No. We're not there yet.

Hey, congrats for making it to the second paragraph – a true vindication of your powers of concentration and determination. I feel flattered.  But many of your fellow readers have probably fallen by the wayside by now, and clicked off somewhere else. Just as they do when they read a piece of marketing writing that requires them to get ‘sitting comfortably’ first. And so beginneth today’s lesson: Don’t wait till they’re sitting comfortably – hit ‘em with what matters early on.

You may have heard that marketing writing should tell a story. It has to grab attention, create interest, draw people in. Yes true enough. But you must still be wary of the ‘once-upon-a-time’  approach, even if you are writing what we call ‘long copy’. Whatever the length of the piece, you want your readers pretty clued up after the first few lines. That means known what you’re selling and how it relates to the reader’s needs.  The rest is persuasion. And call to action.

So check through your marketing lit. Does it take people on too long a journey first? Or are you not sure? Bung it on down and I’ll take a look. (Cos I want you to live happily ever after. Really I do.)

Doug

Bad language is always a bit of fun when you’re relaxing with friends, which is why I thought you’d enjoy this. Steven Pinker uses the furore over Bono’s acceptance speech at the Golden Globes (“This is f—ing brilliant!”) to deliver a scholarly but engrossing presentation on swearing. Everything you wanted to know here to improve and polish your bad language.

We’re on on hols now, so cool Yule to you all.

Doug

A headline on a home page is an opportunity. What is it? Yes, that’s right. All together now, it’s an opportunity. So…use it, dopey!

Your headline says hello to all the nice people who’ve come to see you. And it says ‘stay here nice people, cos I’ve got something that I think you’ll want.’

Because of your headline, all the nice people will stay to read what you’ve got to say next. So make it sing to them, sexily, like their favourite X-Factor finalist.

(Otherwise you’ll have Gary Barlow dissing you: “Look, it’s obvious you’re passionate about your bespoke business solutions. But…you just can’t sing!”)

When you’re writing the body copy of your site, keep the ‘call to action’ firmly in mind. This is not necessarily a ‘buy this now’ command.  That’s your ultimate aim, but the call to action here is more likely about which bit of the site you want them to head to next.

If you then bog visitors down in words, the only place they’ll head is off. So no big blocks of text. No excruciatingly difficult-to-understand sentences. You’re not writing a novel here, you’re selling.

More on the body copy later. For now just work on your headline.

Does your home page have a good one? Or have you seen some you like on other business sites? If yes, please share them with us here.

Right, now where did I put that horsewhip?

Smart pudding?

We ‘talk the talk’ but can we ‘walk the walk’? You decide. Click to see the latest edition of Best Bits - and  if we’re putting our preaching into practice.

Then give us your feedback: good, bad, ugly!

Best,

Doug

My guest blogger Babs Saul has been working in the internet for nearly 20 years. Where internet marketing is concerned she knows as much as anyone and is well worth listening to if you are planning an internet marketing campaign.

As Babs explains here, strategy must always come first. But it must be your strategy, to meet the distinctive needs of your business and your customers.

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A friend’s recent Facebook update got me thinking about the abundance of online marketing expertise with which we are surrounded.

This friend was telling us about the ‘Squidoo lens’ her latest ‘expert’ of choice had advised her to set up, and how it would be great for her website – almost as though she’d been given a magic wand which would take her business to another level.

Now that advice may have been good, but I do wonder if she’d really thought enough about what she wants to achieve with her marketing and which of the many, many internet tools will help her with that.

When we’re warned that if we don’t do this, that or the other our business will not succeed, we feel the fear of failure  - because we don’t even know what the ‘experts’ were on about in the first place, never mind how it all applied to our business.

Squidoo is one of many checklist boxes that  some ‘experts’ tell us we have to tick. This can be misleading. While a good lens will indeed add a relevant link to your website, there’s a bit more to it than that. And it may not be the best use of your time.

With so many ways to listen and interact with your customers now, it makes sense to have a good think about how best to spend your time and/or money.

The very first thing you need to understand is what you actually want to achieve. Be totally honest about what you expect and want. Then consider the wonders of the world wide web, and see if that can make it happen.

