May

Enlarge Your Digital Footprint for More Effective Online Marketing

Your digital footprint is huge. Okay, well, truthfully, I don’t know what size it is. But here’s what I do know: your digital footprint has a huge effect on your online marketing.

When it comes to factors you can control to improve your website traffic, it’s Mr. Big. You do want to improve your website traffic, correct? Let’s have a look at how it’s done.

Take charge, woman. Get large, man.

Why do I feel like I’m hawking Viagra?

But seriously ladies and gentlemen, we have one humdinger of a topic, which in my biased opinion, has yet to inspire a truly helpful online article. So, here and now, I set out to offer you the ultimate list of easy and effective ways to enlarge your digital footprint, increase your findability factor (otherwise known as search results), and drive traffic to your website.

We begin with the easy ones.

The following four ideas—and the ideas within the ideas—are absolute musts.

1. Comment on relevant blogs—It doesn’t get any easier. You’re reading them, right? Now write something. In the process, you’ll be asked to input your URL. Repeat after me now: world’s easiest backlink. Make a habit out of this practice. And, of course, offer a useful idea or web page. Can you say “double backlink?”

2. Get an about.me account—At about.me, you’ll find the world’s easiest web page generator. And with a large collection of graphically pleasing templates, they’ve made it so the page you produce has to be elegant. It’s a fill-in-the blank exercise. You create a pile of links that point to your site, blog and social networks. If you don’t have an about.me account by this time tomorrow, you’ll have a hard time convincing me you sincerely want to grow your digital footprint. Here’s my about.me page.

3. Microblog like a maniac—There are probably 1,000 and 1 reasons to be active on social media, but even if deep down inside you’re anti-social, get your hands on additional social media accounts and your footprint grows. No social media list can be all-inclusive, but you most definitely need the fab four:

• Twitter—No brainer. It’s as now as now gets.
• LinkedIn—The world’s greatest business center. (Have you and I connected on LinkedIn?)
• Google+—The online space for everything.
• Facebook—I predict this thing catches on.

4. Be a picture publisher—You have a smartphone and you use it to take pictures. Now publish them. Of course, you’ll want to use discretion. Only the photos you shoot that are relevant to your business or personal brand are the ones you’ll use as footprint fodder. Consider any or all of the below:

• Pinterest—A true game changer. You’ll find some useful stuff at my Pinterest page.
• Instagram—Soon to outrank television.
• Google+/ Picassa—The authority for authority.
• Tumblr—Any dummy can produce a smart site here.
• Flickr—Where Yahoo! Still matters.

Intermediate domain(s).

These strategies assume you’re a content marketer, or soon will be, and are meant to point out places where your content can reside to help expand your digital footprint.

5. Make video—Don’t like having your mug online? Get over it. Don’t feel comfortable competing with the world’s best documentary makers or TV producers? Get over it. Get some video together and get it on:

• YouTube—The #3 website in the world. Here’s Feldman Creative TV, a work in progress.
• Vimeo—Another powerhouse. (“Absence of Light,” a short film I wrote and acted in.)
• Social media sites that host video—Which is pretty much all of them now.

6. Do picture shows—It’s stunning how many people I talk to that aren’t using SlideShare (or have never heard of it). It’s the quiet giant of content marketing generating 60-million visits per month. With an immense digital library (over 100 million files), sharing features, lead capture options for professional use, and serious search prowess, SlideShare should be home to your slide decks, infographics, videos, and documents. Take it seriously and you’ll see some serious growth in exposure and inbound traffic.

I’d like to think my SlideShare efforts will help you understand the power of the medium (almost 200K views to date).

7. Squidoo—Master marketer Seth Godin created a place in cyberspace where your content takes a website-like form in what Squidoo dubs a lens. They are easy to create, look great, and serve you well. I created a lens with my free ebook, “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website.” Looks sharp.

8. List.ly—As the name suggests, List.ly is a home for lists,  a wild card in nearly every content marketer’s deck. Your List.ly posts are interactive, optimized, and easy to embed wherever you choose. Here’s a perfectly good example.

9. Curate like a real publisher—You are a real publisher now. It’s time to toss other experts works into the mix. Try these fun and powerful publishing tools:

• RebelMouse—This newcomer will blow your mind with its social/sharing approach to curation and give you tools to take your publication where you please. My website features a RebelMouse page.
• Scoop.It—Magazine making made easy.
• Twylah—As the name suggests, Twylah is a Twitter tool, a twitty damn good one.
• Paper.li—Niche publishing, content marketing and web monitoring collides in a platform purpose built to make your online marketing easy. 

10. Get graphic—You might hire a pro to put your content in the raging hot infographic format, but you might opt for the DIY approach. Try these:

• Piktochart—I experimented with several infographics generators and favor this one. (I Pikto’d for Valentine’s Day.)
• Easel.ly.
• Infogra.m
• Visual.ly

11. Do eNews—For years, email marketing (managed professionally) has been the best way to build a community and your business. It’s permission-based. Interested prospects are telling you, “Yes, send me your stuff.” Do it. Here’s an archive of my eNewsletters, “Get Magnetic.”

Get Magnetic—Feldman Creative’s very popular eNewsletter

For high achievers.

In this second-to-last section I’ll cover some strategies expert online marketers use to expand their digital footprint in a big way. Don’t dismiss these tactics simply because your time or skills are limited. Consider hiring a pro (me) to help propel you to higher heights.

These techniques call for having some talent on your team. So they are not free. However, they are immensely meaningful.

12. Guest blog—Like baseball, in the guest blog profession, you have major and minor leagues and levels within. It’s unrealistic to think you can’t publish a thing or two online and then get published by the New York Times.

However, if you’re paying close attention to your industry (please tell me  you are) and know which publishers have the most powerful voices, you should think big. I recommend you think of the path to the top as a ladder and climb it like so:

• Blog brilliantly—First rung: your blog. Establish super high standards and meet them. Publish a minimum of 10 articles before you begin submitting work to high traffic sites.
• Go where there are no gates—Today, every smart website host recognizes the need to publish regularly, so many accept contributions from outsiders with no or low standards. Of course, you shouldn’t have no or low standards, but you should take advantage of the opportunity to publish your pieces at ungated blogs/online magazines. (Scribd.com is always happy to have you.)
• Apply yourself—The next rung on your ascent will be to apply to the sites you really want to be on. Often, an application system is in place for you to submit samples of your work and answer basic questions about your qualifications. Pursue these opportunities and you’ll surprise yourself.
• Beat down doors—This step’s not as violent as it may sound, but you may need to prepare yourself for the rejection writers learn to live with. ID sites at the top of the ladder, send email or tweets to the curators/editors/owners and offer them your best, original work, which of course must be perfectly aligned with their editorial charter. If you’re ready for the gig, you’ll get it. I can’t say I’m batting 1.000, but this strategy has served me well. I contribute regularly to several of the best publishers in online marketing. You’ll find a list in the sidebar on my home page.
• Publish and pray—Really now, divine intervention is not an online marketing strategy. However, setting yourself up for success is. I wouldn’t include this rung if I hadn’t climbed it. So, I’ll share this from personal experience. If you create great content and manage to get it published on classy Triple-A websites, major leaguers will find it, read it, and give you the call when a spot opens up.

13. Webcast—I’m using the word as a verb and I’m telling you to get into the infotainment business. You need not be Oprah. But you need to use the Internet as your platform for:

• Webinars—Any size business can do this and there are all kinds of tools to get it done. Decide you’re going to teach a valuable lesson, line up the talent and assets you’ll need, and do it. Here’s one of my webinars: “Magnetic Content—Transform Your Website Into a Customer Attraction Force Field.”
• Podcasts—Welcome to radio, online radio. It’s easy. The demand is enormous. Try creating an interview show or giving audio-based lessons. There are a ton of tools for producing podcasts and publishing them too. I use Spreaker. And of course, in addition to making my website a broadcast channel, I use iTunes, as should you. (My podcast program: Content Marketing Minds.)
• Video programs—We hit on YouTube and Vimeo earlier. There’s no reason to not charge forth with video and there’s no realistic barrier. Roll ‘em.

14. Get interviewed—Has this lesson got increasingly scary? You’re good? Cool. I get interviewed fairly often now and obviously this helps shine the spotlight on my website, my services and myself. But I want you to know this… Sometimes requests for interviews just happen, but sometimes I make them happen.

You’re an expert in your field. People will want to hear what you have to say. So, get interviewed.

• Speak—Call yourself a speaker and publish information about subjects you speak on.
• Ask—Seek out opportunities to speak and tell website owners why their audience will benefit from an interview featuring you.
• Promote—Tell everybody via every media outlet you have access to you’ve been interviewed. Good things happen. Trust me. Digital channels multiply. You get on coveted lists. People start believing you know your stuff.

Example of a podcast interview from our friends at Social Media Explorer: “Is Content Truly King?”
Example of video interview from our friends at Vertical Measures: “How to Get Started with Content Marketing.”

15. Make books—Your prospects love books. Make them, give them away, and/or sell them.

• Free eBooks—These are easy to make and you can pretty much create your own definition of what an eBook actually is. Create a serious collection of helpful information and package it as PDF. Offer it as free download and you’re bound to see it shared all over the place.

eBook: Here’s my latest—and hottest—one. 100% OFF if you ACT NOW!

• Purchasable eBooks—The next step is stepping up and onto Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the gamut of online eBook distributors. You have to play by the seller’s rules, but it’s easier than you might expect. You can experiment with prices, selling strategies and outlets and in the end, you may achieve new levels of authority and prestige, new markets and audiences, and possibly, new revenue streams.

Advertising may pay too.

Effective online advertisers are generally dialing down media spending, but they’re also strategically investing in online media placements.

16. AdWords—Google’s AdWords program changed advertising forever. As basic and unsexy as it may be, it’s hard to deny it’s the most cost-effective advertising media ever created.

• Double your search success—Publish content and buy pay-per-click smartly and your company may appear on a page one search result twice, side-by-side with a paid and organic listing. That’s a powerful combo.

• Drift into everywhere—PPC offers the option to present your ads beyond Google. Your ads can go the many places their AdWords program is embedded, which can be an amazingly extensive networks of sites where your prospects are.

• Learn and improve—A seldom spoke of, but immensely large benefit of PPC advertising, is the deep and rich insights you get from the reports you’re provided.

17. Retarget—I won’t pretend to be an expert here, but I will tell you this new thing called retargeting makes a lot of sense. You visit a site, but don’t buy and then in your online travels, ads from the host of these sites appear. Makes good sense.

And finally, you’ll get a little lucky.

You know how they say you make your own luck? You put yourself in a position to be lucky? This applies to this lesson. If you’re actively creating content and experimenting with strategies, sometimes your digital footprint just expands. Lucky you. I thought before I signed off of what has become the longest post I’ve ever written (but hopefully the most helpful), I’d scan my analytics to stumble upon some loose ends that help the cause. I did. Here are three of them that were actually in my top 25 traffic generators:

18. Bookmark sites—Yup. I don’t know a lot about them or use them much, but they’re far from dead. So StumbleUpon (which I do use), Reddit, Digg, Delicous and so forth expand your digital presence too. I don’t believe you have much control over how or when, but I suspect these are reciprocal communities, as are all online communities, so put something into them and you’ll get something out of them.

19. Feeds—RSS feeds represent this crazy corner of the web where geeks tune in and casual users tune out. But still, you can help your cause with a little bit of understanding of feeder tools that push your content to readers that want it or sprinkle it automatically across social networks. I’ve signed on with feedburner, dlvr.it and networkedblogs and found that these mostly free services help feed my content to hungry readers.

20. Groups—Where good old-fashioned networking meets good new-fashioned networking, your digital footprint can actually expand. I’m tight with my time and don’t attend a ton of events, but I do attend some conferences and speak a bit. My involvement in the following ones generate traffic to my website.

• MeetUps—My tennis and guitar MeetUps don’t help the cause, but my blogging and marketing MeetUps do. Surely, you can benefit offline and on from being involved.
• SVForum—I’ve made friends and landed business through my involvement in the Silicon Valley Forum and its cousin, Marketing Camp, which I discovered in the first place via a social media-based friendship. I recommend you connect the old-fashioned way, shake some hands, share some wisdom, and see how it might affect your digital footprint.
• Foreigners—Sorry. I’m no help here, but a site called “seojapan.com” brings a steady stream of traffic to my site. Their site’s in Japanese and Google’s handy translation feature didn’t help, so all I know is by putting myself and my company out there with sensible strategies to enlarge my digital footprint, I’ve become a more effective online marketer.

You can too.

I’ve laid a lot on you. If you have questions, I intend to answer them. And, if you have additions you’d like to make here, I definitely appreciate them.

Contact me — or sign up for a free WebVision consultation. 

May

SEO Guilty Culprit in Silicon Valley Murder Plot

[Nothing's ever as funny as a true story.]

Early Thursday morning, an up-and-coming slogan was shot down in the Silicon Valley office building of a software startup.

An intern, recently hired to handle social media marketing by the software company (whose brand must be kept secret), claims to have witnessed the entire sequence of events that transpired in the conference room, where the tragedy occurred. (The young woman requests anonymity while the investigation takes place but claims to have witnessed what happened.)

She remained at the scene of the crime when authorities arrived and recounted the details. The intern said a meeting involving the company’s marketing team and a freelance copywriter had taken place, with the copywriter participating in the meeting remotely via the popular Skype application.

The Meeting Was About Selecting a Slogan

“Everything was going well and the mood was upbeat,” the intern said. The copywriter was presenting ideas for a new slogan for the emerging brand. “The CEO and the guys on the marketing team were thrilled. There were a lot of fun and interesting ideas, and almost everyone loved them.”

According to the young woman, not everyone in the meeting had the exact same shortlist of winners, however. The CEO expressed his opinion, and everyone began to rally around the clever four-word phrase he favored.

“There was a some friction reaching consensus and a final decision,” she said. “And at that time things began to get contentious.” Despite the differences ofopinions, the intern said things were progressing nicely, and there was no reason to believe a felony would soon be committed. She did admit to sensing signs of a power struggle as the executives jockeyed for position.

An Apostrophe Was at the Center of the Dispute

But the meeting took a turn for the worse when the discussion began focusing on the use of an apostrophe. According to the police report, a contract marketing director adamantly objected to the proposed apostrophe and pressed the copywriter to revise the phrase.

The copywriter was cordial and professional, said the intern, but demonstrated how a compromised version of the slogan created awkward and less meaningful language.

“He seemed very sure of himself,” said the intern. “He listened to the team’s ideas and even threw in some of his own but stood fast by his recommendation to leave the slogan alone.”

Raja Gupta, the marketing associate responsible for setting up the meeting, corroborated the story. Gupta told reporters from The Point, “The marketing director introduced an objection based on SEO. He said the slogan’s keyword would be lost on search engines because of the apostrophe. Then, as if he was literally foreshadowing what was to come, he expressed very strong belief the slogan’s possessive noun should be eliminated.

Gupta said he himself sided with the copywriter, who insisted SEO considerations and the choice of the best and most memorable slogan were completely separate issues.

SEO Shouldn’t Trump Smart Communications

When contacted after the murder, the copywriter was happy to reveal his name as well as the location of his website—understanding, of course, the backlinking implications.

“The issue really calls for some context,” explained Barry Feldman, of Feldman Creative. “A good copywriter would never deny the importance of SEO for web-based content, but—and this is a huge but—the searchability of a slogan simply doesn’t factor into the slogan selection process.” Feldman continued (much more so than we asked him to) by adding, “It’s really quite lame.

“For starters, slogans are supposed to appeal to customers, not friggin’ robots. And also, it’s extremely unlikely the slogan would be search-friendly, no matter which words it contained, because it was unlikely to appear as HTML.”

Gupta told us given the chance, Feldman can really rant, but copywriters are generally very strong-willed and don’t respond well to having their expertise challenged or creativity stifled. Feldman didn’t disagree, but he did seem fairly pissed.

Sentenced to Death

Ultimately, the marketing director’s objection prompted a stalemate. The team played nice and pretended with a little “stewing on it” time, some additional ideas, and additional creative fees, a solution would be found.

However, the truth is the slogan, a victim of the omnipresent SEO, lies slain.

Experts across the online marketing landscape wrestle with search-based issues and seldom agree on any sacred set of laws. Plus, it’s no secret that Google, the dominant force in search products and services, relentlessly clouds the picture by frequently updating its software while revealing only vague explanations of its doings.

Feldman and other members of the copywriting camp are convinced SEO is the poison behind infinite crimes of creative slaughter and the catalyst of countless bad business decisions.

The father of the precious slogan, Feldman was distraught as he spoke with us. Though he fought back tears as he spoke of his loss, he mustered the strength to condemn his client, the process, and SEO in general.

“Screw it,” he said. “Screw it, screw them, and screw the algorithms they rode in on.” Harsh words to be sure, but understand, Barry had just suffered the most profound pain a copywriter could ever experience: the death of his idea.

May

Are You Making these Content Marketing Mistakes?

Not everyone is a pro.

If you’ve been doing marketing for as long as I have you may recall when the Macintosh came out in the 80s. It was a landmark in personal computing. And it opened the floodgates for countless amateurs trying their hands at design.

Suddenly, everyone was a graphic designer. A rushing river of poorly executed logos, newsletters, and marketing communications projects of every kind were created by amateurs. The phenomena has continued ever since with typography, photography, video, and well, everything.

It’s content marketing’s turn.

Today, nearly every business is attempting to become a content marketer. The results ain’t pretty. The noise is deafening and while there’s plenty of great content, every industry is being bombarded with junk—cheap imitations of the idea of content marketing—create original, compelling, helpful content. You can trace the problem to a long list of problems. In an effort to sound the alarm, Content Marketing Institute founder Joe Pulizzi created a ”13 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing May Fail.”

I took 10 points on Joe’s list that resonated with me and created a List.ly list. Familiar with List.ly? Here’s how it works.

Listly claims to be a “multiplier.” The simple service allows bloggers to embed lists in posts to amplify exposure.

Listly is a 2-way street.

The cool thing about List.ly is it’s interactive and dynamic. That is, you can contribute to the list, comment, and share. Try it. Right here, right now. When you get to the bottom of this list of “Content Marketing Killers,” add to it, share it, comment, join a community of content marketers aiming to inform newcomers of the mistakes they should avoid if they aim to create effective online marketing.

GET A FREE COPY OF:
“The Plan to Grow Your Business with Effective Online Marketing.” 

May

The Most Effective Online Marketers Focus On One Thing

You devour online marketing lessons. You feast on articles, reports, books, and eBooks. Perhaps it’s so important to you, you spend some of your precious time attending webinars and conferences and you can’t help but join the conversation on blogs and via social media.

Good for you.

There’s a ton of information to take in, the rules change daily, and if you’re going to succeed with online marketing, you must master a good many practices, techniques and tools.

The experts keep serving up specialized dishes: content marketing, social media marketing, search marketing, permission-based marketing, inbound marketing and any (fill-in-the-blank-here) marketing.

The more these ingredients get heaped onto our plates, the more the meal calls for a bowl and spoon. It’s digital soup, my friend.

Clarity is hard to achieve.

Pencils out. It’s pop quiz time.

What should you focus on to make your online marketing more effective?

(A) Content
(B) Social media
(C) Search
(D) Analytics
(E) All of the above
(F)  None of the above

Answer: (F)

I told you this was a tough one.

If you answered (E) it wouldn’t be fair to give you an “F.” You studied the choices and decided it’s not all that effective to focus on just one ingredient in this complex recipe. They’re interdependent.

You’re right about that.

But you’re wrong to focus on tactics.

As marketers, we fall into this trap time and again. Right now, in offices everywhere, marketers’ pulses are racing with questions such as:

How will we produce video content?
What’s our Facebook strategy?
Should we revisit our keywords?
What’s producing the peaks and valleys in our website traffic?

These are good questions. I applaud you for asking them and agree whole-heartedly they demand thoughtful answers.

However, you need to push questions such as these to the backburner until you answer a far more important question…

What does the customer want?

The customer—I chose the singular for a reason. The most effective online marketers have one thing, the word “you,” written boldly on a sticky note and forever attached to their frontal lobes.

“You” is a person your marketing strategy must focus on, a word your copywriter must use, the living, breathing target market your designs need to appeal to and your social media specialist must connect with.

“You” has five senses. Can your marketing team state in no uncertain terms what he or she wants to see, hear, smell, touch and taste?

“You” opts in or out. “You” follows your company or a competitor. “You” either does or doesn’t find your pages and posts via search. “You” affects your numbers, but is far more complex than a zero or a one.

What’s wrong with “we?”

A month or so ago, I’m on the phone with a new client and his marketing team. They want my honest opinion about their home page, so I give it a quick once over and say, “It’s all so self-serving. The word ‘we’ is the subject of practically every sentence.

Someone on the other end of the line doesn’t like what I’ve said. “What’s wrong with we?,” he protests.

If I was in the same room, I might have kissed him for writing such a great line for me. Though it’s the bane of copywriters the world over, in one form or another, clients have been asking this question since the beginning of time.

I go on to explain the website visitor isn’t there for “we.” He’s not interested in your company. He’s dealing with a challenge. That issue got him a’ Googleing and lucky for you, it drove him here.

If you feed him a steady stream of “we, we, we,” and start singing your own praises, he’ll head right back to the search engine and find someone who’s sincerely interested in helping him solve his problem.

That’s what’s wrong with “we.”

Now for a clinic in “you.”

The most effective marketers focus on the customer. While it may be the oldest lesson in marketing communications, all you have to do is read corporate websites to be reminded how often it’s shunned.

Here’s how to forge your way down the more effective “you” path:

Develop detailed customer personas—You can’t push your customer’s hot buttons until you know what they are. Conduct research by interviewing and surveying customers, observing social media behaviors, mining data and asking the sales and support team for insights gained from their interactions. Tooled with the answers to what makes your customers tick, document fictional bios or personas to represent different types of customers.

Find the pleasure and the pain—The act of buying boils down to a person striving to avoid pain or increase pleasure. Yes, even in business. Understand what hurts and what makes the prospect’s heart race.

Recognize the hurdles—What might derail the sale? Potential hindrances often include price, terms, competitive offerings, approval protocols, risk, time frames, and lack of urgency. Take a proactive approach to addressing common deal breakers.

Re-orient your language—As soon as you find your communications creeping back in the direction of what you do, what you make and how you do business, stop. Retreat. Turn features into benefits. Turn around first and/or third person voiced propositions into a “you” statement or question.

Remember, how to win friends and influence people.

Make your prospect feel important—Demonstrate appreciation and give encouragement.

Arouse an eager want—These are Dale Carnegie’s words. As are these: “The only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it.”

Smile—In copy? Why not? Use welcoming, upbeat and friendly words and spread the love.

Personalize—Apply what you know to make your message as customized and personal as possible.

Talk in terms of the other person’s interests—There’s Carnegie again, delivering a copywriting 101 course.

And in Dale’s legendary guidebook, he writes, “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years trying to get other people interested in you.”

Track the changes that really matter.

The “you” path tends to take unexpected turns. That is to say, if you create a map and follow it forever more, you’re bound to get lost.

The goal is to connect with and meet the needs of your audience—people—and people change. Copyblogger reminds you of this in The Business Case for Agile Content Marketing.

So when you understand the need to be agile with your online marketing endeavors, it follows you’ll then stay perpetually tuned-in to the mindset of your target audience.

Remember the one thing that doesn’t change.

You’re not going to dig into any deeply useful source about content that doesn’t get into search, about social that doesn’t get into content, and every other conceivable combination.

These tactics are awesome. In this age dominated by all things digital, marketing is more fascinating than ever.

However, the landscape evolves faster than ever. In the field of marketing, the lines will continue to blur. The tools and tactics we rely on will continue to change.

The need to focus on the customer will not.

Now hear this.

This article was originally published on Copyblogger. Soon after, podcaster Chuck Bartock created an audiobook version of it, you can hear here.

Barry Feldmann Talking about the YOU in Marketing by Chuck Bartok on Mixcloud

> GET A COPY OF:
“The Plan to Grow Your Business with Effective Online Marketing.”

(Yesterday, a new client told me it’s the most informative and fun eBook she’s ever read. Seriously.)

Apr

When to Shut Your Social Trap

Stop the press. I had a different idea for the blog here at The Point this week. But then I read, “Be helpful, be kind, or be quiet,” by a friend from Raven Tools, Courtney Seiter. Her article was recognized and shared, but not nearly enough, in my opinion. So with a great big shout out to a terrific scribe, I present a guest post that’s a must read for social media marketers who don’t know when to give it a rest.

Be helpful, be kind or be quiet

Apr

Content Marketing: How to Get Started – Video Interview: HubSpot & Feldman Creative

Courtesy of the killer content creators @ Vertical Measures

One fantabulous thing about the Google/YouTube/Google+ connection (the links here are to my YouTube and Google+ pages) is how easy it is to create, publish and share video content. This interview recorded just a few weeks ago is a great example. Arnie Kuenn, founder of Vertical Measures, gave me my first guest blogging opportunity just a couple of years ago.

Read: “Is the Main Ingredient Missing from Your Content Marketing?”

Since then, I’ve read his great book, Accelerate, and come to know him well. We tend to cross paths at the same industry conferences and contribute to each other’s websites with written and recorded content.

Recently, I was asked to appear on a Google Hangout along with the CMO of HubSpot, Mike Volpe. I was thrilled to get the invitation and really enjoyed the opportunity. Vertical Measures then published the interview on their website and blog, Google+, and YouTube.

Pretty simple content creation task and massive bang for the buck (it’s free).

Arnie made the format incredibly simple too. He really had one question…

“How do you get started with content marketing?”

Invest 15 minutes and see what answers Mike and I offered.

Arnie: Hi I’m Arnie Kuenn with Vertical Measures and welcome to today’s Google Hangout. I’ve got with me today Barry Feldman and Mike Volpe. I’m going to let them introduce themselves before we jump into our topic which is going to be about how to get started in content marketing. So Barry, why don’t you go first?

Barry: Thanks for having me Arnie. I’m the principal, founder of Feldman Creative. Feldman Creative is copywriting, creative direction, and content marketing consultancy. I’ve been a copywriter growing up in the ad biz for years and years, and when the world turned digital, I did too. So now I like to call myself an online marketer.

Arnie: Great. And Mike- how bout you?

Mike: I’m Mike Volpe, Chief Marketing Officer at HubSpot. I’ve been with the company for 6 years now- I was the 5th employee and first marketing hire and have since built out the team, the blog, social, and all that stuff. I’m happy to talk about that or whatever you want.

Arnie: Well, super. And congratulations to both of you from different perspectives. Barry –you making it out of traditional to digital and Mike for building a great company. You’ve done a great job there. So the topic is…we get asked, do a lot of content marketing workshops, we do webinars, hangouts like this, and meet with customers face-to-face and we still get asked how to get started with content marketing. So I was hoping that maybe each of you could take a couple of minutes to tell a business (maybe small, medium, and large) on how they can get started and tackle content marketing today. Barry, do you want to start?

Barry: I’d be happy to. I get the question to and what’s usually the response to me sort of preaching the gospel about why and when somebody understands why, then they say how. I think the answer to how or where to get started resembles any marketing at large is how to get started with marketing. What’s it for? It’s to accomplish something. Therefore you get started with objectives. You establish what your objectives are. They don’t need to be fancy. I think people get a little paralyzed by that one. Your objective can be to generate traffic, generate leads or build authority. There all sort of inter-related. If you commit to those, you put them down on paper, so people get that. Then you forge a plan. I guess that’s really the question. What does that plan entail? Given that we are all sort of digitally oriented here, I’m going to couch my answer in the realm of digital. Because I think you can do content marketing online or offline, and I think we are mostly talking about online? I hope I’m not stealing Mike’s thunder but I’m going to quote hub spot here because that’s how I got started. Hub spot has said for ages and is one of my favorite things and is “Keywords are the new neon signs” If you sell coffee and your trying to appeal to someone driving down the road, and there is a neon sign that says “Hot Coffee”. If you want people to discover the fact that you sell hot coffee that would be your keyword. How do you go about discovering the keywords that are going to drive your business? That to me is the question on how to get started on content marketing. Where do you go to be successful and learn how to be a keyword discoverer, figure out what people are looking for? That is what inbound marketing is, and content marketing is the big car that drives inbound marketing. I think the answer to that is you listen. You listen online, that’s a different topic but I think we can teach people how to do that with the modern tools of today. And you can read, read, read, I know I am a ferocious reader, you identify who the influences are. Arnie you may remember I identified you as an influence after reading your book, and I said “can I write for you?” That was actually my first blog. And I said “wow that was great, people are tweeting me” and you said “that’s how it works dude.” Then you asked for customers. I don’t know why people resist that. You want to know what they want to know. Which is the keyword discovery process. Ask them. I’ll quote Jack, our copy blogger now. What people forget, content marketing, keywords, the conversation you’re having changes, it changes every day. They have a theme going on, on their site about agility, about being agile. You have to recognize the conversation is going to evolve, and therefore you have to plug into it. Ultimately when it comes down to the question “how do I get started, what is it, what do I do?” You plug into the keywords, and you join the conversation. That is what content marketing is. The keywords and the conversation. You have to get a grasp on that. You have to get a grasp on the four pillars that you hear about from HubSpot. The social, the search, the content and the analytics. You’re well on your way to influencing the most important influencers of them all, your customers.

Mike: I think a lot of what Barry said is spot on. To me it really boils down to the customers, and understanding the customers. What do I mean by that? I mean the biggest change that we’ve seen, all of us in buyers, is that buyers no longer want to be advertised to, and marketed to and bothered all day long. They don’t want to get cold calls, the don’t want to be watching a video show and go “oh wait we have to stop and pause for an advertisement, that you don’t want to see.” But people are still buying things. What we need to do is figure out how do we attract them toward you. How do you make any sort of marketing to be the other way around and have it be much more inbound? Content is a really, really important part of that. How I like to think about it and talk to folks is, get a deep, deep understanding of who your customers are. Both your current customers and your potential customers. Then figure out what is the thing you can publish, that would be the best publication for your industry niche? What would be the thing what would be the thing when they wake up in the morning and say I need to read this, or watch this, or I need to listen to this, so that you are really capturing their attention. You need to think a lot more like a media company, or sort of a publisher. That’s an uncomfortable change for most marketers. Most marketers wake up every day and say I want to create an advertisement. But the problem is none of your customers wake up and say I want to go watch an advertising or read an advertisement. You need to think about what are the things that are going to attract them to you. Whether your customers wake up and say I want to learn about something, I want to learn more about this, I want to learn about something else, or I want to get some industry benchmarks. Whatever that thing is, whatever that content is that is going to attract them to you. That is what you need to figure out how to produce. How do you basically become the New York Times for your industry?

Arnie: One of the things that I like to tell people when I’m giving my presentations or whatever’s I think one of the fastest ways to get started is to get your team together, your staff together whoever it is that’s interfacing and talking to clients and prospects and just ask them what do they get asked all the time. What is that are your customers or prospects concerns, education points. One of the fastest in points I think. I don’t know if you agree with that, or how you feel about that.

Mike: I personally agree with that. I think tactically the questions that people are asking you all the time, or your salespeople, whoever it is in your organization, those are a great place to start. Before they asked you that question, they typed that question into Google.

Barry: I got to say the customers empower, the customers going to ask the question and the customer is going to find the answer. The answer is going to come from content. Will it be your answer?

Arnie: They are going to find either you or your competitor.

Barry: Can we give Marcus Sheridan on the line? Were pretty well acquainted with him. The customers are asking questions, answer them. I think the thing he demonstrates the best is when he says raise your hands everybody in attendance if you website has information on what your product costs. One person raises their hand. Why? Doesn’t everybody ask that?

Arnie: I’ll point this at Mike and then maybe we’ll let Barry wrap it up. Mike I recently seen some research which you guys are awesome at producing really good content, and really good fact based stuff. About the time it takes before the curve really starts to grow for you, I thought that was awesome. I can still remember years ago starting Vertical Measures, blogging at night, knowing that no one was reading this stuff. But I had to. You don’t get a hundred hits in one day, it’s a slow, slow process. I remember the graph and you can speak to it. It seemed like it took 6-9 months of really good consistently producing content before that curve really started to go. Once it goes it really does go. Were proof of that here at vertical measures? If you could speak to that.

Mike: You’re totally right. I think 6-9 months is about the right time frame to think about. I think what you’re really referring to is that there is a huge difference between inbound marketing versus advertising. The cool part is that if you write about the blog articles over time, even your old blog articles continue to work for you. We’ve been blogging for six years now, we’ve written about 4,000 articles. The interesting thing is when I look at the leads were getting from our blogs, the new business were getting from our blog, 70% of that is from articles we didn’t write this past month. It is stuff that we have written previously that ranked really high in Google, that’s answering peoples questions, that people are still sharing on social, people have bookmarked, people are emailing, their finding it in all these different ways. That’s really the benefit. That there’s this accumulating benefits. Even if we stopped blogging for a month we would still get a lot of benefit because we built up all this content. It’s basically an asset for our business. With advertising the second you stop paying Google that bill for pay-per-click traffic, the traffic goes away 100%. It is totally gone. While advertising can start faster, it can start instantly, it also ends instantly. So your right, it can take a while for this inbound stuff to build up, but it pays big, big dividends over time, even if you sort of coast for a while. It works differently. You need to think about it as building up an asset. Not just this month to month, or day to day expense.

Arnie: Not that we endorse the concept of coasting.

Mike: Of course not. Once you realize the asset works you want to do more of it. But you could if you wanted to.

Arnie: Barry I think this will be the last question, then we’ll wrap it up but… I know you made the transition, maybe you can talk about that from a patience level or just whatever you have experienced before things started taking off for you. I think you have done a great job and I have followed your writings, various blogs on your own platform and you’ve made that transition. Maybe you can talk about that real quick.

Barry: Am I blushing? It definitely is snowballs. Arnie, you’re in Arizona. Snowballs are like when you take snow and make balls out of them. It’s a cumulative effect. I think you both mentioned 6-9 months, I think you going to see when I have clients that want to dive in, I think you’re going to see progress immediately. You’re going to see the arrows going in the right direction. We have data and were going to show it to you. If we are going in the wrong direction you’re going to replace those with somebody who is better at it. In terms of critical mass where it’s meaningful, I think 6-9 months makes sense. There’s a whole hell of a lot of variables in there. I think really a underevaluated or underappreciated factor is guest blogging. I have been blogging for a couple of years now and there is still a modest amount of people who come to feldmancreative.com and read my stuff. It’s also on your site and it’s also on copy blogger and it’s also on social media blank dot com. There’s tactics and I got clients who are enormously impatient and I talk to them about pay per click and so forth. But your question to like then and now, I think Mike answered that one. You know there’s no such thing as the post card hall of fame, or the letter hall of fame. You don’t get postcards and frame them and put them on your wall and refer to them later. You either responded to them or you threw them out. That is not the case with digital assets. Digital assets like Mike talked about, and to the stories I have contributed to your blog or this hangout hopefully will make rain for ever more because they are archived. They are based on keywords and conversations people want to have. That really is the difference. There’s no wasting your time in digital marketing. If you are plugged into the conversation you’re going to succeed, when I don’t know. Something I wanted to add that I didn’t before is with this agility idea that copyblogger has been mentioning a lot is in addition to understanding what to write about. The question is I want to go into content marketing, what do I create? I think the new question is, where do I put it? A year ago, or two years ago I said you put it on Pinterest that would be a pretty dumb thing to say because there was no such thing as Pinterest. Things are changing in fast motion. That’s entirely unique to digital. You have to have your finger on the pulse to where the audience is.

Arnie: I’ll wrap it up by saying that whoever is watching this, reading this because it will be transcribed put on our blog, and who knows where else it will wind up, you do have to just dive in and don’t give up. Keep at it. There will be in the beginning the feeling that no one is paying attention, no one’s reading and no one’s engaging. That is exactly the case. Unless you are amazingly lucky, it does not happen overnight. It will happen if you keep writing good quality stuff. I want to thank you Barry, thank you Mike. I really appreciate your time. We will see you all next month.

Barry: Thanks Arrnie, thanks Mike.

Mike: Thanks, bye guys.

Apr

Is Social Media as Worthless as the Telephone?

Welcome to the Theater of the Absurd.

Today we present “Is Social Media as Worthless as the Telephone?” Playwright Barry Feldman explained the inspiration for his one-act play came from having read 7,777 articles about how C-level executives don’t recognize the value of social media and seldom endorse its use.

The scene takes place in the chief executive’s office at a business enterprise.

Please silence your mobile phones.

John
Have a seat Marty. It’s good to see you. Would you like a scotch?

Marty
Scotch sir? It’s 9 o’clock in the morning.

John
Right, right. It is early. Just want you to be comfortable. Would you prefer a beer?

Marty
If it’s okay with you sir, coffee would be just great.

John
Suit yourself buckwheat. And please, call me John.

Marty
Yes sir. Er, Mr. President.

John
John. Call me John.

Marty
Yes, yes, John.

John
So what have you got for me Marty? Connie mentioned you sent me a memo. I never get to the damn things, but she said you wanted to show me something you thought would be useful for the business. Is that right?

Marty
Yes sssssrrrr—yes, John. Let me get right to it. I know you’re busy.
(Reaches into his case and sets his device on the president’s desk.)
This is it. It’s called a telephone.

John
I’m listening.

Marty
Great. Well John, the telephone is really ingenious. With it, you can communicate with people, anybody, any where. They don’t need to be in the same room. Each user has a number, so you simply press the buttons and if they’re there, they pick up this part, the handset, and you can hear each other talk.

John
Well I’ll be damned. That’s very clever. What will they think of next?

Marty
Only time will tell. I suspect there could come a time when you might be able to record the conversations, speak with more than one person at a time. You never know. Maybe someday a pocket-sized version will allow you to take it with you.

John
Pocket-sized!? Why that’s very funny Marty. Maybe someday it’ll give you directions to a nearby bar. No, I got it: you’ll be able to watch football games with the damn thing.
(John laughs his ass off. Marty shrinks.)
So tell me son, how would this help us grow the business? It seems like a distraction to me. I would think you’d use the thing, uh, what did you say it was called?

Marty
It’s called a telephone.

John
Right, right, right. Catchy name. So what I was saying is if you had one of these telephone machines, you might talk to your friends, your family… You know what I mean son? How would you get any work done?

Marty
Great question Marty. My theory is while it’s true you could talk on the telephone with your friends, here at Innovation Global Enterprises, we could use it to talk to our customers and our partners. We could build relationships.

John
I think your heart’s in the right place John, but I guess I’m the president of this taco stand for a reason. We don’t want to build relationships. We have a business to run. Priorities. You understand.

Marty
Excellent point sir, but if you don’t mind me saying so, I think if we built relationships by having conversations with people and sharing ideas, we would in turn, build our business. The people we spoke to might even call their friends and tell them about what we make.

John
I like you John. You might be a little green and naïve in the ways of business, but you dream big. Those are some interesting ideas you have about communications, even if they are a little, er, how should I say…? Whacked.

Marty
Sir, I think I might have that beer now.

John
That’s my boy. Here you go. Try this one. They call it “Lite.” Seems to weigh just as much as any other 12-ounce can, but they say it tastes great and it’s less filling.

Marty
Thank you sir, John. So could I ask you to consider what I’ve said here today?

John
I must have missed something. Tell me again why we’d want our people using this fancy machine to talk to customers?

Marty
Lots of reasons. They might have questions we can answer for them. If they were having problems with the products, we could tell them how to solve them.

John
You want the company to answer questions and solve our customers’ problems? We have products to make and we must sell them. I’m not running a charity here son.

Marty
Yes, sir, but I was thinking if we could be the company people trusted as a resource for information and advice, they might buy even more of our products.

John
It’s a very nice thought Marty. It’s admirable how you young ‘uns like to embrace all the abstract ideas about community and love and all that touchy, feely shit. It really is. Will there be anything else John? I have the advertising agency coming in very soon. They said they wanted to talk about some box that has channels people can turn on to watch people talk and tell jokes.

Marty
Right, right. They’re probably talking about the television.

John
Television! Right! I think that was it. Telephone. Television. I don’t know how anybody can keep up with all these tele-things.

Marty
Well, things do tend to change very fast in media. People want to share their experiences.
(Marty gets up to leave.)
I’ll get out of your hair now sir.

John
Marty, I’m a fair guy. And you know, I wouldn’t have got to where I am today if I wasn’t open to new things and new ideas. You kids coming out of college sure have a lot of them. Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to think about this telephone device. I might even buy one for the office.

Marty
You may like it.

John
No, no. I’m too old to be screwing around with fancy technology. But maybe someone here could use it to talk on. They could call up people that don’t buy our products, maybe at dinner time when everyone’s home and tell them when we’re having a sale and that sort of thing. I want you to do something for me Marty. Play around with that one you have and bring me a report. I’d like to see some documented evidence that this sort of thing has a return on investment. I call it ROI. Get it? ROI. It’s an abbreviation for return on investment.

Marty
Good one sir. And thank you for the beer. It really was very light.

John
Damn straight my boy. Some brewery came up with some fancy way to take out a lot of the calories. Just goes to show you son, you can’t put the brakes on innovation.

THE END

FREE-B!

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Mar

The Top 10 Leading Website Conversion Killers

Special thanks to Convince and Convert
for this image and publishing
the original version of this article.

Let’s talk about website conversion…

Four years ago, my friend Marcus Sheridan discovered the power of content marketing and rescued his nearly bankrupt pool and spa business. He dove deep into blogging and propelled River Pools and Spas to a dominant leadership position in his home state of Virginia.

