With content being a major player in the online world, should your company website have a blog?

Some companies can get away with not having one, but they still update their content regularly with new articles and other educational content.

Kind of like a blog, but they call it content marketing.

A blog used to refer to an online personal journal, or an ongoing discussion, usually posted for the general public to read.

Now the line has blurred somewhat between blogs and informational articles, like this one.

So, should you or shouldn’t you?

As long as the content is relevant, and updated consistently, I think it’s a good move.

I stress the importance of updating your blog regularly because nothing says we don’t care like the sound of crickets on an abandoned blog.

But a well-maintained company blog is an effective way to educate your website visitors on your products and services, and to help them choose which one is right for them. It shows you’re interested in your customers, and it keeps them on your site longer – long enough to turn them into customers, if you’re doing it right.

It could well be the difference between your product or service, and your competitors’.

Even if your competition is much bigger than you.

And Google loves websites that repeatedly add fresh, interesting content. As long as it isn’t keyword-stuffed rubbish that no one wants to read.

Let’s hope we’ve gotten past all that, and legitimate company websites have realised the value of adding content for their readers, not for the search engines.

Of course, search engine optimisation is still important, but it comes more naturally now.

You take care of your website visitors, the search engines will take care of your website.

The only downside to a company blog is the constant need for ideas for that fresh, interesting content.

That’s where you need a web copywriter to manage your content strategy.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone who could take all that worry off your hands, and just get on with it?

A web copywriter who knows your business, and your branding?

A web copywriter who will keep your voice consistent, but still timely, original, and creative?

Here are some tips for maintaining your blog, from a web copywriter who can do all that, and more:

• A good blog should appeal to new visitors, and to your existing customers.
• Keep it simple, but give value to your readers. Go for maximum readability.
• Answer frequently asked questions, or address other issues that come up often. Ask your readers what they’d like to know.
• Make each post as long as it needs to be, and no longer. Say what you want to say, but don’t waffle on.
• Find a schedule that works for you, and stick with it. Post regularly, and consistently, preferably around the same time, on the same days.
• Keep it interesting by adding pictures, audio, video. Get creative, but remember your written content is still the cornerstone of your blog.
• Repurpose older, but still valuable, content from other areas of your website.
• Add some personality. No one wants to read something that sounds like a robot. Be a real person, writing for real people. Give your company a human face.
• Don’t try to sell anything. Your company blog is not the place for that.
• Make sure your content is relevant, don’t go off on a tangent or get off topic. Focus.
• Decide if you want to have comments at the end of every post. I recommend you do, so your readers can engage with you. But be aware you’ll get some haters, spam, and negative comments. You’ll need to manage the comments, but don’t remove any genuine criticism.
• Have someone respond to questions and comments, good and bad. It shows you’re there for your readers, and you care what they think.
• Use criticism and negative feedback to improve your products and services. You’re in business to give people what they want.
• Track your progress with something like Google Analytics. Make sure you know what worked, and what didn’t. This is your best content strategy.
• Link to your preferred social platforms, and promote your content. If it’s good, your readers will share it on social media. And market it for you.
• Promote your content through all your usual marketing channels. The more readers you have, the more feedback you’ll get, and the more successful your company blog will be.
• Welcome qualified guest bloggers to add more authority and credibility. You can tap into their networks and grow your audience.

When done properly, a blog is a valuable asset to your website. It builds and nurtures relationships with your existing customers, introduces your brand to new customers, and generates leads.

It makes your company credible, likeable, and available to everyone.

And that’s just good business.

KEEP THE FAITH

Ah, the start of a new year. If you’ve read anything online in the past week then you’re already overwhelmed by clichés, so I’ll refrain from adding to that.

But I love the beginning of a new year. It reeks of promise and potential, and no matter how bad last year was, hope springs eternal in 2017.

For me, 2016 was a good one. I had a few unexpected setbacks (you’d think I’d know to expect them by now but surprise! surprise!), still, I bounced back and finished strong in December.

I plan to continue making progress this year, and I can’t wait to try some new marketing methods.

I’m always looking to improve myself, and the work I do for my clients.

Everything is a work in progress.

