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.”