Today, while still maintaining partial ownership of the pool business, Marcus, a.k.a. “The Sales Lion,” is a very in-demand online marketing consultant and speaker. While he credits much of his success to his ascent up the ranks in search, he’ll be the first to tell you getting found is merely the beginning.

If you want to be successful, you need to understand how to get your website visitors to click around and stick around.

I’ve seen what sabotages websites.

I offer a free consulting service called “webVision.” Sounds fancy. It’s not.

Instead of relentlessly exchanging emails or doing a pre-crafted sales pitch, I get on the phone and screen with a new business prospect to examine the company’s website and online marketing properties aiming to explore ways to make them more effective.

Screen-sharing freebies make this easy and, well, free. But it’s valuable. I’m not harping on webVision to get you to signup (though I offer a link if you’re interested).

I want to share my take-aways with you, the common mistakes I see website owners making that discourage new business prospects from getting into the website or getting any closer to becoming a customer.

Ten leading “conversion repellents.”

1. Conversion aversion

This is probably the web’s leading contributor to back-buttonitis. Sufferers of this disorder can’t even justly claim to have crappy conversion rates because they have no definition of conversion.

Owwwwwch. I scour the home page looking for instructions on what to do next and I come up empty. Naturally, I ask my prospect…

“What is it you want the first time visitor to do?”

Bad answer #1: Go to our contact page and fill out the form there. C’mon, really? I’m not saying this will never happen, but it’s naïve to believe it will happen often. Please, think like your gun-shy, skeptical, research-conducting visitor. Offer a reasonable baby step.

Bad answer #2: I’m not sure (what I want visitors to do). One word of advice: decide.

Probably a bad answer: Buy our stuff. I’ll accept this answer if your stuff is inexpensive, easy to understand, easy to buy and risk-free. In fact, if your sale meets these qualifications it’s a good answer. If it doesn’t, it’s borderline nuts.

2. Page pollution

This one’s dangerously rampant. Your home page, or worse yet, your campaign-specific landing page, is crowded, confusing, and poorly designed.

No one wants to wade through a messy page. And they won’t. Make the page welcoming, simple, and clean. Go easy on the options. Keep the noise level down. In fact, silence is golden. Auto-play audio and video is a nasty tactic. This is your lobby. It has to be tidy, welcoming, and comfy.

3. Keyword disconnect

Your website traffic comes from other websites. Search engines and pay-per-click campaigns are likely to be your top draws. So keyword continuity is paramount. Conversely, keyword disconnect is lethal. Meaning…

The term the visitor used to discover your content, or at the very least, the concept behind the term, must jump off the page into the reader’s brain. Don’t choke on this opportunity or forget this tip. Deliver what the visitor came to find.

Your landing page should reassure the reader he’s come to the right place. Relevance is the key to conversion. So, if you’re running specific campaigns, via search, PPC, social media, guest blogging, or what have you, the headline the visitor discovers upon arrival should map to the phrase they just clicked.

4. Incredibility

As a marketer, you’re either going to establish trust or you’re not. The trust you earn traces to the credibility you conjure.

One way or another, your website newbie needs to find signs which indicate you know your stuff. If you haven’t yet written a book, the “social proof” (or evidence) surfers seek can come from articles, videos, reports, case studies, testimonials, badges, certifications, press releases, and so on. Even links to social media will serve this cause.

And besides talking the talk, you have must walk the walk. Be honest, candid, and demonstrate integrity in every word uttered or written. Your website has to prove you’re a credible problem solver. Publishing a brochure won’t do.

5. No help

As the hub and home of your online marketing, your website should wear a friendly face that says, “Come on in and allow us to help you solve your business problems.”

However, far too many companies confuse the idea with the more conventional voice: “You’ve come to the right place for the best [product type here]. Now click here and buy it.” This is pushy, which naturally, pushes people away.

If you want visitors to get into your site and value your company, you’ll offer informative and helpful content. Executing the strategy requires offering a blog, where the prospect easily gathers good advice about the business issues he wrestles with daily. You’ll also want to further empower your prospects by packaging useful content in multiple forms such as eBooks, videos, podcasts and webinars, offered at no cost, with no risk.

6. A one-way web

On a one-way website, information flows from the your company to the visitor, period. There are no fields to fields to fill in, no email or RSS feeds to capture contact information, no place to make comments or requests, to ask questions, contribute ideas, complain or even give compliments.

Don’t make this mistake. Make a website that encourages interaction. Take advantage of every opportunity to engage the audience, let them know you’re listening, interested in their point of view, and eager to have them come back in the future.

7. Anti-social

You can wow customers with content, woo them by demonstrating how much you care, or whisk them away with an anti-social stance.

Prospects expect your company to express interest in them with ongoing interaction via social media. If you deprive them of sharing, you deprive your company of all kinds of opportunities for building relationships, increasing your reach and earning referrals.

Social Media Examiner’s Patricia Redsicker delivers powerful ideas in her article, “3 Easy Steps to Engaging Your Customers.”

8. Hard sell

I came across a funny Valentine’s Day themed article that pointed out how preposterous it would be to propose marriage on a first date. Though it’s more of a smart practice than a rule, for most businesses, it’s a big turnoff to ask first time visitors to break out their wallets. Cool your jets and do some nurturing first.

9. Unsearchable

If your site is rich with resources, it’s risky to ask visitors to scour through the pages to find what they seek. Put a simple search field on your home page and use content filters where they’ll help speed access to the content prospects might want.

Understand the segments and personas you serve and place obvious signposts where they will help direct traffic. What’s more, allow visitors to qualify themselves so specific segments of your potential customer base can be addressed more personally and as pragmatically as possible.

10. No direction

Nine points ago, I pointed out the ironic “conversion aversion” that stands between you and success. An equally potent form of self-sabotage is all too prevalent: web pages, or worse, entire websites that fail to provide clear directions.

Put yourself inside the mind of the busy, multitasking, and unknowing visitor who knows not where to go and what to do. Tell her. Don’t be coy, cute or mysterious. Have a loud, proud call-to-action on every page pointing the way to the next step in the buying cycle. Make it easy to find and painstakingly clear why it’s beneficial to CLICK HERE NOW.

Your quick checklist.

I’ll leave you with a cheat sheet.

• Define conversion
• Make the website clean
• Connect with keywords
• Nix the jargon
• Foster credibility
• Offer helpful content
• Inspire interaction
• Embrace social media
• Nurture
• Make the site easy to search
• Direct the visitor

Do yourself a favor. Review the entire list and make sure your website has zero conversion repellents. And tet to work giving visitors every reason to get into your website.

Free eBook:
> Download
“21 Pointers to
Sharpen Your
Website.”

Mar

7 Things Thought Leaders Don’t Think

What’s with this thought leadership pandemic? The term’s getting tossed around today like a dollar store foam football. In my mind, this makes for a great analogy of its value.

I’m a thought reader. I’m a thought needer. Given my love for blogging (and obvious affection for opinionating), I think it’d be fair to say I’m even a thought feeder.

But I’m not a thought leader. Neither are you. Okay cool, we now know at least two of us here in cyberspace are not thought leaders.

Is there a formula for thought leadership?

No. Hell no.

Despite what you may have been told by the wanna-be thought leaders who so generously offer convenient instruction manuals for becoming a thought leader, no formula produces one.

Though there are a variety of ingredients thought leaders share, there’s no recipe. There’s no thought leadership department at Walmart and no webinar, conference, eBook, podcast, infographic, pin board, or blog with the magic power to convert you into a thought leader.

I hope I haven’t ruined your day. I don’t mean to be a downer dude. I think the world of thought leaders. I think you should definitely aspire to become an authority in your field. I also think you most definitely should share your ideas by publishing useful content online. It’s a powerful strategy for building your brand.

However, you need to be credible every step of the way. Wander into the land of self-proclaimed thought leadership and your credibility dies a sudden (and deserved) death. Thought leaders don’t call themselves thought leaders. They don’t think that way.

What else don’t thought leaders think?

Thank you for asking. I’ve created a list.

1. 1.    Twitter is the road to Thought Leadership City.
   
   Twitter is awesome. It’s my favorite platform for exchanging ideas, making new connections, and building relationships. I credit social media at large for profoundly changing our lives in so many ways. It has given experts of every type a means to amplify their messages and accelerate their teaching, so its implications for marketing are enormous.Perhaps it’s fair to say social media does pave the way for many new opportunities, but it doesn’t take you to a place called “Thought Leadership.” It gives you a great microphone, so it definitely can allow you to be heard by a bigger audience and potentially command even greater influence. But it doesn’t give you the revolutionary ideas that will anoint you a thought leader.

1. 2.    Authoring a book makes thought leadership automatic.
   
   It’s never been easy to write a book and it never will be. But it’s true; it has become immensely easier to publish a book—or anything. Hurdles that might have formerly blocked the path to publishing have been removed. So we have more books now. I’m not sure we have more great books though.Essentially, we’re segued over to content marketing with this one. The content doesn’t have to be a book. However, just as social media itself doesn’t make you brilliant, a publication with your name on it doesn’t either.

1. 3.    Calling myself a thought leader makes me a thought leader.
   
   This is so untrue, I was compelled to write an article about it. Read “You Are So Not the Thought Leader You Think” published at ‘The Point.” I’d like to call myself a professional tennis player, but I’m a mediocre club-level player. Want lessons?
3. 4.    All those convenient shortcuts to thought leadership are so useful.
   
   I can’t imagine graduating from a course with a degree in thought leadership. I hope you can’t either. It strikes me as laughable that a seminar, eBook, video, or any teaching tool can transform you or anyone into a thought leader. An article titled, “Write a Thought-Leadership Corporate Blog in Just 5 Minutes a Week” inspired me to add this “shortcut” idea to my list (as well as add a few thoughts to the article’s commentary stream).

1. 5.    Evangelism makes me a thought leader.
   
   Don’t let this observation of mine discourage you. If you have strong convictions about a topic and believe your word will help others, by all means, be an evangelist. I’m doing my part by speaking on and writing about content marketing here, there and everywhere. It doesn’t make me a thought leader though. It makes me an evangelist.

1. 6.    Joining a thought leadership group makes me a thought leader.
   
   Nice try. I’m sure you’ll find thought leader groups on LinkedIn and no doubt there are MeetUps and clubs featuring “Thought Leader” in their names. Chances are pretty good, getting involved in these will have you rubbing elbows with some strong thinkers and inspire some great ideas.I’ve been attending a MeetUp about business speaking (and joined some LinkedIn groups focusing on the topic). I find myself surrounded by experienced speakers, gathering helpful ideas for speaking, and I now take advantage of opportunities to speak. So I’m a speaker now. However, joining these groups didn’t make me a speaker. I made myself one.

1. 7.    Thinking makes me a thought leader.
   
   This one is so obvious we probably shouldn’t give it another thought. Instead, I’ll expand the statement by adding:You also shouldn’t think being a leader makes you a thought leader.Everyone thinks and there’s no shortage of leaders.I do a fair share of leading. I’m the leader on many marketing projects. I’ve been the leader, that is, manager, of an old guys’ softball team for decades. I get to decide who’s on the team, what positions they play, and what order the players bat in. I don’t have thoughts that will change the direction of the sacred sport.

Thank goodness for thought leaders.

See, I value the thought leaders of the world as much as you or anybody. No, you won’t win my respect by telling me you are one. No, you can’t count on tools and techniques to transform you into one. Thinking and talking about it means diddly. And studying thought leadership or hobnobbing with thought leaders may be meaningful, but it’s not magical.

Thought leadership just isn’t a moniker you toss on your resume.

Thought leaders are the men and women with ideas with the power to change the world. Their vision causes us to recalibrate ours. Their conviction stomps on the status quo and grinds it into the ground. Their passion for progress renders fear completely useless. They don’t subscribe to formulas nor do they attempt to create them.

Steve Jobs was a thought leader. You might say he was an arrogant one. He offended people left and right and left a trail of suck-ups and pretenders in his wake. You couldn’t even offend him back. Steve was ruthless. He was relentless. And he revolutionized this world in meaningful ways.

However opinionated this article might be, my observations in the paragraph above are not opinions. They are incontrovertible facts. What you are doing right now is the result of the work of a thought leader in a black mock-tee who made a big badass dent in the world by giving us tools to help us be creative.

He’d infuriate his teammates. If you didn’t see things his way, he’d flip you two middle fingers. If you put Steve Jobs in thought leadership school, he’d fail every course. Thought leaders create their own course.

That’s what I think about thought leadership. What do you think?

Mar

You Are So Not the Thought Leader You Think

Our story begins with a little sketch from the soon-to-be-infamous Theater of the Absurd…

LORI
Welcome to Thought Leader Land. Can I help you find what you need?

PHIL
Yes, thank you. My name is Phil.
I suppose I need a thought leader on weight loss.

LORI
Perfect. Why did I know you were going to say that?

PHIL
Beats me. Maybe because I’m enormously fat.

LORI
Perfect. Well, we can definitely help. We have two thought leaders specializing in obesity arbitration. We have one prominent thought leader in physical exercise theory as well as the world’s leading mind-shaping pioneer in the area of eating less—although I’m told she’s been feeling ill, poor thing. Do you have any preferences?

PHIL
Hmm. Tough one because I’m an avid supporter of Exercise Anonymous, but I also have a tendency to eat quite a bit. Some people even think of me as a leader in the exciting new field of perpetual waistline expansion. I may need some other thought leader options.

LORI
Perfect. Well, we have a new thought leader here. The profile he wrote about himself says he’s the world’s leading thinker on magic. Let me buzz him. Ope! No need. He just appeared out of thin air. Merlin, this is Phil and he’s interested to hear your thinking, preferably leading thoughts, on magical slenderfication strategies.

Happens all the time, right?

Show me someone who calls himself a thought leader and I’ll show you a wanker.

You don’t need to show me. I can find my own thought leaders. And I have. In my travels on Twitter, I’ve seen a handful of twits, er, I mean, tweeps, burn 14 characters of their precious profile space to describe themselves as “thought leader.”

I had to know how many Twitter users actually do this. Using Tweepz, a handy and free search app for Twitter, I discovered 815 people bold enough to claim the title. Not bad, I guess. It’s a very slight slice of the very large Twitterverse.

When I stumble into a self-proclaimed thought leader, I unfollow them. Thumb down. Immediate grounds for unlike, uncircle, unsubscribe. I might even unpin ‘em if their pins weren’t so damn thoughtful.

It’s awfully pretentious to call yourself a thought leader, isn’t it? If you’re worth oodles of money, would you introduce yourself as a billionaire? Charming. Let’s say for the sake of argument, you’re unquestionably a looker. I hope you wouldn’t say, “Hello, I’m a sex symbol.” Sounds kind of unattractive, no?

So c’mon, even if you ARE a legitimate thought leader, who cares? Who’s looking for one? I can see people looking for leading thoughts, but thought leaders? It’s a turnoff. Maybe that’s just me. Feel free to disagree.

In my opinion, calling yourself a thought leader negates your credibility. It’s like a creative person telling you he “thinks outside the box.” It screams “uncreative” to me. Pitch yourself as honest and I suspect you’re a liar. Tell me your product is reliable and I can’t help wonder if you’re wrestling with a reliability issue.

What’s so special about having thoughts anyway?

Would this be some sort of unique trait? Everyone thinks, I think. Try to not have thoughts. Now that would unique.

The pursuit of thought leadership—I’m good with that.

I don’t want you to take this tirade wrong. In my opinion, aiming to be a thought leader is noble. It’s smart. In fact, in this media noisefest we’ve come to call social media, it’s downright important to pursue a goal such as this. You’re in the content marketing game to establish authority, build a tribe, and lead it. This type of marketing strategy is undeniably effective.

So go for it. Think. Lead. Publish. Share. Advise. Influence. Hell, throw thought leader parties if you want. But don’t tell me you’re a thought leader. Just be one.

Thought leadership for dummies.

How’s that for an oxymoron?

In all sincerity though, I’d like to be helpful here. I’ll be honest too. No really. Trust me.

You can take from this article, some great ideas for pursuing thought leadership as a marketing strategy. All credit here goes to Kuno Creative, an established new media agency I admire very much. They published a really useful guide, “How to Become a Thought Leader in Your Industry,” which I endorse whole-heartedly and recommend you download. If you seek a thought leader for enterprise inbound marketing, look no further. The Kuno Klan knows the territory.

Kuno’s publication defines thought leadership, explains its value, prepares you for the journey, and offers a 7-step plan, summarized like so:

1. • Develop your personal brand and voice
2. • Create and maintain a blog
3. • Produce a variety of interesting and engaging advanced content
4. • Establish yourself on social media
5. • Answer reporter queries and other questions
6. • Write guest articles and blogs
7. • Speak at conferences and events 

Awesome advice. I’m trying as hard as I possibly can to follow the formula. Yes sir, I want to be a thought leader. I encourage you to do the same.

Tell me if I can help you. Tell me how it’s going. Tell me what you know. But please, don’t tell me you’re a thought leader. Real leaders are humble.

Mar

Content Marketing Isn’t for Everybody

I shouldn’t recommend content marketing to everyone. It’s dangerous. And not everyone has the skills to cut it.

But I can’t stop myself. I believe in content marketing. It works. So I write about it and deliver free seminars on the subject. But to do it effectively, it’s you that has to believe in it.

Mr. Big Mouth…

I suppose I don’t beg my clients to get into it. I suggest it.

Then, typically, I answer questions about what content marketing is and how it works. I cite examples of how some brands are rising above the noise, enjoying the benefits of search success, expanding their community, and making money because of their efforts.

And then I get the green light. And then we go. And then we stall. And then we stop. And then we’re forced to admit, we wasted time and money.

So I wish I had kept my mouth shut.

A great website isn’t the key to the treasure chest.

Most of these ill-fated forays into content marketing begin when I get contacted to create a new website, which is often. I consult with my client and we forge a plan to make a great website. I refer often to my eBook on the subject, “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website,” and use it as a guide to the strategies we’ll pursue.

Along the way, it’s nearly impossible to avoid subjects such as blogging, search, social, and some of the other tricks of the trade. Why? Because the best website in the world won’t make you a dime unless people come to it and find themselves engaged with the content there.

There I go again. I can’t stop spouting the gospel.

I want my clients to understand the key to effective online marketing, or any marketing, is to get customers to know, like and trust you. That’s a high bar seldom achieved with a heavy dependence on ad or brochure-like communications.

Ugh. Stop me now before I talk you into doing content marketing against your will.

There are good reasons to do content marketing and there are bad reasons. Let’s get to the bad ones now.

Bad reasons to do content marketing.

1. Content marketing is where marketing is at right now.

Most big brands, your household names, are pouring it on with blogs, magazines, apps, video, eBooks and all kinds of compelling content aimed at being educational and/or entertaining. Done well, the content draws the company and customer closer together, emotionally speaking, and loyalty and word of mouth is ignited in the process.

So, yeah, content marketing is en fuego. That doesn’t mean you need to do it too.

Don’t do content marketing because it’s hot. Don’t do it because that’s where media is going. Don’t do it because your competitors are doing it, your friends are doing it, your mom’s doing it, or the crowd’s doing it.

Content marketing isn’t for followers. It’s for leaders.

2. You don’t have to buy media.

True. No doubt, it’s incredibly intoxicating to startups, smaller companies, or any company attempting to rein in the spending. Though there are certainly exceptions, most companies are seeing their return on investment in advertising, direct mail, and the gamut of “outbound” marketing wither away and die.

The sting that comes from burning money—or the job insecurity that comes from flimsy results—tends to grease the skids for joining the great content craze.

Sure, in content marketing, you dial-down or eliminate the traditional media spend. However, you can’t escape the need to “use” media, for lack of a better word. So you have to make media, be media, or earn media.

There’s a learning curve. And guess what? You never reach the top of it. Though you may master the tools in reasonably short order, you’ll never be able to stop investing in learning. Translate: content marketing requires expertise. Expertise takes time. Time is money. The discipline isn’t as free as it may seem.

And what about earned media? It’s even more important than “owned” media (what I was writing about before). To get people on your website to do business with you, you have to make yourself known elsewhere on the web—in the news, on other blogs, throughout social media and social commerce.

There’s a secret to all this earned media stuff. Your content has to be great, as in worth publishing, worth sharing, worth praising.

Content marketing isn’t for media amateurs. It’s for professionals.

3. You want to join the conversation.

A brand is essentially the sum of what people say about it. We’re connected and social now. And that’s not all. We’re hypercritical, hyperactive and so hyper-online, we’re barely offline when we sleep. Scheduling our content to publish while we’re snoring is easy. There are apps for that.

So once again, this bad reason comes with a major league disclaimer because it’s a good reason too. If you’re not a part of the conversation, you are indeed going to miss out on some opportunities.

But joining the conversation is a commitment. You can’t just talk. You have to listen. It’s not enough to be there. You have to have presence.

Content marketing isn’t about adding words. It’s about adding value.

Will you take this stuff to heart?

For a few years now, the research reveals marketers two biggest challenges in the content marketing arena are (1) lack of budget and (2) producing enough content. You could make a case these are two versions of the same thing.

But I want to challenge the said challenges. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not attacking the integrity of the research. If the research is flawed, I believe it’s because one challenge has been left off the list of choices:

Belief.

If you think about any of the things you do well, stick to, get satisfaction and rewards from, you’re going to conclude they’re the things you truly believe in—the things your heart is in. And where your heart goes your brain will follow.

You shouldn’t go down the content marketing path with doubt, trepidation or hesitation. Go down that path if you believe it’s worth the effort, if you believe you’re going to get good at it, and if you believe it will become a part of your corporate culture for the long haul.

Content marketing isn’t for you for the reasons you think. It’s for you if you believe in it.

[If you believe content marketing you want to get serious about content marketing, help yourself to “The Plan to Grow Your Business with Effective Online Marketing,” offered free here.]

Mar

7 Content Marketing Solutions for the Writing Impaired

Strategies for effective online marketing

Writer’s block is a lame excuse real writers don’t use.
Translation: “I can’t write.”

Writer’s void? Different issue. It means, “There are no writers here.” This is a legitimate challenge for a good many companies who want to get active in content marketing.

Sometimes there are writers, but there’s no room on their plates for generating new content. Sometimes there’s no budget for writers.

Sometimes the people at your company best qualified to help position your company as an authority in its niche loathe writing—or suck at it—or can’t (won’t) find time to write.

Real content marketers make no excuses.

You know that a steady stream of new and valuable content is the key to get new prospects to click around and existing customer to stick around. Nonetheless, you‘re staring into the abyss consumed with the question, “Who’s going to write content for the company.”

How about no one?

What if, with nary a writer in sight, you could somehow manage to keep feeding the company’s content marketing machine? It’s do-able. So let’s nix the excuses and create some effective content. Here’s how it’s done.

Get a helpful overview of how content marketing is integral to your effective online marketing program in “The Plan.”

Just ask.

Hunt down a source of knowledge within the company and fire a question at that person—one you know your customers need an answer to.

Writer phobiacs often love to talk. Even a quick conversation could become a blog post or piece of content that writes itself.

When you find this approach working as it should, ask a second question, and a third. Probe. Ask for examples of how “it” works. Ask for examples of how “it” doesn’t.

After you’ve made your way through “how,” back up and ask “why?” Try “when,” and of course, “who.”

All that remains to be done is transcription. No big thang.

Camera and action.

Your writing impaired expert might love the camera. Hook up on Skype or approach her with your mini-cam in hand. Press record.

Again, you’ll want to transcribe the interview and for SEO purposes, publish both the video and transcript. Easy, eh?

Now hear this.

You made a video and in the process, besides learning just how easy it is to create content without a writer, you also learned using the all-powerful video format can be simple too.

It’s podcast time now. The audio track of your video is a podcast waiting to happen.

Given the pervasive presence of smart phones and iPods, the dog-walking, urban-commuting, lunchtime-exercising faction of your audience presents a podcasting audience you simply can’t ignore.

You’ll find podcast production is extremely simple. Try it. You’ll like what you find/hear/see.

Away you go.

This writing-adverse content generator you’ve tapped probably stays busy making the rounds at industry events. So another tactic to put in place is to hand the recording device over to him.

With recorder in hand, he might interview the experts he meets on a variety of topics your audience will want to tune into.

If he doesn’t go for this plan, revert back to the “just ask” plan. Ask him… What happened at the event? Who’d you talk to? What did you learn? What’s new? What’s old?

When you get answers, you get more posts for you. When outside parties are involved, you get a bonus benefit. You create links to the content on their site and inevitably, social media sharing will follow.

Shoot.

Don’t forget picture taking. Judging by the popularity of Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr and the seemingly infinite explosion of sites and services where images dominate, you need to consider photos can also fill the void where writing resources are sparse.

So create a shutterbug culture. Capture photos and turn any and all possible essays into jpegs. If you’re aiming your content at Gen Y, take it from me, father to two jpeg junkies, photos (or any kind of images) are golden. Shoot ‘em and share ‘em.

Social Media Examiner gets into storytelling with images in this informative post.

Present yourself.

Recognize the tagline? Yes indeed, they’re the words of SlideShare, the quiet giant of content marketing. It’s also the title of a new book about using SlideShare, due out this Spring.

Every strategy I’ve brought you here today parlays into a presentation perfectly.

Interviews will make wonderful slide shows. Case studies? Photo collections? Portfolios? You betcha’.

You may not have discovered it yet, but SlideShare is A/V-friendly. Not only can you upload videos, it’s a snap to add audio to your presentation or embed a YouTube video within one.

In SlideShare’s uploader sequence, when you click “Add audio,” you’ll discover the following:

What’s a Slidecast? A Slidecast is a format for viewing presentation slides synchronized with an audio (mp3) file. It can be used for conference talks, musical slideshows, webinars, teaching lessons, etc. You can host your mp3 file on SlideShare, or use a previously uploaded mp3 URL as well.

MarketingProfs contributor Ekaterina Walter included SlideShare in her article, “Four Types of Visual Content That Cut Through the Noise.”

A hired hand.

Seeing that I’m a marketing writer and a specialist in content marketing, I feel compelled to offer what might be the most obvious of strategy yet. If the people on the payroll can’t be counted on the write for your blog or create content for your customers, go and get yourself a scribe.

Fear not. Content marketing writers abound. And there’s someone ready to take on the task with every conceivable budget, including, quite possibly, zero.

Though you generally get what you pay for, you can outsource content writing to all kinds of copywriters, journalists, or content creation companies. You might try to find an intern or newcomer looking for publishing opportunities.

Certain opportunities, such as guest blogging or getting writer’s credit for partnering on a paper or report will often even appeal to well established writers.

Content marketing for the writing impaired.

For content marketing, new rules apply. New media strategies such as those I’ve shared with you here today, open doors for endless new opportunities.

New media is the great playing field leveler. Every company or individual must embrace a publishing mentality. The winners need not have the most finances or largest staffs. Effective online marketing is about being resourceful.

I urge you to become a better content marketer by tapping into the resources you do have.

Any questions or suggestions? Bring ‘em on.

Get a helpful overview of how content marketing is integral to your effective online marketing program in “The Plan.”

Mar

The Most Meaningful Meaning of Social Media

I’ve been called a lot of things in my years. A few of them are not exactly grounds for bragging, but some of the things I’ve been called lately—mostly on Twitter—are gratifying.

I can rattle off what readers have said about me or things I’ve written, but it might sound a bit egotistical.

No wait. This is kind of an article about my ego. And yours. And everyone’s.

A lot of people share my content.

I write articles for this blog and many others. Also, I create presentations, podcasts, videos, infographics, eBooks, and more. Sometimes I wish they would have found a larger audience. Sometimes they go viral.

Of course, I pay attention to the buzz my stuff does or doesn’t generate. So if you tweet it, give it a plus one, a like, a repin, bookmark or yaddidda-yaddidda, I’m likely to see it. If you do so often, I’m likely to notice you. And if do it with a massive amount of flair or sincerity, I’ll remember you.

For example, “12 Brutally Honest Answers to Your Content Marketing Questions,” an article I wrote for Social Media Today, invoked a truly memorable tweet.

As bizarre as it may sound, I like when a reader wants to French kiss my work. I feel sincerely appreciated.

You are important to me.

Read the sentence above again. Let it wash over you for a few seconds. I’ll wait.

Tell me, it felt pretty good, didn’t it? You can express this sentiment in different ways, but when you say it sincerely, it ranks right up there with “I love you.”

Chapter 6, section two, “Six Ways to Make People Like You,” from the bible: “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” by Dale Carnegie…

Make the other person feel important—and do it sincerely.

In the influence and persuasion biz, I don’t think it’s possible to hand out a better nugget of wisdom. You don’t have to be a writer to live for that kind of love. I’m not even sure you have to be human. Ants want to feel important too.

Enter “social recognition”

A Google search for an exact match (“keywords placed in quotes”) generates just 359,000 hits, just a droplet by today’s standards. The term appears to resonate with the HR crowd where a new breed of tools are being used to accelerate the employee feedback loop.

Social recognition targets the universal need for self-esteem.

I have no affiliation with the Canadian company, TemboSocial, but I sure like some of the passages I found on their “solutions” page, paraphrased here:

• • Improve employee engagement—The world’s top-performing companies share a defining trait. They treat employee engagement as an enterprise imperative, not simply a human resources initiative.
• • Introduce social recognition—Research proves social recognition is the ladder to enterprise success. It provides improved talent retention and productivity, customer satisfaction, and loyalty.
• • Boost learning— Employees represent the intellectual capital of your company. High-growth companies build on this capital, encouraging corporate learning as a strategic tool to motivate employees, enhance performance, develop talent and improve culture.

Now back to me and you…

I’m not an employee. No enterprise counts me as part of it. But I work for you (or at least I write for you) and I believe these online communities we create do indeed resemble the enterprise.

Whether the enterprise-to-internet-freelance-nomad-worker equation is valid or not, as I’ve stated already: we all thrive on positive props.

We all do the social media thing. We have the potential to put the two together.

We have the power to capitalize on the most meaningful meaning of social media. We can recognize each other in meaningful ways.

What’s it all mean?

As a specific toolset, social recognition is somewhat new. As an element of the social media tools we use now, it’s a mainstay. No doubt, if Carnegie’s “…Win Friends” were to be revised today it would have to take on the subject and get into the many ways social media bursts with the power to win friends and influence people.

The ability to recognize and be recognized is probably the most prominent driver of social networks and online marketing tactics such as blogging. I believe any act, any contribution to the conversation, is meaningful. One so small and trivial as an update on where or what you’re eating, while it may mean nothing to the reader, you could say it means the writer felt important enough to deliver his or her food consumption update.

The real meaning, the universal one that requires us to understand the context of the update, but not the content, is the all-powerful, uber-important, undeniably needed feeling of belonging.

The most powerful application of social media.

A couple of very big thinkers from Enterprise Engagement Alliance and Marketing Innovators, Allan Schweyer and Brad Callahan, collaborated on a killer paper, “Social Recognition—Is the Latest Application of Social Media the Most Powerful Yet?”

The report, like most writings on the subject, addresses social recognition largely as it relates to talent management, but I find the lessons to be universal. We’re all “managing talent” somehow. Take, for instance, this excerpt…

“Most organizations do a poor job of recognition. For example, U.S. Department of Labor research has found that 64 percent of working Americans leave their jobs because they do not feel appreciated.”

I submit people leave anything based on a lack of appreciation. Relationships… social groups, networks… Hell, feeling unappreciated is reason enough to leave a room. Are you with me?

Allan and Brad’s paper also said:

“Social recognition has been a part of the community fabric ever since man gathered into collaborative groups. Public displays, ceremonies, the sharing of stories, recognition events (and various forms of acknowledgements) were, and still are, common occurences—performed in social settings.”

Now we must understand the lines between the physical and virtual worlds are evaporating. Social media and the networked communities created as its byproduct, are now by and large, our mechanism for recognizing each other.

The authors of the paper add, “The global village has been shrunk down to the size of smartphone.” That’s beautiful.

Recognize like you mean it.

It takes almost no effort to give someone a Facebook like, a retweet, a LinkedIn endorsement, or any other derivative of approval across the socialsphere. The ease of doing someone this small favor often calls into question the integrity of the act. For instance, LinkedIn’s recent addition of the endorsement feature: does it carry the weight of a written endorsement?

I care not to say one way or the other. You’ll have your own opinion of how various types of recognition do or don’t signal true recognition and which are meaningful.

However, I believe we’ll all agree recognition itself, delivered online for all the world to see, gives social media great meaning. It gives the content creators determined to share their ideas and talents the reason they need to keep contributing.

Genuine thanks is a new currency. I recommend going the extra mile. When you appreciate something you read, view or hear, offer more than a single thumb. Call on all ten fingers and key-in some words of encouragement. Great conversations are impossible to forget.

This could be your first time, right here. You could share this story in a heartbeat. But you could do more, You’ve been with me for over 1,200 words now.

Care to tell me what you think? I’d sure appreciate it.

Feb

How Does Your Email Rate for Open Rates?

An overwhelming majority of the potential audience is not interested in what us marketers have to say.

Ain’t nothing new there, but in the mail business, things have changed. I’ll try to illustrate my point by comparing direct mail and email, both of which are usually considered to be forms of direct marketing measured largely by response rates.

With direct mail, you do your best to guess who should get the mail, open it, read it, and then be a good consumer and do what you told them to. If 1, 2, maybe 3 percent of them actually do, you can bet the marketing team will be uncorking the bubbly and partying down with Kool & The Gang.

Yet even in a hugely successful mail campaign a seriously large portion of the money pumped into the program might as well have been flushed. Another sad truth is the marketing team has no clue as to who did or didn’t open the mail, which makes it that much more difficult to refine the program to work better next time.

But now, with email, short of knowing what the recipient had for breakfast, we feast on a ton of data. Email marketing may not deliver every day in every way, but you can rest assured it’ll deliver a mountain of metrics.

So what kind of response does your email get?

Email marketing programs automatically return real numbers on open rates, clicks, unsubscribes and a few miscellaneous metrics. We’ll focus on open rate and one data source, a 2012 report from email marketing experts, MailerMailer. It reports:

• Open rates by industry—Top three: banking 16.8%, consulting 15.9%, small business 15.9%. Bottom three: medical 6.5%, media 7.5%, education 8.2%

Two observations: (1) Even in the most successful email campaigns, a small percentage of the overall universe opens the email. (2) The delta between strong results and weak results is not gigantic.

• Open rates by list size—28% for lists below 500, 22.3% for lists from 500-999, 12.2% for lists greater than 1000 subscribers.

So, (1) Smaller lists outperform larger lists. (2) The results differ dramatically.

My email performs far better than average.

I’ve been a bit flaky about consistently doing email marketing for my business. However, late last year I found a service I really like, Campaign Monitor, and finally got some rhythm going. For 3 months now, I’ve managed to produce a marketing email roughly once a week. Consistency tends to improve results, but…

I’m a consultant. I have a small business. My mailing list is well above 1000. So, my odds for producing killer results isn’t great, but I’m pleased to report the numbers have been. I’ve been enjoying open rates that blow away the averages reported by MailerMailer.

What makes my open rates so strong?

I want to tell you the magic formula, but there is none. I could share with you what I gathered from researching published pieces about improving open rates, but I’m reluctant because most of the tips struck me as simple common sense.

So instead, I’ll tell you what I believe are the real reasons my recent run with email marketing has achieved high open rates.

Two little things outweigh every email tip you’ll ever get.

Your email analytics will definitely indicate who clicked what, but you’ll never know who read what. Headlines… body copy… sidebars… captions… Sorry Charlie, what is and isn’t read within the email remains a mystery.

But there’s no mystery here:

Two lines arrive in the reader’s inbox that definitely will be read:

From and Subject

Even if you maintain click rates are more important than open rates, you must concede no one’s going to click the call to action until they’ve opened your email. So your “from” and “subject” lines determine the fate of your email. Let’s talk about how to make them irresistible.

The undeniably powerful “from” line.

You might think there’s not much to your “from” line. After all, what can you put there beside your name or the name of your company? Some email aficionados will tell you one approach is stronger than the other.

Not me. I say whether it’s your name or your brand or even if they are one and the same, what goes in your “from” line is your reputation, your resume, your credibility, the sum of your email and every piece of communication you have ever published or mailed.

Who an email is from is the ten-ton giant.

If you’re new or feel you’re nobody in the mind of the recipient, you probably have a nice advantage. Curiosity is likely to compel the recipient to open your mail. The unknown is a mighty magnet.

If you’ve been at it for a long time, for better or worse, the recipient’s emotional response to your from line will heavily affect the subsequent response.

So what can you do to make a positive impact in your from line? Everything. Start by seriously scrutinizing the quality of your emails. If they are dull, pushy, misleading, inconsistent, overly frequent, overly sensational, or conjure a negative reaction for any reason, you’re toast.

But, my friend, the other side of this coin is money. If the arrival of your email summons positive palpitations, your little inbox invasion will be enthusiastically embraced.

How will you pull it off? Take your email marketing seriously. Understand the nitty gritty nuances of your audience and its segments. Task the best of the best to do the writing and design and create an electronic masterpiece every time out.

The super subjective “subject” line.

You’ve passed the “from” test. The recipient has come to expect quality content from you. Next comes your invitation to keep reading: the subject line.

What makes a subject line great?

sus·pense
n.

1. uncertainty
2. enjoyable tension
3. anxiety

Fear of the unknown. Fear of missing out. Fear of anything and anything that amps up the “I have to know what’s going on here” feeling gets people inside of your email.

Here are the last five subject lines I’ve used.

• How slimy are you? [entire slime ball email here]
• Don’t you just love this stuff? [Valentine's email here]
• You don’t need a stinkin’ copywriter [don't read this one here]
• Tough answers to your tough questions about content marketing [brutal one]
• I wrote The Plan for you [and here it is]

The average open rate for all five is 31%. “I wrote The Plan for you” got 39%. If you’re not satisfied with your open rates, it’s worth spending a little time thinking about how I’m consistently getting over 30% of the recipients on my large list to open my email.

Now I need a great subject line for the email version of this article.

Many of my emails focus on features I’ve written for online publishers and articles I’ve recently added to my blog. This one is sure to be the subject of an upcoming email.

I thought about it a bit. I came up with this subject line:

There’s a 69% chance you won’t open this email.

You’d prove me wrong, right?

[Email marketing is an important element in my free ebook, "The Plan to Grow Your Business with Effective Online Marketing," which you're welcome to download and share.]

Feb

You Don’t Need to be a Slime Ball to Lose Your Customer’s Trust

Know. Like. Trust.

You know the formula by now. You like and trust it too because when you accomplish the holy trifecta you’re well on your way to getting a customer and maybe even winning their loyalty for as long as the spell holds fast.

But in this cellophane age, our fingers do more than the walking. They do the talking, fact-checking and investigative work.

As such, you need not be a slime ball to discolor your character. Your trust deficit may not even trace to the words you say or write. You could suffer the slings of skepticism because of the stuff you don’t.

So I thought it wise to warn you of the many ways you might lose your customer’s trust.

Your brand does all the talking

The complete absence of interactivity is the online equivalent of the used car salesman.

Not only are you fixated on moving product this very instant, you’re uninterested in what the customer has to say.

Your website’s devoid of any form of dialogue. There’s no blog, forum, reviews, or voice of anyone, but the copywriter’s. You have all the answers, but for some reason, no was given a chance to ask a question.

You’re anti-social

I know, I know. You don’t have time for social media.

Not so? My bad.

You actually checked it out. You even set up an account here and there, but after a month of sharing your little pitches and opinions nary a cash register rang.

You proved it. Facebook’s not worth liking and Twitter’s for the birds.

Have it your way. But don’t fool yourself. Those billions of customers you’ve chosen not to connect with are going to find relationships elsewhere.

Robots rule what’s written

There’s more than one definition of dense. If your SEO advisor has you believing your use of keywords should be dense, he’s the other definition of the word.

Consciously or subconsciously, the heavy-handed use of keywords is a mistrust trigger.

Do not, repeat, do not compose copy to flirt with search engine robots. Even if you were to get the ranking you covet, please understand, robots have no wallets.

You’re no help

I’ve chosen to spare you a content marketing lesson, at least of the standard variety. Instead, I’ll illustrate the concept in a sentence:

If you don’t offer customers a hand,
it’s the same as giving them the finger.

You merely need to open your laptop and open your eyes. You’ll find the most fervent servants have the most fervent friends.

Never mind the whole “thought leadership” baloney. A generous giver of help and advice builds the trust that builds great brands while the holdouts are lucky to snag an eager shopper now and then.

“If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”

Heard that one from the annals of restaurant lore? As far as online marketing is concerned, it’s bogus.

Your website visitors are going to ask what your products cost and you can’t afford to blow them off. Trust building doesn’t work that way.

Okay, parts of the hemming and hawing you’re doing right now may be valid. Your product comes in all kinds of configurations. A number of complicated variables affect the actual price. You sell a service and the fees are negotiable.

People get that. But if you won’t give them an idea, some ballpark, a price range, or the minimum you may charge, guess what? They’ll charge on out of your sucker net and find a more comfortable sales funnel to dive into.

No one’s home

There’s one very good reason to withhold contact information on your website. Yep. You don’t want to be contacted. And you won’t.

Nothing says “We’re too busy for you” like a site with no email address, phone number, or address.

A contact form doesn’t cut it. And spare your customers the “chat now” option that really doesn’t have a customer service rep (represented by a stock photo) standing by to take your question.

