Use Case Studies to Prove Your Expertise
Challenge: Anyone can say they’re an expert. So how do you make your claim believable? This was DK Innovative’s concern. They partnered with us recently to build a new website, and our top priority was to make sure their clients understood – and believed – the breadth of their expertise. Their clients, pharmaceutical marketing teams, are often stretched thin for time and resources. DK Innovative helps them fill those gaps, with over 20 years of pharmaceutical marketing experience. The problem is that sentence sounds like a lot of marketing hooey. Our client needed to do more than...
read moreHow to Get Your Article Published
So you’ve been reading a magazine or an industry newsletter for a while now, and you’ve got an idea for an article that you just know would be perfect for it – and would hopefully send a little business your way, too. How do you get your article published? Truthfully, it’s not rocket science. You just have to understand these six simple rules of publishing… 1. Know which publications are right for you. Not all publications are relevant to your market; others are extremely competitive and might not be likely to accept your ideas if you’re not already a published author. Be smart in...
read moreAre You Sure About Your USP?
In your marketing, do you stress your deep expertise or your terrific customer service? How do you know these are really your company’s biggest selling points? Do they really make your company unique? Or do they just sound like something you should be saying? Marketers like to talk a lot about the Unique Selling Proposition (USP). The problem is that not enough companies understand what makes them unique. I used to ask new clients what they saw as their USP…but I’ve stopped, because I was often dissatisfied with the answers. It’s just too easy to rely on a shallow USP, which isn’t...
read moreDoes Your Website Follow this WRONG Advice?
Redesigning your website can be a lot like being parent; everyone is eager to share their advice with you – whether it’s good or bad. And unless you’re extremely experienced in the industry, it can be hard to tell which is which. One piece of advice frequently tossed around is that people won’t read a lot of copy on websites. Put everything into bullet points, they’ll say, because the less copy the better. To this advice I say, “Hogwash.” People absolutely will read copy on websites, as long as you’re smart about what you say and how you say it. What are your visitors...
read more4 Super Simple Steps to Optimize Your Press Release
Wondering how to optimize your press release? It couldn’t be easier. Wondering why you need to optimize your press release? If you’re planning on using an online distribution service like PRWeb.com (my personal favorite, for being cost-effective and generating good results for my clients), you’ll want to get the most bang for your buck and make sure that people can actually find your press release. Here’s an overview of how the process works: You upload your optimized press release to the service website. Be sure to include a link to your website when it asks for your contact...
read moreHow to Write a Press Release that Gets Noticed
Everyone loves free publicity. And if you know how to write a press release effectively, it could be just the ticket. The press release is the first step toward getting your company name printed in newspapers, trade magazines or online industry websites. But well-written press releases follow a particular set of journalistic rules. Here is my simple system, so that you too will know how to write a press release like the pros. Define Your Angle Why will anyone take the time to read this press release? You have to have a news-worthy angle. Company news – things like a move, a new...
read moreWriting a Business Plan? Here’s My Template.
With 2010 drawing to a close, I’m busy writing a business plan for 2011. Not all of our marketing speaks to our clients and prospects. This business plan will be a purely internal document; no client will ever see it. And yet, it may be the most important piece of marketing communications I’ll write the whole year. If you need help writing your business plan, here’s the simple template that I’m using. I hope you find it helpful. Business Plan Template Cover page. Even though it’s an internal document, it still needs to feel “official”. Vision Statement. Clarify why...
read moreAttention Green Marketers: FTC Wants to Change What You Can Say
If you market “green” products, heads up: the FTC wants to change what you can legally say in your advertising. With a nod to the growing demand for green products and the unfortunate rise of “greenwashing” as a marketing practice, the FTC wants to make it harder for marketers to broadly claim they are “green” or “eco-friendly”. However, three popular phrases – “sustainable”, “natural” and “organic” – are not covered by the proposal. The FTC says these terms are already covered under Department of...
read moreThe Easy Way to Nurture Your Leads
It’s been a busy day today. I have to admit, it was hard for me to make time for this article. However, this newsletter is one of my most important marketing tools. I know, as a marketer, it’s critical for me to nurture the leads I get. These leads may not be ready to buy from me right now, but if I can stay in touch with them on a regular basis, then when they are ready to buy, I’ll be front of mind. Luckily, I have a secret weapon that makes creating this newsletter breathtakingly easy. It’s my editorial calendar. Magazine editors have been using editorial...
