Category Archives: Web Publishing

Keep ‘Em Coming Back for More – The Write Way

Posted on by Michael Boyer

Cultivating users and customers who return to your site is no easy task. What? Your business doesn’t offer a product that you can advertise as “special clearance!” or “for a limited time only!” that will entice users back? Well, developing repeat customers the “write” way can keep you connected to them as well as build your reputation as an industry leader, grow your brand awareness and spark interest from prospective clients.

First Things, First

Unless you have a way to capture your users’ contact information, you won’t be able to send out an online marketing campaign. You’ll need an online marketing manager that includes a database to store your client information list.

That in place, include a “join us” or “sign up” call to action prominently on your website, in multiple places (tastefully). Whether the user visits your site once or several times, or visits one page or explores your entire site, that call to action should always be available.

Special E-livery

For any company, e-newsletters and/or e-mail campaigns are a logical start. Make no mistake, however, compelling and successful campaigns take work

  • ~ Share your knowledge and choose a topic relevant to your client base to focus on. Whether it’s an intro or advanced level topic for a service, clear and direct copywriting will always inspire learning. Include tips and advice – builds trust and shows your expertise.
  • ~ Providing an in-depth view of a product or service may also introduce clients to something new. Emphasizing benefits rather than features encourages the customer to view you as a solution-provider. How are you leaps and bounds in front of your competitors? Leading with benefits inspire confidence in your company, your brand and your product.
  • ~ If your clients experience a Success Story, write about it. Testimonials about your product or service increase your credibility. Real life stories also give your campaign another dimension and human touch – your customers relate to each other.
  • ~ Q&As and interviews are a creative way to break up the content of the newsletter while offering quick nuggets of information. Generate participation by inviting your clients to submit questions and choose a few to answer. Or, a more interesting approach is to interview another expert in the field answering the question. Your partner should offer a product or service that complements your own.
  • ~ If you do offer a product for sale online, sending an e-mail campaign featuring products often encourages return visits. Whether it’s seasonally, monthly or weekly, schedule the email consistently so that your customers look forward to “what’s next?”

What Can New Do For You?

“New” and “free” and “Improved”…but especially “new” and “free” attract us like…well, you know. They are probably the most attractive and potent words product and service providers can use in marketing and advertising. There are studies that show that something in “new” activates a reward center in our brain. And whether the reward is to be the first to get the newest, shiniest widget, or to learn something new, it’s a great tool for online marketing as well.

Advertising new products on your site and in your e-marketing campaigns is a no-brainer, the novelty is built in.

If your company doesn’t offer a product? This “new” does not necessarily involve developing a new service each month…it’s you “new” content. Keep your site content (articles and images) updated regularly. Your users will return often to see what’s “new.” If your content doesn’t change for months and months, your web analytics return rate will probably reflect that.

An excellent source of new content is your own company news – New and Press, Press Releases, Media, Press Center. Give your news some prominence on your home page, include a spot for it in your main navigation and make it easy to find. More importantly, keep on top of issuing your news – being diligent about this takes commitment and dedication. Sending out monthly news is good; sending out weekly news is great!

It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It

  • ~ Your writing should paint a picture in your client’s head: write in the active voice (who did what, rather than what was done by whom.
  • ~ Be persuasive and clear: avoid the $25 paragraph to say 25-cents worth of message.
  • ~ Be engaging in your approach: clever writing balanced with professionalism in a tone that is appropriate to your message: urgent-action needed; helpful; warm-fuzzy; fun.
  • ~ Write to inspire action: think about radio spots or movie reviews – they’re quick and evocative, and they make you want to see the movie.

One-on-One

Write as if you were talking to your best user or client. Your ONE best user or client. Writing as if you were presenting your widget or widget service to your entire client list takes away from the personalization of your message. Writing on a personal level, like a one-on-one conversation addresses your client’s individual needs…just the way he or she receives your e-mail or e-newsletter – as an individual.

Journalism 101

Learn the upside-down paragraph used in journalistic writing. Write general to specific. Remember to lead with benefits, so start with that in your headline. Repeat that benefit early on in first paragraph and include a few more benefits as well. Detail the features and logistics of how your company delivers your benefits in the following paragraphs. Learn it, use it, live it!

The Marketing Manager who never sleeps (and it’s not insomnia) – Can you read in your sleep?

Posted on by Michael Boyer

Online marketing is all that it’s cracked up to be and isn’t as difficult as it’s cracked up to be.

It doesn’t even need to be a wazoo marketing campaign. In fact, it’s already on every page of your website. It’s your copy. If crafted thoughtfully and clearly, your entire website is the Marketing Manager who sells your company, your brand, your product or your service 24/7/365 (or 366 depending).

Great website content is the foundation for driving great qualified leads to your site. But what makes the content great? Snappy writing? Tech-speak and pop culture buzzwords? Lots of it? Not really…and it’s much simpler than finding your inner-copywriter.