If you want to be liked and trusted, trust that someone who wants to contact you—now—is a prospect.

You’re never wrong

Companies are people and people make mistakes. And make no mistake; you will get called out on it. React by getting defensive or finger pointing and you’re bound to see your trust quotient wane.

The place is a mess

When you walk into a store and find the place messy or unorganized, you’re going to leave and not come back.

The same goes for your website. If the space is cluttered and noisy or if visitors can’t easily find what they’re looking for, you’ll make a bad first impression and never even have a shot at developing trust.

Bad words

Visitors come to your website to read. The copy they find there will turn them on, turn them off—or worse yet—make no impression at all.

Turnoffs include spelling mistakes, poor grammar, blatant bastardizations of the language, in-your-face sales pitches, clichés, and jargon-laden nonsense that people struggle to decipher.

And finally, there’s your plain old
BRIGHT GREEN SLIME…

The trust killers we’ve covered thus far are generally innocent ones. That is, the guilty party probably didn’t mean any harm. However, the web is a tricky place to police, so you can be a shady character and get away with all kinds of crap…

Bait and switch sales tactics… convoluted fine print… overly aggressive cookies… fabricated testimonials… privacy policy violations… unsolicited emails (a.k.a SPAM) and difficult (or no) unsubscribe protocols.

These are all slime. Some are even crimes.

Be good

You can’t beg, buy or borrow trust. If you want it, you have to build it. It takes effort.

The netizens whose trust you seek have fine-tuned BS filters and fingers that are never far from the back button. And they’re not afraid to use them.

Be good. Be ethical and honest. Be present. Be like the people you trust most, the ones who are happy to help you, not because it’s lucrative, but because it’s the right thing to do.

Are you with me?

Feb

I’ve Never Felt So Connected

[Download at full size > click on image]

Dear Internet,

I’m blushing. This is awkward. I’ve never been able to say it aloud. But I’m a writer after all. Perhaps my feelings are best expressed at the keyboard.

Here it is, my friend: I love you.

I didn’t think it would go this far. I mean, I’ve been fond of you since we first met, but I knew better than to rely on you back then. Yes, when I’d dial your number, if you picked up and said, “You’ve got mail,” it was hard not to smile. But our relationship has gone way past that.

I’m obsessed with you now. I go to you for almost everything and I know I can count on you. In fact, if we’re apart for more than a few hours, I get kind of anxious. Without you, life feels less than complete—or at least I do.

Whatever I need—whenever I need it—you come through.

When I have a question or a problem, when I’m searching…

I share just a few words with you and you come back with millions of ideas. How, I’ll never know.

When I need to see the face of an old friend, there you are. I like that.

When I share something special, you share something right back.

When I long to join a group, you link me in.

When I need inspiration, I know you’ll pin-up just the right thing.

When I don’t want to get off the couch, you’re good with just hanging out.

When I need to hear a favorite song, watch a favorite clip, find the right book, buy a new gadget, get new shoes, play a game, meditate, or just wander… You’re there—always—and instantly.

Thanks to you, I’ve made new friends from all over the world. I’ve come to know my favorite authors. I’ve exchanged thoughts with my industry’s biggest thinkers, discovered the best writers, photographers, illustrators, comics, you name it.

I owe the growth of my business to you. You bring me clients, opportunities and ideas. You’ve given me a platform to spread my words.

You keep changing, maturing, growing. You’re the most fascinating thing I’ve ever seen.

I’ve never felt so connected. It feels good.

Thank you Internet, for everything. It’s getting late. Let’s call it a night. I’ll see you in the morning.

Yours truly,

Barry

Feb

Super Bowl Advertising: Postgame Commentary

Jan

Optimize with Less Obvious Keywords for Search Success

[ DOWNLOAD THE PLAN HERE ]

[Here's an excerpt from the new eBook...] 

Optimize with Less Obvious Keywords for Search Success.

Only one page really matters.

Welcome to the mysterious, magnificent, monumental world of search where
an overwhelming percentage of online journeys begin.

You’ve surely noticed when you do a really broad one or two-word search you
get millions, or even billions, of results. There are a mind-boggling number of
pages you can click through. Yet you’ll look at just one. On that one page are
ten results (of the organic search variety).

In marketing your website, your success depends on showing up on page
one, preferably the top half.

To do so requires a solid grasp of what it takes to make search work for your
business. The winners carefully select keywords that have a worthwhile volume
of search activity, but a relatively low level of competition.

The answers aren’t obvious. So obviously, you need to employ the right tools
and techniques. Make sure your team includes a search-savvy pro.

For more insights into achieving immense success with search, read “The Great Keywords Secret Revealed,” here.

[You'll find the passage above on page 11 of the 28-page eBook. "The Plan" presents 17 strategies—briefly and clearly—to help you understand how to take advantage of online channels to capitalize on the power of pull. Inbound marketing... planning, web site best practices, SEO, blogging, conversion strategy, email marketing... It's all in "The Plan."  All free. ]

> DOWNLOAD NOW 

“The Plan” is a free eBook from Feldman Creative.

Jan

The Plan to Grow Your Business with Effective Online Marketing

“The Plan” is a free eBook from Feldman Creative.

[ DOWNLOAD THE PLAN HERE ]

[Here's an excerpt from the new eBook...] 

Offer content online customers are looking for.

Be a good helper.

In the information age, people seek information. There’s no question, they’ll
find it—fast. The question is, will it be your information?

This is content marketing.

 It’s not new. What’s new is the dynamic at work. Those shopping for content won’t be filling out tip-in cards, faxing requests, calling your number or putting forth any effort whatsoever. They’ll merely be clicking on a link.

Want to win their business? That link needs to lead to your website. There’s one way to get in the game: create mighty fine content. Develop and promote information assets. 

Offer helpful content. Make it informative. Valuable. And free.

[You'll find this passage on page 7 of the 28-page eBook. "The Plan" presents 17 strategies—briefly and clearly—to help you understand how to take advantage of online channels to capitalize on the power of pull. Inbound marketing... planning, web site best practices, SEO, blogging, conversion strategy, email marketing... It's all in "The Plan."  All free. ]

Dec

12 Sharpened Websites = More Effective Online Marketing

Dec

The Buzzwords and Bullshit You Use to Offend the Human Race

Please allow me to introduce Ilana Rabinowitz. You may know her from Social Media Explorer, where we both contribute content. Ilana writes smart stuff. For example:

The language of human beings.

The most important thing to know in being a good digital communicator is: talk to people as if you are both human beings.

You wouldn’t think people need lessons in acting human. But many of us assume a business façade at work. We put on our work attire, go to an office, sit in meetings and write memos or emails to customers, forgetting that we are human beings talking to other human beings.

We speak a language filled with buzzwords, clichés and acronyms that we would never use with friends. Imagine inviting your guests to the dinner table with a statement like “please be advised that dinner is served.”

Once a new buzzword enters the corporate suite, everyone picks up on it because they feel it makes them sound more “professional.” Before you know it there’s a verbal epidemic. Everyone is recycling the same canned phrases. Then, when it comes time to communicate with customers, we speak to them this way as well.

Some examples of cringe-worthy phrases are statements like… “kindly refer to our return policy” or… “in the absence of an approval” …“we apologize in advance for . . .” and… “your business (or your call) is important to us.”

[What crap. (Interjected by Barry.)]

Corporate speak is even rampant in person.

When I go to a trade show booth and ask a software company or agency what they do, 9 times out of 10 they parrot some cookie cutter description with the words “leverage,” “synergy,” “cutting-edge,” “optimize,” “best practices” and “solution.” My eyeballs spin in opposite directions.

Buzzwords and acronyms may make you feel smarter, but this kind of communication is a problem for three reasons.

1. Eliminates the need for you to think about what you are really trying to say. Recycling common phrases puts your communication on auto pilot.
2. Distances you from people by making you sound like a computer program.
3. No one knows what you are talking about. You are not communicating.

Digital marketing calls for a new wardrobe.

The stiff language of corporate speak is a vestige of the days when men all wore white shirts and dark suits to work and women wore black suits with sensible pumps and a non-descript cotton button-down blouse.

Being conventional, using mind-numbingly consistent phrases, and checking your humanity at the office door is a practice that won’t hold up in digital marketing. You are already once removed from other people online. Find a way to let the real personality behind the logo show through.

Smart spectacles.

I recently had a series of email conversations with the customer service folks at Warby Parker. Their emails provided an example of an extremely warm and human communication style. I was trying to get my prescription verified by my optician in the midst of the Sandy storm.

Figuring out how to order my first pair of glasses online took a lot of back-and-forth. Stay tuned for excerpts from the emails.

The first email I received after contacting them included this paragraph:

I hope your new Warby Parkers make you jump for joy. If there’s anything at all I can help you with—shopping questions, eyewear questions, you name it—just let me know. I’m here to help.

Notice they don’t say “I trust you’ll be pleased with your purchase.”  That colorful image of jumping for joy was in my head when I did receive my glasses.

Then, it took several emails to get all the information they needed to fill my order. Instead of saying “kindly provide the following information” or “we still need the following,” they said:

I just have one more question, I promise! One of the pieces of information they needed required me to use an online tool they created to get a measurement for fitting the glasses.

Here is how they asked: To send your new frames to you at lightning speed, we’ll need this measurement. Luckily, it’s a cinch to get!

Then, when I accidentally sent a prescription that they couldn’t fill (my fault, I should have known this from their site), they apologized and instead of saying, “please be advised that we don’t handle transitional lenses” or “kindly refer to line 6 of our policies and procedures” they said:

I’m very sorry about this hassle—nobody needs another hassle. When you have a free moment, let me know how you’d like to proceed, and call or email if you have any questions at all.

You see? Compassion, no subtle blame, no canned phrases—and helpful options.

Notice the use of “I” and “me” throughout instead of the corporate or royal “we.”

I felt I was talking to . . . a human being. I was actually surprised to look back on the series of emails and discover there were several different people representing the company in each one.

I still felt a human connection with someone who cared and seemed to understand how I felt.

A human heartbeat.

The most effective emails, social media posts, website copy and face-to-face conversations are not only simple and easy to understand, they have signs of humanity. If, when you’re communicating with people, you remember you’re both human, you’ll bring humor, empathy, and caring when you choose your words.

Word-of-mouth marketing is the result of delighting and surprising customers. Sometimes all that’s necessary is to behave like a human being.

Ilana’s original article reads similar to what you see here, but I edited it a tad. 

Thanks Ilana. It’s good to know a fellow human.

Go give it to her here.

Dec

Get Magnetic: Email archive

Dec

More Intercourse Equals More Social Media Success

I was at church when I got the idea for this article. It’s not as twisted as it may sound. You see, my wife and I went to hear psychologist, leadership consultant, and best-selling author Dr. Henry Cloud lead a marriage seminar. On day two, at about half past the second cup of coffee, we got into sex. The good doctor told us we need to have intercourse. Then he told us the definition of the word.

in·ter·course [in-ter-kawrs, -kohrs]
noun — interchange of thoughts, feelings, etc.

Dr. Cloud talked about how very important this communication interchange is to a healthy relationship. It’s not a groundbreaking idea. But it’s incontrovertible. And it made me think that this notion, which is so essential to marriage, so essential to intimacy, is just as essential to successful social media marketing.

If, like me, you believe social media is an ongoing exercise in building relationships, which is essential to building your business, you’ll want to indulge my thesis. So now, with your permission, we’ll get it on. Let’s examine five basic sex tips that you can apply to become a better social media marketer.

TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHES
Be authentic. Be transparent. Be genuine. These have become mantras in a world turned interactive. But yick, they’re so damn sterile.

What do you say we nix the euphemistic BS and simply get naked? Are you with me? You might be used to that stiff and starched shirt—and it might look mighty fine—but it covers up the real you. Remove it. Be yourself. Let it all hang out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah… you represent a proud company. You’ve got class. Scruples. You have a reputation to protect.Screw that. It’s time to get friendly my friend. No one really wants to do business with your brand, your good name, or that slick logo you wear on your chest. People want to do business with people. The mega-rise of social media makes this an undeniable truth. It’s time to strip.

NOW FOR SOME FOREPLAY
Blushing? I thought so. But let’s be real. Though you may be into social media marketing to consummate the deal, you’ll fail fast if you don’t take your time. However eager you may be for the main course, you’re bound to find the one you pine for finds appetizers more appetizing.

Ease into it. Be attentive to the needs of the one you’re with. Nurture the relationship. If you want to make social media satisfying, it’ll pay to be patient.

HAVE INTERCOURSE
Review that definition now. And for a little more dictionary fun, realize this: to “interchange” is to follow each other. How’s that for the perfect parallel between sex and social media?

The idea is to exchange things, thoughts especially. Nothing shameful is happening here. In fact, what we’re talking about is downright beautiful. Interchange all you can. In the course of all this intercourse, you’re likely to learn what buttons to press. Now that’s marketing!

TRY DIFFERENT POSITIONS
You don’t want to be overly predictable. Or repetitive. It’s boring in the bedroom and it’s boring in social spaces too.

Experiment a bit. Even if you know how to slay ‘em with blog posts, at some point you have to breathe some new life into the relationship. Fire up the camera. Pictures… video… some nice music? I don’t know.

Some people like graphics. Some like podcasts. Some like how-to manuals. However enthralled you may be with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you might find some new thrills on Pinterest or Instagram or YouTube. Variety is a total turn-on. I might have read that in Cosmopolitan. Mix it up, mate.

DO IT AGAIN
That was soooooo great. Are you done?

Hope not. You know what happens to relationships that don’t progress: they die. Remind yourself when you’ve got something good going on, you need to keep it up. Rewind. Review. Maybe revise. My point: put as much TLC into the relationship as you can.

Relationships are sacred.

“The love you take is equal to the love you make.”
~ Lennon & McCartney

I’m spent. A smoke sounds good right about now.

Dec

How Do You Define Social Media Marketing?

Dec

The eBook is the Stud in Your Content Marketing Stable

Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs collaborate annually to produce a heap of research findings they call “B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends.” This year’s report just came out last month. (Presented on SlideShare here.)

In a section that probes respondents about what they perceive to be their biggest challenges, the top three results were: (1) producing enough content (2) producing content that engages, and (3) lack of budget.

Repurposing quality content helps overcome all these challenges.

If you don’t repurpose your best content, it’s time to start. And if you merely dabble in the practice, you’d be wise to step it up. The top three reasons why align with the challenges above in a big way.

• More pages, more impressions = more content marketing power. 
  Well-planned, well-executed content begs to be repurposed. Examples are plentiful. Here, I’ll offer one super simple one. You published a how-to list. Readers appreciated it. Put it in presentation format—on SlideShare—and it becomes available to millions.

• More plays.
  The example above includes two popular formats. Care to make it three? Present the content as a webinar. It was a list. Why not publish it on List.ly? Squidoo?

Interview someone about your list to record a podcast. You could even get more articles out of it by simply putting some twists on your list…

Repurpose the do’s into don’ts. Make ‘em questions. Drill down on just one. Construct a top three. Highlight the uncommon ideas as “secrets.” Expand on the best question or comment the article invoked. Storify makes it a snap to gather the social media feedback you received into a story of its own. Did it feature a cool visual? Cha-ching… Pinterest, Facebook, etc. Press release? Infographic?

• More productivity.
  That was a pretty substantial pile of ideas I just tossed your way and I could go on and on. Even though I’m writing this article to help you understand the power of repurposing content, I can’t stop my mind a-straying into the many things I should probably do to repurpose this article.The ideas are already there. If the piece required research or photography or whatever, it’s already been done. This cloning approach leverages the time you’ve invested and makes it incredibly more productive.

Is an eBook a free book?

“eBook” no longer translates strictly to the digital form of a “real” book you buy online.

eBooks are electronic and can really grandfather your content.

Content marketers now commonly offer eBooks (usually for free) and the deliverable might be a collection of articles, a portfolio of some sort, an industry roundup, a collection of stories, or a whitepaper-like tutorial (usually with a more pictorial style).

There are no rigid rules regarding length, presentation, or even content type. For the purpose of this article, an eBook is a free book, a collection of informative and entertaining pages created with the goal of engaging readers seeking to gather expertise in your field.

eBooks make beautiful babies.

Your eBook has reproductive powers. A “stud” is an animal whose job it is to breed great offspring. eBooks are unquestionably studs in your content marketing stable. If you prefer a tamer metaphor, think of the eBook as “cornerstone” content. “

If you’re like me and don’t have the resources to create eBooks frequently, the goal is to offer them occasionally. That said, you should plan the eBook to: (1) cover big, wide, important territory that traces to your strengths, and (2) foster a series of “children”—meaning the eBook becomes the father of all kinds of magnetic content.

After creating an eBook that covers a wide swath of an important subject, you can mine sections of it to spawn content, content and more content. Think articles, presentations, webinars, podcasts, videos, infographics, etc. The list is long. Strategic content marketers create eBooks knowing one purpose is to continuously repurpose the content it contains.

Case in point.

Download this ebook today

If you’ll indulge me, I’ll tell share with you how I’m executing this strategy in my website copywriting business. My big beast of 2012, my stud, if you will, is an eBook called “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website.” I researched, wrote and labored over every detail of the publication for weeks, okay, months. Why? (1) I wanted it to be a seriously useful guide to optimizing your website and (2) I envisioned leveraging its themes for an entire year.

I succeeded, I think. The eBook itself has been downloaded and shared thousands of times. It’s my website’s most popular asset. And being that it also presents 21 carefully planned, thematically related subthemes, it’s gradually becoming 21 blog posts on my site. Many of the posts have been rewritten for other sites and online publications.One chapter, “Create Magnetic Content,” gave birth to its own family tree with variations including guest posts, a popular SlideShare presentation, a BigMarker webinar, a You Tube video, a List.ly feature, and a Squidoo lens. I might have left a few off this list. And I may not be done expanding it.

You get the idea. “21 Pointers” is my content stud. “Magnetic Content” has made for studly offspring. I haven’t even mentioned the Twitter, LinkedIn and social media implications.

That eBook has made the rounds, inspired readers/viewers to hire and refer me. One of its sires, the “magnetic content” presentation I put together, inspired your SlideShare’s editor to ask me to write for their blog, which is read by hundres of thousands of business people around the world. The SlideShare opportunity has expanded my audience, produced hundreds of leads, and many new clients.

This is how content marketing is supposed to work.

I suggest you try it. Gather your thoughts. Create and publish an eBook. See what happens. If you want to gather ideas for your eBook, may I suggest SlideShare? If you want some guidance, contact me via my site or call 916.984.9988. And if you have questions or comments, this SlideShare blog post is meant to be interactive, so type to me.

Nov

Wise-Up Your Marketing Strategy

This is Ruth Zive. She’s wise.

[The content of this article comes from "5 Reasons Your Business Needs a Strategic Marketing Plan" by Ruth Zive of MarketingWise, a friend and very wise marketer. I had to change a thing or two. It's what I do.]

The emergence of new marketing platforms and technologies seems to have heightened awareness amongst executives that they need to dust off their websites and make some serious changes to their marketing strategy.

Unfortunately, in the face of the changing marketing landscape, most companies respond with knee jerk reactions that can be expensive and ineffective.

Slapping a blog tab and social media icons onto your website, or stuffing your content with keywords – heck, even frantic Google Adwords campaigns – are too often reactive and not particularly thoughtful.

At MarketingWise, we recommend every marketing initiative should be preempted with a thoughtful and strategic marketing audit. Here’s why…

You refine your value proposition.

What do you stand for?

How are you different from the competition?

What are your most special products, services and qualities?

Are you articulating the answers to these fundamental questions in your marketing materials?

You identify your target clients’ pain points

97% of all purchasing decisions are initiated with an online search. Most are searching for answers to their questions and solutions to the challenges they can’t seem to overcome.

Your messaging must start with a clear understanding of your target customer’s pain points.

You create useful content.

MarketingWise believes all your marketing efforts should be content driven—but not in an ad hoc, mindless kind of way. Rather, you want to coordinate your content thoughtfully and strategically, and align your marketing materials with your sales cycle. You should always take into consideration seasonal fluctuations over the course of the full year and tailor your content accordingly. Also make sure to repurpose content in a way that makes the most of your marketing spend.

You save money.

Most companies allocate 10% to 25% of their total operating budget on marketing. 

Marketing costs money. But marketing well doesn’t necessarily mean spending more money. In fact, a strategic marketing plan helps ensure you allocate resources wisely, which reduces costs and increaeses efficiency.

You ID new opportunities.

We always benchmark our clients against the competition in an effort to identify gaps in the market. Sometimes these are difficult to see when you are mired in the day-to-day chaos of running a business. By surveying the landscape at a high level, you are better positioned to determine the best opportunities for growth.

A strategic marketing plan is an essential starting point for any comprehensive marketing effort. If you have experience strategizing marketing plans or have questions about what you read here, please share your thoughts here.

Nov

15 Reasons Why We Tune Out Turkeys

In 1999, a collective of marketers published a book called “The Cluetrain Manifesto.” Intriguing title, but I don’t know what it means. Maybe if I had read the book, I’d get it.

I have read a good many books about the revolution that’s taking place in marketing. It’s a fascinating subject. So I was checking out “Engage” by Brian Solis when I noticed he referred to “The Cluetrain Manifesto” and specifically, one of its authors, Doc Searls.

No way! I once worked for Doc, sort of. I worked for an agency he founded. During that brief spell (I never stayed put for long), Doc had his name on the door, but not a hand in the pot.

Anyway, I had to check into the book. When I did, I found its entire contents offered online for free. I’m thinking… “A book about the internet’s effect on marketing from 1999? Should I bother?” Then I notice it’s subtitle:

Markets are conversations.

Talk is cheap.

Silence is fatal.

Impressive. I’m yakking daily, online and off, about the very same thing. Apparently, it’s not a breaking story.

95 theses

The book kicks off with a chapter called “95 theses.” And before the list is presented it says this:

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.

These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about “listening to customers.” They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.

While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happytalk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it.

Wow!

Then comes the theses. I’m not going to give you all 95. I’m not really going to give you any. Instead, I’m going to synthesize what these prophetic authors said in a short list of reasons why…

No one is listening to you.

Here’s why:

• People don’t listen to companies. They listen to people.
• Markets are conversations and you’re not adding anything to them.
• When you do pipe up you sound like a corporation.
• Your voice sounds of mission statements and brochure-speak.
• You’re pitching and putting on dog-and-pony shows.
• You’ve confused the web for traditional media and creating commercials.
• You’re taking yourself way too seriously. (Seriously, lighten up.)
• You haven’t created a community.
• You can’t resist the urge to control the conversation.
• You refuse to grant access to your plans, knowledge and best thinkers.
• You think your most important audience is Wall Street.
• You’re advertising to a society that’s grown immune to it.,
• You want us to pay, but we want you to pay attention. (Love that.)
• Your CEO is too busy for the customer.
• You think the customer needs you when it’s really the other way around.

Harsh, eh? Sometimes, the truth hurts. It’s late 2012. If some of the ideas on this list touched a nerve, get a cluetrain, turkey.

Nov

Engagement: Connecting Your Brand to Buyers

Nov

Most Marketing is a Bunch of BS

I know actionable marketing expert Heidi Cohen a little and like her a lot. She gets this online marketing stuff big time. I read her blog every day. She’s all about delivering advice. In fact, with almost every post she gives readers what she calls “actionable marketing tips” and signs off with “Happy Marketing.” Pretty upbeat stuff.

Heidi came out swinging with this one.

“Your Prospects Think Marketing is BS” was the title of her November 13 article. I dug it. Beside using the term “BS,” Heidi talked about “pissing prospects off.” Watch out.

Heidi didn’t speak up just to show off her urban vocab. As usual, she presented a well-researched, thoughtful piece. The topic du jour was content marketing, a subject near and dear to all of us online marketers. Her facts and figures came from Adobe’s “The State of Online Advertising” research paper (created by research firm Edelman Berland) and she featured the best of it to make a case for why content marketing trumps online advertising today.

The research paper is available here.

I want to give you soundbites that resonated with me…

Heidi:
Even though the majority of customers consider marketing to be B.S., you can still leverage the power of content marketing to provide them with the product information they seek and help them make purchase decisions. This means providing useful content that answers their pre-purchase questions without pissing them off or feeling creepy.

I put together a presentation on content marketing, which has been well received on SlideShare, a handful of websites, and presented via a webinar and at the recent Marketing Camp conference. It’s all about the power of content. Check out “Magnetic Content: Strategies to Transform your Website into a Customer Attraction Force Field” (and more presentations on the subject) here.

More from Heidi now:
More than half of consumers believe that “most marketing is a bunch of B.S.” according to recent Adobe research. Less than one in seven considers marketing, advertising or PR to be of value to society.

Ouch. Make the conversation specific to online advertising and it gets even more vicious.

Tell ‘em Heidi…
Almost half of respondents agreed that “online advertising is creepy and stalks you.”

• 68% of consumers consider it annoying
• 51% consider it distracting
• 38% consider it invasive

While this doesn’t mean that digital advertising doesn’t work, digital advertising has a good chance of pissing your prospects off.

I can’t disagree. Can you?

Back to Heidi’s article
Research by Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs revealed that 69% of B2B marketers consider placed articles on other websites as an effective content marketing tactic. (Here are more findings from the 2013 B2B Content Marketing Research.)

And another nice nugget…

About one in five customers like company websites. It’s a consumer-controlled experience that’s limited to the sites that prospects want to visit.

Bravo.

It’s time to make your site razor sharp. Download “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website” for more on how it’s done.

Heidi got into social media too.

She wrote:

While seven out of ten consumers use social media, it doesn’t necessarily sell.

About two-thirds of consumers have liked a brand and over half would like to have a dislike button. In other words, consumers want to be able to express both their positive and negative feelings about brands. (Here’s research on the value of a like.) 

In the article she offers on Facebook “Likes” she claims:

The bottom line is that a like carries no guarantee for marketers or for customers. Likes are loose associations because nothing’s required beyond a single click. While it’s positive engagement, customers can’t ask for less and marketers want more.

And she closes with:

The bottom line is that a like carries no guarantee for marketers or for customers. Likes are loose associations because nothing’s required beyond a single click. While it’s positive engagement, customers can’t ask for less and marketers want more.

Me, I say the Facebook “Like” has no value and the countless web pages dedicated to tackling the question of what it’s value is are a waste of time and cyberspace.

Heidi closed with suggestions for using content marketing effectively.

Great stuff. Thank you Heidi.

1. Tell a unique story. Don’t just sell. People love stories. They have a beginning, middle and end which makes them memorable. Integrate yourorganization’s stories into your content marketing to help prospects.
2. Use video because it’s worth 1,000 words. Prospects like to see what your product looks like from all directions. Videos allow you to show your products in action and provide how tos. Further, they can be entertaining.  Therefore, where possible include video to put your product in context for your customers.
3. Offer user product reviews.  Roughly three out of ten consumers trust people they know for recommendations, specifically family, friends and colleagues. This is old-fashioned word of mouth.  At its core this is the reason that customer reviews work in the aggregate, which is the wisdom of crowds. Incorporate reviews into your website for your products or customers will leave to gather the information elsewhere. While reviews show the good, bad and ugly of a product, understand that even less than stellar reviews can sell your products.
4.  Provide in-store experiences. Online experiences can’t replicate seeing the product in real life. Customers want to be able to see and touch the products they plan to buy. This is why showrooming has become an increasingly popular customer behavior. Retail establishments provide real life information and content. Customers will go view products at stores and then purchase via mobile or online to get the best price and terms.

Nov

Maybe You’re Not Wasting Enough Time with Social Media.

Vertical Response created an absolutely killer infographic, which examines time spent on social media by small businesses. Then, their CEO Janine Popick followed with a wonderful article published on Inc. com, “Where CEOs Spend Their Time (& Money) on Social Media,” which made the rounds big time.

So I come not to criticize. Not to plagiarize. And really, not even to prophesies.  I’m not a social media expert (is anyone?), so much as an advocate, user, observer, reviewer, hole-pointer-outer, and occasionally, consultant. However, the spirit of social media is to exchange ideas, connect, and of course, converse. I want in.

This is an opinion piece.

I tend to have a lot of opinions. I like to tell my clients you don’t have to agree with them, but you do have to hear them. I’ll follow the structure of Janine’s  article (she’s “JP”), edit a bit out, chime in as “BF,” and cite another source—the author of the NY Times bestseller Likeable Social Media, Dave Kerpen.

This is going to be fun (for me, anyway). Please feel free to opine too.

JP: (Article subtitle)  A new survey shows that more small business owners are not only using social media but they are willing to pay for help.

BF: This is good. Businesses owners shouldn’t do everything themselves. However, social media is a voice of your brand, so proceed with caution. I’m not saying don’t outsource. I’m saying don’t neglect this stuff.

JP: As a marketer turned technology CEO, I’m more convinced than ever before that small businesses need to leverage the power of social media to grow their business. But they need to do it in a smart, efficient way. So are they? We asked 462 small businesses how much time and money they invest into social media, and announced the results this week.

BF: Cool. 

JP: According to the survey results, small businesses are…
Investing More Time Into Social Media Marketing

JP: Two-thirds said they’re spending more time than last year. That’s great, because it says they’re seeing enough ROI to keep doing it.

BF: I hope that’s true, but is it possible they are just faithful to the cause?

JP: A third of them said they’d rather spend less time, suggesting they preferred focusing their time on other activities to grow their business. It sounds to me that they could use some strategies and tools to help them recoup some of that time.

BF:  Agreed, but I must add: it sounds to me they need to treat social media as a seriously important activity to grow their business. 

Focusing on Facebook and Twitter

JP: Approximately 90 percent of the folks we surveyed are active on Facebook and 70 percent on Twitter. Only 32 percent are on Google+ and 29 percent are on Pinterest. (LinkedIn straddles the middle, at 50 percent.)

BF: 50% active on LinkedIn? What!? Get active on LinkedIn people. It’s a business network. 

BF: Ahem. I don’t think Facebook is king. I think it’s the Premier, of China, if you will. It has the biggest population, but not the marketing firepower of a real super power. 

Seeing the Value of Sharing Content–But, Again, Time is an Issue

JP: We also asked small businesses to rank what types of social media activities took the most time. They said finding and posting content to their social networks was the most time-consuming, followed by: learning and education; analyzing their social media efforts; and following their competitors’ activities. (Janice went on to suggest time-saving tools such as RSS feeds and  VerticalResponse Social to snag useful content.)

BF: Nobody asked me, but if finding content is your biggest time-consumer, you’re consuming time wrecklessly, a.k.a “wasting” time. Creating content should be where you “spend” time if you want to see your investment payoff.

Finding Value in Paying for Social Media

JP: Small businesses reported that their social media budgets are increasing at a faster rate than overall marketing budgets. So, if a small business is going to increase its budget, it will likely be for social media. Additionally, 36 percent of those surveyed pay for a social media publishing or analytics tool; of those, 58 percent spend $26 or more every month for the tool. Small businesses are starting to put a real value on social media for growth. Good for them.

BF: Amen. 

Dave Kerpen, founder and CEO of Likeable Media and author of the NY Times bestseller Likeable Social Media weighs in here, from another great Inc.com article/conversation, “Social Media Marketing: Why It’s Not Paying Off,” by contributor Jeff Haden.

You gauge return by increased leads, online and offline traffic, share of online voice, and ultimately, sales. Social media marketing done right, everyday, is helping small businesses enhance their reputation, increase customer loyalty and frequency, and yes, put more bread on the table.

JP: So what does this all tell me? It reminds me of the saying, “time is money.” Being able to balance it all is still a bit of a challenge for some small businesses, especially the owner or solopreneur who’s handling social media on top of all the other responsibilities of running a company. But small businesses definitely see that social media is a big opportunity to drive growth–and they’re invested.

Time suck?

BF: It’s probably fair to say if you dispel social media as a time suck, you probably suck at it. Dave? 

Part of the problem is that you’re still thinking of social media marketing and community building as a quick campaign, like three weeks of traditional advertising or a day of cold calling. Too many small businesses that try social media marketing either don’t do it right or don’t do it long enough, or both, and then give up, thinking it doesn’t work.

You can absolutely use social media to drive and track new leads and sales, increased frequency of purchase from current customers, both very hard business metrics, but don’t expect this to happen overnight, or over three weeks. Expect to see (and by all means track!) results within six to nine months. Yes, it’s risky for a small business to put in that much time and/or money without a guarantee of a return. But that’s how social media marketing works. {Dave Kerpen}

(Check out the full social media infographic, which has even more interesting data.)

BF: One of those data points reveals 55% of small businesses have a blog. Provided they use the blog as a strategic weapon in their content marketing arsenal, those businesses are going to generate more traffic, leads and sales. The other 45% will simply follow, figuratively—and literally.

Nov

Content Worthy of the Country’s Highest Office

When you land at NetBase.com, the online home of a company that sells serious software to major enterprises, a comic book character greets you — NetBase calls him “Captain Insight,” a super hero of “social intelligence.” The masked man has the super power needed to unlock the customer’s mind.

When you’re done with the Marvel-style sequence, you can click into some of the usual content you’d expect to find on a software company’s website. However, had you done so during the presidential campaign, you’d be more likely to have pointed your cursor at a more mysterious element —a gauge marked “Obama.”

You’d then discover a “real-time mood meter,” a dashboard of sorts with dials that deliver up-to-the-minute voter sentiment on the election. Indicators display the sentiment of Twitter users who, in the previous 10 minutes, have expressed opinions on the four presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

Have a look:

“Marketers respond to very creative marketing.”

NetBase CMO Lisa Joy Rosner made the above claim, and backed it up with very compelling evidence. In an interview, I asked Lisa to explain the thinking behind the unusual content offering. She took the conversation back in time to this year’s SXSW show — the multimedia bonanza that takes place each March in Austin.

Lisa walked me through the integrated campaign they conducted for the conference called “What Women Want.” A fascinating research project, NetBase put its own natural language processing technology to work to examine, via social media, the things women want most.

The project culminated in a playful, surprising infographic worthy of water cooler conversations, and then some.

The release of the data did not go unnoticed. Netbase’s website activity skyrocketed, and record numbers of target customers landed on the site, connected with the brand, and “entered the NetBase funnel.”

Who do women want in the oval office?

Lisa and the NetBase marketing team envisioned an encore of sorts, where once again the company’s social media intelligence tool would be applied. This time out they’d gauge public sentiment regarding the candidates in the weeks and days leading up to the election.

Forbes responded to the release of the 2012 Election Mood Meter, and another content marketing star was born.

But there’s a whole lot more to this interesting story….

In this edition of Content Marketing Minds, NetBase’s Lisa Joy Rosner tells you all about:

• How NetBase leverages content marketing strategy to position itself amongst the 273 companies in the social intelligence listening space
• How the company markets to marketers using social media to sell a social media solution
• The impact and reach of these two creative content marketing campaigns
• How NetBase serves the social intelligence needs of leading brands such as Coca-Cola, Taco Bell, and Kraft Foods across various disciplines within the enterprise

… … and of course:

• What women really want

Thanks for tuning in. Feel free to comment and nominate a favorite content marketing campaign for a future episode of the program.

Looking for more examples of innovative content marketing programs? Check out Content Marketing Institute’s “Ultimate eBook: 100 Content Marketing Examples.”

Want to sharpen your website and generate more leads? A free eBook will tell you how to do just that. 

Nov

The Power of Influencers: Rockets Don’t Fly Themselves

Michael Stelzner says content is the fuel that propels your business, but people determine where it goes.

Who’s Michael Stelzner? He’s the author of “Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition”and founder of Social Media Examiner. If you haven’t read the book, you should. You’ll discover and learn how to apply the “elevation principle:”

Great content plus other people, minus marketing messages, equals growth.

The principle doesn’t suggest including other people. It demands it. The formula works to propel your business when, in Stelzner’s words (and I’ll be using a lot of them here), “you shine the spotlight on other people.”

Content marketers often don’t get the giving part.

When you develop a command of content marketing you give, give again, and keep giving. Many people you give to won’t even become your customers. The concept probably strikes you as bass-ackwards. Marketers are supposed to sell, right?

Wrong.

Marketers, content marketers anyway, give. And what exactly do they give? They give two wonderful and timeless gifts: (1) help, and (2) recognition.

Let’s test the theory real quick. Do you like it when people offer you help? Do you like it when people recognize you? I have no further questions for this witness, your honor.

Give it away. Give it away now.

Part two of today’s lesson focuses on “who.” Who should you help and recognize? When you want content marketing to help grow your business, what types of people do you aim to help?

It just so happens, Stelzner answers this very question in his book’s first chapter, which he titled, “Rockets Don’t Fly Themselves.” (Yeah, Michael’s was a copywriter in a former life.)

Your people—Huh? Do you have people? You do. Or if you don’t, it’s time to get people—people who want to hear what you have to say; people who consume what you give away; people who like, follow, connect with, +, circle, and pin you. These people will help build your business—even though you won’t be asking this of them.

SIDEBAR: WHY I LIKE MIKE.

I want to tell you a story. I’ll make it fast. You know this guy Michael I keep referring to? I do. He’s a friend. No, we’re not tennis buddies and our daughters don’t go to the same schools. This time last year Michael was nothing more to me than a great author and inspiration. But then I met him at a conference. I told him how much I valued his book. I reviewed it and wrote an article about it. He noticed. He thanked me, person-to-person and socially. (Can you smell a little elevation principle happening here?) I saw him again last month. We talked about podcasting, which we have both begun doing. We talked about marketing books. He wants to help me filter ideas for my future book. He invited me to write for his site. He introduced me to his friends, his people. You getting all this? Michael has roughly a million more fans and followers than I do and he’s making his way around a room of the world’s top online marketers introducing me as a “really great writer you need to know.” I’m going to leave some parts out of the story now and wrap it up by telling you I recently shot an email to Mike asking if he’d allow me to interview him for my“Content Marketing Minds” podcast program. You know what his answer was. Okay one last thing. You know what he asked for in return? That’s right, nothing. For some crazy reason, Michael likes to help and recognize people. It seems to serve his business very well.

And now back to our list of people you should help and recognize…

Experts—In the creation and sharing of your content you should spotlight people your audience stands to gain something from. Mike Stelzner… social media expert, writer, speaker, influencer… You get it. I’m applying this lesson right here and now.

Fire starters—I plagiarized this one from page 20 of “Launch” because I don’t have a better name for it. These are the big time experts with the reach and influence that might catapult your business. I’m playing that card too. I do it every chance I get. I hope to start some fires myself and return as many favors as I’m able to. You should strive to do this too.

What’s in it for me?

I’m still drawing from page 20 of Launch. It’s a killer book. It’s the remedy to advertising programs that backfire and the prescription for making your marketing efforts pay. So, before I put the wraps on this “it’s better to give than receive” piece, let’s get to best part: the rewards of helping and recognizing others. Here they are:

Your messages are welcomed. It’s really that simple. You’re not pitching a product. You’re offering the help your people appreciate.

You’ll learn. The connections you make will return invaluable insights that will serve your business.
Your reach expands. When you give the gift of valuable content, it gets shared. Everyone wins.

Partnerships form. More gifts, more friends, more opportunities. Remember, rockets don’t fly themselves.
Less rejection. I hope you didn’t skip my sidebar. Reciprocity is a powerful thing. When you give selflessly, you’ll find recipients give back.

You’ll stand out. Face it, not everyone’s keen on giving, helping, sharing, passing along valuable answers. Most have been conditioned to sell. Review the “minus” part of the elevation principle and enjoy the ascent.

Thanks so much for digging into my content today. I hope it helped. Feel free to leave a comment. Your opinion matters.

Oct

A Big Fat Content Marketing Circus [Podcast]

I put gas in my environmentally irresponsible, old guzzler van today. It hurt. To ease the pain, what do you say we talk about bikes instead? We’ll talk a bit about beer, too. Bikes. Brews. I’m feeling better already. Care to join me?

As random as it all sounds,

An experiential diorama

In this podcast, you’ll hear from chief gearhead Matt Kowal, the MC (Master of… Ceremonies? Of content? Of cerveza?) of New Belgium Brewing’s “Tour de Fat.”

This summer, New Belgium’s “people-powered day of experience” made the rounds to 15 cities as part of its 13th annual Tour de Fat. Kowal describes this cycling circus as a “3D billboard/diorama starring our supporters.”

Brands do well by doing good

Patrons can participate in the event for free, but they part with cash throughout the day at concessions. And though a good amount of money is collected, the host beer company keeps none of it: Every dollar goes to local bike causes. In addition, nearly every worker is a volunteer from one of those, and everyone in attendance — I’m guessing 5K or so joined me in San Francisco — has a gay old time in supporting their favorite brand

Today, via the mighty MP3, I’m going to take you with me to the city by the bay. Listen to Matt and me talk about the festivities, first on site in Golden Gate Park, and then on Skype. You’ll learn a heap of fun stuff about an unusual content marketing program that makes its way across the U.S. in three gigantic semi trucks.

Master Matt shares insights about how:

• New Belgium Brewing aims to create a moment people won’t forget
• The hosts garner support from the communities they visit
• Local causes bring a like-minded community together
• New Belgium creates an “interactive diorama”
• The company parlays the event with earned media reach

Be safe. And thanks for listening.

You can learn more about Tour de Fat at the event’s website and Facebook page.

Oct

Free Webinar: Magnetic Content—Strategies to Transform Your Website Into a Customer Attraction Force Field.

It’s time to dial-down your budget.

By now you’ve got ticked off by advertising and direct response programs that didn’t pay-off. You upped the budget to no avail.

I can explain.