As a web copywriter or, to sound more impressive, a digital marketing communications writer, I have an ongoing interest in marketing.

And not just online marketing, because, often, what works offline can also work well online, with a bit of tweaking.

So, I continually study new marketing trends and the psychology behind them – to understand something well, you need to know how and why it works.

And then you can have a go at improving it.

Did I mention I love my work?

To that end, here are some of the big content marketing predictions for 2017:

Documented Content Strategy

Content marketing is getting serious, and if you don’t have a measurable and documented content marketing strategy in place, how do know what’s working and what isn’t?

It’s good to have a clear overview of the company’s goals, and to experiment with different tactics.

If it didn’t work, why? And how can we improve it?

If it did work, why? And how can we improve it?

Smaller companies are better at this than the larger organisations, perhaps because of the smaller amount of content – and everything being on a smaller scale.

From the initial engagement process through to the sales process – document it all, and adapt as the market changes.

Better Quality Content

Serious marketers don’t use cheap content mill writers. If your business is still doing that it’s time to step up and engage the services of a professional copywriter who knows how your business works.

A good web copywriter will already know what’s working. They’ll be in alignment with your marketing efforts, and able to offer good advice. They’re in it for the love of the profession, not just for the money. Your marketing goals are their marketing goals.

Some web copywriters dream about marketing tactics. Sad but true. Take advantage of it.

There’ll be more personalised content that’s audience and niche specific. Using segmentation strategies to filter out certain groups within your readers, and targeting them with bespoke content can make your brand stand out from the crowd.

And while video is big right now – more on that later – most online content is still story-based text. Everyone loves and remembers a good story – and the message behind it.

Don’t forget to keep it all mobile-friendly, almost half of your readers will be using a mobile device. If your content doesn’t look good, and readable, on a mobile screen then you’re wasting time and money with your content strategy.

Interactive and Personalised Content

Today’s digital distractions have produced a reduced attention span (congratulations if you’re still reading this). You need to grab people’s attention with interactive content. Get your audience involved while they’re consuming your marketing efforts.

Video was a runaway success in 2016, and it’s also an excellent way to repurpose written content. This works in reverse too. Expand on the information in your videos and write in-depth (but engaging) articles.

Livestream video like Facebook Live and Snapchat’s vertical videos for mobile will continue to be popular as a way to bond with your audience.

We’ll see more infographics, and interactive content such as surveys and quizzes, contests and assessments, with personalised results.

Make your readers feel special, and prove you’re interested in them. There are plenty of other websites they can go to.

E-newsletter and Email Marketing

As far as I’m concerned this type of marketing never went out of style, even though some have previously predicted the demise of email in favour of social media. But a company has no control over communication with followers on social media, and it’s notoriously hard to measure results.

The best way to build a list is still by using email, and the best emails to send appear to be e-newsletters.

If your company isn’t sending a regular newsletter via email perhaps it’s time to start. You do have a list, don’t you?

Email, and e-newsletters, will continue to reign supreme when it comes to relevant, targeted audience building. And it’s still one of the best ways to nurture leads, and convert them into customers.

An Exciting Year Ahead

It looks like 2017 will be an exciting year for online content marketing, and I’m looking forward to getting in there and getting my hands dirty.

I want to wish all my clients and readers a very happy and successful 2017.

As always, I’m here to serve you, and together we can make your business outstanding (as in standing out) and exceptional.

KEEP THE FAITH

After last month’s post on what makes a good direct-response sales letter, I was asked an interesting question.

What about direct-response in the B2B sector?

Are direct-response sales letters even used in B2B?

The answer: Yes, they are, but there are some differences between B2C and B2B, and it comes down to the differences in your target audience.

Direct-response, by definition, is intended to produce an almost instant response from the reader via a call-to-action. As opposed to, say, an advertisement for something which only informs, but doesn’t demand any action from the target audience – or anyone else for that matter.

So, as I’ve said many times before, you need to know your audience to know what it is that’ll make them take the desired action.