read moreSEO 101: Keywords and Interior Decorating
When you walk into a room – whether it’s a comfy family room or a bustling kitchen – you look around. You sense the atmosphere. You expect to see certain things, and you begin to understand where you are. Using keywords is a lot like decorating a room. There’s a place for everything, and everything in its place. Keywords are the foundation for every search engine strategy. Search engines (like Google) use keywords to understand your site. Imagine your web page is a room and Google is entering your room for the first time. What will Google notice first? What stands out the...
read moreLatest Email Marketing Trends
I love knowing what other marketers are doing. Why reinvent the wheel, right? Email marketing, in particular, always seems a little murky to me, so I try to stay on top of what’s going on in the market. On its surface, the concept of email marketing is simple – create an email and send it out, cheaply and quickly, and watch the leads roll in. But in practice, it’s anything but easy. The email marketing provider Lyris has some excellent white papers on the subject, and I’d like to share with you some of their top email marketing trends you need to know. 1. Catch and...
read moreHow to Write a Brochure in 3 Easy Steps
An IT firm wanted to know how to write a brochure. They had even come up with some preliminary text: ABC Company is a professional IT consulting firm specializing in strategic information technology services that help you drive business results. Our principals are experienced consultants with an average of 15 years’ experience. Our clients range from small firms to Fortune 500 companies. Everything they wrote was factual and important. Unfortunately, it was also boring and would never get read. I take a strategic approach when writing a brochure, to grab and hold my reader’s...
read moreWhy Is Strategic Planning So Important in Marketing?
It seems these days I’m always strapped for time. Do you feel that way too? I swear there are always a million things on my to-do list, some of them urgent, some merely important. Ha. I try hard to make the best use of my time. I can’t afford to mess around with activities that won’t bring me a certain amount of return. And that’s why, for each activity I do, I try to know precisely what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I try to think strategically about it. I’m not interested in guessing or hoping that a strategy will work, either. I want to know it...
read more5 Simple Tips for Writing a Feature Article
Feature articles are a smart addition to your website and marketing strategy. This compelling content makes you an expert…makes your website more “sticky”…and makes your prospect want to take action. With these 5 simple tips, writing a feature article couldn’t be easier. I use these steps every day for my clients and my own marketing as well, and I’ve found it makes the whole process absolutely painless. 1. Know your reader Decide whom you’re targeting. Picture the reader in your mind, not just as a broad category but as a real, living, breathing person. What do you know...
read moreHow to Win the Small Business of the Year Award
You’ve put your heart and soul into building your company into what it is today. You’ve nurtured it, you’ve coddled it, you’ve watched it grow. And now, you’re eyeing the prize – the Small Business of the Year Award. But first, you’ve got to write the application. Where do you start? Here are 5 tips for creating an application that will stand out from the crowd and get recognized by the judges. 1. Think like a Twitterer. Be crisp, clear, and concise, so that the judge reading your application understands immediately what business you’re in and what...
read moreAn Email Marketing Strategy to Build Relationships
Relationships. That’s the name of the marketing game these days. We all know that customers are more likely to buy from suppliers with whom they have a relationship. But how do you build and nurture that relationship? I’d like to share with you an example of REI’s email marketing strategy to build a relationship with me, their customer. If you’re not familiar with REI, they’re a retailer and established authority for outdoor recreational equipment. They’ve got all the gear you never knew you needed for just about any outdoor sport. And if you have a question or need...
read more5 Easy Ways to Make Your Site Skim-able
Is your website set up for skimmers as well as readers? People come to a website looking for something in particular. Rather than read every word on the site, they’ll skim through the pages until they find what interests them – and then they’ll read. So the trick to an effective website is to make it easy to skim, without cutting out all the important parts that will actually answer people’s questions. Here’s how you do that… 1. Clear Page Goals Every page on your website should have a purpose – and hopefully one purpose only. That keeps things nice and...
read moreWhat Goals Do Your Website Visitors Have?
It’s January, and you’re probably awash with advice on how to set goals for your business in the new year. I’d like you to switch things around. I’d like you to think about the goals your website visitors have. People come to your website for a reason. They have a specific task – a goal, if you will – that they’re trying to accomplish. Do you know what those goals are? And are you helping them meet those goals? No one has time to waste fumbling through your website. If visitors to your site can’t find what they need within 2 to 3 clicks, they’ll click that back...
read moreHow Does Google Work?
