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    • Archive for February, 2009

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    5 Ways To Write About Your Business

    Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
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    There are a lot of directions your marketing can take.  Whether it’s a traditional press release, or an update to the copy on your website, there are tools you can use to make your writing more effective.  Here are five of them:

    • Know The Form Study up about what form you’ll be tackling before you write.  This is always important, especially with as many different directions, from website content to blog posts, that your writing can take.
    • Know The Audience Write to who your product is going to attract, not to everyone in the known universe.  Imagine you’re having a conversation with that person; write down what you would say.
    • Know How To Edit You should be able to cut you words to get to the core of what you want to say.  This bullet originally had five sentences…
    • Know How To Be Authentic Most people would rather see marketing targeted at someone else than marketing that’s falsely pointed at them.  The only thing that is all things to all people is Snake Oil.
    • Know Yourself The best advice on creating content is to believe that you’re the best person in the world to deliver your particular message.  Just know that and be honest.  The writing will come, and it will be much more attractive than something that’s contrived.

    How do you write about your business?

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    Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

    Is Your Website Getting Enough Exercise?

    Thursday, February 5th, 2009
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    Hey there.  Your site’s looking a little, um, flabby.  It’s out of shape.  No, I don’t mean anything by it.  I’m just sayin’…
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    More Than A Metaphor

    Seriously, it’s something to look at.  Websites need regular care and, well, exercise.  Your website should be fit, and you’re the personal trainer.

    Because, let’s face it- if you feed your site junk, and it gets all bloated, and you don’t help maintain it, the site can’t run properly.  People will stop hanging out with it.  It’s your website’s version of depression.  No social interaction.  No friends.

    Change Your Diet

    First, look at what you’re feeding your site.  Is your content full of fat?  Is it  a lot of filler around just a few lean nuggets of good info?

    Time to unclog the arteries.  Spread that information out.  It’s actually fun to write about what’s relevant, and write it in a way people can understand it.   An earlier post about making your site easier to read is one place to start.

    (And honestly, candy is o.k. once in a while, too.  But not too much, alright?)

    Get Some Exercise

    There are some simple ways you can get your site out and around, and back into shape.  For starters, you can make sure your site is registered with some website directories (directories are just indexes that can help your site get seen by more people).  There are big directories at Yahoo! and DMOZ.

    Then (and this goes back to content), show the world that you like to play with others by building links from other sites to yours.  There are tons of different ways to do that.  One good one is to participate in discussions about subjects that have to do with your business.

    That’s right- get out there!  Participate.  Let people know that you’re an authority in your field (nicely, by providing good info.)  Ahhh!  Feels good, no?

    Get Regular Checkups

    Unless you build websites and write content for your job, you need help.  If  you really want to make your online tools work for you, go to the doctor (read: your web developer).

    Developers do all kinds of things that go far past the building stage.  Regular maintenance is a must if you want a healthy website.

    So, ask yourself:  Is your website out of shape?  If so, I hope you’ve found some ideas here that you can use to get it back into top physical form.

    *Image by Norma Desmond via Flickr

    Posted in Web Design | No Comments »

    How To Say Everything, Briefly

    Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
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    If silence is golden, brevity is platinum.  That might be an overstatement, but here’s a good rule for your marketing content:  If you can’t say anything brief, don’t say anything at all.

    Think about it:  When you talk to customers, do you shout at them?  Do you go on and on about yourself?  Do you keep them from speaking?  Of course not.  People wouldn’t listen to you.

    The way you write your marketing should be the same as the way you talk to customers.  Allow for pauses.  For space.  Writing is your voice.  Make it sound like you.

    If you must say less, it follows that what you do say needs to be important.  So brevity also gets you thinking about your message.  When you’re thinking hard about what you’re going to say, chances are it will be worth listening to.

    I was thinking about the reasons I give people to be brief when they’re writing content.  Sometimes, people still trust it, and I understand.  I get all the reasons people think they want to fill a page with words.  And the intentions are good. But it still works against them

    I found a good example of what I’m talking about: it’s the Maui page on Hawaii’s official tourism site.

    Now, why would I be thinking about Maui as I sit in the West Virginia mountains in February?  Who knows.  What’s interesting is the strong example they provide on how brevity works in web copy.

    Maui is one of the most famous vacation destinations in the world.  There’s no end of interesting things to do or see on a two week trip.  The economy is driven almost exclusively by tourism.  They’ve got a lot to say, right?

    And when you land on the site you see:  Two paragaphs and five bullets.

    It’s not because the writer assumes you know everything.  You wouldn’t be at the site if that were true.  It’s because she’s allowing the reader to participate.  The reader wants information, not the sales pitch. The more good information he can get, the more likely he’ll be to, in this case, go to Maui.

    Being brief invites readers to explore, not wade through piles of stuff.  By just writing what counts, you give someone searching for tourism information exactly what they’re looking for: a visit.

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    Posted in Content Creation, Copywriting, Web Design | No Comments »

    Patience Wins

    Sunday, February 1st, 2009
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    One Quick Football Metaphor

    With 2:37 left on the clock in the fourth quarter, Kurt Warner threw a 64 yard touchdown pass to Larry Fitzgerald to put the Arizona Cardinals ahead by 3, poised to win the 43rd Superbowl.

    If you’re patient, 2:37 is plenty of time to turn things around.

    Football metaphors aside for the moment, it’s worth thinking about how time relates to perspective.  Many of us look for quick results, immediate returns.  But good marketing doesn’t work that way.  It takes time.

    How To Measure Your Results

    A lot of that has to do with the end results.  Shouting a message is a fast way to make yourself heard.  Creating a message and inviting people to hear it takes patience.  You have to think about what to say, how it might be said.  Where you say it makes a difference, too.

    And you have to wait for people to hear you.  They won’t hear you unless you build their trust, which takes even longer.  And you won’t build their trust without a continuous effort, creating content regularly that people can use.

    So, you can move quickly with little effort and be heard, or you can move deliberately with hard work and be listened to.  Both methods can create conversion: the goal depends on your perspective.

    Building Something

    Are you getting a sale or making a customer?  Which is more important?  That’s where perspective comes in.  If you’re after sales, there will never be enough time.  Your metrics won’t move fast enough.  You’ll have to jump to the next big push before you know much of anything about your last one.

    If you’re after customers, perspective changes.  Because you’re inviting people to get useful information from you, you’ll develop relationships with them.  They appreciate what you’re doing.  Getting to know your listeners becomes a really cool, useful part of your job.  Time works for you.

    The Steelers worked all year on getting 2:37 to work for them.  It was all the time in the world.

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    Posted in Web Design | No Comments »

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