Let’s do a quick comparison between B2C, and B2B:

B2C – an individual person, usually spending their own money:

• Product driven
• Mass market
• Single step buying process – shorter sales cycle
• Brand loyalty
• People buy for emotional reasons like status, desire, price

B2B – a business, made up of many people, spending the company’s money:

• Relationship driven
• Small, focused market
• Multi step buying process – longer sales cycle
• Education and awareness building activities
• Rational buying based on the needs of the business

When you want to sell to other businesses you have to remember that you’re not targeting just one person, or one type of person. There’s a whole buying team you need to appeal to.

But, they are people, so some of the rules do still apply. Just go easy on the emotional hype, it won’t work for business buyers.

A B2C direct-response sales letter often contains a certain amount of hype, to get the reader interested and excited about the product.

With B2B, the sales cycle is much longer, so the direct-response letters are aimed more at lead generation – and they are just one small piece of the complex lead-generation and selling process.

And as such, they are much shorter, but still need to have that call-to-action at the end. Although that action is more likely to be a request for more information.

Direct-response in B2B may not look like your standard sales letter.  Think white papers, sell sheets (a brochure targeted to one specific type of buyer), and case studies.

Here are the main differences:

• Every member of your B2B audience has different reasons for buying. They can’t just buy because they like it, they have to consider the whole buying team.
• A B2B audience has competing motives for buying. They need to think about the business’s bottom line, but they may also have personal reasons, like looking good to their superiors. A copywriter needs to address all those reasons.
• The company you’re trying to sell to already knows they need the type of product or service you offer. You don’t have to convince them they need it, you have to convince them they need yours.
• A B2C buyer can decide to purchase something on a whim. Not so the B2B buyers, they have to consider business needs, and personal needs. B2B is generally a much bigger financial risk, and the buyers are spending company funds, not their own.
• Most B2C consumers are only interested in the benefits. With B2B you focus on the features, as well as the benefits.
• Many people think B2B copy is short, and B2C copy is longer. Long form sales copy does exist in B2B but it’s broken up into smaller pieces because of the longer sales cycle. So you might have 15 pieces of different sales copy but they’re all selling the same thing. And they may be skewed toward different people because of the larger buying team. When it’s added up it can often be much longer than B2C copy.
• There’s no fluff, or emotional hype in B2B copy. Every word matters and must give a lot of information in a shorter space.
• B2B sales copy might be direct-response but the response is to generate leads, not to make the sale straight away.

I can’t say this enough times, to sell anything to anyone, you must first know exactly who you’re selling to. And make your sales copy applicable to your target market.

When you do that, the rest is easy.

KEEP THE FAITH

I have a confession to make.

As much as I love writing lead-generating online copy – and I do – writing online sales letters is my favourite type of project.

Direct response sales letters, that is.

Anyone who’s ever been online has seen an online sales letter, they’re hard to miss. Most times you click on a link in an email, or another website, and you go to a long, or short form, letter that tells you a pertinent story along with a host of features and benefits, testimonials, guarantees and an offer.

If it’s a good sales letter you’ll read it through till the end, without being aware you’re being sold.

Oh, you’ll know on a subconscious level that there’ll be an offer of some sort near the end, but the letter is so compelling, so relevant to you, and so exactly-what-you-need, that before you know it you’ll be fumbling for your credit card, eager to get yours before the offer ends, or you miss out.

The thing about online sales letters is it’s easy to measure the results. And just as easy to test different letters to see what’s working and what isn’t.

And as a copywriter, I love getting creative and finding just the right unique selling point that’ll deliver those results. I love to find something new, but familiar, a new spin on an old idea, to give readers an oh-yeah moment and make them take notice.

I love a challenge.

So, what makes a good sales letter?

How long should it be?

Do people even read long-form sales letters anymore? Doesn’t everyone have the attention span of a fruit fly in this brave new world of digital distractions?

An effective sales letter has to do more than grab the reader’s attention with the headline. It has to keep their attention, sentence by sentence, until the end.

The reader must relate to the content.

Know your audience. Use language they understand. They’re called letters because you’re writing to someone you know, make it conversational.

It must address a particular problem, remind the reader how that problem affects their life, and then offer a solution to that problem. Hint: It’s your product or service.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

But the number of bad sales letters online suggests that’s not the case.