GET IN THE 10-RING…KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Who are you speaking to? What is your niche market? What does your target audience want and need? Define these users and tailor your copy to them. Your copy should address their specific wants, needs, questions or “yeah, but…” hurdles, just like an in-person sales pitch would do.

Take some time to figure out your users’ behavior and habits on your site. Your website host, Google Analytics reports or other web stat program can tell you a lot about things such as:

  • ~ What page gets the most user time?
  • ~ What time do you get the most visitors?
  • ~ From which page do users most often bail from your site?

PUT OUT A CREATIVE WELCOME MAT

Here’s where the snappy writing does help.

Your site headlines are quick snippets of information. Your users often decide whether they are interested in your site and/or page right here. So easy-to-understand, attention-grabbing headlines will help make users want to hang on your door step and then delve deeper into your website.

Choose your words wisely and keep them relevant to what your users want to know.

THE SCAN ARTIST

A copy-heavy page is not well-received or read in full. But don’t distract your user with a ton of images, flash, slideshows, automatic videos or intro music either.
Users tend to skim through websites and scan pages, so large paragraphs are not useful, even if you think it will help with key word relevancy. Your user will skip out before you know it.

  • ~ Write short 4-5 line paragraphs. Even a one-liner, now and then, adds good je ne sais quoi.
  • ~ Use bullet-point lists.
  • ~ Mix the above two to break up the page.
  • ~ Use subheads to divide longer chunks of copy.
  • ~ Use easy-to-read, web-friendly fonts like Verdana or Arial.
  • ~ Avoid dark, patternend backgrounds; a light-colored plain background gives the most readability.
  • ~ Less is more – choose your images and graphics carefully and make them applicable to the copy.

Hot Chillys does this really well …

HOW’S YOUR STREET CRED?…OK, WEB CRED?

How is what you have to say more credible than the rest of oh, say, every other company in your industry that has a website? Yep, those hundreds, maybe even thousands of sites?

People want to know and trust that what you’re offering has credibility, integrity, quality…you need to establish this quickly and early on in your users’ visit.

  • ~ Your About Us section – what about you? Talk about your credentials and what separates you from the rest of the herd. Show your users you are solid.
  • ~ Who are you? Not your company, product or service as a business or commercial entity, but as a person. Make your offering relevant as a person, not as an object. Your users want to relate to the total package and the way to do that is tell them who you are, what’s your story?
  • ~ Use testimonials to build trust. Testimonials from your happy clients or customers pack a powerful punch to your credibility. Engage past clients to write about their expectations and results they received by partnering with you. Make sure to include your client’s name, business name and their website URL…it helps the user know the bandwagon is real.

GOOD TO GREAT

Features are good, but get to the real great thing: what benefits do you offer? How do you fill a need and make your future client’s life easy, painless and stress-free? Anticipate that your client will want to know “what do I get out of this?” and show them how you can solve their problems.

  • ~ Good: ElementsLocal offers Franchise companies a website platform that provides a local website for each of their Franchisees.
  • ~ Great: ElementsLocal provides each Franchisee with a customizable local website in one-third the cost AND capitalizes on the strength and power of national branding and established online presence.

CALLS TO ACTION

Now that your user must absolutely have your product or service, you need to let them know how to get it. Make your calls to action clear and easy to find. Include them in several places (tastefully) on each page, for example as a side bar button.

  • ~ Use the online wizard to purchase your site in 4 easy steps. (inline copy)
  • ~ Purchase your site now! (button copy)
  • ~ Click here to receive your sprocket, risk-free! (inline copy)
  • ~ Order your sprocket! (button copy)

Your website copy, especially that on your home page, is your 15 seconds for a great first impression—that awesome smile and pleasantly firm handshake. Your clients need to be crystal clear about why you are the person they should partner with.

You don’t need to embark on a site overhaul and rewrite all your content. Employing some of these techniques will help you build your website into an effective marketing tool. Employ all of them and you’ll produce an outstanding online marketing manager who will sell your product or service 8760 (or 8784 depending).

New to Web Publishing?

Posted on by Brandon

As the primary trainer for ELEMENTS software, I work with many first-time users. It’s been my experience that working on a website is intimidating to many people. I also encountered this same fear when I first began working on websites.

Let’s focus on items first-time users should become very familiar with.

Kid’s Play with Links and Images

Websites are like play dough: there is little that cannot be tweaked or fixed. I always tell my users, get your hands dirty because it is the easiest way to learn; you’ll always be able to fix or undo something you didn’t quite intend to happen.

I would recommend learning to do these 2 items first:
1. Add an Image
2. Create a link

Images will allow users to become more familiar with a product or service you are displaying on your site. Links will allow users to move freely from one page to another. Links can also be used to highlight partners or affiliates, and allow them to view their own websites as well. Both features will increase the amount of time your users spend on your site.

With very little effort you can move to the next step, combine these two features and create exciting ‘Pop-up’ images. By mastering these two, simple, but key items, you will find yourself quickly editing your website making it more interactive and user-friendly.

One of the top ways Google determines website ranking is by how many different websites link to your website, which will be discussed in a future Elements Daily.