Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category.

Why Optimization Isn’t Everything

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not an SEO (search engine optimization) specialist. But I am a writer, so I know the difference between strong writing and weak writing when I encounter it on the page or screen. I prefer not to use the terms “good” or “bad” in describing any kind of creative endeavor; as my playwriting instructor used to tell me, “There’s no such thing as good or bad writing — only stronger or weaker choices.” In the world of writing for the Web, some of those weaker choices occur in the struggle to produce “organic SEO,” or content optimized to turn up higher in online searches. And there lies the rub. Do you write to get your website found, or do you write to convert those who find it?

This question came to a head for me a few years ago when I wrote for a web developer who was building a new site for a local attorney. This particular web developer put tremendous stock in the power of organic SEO — so much stock, in fact, that he didn’t care about niggling details such as grammar. As a result, he insisted that I use a phrase that simply didn’t make grammatical sense on the sole grounds that it ranked well in search results. “We need to make sure this attorney gets found online,” he said.

I felt obliged to point out that just because people don’t use grammatically correct search phrases, that doesn’t mean they won’t recognize a clunker when they see it on the site. “Even if the key phrase does attract lots of visitors,” I tried to explain, “you’ll just have that many more people viewing poorly-written content and assuming that your client is a moron.” He was having none of it, though, and his word was final. So I found a way to couch it in a quotation, thus: “You’ll see a lot of online searches for ['key phrase']….” This allowed me to use the phrase without actually having it originate from the client, saving both his page ranking and his reputation as an educated person.

Organic SEO does matter, but it has to be seeded gracefully into the writing. A term such as “Chiropractor East Austin,” for instance, is pretty darn hard to add to a sentence without sounding goofy, whereas “East Austin chiropractor” is a cinch. Will the latter phrase rank as high? I don’t know, but surely it’ll rank. Personally, I could see myself typing either phrase to search for that particular service. Ultimately, the decision rests with the web developer or SEO specialist assigned to the site, but as a writer I will always push for the stronger content over the stronger keyword. Many of the SEO experts I’ve spoken to actually agree with me — drawing lots of ideal customers to the site doesn’t matter if the content they view there turns them off. And there are plenty of effective, perfectly ethical SEO tactics that don’t involve the written page text at all.

I’ll climb down from my soap box now. Just remember — SEO matters, but so does the quality of your writing!

For information about writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Marketing Madness: The Art of Irrationality

As I write this, millions of sports fans are eagerly following the NCAA basketball tournament. No, pardon me, that came out wrong. I meant that they’re all going crazy over March Madness. That’s how the parties involved always market the event; in fact, advertisers usually feel the need to go further by posting banner ads screaming “MARCH MAYHEM!” and the like. The March Madness theme has even permeated organizations such as NBCNews.com, which is currently running its own “Senate Madness,” a fantasy tournament of U.S. Senators. Everybody goes nuts over the madness metaphor, it seems. But does insanity sell?

Irrationality is nothing new as a marketing pitch. I’m not referring to bizarre guerilla methods or some the surreal TV spots we get with every Superbowl — I’m talking about the promotion of the company or product itself as irrational. Going back to the Golden Age of Advertising, how many of us can recall all the countless used car dealers posing for the cameras dress as Napoleon, tongue hanging out and eyes crossed, going by names like “Crazy Eddie” and yelling, “Our prices are so low, we must be crazy!” We see variations on that trope even today, with mattress shop owners throwing dollar bills in the air and car dealers (yes, them again) screaming about how insanely low their financing is and how insanely much you can get for your old clunker.

It’s been going on for years, so it obviously works. But why does it work?

Appeal to excitement – When you think “March Madness,” you think of the nation’s best teams scrapping desperately for a shot at the championship. Adrenalin is pumping, rabid fans are screaming their heads off, and you can tap into that excitement and energy from your living room couch. A car showroom advertising “crazy sales” will likely be jumping with tire-tickers and serious buyers alike. There might even be balloons and hot dogs.