Of course, everything is easy if you know how.

The main problem is that people love to buy, but they hate to be sold.

If the reader is aware that they’re about to read a load of lies, and be duped out of their money, they won’t keep reading.

We’ve all read those fake ads claiming all kinds of ridiculous things, with made-up testimonials and too-good-to-be-true offers.

You know, the ones with pictures of luxury cars, yachts, mansions, and don’t forget the questionable graphs and statistics no one can understand.

A true and genuine sales letter is aimed at the right people for all the right reasons. Not to make a quick buck, but to help them solve a problem, or offer the solution to that problem.

It’s all about helping people.

There are no outlandish claims. Everything stated is true, the testimonials are real, and the guarantee is genuine. The letter has credibility.

As a general rule, the more expensive, complex, or abstract the product or service is, the more information the reader needs to make a decision. So, the longer the sales letter should be.

Long or short? It should be as long as it needs to be to convince the reader the product or service will do what you claim it will do.

Remember, you’re asking people to buy something they can only see a picture of. You need to detail all the benefits, and address all the objections.

And yes, people do read long copy. Tests have shown long-form sales copy often outperforms short copy, because of the amount of information, statistics, social proof etc.

If the sales letter is interesting and relevant, people will read to the end. And for those who like to scan, that’s what subheads are for.

Short form copy has its place for familiar products and services, as well as those that don’t ask for much of a commitment, like groceries, and everyday essentials.

For most products or services it’s a case of the more you tell, the more you sell.

The only real downside that I can see with online sales letters is the very crowded market place.

These days we’re bombarded by sales messages, and everyone is trying to sell us the next gotta-have-it thing.

To stand out from the crowd you just have to be different.

And that isn’t as hard as sounds either. If you can establish credibility early on, keep the reader engaged and focus on their needs, while solving a problem for them, you’ll gain a loyal following, and repeat business.

Because honesty and integrity in advertising is becoming a rare commodity.

You don’t need to know your audience to know they want that.

It’s about what your customers need, not what you need.

KEEP THE FAITH

Now you have your lead magnet set up, you might want to automate your follow up emails and use an autoresponder.

An autoresponder is a program that automatically sends prewritten emails to your list at a predetermined time, and frequency. Predetermined by you, of course.

Anyone who has ever signed up to a list will have received at least the first email in an autoresponder sequence – that’s most often the welcome email.

Your email program will have all the tools you need to set up your own autoresponder series.

All you have to do is write a sequence of emails for an easy, hands-off way to market to your list.

And just like any other business email, autoresponder emails need to be engaging and interesting, with subject lines that people can’t resist.

Now, keep in mind, this is a series of 3, 5, 7, or more, short emails sent out over days, or weeks, depending on their specific purpose. So your emails all need to have a common thread, and naturally progress to the next, and the next …

Your job is to make the reader want to read the following email in the series. Make them easy to consume, in a language they’re familiar with.

How do you do that?

By giving them something useful in the first email, and letting them see that they’ll get more if they read the next email. This works for the initial trust-building emails, and the later sales emails, although both should have the same components, and many companies now merge the two, to save time. Others have a welcome series, then they move to a conversion series.

Use a theme throughout your email series and don’t forget your call to action and links.

You can use a sequence of emails to highlight a different feature, and its benefits, in each one. Readers will be waiting in anticipation to see what comes next.

Once a prospect takes you up on your offer, their name usually gets put onto a different list. You should be marketing to prospects and customers differently. No one wants to keep receiving marketing emails for something they’ve already bought.

This happens a lot more than it should, and it’s annoying. To me, it says the company hasn’t taken the time or effort to look after its customers. It’s just sending everything to everyone in the hopes of positive results.

It also reeks of laziness, poor planning, or both. It tells me the company is only interested in my money. Do you really want to be perceived that way?

Segmenting your list makes sense for your company, and for your prospects and customers, because not everyone will respond to the same messages. When you segment your list, you can customise your autoresponder messages for maximum conversions.

Always be giving your readers usefulness and relevance, they’ll want to buy your product or service to gain even more value.