Advertising doesn’t work. Or at the very least, with a limited budget, you get very low response rates because you’re attempting to pitch to people who simply aren’t interested.

You see, the media world has changed. Now you need to. We’re web-centric now. We need not tolerate pitchmen interrupting our lives. We control our media experience. We watch what we want to watch. We read what we want to read. We skip what we want to skip. Advertising is the thing we most want to skip.

Search rules now.

We rely on Google like oxygen. And we’re seriously addicted to our ever-connected devices. Be it phones, tablets, or computers, our gadgets are now our library, newspaper, bookstore, shopping mall, game room, movie theater, radio, photo album, mail center, telephone, teletype, and television too.

Search rules the commercial universe. So too does social media and any and all online media. Everybody is looking for something.

That thing we seek is called content.

It’s time to power up your content and make it as magnetic as you possibly can.

Enter content marketing, the process of creating and delivering valuable content to your target customers—usually for free. Turn on the power of content marketing and your site can generate traffic, lower your marketing costs and increase conversion big time.

You can achieve what advertising usually does not. You get people to know, like and trust you.

So you don’t buy media. You don’t print catalogues or buy stamps. You don’t hire phone callers or canvassers. You don’t burn any of your budget trying to deliver your message to people who mostly are not interested.

You become the media.

The challenge lies in doing content marketing effectively—magnetically attracting new customers and equipping them to do some magnetizing for your brand too. Yeah, referral business… word of mouth… or my favorite: word of mouse. Call it what you will. It’s the most powerful form of advertising ever.

> Register for my free webinar on BigMarker.com

Join me this coming Thursday, October 25 at 10:30 Pacific to learn how to transform your website into a customer attraction force field. I’ll share my 7-Step Customer Magnet Program with, talk about proven content marketing strategies and reserve ample time to answer your questions about content marketing.

Register here: “Magnetic Content: Strategies for Customer Attraction”

Oct

Pop Stars are Sucking the Blood out of Twitter

Ladies and gentlemen, er, I probably should say, “boys and girls,” I want to warn you that you won’t like this article if you’re a fan of Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Rihanna or Taylor Swift.

I retract the statement. You can see their shows and buy their tunes. They know how to make music. What I really meant to say was if your number one reason for being a Tweetie bird is to follow these megastars via social media, you’re soon to hate the author of this piece.

Call me maybe. (Whatever that means.)

I took my daughter and her mostly non-Tweeting tweenage friends to the costume store a few days ago. While I was chuckling over the overpriced Axl Rose-in-a-bag costume, I discovered for $29.99 you can go trick or treating as almost any pop star (or Hunger Games character).

Then, when I went online, I found something even more disturbing. I found this article: Twitter’s 10 most retweeted tweets of all time. I guess since I created a link for you there, I’m suggesting you read the trashy piece about our trashy obsession with media trash, but if you’d rather not, let me save you the trouble.

Ugh. I want to be respectful of my fellow Social Media Today contributors, so I mean no harm when I point out this article about Twitter’s 10 Most Retweeted Tweets is dreadfully useless—except it points out how friggen’ useless Twitter can be.

I feel kinda’ bad. This is a site about social media. And the author of the article I cited wrote about what’s popular on social media. You probably want to know what these most popular RTs are. I did. So I clicked.

Now I can tell you what they are: they’re 60 percent pop music bullshit.

Is Twitter the new National Inquirer?

Maybe I’m the one full of it. I mean, if Twitter’s really meant to be a cheaper, faster, more accessible teen mag or tabloid, the birdbrain here is me. But if Twitter is supposed to be a real-time resource to connect consumers, companies, causes, and content creators, then I feel perfectly comfortable saying these pop stars are sucking the blood out of it.

Here’s your consolidated review of the top 10 most RT’d tweets:

• President Obama expressed his point of view on same-sex marriage. Whether or not you agree with the boss, I believe you should agree this is a viable use of Twitter.
• Some NFL player offended the league that pays him millions to play football.
• Some famous boxer challenged some other famous boxer to box.
• Calling on her fame, Kim Kardashian called attention to a cancer patient’s wish. Nice Kim.
• Six pop stars wrote about each other.
• Pop stars are confusing people about Twitter.

Justin and the singing sensations are making Twitter a bulletin board about bubble gum.

Vampires! I kind of hold Twitter sacred. If you’re still with me, maybe you do too.

As an online marketer and marketing copywriter, I see Twitter as a place where business people can do business. So, in an effort to answer the question “why,” which I hope you’re now asking, I did a little research to round-up a list of reasons.

Twitter tricks and treats.

This is not a Twittorial. This is a list of ten very good reasons to use Twitter for marketing and satisfying the important needs of your business.

• Research: Twitter is a fantastic listening tool. When you need to know what people are saying about your company and wanting to know about your area of expertise, you need to use Twitter.
• Sharing content: Consumers and business users are there to learn. Take advantage of this with hashtags and useful keywords.
• Delivering offers: Twitter’s apermission-based medium, so your audience there is likely to care about your offers. Use this, but be careful not to wear out your welcome.
• Collaborating: Twitter is a great collaboration tool, so you need to use it to communicate and collaborate with employees, partners, and customers.
• Serving customers: Customers will ask questions, make suggestions, and enter complaints where anyone can see them. Twitter must become a part of your customer service and support delivery.
• Recruiting and finding work: Recruiters are there. Job seekers are there. People are offering contracts and projects there. Be there.
• Personal Branding: Your blog and everything you create as part of your personal brand must be showcased on Twitter to expand your audience and establish your authority.
• Event communications: Twitter is a dynamo to promote your events before, during and after.
• Fund-raising: If you’re doing something philanthropic, Twitter must be in your media mix.
• Networking: My favorite reason to use Twitter… so many connections are made on Twitter. Go out of your way to make your pen pals real friends—outside of Twitter and even offline.

When I began using Twitter for business, I read “Twitter Marketing for Dummies,” by Kyle Lacy and learned a ton. You won’t find much in it about pop stars, but you will learn why Twitter should be taken seriously.

What can you add about Twitter? Add something share worthy and maybe it’ll be retweeted 100,000 times. Maybe it won’t.

Oct

Presenting “Content Marketing Minds” – Episode 1 [Podcast]

Happy Birthday and You Rock.

“Say It with Skype”

Oct

Does Your Marketing Copywriter Shake It Up?

You know those starved-for-work folks who stand out on street corners in extreme heat and wave around signs and giant arrows attempting to bring you into a nearby store? Of course you do. They’re everywhere. Cheap advertising, I guess. I have to believe they make $8 an hour or whatever minimum wage is in your state. This is not a position that demands much skill.

Fairly often, these human ads have a tiny touch of schtick. Costumes are common. Maybe they wear a sandwich board or have a prop of some sort. Let’s call it what it is. It’s dull.

A street corner advertising rock star.

Her job is to generate traffic to the Verizon Wireless store. She has no props. Nor does she hawk an offer you haven’t seen a million times. Sounds, pretty ho-hum, I know. But day after day, she’s doing her thing on the well-traveled corner of Green Valley and Francisco and she calls a ton of attention to herself and the store. I bet she actually does generate traffic. And I’d bet you an hour wages, she’s paid several shillings more than minimum wage. Why?

She dances. Enthusiastically. Oddly, actually. Relentlessly. She has an iPod in her pocket, earbuds in her ears, music in her heart, and she never stops dancing. And believe me, she doesn’t dress like or move like a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. And if you’re wondering if she’d cut it on “So You Think You Can Dance,” the answer is no chance.

She doesn’t bring amazing talent to her extremely unusual profession. She brings originality and passion.

Let’s talk about online marketing now.

A marketing copywriter handles your online marketing, maybe even a specialist, a web copywriter. If that’s not true, go away. This article is about copywriting and for those who take marketing communications seriously.

Now, in this age of inbound marketing, content marketing, online marketing, whatever-you-want-to-call-it marketing, some truths have become self-evident. One of them is there’s a huge call for publishing stuff. When you perform the task correctly, your website attracts traffic and gets shared.

So as a marketer, you hunt for copywriters and creative people capable of producing stuff. Many even hunt for stuff factories. Some congregate and republish stuff in the name of “content curation.” Given the need to deliver lots and lots of stuff everyday, some companies (not yours, I hope) settle for some pretty low-quality, low-cost stuff. Feel free to call it shit if you want because it stinks bad. It consists of words—keywords—not much more—not ideas—not opinions—nothing original or memorable.

You either get remembered or you get forgotten.

Vanilla gets a bad rap. People use the word to describe what they feel is bland. No fair. It’s a flavor. It might not be your flavor, but it’s a flavor still. It’s the flavorless stuff that deserves jeers.

I like to say, “You either get remembered or you get forgotten.” Which would you like to be?

A similar theme surfaced in many of the presentations and conversations at this year’s Content Marketing World conference. Of the 1,000 attendees who came to learn about, teach and exchange ideas about content marketing practices, you’d find zero who wouldn’t agree there’s too much unorginal, uninspired content begging for the customer’s time and attention. New word: it’s “nontent.” 

Think Elvis, the king.

There were more people than seats when it came time for Ann Handley of Marketing Profs to present her ideas on creating “epic content.” Ann told us to find a distinct voice, take risks, and take a stand, then showed us several examples of companies who have.

For me, Elvis comes to mind. Distinct voice? Oh yeah. Risk taker? Yes, ma’am. And, of course, Elvis took a stand and then some with his greasy hair, the leather, the sneer, and the provocative below the belt gyrations. The music itself was so unique, a deejay in Ohio named Alan Freed felt compelled to give it a new name: rock n’ roll. Not everyone liked it (there’s an understatement if there ever was one). But oh, oh, oh, millions of hound dogs LOVED it.

When you turn some people off, you turn some people on.

I started my career in copywriting in 1988 as a devotional follower of the legendary, sometimes controversial, ad copywriter, Tom McElligot. Tom insisted his agency’s clients deliver messages that would cut through the clutter or none at all. Here’s an excerpt from an interview he did with Inc. in 1988:

“If you break the rules, you’re going to stand a better chance of breaking through the clutter than if you don’t. If you try to live with the rules, in all likelihood the work will be derivative. It won’t be fresh. It won’t have the necessary ingredients to disarm the consumer, who increasingly has got his defenses up against all sorts of advertising messages coming his way.”

(He continues…) “We like to say that when everybody else is zigging, that’s when it’s time for you to zag. And the smaller the company is, and the bigger the competition, the more crucial that advice becomes.”

Amen Tom. My version is “When you turn some people off,  you turn some people on.” Whether we’re talking about advertising campaigns or modern content marketing tactics, the lesson remains undeniably valid.

We’ll never claim there’s not enough media.

I love the way Tom Stein of Stein Partners Brand Activation put it when he had the microphone at Content Marketing World.

“Content – is it the new merlot, or the new black?  There’s lots of conversation about content being the new black.

Wine consumption increased by 66% percent after ’60 Minutes’ did a show on the health benefits of wine.  Casual drinkers went with merlot.  Demand went up, supply went up, and the quality went down.  It became synonymous with crappy wine.

Today we’re seeing a glut of content.  And quality looks like it may be on the decline.  It’s incumbent on content marketers to ensure the quality stays high. Let’s make sure content doesn’t become merlot.”

Step in your blue suede shoes.

Are your online marketing efforts evoking any emotion? Do you have a voice? A point of view?

Or is your stuff calculated and careful and quietly swimming the same direction as the minions of anonymous minnows?

Here are the real questions you need to ask yourself:

• Would I read, listen to, or watch that?
• Step it up… Would I buy that?
• Step it up further… Will I remember that? 

3 yeses =  rockin’ content

Call on your gut. Find the nerve to touch nerves. And when the majority of the crowd is just standing there, dance.

Oct

Do You Have the Skills to Cut It in Content Marketing?

Earlier this week I was stoked to join a panel of expert marketers to present and exchange ideas on Social Media Today’s “Best Thinkers” webinar series.

The topic du jour was “The Value of Content on Today’s Web (the link here offers the program’s audio, slides or full replay).” For a good portion of the discussion, I simply listened as SMT’s Robin Carey and IBM’s Saul Berman tossed around notions of what lies ahead in content marketing, particularly where “paid for” content comes to play.

I tackled a few questions related to the subject and asked a few, but I largely kept my mike on mute as Saul spoke to some of the concepts in his recently published business book, “Not for Free.”

I’m all about free.

In the second half of the webinar, I talked plenty (which is much more my style).

The emails and evites that promoted the event promised we’d examine the following:

What skills do content creators need to develop to be successful?

Yabba-dabba-doo. That’s definitely in my strike zone. Also along for the talk show was my friend Arnie Kuenn, CEO of Vertical Measures and author of the content marketing masterwork, “Accelerate.” Prompted by Robin’s questions, Arnie and I ping-ponged our way through some sort of discussion about what makes content valuable.

Time didn’t allow us to field many questions, so it was hard to read how the audience was reacting, but a lot of people responded to my mini-dissertation on what makes content valuable via Twitter. For example…

Much of what I had to say was garbage.

How’s that for an incentive to listen to a replay of the webinar?

I’ll come clean. When it was my turn to present, I launched into a brief overview of what I consider to be the “treasure” and the “trash” of content marketing today. It’s a black and white point of view, but I think that way. I believe you get remembered or forgotten.

So in my mind, in the content marketing realm, you create treasure or trash. So I offered my take on each. First, I highlighted what I believe to be trash.

Next, I took a shot at “What’s treasured?”

The main course was content marketing skills.

When I wrapped up my rant and dove into the subject the audience actually came to learn more about—what skills are needed to cut it in content marketing—I presented the following slide. I found my list made the rounds on Twitter. I believe we should get into this.

So, here, and now, since people like you found this mini-lesson worthy, I thought I’d expand on these points…

• • Listening & learning—Without a doubt, this was the webinar’s hottest topic. I put forth the proposition (how lame does that sound?) that listening outranks all skills. Our moderator, Robin, wanted to discuss it more and so too did the audience. We’re working on a plan to do just that. In this discussion, we hit upon the value of social media, tools including Twiitter, LinkedIn Answers, question sites, and so forth. It’s a big, big, big topic. Before we moved on, we even talked about the long lost art of asking living, breathing prospects and customers questions about their information needs. Someone on Twitter dubbed this amazing science “F2F.” You do the math.
• • Media—Again, this is a webinar and then some, however by putting it on my “skills needed” list I mean to suggest an effective content marketer understands media. There’s a lot of it today and different folks click different stuff. It’ll do you good to get this stuff, psychologically speaking.
• • Writing—How could I resist? Content marketing is as much a war for your attention as any media ever. If you want to devalue that, you can allow any hack to write your content. If you understand the importance of content, you’ll want the very best content creators (hint, writers) on your team.
• • Persuasion—Everyone says online content is journalism. They say you need a publisher mentality. They’re right. Not many say it’s selling. They’re wrong. You need to sell something—even if it’s just your point of view or opinion. Your content doesn’t have to point to the cash register, but it does have to be persuasive.
• • Design—This skill is not optional. Guess what happens to crappy looking content? It gets a crappy response. If your content is valuable it must look valuable.
• • Social media—Sorry, but yeah, your skill set needs to expand and if social media is not on your to-do list, please tell me what is. If you want to be an ace content marketer you need to grasp how, when, where and why social media performs a huge role in helping you share and promote your content, engage prospects, establish and build relationships, and create new opportunities.
• • Analytical—C’mon now right brains, let’s all sigh, gasp and curse together. Feel better? Cool. Effective content marketing speaks to the users’ needs. So effective content marketers understand what they are. You combine research, intuition and speculation, then you create content. But you’re hardly done. Then you analyze the results. Then you respond accordingly. If you’re not willing to buy the ticket to board this train and ride it out, you gotta’ go. You’re on track to create trash.

Do you have questions? Comments? Additions for my lists? Please share your thoughts. Want a copy of the slides? Here you go.

Free eBook from Feldman Creative

Want a free copy of “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website?” All yours.

Sep

Free Webinar: The Value of Content on Today’s Web

Let’s talk on Tuesday.

I’m excited to announce I’ll be joining a small panel of content marketing experts for a fun, informative, and interactive webinar this coming Tuesday, October 2. The webinar is free and open to all.

Register here, now.

Here’s a preview of some of the things we’ll be talking about.

My 2-cents worth.

The topics we’ll cover include “the skills content creators must have.” I’ll speak to this and tell you:

•  Why some content is treasured and other is trashed

•  How to sharpen your content creation skills

•  What the process of delivering content successfully looks like.

Some big thinkers will be there with us.

What a panel we’ll have. Social Media Today’s CEO, Robin Carey will host the webinar and she’s invited two of the top influencers in online media to join the program:

Arnie Kuenn—He’s the author of “Accelerate: Moving Your Business Forward through the Convergence of Search, Social & Content Marketing,” CEO of Vertical Measures, and an in-demand speaker on all types of intelligent Internet marketing.

Saul Berman, Ph.D — The Global & Americas Leader for the IBM Strategy & Change Consulting group within IBM Global Business Services (GBS).

Talk to you Tuesday.

Sep

How Do You Continue to Generate Useful Content?

It’s not everyday I field a question as great as this one, though I wish it was.

I had just begun discussing the making of a content marketing plan for a new client when he chimed in with this killer question.

I felt pretty good about my answer. I said you have to listen. As you might have guessed, he then wanted to know what you listen to. I said: to your customers, your prospects, to any and all voices across the landscape of your industry.

Listening wasn’t always as easy as it is now.

My marketing career predates the social web by umpteen years. So I speak from experience when I tell you advertising and marketing folks didn’t find it so easy to be astute listeners pre-web.

Of course, even if we conducted market research, we weren’t really listening. We mostly tested our hunches. In focus groups and with polls or questionnaires, we might have been aiming to take the temperature of the target market, but the objective wasn’t to deliver content that would be valuable to them. The goal was to confirm our thinking and then create messages that would be valuable to our clients or the companies we worked for.

That’s changed. Today, savvy marketers recognize you don’t build successful brands without building relationships. And you don’t build relationships without listening. That’s age-old wisdom. But marketing has become a dialogue. That’s a fairly new realization.

Social media provides the ultimate feedback loop.

The sentence above comes from a paper by PR Newswire titled “Active Listening: The Key to Relevance and PR Results.” The paper made it fairly easy for me to deliver some of the insights that follow.

I shall quote ‘em verbatim to begin:

True leadership is always an exercise in listening before taking action. In social media, the most effective thought leaders listen extensively to social media, monitor their competitors’ sites and follow their target audiences’ online behaviors to identify shifting trends.

And what do you stand to learn by listening via social media?

1. Your target market’s needs
2. The questions being asked
3. Topics of which you’ll establish authority on
4. What your competitors are saying and doing
5. Where your brand stands
6. The vocabulary of your industry
7. What’s hot and what’s not
8. The types of content being produced
9. Who the influencers are
10. Which social channels and websites are most relevant
11. How to best engage with your target market

This is where your content should come from.

Back to the question this article is meant to be the answer to…

By actively listening (observing) the interactions taking place, you gain the insights needed to create relevant content and spark conversation. Your goal is to engage the audience, join the conversation, and ultimately, earn a larger media footprint and join the ranks of industry influencer.

Tuning into Twitter is a very logical place to start. Once there, you’ll find relevant dialogue in the various blogs and social sites where you belong. If this is new to you, the lesson sinks in fast when you start hanging out, listening, and eventually, chiming in on Twitter.

I find LinkedIn’s many resources and services tremendously helpful, especially LinkedIn Answers and LinkedIn Groups. The “Answers” feature makes it easy to tap into the knowledge of your professional network and members from across LinkedIn. I often mention how useful LinkedIn Answers is for social listening, research and a number of other things to my clients and come to find they had never heard of, or tried, the service. Try it.

Jason Falls offers a succinct “how to” regarding LinkedIn Answers here.

Once you zero-in on a subject you’ll benefit from listening “to,” you should join—or even start—a LinkedIn Group. Use the LinkedIn search field to find your first group or two and you’ll be off to races. As I like to say about any social media, you get out of it what you put into it. Put some effort into engaging in relevant LinkedIn Groups. You won’t be sorry.

HubSpot’s Anum Hussain wrote a helpful article on the benefits of LinkedIn Groups here.

Let’s get serious now.

So you understand the value of active listening, how important it is to forming and managing a steady stream of useful content, and you’ve begun to learn about some helpful tools for getting started.

Want to notch it up? It’s surprisingly easy to move into the big leagues of online listening. To do so, you set up a social media listening dashboard. Seriously.

For this task, you’re going to put a handful of powerful and free tools to use and assemble a central dashboard with Google Reader. It takes just a few minutes, will save you oodles of time every day, and make active listening remarkably useful for your content marketing efforts. Help yourself to a well-written tutorial here: “How to Set Up Your Social Media Listening Dashboard.”

We could all be better listeners.

Listen more closely. Listen more often. Seek to understand.

Whether it’s Stephen Covey telling us about how highly effective people make it a habit or Dale Carnegie professing how vital it is to winning friends and influencing people, we’re reminded to become better listeners often.

It sounds so simple. Too simple to dwell on in an article? I think not. When you take the fundamentals for granted, you lose. Legendary coach John Wooden reminds us it’s most often 2-foot layups where basketball games are won and lost. You think they shot layups at UCLA practices?

Practice listening. Believe me, I‘m not going to tell you it’s my strongest suit.  However, I will tell you I’m working on it. I believe 1,000 words ago, I mentioned a client asked me, “How do you continue to generate useful content?” Had I not been listening, I wouldn’t have generated this article. I hope you found it useful.

If you have questions or comments, go for it. We’re listening.

Sep

Content Marketing Pros Have Flawsome Sex with Chickens

Content Marketing World offered attendees a spicy and fun vocabulary lesson.

Sep

Case Studies or Customer Stories = Compelling & Magnetic Content

21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website: Part 13

A good portion of online marketing advice from “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website” focuses on taking advantage of newer tactics. But not all of it. Case it point: case studies or customer success stories. I’ve been creating them for 20 years or so. They’re old school.

That said, from old school teachings, in marketing, or in any profession really, we are reminded of the importance of fundamentals. The case study or customer story is as old school as can be, but remains a fundamental component of the sales and marketing mix that has only grown more important and effective in this connected era where new media savvy companies publish a steady stream of content.

We’ll have a look at why to publish them, do a quick study of how, and toss around some “how not” wisdom to help you successfully make this age-old content marketing strategy a part of your big picture.

Why?

Your customers can provide some of your most powerful content—if you let them.

Case studies have proven to be an effective conversion tool because they:

• Reinforce your core messaging and hammer home why customers like and trust your product
• Provide the ideal vehicle to showcase features and benefits
• Give prospects a tool to champion your company internally and decision makers a convincing reference

Case studies can also increase leads because they:

• Allow you to further optimize your website and build SEO authority
• Extend your content marketing strategy because they are easily repurposed in media such as newsletters, presentations for SlideShare, and much more (stay tuned)
• Can generate additional media coverage

My friend Deana Goldasich (Twitter handle), founder of Well Planned Web, a company that helps thought leaders find a voice, gave a killer presentation at Content Marketing World on this subject. She called it “Customer Stories: How to Unlock an Abundance of New Content.” All credit goes to D, so I’m pleased to offer you this link to her presentation and summarize it here.

This is how customer stories are done.

A good portion of Deana’s presentation focused on how it’s done. Here’s the skinny…

Who cares?
Deana did her homework. She studied at Content Marketing Institute, I think. I’m a student there. You should be too. She presented the research findings culled from a CMI and Marketing Profs study designed to determine who cares about content marketing and what is it they care about.

So she cites research providing evidence that (1) today’s content marketers consider their biggest challenge is producing content that engages prospects, and (2) producing enough content is also atop the list of concerns.

Bring on the big reveal.
Deana quoted some seriously compelling numbers. I don’t want to dig deep into them here, but I will share that the bottom line is just one customer story can provide the credible content you need to create numerous white papers, emails, case studies, blog posts, infographics, videos, and more. She made a point of demonstrating all this with a quick recap of a client of hers—MediaLab 3D Solutions—who benefited from all type of things and more based on a customer story project. This ain’t merely theory, folks. Again, the evidence is presented here.

How to do customer stories. How not to.

You’re not the hero. Your company has a pretty decent role, but it’s not the hero either. Deana’s  lesson begins with a commonly misunderstood secret: these stories aren’t about your company; they’re about your customers. They play the hero role. They saved Gotham. They get the spotlight and glory.

Make them relatable. Perhaps we’re getting into subtle stuff here, but the point is this: don’t base your story on anonymous corporate execs who spew too-good-to-be-true corporate bullshit. Let them be human when you quote them, quote them.

Drop the pen. In the making of customer story, you’re not to be a creative writer. It’s non-fiction. You’re a reporter. Gather the story and report it.

Who’s interview worthy? The customer is. Don’t allow your story to be told by front line sales and service peeps. Don’t even let them conduct the interview. Get a seasoned storyteller (i.e. writer/journalist) to uncover the story.

Your job: shut up.  Ask questions and and listen. Don’t assume what the answers are or dictate how the story unfolds. Let it be real. Surprising as it may seem, it’s bound to be an interesting and credible tale of someone who had a problem and found the solution. Deana claims your story will resonate with prospects if you as the creator reduce your role. Introduce your featured guest; shut up and stay out of the way. The customer will do just fine. Your job is to facilitate, listen, capture, and glean.

Did you find this story interesting? Of course you did. You’re still with me. Here’s a bonus idea…

This is the age of sharing and customer generated content. Right? Think about this: what if your customers told their stories for you? I think Simply Zesty is onto something very cool here. Check out Simply Creative.

Telling customer stories on your website and in your content marketing programs is just one of the recommendations I offer in my free eBook,  “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website.” Help yourself to the publication and feel free to contact me if you want to talk about how to sharpen your site.

http://www.simplyzesty.com/creative/

Sep

Powerful Ideas to Power Your Content Marketing

Sep

Should Your Home Page Contain a Form?

I posed this question on Focus.com.

Heard of it? Focus is a very cool site for researching all kinds of stuff. On their “About Us” page they say:

Focus is the best way to make better business decisions.

Focus makes the world’s business expertise available to everyone. At the heart of Focus is a network of thousands of leading business and technology experts who are thought leaders, veteran practitioners and upstart innovators in hundreds of different topics and markets.

You can connect with the experts on Focus in three primary ways:

• Q&A

• Research

• Events

Focus is also easy to use and freely available to anyone who wants help making better business decisions.

I’ve been using the Q&A regularly. Sometimes because I seek answers. Sometimes I’m trying to spark a debate. This time, I thought I’d do a roundup of experts’ opinions regarding my question:

Should your home page contain a form?

Here’s what I gathered (and in some cases edited for brevity)…

There should be some sort of “call to action” button, form or link to request more information, set an appointment or request a contact depending on your business. That being said, forms can intimidate people, make them think you are asking for too much information or will use any information gathered to slam them with unwanted advertising.

Your home page should not contain a form, per se. This is what landing pages are for. However, an email sign-up “form” should be visible on the home page and landing pages, so people can easily sign up for more information. Email marketing is the best relationship tool and channel once you have attracted someone to your site through promotion, advertising, search, etc.

Aug

Nine Ways Marketers Make Magnetic Content

Guest post from Amy Izzo, at Marketri
Originally titled: Nine Habits Of Highly Engaging Content Marketers

Someone recently told me she was an “advertiser’s dream” because whenever she sees a commercial or hears of an offer, she is immediately  convinced she wants or needs that product.  Well, I think I’m a content marketer’s dream…and maybe most marketers are.  Whenever I hear about a new blog, webinar, tool, or tactic, I just can’t wait to give it a whirl.

With the speed at which marketing is changing- even over the past year- I’m constantly learning of new tools, social media platforms, SEO rules, etc.  When I want to dig deeper, I’m reading blogs, downloading e-books, and/or watching YouTube videos. That said, we at Marketri are also on the other side of the fence, creating content for both our own firm and our clients’.  Being both a producer and consumer of content helps us stay connected with the elements others find interesting too.

Here are some tips for keeping your content relevant, interesting, and engaging so that readers come to know you as a resource and keep returning to devour more information.

Aug

Famous Scientist Reveals Why Many Marketers Suffer Insanity

This is an old joke, but a profound one…

Guy goes to see his doctor. He says, “Doc, it hurts when I do this. What should I do?” Doctor says, “Stop doing it.”

And then there’s that axiom from the famous physicist Albert Einstein, who said…

 The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Are you insane?

Forgive me for probing into your mental health uninvited, but it feels like my question needs to be asked. I’m going somewhere with this, which is based on a chunk of data I’ve come across in a number of articles this month citing the research findings from “Constant Contact Small Business Pulse.”

The report begins by highlighting the top three answers to “What keeps you up at night?”

• First place: How to attract new customers
• Second place: Connecting and engaging with existing customers
• Third place: Getting referrals from current customers

Though I lack the credentials to assess insanity, so far, the respondents strike me as perfectly sane. But then, they’re asked about marketing their small businesses with the question, “Which marketing activities do you find to be effective for your organization today?” Survey says:

• Gold: Email marketing
• Silver: Website
• Bronze: In-persona interactions (I find it odd this qualifies as a marketing activity.)
• Fourth place, but no medal: social media marketing (where B2C folks scored fairly high at 56%)

The remaining results, which we’ll dub “not so effective,” included events, phone calls, PR, direct mail, traditional print and broadcast advertising, and online advertising.

Are you one of the small business marketers who keep going back to these marketing tactics and find they’re producing weak results? You know what the scientist would say.

The first prescription is obvious.

Stop. If you’re investing in marketing tactics that don’t work for your business, stop. Let me try to put that more simply: stop.

Take inventory of Constant Contact’s findings. Ask yourself if you’re putting your time and money into the top four, the more effective marketing strategies. No? Why not? In addition to understanding what made the top performers list, I encourage you to consider a powerful selling point common to the foursome: they are free.

Okay, I used the term “free” a bit recklessly. Nothing’s free. These tactics require the investment of time. They rely on expertise too. So my advice here, if you want to see your small business thrive: find the time. Find the expertise. Do some reallocating of your marketing dollars.

With three of the top four being web-based, one might go as far as concluding web-based marketing is more effective than your traditional channels. You think that’s just the website copywriter and content marketing consultant in me talking? I don’t. (Plus, I wanted to insert a few backlinks.)

What would Albert do?

You don’t get to be called Einstein if you interpret everything as black and white. In an effort to apply some critical thinking, I propose you could interpret this data two ways:

1. You’re doing the wrong thing.

2. You’re doing the thing wrong.

You follow me? Hope so. I’ll go with an analogy, which is a Feldman Creative Persuasion Pointer.

Say, Sam tries and tries, but can’t get a date. He asks out the people he fancies and keeps getting no for an answer. You might conclude Sam should stop asking. But you might not. Alternatively, you could conclude Sam should do it differently. Different approach. Different style. Different venue. Different people.

It’s quite possible Sam would get different results. Ask Albert.

Head banging hurts.

The research study reports social media is less effective for small B2Bs than B2Cs. Again, we need not interpret that to be true. It’s true that respondents in the survey expressed their opinions as such, but you might very well be able to make a case that small B2Bs need to learn more about using social media effectively. Just saying.

And now for my conclusion. If your marketing tactics aren’t working, change them. Experiment. This is what scientists do. And though I’d be the last one to tell you marketing doesn’t require a talent for art, I’ll be first to tell you it’s now a science.

One more deep philosophical thought for you on our subject du jour…

They say when you spend a lot of time and energy banging your head into a brick wall, it feels good to stop. How do you feel?

Want some new ideas for your online marketing? Get my free eBook, “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website.” 

Aug

Effective Headlines to Generate Leads

It’s always nice to find like-minded bloggers sharing advice you can endorse. And it’s especially gratifying when a trusted authority uses your article or ideas to demonstrate her point. Great synchronicity here too because I’ve been offering ideas for making your article titles attractive. The following article offers strong examples of effective headlines including one of mine (see “The Great Keywords Secret Revealed.”

The following article is republished here with permission from the author and her inbound marketing company.

Original title: 

“7 Tips for Writing a Successful Headline for TOFU Content” 

By Brianne Carlon from Kuno Creative

We have been talking a lot about top-of-the-funnel content here at Kuno. In fact, the term “TOFU” just rolls of our tongues so easily now that it is starting to become existent in conversations where people have no clue what we are talking about. But perhaps what we don’t talk about enough is what makes successful TOFU content. As a former journalist, I tend to put a lot of responsibility on the headline. So I am breaking down what makes a valuable and effective TOFU headline.

You might be asking what makes TOFU headlines different from any other headline, and you would be right to wonder. You could certainly apply the following best practices to any headline, but they apply to TOFU content directly because of the goal of the content: TOFU content should appeal to as many people within your targeted buyer persona as possible. This means the busy executives who delete most of the emails in their inboxes, skeptical leads, and anyone else who may not necessarily open your content but should. Once leads have made it down the sales funnel, they are more and more likely to open content from your brand, but TOFU offers are where the biggest challenge lies.

So step 1; be clear about your topic. It is dreadful attempting to come up with a headline, let alone a good headline, when you don’t really even know what you are writing about.

A Few Do’s and Don’ts (Plus a Few Examples)

Do give away your offer: Figure out what the biggest takeaway for your audience will be and lead with that. People want to be entertained or informed. Let them know right up front that you are going to solve one of their problems, and this article, download, or video will show them how.

Good Example: The Great Keywords Secret Revealed

Don’t use big words: The idea of top-of-the-funnel content is to cast a broad net and convert as many people as possible into leads. When you use big words, or even industry-specific words, you often alienate more people than you attract.

Do focus on the end game: The headline is not the place to get caught up in the process or progression of something. Instead, talk about the final result that your future customer will be excited to arrive at.

Good Example: More Facebook Views = More $$$

Don’t be afraid to be direct: Just say it. Say what you mean. It will be OK. Seriously, come out with it already. Being direct lets people know what you are offering right away without question.

Good Example: 12 ways to add force to your writing

Do ponder a question: What issue in your industry does your product or service solve? Ask the right questions that will pull in potential customers, and then use your TOFU download, blog post or guide to answer the question in the way that positions your product or service.

Good Example: Is Your Marketing a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?

Don’t use your brand in your headline: Just don’t. Blog posts that include a company name in the headline often underperform compared to blogs that don’t by staggering numbers.

Do use creativity: Puns, alliteration, rhymes … they all do a fabulous job of catching a reader’s eye. See some of my favorites here.

The Bottom Line

Remember, TOFU headlines need to attract as many people as possible. When you enlist tactics such as simple, direct phrases, irrefutable values and sheer wittiness, you can’t lose. What challenges do you experience with your TOFU headlines? Share them here, along with your favorite TOFU headlines. 

Aug

Persuasion Pointers – Rich Little Nuggets from Me to You

I know. I know. Your attention span is 15 seconds, 140 characters, one quick image. Me too. It’s a social media world. More media, more noise.

Introducing Persuasion Pointers

As often as I can get around to it, I’ll be sharing 101 pointers. The idea is to help give you ideas for sharpening your persuasion skills to make your online marketing more effective.

On Twitter, the pointers will look like this…

Short is good.

You can set up your Twitter app to follow #fcpointers. Easy, eh? And if you don’t follow me on Twitter, I command you to begin right here, right now.

Social Media Cross-Pollination

You don’t Tweet?  (Gasp.) You can still get these little chunks of mind-enriching vitamins and minerals…

Feldman Creative Connections – Click these lil’ chiclets!

Share, please

As always, share what you like. Like what you share.

See you there. Or maybe it’ll be the other way around. 

Aug

New Social Media: Tout – Check it Out!

Don’t feel like Tweeting? Then just talk.

Aug

SlideShare Means Business: 15 Reasons Why

Online marketers like (as in “enjoy”) different social media for different reasons.  Oddly, SlideShare, which has been around for just six years and was recently acquired by LinkedIn, doesn’t make all that many “must-have” lists.

It should. SlideShare rocks.

According to their own press release, SlideShare helps professionals discover people through content, and content through people. I’ll vouch for that because this is indeed the experience I’ve had with the service. In fact, I have a fairly long list of reasons why SlideShare means business.

Serious users

On most social media, you’re bound to find users of all shapes and sizes, including of course, a massive teen set who mostly have found a new sandbox to play in. Such is not the case with SlideShare. It gets 60 million visitors a month from a highly professional audience. In fact, it gets 3, 4, even 5 times as much traffic from business owners as compared to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. (See infographic.)

ROI

Online marketers come at return on investment from many different angles and frankly, it’s not a debate I tune into closely. That said, most B2B marketers agree SlideShare, which offers lead capture functionality, delivers a healthy and easily measurable return on investment.

Lead generation

Graduating from the free version to SlideShare Pro enables you to generate leads for your business with your presentations, documents and videos. You can even do a small amount of customization to your inquiry and choose some options to best fit your needs and style.

Analysis

Also, as part of its $19/month Pro version, SlideShare provides an analytics dashboard. And though that might sound like no big deal, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how simple, straightforward and useful the data actually is. At a quick glance you can learn where your traffic came from, keywords used to find your content, see if and how your stuff was shared, and so forth.

Integration

Sorry. I don’t mean to get all geeky here, but it would be unfair not to point out SlideShare easily integrates into marketing automation and CRM systems. Also, with just a couple of clicks you can embed your SlideShare channel into your LinkedIn profile page. I’ll show you mine (if you show me yours—or not).

Embedding

Like YouTube, SlideShare makes it remarkably simple to embed your documents inside your website and blog. It’s a copy and paste operation. And it looks like this:

Content marketing

While all social media is essentially about sharing content, by its definition, SlideShare is focused on sharing marketing content. Its purpose is for engaging potential customers. In my mind, if content marketing ranks in your company, you should be using SlideShare. The presentation I put up this week (21 Ways to Attract Customers with Magnetic Content) was viewed over 500 times on day one earning it a spot on SlideShare’s front page showcase of popular content.

Search

SlideShare leverages search engines. The entire content of your slideshow is indexed and can show up in search results.

Downloads

Anything you upload can be downloaded by your visitors. Or not. You can turn the download feature on or off for each piece of content.

Credibility

Okay, so you shouldn’t believe everything you read, and clearly, the proliferation of social media forces you to do some serious “truth” filtering and fact checking. However, in my opinion, SlideShare users generally deliver credible content.

Price

$19 a month. Agree to a longer term and the fees are even lower. Seems like a no-brainer if you’re able to capture leads with your SlideShare content.

Video

Your SlideShare presentations can include YouTube videos or you can upload video directly.

Branding

When you go Pro, SlideShare removes ads and offers you the ability to customize the look of your page. Here’s a nice example from Pew Internet. Your SlideShare profile can also include links to your website and social media accounts.

Alerts

SlideShare keeps you informed by offering a variety of email preferences allowing you to receive notifications for the precise activities you care to know about. I was pleasantly surprised when I received a couple of alerts via email informing me my presentation was featured on SlideShare’s “Popular on Twitter” and “Popular on LinkedIn” channels.

Support

Get this: I had some questions about the features offered in the paid versions of SlideShare. I picked up the phone and called and a real live person answered the call and stayed on the line with me until all my questions were answered. And there was no bill for this rare service. Plus, if you contact them via their form, they get back to you within a day. Look, they promise.

Do you have any questions?

Please ask. I’ll do my best to help you understand SlideShare and the many reasons why I think you should take it seriously.

Aug

Click and Stick: Do Your Titles Do the Trick?

When it comes to offering how-to advice in my blog articles and other forms of content, I’m really not the world’s biggest fan of acronyms. I see too many weak ones that feel forced or downright clunky.

Disclaimer aside, when I read “The Best Blog Titles for Your Content: 6 Best Practices for How to Get the Click,” by Adam Vavrek of Skyword, I was impressed with his clever acronym: TITLES.

T = Teasers
I = Instructions
T= Threats
L = Lists
E = Engagement
S = Secrets

This one’s worth adding to your arsenal of copywriting tricks because the ideas captured with the acronym “TITLES” simply work.

What’s the measure of a great headline?

The answer is ridiculously simple. A great headline or title gets the reader to read the next sentence. And then if the next sentence gets the reader to read the following sentence, it too has achieved its objective. And so on. Ultimately, if you made it to the last line of an article or written piece of any kind, the copywriter has succeeded.

For a website copywriter, it all begins with a click. Goal one: entice someone to click. Goal two: keep the reader on your site. I like to call it “click and stick.”

Adam does a stellar job in his article of explaining the psychology of each TITLES trick and offering what he calls “trigger words,” the words that help invoke the click. He also offers several examples of each type of title drawing from his company’s blog.

I thought an interesting twist on his story might be to invite you into my head as I apply each of the TITLES tricks in an attempt to give this article an alluring title.  You’ll see what I mean.

Teasers

The teaser title is a favorite of mine and countless scribes everywhere. When you’re writing a teaser title, you need not get super fancy. Its magic pulling power lies in creating curiosity. Asking a question works wonders. I used this trick in giving this article its title and it appears to have worked. Another angle might have been:

Does Your Article’s Title Spell “Success?”

Or:

Why Tell When You Can Tease?

Instructions

The instructions title is the oldest trick in the book… or magazine… or email… or any form of communication. Why? People read to learn. So you appeal to the reader’s hunger for knowledge by making it clear your piece offers a valuable lesson. Got a problem? Here’s the answer.

On the magazine rack at the grocery store checkout you’ll find hundreds of examples.  And if that lesson on love, or cooking, or making money, highlights an area you could stand to learn a bit about, chances are quite good that magazine is going home with you. Let’s look at how this article could have this type of title:

How to Seduce Readers with Your Headline.