And if it can, how much is it going cost you, either in time or money? With the variety of internet tools, services and marketing options, you need to understand what you can best work with or if you can afford someone else to take care of it for you.

Your understanding needs to include the time needed and your market. Where are your customers, and what are they doing?  Do they have time to spend on the internet? And if so, where do they go? Do they even use the internet?

So sort out your strategy and establish to what level the internet is a realistic part of it. After this, knowing what you want and who is going to buy has to be the first step to getting what you want.

Now of course things are evolving all the time, and for many of us the internet is a wonderful and exciting place, enabling business like never before.  But not necessarily for everyone.

Let us remember that some of your customers do not use the internet at all, while others may use it in more simple ways – to best suit their lifestyle. So know your customers. Only then can you know the best strategy for your online marketing activities.

For more of Babs’ thoughts and advice, visit her site Internet Marketing Strategy.

So…

Tip No. 1: Make your missive bold yet light- like this balloon I photographed yesterday. We all love to gaze at these things as they float overhead, so keep that thought in mind when you compose your newsletter. Don’t make it too stodgy or full of content. Just a few simple, easy-to-read-and-understand ideas, and some striking, simple visuals.

Keep it light, bold and colourful

Tip No. 2: Grab the headline opportunity. Writing something like ‘our newsletter at last’ is not grabbing the opportunity. Bear your audience in mind, and make the headline ‘them-centred’.

Tip No. 3: Strike an inform/entertain balance. Give people things to think about, but remember, you’re not delivering a conference paper. Give them the teaser paragraph, with a link to the longer piece on your blog or elsewhere.

Tip No. 4: Promote  businesses whose services are complementary to yours. Your partners, or perhaps those with whom you’re looking to work. This is good networking practice, and it also makes your newsletter a little less ‘me me me’ or ‘us us us’.

Tip No. 5: Showcase some of your work. Don’t blow your trumpet too much, but do provide a terse case-study description of what needed to be achieved, and any feedback or results. Think about prospects here and provide a ‘call to action’.

Tip No. 6: Use humour. I know – this can be a bit tricky and you do have to watch for attempted jokes that are either inappropriate or fall flat on their face. But still, grab what opportunities there are to keep things light.

Tip No 7: Be conscious of length, and the time it will take to read your newsletter. So put the estimated reading time at the top, and make clear divisions between the different sections.

So there we are  - just a few ideas. I am sure there are many more too. Have you got any to add? If so, let’s hear them here.

Cheers,

Doug

You know the cheese I mean. The stuff that oozes through the internet and clogs up  millions of inboxes everywhere, every day. Invites to networking events are some of the worst:

Dear Doug, Suzie Stilton tells me that you might be interested in coming to our next Speed-Schmooze-up for Business Networkers. There’s lots there for you, like tea and coffee for a start. And probably orange juice too! With plenty of Aloe Vera on the side, and don’t forget those cheese sandwiches!

You will be able to meet and pass business cards to lots of other mugs networkers just like you, and you will pick up priceless business ideas from a guest speaker with his own book out.

So, Suzie says come along, because this is aimed right at your industry, be that plumbing or mortgage-broking.

Guarantee! We will give you £200 if you don’t get at least 4 priceless business ideas from this event. All tickets are just about to sell, apart from yours! So see you there!”

Hold the cheese

OK, I don’t want to insult you. Your flyer is nothing like as bad as this one – nowhere near. It’s chalk to their cheese. But still, you’ve written it, you’ve worked hard on it, and you and your team are still too close to it to be objective.

So get someone who you know will give an honest opinion. And ask them: Does this piece have an occasional whiff of insincerity? Have we grabbed at easy words like ‘powerful’,'passionate’, and  awesome’ just because they’re everywhere in the ether? Have we included a ridiculous qualitative/quantitative mash-up like ‘£200 refund if you don’t get 4 priceless business ideas?’

It’s worth taking the time – not just because of your ‘open’ and ‘unsubscribe’ rates.

But because it’s your reputation.

Doug

PS: What do you think of my ‘cheese’ drawing? Feel free to offer constructive criticism!