Don’t be concerned that people won’t buy because you’re giving away all the good stuff. People will buy because they know you, trust you, and like what you have to offer.

You’re going to help them, so show them how you’ll do that.

Keep the emails short and punchy, because they’re not the sales letter. You’re using persuasion and relevant stories to send the readers to a landing page, or your website, where the real selling begins.

I recommend a series of at least seven emails. That way you’re still building a relationship with your prospect and not being pushy or coming across like a used-car-salesman (no disrespect to car salesmen, but we’ve all been there).

You want to convert them to buyers, not scare them away forever.

Remember, people have already signed up to receive your emails, They want to hear more from you. For the most part, adding more emails to your autoresponder sequence will increase sales.

But, as always, keep testing to find out what’s working and what isn’t.

KEEP THE FAITH

In my last post I told you about the huge ROI (Return on Investment), you can get from sending a regular e-newsletter, as well as the trust and relationships you build with your clients, and prospective clients.

But even the most compelling emails are useless if you don’t have a list to send them to.

Business consultant, MaryEllen Tribby once said:  If you don’t have a list, you don’t have a business – you have a garage sale.

Why Do I Need a List?

So today, I’m going to give you some best practices for lead capture to build your list and, ultimately, to generate leads and then convert those leads to satisfied clients.

When you have a website, it’s not a case of build it and they will come. You need marketing, publicity, and advertising strategies to drive traffic to your website.

When that traffic comes to your website, you need to have some kind of free offer to exchange for the visitor’s email address so you can add them to your list.

So, what should you offer your visitors?

At its most basic is the sign up box, or opt-in form, on a website offering to send news and updates.

But we can do better than that.

What Should I Offer?

An e-course or a newsletter can get good results, but most people want something instant. If they sign up to your offer, they want to see something straight away. People don’t like to wait. If you got them excited enough to opt-in, then they want your free offer now.

We live in a world of instant gratification.

A downloadable free report in PDF form is still the most popular lead magnet. You could also offer audios, videos, and other goodies, but the free special report still works best for most audiences, providing it’s on a topic that interests them.

Of course, you should know who your target market is, and offer them something you know they’d want.

Give your free report a name. Don’t just call it a free report. Then assign a value to it – worth $29, for instance. Try to over-deliver by sending something else of value that they weren’t expecting. Everyone loves a surprise bonus, and you’ll be remembered for giving outstanding value.

Don’t try to sell your visitors straight away. Offer them the free report, capture their email address and then build a relationship with them by sending them valuable content before you make offers and try to sell them on your goods or services.

Your goal is to build a relationship with your list, offer them valuable information, and become their go-to business.

The Lead Capture Form

Have your opt-in box on every page of your website because you never know which page people are going to land on.  If they miss the opt-in box on one page they’ll keep seeing it as they navigate through the pages, so it gives them multiple opportunities to opt-in.

The prime place for your opt-in box is the upper right side of the page, above the fold, so readers don’t have to scroll down. Web users have been conditioned to look there for free offers and more information (try it yourself).

Make the opt-in box attractive with an attention-grabbing, benefits-driven headline. Using numbers and specific results in your headline or subhead always works well. Add an image of your report or offer, and reader-focused text that highlights the benefits of it.

The less information you ask for the better. People won’t answer a bunch of questions to get your free offer. I’ve seen it many times myself, businesses ask for too much information and people click away. Their name and email is usually all you need, and all they’re willing to give.

And tell visitors what to do – enter your name and best email address. People don’t want to think, they want quick and easy. So you do the work and make it quick and easy for them.

Don’t use the default language on your opt-in form. Most have a Submit or Subscribe button. Customise it for your business, use power words, and a positive action button. Many words work well, but three in particular are Download Now, Free Instant Access, and Sign Up Now.

It’s all about what works best for your audience. You may need to do some testing to get it just right. But remember to keep your message consistent.

It helps to add an anti-spam notice, or We Respect Your Privacy, to reassure them you will never sell their details to spammers.