Or:

The Trick to the Click.   

Threats

The threat—a force to be reckoned with. Link bait, for sure. This style title represents another tried and true winner.  In a presentation I recently put together about increasing the pulling power of your content I included “mistakes” as a sure-fire magnet. I called them “no-no’s you need to know.” I could have called this article:

The Big Mistake a Blog Writer Can’t Afford to Make.

Or:

Danger: Boredom This Way Comes.

Lists

It’s a darn good thing the word “TITLES” has an “L” in it because us headline writers would be some lost and lonely loons if we couldn’t call on the almighty list when have XX number of points to make.  Fill in the blank with a “One” or “101.” Embellish freely with provocative adjectives such as “essential.” I dig into this strategy in an article simply titled, “Numbers Rule.” Adam played the list card by offering “6 Best Practices,” so I’ll try something like that:

6 Humdingers for Writing a Hot Headline.

Or: 

6 Killer Title Tips I Just Had to Make My Own

Engagement

As a communicator, your goal will always be to engage readers. You could think of the “E” as “entertain.” I suppose writing engaging or entertaining material calls for a skill that requires some natural talent and lots of practice, but a few tricks might get the greener writer going in the right direction.

Humor works. Controversy works. The idea here is to be provocative, such as:

Do Your Blog Titles Blow?

Or:

Make Your Titles More Titillating.

Secrets

You’re bound to get a click when you go with the “secrets” trick. The word “secret” in and of itself is quite irresistible, but you can mix it up with similar triggers such as “keys,” “tips,” and inserting adjectives designed to raise the value of the secrets such as “uncommon” or “amazing.” Let’s try this:

Amazingly Reliable Tricks for Getting More Clicks.

Or: 

Can’t-Miss Titles for Your Content.

Shwew. That was amazingly fun. 6 cool tricks. 12 pretty strong examples, I hope. The exercise was to create just one sentence or phrase, a headline. The focus was on blog articles, but you can apply this lesson to any piece of content where the trick is to get clicks: emails, webinars, white papers, eBooks, anything really.

Thanks Adam. And thank you too. If you have a trick or two to add or a comment to bring to the conversation, please go for it.

Aug

How To Create a Blog to Drive Traffic to Your Website

21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website: Part 10

Why blog?

The reasons to blog are well documented and it’s universally understood that more website content (of the strategic variety) equates to more website traffic. Let’s thank Vertical Measures for giving us this succinct and smart list that nails the benefits of blogging in a recent article, “Does Your Company Need a Blog?” Author Ben Holland lists the following six benefits of blogging:

• Constant stream of new content
• Establish yourself as an expert
• More pages to appear in search engine results pages (SERP)
• Earn higher search rankings
• Keep people on your website longer
• Social engagement

Most blogs stink.

If you know a bit about SEO, you know people are going to read your blog. If it stinks, your website visitors will conclude your company does too.

You don’t want to be one of these types of bloggers:

The Big Promiser—I can cite examples until the cows come home… The headline’s quite captivating. You click the story. You’d be crazy not to. But the article writer juked you with his headline writing skills and rambled on and on with complete disregard for delivering what he promised. Very annoying.

The Tabloidist—These writers have read the key to attracting eyeballs is taking advantage of your endless appetite for reading about the rich and famous. And so, these writers try to cash in with stories about Hiltons, Kardashians, politicians, athletes and the media sweeheart de jour. They hit a hot button by leading you to believe Angelina Jolie will play a role in their sweet little baby of a story, but what you read is irrelevant and Brad Pittiful.

The Word Thief—Content marketing experts often recommend you mine blogging ideas from contemporaries in your line of work. It’s good advice. But plagiarism’s not good. Ripping off other writers’ words is easier than ever, but it’s a crappy thing to do.

The Advertiser—The merger of editorial content and advertising is older than time. And it has its place. However, I feel it’s fair to call foul on the blog that perpetually tries to disguise a product pitch as an article. These type of stories should come with a disclaimer because I don’t want to read them. Do you?

The All-Knower—This blog sucks you in. When you first stumble upon it, you find some juicy nuggets relevant to your area of curiosity and then you subscribe. But later you’re fed useless tips from every corner of this tip-happy world. That all-knowing tip dispenser is faking it. When I add a feed to my reader, I want to believe I’m subscribing to the insights of an expert. You can’t be an expert on everything.

The Curation Crapper—This bloke resembles “the word thief,” but he’s slimier. He’s not content just to steal ideas. He messes them up as well. I found a few of these criminals today. An article of mine went through some sort of blender, but the mucked-up mess still had my name on it. I’m not happy about it.

Write what your blog readers want.

I thank you for enduring my rant and I’d like to now give you some useful advice.

My man, my friend, a mentor of mine, Marcus Sheridan, did a stellar job of identifying “50 Qualities of the Best Business Blogs in the World.” Consider his article (and all his content) recommended reading, but also consider hanging with me for my six favorite tidbits of wisdom he gave us on the subject.

Answer questions—Generally speaking, you pay to hear Marcus speak. I did. Thousands of people have and no one wants their money back. Marcus gets up in front of the crowd and pleads with you to take note of every question your customer asks you and publish the answers in the form of an article. He says doing so will earn you major league traffic, get readers to recognize your expertise and put their trust in you. Funny how the best teachers teach and preach such obvious stuff. John Wooden, the most accomplished coach ever, said you win basketball games by making layups.

Grow some balls—Marcus says “dang” and “golly,” so blame me for kicking into this tip with locker room language. Still, his point, and my point too, is blog fearlessly. Is your bad news good news? For instance, do you charge more? Does your product require more something to get something out of? Say so. Last year at BlogWorld LA, Marcus asked a room of about 100 people how many publish information about their prices. A show of hands revealed approximately 5% go there. Next he asked how many people get asked about price from their customers. Guess how many people raised their hands?

Share the love—I’m taking the advice of Marcus right here and now. He says “shine the light on others doing it right in their industry.” Can you give me one valid reason why you wouldn’t do this? One of Marcus’ companies sells underground pools. Ya’ think he thinks he can get every pool contract in the country? Of course not. He wants you to hire the best vendors. He uses a blog as his platform and thanks to his command of inbound marketing, his company fields hundreds of requests to install pools outside of its geographical market. The point: align yourself with respectable companies.

Fun it—We may have finally arrived at my #1 point for this article: don’t be boring. If you want to enjoy the benefits of blogging and don’t have the skills on your current team, hire someone one who does. No one’s going to endure your lessons unless they’re fun.

Tell a story—Without naming names, I have to say some of the best advice artists are bloody boring. Stuffy stuff sucks. If you want to generate some traction for your blog, be real and tell authentic stories.

Interact—Do you do this? Your blog should be more than a data dump. Good ones create conversations. If you’re not up for conversing with your readers, don’t blog. Marcus says the best bloggers “show gratitude, support and sincere appreciation to those readers, fans, and other companies that support them.”

What do you say we interact? If you can add something, please do.

Blogging is on my list of “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website,” my no-nonsense advice for ditching the dull and making your site the immensely powerful marketing mecca it should be. If I may be frank, you really need to read it.

Jul

Your 8-Piece Social Media Marketing Starter Plan

My social media resume (which you can skip if you’d like):
Very active for about two years. Read about it daily online and follow the feeds of 20+ media leaders. Write about it often. I’m a featured contributor at SocialMediaToday.com. Consume books about it. Attend conferences. Member of many communities. Have a client, SocialStage,  in the Facebook biz. Play around with Pinterest. Starting to get Google+. Pretty fair Klout standing (whatever that means). Love Twitter. (Kids love Instagram and YouTube.) Just joined the local chapter of the booming Social Media Club. References available upon request.

What about you?
Do you follow, friend, like, tweet, #hashtag, circle, search, share, upload, link-in, link-to, favorite, discover, connect, bookmark, filter, share, pin, post, upload, comment and connect? You should. For business, it’s become an imperative—for marketing, PR, personal branding, customer relations—you name it. For life outside of work, it’s a ton of fun. And when you think about, you come to realize social media kind of blurs the lines between work and play making it easier to get news, pick fights, spout off, opine, share wisdom, survey customers, track competitors, do research, make offers, make announcements, make friends, make money, make progress, make the world a better place, or make whatever you want to make. (Exhale.) Social media is what you make of it.

What’s on your mind?
If you’re a Facebook faithful, you answer the question daily, or hourly, hopefully with stuff more important than your coffee prefences. But what if, say, er, God-forbid, (pause…) maybe, you don’t have an itty bitty clue about what social media is, what it’s for and how to go about getting started. There’s no shame in it. I read somewhere 50% of businesses don’t even have websites. Could that be true?

This isn’t a how-to tutorial. I can—and I will give you one—or point you to the real experts. But if you’re going to get into social media for marketing, this does offer some solid advice for using it effectively.

Here’s your social media marketing starter plan.

A good chunk of this stuff comes from an informative article I found at socialmediaclub.org. (First lessson: it’s good protocol to cite your sources in this online journalism free-for-all.) Here goes, according to experts at the club, successful social media campaigns have eight characteristics, eight to-do’s for you.

1. Aim for a target

Successful social media campaigns have clear objectives and success criteria. They’re targeted. You MUST think through what you’re trying to achieve, the audience you want to engage, and forge your plan accordingly.

Are you going mostly for awareness? Influence? Buzz? Sales? Job hunting? Aiming to heighten your stature as an expert? You have to aim for something specific.

2. Make your point

Marketing campaigns aimed at raising brand awareness big time and in large scale generally require deep pockets. Small businesses tend to get left behind in the spend-a-thon. However, the Internet has proven to be quite the Goliath slayer and social media can be a real potent player when the playing field needs leveling.

But you have to focus. Pick your battle. Bang away at a specific issue, customer pain point, challenge, idea, etc. When you know exactly the point you’ll be making, you gain a great advantage for developing and/or delivering meaningful content that will make the impression you need to make your efforts worthwhile.

3. Measure and manage

You’ve heard it before: you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Social media marketing (SMM), any marketing actually, demands metrics—a basis for measuring the success of your campaign. Set ‘em and don’t forget ‘em. Parlay what’s working, dump the stinkers, and refine the ones that fall on borderlines between.

4. Deliver great content

You might have noticed: it’s noisy out there. The good news is anyone can publish and the bad news is they do. Junk abounds.

If you want your campaign to stand out, make a commitment to making it great. It might take time. It might take money. Faking it won’t fly. The cornerstone of an effective social media campaign is great content presented in an engaging way.

Make sure you have a solid grasp of your audience’s passion and pain and feed their needs with the appropriate words and images.

5. Keep it simple

(Though I have no idea how this photo tracks to the subject matter, I had to reuse it.)

I’m not going to elaborate on what I mean by “keep it simple” because it’s a simple concept.

6. Make the media work

For your great, on-point, focused message to make a mark, you need to deliver it via the right channels. Yes, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube rule today, but that doesn’t mean your target audience is there or the nature of the beast serves your purposes.

As a newbie to these or any social media channels, pay close attention to who’s there and how they behave. You want to be relevant. Remind yourself to match the media to the message. And consider how your online efforts will jive with what you’re doing offline. 900 million Facebook fans made it a big deal, but it didn’t make trade shows extinct.

7. Do something memorable

Rockin’ sockin’ social media campaigns touch a nerve, stir the pot, inspire, make a connection, get a laugh, or do something to make them memorable and share-worthy. Try to make an emotional connection. Tell a great story. The brand should mean something real. Apple is one helluva great example.

8. Engage

Truth be told, the article that inspired this article ended with a point about profitability. Profitability doesn’t suck, and though making money is fair game for social media marketing, it’s not the common denominator. You could have a different agenda.

No, really. You might say conversion could be as simple as starting a conversation.

So I want to close by insisting your SMM efforts engage viewers and inspire interaction. Make your social media messages personal. Show each and everyone you care. Make them feel like they belong in your circle, club, community, tribe, following…. Ugh. You get the idea. It’s time to make your way into the fascinating world of social media.

[You invested all this time in my article. I implore you to write something now. And seriously, I don't implore all that much. Say something in the comment box below. This page is your page, my friend.]

Jul

The Great Keywords Secret Revealed

Now and then, some ingredient of online marketing transfixes me and I must have the answers. All of them. Immediately. I’m obsessive that way. I research who the authorities are, buy books, subscribe to feeds, opt-into email, and go absolutely Googleptic for a spell.

My latest fixation is keywords. Keywords, keywords, keywords, keywords. (There, we got that keyword stuffing thing out of the way fast.) Of course, I know what they are and why they’re important (check out that link if you don’t), but I don’t know everything there is to know about mastering the use of keywords for search. So I thought I’d slay that beast.

My search for keywords wisdom began with a search.

I put “best keywords” in Google. Brilliant, I know.  After the SERP (search engine results page) offered the Google AdWords Keyword Tool in its top spot, the page pointed to some strong stuff. (This keywords thing is amazingly effective.)

“6 Free Tools to Get the Best Keywords for Your Site” was a helpful article that pointed out some weapons you’ll want in your arsenal including Wordtracker and the SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool.

A link to GoogleRankings.com served up an interesting tool, which reports the keywords that are most often used on your site—or any site. And at this site’s landing page were many other SEO tools. I understood a few of them and tinkered a tad.

Content Marketing Institute’s “How Your Customers Can Be Your Best Keyword,” by content strategist Ahava Leibtag summarizes some of Marcus Sheridan’s big keywords-focused ideas for generating traffic with your blog.

The last link on the SERP page one was a Google+ entry by Kristi Hines, where she pointed to a very information-packed guide to keyword research she wrote for KISSmetrics. Kristi’s how-to articles are always as powerful as they are practical, so I give this one a blue and white thumbs up.

I read several e-guides and tip sheets.

My dive got deeper. And as is usually the case with my SEO research, more reading really didn’t deliver more clarity (so you’re not alone). That said, though I didn’t discover gold, I’ll toss a few nuggets at you that seem sensible.

• Going after keywords you already rank for is a prudent strategy.
• Wise choices consider traffic volume, the competition level and the potential for conversion.
• Conversion-ready keywords (for instance, “buy” or “hire”) up your chances for snagging a sale.
• Paid search is a smart way to put keywords to the test before making long-term commitments.
• Your money keywords are going to be 2 to 5-word phrases.
• Google Insights is a great tool for identifying trends, finding where and when searches spike, and filtering out terms that might dilute your findings.
• Get outside your own head and remind yourself to think like your customer.
• Don’t obsess over keyword density, keyword frequency and keyword prominence. They’re simply not that important.

I put out an alert.

Google Alerts: heard of this? I mention it from time to time to clients and invariably learn the casual, or even business-oriented user of web services tends not to know about it.

Google Alerts are email updates you subscribe to for anything keyword-based. It’s like the clipping services us marketing folks used to subscribe to in the pre-Internet era. If there’s news circulating about a subject, your company, competitor, industry, celebrity, event, team or you name it, it takes you all of 10 seconds or so to tell the Google Gods what you want to know, what forms of media you’d like to know about, how often you care to receive alerts and where you’d like them delivered.

Handy, eh? I propose you think of it a keyword research tool and put it to work. In doing so, you’ll make all kinds of discoveries you never expected. You’ll find new ideas, alternative angles, sources, sites, and insights you never saw coming.

For instance, as a website copywriter, online marketer and content marketing consultant, I was fishing for keyword ideas where these areas might overlap in keywords concepts that would lead interested prospects to my inbox. In response to a couple of stabs I had at it, Google’s Keyword Tool revealed what looked to be a promising keyword where search volume was reasonably high and competition was attractively low: “copy content.”

I went to www.google.com/alerts, entered my criteria, and immediately received results that reminded me search engines and the human mind don’t always think alike. As it turns out, almost all hits for “copy content” have nothing to do with what I do, copywriting, and everything to do with what I abhor, plagiarism. “Copy content,” it seems, is what people search for when they want to copy content. My bad. Bad keywords. Bad thing to do, too. Good thing I checked.

I spoke to a professional SEO.

Conveniently, I have a new client whose current focus is increasing his Alexa ranking, which in a nutshell, is a measure of your website’s traffic. Alexa computes the reach and number of page views and attaches a value to the calculation.

In examining his challenge, I looked into the data his Google Analytics account collected the past 5 months. I found he generates a fairly good amount of traffic and the number is growing at a healthy clip. However, his bounce rate (people who visited the site, but didn’t click anything) was alarmingly high. And, as you might imagine, based on the metric I just alluded to, the site’s “duration per visit” was bad, to say the least.

So I asked my associate and confidant at Noxster SEO Company, for his take. Mucho pronto, he said, “It all traces to not getting relevant traffic for his industry.” So simple. So on the money.

Being the responsible journalist I am, I did some further research on this. I’ll spare you the details and quote you this insight from SearchEngineWatch.com…

“Quality content and quality links should be the linchpins of your SEO strategy. They can be challenging to develop and maintain but should pay dividends in the long run.”

Relevance. Quality content. Quality links. What’s this seeker of the great secret to conclude?

The real key to using keywords is making your keywords count.

I understand if all that wordplay and alliteration sent you spinning. To be clear, in coming through on the promise I made in this article’s headline, what I want to get across is this:

Your best keywords are (and always will be) the ones for which you are able to offer real knowledge.

That’s about it. Secrets can be surprisingly simple.

No search, no amount of number crunching, magic tool, Google Alert, e-guide, e-book, e-mail, e-ticket, or all-knowing e-vangelist of SEO is going to give you the best keywords. The best keywords to USE (I said USE, not CHOOSE) are the phrases you can write about, talk about, and establish authority on—today and everyday. Because what really boosts your SEO is authority.

So what I want you, me and all us seekers to see is: you need not search for the secret to using the best keywords for search. There’s nothing to search for. When the cameraman zooms in for your close-up, if you’re blabbering away at keywords outside of your area of expertise, your shifty eyes will give you away in an instant.

Welcome to the information age. Your journey may start with keywords, but when you find what you seek, it’s because you trust the source.

Jul

Social Media: Getting It Requires Getting Into It

21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website: Part 12

Sometimes I think I’m getting pretty good at this social media thing. I’m making new connections all the time. I’m learning a ton. I’m creating a slow-growing, but steady following of people who invest their trust in my online marketing know-how and skills. I’m enjoying it too. Social media is fun.

But before you run off thinking Barry was sure a pleasant-smelling bouquet of roses today, I really must admit:

Sometimes I think I stink at it. Reason being, more often than not, I fail to convince my clients and friends who run small businesses to buy into it. They ask tough, but fair questions along the lines of… Why? Will it land us customers? If it’s not for promoting my products, what good is it?

I wish I had stronger answers. My feeling is, like so many other endeavors, what you get out of social media traces directly to what you put into it. So you see, the more you get into it, the more you “get it.” Admittedly, I sound a tad cliché and the folks I’m trying to convert conclude social media is today’s shiny object, a trend, a time suck or all of the above. And away they go.

Experts make some convincing cases.

On the cover of their in-depth and thoughtful eBook, “Social Media Marketing,” SEOP Inc. promises results a-plenty such as driving traffic, increasing leads and closing sales. To make the report even more compelling a subtitle indicates the pages within reveal time-tested ways to grow your business. The authors kick-off with:

Social media is about building a conversation with your clients and consumers.

Nice. Then they quote a Wikipedia entry claiming social media’s extreme popularity is because it allows people to connect and form relationships.

Two questions: (1) What could possibly be more important to your business? And, (2) Why didn’t I think of that?

In an expanded explanation, they state:

a) Unlike any media to come before, social media delivers the power of publishing to everybody.

b) It is capable of diffusing information faster than any other media.

Then they set aside the whizzy stuff and drop the big one with a profound truth that really shines the light on what’s made social media an unstoppable force.

c) Humans build relationships through sharing, which is the essential component of social media.

You gotta’ love that. I’m into social media. And those in the ever-expanding tribe who don’t blink at tagging the word “marketing” onto “social media,” know what I know now.

Social media connects people and this is how business is done. Companies must network with their customers or suffer the inevitable failure that comes with being disconnected. When you understand the future of your business is forged by forging relationships, you get it. You understand social media is valuable beyond compare.

The number one goal of social media marketers.

Our next expert: Spredfast, a software company that helps companies manage their social media initiatives. In their poorly titled, but elegantly presented eBook, “Social Media Pocket Guide,” (it’s 48 8.5 x 11” pages) they build six cases for using social media for business. We’ll focus on the first one, where they state:

Using social media to build brand awareness is the number one goal of most social media marketers.

The Spredfast eBook follows with four ways in which social media can play a large role in accomplishing the task.

• • Tremendously extends your brand presence with far greater reach.
• • Drives traffic to other corporate channels.
• • Reaches new and growing audiences.
• • Gives you a platform for illustrating your expertise.

Pocket-sized or not, the resource is rich with strong business cases, content ideas, real world examples, and insights for evaluating your progress with social media marketing. It’s a must-read for newcomers to the social scene. Get it here and get into it.

Now for my two cents: be social and share.

In “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website” I wrote “Be Social and Share,” an abbreviated (55-words) attempt to encourage you to school yourself on popular social platforms including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

I briefly touched on how important it is to understand the enormous reach of YouTube and SlideShare and how bookmarking, news, Q&A, and specialty sites are driving online interactions.

I touched on identifying where your customers are and engaging them there. Then I wrapped up my mini-lesson by encouraging my readers to place the familiar social sharing buttons all over their sites to make it easy for website visitors to share the content.

Some “getting started with social” advice.

Tip o’ the hat to Brian Halligan’s and Dharmesh Shah’s landmark “Inbound Marketing” book for presenting words of advice on how to build your reach when getting started with social media.

• Tell your story. It’s what people respond to.
• Participate often and follow-up quickly.
• Treat people as you would like to be treated.
• Listen.
• Commit long-term. Social media is not a campaign.

The book thanks Michael McDerment of FreshBooks for help with the tips and quotes him with this gem.

“The truth is, while we collect dollars for the service we offer, the currency of our business is relationships. Twitter, our blog, and our forums all help us share ourculture with the world and learn more about our customers themselves.”

The following trio of tips comes from Kipp Bodnar’s and Jeffrey Cohen’s “The B2B Social Media Book.” For context, I’ll tell you the list is described as “ways to bring a social experience to a prospect’s inbox (because email is the most pervasive communication tool).

• • Include social media profile links in your emails.
• • Whatever content you produce, offer share buttons.* (More on this to come.)
• • Don’t leave out the option to share via email.

Fear not the simple act of embedding buttons.

We’ve covered “why social” and tips-a-plenty on what to do. It’d be a shame not to give you a little assist with “how.” But it’d be a waste of my time to rewrite a killer roundup on the subject from the social media channel of Mashable, “HOW TO: Add Social Sharing Buttons to Your Website.” Have at it.

I leave you with an asterisk.

I set out to expand on my social media tidbit from “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website” and penned a fairly long story, so I offer you a big blue thumbs up for indulging me to this point and feel I should reiterate the core of what I’ve been trying to say.

*Share.

Share your knowledge. Share your experience. Share your ideas and inspirations. Share the best of your brain and do it with heart.

Ever discover a great band? A great restaurant? Maybe a great place to go? A great book? And the juicy part is, it’s not U2, or Emeril’s, or Disneyland, or “Harry Potter.” It’s lesser known. It’s kind of your discovery.

Don’t you just love sharing it? Don’t you love getting feedback about how much the person you recommended it to enjoyed it? We both know what happens next. You get asked, “What else do you recommend?”

You have a new friend. You’ve won their trust. Welcome to social media.

[Perhaps you won’t be at all surprised by what I’d like to ask of you now. If you enjoyed this article and get something out of it, please share it. That little green button makes it perfectly easy.]

Jun

Clueless for Content?

I thought I’d revisit an article I created a month or so ago, but then extend it with this fantabulous infographic for the clueless content creator. You don’t want to miss a word of this.

Actually, I’m going to direct you to the article, “Magnetic Content: 21 Ways to Attract Traffic,” if you missed it. And here, we’ll get to the meat of it, the list…

21 things I believe billions of web-browsers are attracted to:

1. Demonstrations—Can you show what it is you’re trying to say? Do it. Since the dawn of marketing, demonstrations have demonstrated to have massive magnetic power.
2. Comparisons—Windows, Mac; Venus, Mars; men, women; apples, oranges—comparisons give us context. Us humans long for context, so bring it when you can.
3. Mistakes—As magnets go, nothing pulls quite like telling someone what they’re doing wrong. If you know the moves and maneuvers that lead to failure, offer ‘em up and expect the bugs to come a buzzing like flies on you-know-what.
4. Interviews—Hey, know someone who knows what they’re talking about? Get ‘em to talk and people will line up to listen.
5. Instructions—How to (blank). Fill in that blank. Everyone responds to instructions, even leaders.
6. Stories—Once upon a time some character met some other character. They overcame a conflict and lived happily ever. You love that story. I do too. Everyone does.
7. Examples—There’s no denying the court of public opinion values evidence. If you have some, take the stand and present it. Reveal stuff that actually happened, for example.
8. Stupid truths— People love this stuff. “It ain’t over till it’s over” and all those ironic truisms Yogi Berra spouted get a rise out of people, however obvious they may be.
9. Exposés—We all love rolling around in the shit, so go ahead and expose the pigs.
10. Threats—Know what? If you know something that poses a serious threat to something, something tells me you’re onto something people will be drawn to.
11. Findings—If you did the homework for someone or you somehow managed to stumble upon the answers to, er, anything, you’ll find sharing what you found will find a good size audience.
12. Confessions—Hmm, 12 suggestions into my list and I’m feeling a little opportunistic, dirty even. But I must confess, we all harbor a hidden desire to hear what priests get to hear.
13. Scores—If you have the credibility to call the score, call it my friend. Us humans really want to know who won, who lost, or if the game’s still being played, what the score is.
14. Reasons—Why does this cause that? You have no idea what I’m talking about and still you’re dying to hear me give you the reasons. It’s reasonable to conclude we want reasons.
15. Humor—Laughter is such powerful medicine. If you have something funny to share, it’d be tragic not to try tickling some funny bones.
16. Applications—There might be 100 things you can do with a toilet paper roll. You can really fascinate an audience by detailing how to apply something that seems so ordinary in different ways.
17. Quotes—People relish what other people have said. You can quote me on that.
18. Opinions—Insiders, outsiders, experts, novices… Everyone has an opinion and everyone has an opinion about someone else’s opinion. Valid or not, it’s divine to opine.
19. Lessons—The guide, primer, 101, cliff notes, need-to-knows… Any form of “how to” is magically magnetic.
20. News—Old news: everyone needs to know what’s new.
21. Lists—What author in his right mind would write an article called “21 Seriously Strong Content Marketing Magnets” and leave lists off of such a list? People love lists and good ones keep you hooked until to the end.

And now, courtesy of a really good writer and a really smart marketer, Brian Clark, of Copyblogger (links below), gives us…

Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

Cool, eh?

Over and out. ~ Barry

Jun

The Article About Something Too Powerful for Words

I can’t remember ever struggling so hard to come up with a title for an article. My working title, “Give Your Customers a Voice,” comes from pointer #11 in the eBook “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website.” It served its purpose there, but here I really wanted to go beyond the cliché and make some omnipotent statement about the power of, of, er, um…

Social media? Referrals? Listening? Word of mouth? Reviews? Aw, hell. No wonder I can’t title this beast. I’m not even sure what it’s about.

I do know this: I want to write about the voice of the customer in this age where new media gives the customer the power to be much more than just a customer. I know, I continue to babble here. This guy makes good sense:

“A brand is no longer what we tell consumers it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.”
~ Scott D. Cook, Founder, Intuit & Board of Directors, P&G

(Thank you kind sir. I believe I’m ready to say something useful too.)

The age of the marketer’s monologue is dead and gone.

In an effort to deliver some value now, I’m going to surrender to the cliché, get on with the basic idea, and then, toss forth some nifty lists I scribbled into a notebook on Amtrak two days ago.

Basically, only foolish old marketing die-hards will stand firm and tell you advertisers talk and consumers listen. It did indeed work that way for decades, but the mighty Amazon has risen and washed that dynamic away forever more.* And as Mr. Cook suggested above, consumers no longer listen to companies. They listen to each other.

The consumer speaks words of wisdom. Us marketers need to let it be.

*For great insights into Amazon, America’s most trusted brand, check out: “Secrets of the 10 Most-Trusted Brands,” from Entrepreneur online.

Who do you trust now?

Perhaps you never really trusted ad pros and company spokespersons. And sure, you always trusted your friends and family far more. Still, much has changed. For one, you are the empowered customer with infinite access to information and no need to trust big brother and the holding company. Plus, you have WAY more friends and family now. Your social circle is a thing called the worldwide web.

In this Internet-dominated age, you’ve heard inbound marketers talk fervently about the company’s need to earn media. Understand here and now, your company must also earn trust. Forbes tells this story great with “Influencing Your Buyer” by Christine Crandell.

The customer would like to chime in.

As citizens of the net, we’ve earned the right to voice our opinion. In fact, it’s become our responsibility. You depend on what others think and they depend on you. We have problems. We have questions. We’re clicking around fast and furiously because we want the solutions and the answers from those in the know, those brave enough to have gone before us. It’s a beautiful thing really.

We want consumer reports. Perspective. The voice of experience. We want objectivity. We want to base our trust on real authorities. We can handle the truth.

Nothing but good can come of this.

Are you allowing this dialogue to happen? I’m going to tell you the many ways you can, but first, let’s look at the many reasons why you should, the benefits of giving your customers a voice.

Transparency—Trust your customers to have their say and prospects are far more likely to trust you. You have nothing to hide. It’s a system of checks and balances. Authenticity shines through.

Content creation—Customer feedback published online is content, free content. Your need to continuously create content becomes partially self-fulfilling.

Onsite SEO—Your customers help optimize your site. They sprinkle keywords around for you. They create the long tail phrases that bring in business.

Offsite SEO—The cycle continues across social media, sharing sites, blogs and more. The more opportunity you give customers to talk, the more backlinks you’re bound to earn.

Learning—Various forms of customer commentary amount to a low-cost feedback center. Market research switches to auto-pilot. The people who buy your product tell you how to improve it.

Responsiveness—This “listen and learn” system allows you to be a more responsive company. News travels far faster.

Improved support—A continuation of the “responsiveness” theme… More immediate feedback allows you all kinds of advantages for improving—and lowering the costs of—customer support.

Trouble-shooting—“Reputation management” is the more commonly used term. Instant access to online dialogue provides a fast track for managing potentially dangerous developments.

From Ernan Roman’s heralded “Voice of the Customer Marketing” (5-star) book: 95% of complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint instantly.

Value-add services—An abundance of customer-created content can translate into additional services to make your site stickier and your brand more attractive. For instance, those that use your product might answer prospects’ questions for you. They might provide free tips for optimizing the product’s value. They might share their photos.

Fun—Inviting customers to engage online might simply make your site more fun thereby giving customers more reasons to keep coming back (and tell their friends).

Free advertising—All together now: there’s no form of advertising more powerful than word of mouth.

Making it happen.

Let’s look at some of the effective ways to give your customers a voice.

• Onsite polls—The onsite poll instantly shows you’re listening and its short and sweet style makes it inviting.
• Surveys—You can put surveys into play via email, social media, and even build them into landing page forms.
• Blog comments—Encourage readers to add commentary to your articles and videos and join the conversation.
• Forums—Forums are chat rooms and then some. Information exchanges are archived for posterity.
• Reviews—Ecommerce has made reviews a fabric of the interactive age.
• Social media—Make it fun and easy for your audience to interact with you and each other on the online services you deem relevant. Also, keep your eyes open for new developments in the ever-dynamic social media world.
• Chat—Being prepared to answer questions via chat can be very appealing to prospects. And here’s a novel idea: encourage people to call you (and answer the call).
• Make records—You know how radio stations record and broadcast calls they receive? Why not make this happen online?

How are you engaging buyers?

In the Forbes article I cited earlier, Christine Crandell reports on a Forrester study, which found that 70 percent of B2B buyers rated how vendors engaged with them is more impactful than what the vendor was selling. That’s precious.

Think about it. Act on it.

Remember, how I told you the frustration I felt when trying to name this article? I wish you could have been here to help. I want you to “buy” what I’m saying, so I want you to help me figure out what to say.

There’s an interesting irony in all this too. I’m a veteran marketing copywriter. I’ve been paid to persuade for 25 years. But now I have to concede what I say about my client’s product isn’t nearly as meaningful about what their customers say.

I spend a big chunk of my time online. I search for answers. I buy products and services online. The brands I’m loyal to invite me to speak up on their site and social networks. So, copywriter or not, I’m a journalist that wields power.

You are too.

[If you enjoyed my long-winded explanation of the benefits of giving your customer a voice, you may like “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website” where I get to the point fast.]

Now, if you’d be so kind. Please join the conversation. Everyone here values what you have to say.

Jun

Personas: Who Do You Think You’re Talking To?

Wow. I’m not feeling the need to write a thing. This infographic is just packed with the valuable insights you need to understand the power of creating personas. So have a look and please, ask any questions you have, add any comments you’d like.

~ Barry

Guide To Personas Infographic by Linchpin SEO

Jun

Magnetic Content: 21 Ways to Attract Traffic

21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website: Part 8

Content marketing is the process of creating and delivering valuable content to your target customers. While the essential ingredient is, of course, content, the recipe only works when a bond forms between your brand and customer. Because in a connected world, the disconnected are doomed.

End of story? Yes, but it’s the starting point for this one.

Magnetism: may the force be with you.

Dig into a book or paper about content marketing and you’re bound to come across a metaphor about magnetism. Two reasons:

1) Magnetism is the force of attraction (or repulsion). Your website is your company’s marketing HQ now, so it needs this force. It must act as a magnet with the power to pull visitors in. In a world gone electronic, pull trumps push marketing by an electromagnetic mile.

2) Magnetic content not only attracts visitors, but engages them such that they stick around, click around, and invest time there.  The idea is to establish trust and make an emotional connection, the kind that inspires visitors to introduce themselves, subscribe, come back for more, share and talk about your content, interact, qualify themselves, make a purchase—or all of the above.

Ultimately, your ability to create content marketing magnets translates to sales.

Let’s take a look now at how to create seriously strong content marketing magnets.

This isn’t the list you’re used to, that is, the media plays. Yes, you want to understand your various media plays and for a thorough roundup of them, I suggest the e-book “Content Marketing Playbook 2011 – 42 Ways to Connect with Customers,” from the Content Marketing Institute. However, the media plays in and of themselves aren’t magnetic.

The magnetic pull of your content is about the content.

Perhaps what I just wrote sounds like calling the sun bright, but I am trying to make a point. You see, “content” is an awfully generic word, kind of like “copy” or “picture” or “page.” Sure, these are the things we put on our websites, but they’re not the things anyone’s attracted to.

Here are 21 things I believe billions of web-browsers are attracted to:

1. Demonstrations—Can you show what it is you’re trying to say? Do it. Since the dawn of marketing, demonstrations have demonstrated to have massive magnetic power.
2. Comparisons—Windows, Mac; Venus, Mars; men, women; apples, oranges—comparisons give us context. Us humans long for context, so bring it when you can.
3. Mistakes—As magnets go, nothing pulls quite like telling someone what they’re doing wrong. If you know the moves and maneuvers that lead to failure, offer ‘em up and expect the bugs to come a buzzing like flies on you-know-what.
4. Interviews—Hey, know someone who knows what they’re talking about? Get ‘em to talk and people will line up to listen.
5. Instructions—How to (blank). Fill in that blank. Everyone responds to instructions, even leaders.
6. Stories—Once upon a time some character met some other character. They overcame a conflict and lived happily ever. You love that story. I do too. Everyone does.
7. Examples—There’s no denying the court of public opinion values evidence. If you have some, take the stand and present it. Reveal stuff that actually happened, for example.
8. Stupid truths— People love this stuff. “It ain’t over till it’s over” and all those ironic truisms Yogi Berra spouted get a rise out of people, however obvious they may be.
9. Exposés—We all love rolling around in the shit, so go ahead and expose the pigs.
10. Threats—Know what? If you know something that poses a serious threat to something, something tells me you’re onto something people will be drawn to.
11. Findings—If you did the homework for someone or you somehow managed to stumble upon the answers to, er, anything, you’ll find sharing what you found will find a good size audience.
12. Confessions—Hmm, 12 suggestions into my list and I’m feeling a little opportunistic, dirty even. But I must confess, we all harbor a hidden desire to hear what priests get to hear.
13. Scores—If you have the credibility to call the score, call it my friend. Us humans really want to know who won, who lost, or if the game’s still being played, what the score is.
14. Reasons—Why does this cause that? You have no idea what I’m talking about and still you’re dying to hear me give you the reasons. It’s reasonable to conclude we want reasons.
15. Humor—Laughter is such powerful medicine. If you have something funny to share, it’d be tragic not to try tickling some funny bones.
16. Applications—There might be 100 things you can do with a toilet paper roll. You can really fascinate an audience by detailing how to apply something that seems so ordinary in different ways.
17. Quotes—People relish what other people have said. You can quote me on that.
18. Opinions—Insiders, outsiders, experts, novices… Everyone has an opinion and everyone has an opinion about someone else’s opinion. Valid or not, it’s divine to opine.
19. Lessons—The guide, primer, 101, cliff notes, need-to-knows… Any form of “how to” is magically magnetic.
20. News—Old news: everyone needs to know what’s new.
21. Lists—What author in his right mind would write an article called “21 Seriously Strong Content Marketing Magnets” and leave lists off of such a list? People love lists and good ones keep you hooked until to the end.

The end.

But hey, creating magnetic content is just one tip from “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website,” a truly magnetic piece of content you can read now that we’re done here.

May

Learn Twitter: Join My “Twittorial” Webinar

Tweet!

Join Brian Loebig and I, Thursday, May 17, for a free introduction to Twitter: “Twittorial: Using Twitter for Business.”

Register for the webinar here.

After, I’ll offer you a recorded version of the webinar as well as the entertaining slide deck we’ll present. Today, I thought you might get some nice tips from this infographic…

May

Call to Action: Tell Your Customers Where to Go

21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website: Part 7

It sucks to be in advertising and before you even ask I’ll tell you why.  The marketing pundits of today (who I mostly like and respect) have tagged us crusty old advertising fossils as bad guys. We’re mad men. Con men. The more sensitive types may just call us liars.  And then, who’s the dirtiest rottenest of the liars? Copywriters, of course. Having been one of those for more years than I want to admit, it’s a wonder I sleep at night.

But don’t go turning your back on my profession quite so fast. We’re not so bad. Sometimes we are sincere. Sometimes we believe in the products we peddle. And sometimes we have good ideas.

My point is we’re not 100% full of it. Sometimes we call ‘em as we see ‘em. And sometimes the wisdom we came to be known for back in the days of newspapers and network television actually apply to online marketing.

Case in point is the thing us old word slingers call the “call to action.” It’s a good label. It’s a good thing. And if you decide to hear me out, it’s very possible you’ll go where I ask you to and do what I want you to do.

Go here and do this.

The call to action is so simple. To do it right is to tell your prospect exactly what you want them to do. For example, “Buy now” is a good one. “Enter your email address here” is good. “For more information call 1-800-4ACTION” seems perfectly instructional. That’s the definition of a call to action. It’s an instruction. People appreciate instructions. Simon says buy my product.

Why then is the call to action so frequently a mangled mess? These missteps come to mind. The host:

• Doesn’t want to be pushy.
• Hasn’t determined what they want the prospect to do.
• Doesn’t understand the prospect’s needs.
• Offers too many options.
• Assumes too much and knows too little.
• Assumes the prospect will take action without being prompted.
• Makes it overly difficult to oblige

What a heap of manure we have here. I don’t want you to make these mistakes. They cost you dearly.

I want you to make one thing perfectly clear.

Tell the person on your website what to do.  Be explicit. Tell them which device to use. Tell them why. Tell them when. Tell them how. If they need to go somewhere to do it, tell them where to go.

You know that sign above the cash register at your favorite take-out restaurant? It says “Pay here.” That’s effective stuff. It’s helpful information. It gets you what you came to get: food.  It gets the seller what they want from you: a sale.

Maybe copywriters aren’t so bad after all. Think of us as helpers. In the spirit of helping you achieve your goals, allow me to feed you some further instructions that will help sharpen your website and make the register go “ring-a-ling-ding.”

Have an objective—What do you want your visitor to do? Buy? Call? Register? Sign up for something? Share content? Complete a survey? These are all valid calls to action. So your first action item: give your site a job description. Learn more about this vital step here by reading “A Successful Website Achieves Objectives.”

Provide a reason—Answer the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) question. For instance: Learn how to increase conversions. Download 21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website” NOW! You can see how the reason and the reward work together here as a one-two punch.

Think singular—If you’re not running a restaurant, resist suggesting a menu full of options. If you are running a restaurant, ask your visitors to “Order Now.” The more explicit you are with your call to action, the more likely you’ll invoke the action, so think singular and call for your customer to do one thing.

Put up a sign—Ever hunted for the button your website host wanted you to press? That’s crazy. Don’t play “Where’s Waldo” games with potential customers. Make your call to action uber obvious. Put your call to action where it’s easily found and consider design tactics such as:

• Creating a sizable button
• Using contrasting colors
• Surrounding it with white (or negative) space
• Employing familiar cues such as arrows, cursors, etc.

Settle for less—If you plan to put a form in front of your offer, don’t be overly needy or unnecessarily greedy with your “price of admission.” More fields = less responses. So if you’re going to ask multiple choice questions or require prospects to qualify themselves at all, it should be because the qualification process is an intentional part of the process. If your objective is collect and nurture leads via email, you really need an email address and nothing more.