Appeal to opportunity – “How can we practically give away this product? We must be nuts!” The spokesperson in the ad is merely stating what the viewer or reader is already thinking. Preemptively addressing the issue defuses it somewhat, since you can’t just blow the promotion off by responding, “Aw, no sane person would offer that.” We’re left scratching our heads and wondering whether the current sale or promotion really is a totally irrational act aimed at grabbing as much attention as possible. If that’s the case, maybe we can take advantage of their need by participating in this incredible deal….And if the business owner is genuinely nuts, maybe we can take him before he comes to his senses. “Crazy like a fox” is more like it — but if so, then what’s his game? We’re compelled by the mystery.

Appeal to humor – Okay, you’ve figured it out. The car dealer dressed as Napoleon isn’t really out of his gourd. The guy throwing dollar bills in the air isn’t really indifferent about money. These folks are showing us that they have a sense of humor about themselves and their ba laugh. We like people with a sense of humor. And we do business with people we like.

I’m not advising you to run out and buy a bunch of party hats and noisemakers for your next ad campaign. I’m not suggesting that start giving away all your product line for free as a promotional stunt. But does your current marketing lack sparkle, excitement or entertainment value? A little lunacy goes a long way — but it goes!

For information about writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Is Your Marketing on Spring Break?

Another March is flying by, and for Austin business owners, March means distractions. I noticed quite a few empty chairs at a recent networking meeting, and the buzz around the table was either “Well, spring break…” or “Well, South by Southwest….” Many of the tech-savvy entrepreneurs I know flock to SXSW every spring, tweeting madly about various events, presentations and informal get-togethers. Others are drawn to the glut of musical happenings. And in the midst of all this, kids suddenly have the week off. The older ones go hit the SXSW craziness or take off for whatever beach they can afford, while the younger ones need supervising at home (unless the whole family is planning a week-long excursion). The entire city gets massively distracted, and you probably do too. Question is, what happens to your business’s marketing in the process?

Okay, you’re on vacation, or you genuinely need to be at the SXSW trade shows and panels, or you can’t leave your kids at home alone during the break. But if you haven’t set up a marketing machine, some kind of plan that continues to implement itself in your absence, then your business is taking the week off along with you. Many of us can’t afford that. As long as there are people out there who need and want what we offer, we have to keep working to get their attention and hold it long enough to convert curiosity into sales. But too many entrepreneurs are flying by the seat of their pants, marketing-wise, putting out email offers or posting blog articles only when and if they have time to do so. The problem is, if you wait until you have time, then your business suffers whenever you don’t have time — which is most of the time! You have to make time for marketing.

This doesn’t mean you have to skip all those industry events or personal breaks. It means you have to construct a marketing campaign that can run on auto-pilot, more or less. More often than not, involves some degree of outsourcing. You might need to talk to a web marketing company about automatically routing specific direct mail messages to prospects at various stages of interest. You may have to talk to a copywriter (like me) about creating a stockpile of blog articles so you always have a post ready to publish on schedule. You might need to ask substitutes to appear on your behalf at your regular networking meetings so your brand can maintain its presence there. In short, it means planning ahead.

Whatever you do, don’t let an established routine fall apart for any significant length of time. I recently got an email from a client who had been AWOL for about 8 months, wanting to know if I could resume blogging for him. He hadn’t come up with any articles of his own during all the time — the blog had simply, and visibly, been left for dead. I told him that while I’d be happy to write some new articles for him, we’d have to rebuild whatever readership he’d gained from scratch. A little neglect, unfortunately, goes a long way.

Summer will be here soon enough. You and yours may be looking forward to a well-earned vacation. So do the necessary strategizing right now to make sure your marketing will keep its nose to the grindstone while you’re having fun!