But Wait … There’s More

Another method is to advertise your free offer elsewhere and send your prospects to a dedicated landing page where they can sign up. This has the advantage of having more space to give more information, and highlight the benefits without any other navigation or distractions. Just the headline, the benefit copy, and the opt-in box. The landing page serves one purpose: to get people to sign up for your free offer.

Ideally, you want to have both these forms. The opt-in box on the website for visitors who naturally land on your site, and the dedicated landing page for visitors who’ve been driven there by your advertising.

Other ways to build your list are pop-ups on your website, or welcome mats that pop up and cover the entire page. These work best for content rich sites like blogs, or where a website relies heavily on free search engine traffic.

You can also use banner ads or other advertising on your website that takes visitors to your dedicated landing page. These pages can get from 25% – 50% opt-in rate. If your offer is more complex you can make your landing page longer. Make it as long as it needs to be to convey the benefits to the visitor, but not long and cluttered with too much information.

Keep it simple.

You can also have a CTA (call-to-action) at the bottom of your website pages that sends people to an opt-in box, or a landing page on your website. If someone has read far enough to get to the bottom of the page there’s a good chance they’ll be interested in signing up for your free offer.

Have a look around your website and see where you might be missing a CTA, but always remember to have the main opt-in box on the top right of the pages, above the fold.

Your Most Valuable Business Asset

Never underestimate the importance of your list, and your follow up email marketing. Treat your list subscribers with respect, and offer them exceptional value. Your list is one of the most valuable assets in your business. Once you have an email list make sure you mail to it regularly, that’s what it’s for, and that’s why people opted in.

And what about skipping all that work and just buying a list of email addresses?

Well, I’ve got one thing to say about that: Don’t you do it!

If you want to maintain your business reputation and credibility, please don’t do it. Never mail to people unless they have given you permission to do so.

Happy list building.

KEEP THE FAITH …

One of the best marketing tools for business is the e-newsletter.

Big companies, small companies, B2B and B2C, as well as information marketers and service professionals can all benefit from sending out a regular newsletter.

They can be shared, they are linkable, and you can easily track the activity to measure what’s working and what isn’t.

Research has shown that for every dollar a company outlays in the production of their letter, $44 is returned. That’s an ROI of 4400%.

Used for lead generation, and increased sales, a regular e-newsletter will position your company as a thought-leader, and keep it top of mind with your clients and prospects, as well as build trust and rapport.

Lead generating e-newsletters can increase sales by 50%, and level the playing field so that smaller companies can outperform larger competitors for readers’ attention.

And what’s more, it enables a company to communicate with its entire client and prospect base, repeatedly, for a very low cost.

The trouble is, most of us now subscribe to more than a few e-newsletters, so how do you make yours stand out and get read by your subscribers?

Newsletters are permission-based, meaning your subscribers have asked to receive your regular communications, and given you permission to send it straight to their inbox.

Don’t disappoint your subscribers by sending boring, sales-y content and self-promotion. You’ll soon see the results of that with a high unsubscribe rate.

Your newsletter should be written in a clear, consistent voice. A voice that lets people experience what it would be like to do business with your company, or for existing clients, a familiar and likeable voice.

The real challenge is to create a newsletter that people want to open, read and share. A newsletter they recognise and look forward to receiving.

So, just how do you stand out from the all the mediocre blah out there?

Be sure you use the same template and company masthead, so people instantly recognise it.

Make it personable, relevant and fun to read, so subscribers benefit from your point of view and feel personally connected to you.

Keep it interesting and entertaining. Add useful info about latest trends, and reactions to those trends, use stories, interviews. Be sure to use enough CTAs and links to other pages. Always ask for the action, it’s a big part of your reader-engagement.

You can educate people about the benefits of your products or services, or offer special deals to subscribers, to make them feel special. We all like to feel special, and appreciated.

Just be sure to have a nice balance of interesting articles, links and anything else you think will add value. Surveys are always useful. People like to fill them out, and in return, you acquire valuable information about your readers for future newsletters.

Write your newsletter as you would a personal letter, not as a bulk mailing. Use the recipient’s name and write from first person to second person – I to you.

Ideally, you want to make your e-newsletters so valuable and entertaining that subscribers won’t want to miss an issue for fear of missing out on something. They won’t want to miss out on what’s happening in the community you’ve created.