A top listing on Google – many businesses crave it…but few achieve it. If this is a goal for you, then it’s important to understand how Google works before you can figure out the right search engine strategy for you. Here’s a quick explanation of Google’s technology and how you can use this knowledge to your advantage. Google’s Approach In order to stay on top of everything published in the World Wide Web, Google uses highly complex equations in, paradoxically, what comes down to a very simple approach. This approach is made up of three key parts: Googlebot, which finds and...
read moreHow New FTC Rules Affect Your Testimonials
Marie Osmond says she lost 40 pounds with NutriSystem, so the FTC says that better mean I can expect to lose 40 pounds if I try NutriSystem, too. The truth is no longer good enough for the FTC. With its new rules that take effect December 1, 2009, the FTC acknowledges that while a statement may be technically true, it can also be misleading or downright deceptive. This change in guidelines may affect your business if you use endorsements or testimonials in your marketing. Here’s what you need to know in order to stay clear of an investigation. What are your typical results? Say you...
read moreInterview Tips for Knock-Out Case Studies
When I was a newbie writer, one thing always terrified me. Interviews. Just the thought of interviewing someone made me sweat. I look back now and laugh, but seriously – I used to get my stomach in such knots. Luckily, I’ve learned some tricks of the trade since then. But why should you care? Two words: case studies. A case study is essentially an interview with a happy client. And as you know, case studies boost your credibility, answer your prospect’s questions, eliminate your prospect’s fears, and knock out your competition – all in 400-800 carefully chosen words. It’s...
read moreBack to Basics: Ignore the 3Bs at Your Peril!
Do you remember everything you learned in school? I swear I had the best short term memory; I could cram tons of information in my head and pour it all out for my tests. But ask me today if I remember any of it? The capital of New Hampshire or the square root of pi? Not a chance. Since the kids are going back to school this month, it’s a good opportunity for us older folks to brush up on some of those basics we learned a long time ago. And I’ve got three rules of good communication we all need to know. There are a ton of reasons why good communication skills are still...
read moreHow to Reassess Your Website Strategy
It’s August now, the kids are off to summer camp, and business has slowed down a little. Phew! I’m taking this opportunity to do some navel-gazing – specifically, to analyze my website. Over the past 12 months, writing website copy has taken over a big chunk of my business, and I’d like my website to reflect that. I expect that I’ll end up rewriting large portions of my home page and possibly reorganizing the content on the interior pages. Before I can begin, however, I’ve got some thinking and strategizing to do. Below are the targeted questions I’ll be asking myself...
read moreForbes Says CEOs Are Looking for Your Website
“A CEO needs to locate information on a competitor, business partner, a customer trend, or a news development. What does he or she do?” That’s the question Forbes Insights and Google recently asked 354 top executives at large U.S. companies (sales greater than $1 billion). The result of their research, the 23-page report “Rise of the Digital C-Suite,” shows that the Internet has become the chief source of business information for U.S. executives. What does this mean for your company? The report outlines two key findings you need to know: 1. The Internet is the...
read more4 Quick Steps to Local SEO
Localized search engine optimization can be tricky, especially if you operate in multiple cities. Let’s say you’re a painter with an office physically located in Plainfield, but you can easily work anywhere in a 10- to 20-mile radius. You want your website to attract people looking not only for Plainfield painters, but also for Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook, Darien, Woodridge, Lombard, and Joliet painters, to name just a few cities. What’s the easiest way to do that? 1. Claim your local business listings with search engines and online directories This has nothing to do...
read more5 Simple Rules for Effective Business Web Sites
I write quite a bit of Web copy. But when I work on online copy, before I even write the first word, I research the Web sites of my client’s competition. I need to get a feel for what else is out there in my client’s industry – both the good and the bad – so that I know how to properly position my client. And over the years, I’ve seen quite an eyeful. So here’s the benefit of my experience – 5 simple rules for an effective business Web site. Ignore them at your peril! 1. Be specific. Apparently almost every business with a Web site provides “innovative...
read moreCAN-SPAM: Are You Obeying the Law?
You’d never intentionally spam anyone. But that may not matter. According to Marketing Sherpa’s 2008 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide, 21% of business professionals surveyed said they use the “spam” button to unsubscribe from lists – regardless of whether they opted in to the list in the first place. And 39% said they use the “spam” button often or very often. So how do you avoid getting reported as a spammer? What does the law say? In December of 2003, Congress established the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM). This law...
read moreHow to Create Customer Success Stories That Sell
A good testimonial is priceless. With a handful sentences, you can establish credibility and authenticity, let prospects visualize the results you can generate for them, and improve the likelihood that they will buy from you. But did you know you can turbo-charge that testimonial to get even better results? Turn it into a customer success story – also known as a case study. What is a case study? Case studies are longer, more detailed testimonials; they’re typically 750 to 1,000 words long – about one to two printed pages, or three to four screens on a webpage. In a nutshell,...