For information about writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Generally Speaking: The All-Purpose Copywriter

Recently I received a nice endorsement from one of my clients in the pet care field: “After just a few minutes’ conversation with William on the topics we wanted to cover, he produced articles that sounded like he was an expert on pet care.” That’s nice, but of course I wasn’t the expert at all — he was. The articles I wrote for him reflected his expertise and point of view, which is just how it should be.

As a generalist, I like to say that I know a tiny little bit about a whole lot of things, and even that is probably more credit than I deserve. It’s cost me some jobs, I’m sure, because some subject experts only want writers who specialize in that subject. To me, that seems kind of redundant, especially since my job is to digest the information for a mainstream readership. If you can explain it to me, I can explain it to them.

Here’s a tiny sampling of some of the subject matter I’ve written on over the years:

Cosmetic eyebrow shaping
Senior/home health care
Home theater setups (and movie suggestions)
Indoor plumbing
Automobile troubleshooting and repair
Veterinary issues
Buying and selling homes
Urology
Life insurance
Chiropractic care
Debt management
Photography
Executive outsourcing
Transportation security
IT services
Psychology
Handicrafts
Mobile apps
Digital printing technologies
Residential & commercial landscaping
Vehicle wraps and commercial signage
Family & divorce law
School fundraising strategies
Metric screws, nuts and bolts
Commercial roofing and construction
Marketing strategies
Green technologies
Executive financial management
Massage therapy

And those are just the first few that popped into my head. Suffice it to say that over the past 16 years I’ve written on many, many more subjects than these. Does that make me an expert on all of these subjects? You’ve got to be kidding.

So how do I ensure accurate, authoritative writing on such as broad range of subjects? Well, thanks to the Internet, all of us have a near-infinite supply of data at our fingertips, provided that we stick with widely recognized, trusted sources. The easiest way for fledgling writers to do this is by prioritizing the “.edu” and “.gov” sources over more obviously commercial ones. Over time, these go-to resources engrave themselves into your gray matter until you can rattle them off automatically. Medical topic? Mayo Clinic. Cleveland Clinic. University of Maryland Medical Center. American Chiropractic Association. American Dental Association. American Cancer Society. American Heart Association. And those are just for starters — there are tons of medical studies, universities and private clinics out there to back you up.

But where does 90 percent of my background info comes from? From my expert in the field — the client! That’s the whole point of writing on a particular topic; you know a lot about this stuff, you have something meaningful to say about it, and you’re the specialist that your target reader should contact to learn more about it. I find that once I get clients talking about their chosen work, they usually excel at explaining it to me in everyday terms. And that allows me to explain it to their readers in a compelling and colorful way.

Got a unique, obscure or esoteric topic? Never fear — the generalist is here!

For information about writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Consistent Marketing Makes You Memorable

Yesterday I went out to the mailbox as usual. I didn’t see any mail, but I figured that I might’ve hit it too early, so a couple of hours later I went out and checked the mailbox again. Still nothing. That’s not unheard of, naturally, but I couldn’t help thinking, “Maybe he’s just running slow today. I’ll try once more time later on.” Maybe if I found a check from a client in there toward the end of the afternoon, I’d still have time to run it over to the bank. (Freelancers are used to thinking of their bank accounts as patients connected to emergency medical equipment, awaiting transfusions of life-giving liquid assets.) So about 5pm I checked one more time. Well, never mind, I guess I just wasn’t fated to receive any mail that day….

Then it hit me: Nobody got any mail that day. It was Presidents’ Day.

The funny thing, I knew it was Presidents’ Day, and I knew the mail wouldn’t be going out. What’s more, I’ll bet the other dozen or so people who were out there checking their mail along with me also knew it was a no-mail day. So what were we doing out there? Obeying habit. We robotically went to the mailbox because we had been programmed to do that. “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night…” has been branded into our brains. We’ve been trained to respond through the sheer consistency of the post office, and it trips us up when something breaks that routine.