Suggest action everywhere—Don’t confuse your website for an ad or brochure. That is, don’t assume linear behavior on the part of the reader. The flexible structure of your website suggests your visitors could wander around any way they please and never make it to your contact us form or POP. So in addition to making it easy to find your CTA, every page of your website should tell the reader what to do and where to go.

Activate with urgency—Your call to action should feature active words such as call, buy, register, donate, and enroll. And, it only helps to up the urgency with limited time offers, expiration dates, or at least a little nudge like “now.”

Deliver pain relief—It’s one thing (and a must) to make it easy to take action. You get bonus points for “selling” the ease too. In other words, as long as you speak the truth, you should tell your prospect just how easy this little act of compliance shall be. If what you’re asking for doesn’t take long, doesn’t cost much, doesn’t involve any risk and does make the respondent’s life instantly awesome, go ahead and put a little extra pep in the step of your soon-to-be-customer.

Did you learn something? Can you add something? Make this article a dialogue. Contribute your thoughts here. It’s easy. Act now. For a limited time, you could be famous.

Want to gather 20 more insightful actions you can take to make your online marketing efforts more effective? Help yourself to “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website.”

Related articles

• Designing Calls to Action for B2B Marketing Content (marketinginteractions.typepad.com)
• 3 Tips For Creating Great Calls to Action (digitalsherpa.com)

Apr

Website Navigation: How to Man the Helm

21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website: Part 6

Your website is a vessel. You’re the skipper. Will you guide your passengers to the destination they seek or allow the voyage to end disastrously? If you want to dictate the destiny of those who willfully board your boat, you best understand the importance of navigation.

Map the best route.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Got it? Okay now, what’s the best route? Map it out. Consider factors that could possibly rock the boat, introduce unnecessary turbulence, or even inspire uneasy guests to jump ship. Have contingency plans for these sorts of circumstances.

Welcome aboard.

At the risk of making you seasick, as we go full steam ahead with this article’s nautical metaphor I ask you to think of your home page as the deck, which your passengers first step upon.

Treat them accordingly. Don’t take for granted they’ve been here before or know their way around. Resist coming on strong or overwhelming the guests with too much information, too much stimuli, or too much of anything.

Instead, try to make them feel good about joining you. Reassure them they’ll be glad they came and tell them what they can expect to gain if they stick around and click around. Invite them to help themselves to the content they’ve come for and offer a sensible place (or places) to get started.

Show the guests around.

Now you want to be a hospitable and helpful host. Show them where things are. Make sure everything is clearly marked. Provide a site map for reference.

If new guests tend to have a basic set of orientation-type questions, provide the answers with an FAQ. If you expect more advanced questions, maybe your site offers different content for different types of visitors, have a virtual concierge in the form of live online chat. If you anticipate some will call for additional assistance, be ready to provide it with knowledgeable attendants.

If certain areas or events require special keys or reservations, tell them what you need from them, don’t be overly demanding, and deliver the goods promptly.

Always remember, if someone struggles to find what they want or need, they’ll bail on you. Also keep in mind people don’t have a lot of patience for long monologues. Dialogue is far more effective. So though you may have a lot to show and tell them, go out of your way to listen. This means allowing for feedback, questions and comments. The more you allow for exchange the more engaged your visitors will be.

Make it impossible to get lost.

Larger sites, like larger boats, pose bigger navigation challenges. Like a cruise ship, which is essentially a floating hotel, a large site is bound to have multiple levels, separate wings, and special quarters to accommodate special needs. Of course, you provide these places and spaces for good reason and want guests to find their way there, but keep in mind you want everyone to understand exactly where they are and how to easily make their way back to the lobby, your home page.

Consider these pointers and use them as they apply to your site and the rendezvous the guests will experience.

• From every vantage, offer the familiar house icon, the actual word “home,” or go with the popular convention whereby your logo remains a link to the home page throughout the site.
• Create a naturally flowing hierarchy to make it as easy for users to go from general content to more specific content.
• No need to go overboard with complex navigation link structures. While you do want to minimize the number of clicks it takes to get from point to point, it’s not necessary every page on your site links to every other page.
• Use text as navigational links instead of images. Text links make it easier for the reader to understand what’s what (and search engines too).
• Make “next” suggestions or obvious prompts when your content is best consumed in a logical sequence.
• Organize content with tabs, pulldown menus, or submenus when necessary.
• Learn what breadcrumbs are and apply them near the top of the page. This convention, which may read something like: Site > about us > management team, for instance, allows the user to understand where they are at all times and serves your SEO purposes as well.
• Consider hyperlink-style table of contents atop deep pages where users might want to “jump” down for fast access to a section below the fold. This is a common convention for FAQs and list style pages. The Feldman Creative website’s “Client” page provides a good exampleof this tactic.
• While it’s a smart practice to reference and link to other sites, don’t encourage visitors to leave prematurely. A link to another site should open an additional tab in the browser rather than force the reader to exit.
• Be wary of pop-ups. You need not consider them 100% taboo, but you should reserve the use of pop-ups, or any distractions, for special offers only.
• As your site expands to have social media links, sections, affiliations, copyrights, privacy notices, and what have you, create a footer where the links are neatly organized for fast access.
• Offer a search field.
• Use the plug-ins that organize hefty blogs so that interested readers can find articles by subjects, dates, popularity or other such filing systems.
• Lead the way with calls to action and do so strategically. Don’t confuse visitors with myriads of choices on each page, however, do tell them what to do and/or where to go next on every page. You never want to leave the visitor adrift. Be a good navigator. Better yet, be their compass and its pointer too.

At the bottom of the page, a good navigator says “do this now.” For this particular page, I ask you to review these tips with your webmaster and use the comments section below to ask questions or make additional suggestions.

Also, fine-tuning your website navigation is but one of a series of helpful hints I offer in “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website,” yours free here.

Related articles

• Improving usability: links (marketing.yell.com)
• Is Poor Navigation Driving Visitors Away? (jackiepurnell.com)

Apr

The Most Effective SEO Strategy of All Time

21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website: Part 5
(This story has been read over 12,500 times at Social Media Today, where I contribute articles about online marketing.)

About 3 years ago, a client pointed out to me that my website seriously lacked SEO. He appeared to know a lot more about the subject than me (which at that time definitely wasn’t saying a lot), so I thought it best to listen. We did lunch. He talked a lot. I nodded a lot. When I was a kid, my parents made me go to this school where they spoke Hebrew. My first SEO lesson felt a bit like that.

That level of ignorance didn’t set well with me.  I knew this was important stuff and the longer I allowed my head to remain buried in the sand, assuming Google would remain master of the world, the shorter I’d stay in business as a copywriter.

So I went to the bookstore. One title promised I’d master SEO in an hour a day and another claimed it’d catapult me to the top of the rankings. I bought them both. I dug into one, but didn’t dig it. I tried the other one. Same story.

You know what happens when you read books about SEO? You get overwhelmed. You get frustrated. You feel stupid. You get sleeeeeeeeeeeepy.

SEO is boring.

We both know it’s true. It’s technical and complicated and you can rack your brain all you want, but you’re never going to come up with a reason why anyone should care for such a monster.

I don’t even like the name:  SEO, search engine optimization. When you get the hang of it, whatever it actually is, you don’t get to optimize the search engine, do you?

And I’ve saved the most loathsome of all its traits for last. SEO can’t be mastered. Don’t believe me? Ask the masters. They’ll tell you SEO’s deepest, darkest, not-so-secret secret. Its one and only truth is it never rests. It’s ever changing. You can’t catch on to something that can’t be caught. You might as well try and catch the wind (thanks, Donovan).

We can all understand one simple thing.

Read 10 stories on SEO and you get, well, 10 different stories. No one agrees on anything. Or should I say everyone agrees on nothing?

I lied.

Everyone seems to agree on one eensie-weensie word of wisdom. The word is relevance. While 1,001 SEO schmoes may have 1,001 different fail-safe, white hat, field-proven tactics, everyone agrees the one thing all search engines are after is relevance. So come what may, scholars and simpletons can once and for all agree: the most effective SEO strategy of all time is to produce relevant content.

I wish I could be more helpful.

400-plus words into this article… the big build-up… the word play… the lame jokes and all you get is this big honkin’ no-duh revelation? Sorry about that.

But wait. Maybe I can offer some pointers to help route your way to relevance. I put in the time, so I’d like to try to save some of yours. I’ll tell you what appears to be the best of what I’ve gathered and share some of the sources from which I did the gathering.

You start with keywords. Search is a word business. Carefully select keywords and use them with care—not too much, not too little. Your keywords must relate to your niche and the content you create aims to establish your authority in it.

Jeff Quipp of Search Engine People Inc. unravels methods for identifying keyword opportunities in HubSpot’s “Learning SEO from the Experts” free guide.

Get your website right. Please understand the days of gaming Google have gone by. So nix the tricks and sack the shortcuts. They’re for rank amateurs, not top rankers. That said, you need to get a handle on the SEO basics, which allow your site to be properly indexed. Most importantly, you have page titles, description meta tags, headings, site maps, properly structured URLs and “alt” attributes for your images.

It’s not as complicated or overwhelming as you may think. Google offers a “Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.” Trust me, it’s best to learn the rules of the road from the ones who mapped it. Even if you’re going to outsource your on-site SEO, read this.

Build links. Notice the use of the word “build” and the absence of  “buy.” Inbound links, often called backlinks, influence your authority and relevance, hence, your rankings, more than anything. This most important of all search-related tasks takes time, commitment, and perseverance. It also calls for some knowledge, so allow some smart, stand-up content marketers to clue you in on this subject.

Kuno Creative gives you need-to-know definitions, rationale, and a good grounding on right and wrong in its concise “2012 Marketer’s SEO Guide to Link Building.”

Author Jon Wuebben spells out techniques in “Writing Link Friendly Content,” a good read from a good writer.

Write well. Let’s get real now. Over time SEO gets you ranked. Getting ranked high gets searchers to visit. But getting visitors gets you nothing unless readers find what they’re after in the form of informative and engaging content. So get a professional website copywriter on your team. Get a professional blogger. Get a content marketing consultant to help forge a smart plan and execute.

While I don’t agree the term “SEO copywriter” amounts to much, I will tell you your website copywriter should understand SEO principles, offer sound advice for helping you achieve the relevance you seek, and above all, know how to appeal to the living, breathing humans who consumer your content. Robots have no buying power.

Allow me to point out one great young writer, Jeff Goins, who writes extensively on SEO for humans, in a fun article series as well as an email course.  Much like yours truly, Jeff aims to help you understand how SEO and copywriting work together.

Oh, so you’re starting to like this stuff?

I take it all back. SEO’s not so bad. The trick is to keep it in its proper perspective. When it becomes an obsession, your work gets calculated, less credible, and less compelling.

If you’d like to dig in even deeper, I recommend:

SEOmoz — This company knows the turf. Check out their site and blog and help yourself to their free “Beginners Guide to SEO.”

QuickSprout — Neil Patel claims to be “kind of a big deal.” His site’s quite frank and a good source of SEO wisdom.

WordTracker — Great site offering great tools and a whopper of a deep-diving freebie in a 99-page guide called “SEO Made Simple.” I think that may be the most oxymoronic title I’ve seen anywhere. By now, I imagine you know why I say that.

What say you?

Apr

Build a Website Destination with a Content Management System.

21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website: Part 4

Sure, we could find more fascinating subjects than content management systems, but if we are to get good at this Internet marketing thing, it’s vital we tackle the basics.

Tell you what: we’ll get in, get out, and get you all set to move on to a far more interesting subject—your content. Here we go, Q&A style…

Do you need a content management system (CMS)?

You tell me:

• Do you understand  (or would you like to) how important it is to update your site’s content frequently?
• Will your site have a blog?
• Would you like to be able to update your website without relying on a web developer every time?

If you came up with one, two or three “yes” answers, you’re bound to get something valuable from this article. If you said “no, no, no,” this piece no longer merits your time. Bye now.

What is a CMS?

It’s your publishing application. Yep. You’re a publisher now and there are apps for that. You’re going to use your CMS, much like a word processor, to publish and manage content for your website. And you’re going to be oh-so-nimble.

How do I know you need a CMS?

Because you want to achieve greater levels of success with your online marketing. You want your website to be the most serious tool in your marketing mix. If you don’t, I’ll ask you again to please give up your seat to someone who wants to know this stuff.

Here’s the thing. The key to being successful online is to get qualified prospects to your site. The key to getting qualified prospects to your site is being found on Google. The key to being found on Google is be hip to what’s happening in search. What’s happening in search? Website’s that regularly publish relevant content are getting much greater prevalence.

I’m not making this stuff up. And I’m not an SEO dweeb either. I’m a website copywriter who’s keeping close tabs on online marketing practices and am seeing the relevance + recency formula prove all-powerful.

Isn’t a CMS system for blogging?

Yes. Guess what? You need one of those too. Sites with blogs generate way more traffic. Sites with blogs get shared via this insane cyclone called social media. Sites with blogs engage your customers to interact with you. (Please agree you want that to happen.) Sites with blogs create customer loyalty. Loyalty creates advocacy. Advocacy creates sales.

You don’t have to have a blog to justify having a CMS. There are many additional benefits. So, sure, you blog-snubbing snobs can stick around if you want.

Won’t a CMS make my website look like a blog?

No. Your website can be anything you want it to be.

How does a CMS make things easier?

The answer is simple. I mean, simple is the answer. Working on websites used to be for those who graduated from HTML University. Not anymore. CMS can be a friend to every man, woman and child, technically inclined or challenged. It gives you a WYSIWYG editor much like the apps you actually like. Don’t know what a WYSIWYG editor is? LOL. And C-U-L8er.

Why is a CMS good for the website design?

Two answers for this one. First, your site can go from zero to amazing in six seconds. No kidding. Popular CMS’s have massive aftermarkets. Amongst them are “themes,” which is another word for “template,” which is a bland term to describe designs. I’m not talking about bitter little green things, which in time will ripen. I’m talking about some gorgeous, fully developed, highly flavorful fruit fresh from the vine (and online).

Have at ‘em. They’re cheap. And they’re all over the place. Go to themeforest.com for starters and you’ll have your pick of 5,144 of them. (Don’t go yet.)

The second reason CMS is good for your website design is it maintains continuity and order. Writers can write without messing up the graphics and vise-versa.

What else will you love about your CMS?

Tidy archives—You can store hundreds of pages, photos, and what have you. I stash little sparks of ideas there and use my CMS as a halfway home for articles in the works.

Team-working—Set-up your CMS to grant various levels of functionality to contributors of different stripes. People can work separately and together and help make your site a well-attended company picnic.

24/7 access—There’s no war room. Any authorized user can sign in anytime from anywhere.

Calendar control—You’ll have an auto-timer, that is, you can schedule content to post immediately or at a future time.

Suiting up for search—CMS’s make it easy to fiddle with keywords, titles, tags and all that SEO stuff.

Friendly little feeders—CMS systems work like a charm with really simple syndication (RSS) feeds, which will automatically push content to subscribers and sites you select.

The price—CMS systems are free. Okay, truth be told there are a ton of them, some do have subscription fees and/or various priced-tiers. The three most popular, WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, which account for more than three-quarters of the systems in use, offer free open-source CMS.

Pluginability—If you saw a site somewhere perform some fun little trick, chances are good it was the work of a CMS plugin or widget. Programmers the world over conceive, create and customize these feature-expanding gems like crazy. They’re also mostly free.

Which CMS should you get?

Get WordPress. It’s feature-rich and free. I have it, learned it fast, and like it. I usually find it easy to do things with it and when I don’t, it’s easy to find someone to do it for me. WordPress is ubiquitous and silly putty for programmers.

Should you consider Joomla, Drupal and the others?

Go for it. You didn’t hear it here though. I’ve come across more ex-users than current users. However, there are oodles to choose from and the top players offer different sets of features and benefits to satisfy different requirements. Now that you speak CMS 101, you’ll have no trouble finding more information on specific offerings. This article on the 20 best CMS looks to be a strong round-up from a credible source in the round-upping business.

Should you learn more about CMS?

Nah. You know what I know now and I’m getting on just fine and concentrating instead on content, as a marketer should. But don’t let me be the one to fling you in the deep end. If you have advanced needs, by all means advance your command of this stuff. Or, if you know which platform you’ll choose, help yourself to the many publications, sites, forums and fertile resources available about it.

I’ve said what I’ve come to say. If you have questions, easy ones, about CMS, I’ll try to answer them. If you have answers, I’ll try not to question them. Go.

My eguide, “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website,” touches on the subject of creating  your website on a simple CMS platform and there’s 20 more important points, so you might want to check it out.

Related articles

• Which CMS is best for your website? (itconsultancyservicesusa.wordpress.com)
• Approaching Content Mangement Systems (itconsultancyservicesusa.wordpress.com)

Mar

Inbound Marketing Works: A Copywriter’s Success Story

I want to tell you a little success story. I’d like to help you understand the strategy that made it work. Additionally, I’d like to help you understand why the same strategy can be the most effective marketing tactic your company will ever take. In the process, I also want to share some powerful proof points with you, actual numbers, numbers that indicate traditional media-based advertising is a money pit compared to the goldmine that is inbound marketing.

I just love the company featured in this story.

This is the story of a copywriting company. Okay, it’s about Feldman Creative, my company, and how I’ve managed to revive the demand for my services by using inbound, that is, Internet marketing principles.

First, a little back story… I’ve been a self-employed, freelance copywriter for 18 years. When I gave birth to Feldman Creative in 1995, my business boomed. I didn’t do all that much to make it happen either. I was in the right place, Silicon Valley, at the right time, when everybody and their grandmas were going online.

You might have heard about this thing that came to be known as the “dot bomb explosion” (or implosion) in 2001. Many schemes and dreams died. The stock market descended, to put it mildly. Marketing budgets disappeared and many a marketing professional lost their jobs and began working on getting a real estate license or selling insurance. My business tanked, to put it mildly.

I rode out the storm the best I could and realized a minor comeback, but learned to live with a much smaller income, to put it mildly. I searched here and there for answers. I also invested a huge chunk of change and five frustrating years attempting to build another business, a franchise in the motor skill development field, that is, children’s gymnastics, dance and sports. Noble? Maybe. Profitable? No.

My efforts to market both of my businesses were unsuccessful, to put it mildly. How could I characterize those efforts in a few words? Advertising. Direct response. These are the things I was told to do. They also happen to be a couple of things I know how to do. In fact, as a veteran of the advertising and lead generation business, I was able to do more of it for less because I seldom had to pay for any kind of creative services. I was my own advertising agency. I did the writing, much of the design, and all of the media buying.

It didn’t work. Want to know why?

Advertising and direct response don’t work all that well.

What?! Did a 25-year veteran of advertising just shoot down his own business in a bold company colored headline? Afraid so. Did I just write my company’s obit? No sir. I gave it a new life.

I haven’t stopped marketing. I stopped wasting my time and money. I pulled the plug on my attempts to interrupt people with salesy messages they despise. I turned my strategy outside-in. Outside-in? Yes ma’am, outside-in. I stopped trying to find customers and started doing everything I can to have customers find me. It worked.

Inbound marketing works.

What’s inbound marketing? HubSpot wrote the book on it, so we’ll go with their definition:

I got this image as well as the “eat pie” image from a slideshow by HubSpot, which elegantly defines and makes the case for inbound marketing in an easy-to-understand presentation. Watch it here. Not now, please. After my story. (Okay, now’s okay too.)

Before you conclude this advertising veteran denounces traditional advertising media and wants you to believe every dime you put into it amounts to ten wasted cents, hear me out just a bit. I’m not saying radio, television and print advertising doesn’t help build your brand. I’m not saying you shouldn’t create brochures or send out mail. I’m saying:

• - It’s risky. You may or may not increase sales with it.
• - It’s expensive. You have to pay for your media and may wish you could have your money back.
• - Its ROI is low and getting lower all the time.

These aren’t opinions. They are realities.

When you rely solely on traditional advertising tactics you interrupt people with messages they are not looking for. If you fast forward through commercials, listen to commercial-free radio, throw out much of your mail, or have a spam filter in place, you know exactly what I mean.

Your customers welcome inbound marketing.

The marketing tactics I’m talking about, those we can now define as “inbound,” turns the equation outside-in and upside down. The customer comes to you. They want information, information you provide. They want help. So you help them. They’re searching for something, something you have. The customer comes from the outside, the web usually, by way of Google usually, into your domain.

How sweet is that?

It’s pretty sweet, my friend. The customer grants you permission to state your case. This is the very core of the concept of inbound marketing. So repeat after me: THE CUSTOMER GRANTS YOU PERMISSION TO STATE YOUR CASE. (Sorry about the shouting.)

If you do inbound marketing correctly, you connect with customers the way they want, by giving them what they want, where and when they want it. The sweet story gets even sweeter… You do all this in media that doesn’t have media costs! You do it with an SEO strategy that takes care of itself. Keywords are the new neon signs (nice one, HubSpot).

You do it with your website, blog, contributed articles, with Twitter, Facebook, Google +, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Pinterest, YouTube, via email subscriptions, via RSS feeds. You do it with press releases, primers, e-books, seminars, slide shows. These tools, created by professionals and presented correctly, position you as an authority on whatever subject you’re an authority on.

It’s just a beautiful thing and I haven’t even got to the best part yet, the real cherry on top of the icing, on top of the addictively sweet cake.

The best part is you don’t have to sell. When the customer is ready to buy, they’ll buy. When you look at the infographic below be sure to make it to the final point. Notice how the leads-to-sales rate is way higher on inbound initiatives.

Now back to the Feldman Creative success story…

I’ve been doing these things for a year or more. I started right after reading the great book “Inbound Marketing.” Though I could live with you calling me a copywriter still, I have transformed into a website copywriter and online content marketing consultant. I’m also a certified inbound marketer (and have the cert to prove it). Yes, I write, as I always have. However, I don’t look for clients as I had prior to 2011. They find me. It doesn’t cost much money, but it does takes a lot time and requires a lot of learning, experimenting, and an ongoing commitment to refining strategy and content.

But it works. In the past 18 months the demand for business has shot up. I have taken on about 30 or more new clients. Traffic on my site is 5 – 10X what it used to be. A few days ago, after an article I wrote about the “call to action” was published on SocialMediaToday.com and LinkedIn Today and shared across the social mediasphere, traffic on my site spiked to an all-time high: about 400% above my previous best day.

The free resources I offer, two aces of my current content marketing strategy, are downloaded and viewed as much as 100 times per day. In addition to being a favorite amongst my site visitors, the ebook I’ve penned, “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website,” continues gaining popularity on SlideShare, Scribd, Squidoo and UpMarket. I’m starting to field offers to speak and getting interview requests. On most days, my community expands many times over with new Twitter followers, Facebook fans, LinkedIn connections, Google Plus associations, Pinterest pinners, and professional partners.

You could say things have got pretty crazy, but truth be told, it all makes perfect sense. People want to learn more about what I’ve become an expert in: how to use the Internet to reduce marketing spend and expand your business.  I did it. You can too. And I’d be absolutely delighted to show you how. Drop me a note here and now, if you’re interested.

In a few months, I’ll write your success story about inbound marketing. No charge.

And be sure to check this out…

Related articles

• Feldman Creative Achieves Inbound Marketing Certification (feldmancreative.com)
• Why is Inbound Marketing So Effective? [CONVO] (socialmediatoday.com)
• Starting Your Inbound Marketing Strategy (Digital Nirvana) (whattheythink.com)

Mar

CMS? Yes. [And More A’s to Your Q’s about Content Management Systems.]

21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website: Part 4

Sure, we could find more fascinating subjects than content management systems, but if we are to get good at this Internet marketing thing, it’s vital we tackle the basics.

Tell you what: we’ll get in, get out, and get you all set to move on to a far more interesting subject—your content. Here we go, Q&A style…

Do you need a content management system (CMS)?

You tell me:

• Do you understand  (or would you like to) how important it is to update your site’s content frequently?
• Will your site have a blog?
• Would you like to be able to update your website without relying on a web developer every time?

If you came up with one, two or three “yes” answers, you’re bound to get something valuable from this article. If you said “no, no, no,” this piece no longer merits your time. Bye now.

What is a CMS?

It’s your publishing application. Yep. You’re a publisher now and there are apps for that. You’re going to use your CMS, much like a word processor, to publish and manage content for your website. And you’re going to be oh-so-nimble.

How do I know you need a CMS?

Because you want to achieve greater levels of success with your online marketing. You want your website to be the most serious tool in your marketing mix. If you don’t, I’ll ask you again to please give up your seat to someone who wants to know this stuff.

Here’s the thing. The key to being successful online is to get qualified prospects to your site. The key to getting qualified prospects to your site is being found on Google. The key to being found on Google is be hip to what’s happening in search. What’s happening in search? Website’s that regularly publish relevant content are getting much greater prevalence.

I’m not making this stuff up. And I’m not an SEO dweeb either. I’m a website copywriter who’s keeping close tabs on online marketing practices and am seeing the relevance + recency formula prove all-powerful.

Isn’t a CMS system for blogging?

Yes. Guess what? You need one of those too. Sites with blogs generate way more traffic. Sites with blogs get shared via this insane cyclone called social media. Sites with blogs engage your customers to interact with you. (Please agree you want that to happen.) Sites with blogs create customer loyalty. Loyalty creates advocacy. Advocacy creates sales.

You don’t have to have a blog to justify having a CMS. There are many additional benefits. So, sure, you blog-snubbing snobs can stick around if you want.

Won’t a CMS make my website look like a blog?

No. Your website can be anything you want it to be.

How does a CMS make things easier?

The answer is simple. I mean, simple is the answer. Working on websites used to be for those who graduated from HTML University. Not anymore. CMS can be a friend to every man, woman and child, technically inclined or challenged. It gives you a WYSIWYG editor much like the apps you actually like. Don’t know what a WYSIWYG editor is? LOL. And C-U-L8er.

Why is a CMS good for the website design?

Two answers for this one. First, your site can go from zero to amazing in six seconds. No kidding. Popular CMS’s have massive aftermarkets. Amongst them are “themes,” which is another word for “template,” which is a bland term to describe designs. I’m not talking about bitter little green things, which in time will ripen. I’m talking about some gorgeous, fully developed, highly flavorful fruit fresh from the vine (and online).

Have at ‘em. They’re cheap. And they’re all over the place. Go to themeforest.com for starters and you’ll have your pick of 5,144 of them. (Don’t go yet.)

The second reason CMS is good for your website design is it maintains continuity and order. Writers can write without messing up the graphics and vise-versa.

What else will you love about your CMS?

Tidy archives—You can store hundreds of pages, photos, and what have you. I stash little sparks of ideas there and use my CMS as a halfway home for articles in the works.

Team-working—Set-up your CMS to grant various levels of functionality to contributors of different stripes. People can work separately and together and help make your site a well-attended company picnic.

24/7 access—There’s no war room. Any authorized user can sign in anytime from anywhere.

Calendar control—You’ll have an auto-timer, that is, you can schedule content to post immediately or at a future time.

Suiting up for search—CMS’s make it easy to fiddle with keywords, titles, tags and all that SEO stuff.

Friendly little feeders—CMS systems work like a charm with really simple syndication (RSS) feeds, which will automatically push content to subscribers and sites you select.

The price—CMS systems are free. Okay, truth be told there are a ton of them, some do have subscription fees and/or various priced-tiers. The three most popular, WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, which account for more than three-quarters of the systems in use, offer free open-source CMS.

Pluginability—If you saw a site somewhere perform some fun little trick, chances are good it was the work of a CMS plugin or widget. Programmers the world over conceive, create and customize these feature-expanding gems like crazy. They’re also mostly free.

Which CMS should you get?

Get WordPress. It’s feature-rich and free. I have it, learned it fast, and like it. I usually find it easy to do things with it and when I don’t, it’s easy to find someone to do it for me. WordPress is ubiquitous and silly putty for programmers.

Should you consider Joomla, Drupal and the others?

Go for it. You didn’t hear it here though. I’ve come across more ex-users than current users. However, there are oodles to choose from and the top players offer different sets of features and benefits to satisfy different requirements. Now that you speak CMS 101, you’ll have no trouble finding more information on specific offerings. This article on the 20 best CMS looks to be a strong round-up from a credible source in the round-upping business.

Should you learn more about CMS?

Nah. You know what I know now and I’m getting on just fine and concentrating instead on content, as a marketer should. But don’t let me be the one to fling you in the deep end. If you have advanced needs, by all means advance your command of this stuff. Or, if you know which platform you’ll choose, help yourself to the many publications, sites, forums and fertile resources available about it.

I’ve said what I’ve come to say. If you have questions, easy ones, about CMS, I’ll try to answer them. If you have answers, I’ll try not to question them. Go.

Addition 03.13.12:
Infographic about WordPress and its popularity.

Mar

Facebook page update for Feldman Creative

One thing that doesn’t change is Facebook never stops changing. But I like the use of the timeline and the new look. I suspect I’ll dig in a bit more in the weeks to come, but for now I’ve updated my page to include a featured photo, organize the apps the way I want and pin a current story atop the timeline. If my facebook page isn’t on your “Like” list, I encourage you to join me there. And, if I can help you with your Facebook page, social media challenges, or online marketing at large, please let me know.

Feb

Feldman Creative Achieves Inbound Marketing Certification

Certification Awarded by HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing University Training Program

February 27, 2012 – Inbound Marketing University awards the Inbound Marketing Certification to Barry Feldman, of Feldman Creative, as part of its comprehensive Internet marketing training program (http://inboundmarketing.com).

This certification acknowledges Feldman’s proficiency in inbound marketing principles and best practices. These principles include: blogging, search engine optimization, social media, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.

Feldman joins an elite group of Inbound Marketing Certified Professionals. Over 2,000 individuals have successfully passed the IMU program.

To complete the Inbound Marketing Certification, Feldman completed 16 in-depth classes covering each facet of inbound marketing and passed a comprehensive certification exam. (View the full list of classes: http://inboundmarketing.com/university/classes)

The courses are taught by a knowledgeable faculty of professors, including New York Times’ best-selling author Chris Brogan, Google’s Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Internet celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk, best-selling author and international speaker David Meerman Scott, and more.

This certification is administered by HubSpot.

About InboundMarketing.com

InboundMarketing.com is an online community and certification program for marketers. The site’s content teaches a new style of marketing that emphasizes business uses of social media, content creation and search engine optimization for marketing. InboundMarketing.com is hosted and moderated by HubSpot, Inc. Register for InboundMarketing.com at http://inboundmarketing.com/user/register.

About HubSpot

HubSpot, Inc. provides Internet marketing software that helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers. HubSpot’s software platform includes tools that allow professional marketers and business owners to manage search engine optimization, blogging and social media, as well as landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Based in Cambridge, MA, HubSpot can be found at http://www.hubspot.com. HubSpot’s free marketing tools can be found at http://grader.com.

Cover via Amazon

Feb

A Successful Website Achieves Objectives

21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website: Part 3

Business owners and directors come to me time and again saying their website doesn’t work. I can just see ‘em on the other end of the line pointing their finger at their monitor in disgust. Oh, how I’m dying to tell them three more fingers are pointing back at them. I refrain and go with a more sensitive reply, such as:

What would you like your website to do for your business?

(Radio silence.) Hello? You still there?

Okay, let’s work together on this. The site’s a miserable failure. Clearly, it’s a stupid site and it needs to be replaced. We have work to do.

Let’s try to make a smart site.

Or better yet, let’s recognize those of us who will create this thing need to own the challenge and take a smart approach. Remember, the definition of crazy is to make the same mistakes over and over.

If we are to have a successful site this time around, we need to start by defining “success.” Apparently, it’s a tricky thing to understand and do. I say this because it’s usually left undone.

So let’s vow to slay this task right here and now.

Document the objective of your site.

Got a writing instrument in hand? Super. Write your site’s objective down.

Still thinking? Try this…

My new website is working when it _____________________________ .

Nothing? How about this…

I want the person who visits my site to  __________________________ .

We’re ready to create the killer site now.

I really wanted to quote the preciously ridiculous Yogi with his “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.”

But let’s move on. If you have a clear goal, you have my permission to get to work. I’m glad to help. We’ll be making all kinds of decisions about what goes on your site, what it says, and how it’s constructed and designed. And now, as your website copywriter,  I can help you make these decisions smart ones.

However, maybe you’re saying “not so fast.” Those blanks above are still blank.

Can’t a good copywriter fill them in? I want to say no. You should expect your copywriter to help you achieve your objectives, not create them. It’s your site and potentially an enormously powerful online marketing tool to help your company achieve its business goals.

That said, I’m going to try to be as helpful as I can and nominate a few likely candidates.

Truth be told, almost all sites share a common objective.

I believe a nearly universal objective for business websites is to find out WHO came to visit, to collect a business card, if you will. I’ll expand on this by listing the top three useful website strategies.

• Get visitors. This is a soft objective and perhaps an obvious one, but vital nonetheless. However, millions of anonymous visitors amounts to nothing, so you want to learn who visited and bigger things may come.
  
• Get leads. For good reason, this is strategy numero uno in B2B marketing. It’s realistic and practical. You not only collect a name and contact information, you collect information about your visitor’s business challenges. You learn WHY they came. If you can deliver what they seek, you have a lead, one you can nurture, one you can close.
  
• Get sales. Here’s the grand prize of a website objective: the visitor becomes a paying customer. However, the majority of sites do not sell off the page, so achieving this objective might involve additional strategies and additional interactions.

There are other valuable things your site may achieve.

• Newsletter subscribers—Newsletters provide the classic lead nurturing tactic for B2B marketing and a loyalty building tactic for B2C.

• Blog subscribers—A powerful form of permission-based marketing, loyal readers can learn from the content you share and better understand your perspectives.

• Comments—Getting a visitor to interact with your site means engagement, which may open the door to forging trusting relationships.

• Reviews—Among the many benefits of allowing customers to review your company’s solutions, enabling on-site reviews demonstrates you believe in your product and care what consumers have to say about it.

• Answers—Customers want to be heard. As a supplier, you’ll do well to listen.

• Word of mouse—Social media has made content sharing a form of currency.

• Community building—Forums and online events can bring customers together, which is a meaningful goal.

• Authority—Though I will agree brand awareness can be a website objective, establishing credibility is an even stronger outcome.

Give your website a job description and prepare to succeed.

To conclude, you can have no reasons, bad reasons or good reasons to redo your site or create your first one. “I don’t like it” or “It’s not as good as our competitors” and “We just need one” are bad reasons. Good reasons trace to an objective, a conversion of some sort. And an objective creates a solid foundation for the decisions you make going forward regarding every element on every page.

So there you go. Give your site a job description and take ownership of it. The site itself can’t be stupid, but it is painfully dim-witted to have a site with no clear objective.

Do you agree with me? Please share your thoughts.

My eguide, “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website,” touches on the subject of establishing objectives and there’s 20 more important points, so you might want to check it out.

Feb

Understand Who Will Visit Your Website

21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website: Part 2

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Prospect.

Prospect who?

Prospect who’s looking to solve a problem.

Ehnnn, that’s enough of that. There’s no punchline. In fact, if there’s a joke of any sort here, it may be on you.

Who will visit your site?
If I ask you this question, will you balk? It almost seems ridiculous to think you may not have an insightful and specific answer. But you may not—and it wouldn’t make you the least bit unique. So forgive me for saying so, but we’re not talking about a silly mistake. We’re talking about a serious one.

Without trivializing the conversation to a bad knock-knock joke, I have some form of this conversation nearly every day. My clients and new business prospects come a-calling on me to plan and write new websites for their businesses daily. The first questions I ask: “Who will be visiting your site?” 9 of 10 times I don’t get a specific answer. Ug.

What I’m compelled to say next sometimes costs me business. I say, “We’re not ready to create an effective site.”

How will we engage your audience?
As a website copywriter, I’m called on to engage the folks that have clicked into your site. So imagine my frustration when I learn you can’t help me because you don’t know who they are, what they want, and what they’re doing here.

We absolutely HAVE TO know who they are and what they want. How else could we possibly engage them?

It starts with site-centric demographics
In this article, we won’t get into the process of defining the objectives of your website, so we’ll make the assumption you want your visitor to connect with your company in some meaningful way. With this in mind, you’ll want to do your best to determine the demographic make-up of your users with specifics regarding:

• Education
• Age
• Gender
• Income
• Occupation
• Ethnicity
• Location

Of course, you’ll want to identify different types or sets of users. In the process of creating your site, you’ll want to provide different content and click paths to accommodate differing needs. In some cases, when identifying demographics, you may need to be broad, however, you’ll benefit from identifying the real deal power users (or at least your best prospects) and creating detailed personas to help establish exactly who you’re talking to. Pixsym does an excellent job unraveling the mysteries of persona building in this article.

As simple as it may sound, whatever you write, or any kind of content you create and publish needs to be informed by demographics. This is critical to the connection you hope to make. On the flip side, to create a single, generic voice aimed at addressing anybody, anywhere is to miss the opportunity to connect.

Next you need to get in their heads.
Knowing who’s there is huge, but it’s not enough. The key to persuading your audience to do something lies in understanding what motivates them. We’re talking about psychographics now.

Psychographically speaking (I always wanted to say that), you want to uncover the values, beliefs, attitudes and motivations of your customers. Ever notice how the products a person buys reveals so much about his or her personality?

Yup. Psychographics is the key to discovering what inspires your website visitors to spend their money.

And now, meet the term “socialgraphics.”
It was inevitable us marketing types would coin a term to define how an individual behaves—and by that I mean, online. Socialgraphics. It’s not poetry, but it’ll have to do. With socialgraphics, you want to know who’s doing what in the complex digital world of social media, email, and all things Internet. These behaviors include:

• Content consumption and sharing
• Preferred media and communication channels
• Propensity to comment, review, and post content
• Participation in online communities
• Time of day actions
• Choice of platforms (devices, software, browsers, etc.)
• Mobile use

You get the picture. Socialgraphics helps you complete the picture. We’ll boil it down and review. You know who’s visiting, what they think, and how they behave online. Now you have a pretty good chance of supplying what they demand.

Tactics to help you get the insights you need.
Understanding the prospects that come to your site takes some effort. Here are some of the things you should do—before you set up shop and start creating all kinds of content.

• Run surveys—If you have a site and sufficient traffic, you can use it to conduct surveys. Email lists are idea for surveying your audience with tools such as SurveyMonkey. You can try social media, question sites, and LinkedIn Answers. In some cases, picking up the phone may work.
• Examine site analytics—Google Analytics and an ever-expanding array of analytics tools will help you uncover a vast amount of information about who is visiting your site, where they are from, where they came from, and what keywords brought them there. You’ll tap into your site’s vital signs such as bounce rate (a number that indicates how many people quickly left). Examine pages viewed to help get a grasp on the needs and wants of your visitors. You can customize analytical tools to reveal all kinds of data that will help you understand your customers.
• Blog—Over time, the consumption of the articles and content you publish will reveal much-needed insights about your customers. And, of course, the comments you collect will provide even greater insights. You’re likely to learn what questions prospects have for you. You’ll pick up on their vibe. You’ll get a sense of what keeps them up at night.
• Follow the market—Put in the time to comb through what’s going on in and around your niche and you’ll see trends emerge and get a good sense of useful psychographics.
• Gather advertising results—Advertisers should measure and analyze the results generated (or not) by their ads. A host of “who, what, when, and where” revelations should come from advertising data and suggest how well you are or aren’t pressing the right buttons.
• Uncover keyword questions—Look into Wordtracker’s free keywords question tool, a supremely handy tool for discovering the questions the people you want to visit your site are asking in search strings.

Don’t ask strangers for money.
You won’t get much out of it if you do. The time and effort you invest in understanding your audience is going to pay huge dividends. Knowing who your visitor is and what they need will allow you to create a far more effective site and continue populating it with the sticky stuff you need to engage visitors.

To know or not to know is the difference between success and failure in your online endeavors.

The subject I covered here is the long version of one tip I provide in “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website,” an ebook crammed with useful tips for creating more effective websites. Help yourself to the document here.

I encourage you to ask questions, offer additional tips, and share your insights on this subject.

Feb

Be Aware of SlideShare for Your Content Marketing

Interested in a quick SlideShare 101?

Here you go, the basics:

• The site launched in 2006 and now gets over 25 million visits per month.
• Users can upload and share presentations, documents, and videos.
• You can rate, comment on, and share stuff via social media.
• Essentially, SlideShare is a social media because you also follow members and join groups.
• Both Facebook and LinkedIn have integrated apps to make it easy to share your SlideShare assets.
• Zipcast is a new webcasting feature offered free from SlideShare.
• You can create a branded channel for your company.
• For a fee, you can have your presentations shared on the SlideShare home page.
• Various widgets allow you to embed presentation feeds on your page and embed playlists of presentations.
• SlideShare is an enormous library of valuable content.

Interested in becoming SlideShare Marketing Master? (It’s not technical, so no need to fear.) This a nice collection of tips from HubSpot.

Have you used it? Any tips you can share with us here at The Point?

Feb

Creating a New Website? Borrow from the Best.

21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website: Part 1

That’s a pretty politically correct headline I just wrote. But what do you say we get real now and examine the wisdom behind swiping ideas? Truthfully, no one will get hurt with the form of thievery I’m about to propose.

I submit the savvy way to get started on a new website is to pickpocket ideas wherever you can find ‘em. Now before you go and call the plagiarism police on me, give me a few paragraphs to explain.