How often you send out your newsletter depends on the type of company you are, your readers, and how much information you have to share.

Many companies send a weekly newsletter, on the same day every week – this says that you value your readers’ time, and appreciate that they have busy lives, but it still keeps you on your readers’ radar often enough that they don’t forget you, and can look forward to your newsletter.

Now you’ve decided on what to include, and when to send your newsletter, you’re going to need a steady supply of ideas. You’ll need to plan a calendar, coordinate with your marketing team, manage your email lists, edit, proofread and format it.

To complement your e-letter you’ll also need landing pages, special reports, thank-you pages and any other page your readers will land on when they click a link within your content.

This is where a good copywriter can be a godsend. Not just any copywriter, one who has endless ideas to keep your readers informed and engaged. A copywriter who knows your products, services and marketing materials and can come up with new angles and different ways of approaching things. One who can write in the voice of your company.

Such a copywriter can take all that work off your hands and consistently produce an outstanding and regular e-newsletter that authentically represents your company and its values and standards.

Don’t overlook the power of a regular e-newsletter for cost-effective marketing, increased revenue, and stronger business relationships.

Next month, I’ll show you some great ways to build your all-important email list.

Until then …

KEEP THE FAITH

At some time, most of us have read a catalogue, of sorts. Even if you’ve never flipped through a glossy, full-colour magazine-type catalogue – remember the mailbox stuffed full of them last Christmas? – you’ve likely shopped online and read the descriptions of the things that caught your eye.

Did you notice anything about those descriptions?

Were they boring, meaningless, clichéd, or just didn’t give you enough information?

Are you a cataloger, frustrated by diminishing sales and customer complaints because your catalogue copy is vague, mind-numbing, or unclear?

The product descriptions under the merchandise in catalogues are the only information potential customers have about the products, besides customer reviews.

And those customer reviews just might reflect the quality of your copy.

The customer has to trust that what the copy says is true – how many times have you bought something from a catalogue based on its description, only to be disappointed when it arrived – let down, angry, and determined to never buy from that company again.

People buy from catalogues, offline or online, for the convenience it offers. The price of that convenience is not being able to use all of their senses to make the purchasing decision. They’re severely limited in how they can perceive the product, so the product description needs to provide the customer with a virtual experience of handling the merchandise.

Carefully-crafted honest copy should provide the sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch that a customer would bring to a physical retail shopping experience.

It should also invoke the feeling of owning and using the product. As much as we don’t like to admit it, all purchases are based on emotions. We can rationalise it all we want afterwards, but it’s the feeling we’ll get from the product that makes us buy it, not necessarily the product itself. We’re all about feelings and emotions, and it’s so much harder to convey the necessary sensory input in a few words of catalogue copy.

A good catalogue copywriter must become the customer they’re writing for. They must bring the product to life and make the customer excited to own it by virtually ‘placing their hands on it’.

By evoking powerful imagery and comparing the features to things the customer has already experienced and can relate to, for example, the feel of silk or the smell of leather, you can help them to imagine seeing themselves using the product in different areas of their lives.

Even boring, mundane items can be brought to life by finding a unique benefit to the customer, or by associating it with something more exotic and appealing, or by making the customer feel like they belong to an elite or special group. You can show them how much better their lives will be, or suggest alternative uses for the item.

Effective catalogue copy can also help the customer justify a non-essential purchase – go on, you deserve a treat – remember we buy with our hearts, but we need to justify the purchase with our logical minds.

And it all must be done in a smaller space. It has to work as hard as longer copy but still be compact.

There’s no place for wordiness in catalogue copy. It must get to the point but still be appealing. You need to grab your prospect’s attention straight away, or you’ve lost him.

Anyone who owns or runs a catalogue business, or who deals with a business that needs a lot of product descriptions, knows that the big money is online. Not only is your copy easy to upload to your website, but mistakes and updates are a quick and simple fix.

If you invest in  good catalogue copywriters your website product descriptions will also be written with the search engines in mind. And who doesn’t want all their product pages to get a top 10 ranking on Google?

