet your marketing goals or grow your business? Here are five ways that you can start to drive more traffic to your website without a ton of effort.

1) Blog more
Don't like blogging? I don't want to hear it! This is, hands down, THE best way to get more traffic quickly and easily — but the key is that you shouldn't write long, "salesy" blog posts that push your products or services. Instead, offer helpful tips, ideas, news or content that helps your prospects solve their problems and provides real value to them.

If you want to take your marketing campaigns to the next level, you've got to test them. How do you do that? With A/B testing. It's sometimes called split testing. What is A/B testing? It's basically comparing two versions of a web page, email or banner to see which one performs better.

You can compare these by showing the two variants, calling them A and B, to similar visitors simultaneously. See which one gives the best conversion rate and then use that one moving forward! It's simple, but also necessary.

It's the beginning of 2017 and if you still haven't gotten on board the video marketing train, there's still time.

You may have already used some form of video in your marketing strategy at some point. As the new year begins, it's clear that 2016 was a year of revolution in video marketing and that you cannot survive without video marketing any longer.

Wyzowl released statistics for last year that reported 61% of businesses have used video as a marketing tool and 66% of these same companies never used video a mere year earlier. It's a trend that's progressed rapidly, and keeps growing faster than we think because:

• 75 million people in U.S. watch videos online everyday
• Embedded videos on web sites can increase traffic up to 55%
• Simply having the word "video" in the subject line of an email can increase open rates by 13%
• Nearly 40% of all videos today are watched on mobile devices

If you can make them laugh, well then you've won half the battle, and probably you've won them over too.

One of the best times to witness big companies using their funny bones to their advantage is in January/February. The most sought-after and highly awaited commercials are played during the NFL's championship final: the Super Bowl, and without disappointing, year after year they deliver cutting-edge humorous content that speaks to millions of consumers in a way that only humor can.

Out are the professional, serious and stiff images that were de riguer when marketing first became an acknowledged activity for mainstream businesses to do. Since then, due the nature of the online world, where 'going viral' is the holy grail for marketers, humor has been one way in which they have achieved their legend status. There are commercials and campaigns from years past that still get talked about today and are the benchmark for marketers right now.                                                      

Planning out your marketing strategy for 2017 probably already happened in 2016, but despite being ready to meet the challenges of the new year, we encourage you to make sure you have considered these important trends and if you haven't, then make them a part of your strategy now, since they currently make up the key elements to a successful and effective Internet marketing plan.  
 
It never hurts to make tweaks here and there along the way, especially considering how fast content marketing is evolving—being digital, that's a given. So when planning and implementing moves, you're not just setting yourself up for 2017, but also for 2018 and beyond. A macro-oriented view will help you see the bigger picture on where you want your content marketing strategy to take your business. Here are the trends not to miss out on...

Are you putting a lot of effort into content marketing and not getting good results?

Undoubtedly, content marketing is an effective way to attract more visitors and transform them into customers. Almost every business wants to maximize its ROI, and so they invest a solid amount of time and money into this endeavor.

However, that doesn’t mean success is guaranteed since there are a lot of variables involved. Content marketing can be tricky, but there are a few ways to quickly address poor results.

We've identified five common issues faced by content marketers, as well as quick ways to resolve them. Follow some of the simple solutions below to improve your results and ROI. 

Ever hear the expression "a picture is worth a thousand words"?

Well, in today's ever-changing and evolving world of online media and inbound marketing, a video is worth a million—if not more. Videos have become an integral part of our daily experience on our computers, smart phones, Smart TVs and other devices. This essential form of communication is becoming the main currency of online communication.

Text-based sites are outdated, Currently Google's search engine gives higher priority to video, meaning if you use video, you have over 50x more chances of appearing on the first search page than if you used text. Businesses have to be prepared for this video boom, since trend-watchers like Cisco’s trends analysis predict that by 2018 video will make up 79% of all Internet traffic, going up from today's 66%. So with video being so popular what's the best way to integrate video content onto your site?

So you’ve written a killer blog post, you’ve done the research, it’s insightful and even funny but…no one is reading it. Why?

You probably haven’t paid a lot of attention to the title of your blog, but it's arguably the most important component of your blog post. A catchy and attention-grabbing title draws your readers in and tells them what to expect.

According to Copyblogger, “Eight of ten people will read a title, but just two of ten readers will continue reading the article.”

So how to reach those other eight? You’ve got to write irresistible titles to grab more potential readers.

We’ll show you how to do just that with 10 incredibly easy tactics that can help you improve your blogging skills, so you can write juicy and captivating titles that draw an audience. Before we get to the good stuff, you need to learn why it’s crucial to craft a title.