Keep your greasy paws off my intellectual property.

I’m a writer. I’ve been slinging sentences together for profit for 25 years. So as you might expect, nothing fuels my fire like scraping the content I wrote to promote my business or my client’s. Copying copy is a dirty rotten disgrace. I guess to some degree, it’s something I’ve learned to live with because it happens all the time.

Now, as an article writer, or even a website writer, I want you to like my stuff. And if you ask me for permission to republish it, guess what? You’ll get it. In fact, I’ll be flattered. I’ll merely ask for fair attribution and we’ll have ourselves a mutually beneficial little deal. But should you decide to forgo that step and then take credit for it, well, um, then I’m gonna’ report you to the principal.

And now back to my “start smart” strategy for creating a website.

Unless my client has a very clear plan for all the nuts and bolts we’ll use to build his new website, I recommend we embark on a mission to have other sites inform our decisions. Without the tiniest tinge of guilt, I recommend we start by finding a handful of sites we agree are effective. I even suggest we begin our stealing spree at his competitors’ sites.

Gasping? I’m here to tell you it’s perfectly okay.

We’re not going to copy and paste.

That’s dubious. Copying and pasting another company’s property does indeed put a foul taste in my mouth. But finding inspiration from other sites is just plain smart. The same practice happens in every creative endeavor. Okay, every once in great while, someone invents a wheel. The other zillion times they attempt to borrow the basic idea and build something unique. Therein lies the key: build something unique.

Look at some of the many decisions you must make when creating a website.

• What content will it include?
• How will it be presented?
• How is the navigation setup?
• What goes where?
• How does it attempt to capture leads or sell product?
• What type of personality will it have?
• This list may have no end.

Mr. Godin agrees.

I’m going to live dangerously now and tell you the inspiration behind this article, to some extent, is also largely derived from stuff I’ve read online. Though I’m drawing from a commonly cited best practice, I have indeed put my own personal spin on the subject matter. I didn’t steal anything and call it mine. I borrowed a good idea.

Seth Godin, the best selling author and internationally recognized marketing advisor, sprinkled very similar ideas throughout his article “How to create a good enough website.” Seth wrote:

“I’m going to go out on a limb and beg you not to create an original design. There are more than a billion pages on the web. Surely there’s one that you can start with? If your organization can’t find a website that you all agree can serve as a model, you need to stop right now and find a new job.”

Godin points out your car isn’t unique and though you’ve decorated your house to your own liking, it’s not likely it’s unique either. Other people’s houses share the same essential framework.

He goes on to point out the morale of the story is not to commit copyright violations, but to recognize that modeling your site after others that have successfully laid the foundation for you is simply a smart way to start.

Care to share your thoughts? Please do.

And, if you found the pointer I’ve offered you here today helpful, there’s 20 more where this one came from. I invite you to read and apply a new series of site creation tips in my fun and informative primer “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Site.”

Feb

The Feldman Creative company store (where everything’s free)

Check it out…

New business cards (miniature MacBooks). Notebooks. Branded pens. Caps.

How much? Free for the asking. Just shoot me an email or use my contact form.

Why? No real reason. It’s fun to see my new logo on stuff. It feels good to spread the love. And, I want to make it easy to find me when you need to tell your story.

Thanks for shopping at the Feldman Creative company store. Come again soon.

Feb

Will a Website Turn You Off or On? One Word Makes All the Difference.

Do you love yourself? Sweet. It’s a great quality. Likewise, it’s great to believe in your company and what your company does well. However, the lessons learned from your self-esteem endeavors have their place.

Your home page ain’t it.

Why are you still reading this article?

It’s about you. So far, I’ve alluded to you, the subject of this article I wrote for you, about your website, ten times (not including this sentence). Not a word about me.

Oh sure, I could tell you about myself, Barry the freelance copywriter, Feldman Creative the content marketing experts, my experience, my accomplishments, and my clients. While we’re loving on me, I could tell you about my affection for guitars, tennis rackets and things with strings. But you haven’t asked me to.

And let me make this clear: I don’t want to risk losing you. We just met. Who knows? Our relationship might take us to some amazing places. So let’s get back to that problem you’re having with your website.

You’re focusing on you.

Most companies do it. They don’t even realize it’s wrong. However, if they measure and analyze their bounce rate (the percentage of site visitors that leave without clicking anything), they do realize they have a problem.

Don’t beat yourself up about it. Just fix it.

When you start the conversation talking about yourself you turn people off. If they can bail, they do.

The secret to turning them on is very simple, but so misunderstood. You talk about them. You employ the power of “you.”

Your new website visitor just described their problem by entering some version of it in Google. Or maybe your great reputation earned you a referral. In either case, one reality looms ginormous.

Your website visitor has a problem.

The good news? You probably have the solution. And the reason you have a website to begin with is you want people like this to learn more about it and buy it.

So here’s what you do: assure them they belong here at your site. Make it clear you get their problem. Make it clear you want to help. You do this with headlines, photos, illustrations, videos, diagrams, invitations, offers, and more.

Let’s look at how to lose them from the start.

Sadly, most websites provide very good examples of how to turn-off and turn-away prospects. Scraping together examples to share with you certainly wasn’t hard. In fact, I just turned to a small sample of clients I’m doing websites for right now. Forgive me for the edits I made in the name of anonymity. I didn’t want to have to grovel my way back to my clients’ good graces. I want to (and I will) help them understand why their home page is a turn-off.

Example 1:
Software development

The “before” version of a site I recently rewrote read like this:

COMPANY senior level team is comprised of professionals who have worked with the world’s leading technology, advertising and design companies. Our “get it done” philosophy is why much of our work is repeat business from happy clients. Our goal is to establish a strategy that is tailored to your company’s goals, objectives and budget.

Did you see how the “us” thing trumped the “you” voice in every way? Did you feel any sensitivity the company understood your challenge? Did you even feel they recognized you were there? This self-congratulatory approach is more dreadful than a resume. If you were looking for a reason to keep reading, click something, or capitalize on an offer, clearly you’re going to have to keep looking.

Example 2:
Personal assistant services

This company made it abundantly clear in the first sentence as to which company they wanted to talk about.

Our network is vast, our ideas are unique and our delivery is prompt. If it can be done, we can do it. We are boutique firm, which opened in 2005 dedicated to any project you just don’t have time for.

They’ve managed to stay open 7 years now. Wow. One has to assume they are more customer-centric offline. As a side note, if a test of a good home page is “assure your customer they’ve come the right place,” they failed gloriously. They seem to suggest they can solve any problem. Ever met a company like that?

Example 3:
Law firm

I hear this all the time, especially from professional services firms, “These online marketing strategies sound good, but things work differently in our business.” (Vapor escapes from the consultant’s ears.) It’s hard to help naïve business owners such as this, but as you’re about to see, the obvious place to start would be their pointless home page copy.

Founded in 1994, COMPANY is a full-service (specialty) law firm with vast experience and expertise in all aspects of (specialty) law and litigation. Throughout its history, the firm and its attorneys have represented (third person reference to client types) ranging from individuals to multinational corporations, and over the course of this time, COMPANY has helped successfully negotiate and complete hundreds of millions of dollars worth of (category).

Ouch. Not a “you” in sight. I’d like to ask you to wake up now. We’re going to look at how you do engage your customers.

The most important lesson I can offer you.

Even if you elect not to hire a great copywriter to work on your website (which is a mistake), I beg you to look at it from the point of view of the visitor—especially your home page.

I’m trying to do this in this article. I’m thinking—and writing—about your challenge. What is it? You want people to “get into” your website.  Remind yourself why they are there. It’s not to read about you.

I’ve written a lot about what not to do and shown you examples of the “we, we, we” epidemic that plagues most websites. By now, you’ve bought in. If you haven’t, you have no business reading this deep into the article. (And you probably should fess up to the fact that you have no business thinking your website is a marketing tool for you company).

But since you’re still here and my lesson is sinking in, let’s agree that what every woman who visits your site DOES care is herself and every man, himself.

So what are you going to do turn ‘em on… to get them into your site, into a conversation, in your sales funnel?

You are going to understand why they showed up at your website and come up with some version of “You have this challenge? Right this way please. How can we help you?”

Soon after you discover who your website is for, you’ll discover what it can do for your business.

This “pointer” is one of “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website,” which will help you understand how to make your site more effective (and is available here for free).

Jan

Social Media Influence Works Both Ways

This is a guest post from John McTige, Executive Vice President and Co-Owner of Kuno Creative, an inbound marketing agency based in Cleveland, Ohio. The article appeared on his company’s blog first and also on Business2Community. This article is the third in a 3-part series.

People get the wrong idea about social media influence. We gravitate to thought leaders in our industry and hope to get a crumb of respect from them to elevate our own status and reach. I’m here to tell you right now that’s completely wrong. Influence is about building real two-way relationships that are mutually beneficial. I’ll give you a prime-time example that happened to me recently.

Barry Feldman is an influencer in his own right. He’s a great writer working as a copywriter and blogger. He gets it right when he calls himself a “good storyteller”. If you haven’t checked out his website and blog, you should. The skills that Barry wears on his sleeve are both rare and precious in these free-for-all days on the Web. Barry and I have been trading tweets and quips for a few months now, but never anything truly substantive, until last week.

Last week Barry read my blog post “Top Challenges in Modern Website Design – #3 Marketing“, and it apparently resonated with him. He responded with his own blog post “Do These Things Only If You Want to Be a Successful Online Marketer” in which he expounded on my post and reinforced it with his own spin. He added value by providing important tips like:

“Make a great site. Don’t skimp on copywriting or design. Tell a great story. Make it easy to speed-read and enticing to spend time with.”

Aside from the fact that Barry dropped us some very nice compliments, what he really did was reinforce some important strategies for his own customers as well as for ours. The two blog posts together are more influential (and consequential) than the sum of the parts. Now we’re talking about the power of social networking and relationship marketing. Now Barry and I are collaborating and moving the industry forward. Cool.

My point here is that what happened last week was the realization of an extremely important goal. By putting yourself out there with a heart-felt blog post, you can attract like minds (as well as antagonists). By responding in kind and reinforcing (or arguing with) someone’s point of view, you are creating a valuable conversation that’s far more interesting than a simple one-off post. By working together, Barry and I now have reason to continue and build on that relationship. We have influenced each other, and now we can influence others – to do what? It doesn’t really matter. We have created a spark, and sparks have a tendency to become flames.

You can do this too.

Jan

The Formula for Successful Online Marketing.

Last week, I shared with you an article by John McTige, Executive Vice President and Co-Owner of Kuno Creative, an inbound marketing agency based in Cleveland, Ohio. The article appeared on his company’s blog first and also on Business2Community. After reading it, I wrote this article, which appeared on SocialMediaToday.com.

Note: This article is the second in a 3-part series in which the subject changes from marketing a website to making meaningful connections via social media.

I became a blogger just this year. I sprinkled my articles around the web quite a bit and offered a decent chunk of my best attempts to articulate online marketing ideas right here. I feel welcome at Social Media Today. Thanks for having me fellow bloggers, new media maniacs, and readers.

Being new to this crazy little thing called blogging, while I penned 25 or so articles, in the name of research, curiosity and just plain fun, I must have read about 25,000.

I was looking for good insights delivered with elegance and wit. A dose of tongue-in-cheek humor scores points with with me too. I suppose to keep my Google Reader queue to under 1,000 unread posts and budget my time wisely, my appetite for devouring articles online in 2011 was partially driven by a desire to be more selective about who and what I read in 2012.

But trust me, I didn’t announce to anyone anywhere I was in search of the best zinger line from a blog post. I wasn’t. I didn’t conduct any contests. And if I did, who’d enter?

In fact, at the beginning of this week, I vowed to complete one or two of the five to ten unfinished articles I have in the works. I was actually working toward this goal when I got derailed by my favorite whipper-snapper of the whole year.

And the winner is…

“… in today’s consumer-is-king world, redesigning your website earns you precisely nothing.”

That’s just precious. It comes from John McTigue of Kuno Creative. John’s stuff is consistently great and though I have no affiliation with Kuno, they provide a veritable bounty of insights and practical advice.

John’s memorable line slipped into sight December 29, merely hours before the clock struck 2012.

What makes it such a great little quip? Above all, truth. Secondly, I love the irony. This company, Kuno Creative, actually sells web design. In fact, on their site’s sparse nav bar, they offer only two services, web design being one of them.

Uh John… hello? Are you switching professions? Are you trying to sabotage your company? No? And no again? Okay, what are you doing?

The man is sticking his neck out.

John’s telling it like it is my friend. In fact, in his wonderful article titled “Top Challenges in Modern Website Design – #3 Marketing,” he opens dangerously with:

“We get a lot of our business from website owners whose sites deliver precious few sales leads to the bottom line.”

John’s not nuts. He wants to dramatize his point, which I suspect is a constant mantra in one way or another at Kuno Creative: website-based marketing is a process—not a project.

To validate the notion, the pros at Kuno Creative, and practitioners of inbound marketing everywhere, must stomach the risk that comes with telling potential new clients the large investment they will make make in their websites may deliver zero ROI. Cool.

I gave my work a good hard look.

The article really captured me. (Of course, it didn’t hurt that it featured the album cover of Bob Dylan’s classic “The Times They Are A-Changin’). And then it sent me reeling in a self-examination of sorts.

Creating, improving, editing, and expanding websites represents the majority of the work I’ve done in recent years as a freelance copywriter and creative director. Generally, before and after studies of these sites validate my skills pretty well. I know what I’m doing, so a good many clients listen to and embrace my advice—at least they do temporarily.

Therein lies the burn. Try as I might, with painful regularity, my clients will veer from the course I thought I plotted for them. John’s article inspired me to ask myself, “How many of my clients have become successful online marketers?” The answer isn’t zero, but it pains me to say, you can probably count them on one hand.

Where have so many online marketers gone wrong?

They created some customer-driven content and then let it lie. Their sites became bloated brochures. We succeeded in publishing useful content, but doing so was an event, a moment in time. The failure? We provided little or no reason to come again, no reason to converse, no reason to rant or rave about anything. We failed to feed them a steady stream of timely content. Consequently, we failed to accomplish the monumentally important requirement of a lead-generating, loyalty inspiring website. We failed to engage the site’s visitors.

Why would you, or me, or any company do such a thing? Laziness.

John states, “Marketing these days is a process of making connections through content and engagement.” Doing so isn’t a nifty bonus; it’s a necessity. In his article, he offers a short list of tips for creating and then maintaining an engaging website. I suggest you read it. I also suggest you give my suggestions a serious looking-over.

Must-have propositions for successful online marketing.

Your website can, and should, be your most valuable marketing asset. Here are the things you need to do:

• Document a marketing strategy. Execute your strategy on your site every day, in every way, on every page.
• Develop a brand. Your brand can’t be bland. Differentiate it. Make it memorable. Give it a suitable personality.
• Make a great site. Don’t skimp on copywriting or design. Tell a great story. Make it easy to speed-read and enticing to spend time with.
• Practice content marketing. That is, offer valuable content that answers your customers questions and solves some of their problems. Charge nothing for it.
• Employ social marketing. Your site must be a conversation starter and the conversation should never end.
• Network. To some degree, if your site doesn’t focus on building a community you need to take a giant step back and attempt to understand what makes the Internet the best marketing medium ever.
• Care for your customers. You know that old axiom “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care?” Live by this and enjoy the rewards.
• Review. Revise. Repeat. Don’t allow analytics to be optional. Review your failures and successes. Revise the stuff that isn’t working, but appears workable. Identify where the numbers indicate you’re doing things correctly and repeat, repeat, and keep repeating.

Should I repeat myself? I probably will, but here and now, I’d rather wrap it up and would love to hear more about what is and isn’t enabling your company to be a successful online marketer.

Jan

Website design: It’s a process, not a project

This is a guest post from John McTige, Executive Vice President and Co-Owner of Kuno Creative, an inbound marketing agency based in Cleveland, Ohio. The article appeared on his company’s blog first and also on Business2Community. Note: This article is the first of a 3-part series in which the subject changes from marketing a website to making meaningful connections via social media. You’ll see what I mean. Enjoy.

Top Challenges in Modern Website Design – Marketing

We get a lot of our business from website owners whose sites deliver precious few sales leads to the bottom line. Why? Because they were never designed and filled with content with lead generation in mind. Their sites were created as Web brochures just in case anyone stumbles upon them and wants to know more about the company and its products or services. As Bob Dylan wrote, “the times, they are a-changin’…”. Bottom line – it doesn’t matter how good your SEO guru is, how much money you spend on PPC ads or how beautiful your website looks. If your website isn’t designed to capture sales leads, you are wasting your money. If there isn’t at least one compelling “hook” on your home page and throughout your site, you have no way of capturing leads. If you are in business to make money, you might want to consider a design refresh.

Best Marketing Practices for Web Design

All of the usual rules for attracting visitors and making your site “sticky” still apply. You must state who you are, what you do and what’s in it for your visitor. The best designs do this without a lot of text or too many images. A great logo and tagline go a long way towards identifying you and stating your value proposition. After that, it’s all about your target market. You have to anticipate what your potential customers are looking for and what “grabs” them. There’s a lot of range to an effective design, but in general the following elements must be highly visible:

• Clear calls to action to download, participate, become a member etc. It’s the offer itself that counts. It must be something truly unique and valuable to your potential customer. They will surrender contact information if the offer is good enough.
• Benefits statement. Rotating banners are often used to highlight your visitor’s “pain points” or needs and an invitation to find the solution.
• Smart navigation. Show your visitors (and Google) what’s really important by placing the highest priority items first in your menu. No, your About Us page is important to you, but not your visitors until they become leads and want to know more about you. Place your Products and/or Services links first.
• Fresh information. There is no reason for any visitor to return unless you are constantly updating your content with new blogs, webinars and other advanced content. Remember, no one cares what’s up at your company. What they care about is what’s new that can help them solve a problem or be entertained.
• Easy connection. Don’t make people search for your Contact Us page. Make it easy to contact you and connect with you via social media.

Make Your Website Memorable

We do some pretty snazzy designs for our clients, and there are good marketing reasons for that. Let’s face it, if you’re like most people, you’re online way too much these days. And yes, you see a lot of websites that are nicely optimized for marketing. So, you see a lot of calls-to-action and banners and “click here” links and buttons. It all starts to look like one big advertisement, which is one thing we are trying to avoid. A unique and beautiful design can go a long way towards alleviating that oversaturation problem. If the design itself is truly captivating, you stand a much better chance of keeping your visitor’s attention and causing them to explore, click-through and interact with your Web presence.

It’s a Process, Not a Project

I won’t use the “i” word here (hint, it’s the opposite of outbound marketing), but I want to emphasize that in today’s consumer-is-king world, redesigning your website earns you precisely nothing. Marketing these days is a process of making connections through content and engagement. If you take a day off, your chances of capturing qualified sales leads go down. If you work at it consistently and follow a comprehensive strategy, they go way up. If you think of your website as a static piece of marketing collateral, you have already lost the battle to your competitors. You must dedicate talent and time to keeping your site fresh and targeted, alive and vital. You must work it constantly and measure everything. It’s time to put your website to work for you as one of your most valuable marketing assets. Don’t redesign your website, redesign your marketing strategy.

Be sure to read parts two and three in the trilogy created by Kuno Creative and Feldman Creative. If you’re not already subscribed to this blog’s RSS feed, please join us today.

Related articles

• Do These Things Only If You Want to Be a Successful Online Marketer.

Dec

A Sign of the Times

30-billion

Pieces of content are shared each month.
Are you piecing content together and sharing it?

225-million

Use Twitter.
Are you one of them?

700-billion

The number of playbacks reached on YouTube this year.
Did customers tune into your program?

60%

Of smartphone users admits to using their devices while going to the bathroom.
Social media is #1. Put down the lid and watch…

The World of Social Media 2011

Brought to you by VideoInfographs.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR. LET’S MAKE IT THE MOST SOCIAL ONE EVER, TOGETHER.

Dec

Your Site is the Mousetrap and Your Content is the Cheese

Mice aren’t attracted to mousetraps. They’re attracted to what you put on it. The same goes for websites. What are you putting on yours?

Let’s start with a dead mouse.

When you run down to the hardware store to invest in a mousetrap, I’m quite sure you have a very clear idea of what you’re trying to accomplish. So start with the end in mind. (Ick. It’s not the prettiest metaphor I’ve ever created.)

But seriously, killer, do you know what you want your site to accomplish? Every day I speak to business owners and directors who don’t.

Bad answer: we want visitors to learn about our company. Good answer: we want to capture the email address of the visitor so we can begin to nurture a relationship. Though it’s a very smart, strategic objective, email opt-in is just one possible objective. You don’t need to have this objective, but you do need to have one in mind.

Select the most effective bait.

Now we’re talking content. Though cheese is a popular choice for mousetrap bait, authorities in the rodent reduction business argue that peanut butter is the best bet for the mouse’s last meal. Whatever works.

The idea is pretty simple. You need to know what will draw your target in. The process of learning exactly what that is should involve research, and then testing. And in the world of online content marketing, both have become amazingly simple.

Rats. I hate to bail on my nifty metaphor so soon, but it’s time to introduce a second one: magnetism. No doubt, you’ve come to know the term “magnetic content.” It’s a beauty in so many ways, the first being the function of a magnet: pulling power.

You give your website pulling power with magnetic content — stuff that not only attracts eyeballs, but eyeballs embedded in the heads of the type of people that truly belong at your site, your target market and, hopefully, your brand advocates of the future.

For this next bit, I want to give big thanks to eMarketer founder, Geoff Ramsey, who co-wrote Digital Impact: The Two Secrets to Online Marketing Success, and present some ideas from his informative article, 2011 Trends: Content Marketing is Critical.

Marketers should ask themselves five questions about the magnetic content they are seeking to create to determine whether it will be truly attractive to their audience:

• Is the content unique?
• Is the content useful?
• Is the content well executed?
• Is the content fun?
• Does the content make good use of the channel in which it appears?

Marketing authorities everywhere — and a booming brigade of companies that now embrace the principles of content marketing and enjoy its profound benefits — suggest you resist the urge to pitch your product. Instead, consider, product aside, what can you do for your customer?

To select the most effective bait, you identify exactly what whets your target’s appetite and serve it up in generous portions.

Be wary of stale cheese.

Let’s review. Your site needs pulling power. Now let’s expand the goal. Your site needs to attract qualified visitors and encourage them to stay awhile. But even that’s not good enough. Moving on now: Your site also needs to inspire its audience to interact with the content you put there, bookmark it, share it with others, and return often.

Freshness matters. Think of it as a bakery. It’s the fresh baked goods that’ll produce the aromas that magically waft from the racks and bring people back again and again. Think of it as a newsstand. People will rush to snag the breaking story. Now, think of it as the bait on your mousetrap and, as weird as it sounds, think of the mouse as having a sophisticated enough palate to steer clear of stinky old cheese.

Mostly, you should think of it as a search engine. The one that matters most has been tweaking its algorithm in an effort to recognize the freshness of content. By creating fresh content, you now have a greater chance of appearing in at the top of search engine results for relevant terms.

So your content strategy must include a schedule, and those responsible for manning the site must take an oath to abide by it. In general, you should update the content on your site as often as possible. Blogs are the bomb for this.

Warning: Close your eyes for this next part. It gets gross.

Consider the sticky stuff.

You’ve seen those traps where the rodent steps onto an adhesive surface? As you know, the little bugger gets stuck. He’s taken his last step.

While I don’t want you to take this 100 percent literally, I do think a little visualization helps me make my point: A killer site is a sticky site.

There’s no shortage of “how to” material on the subject of stickiness, but today I’d like to focus on the mindset you need to succeed.

In 3 Angles to Create Magnetic Content with the Triangle of Relevance, author Angie Schottmuller stresses that relevance is the key to making content great. She presents a three-part formula for getting people to “click and stick,” whereby you create content for your site that:

• Aligns with your business objective
• Caters to the interests of your target market
• Capitalizes on the “now” — that is, involves an element of timing related to seasons, holidays, events, or what’s trending in the news.

Comfort is another must-have for your ultra-sticky site. If you’ve nailed the relevance requirement, visitors should be saying to themselves, “I should go here.” Next, we want them to say, “I like it here.”

Make your users feel at home on your website. Decorate it accordingly. Don’t make it too busy by bombarding their senses. Show them around. Offer them assurance and invite them to get involved. Ask them questions. Answer them. Give them treats. Ask them to come back often and tell them to invite their friends.

But don’t bombard them with product pitches. Don’t harp on how great thou art. And don’t insist they need to open their wallets in the early stages of your relationship.

And finally, don’t forget flavor.

So you got it going on. The stuff that’s going on your mousetrap is all of the above: useful, relevant, timely, and free of charge. Your site looks like a good place to cozy up with some good content.

Don’t blow it now by being bland and flavorless. The cheese needs to be tasty. I hope you’re not laughing at me. I’m serious. The boring website is an epidemic of massive proportions.

In an effort to please everyone, site operators the world over leave out the salt and pepper. It might be deliberate; that is, the mentality is to not risk offending anyone’s taste.

Stupider still, it might trace to flavorless writing. A lot of companies are too frugal to hire a professional copywriter to write the site’s content. You have to admit, these companies do not subscribe to the Content is King mantra. And then you have your inclination to let non-writers, such as the CEO or a product pro, create the content. You need to resist this strategy as well.

You can’t bore people into buying stuff, whether it’s your product or your ideas. If you want people to bite, make your bait rich with flavor.

So tell me, what are you putting on your mousetrap?

Dec

The Twelve Days of Twismas

On the first day of Twismas,
my twu love sent to me
A smartphone equipped with 4G.

On the second day of Twismas,
my twu love sent to me
Two Twitter retweets
And a smartphone equipped with 4G.

On the third day of Twismas,
my twu love sent to me
Three Facebook friends,
Two Twitter retweets,
And a smartphone equipped with 4G.

On the fourth day of Twismas,
my twu love sent to me
Foursquare locations,
Three Facebook friends,
Two Twitter retweets
And a smartphone equipped with 4G.

On the fifth day of Twismas,
my twu love sent to me
Five G+ circles,
Foursquare locations,
Three Facebook friends,
Two Twitter retweets
And a smartphone equipped with 4G.

On the sixth day of Twismas,
my twu love sent to me
Six LinkedIn connections,
Five G+ circles,
Foursquare locations,
Three Facebook friends,
Two Twitter retweets
And a smartphone equipped with 4G.

On the seventh day of Twismas,
my twu love sent to me
Seven bloggers blogging,
Six LinkedIn connections,
Five G+ circles,
Foursquare locations,
Three Facebook friends,
Two Twitter retweets
And a smartphone equipped with 4G.

On the eighth day of Twismas,
my twu love sent to me
Eight must-see videos,
Seven bloggers blogging,
Six LinkedIn connections,
Five G+ circles,
Foursquare locations,
Three Facebook friends,
Two Twitter retweets
And a smartphone equipped with 4G.

On the ninth day of Twismas,
my twu love sent to me
Nine SEO tips,
Eight must-see videos,
Seven bloggers blogging,
Six LinkedIn connections,
Five G+ circles,
Foursquare locations,
Three Facebook friends,
Two Twitter retweets
And a smartphone equipped with 4G.

On the tenth day of Twismas,
my twu love sent to me
Ten Top-10 Tip Lists,
Nine SEO tips,
Eight must-see videos,
Seven bloggers blogging,
Six LinkedIn connections,
Five G+ circles,
Foursquare locations,
Three Facebook friends,
Two Twitter retweets
And a smartphone equipped with 4G.

On the eleventh day of Twismas,
my twu love sent to me
Eleven expert interviews,
Ten Top-10 Tip Lists,
Nine SEO tips,
Eight must-see videos,
Seven bloggers blogging,
Six LinkedIn connections,
Five G+ circles,
Foursquare locations,
Three Facebook friends,
Two Twitter retweets,
And a smartphone equipped with 4G.

On the twelfth day of Twismas,
my twu love sent to me
Twelve 2012 predictions,
Eleven expert interviews,
Ten Top-10 Tip Lists,
Nine SEO tips,
Eight must-see videos,
Seven bloggers blogging,
Six LinkedIn connections,
Five G+ circles,
Foursquare locations,
Three Facebook friends,
Two Twitter retweets
And a smartphone equipped with 4G.

Merry Twismas to you,
your friends and your followers.

Dec

11 Lessons in Productivity from A Very Productive 2011

You know how I—and every true marketeer whose advice you trust (or at least, get)—constantly plead with you to stop talking about yourself all the time? You must know the drill by now… Your audience isn’t interested in your company and your objectives; they’re interested in their company and their objectives. It’s 100% true.

So with a little apology in advance, can I ask you to temporarily ignore my advice and allow my company—and my company’s objectives—to be the subject of one little article?

Thank you kindly.

Here’s the thing: I don’t mean to make this article a “Dig Me” love fest. My objective is to tell you about the things I’ve done the 353 days before today, which proved to be wise and might help set an agenda for making next year über productive for you too. What comes around goes around, so here goes: 11 things I did in 2011, which resulted in the growth of my business.

I, Barry Feldman, a one-man freelance copywriter guy, and CEO of Feldman Creative:

Got serious about my site.

The Feldman Creative website had been static for far too long. Having vowed to make 2011 the year I’d conquer online marketing, I knew I needed to begin with an improved website. My new site features a new logo and a WordPress CMS, which allows me to update the site easily and often, operate a blog, and perform the SEO and analysis techniques required to thrive online.

Bottom line: Way more traffic and new business.

Hit the books.

2011 was the year resolved to turn off the TV and read more. I read a lot… fiction, narratives, novelties, “help,” and mostly, marketing books. I had a lot of laughs, found a lot inspiration and learned a ton.

Favorites: “Sh*t My Dad Says” (fun), The Soloist (non-fiction) & “Launch” (business)

Hit the road.

In the past, I never got into industry conferences and networking in general. I discovered the error of my way in the biggest way when I attended Blog World/New Media Expo in LA. I learned immeasurable amounts of insights, got to know some of online marketing’s biggest influencers and had a great time.

Lesson: Get out and go more often.

Contributed articles.

I felt great about getting into blogging and the content I was producing. However, I’m too impatient to rely only on my site’s traffic to build a large audience and too frugal to invest ad dollars into my blog, The Point. So, I applied to one, then two, and now about 10 reputable online publishers, got sanctioned as a contributor, and got busy. My advice articles have now been seen by thousands and tweeted to millions. I get great feedback and have started some interesting conversations. Visit the bottom of my home page for details regarding the sites that now publish my articles.

Net-net: I’ve become a trusted authority on a handful of important subjects relative to my business.

Got social.

I could write a book about my experiences in social media this past year and its remarkable benefits. I’m not going to. Suffice to say, I’m active on Twitter, LinkedIn, G+, Quora and Facebook and vow to get going on YouTube, Squidoo and SlideShare in 2012. If you want to succeed in marketing your business, your use of social media might be as vital as your use of email and phones. I wish I learned that earlier, but it’s never too late to begin.

Plus: Social media is fun.

Retooled.

Ever frugal, I had lived without a smartphone until this year and suffered through the endless string of hassles that come with using a Windows-based laptop (when mobile). I decided to invest in an Android phone and MacBook. I absolutely love both devices and am now far more mobile, connected and efficient.

Bonus discovery: App shopping is time well spent. I put valuable new tools in my toolbox almost every day.

Found my G-spot.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a Google holdout. I’ve been advertising with AdWords for years, using their search engine, and admiring their playful approach to all things online. However, I’ve relied on Apple’s Mail until I couldn’t take the spam any longer. I got on Gmail. Ahhh. Relief. Then I customized an iGoogle page to be my hub for calendaring, to-do lists, RSS feeds, news, mail, docs, notebook, and all things under the sun. Started using G+. Tinkered with Picasa. Added WiseStamp for my signatures. Tossed 10 or more useful extensions into my toolbar. The list is long. If you don’t have a Gmail/Google apps account, get one today.

Favorite widget: Rapportive, sent to us from the online Gods. See why.

Moved to AWeber email.

I had been a Constant Contact customer for years, but a tad lazy about creating enewsletters. No dig on Constant Contact, but enews takes work. After having seen about 100 testimonials for AWeber, largely from bloggers, I made the switch and now understand why its the best service of the bunch. Great support. Generous templates. Powerful tools for broadcasts, feeding your queue via RSS, signups, subscriber management, autoresponders, tracking, and even more.

Tip: Capturing email addresses and nurturing leads via e-newsletters is THE most vital element of online marketing.

Expanded my services.

I suppose the truth is there were few forms of content and marketing communications I didn’t take on when the opportunity was there. However, the truth is I really did stay out of certain areas. Now, in addition to the usual categories you’ll see on my site’s porfolio pages, my services include blogging for clients, PR, enewsletter writing, and social media consulting. I may have left a few out. If you need something for your online marketing efforts, I’m on it.

Post-script: I can help create an editorial calendar for your company to help make you the publisher you need to be to be an effective online marketer.

Got hired.

Okay, every year since 1995 I’ve been hired to work with new clients, amounting to hundreds of projects in nearly every conceivable industry. However, in 2011, to a couple of businesses, I proposed stepping up the relationship to becoming retained. Essentially, I offer a chunk of my time to join the company as a part-time member of their marketing team. It’s been mutually beneficial.

Latest and greatest: I work for and with Social Stage, a company you need to check out if you want to generate business via Facebook.

Became a content marketer.

A major key to marketing your business is to offer prospects and customers free and valuable content in a variety of forms. It takes a commitment of time and hard work. On my site, in a section called “Free-B’s” I’ve offered a free guide called “Find the Right Copywriter,” which has been downloaded by many new business prospects. I also did my first podcast. Plenty more is soon to come.

Stay tuned: On deck are: (1) a video series, “Persuasion Pointers,” and (2) a free opt-in email series, “Zero to Social in 12 Days.”

I hope to be able offer 12 new lessons in productivity in 2012 and assist you in capitalizing on the lessons I’ve learned.

Happy Holidays.

What about you? Did you discover any productive practices this year? Please share ‘em.

Dec

The 20 Minute Social Media Professional

[This is a guest post from Vanessa DiMauro, CEO of Leader Networks]

“I don’t have time to participate in social media” is a common cry heard within enterprise. The concern is that social media has a steep learning curve and is a time vacuum preventing more essential work from getting done. In other circles where social media is more widely used, those who haven’t started are sometimes in a pickle.  They don’t know where to start and won’t ask for help, worried about exposing that they haven’t developed this professional skill yet.  Fear not…while we are led to believe that everyone and their uncle is using social media with great skill and acuity, there are many who have yet to take the plunge.

Here is a 20 minute social media activity plan to help you dip your toe in the water while managing your time for efficiencies.There are many different activities you can do once you have started to master the art of social, but this activity plan ensures that the core efforts are covered.  But, before you start, you will need to do a few things.

First, go to Google and set up alerts on your name (in quotation marks for best results – e.g. “Tom Smith”) as well as topics that pertain to the work you do (e.g. “airplane parts manufacturing” or “firmware and quality assurance”).   Try to be specific so you don’t get too much information or that which is not relevant. Also set up an alert for the name of the company where you work.

Second, create a LinkedIn profile on at least one other network such as Twitter or Google+ if you haven’t already.  Here are some practical tips to make the most of your social media profile.

Third, if there are a few blogs that you find interesting, subscribe to them.  I recommend having the new posts emailed to you so they come to your mailbox for easy access.  Most thought leaders publish a blog, so if there is a speaker or author you value, search on their name and most likely you will find their blog.  There is usually a way to sign up for email delivery directly on the blog post.

For extra credit, try to find an online community or LinkedIN group that is specific to your subject matter expertise.  I have created a big list of professional online communities that can serve as a starting point, but you can also search online or ask peers where they find discussions and resources online.   For many professionals, here is where you will find the most value in terms of content and connections to support the work you do.

Now it is time to begin…

1. Read blogs posts sent by email – 2 minutes

2. Check reputation alert, topic or company key word alert – 1 minute

3. Log in to LinkedIn, Twitter or Google+ and see if you have any messages. You may want to vary the network you log into by day of the week– 2 minutes

4. Respond to a blog post you have read or look at the twitter activity to see if anything catches your fancy  – 5 minutes

Possible actions include;  send email to author of great article & invite to connect if person responds,  re-tweet an article or blog post you have read, make a comment or like something one of your colleagues posted on LinkedIN

5. Participate in 1-2 professional networks or online communities once to twice a week.   8-10 minutes

• Connect to 1-3 people every few visits
• Write a personalized email to 1-2 connections
• Comment briefly or post a forum message that is relevant to you.

If you are reading this blog post, chances are you are already on your way to social media success. Congratulations!  If you know someone who wants to get started but doesn’t how to begin, do a good deed by forwarding these suggestions to them in email. And, if you are a savvy social media user, consider “adopting” someone who isn’t.  Offer to set up some time with them to show them how the tools work.  Be sure to use searches that evoke professional topics that may catch their interest – as relevancy is the key to success. And if you crave more information, here is a good blog post from the Social Media Examiner offering videos and additional resources to help support the learning curve.

Dec

If the recipe for success is content marketing, isn’t copy the main ingredient?

For a few years now, there’s been so much talk about “the death of the copywriter.” Granted, the death of copywriting, or the death of just about anything, makes for alluring headlines. Us humans appear to be magnetically attracted to obituaries.

Flickr: ionraces

Content marketing is alive and well.

Content is king. Content is currency. You’ve seen these theories and bought into them or you wouldn’t have given an article about content marketing a minute of your valuable time.

What is content? The Content Marketing Instituterecently offered the 2011 edition of their Content Marketing Playbook, which features 42 ways to connect with your customers. Let’s allow the title of that killer piece to define content. It tells us what content is andwhat it’s for: a way to connect with customers. We might as well call it a great definition of marketing, too, because it is.

So, do you want some?

You definitely do. As a consumer, you endlessly seek the solutions to your problems. As a marketer, communicating with your customers is essentially your job description. These truths are so old and universally understood, they’re practically commandments. But wait a sec…

The web changed everything.

Thought leaders around the world agree: when you establish a presence on the web you become a publisher. However, the notion that often follows goes something like this: now that you’re a publisher, you need journalists to create your content—not copywriters.

I beg to differ.

Yes indeed, the web has changed the media landscape in a big, big way. The vast majority of professional copywriters must master web-based communications to thrive. What’s more, marketers themselves are swiftly changing their approach as they grasp and apply the tenets of inbound marketing, as demonstrated by decreased investments in traditional advertising and increased investments in the creation of valuable content.

Having said all that, I hope this article helps answer the simple question, “How do I create valuable content?”

Forgoing copywriters is not the answer.

It’s a formula for failure. Copywriters specialize in persuasion. You can make the case (as many spectacular authors have) that in the inbound era effective marketers wisely choose not to cram their content full of product-centric messages. However, if building a relationship or connecting with the customer trumps generating an immediate sale, you’d be crazy to suggest persuasion is disposable. Or at least you’d be wrong.

Persuasion is still the main ingredient.

You can slice and dice the content creation model any way you want and take apart and analyze any individual link in the selling chain, but you’re bound to arrive at the same conclusion:

If content is king, it rules from a throne called persuasion.

What’s new? What isn’t?

What’s new: the recipe for success is content marketing. The web is where people go to find content. The web is where people shop. Your customer is far more empowered now. Offer her tools to inform her buying decision and she’ll gladly help herself to them.

What isn’t new: the tools your customers value—your web pages, downloadable resources, how-to articles, white papers, e-newsletters, blogs or what have you—should compel your customer to do something. It could be click. It could be call. It could just be comment, share, tweet, register, enroll, or maybe even something as simple as come back again soon. But if your tools lack persuasion, if they fail to engage the audience and establish trust, they’re not effective tools.

Copywriters are your friends.

If to want to see your marketing investments pay dividends—and you haven’t honed copywriting skills—you want to put a professional on the job. Copywriters haven’t really died and they’re not evil. Get a good one to work on your content and good things happen:

• The headlines will be hooks.
  Nothing ranks higher than the headline. The noise level in the media today is enormous. Readers are smart, selective and relentlessly attempting to ration their time. You get just a second or two to hook ‘em with a compelling headline.
  
  
• A story is told.
  The craftiest copywriters weave the elements of storytelling into the content. Even if your story stars a storage device, a bottle of water, or a paper clip, it magically comes to life. Readers aren’t only educated; they’re entertained.
• The message gets through.
  Even in a search-centric world, CEOs outrank SEO. In other worlds, powerful writing should not give way to the almighty algorithm. Yes, of course, the content contains keywords, but the copy targets a living, breathing reader, not a robot, so it should be easy for everyone from clerk to CEO to understand.
• Readers get rewarded.
  The copywriter who’s going to make you glad you hired a copywriter will steer clear of the dreaded “me-me-me” approach and present the far more effective “you-you-you” style, which connects with the reader and rewards them for their interest.

• Trust is established.
  Copy that insists you can take advantage of this amazing offer now or never is not likely to gain the trust required to make a sale. The effective copywriter will help your company establish rapport with the reader by “listening,” feeling their pain, and offering helpful advice.

• Problems get solved.
  Even if your content marketing education has instilled in you the notion that valuable content isn’t simply a marketing message—which is solid advice—don’t interpret this to mean your content should NEVER sell your solution. If the solution happens to be a product or service, you need not apologize for offering it. In fact, you should be thanked. The objective is to solve a problem. It’s a seriously simple principle.
• The reader is inspired to take action.
  Act now!!! Yeah, in most contexts that sort of language comes across as pushy and insincere. But ask yourself, why does your company do content marketing? The objective may not be to get the reader to enter a credit card number, but it absolutely should be to get them to do something. A good copywriter will tell the reader what action to take and a great one will make them feel great about doing it.