You want the same kind of consistency in your marketing schedule. Whether you’re blogging, publishing a newsletter, pumping out podcasts, mailing out print pieces or whatever — you must do it regularly and consistently if you want to (1) get noticed, (2) develop interest, and (3) train your target market to expect and even look forward to more. Nobody sends out a single flyer or direct mail postcard and expects the phone to start ringing; it takes multiple touches to get any kind of response. Your client may throw the first few postcards in the trash, but as long as you get that eventual “Okay, let’s see what these people are so wound up about” response, then you’re halfway home.

These schedules aren’t so hard to create; after all, how often does a monthly newsletter go out? It’s simply a matter of scheduling the content preparation, graphics work, production and shipment (or the email drop, if it’s an e-newsletter). Consistency matter for blogging as well. However often you decide to blog, keep those posts regular and before long you’ll have a base of loyal readers trained to come back for the next round of insight, special offer or whatever other goody you’ve got for them. If you’re pressed for time or don’t have the necessary personnel on staff, outsource the content creation or delivery. If you market yourself only when you have all the time in the world to do it, that extra time may be the result of an already-suffering business. Don’t let your audience start wandering away in disinterest — keep them coming back for more!

Mail resumes today. I’m already excited.

For information about writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Is Your Copywriting “Kid Stuff?” Don’t Insult Your Readers’ Intelligence

Have you ever been talked down to as if you were a moron? Chances are that it was purely unintentional. And yet books, movies, TV shows and other presentations insult our intelligence every day.

Case in point: One of my favorite animated shows from my youth, the Japanese-American sci-fi adventure Robotech. I remember being fascinated at how different this show was from the other after-school fare — a continuing storyline that took place over three generations, with Earth military forces battling aliens; a complex cast of characters who fell in and out of love, questioned the meaning of their lives, and even, on occasion, died suddenly and tragically. Looking back on it, I can understand why the producers of the show’s American dub probably felt that a lot of this stuff would fly over the heads of their youthful target audience. But that doesn’t quite excuse the sheer overkill of their solution.

Almost every time a moment of silence occurs during an episode, a loud, obnoxious narrator throws in his two cents about what’s going on, even when it’s incredibly obvious. Our hero Rick might be in his room looking at mementos from his dead brother, and instead of a wistful silence we’d hear something like: “RICK HUNTER REMEMBERS THE MANY GOOD TIMES HE SPENT WITH HIS BROTHER, MOMENTS NEVER TO RETURN NOW THAT HIS BROTHER IS DEAD.” Even a 14-year-old kid would (and did) roll his eyes at that one. My personal favorite, which continues to ring in my mind’s ear decades later, occurs after Rick awakens from a lengthy, bizarre dream:

Rick: So, it was all just a dream….
Narrator: YES, RICK, ONLY A DREAM.

I call this sort of thing “Gratuitous Explanation Syndrome.” It’s the result of content creators not trusting their audience’s ability to get the message, and it’s usually an embarrassment to all concerned. It also happened in Ridley Scott’s movie Blade Runner. Audiences who saw it in the theater remember Harrison Ford’s running narration in which he explains pretty much every single plot detail and shares his every passing thought. While on the surface it seems to mesh with the film’s “noir” mood and style, in reality it was added only after the movie was completed — because the studio didn’t think the audience would follow what was going on without having the entire story spoon-fed to them.

Is your marketing content guilty of underestimating its audience?

I’ve written about the dangers of dumping too much information on your target market before, but this is a special kind of transgression because you’re not just over-explaining; you’re actually talking down to your readers. It’s one thing to use a clear, simple writing style at a non-challenging reading level. It’s quite another to attempt to do all the thinking for the readers. Not only do you project your apparent belief that they’re a bunch of numbskulls, but you also take away their ability to engage the concepts — to fill in the blanks for themselves. It’s the difference between trying to tell your audience what emotions to feel and actually drawing them in so they can feel those emotions spontaneously.

What would a Robotech viewer have felt watching Rick Hunter reminisce in total silence? Just what the original writers intended, most likely. It’s a riskier, more courageous creative choice, but one that can yield bigger dividends — both in TV and in marketing.