read moreCreate Great Web Content: Marketing Sherpa Webinar Review
Have you heard about MarketingSherpa? Their weekly newsletter is a must-read for me. It’s seriously like taking a sneak peek into your competitor’s business. They also offer occasional training, and I recently sat in on a webinar, “How to create high conversion lead generation content” – in other words, how to create web content that does a better job of converting leads into buyers. It was great stuff, and I wanted to share it with you. First, I loved their 3 ground rules for all web content, which reinforces what I always tell my clients: 1. Your website...
read moreGive Your Newsletter More Focus
Do you have a newsletter? If you don’t, you should. I can’t think of any industry, any company, that wouldn’t see some measure of increased lead generation and customer retention with a well-written newsletter. The trouble is, there’s a lot of lousy newsletters out there. Several things differentiate the great newsletters from the mediocre, but they all boil down to one key point the writers of the best newsletters already know: to produce a newsletter that generates results, you must compellingly present information the customer actually wants to read. This...
read moreHow to Thank Your Clients Memorably
Ahhh, the holidays are here. Is it just me, or are all of you having trouble focusing on your work, too? I’d much rather be out shopping. But honestly, besides spending money, I love another holiday tradition as well – getting all those cards in the mail. There’s just one problem: you have to send cards in order to get cards. Holiday cards – especially corporate cards – can be tough to write. What do you say? In such a tiny spot? It’s tempting to just have your signature pre-printed on the cards and be done with it. But please…stop and reconsider. Build a strong...
read moreWrite Better Headlines Easily
Are you anxious to see the newspaper headlines tomorrow morning? Wednesday’s papers will have the hottest political headlines since the Chicago Tribune declared “Dewey Beats Truman” in 1948. I’ll bet record numbers of papers are sold. Compelling headlines are critical to everything from newspaper articles to your every-day advertisements, web copy, or brochures. You know the drill: each word in your headline must grab the reader’s attention and pull him in to continue reading your copy. But exactly how do you do that? Here are three copywriting tricks I can share: 1. Use the...
read moreBanish the Blank Computer Screen Blues!
I hate blank computer screens. Every time I start a new project, I get nervous. The negative buzz in my head takes over for a minute: what to say? where to start? I sit, waiting for inspiration to strike. It’s at these times I’m often overcome with an immediate urge to organize my supply cabinet…sort through invoices…something, anything, that suddenly sounds more attractive than sitting in front of a blank computer screen! As a professional writer, however, this is not good. My clients do prefer that I actually finish their projects before they pay me, so I’ve had to find...
read moreWrite a Better Bio in Ten Minutes
Apparently it’s true; people don’t like to toot their own horns. I’m amazed that people would rather pay me to write their executive bios than do it themselves. Seriously, bios are supposed to be short, and you know the subject matter – yourself – intimately. It doesn’t get easier than this! So why, then, do so many people hate writing them? Well, lots of reasons. People don’t want to come across as if they’re bragging, or worse, they think they don’t lead interesting enough lives to have anything to write about. But I think the real problem is the abundance of really...
read moreThe Right Way to Write to Your Clients
When you write to your clients – whether it’s a fancy monthly newsletter or a simple quick email – do you talk at them, or do you have a conversation with them? The single most effective copywriting secret, that will guarantee that your letters and marketing materials will knock your clients socks off, is to master the art of conversational writing. Conversational writing, done properly, establishes a closeness between you and your client, and gains their confidence and attention. It’s not pretentious, boring, or dry – problems that plague most business writing. Instead, writing...
read moreThree Reasons Why You Should Love Junk Mail
I was starting to write an article for this newsletter about benefits versus features, when I realized I needed some good examples to demonstrate my point. I turned to my “swipe” file to pull out marketing materials that I’ve saved over the years, when it occurred to me… Does everyone have a swipe file? Because you should. What is a swipe file? Brochures, postcards, flyers, direct (aka “junk”) mail, even email spam all go into my swipe file. It’s nothing fancy, just a plain accordion file, and it takes very little time to maintain. Read the piece then throw it in the file to...
read moreThe One Thing You Must Always Do For Your Customers
I love Family Fun. I’ve subscribed for over ten years now. The magazine is chock-full of crafts, recipes, and helpful ideas that work even for time-starved, creatively challenged parents like myself. But my subscription expires this month. And somehow I lost the return envelope that came with my renewal notice. No big deal, right? I’ve got the letter; the address should be on there somewhere, right? WRONG. Can you believe that Family Fun magazine, published by Disney Publishing Worldwide and sent to over 2 millions subscribers, does not print their address on their renewal...
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