This post isn’t going to be about marketing. (But just so I don’t leave you hanging, there are some interesting posts on digital marketing today here, here, and here.)

Pat and I were chatting last night a bit about what family means to this business.

The short answer is that it means pretty much everything.  We work around family, we make time for family… family shapes things here at Matterhorn.

A couple of weeks ago, we headed to Harpers Ferry to make a presentation on social media.  We could have left the day before the presentation and gotten there in time for a dinner with the conference attendees- it was a networking opportunity, for sure.

But Pat needed to see his daughter’s first T-ball game.  Couldn’t miss it.  We left late in the evening, got there around 1 a.m., worked a little, and got up early to set up.

Yesterday, we had a presentation to make in the afternoon.  I had to leave early to coach my son’s soccer practice. It was an obligation I had made months before.

No problem.  We changed things around a little, I presented first, and made it to the field just in time to set up cones.

We make those allowances here because, for us, that’s what really matters.  What’s cool is that it shows up in our work.  Family isn’t an excuse to duck responsibility here at work; it’s the reason to take on big projects here at work.  Better work makes us better at home.

We’re Saturdays-at-the-field, helping-with-the-homework, never-miss-a-birthday guys.  And that makes the way we do things not for everybody.  That’s fine- there are plenty of other digital marketing companies out there.

But for us, family is first.  What about you?  How does family fit into your business?

As we approached the lip of the falls, one of the people in the front of the raft asked me if we should turn the boat to the left or to the right.

“I don’t know!” I shouted.

“What do you mean, you don’t know?  Aren’t you steering?!”

“Yes, but I close my eyes during the scary parts.”

. . . . .

Before I started creating content for digital marketing, I was a raft guide. I worked on whitewater rivers 140 days a year, and I met a lot of great, great people.

Now, I know that, for some, my former vocation put me somewhere below carnival worker on the social respectability scale.  But that never mattered to me.  I loved being a guide.

There are a lot of reasons guiding was great- beautiful places, exciting work, and on and on.  But the #1 reason I loved it was the stories I collected over the years.

I have enough to fill a book (and will be doing just that, sometime in the future).

But it’s not the stories themselves that are important.   It’s the experiences that those stories came from.  They shape the way I think, and feel, and write.

I can and have done some promotional writing on the technical side of things.  It’s not my strong suit.  I’m much better at thinking up creative ways to tell stories.  That’s my training.

What about you?  Is who you are shaping the way you write?

I’ve been working on some new copy for the Matterhorn site recently.  Pat’s been tweaking the information architecture, appearances, and functionality.  I get the copy, which I’m really excited about.

That’s led me to think a lot about tone.  For a small business like ours, we want to be friendly but not flip, confident but not cocky, this but not that.  Our customers (you reading this?  love you guys) run the gamut as far as experience with digital marketing; we’ve got to acknowledge a lot of different types of users.

That’s a pretty good challenge.  And it’s one that almost everyone faces in some way.  Here are some thoughts on creating the right tone for a wide ranging audience:

• Be Honest

Your site, and especially the words on your site, are a reflection of you.  No escaping it.  Make sure that the writing says that.

That doesn’t mean that you should use lots of slang or swear (necessarily).  It does mean that you shouldn’t throw business speak around, or try to talk over peoples’ heads to impress them.  Another way to say it is to be yourself.

• Be Brief
  

Short sentences rule.  Especially on the web.  Don’t bury your best ideas inside big paragraphs.  60 words -tops- is a good rule of thumb.  Break out the bullets.  Use subheadings.  Little pieces of text go down best. (That’s why haiku is so popular on the internet.  Twitter, too, for that matter.)

This relates to tone because people aren’t this way- we’re usually more long winded (except in the movies).  You have to find some balance between being personal and being brief.  The answer is usually found in word choice.

• Be Clear

People need to find what they’re looking for in seconds.  Make the information as easy to understand as possible, because people are coming to the website to…

1. Answer a question
2. Perform a task

The easier you make those two functions, the better.  Tone shouldn’t get in the way.  It should help.

Good blogs draw people in with tone.  Good sites do the same thing.  Paying attention to the tone, the voice, of your writing is a fantastic way to grow your web presence.  So, I’m going to take my own advice and get back to working on ours (I’m shooting for knowledgeable, friendly, not-overly handsome).

Got thoughts on good tone?  Feel free to share them in the comments.

So, there’s a funny thing about Texas:  I hear you’re not supposed to mess with it. (That wasn’t our plan, by the way.)

We’re heading to Austin for Pubcon South.  Pat is going to be on a panel on Thurday, talking about old brands and new media.  Suffice to say, we’re pretty excited about it.  A whole bunch of interesting people are slated to speak, and I’m seeing a lot of #pubcon on twitter.

This will be my first time heading out to Pubcon.  I’m very interested to see what folks have to say on the content side of things.  I’m also interested in some Texas BBQ, and the music scene, as well.  Might be some good shows early before SXSW starts rolling.

More from Austin later this week.

One of the fisrt things that you’ll ever read about writing is to find your audience.  It’s like the 11th commandment (assuming the first 10 are different ways to say “be brief”).

Well, it’s true.  At least, in the sense that you cannot write something that will please everybody.  Especially with your marketing.  Don’t even try.  Marketing that’s written with that goal in mind is going to be as worthless as the bandwidth it’s measured in.

So, that’s somewhere to start as far as defining your audience:  not everybody.  After that, you should have some worthwhile market research and keyword research to guide you.  When I say worthwhile, I mean that about 5% of your text should be keyword specific.

That leaves about 95% of your content to get a message out there.  It’s a lot of room.  And, yes, you should be writing for an audience.  It keeps you from wandering all over the place.  Every word counts.

But the key to creating readable content is to include yourself in your audience.

You have to write with yourself in mind.  Think of you as you build your message:  Would you want to receive this?  You’re the expert, after all.  You should be writing something that appeals to you.  And if that’s the case, it’s a good bet that others are going to want to tune in.

So it’s a paradox (a great one)- the more your writing appeals to you, the more others will want to read it.  Why is that?

Because it’s authentic.  Do you know how few authentic voices there are in marketing?  You have a huge opportunity to stand out from the crowd.  You can be the source of info in your field, just by being yourself.

It’s a lot more difficult than it sounds, though.  If it weren’t, everyone would do it.  People would just be going around saying very genuine things about what they do for work.  As it stands, very few do.