Yes indeed, your friend the copywriter has a big responsibility. Your marketing plan going forward is a recipe where content marketing is bound to be the entrée. So don’t skimp on the main ingredient. Put a professional in charge of cooking the content.

What type of experiences have you had concocting content? Please share them here.

Nov

Why Turkeys Don’t Tweet.

Ah, Twitter. Such a misunderstood little bird.

Personally, er, professionally, I haven’t been at it all that long. I too didn’t understand what all the buzz was about. Now I do. And you know what I call those who have come and gone? Turkeys. And those that refuse to even try? Bigger turkeys.

What do I think of Twitter?
Thanks for asking. I think it’s an indispensible business tool. Its long list of benefits includes making connections with new prospects, partners and vendors; discovering insightful ideas from across the web; and listening in on what’s happening in your areas of interest.

But let’s be fair now and let the turkeys do a little squawking.
Here’s what I’ve seen them say (and the responses I can’t resist writing).

• One 140 characters amounts to no more than a little bird turd. (Bullshit. It took me just 47 to make that powerful little statement.)
• The good stuff gets lost in all the noise. (Stop following the dweebs whose tweets pollute your precious screen space.)
• Facebook is the better place to be. (If you like finding new likers, you might like how Twitter can help you succeed.)
• It’s just for computer geeks. (Right. Gotcha. Computers are bad.)
• It’s a fad. (Isn’t everything?)
• It’s hard to understand. (d @densehead RT @birdbrain Read the instructions #twitterfordummies #ff #peace)
• Twitter promotes illiteracy. (WTF mr. Shakespeer! U think UR a grate riter? B-real. lol. ;-p)
• Nobody reads your tweets. (Try contributing something valuable to the conversation.)
• It’s a big waste of time. (Perhaps you also can’t find the time to answer your phone or read your email.)

Okay, so it’s cool. If you think it’s wise to ignore a network of over 200 million people, go ahead and stay the flock out of the way of us Tweeters. And if you think someone might learn something from this article, get yourself a Twitter account and retweet it please.

Nov

How I Became a Social Media Catalyst.

I was super excited to be going to BlogWorld. While I was there, my excitement only grew. I’m excited still.

What can I say? It was an exciting place to be. It seemed the 4,000-plus peeps there were just as excited as me. And why wouldn’t they be? This truly is an exciting time in the evolution of media and marketing. It doesn’t just feel like everything’s new. Everything is. And it didn’t just feel like the masses of new media masters who packed the LA convention center are shaping the future. They are.

What would I wear to such an important event?
Perhaps I’ve scored no macho man points with the subhead I just wrote, but I must admit, I put a lot of thought into this. I even invested a little time shopping and came home with some nice threads. I pegged my blogger brethren for the smart casual types, so I crafted a wardrobe I felt would do my personal brand justice—a humble balance of the classic and couture—if you will. Ultimately, however, I chose to wear a white t-shirt.

A few days before I’d get to stuffing my suitcase, I got a fun idea. Because I’ve become a cuckoo bird for Twitter and am all too often hypnotized by HootSuite past the midnight hour, I thought I’d collect as many @handles as I could by inviting the acquaintances I’d make at the show to write on my shirt.

Acting fast, I collected some blue birdie artwork, hit up my talented graphic designer buddy at Sightbox Studios to supply the technical skills I lack, bought iron-on transfer sheets, targeted Target for a couple of blank tees, and impressed upon the front of my shirt “I’m @feldmancreative – where u @?” The back revealed the bird’s hind feathers and asked “R U following me?”

All I needed now was a Sharpie. And, of course, the gumption to ask peeps to scribble their handles on my Hanes.

Can social media marketing be a shirt?

Maybe. Maybe not. I did 30 minutes or so of search engine surfing to gather the quintessential definition of “social media marketing,” then concluded I don’t really care how it’s defined. I do, of course, care very much about the role it plays in the media landscape of this cyberiffic century.

So let’s have a look at where my t-shirt helped take me…

It became a catalyst for connecting. My Tweet-Tee (I nicknamed it) gave me wings. What was a slightly awkward little ice breaker for the first few minutes became a confidence builder, a catalyst for making connections, and the starter for hundreds of conversations clocking in well above 140 characters.

It queued a lot of Qs. It’s twu. It’s twu. FAQs would include: So what do you do? Do you have a business card? Can I take your picture? Where’d you get that idea? One guy asked me if he could steal the idea to get dates. Crazy loon.

It motivated mentions. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, traveled with their e-devices and recharging units, and hit the hashtags harder than the free Heinekens offered at the evening networking parties. My $6 t-shirt got a number of @mentions, tweets, and retweets at #bweLA (where us bird-brained bloggers made 300 million impressions and counting).

It branded me. Is your brand your avatar? Logo? Voice? Promise? Personality? The experience? Sure. It’s these things and more. This shirt branded me at the expo. I saw and heard some attendees calling me “the t-shirt guy” and “the Twitter guy?” It’s good to get noticed. It’s great to be remembered.

It gave me attractive powers. I’m not saying I was or I am attractive (though you’re welcome to if you want). I’m saying my shirt attracted attention. I saw heads turn toward my ink-stained torso and eyeballs squinting left and right as I scurried by. Often, when I handed my marker to someone to write on me, little lines would form. My t-shirt was magnetic content!

It got me fans and followers. If it wasn’t for Facebook and Twitter, the previous sentence would sound awfully vain. But I don’t mean my silly shirt made me a rockstar. It made me new friends. This was my goal. Meet people. Make contacts. Some of my new friends are new media and marketing’s most respected leaders. And some people made me promise to call them about my copywriting and content creation services and you know I will.

What’s the number one benefit of social media marketing?
Survey says:  ”The number one benefit of social media marketing is standing out in an increasingly noisy world.” The survey I quote here is the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, by Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner. The top five then goes on to include increased traffic; improved search rankings; new business partnerships; and generating qualified leads. I believe my t-shirt adventure did well against that list.

If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why oh why can’t I?
With or without birds, all kinds of people give their personal brand a little signature in the form of a fashion statement. Three of the speakers at BlogWorld come immediately to mind. Mari Smith, the charming author of “The New Relationship Marketing,” shared why turquoise tops have become a Smith staple. The Anti-Social Media Man, Jay Dolan, who’s branded a distinct look and voice to support his playful parodies of social media trends, has come to be recognized for his tattered red tie. Nice touch. And then there’s the well-known Junta Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, among other things, who’s attached orange to his logos, services, events, books, wardrobe and every last hyperlink across his popular blogs and websites.

You can do it too.
I’m not going to tell you what to wear. Nor will I suggest developing your personal brand requires wearing anything (don’t over-think that one). But I will tell you one of the many valuable lessons I learned at BlogWorld (some of them are soon to come in another article) is however valuable social media is for marketing, its most meaningful role is for connecting people. New media, old values. Think about it. How will you cut through the clutter? How will you make your point of view unique? Do you hope to connect with the best in your business? Would you like to start some conversation? Start here. Start now. And count me in.

Oct

Your Customer is More Persuasive than Your Copywriter.

I’m a copywriter who has been honing his craft for 25 years now. If you want to team up with someone capable of turning words into weapons of mass persuasion, look no further my friend. You’re dealing with a professional practitioner of persuasion.

Sometimes I really think I’m the man. This is not one of those times.

Am I merely experiencing a momentary lapse of confidence? Doubtful. You see, though my Klout score’s been notching-up nicely in recent months, my real clout, my ability to get you to buy, seems to be skewing south. It’s a tad sad. But it is what it is.

The consumer wields the power now.

You want to know why I’m suddenly feeling so small and insignificant? You already do. You don’t trust me. As a card-carrying member of the advertising copywriter club, my words are bought. I’m a chronic exaggerator. The thought leaders of today go as far as calling me a liar. Ouch.

And you? You who’s never written a single piece of direct mail. You who’d walk barefoot over broken glass before attempting to compose a simple sales letter. Armed with a mouse, track pad or mobile phone, you have become the new king of cred. You, Mister or Misses Consumer, are the real influencer now.

E-commerce has become F-commerce.

If you don’t think e-commerce has ravaged the shopping landscape, what do you say we meet down at Borders Books to get a jolt of java? What? That store shut down? What happened?

Again, you know the answer. Amazon happened. And that’s not all that happened. iTunes happened. MySpace happened. Facebook happened.

And so what’s happening now is F-commerce. Technically, “F” is for Facebook. However, in my mind, Facebook stands for social media. In marketing, social media has come to mean social commerce and social commerce has come to mean the things your friends, and the people you follow, have to say is F-ing enormous.

The voice of the consumer is loud.

Your customer’s opinion of your brand or product outranks the copywriter’s voice. It outranks the CEO’s voice too. This relatively recent phenomenon goes by a number of names. “Peer-to-peer marketing” works well to describe it in general and “word of mouse” is a tasty new millennium slant on the most powerful form of advertising ever: word of mouth.

The Internet acts as a massive amplifier. When someone has something to say about your brand, he or she can be in a room all by their lonesome with an audience of zero. But with Internet access, that bodacious little voice can easily echo across the world.

Capitalize on the power of social commerce.

Now that consumers depend on each other to decide what brands and products are worthy of their time and money, it’s essential to encourage positive word of mouth. Consider putting some of the following practices in place:

• Give customers access to online communications tools.
• Strategically target specific communities and interest groups.
• Recruit brand advocates and support their efforts.
• Engage with your customers.
• Generate success stories.
• Start discussions.
• Give people reasons to discuss your brand.
• Create ads and articles worthy of sharing.
• Be honest.
• Understand your influencers and the channels they rely on.
• Exceed customer expectations.
• Convert unhappy customers to happy customers by any means necessary.

Who’s truly trustworthy?

Perhaps the thing an objective and well-intentioned copywriter can do for you now is deliver the truth. Here are some research findings, which might humble the copywriting professional, but help you:

• 54% of US adults identified old-fashioned Word of Mouth as the most important influencer of purchase decisions. (Source: 2011 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report by Experian)
• 62% of people trust reviews from friends, family and colleagues. (Lightspeed Research 2011)
• 56% trust reviews from other consumers. (Lightspeed Research 2011)
• 60% of shoppers said online reviews were more significant than traditional media, in-store employees and social networking. (Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group study, 2011)
• In-store smartphone research influences 39% of walkouts. (IBM survey, Capitalizing on the Smarter Consumer, 2011)

The public is your brand brigade.

So, you work with a highly experienced copywriter? Cool. As one of them, I’d like to think where marketing communications is concerned, you want persuasion pros pitching in to shape your advertising. You also have a great PR company? Awesome. Shaping your messages to the media is very important. And finally, your CEO is the bomb. When he or she speaks, people listen. All good.

But what about the real influencer, your customer, your consumer, the real catalyst of your communications? I sincerely hope you place them in the highest regard because whether or not they can write well, to write them off may amount to writing your company’s eulogy.

Word of mouth is the most genuine, trusted, and persuasive form of marketing. It always has been and it always will be.

Chime in now… How have your customers shaped your brand?

Oct

m. is for .monumental

Raise your hand if you know what m. means.

If your hand is in the air it probably has a smartphone in it. You smartphone users are pretty smart.

If your hand isn’t in the air, there’s still a very strong chance it has a smartphone in it.

Now, take a close look at the URL field. If you’re web browsing, there’s probably an m. right there. If not, there should be.

m., short for mobile,  is gaining some serious m.omentum. It’s m.assive.

But it’s also a fairly new phenomena, so it’s m.ysterious. Who knows how to do it? Or maybe a better question is who knows how to do it right? But is that a fair question? What’s right? What’s wrong? I have no further questions. Well, actually, I have a million of them.

This is exciting.
It’s kind of a thrill to be a part of a revolution. I remember in grad school I wrote a paper about the soon-to-come DAD, the digital audio disc, which ultimately become the CD, which means compact disk, which really isn’t compact by today’s standards. But I digress. Anyway, my paper said these shiny little discs of data are going to obliterate records (For you youngsters, records are those big discs that now go by “vinyl.”) And they did.

Thanks to technology, these revolutions come to us often. And, thanks again to technology, they spread faster than ever before. Take social media, for example. ‘Nuf said.

I sat through an informative webinar about getting started in mobile marketing last month where most of the speaking was done by Jamie Turner of 60secondmarketer. (I addressed this webinar in a prior post that may interest you.) He told us within one to two years the mobile marketing rage will dwarf the social media marketing conversation 5:1.

Do you know what mobile users do?
They shop. They shop with their mobile device in hand, so they use it guide them not only to the store, but down the aisle right to the product. Then they research it, gather other people’s opinions, check on prices, and cash in on coupons. If you have an impressive mobile presence at that time and place, you have a seriously powerful advantage. If you don’t, you don’t.

Is your marketing ready to go mobile?
You need to get your arms around 4 operating systems. You need to get schooled in m.sites, mobile search, voice search, snaptags, virtual business cards, QR codes, SMS, MMS, NFS, GPS, apps, location-based marketing, context targeting, click-to-call, click-to-map, gaming, and come what may. You need to think big, but think small. You need to think global, but think local.

We’ll close with some rock and roll, CSI style, featuring The Who, with an excerpt from their tune, “Goin’ Mobile.”

Out in the woods or in the city
It’s all the same to me
When I’m driving free, the world’s my home
When I’m mobile

Well said, Pete Townshend. The world’s your home when you’re mobile. If you’re not “at home” with mobile, it’s time to get going.

Here’s where you’ll find my m. site, with your QR scanner, a work-in-progress…

Please tell my readers and I a bit about your m. experiences thus far.

Oct

Podcast: My 10-year old wants to know more about copywriting.

The copywriter interview by FeldmanCreative

Spend 3 minutes with my daughter Leah and I. It seems Leah, who loves to write, had questions about what I do. She started asking me and I said “We should do this in the form of an interview.” She was all over it and it took it fairly seriously, as you are about to hear.

Oct

Copywriting for spiders can be awfully frightening.

Caution: The following article contains bad words
and may not be suitable for everyone.

It’s Octohhhhhhh-brrrrrrrr.
Gonna’ be a wicked witch for Halloween? Ghost? Vampire? Here’s an even scarier idea: be an SEO copywriter.

Yes sir. Yes ma’am. If you want to spook the hell out the people with the audacity to come to your home asking for treats, that’s the trick.

Do you realize what an SEO copywriter is capable of?

You might want to close your eyes for this next part. A lot of them—I’m talking about the really serious ones—will make a bloody mess of your site by butchering its language and bludgeoning the page with… with… with…

KEYWORDS! Keywords, keywords, keywords, and more keywords!

I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say keywords over and over. (Or did I?)

Yes Norman, keywords are the killer weapon of SEO copywriters. It’s no secret anymore. This sort of thing has been going on for years. I’ve seen it happen. And now, if you think you can hack it, I’m going to show you the ugly truth in the form of a gruesome example. And, just so you don’t go get any crazy ideas about your host here today being a total nut job, I’m going to be nice and sweet about this. Here goes.

There’s No Candy Bar Store Like the Candy Bar Store.

Treat yourself to a delicious candy bar at the Candy Bar, where we have every kind of candy bar ever conceived. On a diet? We have sugar-free candy bars. Allergic to gluten, dairy, or chocolate? Great news. You can choose from our colossal collection of candy bars featuring the gluten-free candy bar, dairy free candy bar and chocolate-free candy bar. A popular favorite is the yummy gummy candy bar. If you need to brand your candy bar or resell your candy bar, we offer a line of wholesale candy bars. Visit us today and we’ll give you a free miniature candy bar with maximum flavor. The Candy Bar Store is family owned and operated by Sweet Tooth Tom and Candy Bar Barb, the candy bar queen.

Are you ready to ralph?

You were warned. And, in Act II, it gets even worse as we reveal what goes on inside the twisted mind of the SEO copywriter.

This person is cunning. (We’ll say it’s a “he,” but please understand the female SEO copywriter is equally dangerous.) He stuffs his own web site with the keywords “SEO copywriter” and waits in hopes that he’s discovered by innocent victims before Google uncovers his crime. And there it is, lurking just below the omnipresent Wikipedia listing, close to the top, in big blue, harmless-looking hypertext: SEO copywriter. We both know what happens next.

He makes his case almost instantly. Of course he knows how to rank. Of course he knows how to get clicks. And of course he can do the same for you. He probably even means well.

But something doesn’t smell quite right.

You want to rank. But you don’t want to reek. What do you do? Are SEO copywriters nothing more than writers who stoop to keyword stuffing? Not really. Not all of them. Yes, for the purpose of my horror story, I called out the highest ranking SEO copywriters, but it was merely to illustrate my point. As of this instant, positions number 2 and 3 are held by www.copyblogger.com and www.seocopywriting.com. These are two of the most savvy and well-respected Internet marketers anywhere.

I’m here to tell you (and my higher-ranking copywriter compatriots will concur), SEO copywriting is actually golden. A bona fide expert might be your most valuable marketing partner. But buyers beware: some bad apples bobble in the basin. Here are some facts.

• Spiders (a.k.a. robots or bots) are programs created to crawl links throughout the Internet to identify content from sites and index them on search engines.
• Keyword stuffing is defined as overloading page content and/or metadata with keywords.
• The tactic is intended to attract search engine spiders. However, it is not an ethical search engine optimization technique; it is manipulation for the purposes of SEO.
• The objective of a Google search, or any search, is to present the most relevant search results.
• Search engines now punish websites found practicing keyword stuffing by reducing their rankings or even banning them.
• Keyword-stuffed web content copy is likely to confuse visitors and SCARE THEM AWAY.

Treat spiders with respect.

Okay, spiders aren’t human, but the creatures who ultimately inhabit your site are. Your first priority, or your copywriter’s priority, is to communicate in human terms. Do you want to rank on search engines? Yes. How do you accomplish this is the subject of countless blogs, articles and books. Here and now, suffice to say, focus on using relevant keywords naturally and in moderation, consistently create and offer interesting content, understand the basic principles of tags, and encourage linking.

If your search invokes a conversation with a self-appointed SEO copywriting expert, be sure to discuss the ethics of the practice. And, should your potential writer tell you feeding the spiders a deadly dose of keywords is the way to go, please, run for it.

Note: This article contains nine instances of “SEO copywriter” (ten now) or its plural variation. Google, if you’re reading this, please forgive me.

Another note: If you’d like sound advice for finding the right copywriter, click here for a free e-guide.

Sep

Marketing would be so simple if people weren’t so complex.

“People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy.”

Credit that to Jeffrey Gitomer who bills himself as America’s #1 sales authority. It’s his trademarked mantra.

“People don’t want to be pitched to, marketed to or herded like cattle.”

Michael Stelzner gets the credit for this one. The line comes from his book, Launch, which deserves all kinds of credit for its helpful insights on 21st century marketing strategies. Both authors speak the truth, but it’s Stelzner’s Launch I want to tell you about.

So, people don’t want to be sold or pitched to. Translate: they don’t dig advertising. What do they want? Michael says they want:

• Information
• Answers
• Access
• Recognition

The author then adds, they want it all for FREE. C’mon now dude, I dropped $24.95 on this book because I thought it was going to help me learn how to sell my stuff. Why on earth would you tell me to give stuff away?

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME???!!!

It turns out Mike has some very good answers.

He quickly gets into that old trust issue. As it turns out, the vast majority of folks don’t trust marketing messages. Studies prove it. Grrrr. Back to an important conclusion of the study now…

It says people putting their trust in you, or your company, is actually more important than delivering great products and services. I want to argue with that, but I can’t. Can you? In fact, I believe I learned that a helluva long time ago. We all did. But it was convenient to forget.

Then, Michael introduces the idea upon which his book is based, “the elevation principle.” It’d be unfair to paraphrase it, so I’ll simply plagiarize, er, quote it:

The elevation principle is the process of meeting the core desires of prospects and customers by helping them solve their basic problems at no cost.

People want help.

Stelzner says your goal should be to help them solve their smaller problems and they’re more likely to call on you when their issues get bigger. It’s a big idea. It’s huge. And it’s the focus of the rest of the book (which I devoured very fast, highlighted, and read a second time).

Content is your fuel.

Michael created a metaphor he weaves throughout Launch based on rockets and propulsion and so forth. So it follows that fuel is all-important. And he introduces two kinds: primary fuel and the even-more-powerful, nuclear fuel. Both come from various forms of content you offer free to win your prospects’ trust. It’s trickier to produce the nuclear stuff. We could get into various fuel types here, but this is a blog post, not a book. If you’re still reading this article, you need to read Launch.

In it, he offers many great examples of both kinds of fuel, how to produce the stuff, and why your fuel wins the favor and trust of the netizens who consume them. I should also mention, Stelzner doesn’t come at it all from some far-removed place. He was an advertising scribe, then a white paper specialist, and then the creator of Social Media Examiner, one of the blogosphere’s most trusted sources.

We’ll stop on page 26.

Launch is a fun, informative read. It’s a book written to help you not only understand the rules of the game, but how to play by them and come out a winner. All of the notions I’ve offered you today come from chapter one where the author hammers home the point that marketers need to stop hunting down customers. People don’t like it and seldom respond. Your rocket launcher is based on trust. The goal for your website is to make it a place people want to visit because they learn valuable lessons. On page 26, Michael states your business must now attempt to shift the customer’s brainwaves away from “I’m being sold” to “I’m being educated.”

Maybe we’re not so complex after all.

Have you read Launch? Will you read Launch? Are you practicing the elevation principle? Have you figured out the secrets to winning your customers’ trust. Please share your ideas here.

Sep

The most important headline writing tip ever: forget about tips.

COPYCATS:
Edition #1 with John Runk

He’s one of advertising’s headiest headline writers.
Here, he dogs on the formula approach to copywriting.

I’m going to call this series “Copycats,” and in each edition, strive to get a pair or more of copywriters on the same page talking about their craft. Though I’ve read the work of many great copywriters, I only  know one. He’s a very good friend and one helluva’ scribe. Beside word-slinging, John and I have about 47 more things in common, so we shoot the breeze often. I agreed not to razz him about his last place MLB team, so he agreed to spend 30 minutes on the phone with me. I asked him about headlines and words of wisdom spewed forth.

I began by asking for his take on the headline’s purpose.

The short answer is to get attention. So that opens up the question, how do you get attention? There are a lot of answers to that question.

So do you call on the gazillions of online articles that offer proven formulas for effective headlines?

I don’t think so. I think you have to gauge who your audience is and what motivates them. If you’re running a retail ad the way to get attention might be the price. If you’re trying to introduce your company or your product you probably have to be engaging or entertaining, otherwise nobody cares. If you’re trying to persuade somebody you probably have to use some language that features news or gets attention in some way. You just can’t be ordinary because in a crowded marketplace, ordinary gets overlooked.

It seems like a lot of so-called experts want their audience to believe a headline should be a certain length. How many words should a headline be?

As many as necessary to get the reader to keep reading. There is no formula that substitutes for thinking through your problem. You have to understand the problem, who you’re talking to, and what you want them to do. If you follow formulas, you’re not thinking about any of this stuff. There aren’t enough formulas for all the actual situations and challenges copywriters face.

Some of your most entertaining headlines are really long.
Isn’t that a no-no?

If you listen to the people with the secrets, yeah, it’s a no-no. Really, the only way to respond to this question is to say “it all depends.” It depends on the media you’re working in. If you only have your reader for a very brief time, yeah, you want to use less words. So if you’re writing for a billboard you have to use short headlines.

What about the tried and true tricks copywriters tend to offer such as “ask a question,” “start with ‘How to’ statement” and that sort of thing. Do you have a grab bag of these you reach into?

No, but I’ll offer a few tips of my own. Don’t be boring. If you go with a formula the chances are it’ll be just like a lot of other headlines and the audience will zoom right by.

I think by going with a standard best practice kind of headline sort of sets off the reader’s radar and they know they’re being advertised to and nobody likes that. They think they’re being manipulated and sold, so they stop listening. Your line needs to feel new and fresh.

A second tip: try to give the audience something, maybe a smile, a chuckle or something that evokes an emotion.

I quote from a blog I read yesterday: If you don’t know how to write a good headline, study the successful ones you see and use them for your “swipe” file. Do you agree with that?

I actually do, but I want to add a word of caution.  Yes, look at other headlines, but don’t copy them. Try to understand WHY they work.

Veteran copywriter John Runk recommends avoiding the ordinary. If you want people to care, he says your headlines must be engaging and entertaining.

John Runk is a freelance writer/creative in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to stringing sentences together, he helps clients clarify communication objectives, develops creative strategies, suggests budget-conscious approaches, defines clear messages, and executes them to get the audience’s attention. Visit him here: www.johnrunk.com

Sep

Where are you with mobile marketing?

All signs point to m-commerce.

It’s always fascinating to see the next big thing blossom and keep abreast of the buzz. Of course, you can’t do such a thing if you don’t know what “that thing” is. In marketing, it’s mobile marketing.

I subscribe to a ton of news feeds. Sure, the secrets of social media are omnipresent. However, from where I sit, it’s undeniable: mobile marketing looms even larger than social media. The experts say it’s bound to dwarf it.

In an attempt to keep pace with the mobile mavens, I’ve been subscribing to blogs, attending webinars, and clicking around the web whenever my time allows. I’ll share with you some of the biggest bullets.

• Two-thirds of us Earthlings own a mobile phone. (Is that incredible?) A slightly smaller percentage own toothbrushes. Seriously. Jamie Turner of 60 Second Marketer said so in a HubSpot webinar.
• Gartner claims within 15 months the number one way people will access the Internet will be via mobile devices. (Jamie said that too.)
• Mobile coupons generate 10X the redemption rate of traditional coupons. 70% of all mobile searches are acted upon within an hour.

Now, consider these ideas:

• Text is the most popular form of communication today.
• Nearly every text message sent gets read.
• Generally, mobile phone users keep their phones with them at all times.
• Apple and Google consider themselves “mobile first” companies.

So what’s coming to your handheld device?

• More geographically targeted messages.
• More demographically targeted messages.
• More time-of-day-based messages.

What’s a marketer to do?

• Make a mobile version of your website—now!
• Keep a close eye on how your market is going mobile.
• Read about mobile marketing everywhere you can starting with www.mobilecommercedaily.com
• Claim your business on location-based applications and services.
• Conduct mobile ad campaigns.
• Join the QR craze (QRaze, if you will).
• Make mobile-only offers to your customers.
• Create an app.

I have a point. Whichever direction you turn, you’ll be going down the mobile marketing road—or going away.

Aug

“SERP?” A four-letter word starting with S.

SERP: Search Engine Results Page.

Another silly acronym. Let’s all grrrrrrrrowl together. Don’t care to learn about it’s meaning? Ooh. Even sillier.

A SERP is what you’re served microseconds after you put something in Google. (Or Bing for the Microsoft faithful. Or Yahoo! for a few remaining dinosaurs.) Whaddaya’ see in a SERP? Website page titles and descriptions. You can take ‘em for granted if you want, but you only want that if you don’t place any value in the power of search (which drives upwards of 85% of all web traffic).

Bottom line, we’re talking about first impressions, so you might as well think of this as your neon sign online. Does it repel or attract traffic? Sounds simple, ‘eh?

Chances are, you’re clicking on the ones that look good, relevant, and worth your while. Chances are, they’re on page one, near the top. No? You tend to scroll down and click to page number 4,011 in your SERP?

Back to reality. Why are those results (the “R” in SERP) atop the list?

The answer is SEO.

Aw, crap. Another acronym? Well, you know this one by now. It means search engine optimization, which means ranking results, which means clicks, which means everything, unless those cold calls are making rain for you still.

How do you climb mighty Mount SERP? Carefully. Thoughfully. Strategically. Your sherpa should be a copywriter. But not just any copywriter. You need a copywriter that gets this SEO and SERP BS.

Can you learn the tricks of the trade on your own?

You can. Put in the time and practice and you could master the science of search. However, as a veteran copywriter, I want to tell you this: that thing many self-proclaimed experts call “SEO copywriting” appeals mostly to robots. What I mean is, the magnetism might be mighty for the search engines, but search engines don’t buy anything. Humans do. And the human that actually clicks could very well land at a highly ranked, highly appalling page full of algorithmic turds. Not good.

You want large numbers of the web surfing sector to not only click, but then, consume your site.

Simply said, you want readers.

You want professionals from both sides of the brain.

You need the skills the left-brainers can deliver for the mechanical part of the equation: SEO. Then, you need a little of that magic dust right-brainers can sprinkle upon your site called creative copywriting. Or, you need the help of an Einstein-meets-Shakespeare type that deems him or herself an “SEO copywriter.”

I’m not buying it. Are you?

It’s possible one professional brings you both. Babe Ruth was a great pitcher and hitter, but he won’t be available. So, perhaps I should offer some advice. If your goal is to capture good search results and then capture leads or sales, get yourself two experts who can make it happen. Sure, it’d be oh-so-excellent if your SEO pro understands copywriting for the web and your copywriter actually knows what SEO is. However, if you’re dead set on finding one person with a mastery of both crafts, simply search for “SEO copywriter” and be prepared to search high and low. I just tried it on Google. I got over 2.45 million results.

Holy SERP!

Aug

Do you have your eyes on the ball?

I feel like a coach. I guess I actually am.

I say this because I’m providing consulting for a number of companies now, big and small, mostly small, even agencies, and find myself constantly reminding my clients the same fundamental piece of advice. But we’re not playing ball. We’re playing marketing communications. So, let me toss you my pitch and get on with it…

Keep your eyes on the ball.

What’s the ball? The ball is your customer.

You want to talk about engagement? Social media? List building? Lead generation? Fulfillment? Customer loyalty? Bring it on. I’m feeling the need to repeat myself. Keep your eye on the ball, your customer. Nix the narcissistic self love. If you come to bat focused only on your company and your product or service you’re simply going to whiff. Care to guess how many prospects want to talk about what you offer? Zero. They’re focused on just one thing: their challenge.

But, but, but, why would someone type “copywriter” in the search field? Wouldn’t they be looking for a great copywriter? Nope. They’re looking for great copy.

Are you with me? It’s the Internet age. The game has changed a bit. The rules have not. If you want to engage a prospect, establish trust, begin a relationship, listen closely. That person is going to describe their problem. Not sometimes. Every time. That’s the ball. Want to make good contact? Take a swing at the ball by telling your customers and prospects how you can solve their problem.

Aug

Meet the mythological masters of copywriting. [And realize the amazing power of an hour.]

I can’t believe what I just read.

A guy who claims to be a professional copywriter (hereafter to be called Tony) offered a paper called “Master Copywriting in 1 Hour.” Now, I must say, good for Tony. He penned a fairly compelling title. And, as promised, he consumed only an hour of my time. He offered some reasonably valid tips too. If you were to read it, you might pick up a few pointers.

Please don’t. OMG! (OMG, did I just type “OMG?” Worse yet, did I complete the exclamation with an exclamation mark?) This is truly amateur hour.

Confession: I’m a professional copywriter too.

I’ve been working at mastering my craft for about 24 years now. What a fool I am. Apparently, the right mentor could have packed all those lessons into just 60 minutes. Live and learn.

Again, I’m kind of glad Tony put in the effort. He inspired me to write what I believe to be the truest statement of my career:

If you think you can master anything, of any value, in one hour you’re simply stoopid—with two Os.

Today, while the windows and doors of libraries are being boarded up, any quack with a QWERTY keyboard can type his way to the mythical zenith of authority. Authors of “how to” articles prey on the good people of IP Land with their delusional doo doo, and the winds blow stronger as self-appointed experts make a pastime out of plagiarizing poop in their blogs.

What I mean to be saying is, in the Internet age, you get fed some pretty bad advice. Though his aim may be true, Tony supplies an amazing litany of, er… it. Tony says the following (and I can’t help but respond in parentheses).

• What separates master copywriters from your run of the mill types is this: understanding your market.
  (If this requires an additional hour, this course is starting to sound time-consuming.)
• The focus of writing effective copy is making the sale.
  (Seriously? Please use the comment form below to tell me a bit about the last time you read effective copy and then whipped out the wallet.)
• Good copy is an art form.
  (When in London, don’t miss your opportunity to visit the Museum of Good Copy.)
• Get inside your prospects head [Tony doesn’t like apostrophes] and allow them to think that they NEED to have what you’re selling.
  (Tony, are you suggesting they don’t? Careful bud, you don’t want to make us advertising folks seem seedy.)
• Tell people what they need to do, It makes buyers buy.
  (I’m bordering on speechless now.)
• Your call to action must be strong, like: “Fortunes aren’t made overnight… unless you buy now.” (Powerful stuff, Tony. It only takes an hour to master copywriting, but making a fortune takes an entire night? What a crappy career choice I made.)
• With software products the sales copy is in the video and it mostly sells itself.
  (I’d have to understand this statement to take issue with it.)
• When you grasp and apply this [Tony’s “benefits” lesson], you will become a master copywriter in no time at all.
  (Wait just a sec, or minute. No time?  I thought it takes an hour!!!???!!!)

Speaking of time, I’ve taken enough of yours and have budgeted my next hour to read a free download called “Master Golf in 60 Minutes.” Look for me at The Masters.

Aug

Does your web site suck?

Sites that engage visitors to click around, stick around and come back for more will help you sell your stuff. Sites that don’t? By today’s standards, they suck.

What’s the opposite of suck?

I want to say “blow,” but I want this here post to get an A-rating, not an X . So instead, let’s say “push.” Or better yet, “publish.” You good with that? You better be. Today, you need to become a publisher of valuable online content. Perhaps you don’t entirely abandon “pull” marketing strategies, provided you’ve found some that work for your business model, but you better jump on the content creation train or prepare to be derailed by those that do.

Are you uncomfortable with publishing?

You best be fixin’ to fix that. (Sorry, just got back from vacationing in the sweaty, but sweet state of South Carolina.) The age of creating websites with nothing but features and benefits ended. If you haven’t got the memo yet, consider this it. So if you’re not comfortable with publishing the delicious content the consumer craves, make a few changes. Hire a writer, blogger, and/or someone who can be your social media sherpa.

Engage is the rage.

Amazon. Netflix. Dell. These sites don’t suck. They rule the content creation kingdom. Customers find reviews, references, recommendations and radical amounts of information at these sites. And the information is far from canned. It’s personalized. It’s meant to engage the customer and it does. Do you think you’ll arrive at one of these sites and then quickly move on? Very unlikely. They offer you content you want to read, hear, watch, and interact with. You’re in for some fun. You’re likely to spend some time—and money—there.

Remarkable.

My heroes at HubSpot, gurus of “Inbound Marketing,” call this sort of thing “remarkable content” (stuff you make remarks about). Your company needs to (1) create remarkable content or (2) create a time travel spaceship capable of transporting you back to 1999. Which is the more practical choice?

Jul

Getting Ideas to Flow: The Naked Truth.

For a copywriter, or any idea professional whose tasks involve coming up with a concept, a form of writer’s block is, well, not being able to come up with a concept. I find this frightening phenomena tends to strike when I’m at my desk, staring at my screen, and torturing myself with the notion that brilliance must strike. Now.

What do I do? I bail. That is, I get up and go. The basic idea is to change your surroundings to try to change your mindset. Take five. Take a break. Take off.

Sometimes I go for a drive. I can be pretty prolific behind the wheel and have so far managed to not crash while scribbling stuff down. Walks? Yeah. Works for me sometimes.

Get to the naked part.
You know what works best? Getting naked and getting in the shower. I can’t tell you how many times headlines, concepts, and ideas have flowed from my brain as hot water beats down on it.

I have a few other remedies, but you’ve probably heard enough from your clothes-less copywriter friend today. TMI, as they say. Tell me though, do you have a solution or two for writer’s block? Can you show me? Pictures won’t be necessary.

Jul

How Losers Do Landing Pages.

Please don’t let your readers get lost.

A click is a terrible thing to waste.

So I went in search of best practices for making landing pages land leads. I found a ton of good tips. But, whoa, I also went in search of good examples to actually show and found next to none.

Most companies make their landings too demanding.
I find (and found) too much of everything on most landing pages. Busy designs. Lots of links. Unclear directions. Long forms demanding my time. All of these are mistakes which increase the chance your visitors lose interest and your company loses sales opportunities.

Close with a KISS.
Your prospect has landed where you want them to. Amidst all the noise, you communicated effectively. Now you close. I don’t necessarily mean “collect money,” but I do mean “collect something,” usually contact information. Make it easy. Make it fast. Keep it simple, stupid. Here’s your KISS list for creating effective landing pages:

• Keep it singular: Don’t offer this, that and everything. Offer exactly what you promised in the first place. The gurus often call this “matching.”
• Keep it simple: Don’t over-decorate your page. It should abide by your brand standards, but include zero distractions.
• Keep it short: I don’t like to preach every piece of communications under the sun should be short. The copy should say what it needs to say to confirm your reader’s in the right place and headed in the right direction. But for sure, your form should be short. Insist your prospect has to tab and type their way through an online inquisition and you can kiss ‘em bye-bye.
• Keep it selling: Hammer on your benefit statement. Follow-up with an auto-responder, email, fulfillment piece or all of the above, carefully crafted to convey a simple, specific, straightforwardbenefit.

Implementing unique landing pages for various marketing campaigns is what 1,000 marketers indicated was the most effective practice in website design (according to MarketingSherpa). Keep everything about it simple and score more conversions.

Jul

6 Pointers for More Persuasive Proposals.

Recently, I considered a partnership with a new vendor. Miraculously, the process kicked-off with an email I received. I replied (it happens). The follow-up email was good enough to convince me to agree to a “ten minute” assessment call. The call lasted nearly two hours.

Well done phone salesman guy.

Time to sell.

He gave me an online demo. Not brilliant, but not bad. I understood roughly 60% of what he said about his highly specialized field. Before we got off the phone, I asked if he could send me more information to help me understand how his company would solve the issue at hand. His answer was “most definitely.”

He followed-up in fairly short order—with a sales proposal—which stunk.

I’m not saying his tactics were bad, but I was a bit surprised. I was expecting something of the “free and informative” variety. It seems he felt it was time to close the sale. I can respect that, but though I wanted to buy, I wasn’t sold. His proposal wasn’t the least bit persuasive. In fact, I wanted my two hours back.

Proposal pointers.
I propose your sales proposal should sell me on your company. Earth-shattering, I know. In the interest of persuasion, here are some pointers for making your proposals more effective:

1. Start with the problem—Get right to it. What does your reader need know? What should they do? Tell ‘em how to accomplish X, Y, or Z. This is a basic principle of marketing communications you can never afford to ignore.
2. School your prospect—You’re the expert. Provide some objective insights. Give some free advice. Offer valuable resources. Help the prospect understand what they do and don’t need to understand.
3. Serve up the solution—If you’ve done numbers one and two effectively, you should have a prospect hungry for some answers. Give ‘em up.
4. Use persuasive prose—So, your sales people are great writers? If the answer’s “yes,” you’re excused now. Still with me? Okay, please make sure the writer’s the real deal. You need to craft killer copy to make your proposal persuasive. Please. please, please don’t retort you can’t afford to hire a professional writer for a measly sales proposal. Remind yourself of how invested you already are in this prospect.
5. Make the design shine—Am I saying hire a graphic designer too? I am. If your team has the talent to make your proposal pretty, they get the gig. If not, I want to wrap up with the point I’ve been trying to make from the get-go, pointer number six…
6. You can set yourself apart with a killer proposal—I propose your sales proposal is a piece of collateral, the most important one, actually. Everything in it should be crafted by pros. It’s likely to be delivered online. The recipient is likely to pass it along to higher powers who may have never heard of you.

If it’s not persuasive, it’s likely to go from the inbox to the trash in the click of a mouse. The only upside of that I can think of is you might have saved a little paper and ink.

Jul

Numbers Rule.

Consider a number.

Why? People are drawn to advice. It’s hard to resist a list. We save lists. We pass them along. We give the source credit for being an authority.Test my theory of numbertivity.

Notice the names of the documents you download, webinars you attend, books you buy, links you click, emails you open, articles you read. A number is a powerful word. I’ve had great success offering this strategy to my clients. I’d be pleased to help bring an all-powerful digit to your domain.Here are 7 Useful Ideas for Enumerating with Power:

1. Use a small number. 1 is a winner. “One Sure-Fire Tip for…” How magnetic is that? I think 1 through 12 works. You might even get lucky with 13.
2. Follow with a desirable noun. Your next word is the thing you have to offer: tips, reasons, ways, shortcuts, facts, strategies, guidelines. People want these things.
3. Toss in an adjective. ”7 Essential Tips…” “6 Killer Concepts…” “5 Mouth-Watering Recipes…” Look how the adjective makes the list even more irresistible.
4. Try reverse psychology. Offer a list of things people don’t want. I convinced a client to repackage a white paper into “The Five Costliest Mistakes in Event Marketing.” In 2005, it was syndicated across multiple publishing networks and you can still download it today.
5. Questions? Your list can be “X” Questions, frequently asked questions, common questions. Questions beget answers, another thing readers want.
6. Segue with a subhead. The headline or title might get a notch stronger with a subhead to segue into the list. Sample title: “7 Tips to Hiring A Tax Pro.” Sample subhead: “Pay Less and Get More.”
7. How to get started. Need a place to start? An idea generator? Fill in the blank: How to (blank). Example: “How to get people to open your email.” Title: “7 Ways to Write Effective Subject Lines.”