For information about writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

A Marketing Carol

“Bah, humbug!” If you’re looking at your year-end figures and voicing that sentiment, you may have given up on the power of a cohesive, congruent marketing strategy for bringing about a happy holiday — or worse yet, you may have been stingy about feeding that marketing machine, starving your future in an obsessive effort to hang onto the here and now. Maybe what you need is a visitation from three spirits….

The Ghost of Marketing Past: This spirit forces you to take a long, perhaps painful look back at your previous marketing efforts from day one of your company’s launch. You made plenty of mistakes, didn’t you? We all do. Of course you also had your share of successes, but for the most part, you probably stumbled from discovery to discovery, embracing what worked and paring away what didn’t. Pay special attention to those things you could have done but didn’t. Did you invest the right amount of time, effort and money into your marketing? Did you draw up an official marketing budget, as opposed to “borrowing” from your grocery money or petty cash? Did you seek professional guidance from people who could smooth the way and help you produce better results more quickly?

The Ghost of Marketing Present: This figure stands before you right now, saying, “Here you are.” He compels you to view the current state of your website, social media presence, print marketing, networking partnerships and client relationships. As you stand on the cusp of a new year, what are your marketing resolutions? Are you enjoying the fruits of your current labor, or are you wishing that Christmas goose could have a little more meat on it? Well, you’ve learned from the past, but the past is gone — it no longer exists, and you cannot act in it. You can only take action NOW. So take stock, make some decisions and move on them. There’s literally no time like the present.

The Ghost of Marketing Future: Last but not last, take a stroll down Maybe Lane with this mysterious character. Where will your current business decisions and marketing campaigns lead you? Do you see yourself spinning your wheels year after frustrating year, or do you see yourself breaking through to the big time? The nifty thing about this vision is that it hasn’t actually taken shape yet, which means you can still fashion it into whatever you want it to be. Try picturing your ideal business in terms of industry status, revenues, customer satisfaction and so on. Are you on track to make it happen? If not, you may be able to reverse-engineer that future by going backward, step by step, until you can see exactly how to market your way to the finish line. You can then follow that path forward into a better future for your business.

And that’s no humbug!

For information about writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Time Management for Freelancers: When It’s Slow

Now that we’re in the thick of the holiday season, you’ll probably find that trying to do significant business feels like running a marathon in molasses. We’re just too distracted with other things, from holiday travel plans to shopping for presents (and/or standing in line to return presents). We’re eating and partying and goofing off and chilling out. And it’s a nice change of pace, even for those of us who wish the phone would ring non-stop with job offers. The fact is, holiday or no holiday, we freelancers will have slow periods. If you’re relatively new to this way of earning a living, it can spook you in the extreme or drive you into either deep depression or high anxiety, depending on how soon the rent is due.

But if you’re sitting around in a funk, you’re quite simply doing it wrong. Taking time off is fine, if that’s what you intend to do, but sitting at your desk allowing cobwebs to collect on yourself just makes you miserable and achieves nothing. If you’re in work mode, then work! There are plenty of productive things you can be doing apart from actual writing. Here are a few:

Network. If you’re not getting lost of referrals for work, maybe you’re not giving referrals to others. Networking is very much a “Golden Rule” proposition, so catch up on those crucial one-to-one meetings with professionals in your contact sphere. Hit the mixers and luncheons — you’ll find plenty of them this time of year. If you have an opportunity to speak at a networking or industry function, do so. Once you’ve got more work than you can handle, you’ll find it tough to leave your office chair and go promote yourself in person — so take advantage of your availability!

Mind your own business. Most of us didn’t get into our line of work for the joy of performing administrative tasks, but somebody has to do it. And if you’re a sole proprietor, that somebody is probably you. You know all those tedious but necessary office chores you’ve been putting off for far too long? Time to get them off your desk. Get your tax documentation into shape, purge old files, get current files organized, et cetera.