So, you need catalogue copy that appeals to your target market, but also ranks well in search engines.

Good catalogue copywriters need to know the target audience, get inside their head and come up with copy that will appeal to them. If it doesn’t relate to the customer, it won’t do the job.

Anyone can write a product description, but effective catalogue copywriters are hard to come by. They must understand your business, and that of your competitors.

Just as direct response copywriters work within a niche they have a passion for, and have industry experience, so too should a good catalogue copywriter.

It’s this combination of knowing the customer, passion for the products and industry, and bringing the products to life through sensory descriptions, that will make your catalogue shine like a beacon through the haze of lifeless, lacklustre product descriptions.

Don’t just match your competition, outshine them in a big way, and show your customers you mean business.

And your customers will reward you with their business, and sizzling customer reviews that rave about your accurate and meaningful catalogue descriptions.

KEEP THE FAITH

In online marketing, your content drives the marketing process and leads to sales.

We know that content is king. Every website needs relevant and useful content. People have a problem they need to solve, and they search online for information and, ultimately, a solution to that problem.

That’s where your website content can outperform the competition. The difference between two similar products or services is the quality of the content supporting them.

In other words, it’s your content that makes visitors stay to learn more and become customers, or click away and look elsewhere.

But where do you get all that content? Who writes it? Should you use an existing in-house writer? Should you employ a specialist writer? Should you hire a freelance writer, or try to save money and use a content mill and a writer with English as a second language?

Well, that will all depend on how serious you are about your business.

You could hire a freelance writer for a low rate. A content writer who knows nothing about your business, and cares nothing about it. A content writer whose only interest is in banging out meaningless content with a few keywords thrown in, getting paid, and moving onto the next job. These content writers don’t understand how important your content is, and the role it plays in your business.

Or, you could hire a content strategist, either freelance or in-house.

But, you’re thinking, aren’t all content writers basically the same?

They surely are not. Once you understand the true worth of your website content, and how it influences your customers’ buying decisions, you’ll never even consider hiring a cheap, fly-by-night generalist again.

When it comes to content, you get what you pay for.

So, what is the difference between someone who just writes content, and a content strategist?

And isn’t the title Content Strategist a bit pretentious and vague?

When all is said and done, the term ‘content strategist’ is just a title to differentiate someone from the hordes of low quality writers that digital marketing attracts. And any content writer who takes their job seriously and knows what they’re doing will want to distance themselves from the pack. Hence the title.

Now, we’ve already established that a ‘content writer’ has no interest in you or your business. They will just write the content you request and move on to their next job. They don’t care how well the piece performs, and most wouldn’t know quality writing if it fell on them.

Your website will become a confusing jumble of irrelevant articles and mixed messages that help no one, and your visitors will quickly leave and find a website that will help them. And that website will likely be one of your competitors.

On the other hand, a content strategist, also known as a content marketing strategist or marketing communications writer, knows your business, knows what works and what doesn’t, and will advise and consult with you every step of the way.

They will not only write high quality content that engages and educates your readers, but they will take on an active role in your marketing success.

They care about your marketing campaign, they treat your business as if it were their own, and they do their best to help your business become its best, getting involved in the entire content lifecycle, from start to finish.

Your website is prime marketing real estate, so if you’re serious about your marketing efforts and the effectiveness of the content on your website, you need to get serious about using a content strategist.

One good content strategist will save you time, money and a lot of stress by giving your website:

• A consistent look and feel – your visitors won’t be turned off by confusing or unclear information. They’ll have a good experience on your site and easily find what they need.
• A consistent message – streamlined, purpose-written content that gets your message across to your target audience.
• Valuable content that helps your customers solve their problems and choose what’s best for them.

You’ll also build trust in your brand and gain a loyal following. A positive user experience will keep your customers coming back for more.

There are many other long-term benefits, and content strategy is no longer an optional extra, it’s the backbone of your digital marketing campaigns.

Remember, your business is our business and we want to help you succeed by making your marketing dollars and your content work hard for you. If we have to assign a pretentious title to ourselves to get your attention, please don’t hold it against us. We do it for you.

KEEP THE FAITH