Best Words

Language control: it's all a bit Mickey Mouse

You remember Fantasia – that animated classic where Mickey Mouse is the orchestra conductor who fails dismally in his attempts to impose order on a chaotic universe? That’s what I’m reminded of when I hear people ranting on about how the English language is changing.

These people view language as a fixed and static entity, and themselves as guardians of sacred tradition. But despite their heroic attempts, languages are oblivious to efforts to boss them around or knock them into shape. The language – like some great lexical life-force – will always be the master/mistress of its humble users.

New words? They are just a reflection of the age. Some last many generations while others blaze brightly across the sky then fade like shooting stars.

So let’s celebrate change, and have a little fun with it.  Have a go – make up a word and send it to us with your definition. We’ll publish it on ‘Best New Words’ with a brief piece about your business and a link to your site. But remember – it’s a family show here, so do try and keep it clean!

www.bestwords.co.uk

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‘Discipline’ shining through the social media clouds

With all of today’s focus on social media, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you have to be on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter if you’re going to be successful at selling your products or services.

Yes, social media is increasingly important in business, but all those articles, books and blogs on the subject can blind us to what is (and always will be) the most crucial part of effective selling – trusted relationships built over time.

Here’s a quote I saw recently: “20 minutes of face-to-face time is worth more than whole year’s worth of emails.” In this context, you could also say that a barrage of social media equals a year’s worth of emails.

It’s all well and good to create some ‘noise’ around your product or services, but the most effective selling of professional services is done face-to-face. That’s hard to achieve through electronic media, no matter how clever and friendly your tweets are.

So what do we say to those who need help developing those trusted selling relationships which will sustain their business? Assuming they have the core relationship skills of curiosity, generosity and the ability to listen, the major key is discipline.

 More specifically, this means a disciplined approach to staying in touch with prospects and clients. The pacing of your contact plan is crucial. Too frequent and you will scare people off. Not often enough and people may think you are not interested. Worse still, you may miss opportunities that have emerged in the meantime.

You can achieve this delicate balance by developing your own marketing diary system. CRM package, Outlook, spreadsheet, PostIt notes, pencil and paper – anything you like. But you must do it.

My own marketing diary is a simple A5 book from Smiths. In it I keep ALL my key contacts, with a single entry to remind me what my last contact was (left voice mail, sent email, phone call, sent proposal etc). The diary also reminds me when and what my next contact will be (send reminder, book coffee, chase feedback etc.

Of course, things happen in the meantime, and dates can be moved forwards or backwards for many reasons. But every morning I can see which of my contacts I need to reach out to that day, and why. The sense of control is very comforting. What’s even better, is that I don’t even need to worry about the rest of my contacts because I know their time will come.

Let’s look at a few scenarios to illustrate how your diary might work:

• You met a new prospect at event and you sent a follow-up email but you received no reply. Do you try again? Or do you make a call? You should make this decision the moment you send the first email – and record that in your diary.

• Your prospect says she will call you next week. Where do you keep a note of that date? In your diary.

• You have sent a proposal. When do you chase for feedback? Look in your diary.

• You agree to catch up over coffee later in the summer. How do you remind yourself of that? I think you’ve got the answer by now!

If you suspect you’re not in control of your contact plan for your clients and prospects, and you don’t want the complexity of CRM software – just buy a diary. If you run out of energy, or it’s not working for you, try it from another angle. But don’t give up in the quest for discipline. Because that’s when you’ll start missing opportunities.

Anyhow, would love to know your thoughts here, so Doug’s invited you to post any comments below. If you’d like to discuss this further, do feel free to get in contact with me via the website,

Chris

An honourable mention goes to Michael Martin, but the prize I have jointly awarded to Will Anjos (pithy summary of all that was wrong with this copy) and Lisa Attias (impressive analysis – and wonderfully scornful dissing of the word ‘passionate’!)

So hearty congratulations to Will and Lisa – let’s chat about your copy – and huge thanks to these participants for their wise observations:

John Amy, Steven Healey, Alan Stevens, Marilyn Tuck, Graham Archer

Till next time,

Doug