Work on projects. Do you have some big side project that’s been sitting on the back burner all year? Most of us do — I myself have a couple of e-books that never seem to receive the finishing touches I keep promising them. That’s because these things don’t “get finished” — we finish them. So if you’re looking at some downtime, take the opportunity to polish that golden egg so you can finally bring it to market.

Rest. Like I said, it can be beneficial to do nothing if you choose to turn your downtime into vacation time. After all, when things start hopping again you may find yourself completely overwhelmed. The money your star client isn’t spending on you this month just represents that much more money he might spend on you next month. So rest while you can!

And if you still don’t know what to do with yourself during a slow moment — write a blog article!

For information about my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Are You Quite Interesting?

If you’re any kind of Anglophile, you’ve probably heard of a very popular BBC quiz show called Quite Interesting, or QI for short. The moderator — actor, writer and Twitter demigod Stephen Fry — poses bizarre questions loosely related to a topic-of-the-week such as “Arthropods” or “Journalism,” and a four-person panel tries to come up with answers that win points. The panelist with the highest score at the end of the show wins. All very simple and straightforward, right?

Well, not quite. One of the most, ahem, interesting things about this freewheeling show is its eccentric, almost arbitrary scoring system. As you might expect, panelists win points for providing a correct answer to a given question — but they get even more points for an interesting answer. (If your answer is both correct and interesting, you can really clean up.) But they get points taken away for an answer that’s not only wrong but also lamentably dull and predictable in its wrongness. Why? Because amusing, captivating responses are more entertaining than obvious, boring recitations of facts or incorrect but commonly-held beliefs. Heck, anybody can know stuff, but would you actually enjoy talking to someone who only rolls out information you could get anywehere?

Our culture tends to rank entertainment on par with, if not actually above, information for its own sake. We’ve come to expect goofy weathermen, melodramatic graphics and music bumpers accompanying news stories, whiz-bang animated Powerpoint presentations, and ads with outlandish headlines. It’s the equivalent of somebody snapping their fingers in front of your face and saying, “Hey you! Watch this!” Well, it works — we watch. And if the information we receive engages us on an emotional level, we not only remember it but also act on it. That, as they say, is entertainment. It’s also effective marketing.

I’m not suggesting that you attend sales meetings wearing a rubber nose or program your website to run circus music every time someone goes to it. But the information you present in your marketing content needs to grab the reader or viewer on some emotional level or other, and presenting it from a clever or unusual angle is one way to accomplish that. Amuse, astonish or jolt your audience, and you’ve got your foot in the door. Once your audience is engaged, you can begin throwing those serious facts out there with some certainty that they’ll get a friendly welcome. It’s still important to be accurate — but in the world of marketing, it’s even more critical to be interesting.

Now go out there and score some points with your audience!

For more about my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Copywriting and Video Production: The Words Matter Too!

Video is the way to go. You’ll hear that from an increasing number of web developers and social media consultants these days. Uploading your marketing or informational videos to your website, YouTube and other channels can boost your online presence and create excitement about your company. And these days it’s easier than ever. I was in video production back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and creating even a short clip required a roomful of expensive editing facilities. Today you just point your iPhone in front of your face, talk/record, and post the result. Voila! Instant marketing — for better and for worse.

Video hasn’t killed the copywriting star. Why? Because more often than not, the effectiveness of a marketing video hinges on the words coming out of the presenter’s mouth. Some business owners with the gift of gab might have a magical ability to say all the perfect things in the right order in exactly X number of seconds. The rest of you, however, will find yourselves uhh-ing and umm-ing your way through multiple frustrating takes — including, in the worst case scenario, the final one. Posting such a video can do more harm than good.

So what’s the answer? Most video producers will tell you that it’s a script — a prepared marketing statement spoken directly to the camera and/or recorded as voice-over narrative. Video scriptwriters typically handle this task by creating a two-column document, with a list of shots on one side and the corresponding spoken text on the other. This not only keeps you from sounding like a doofus when you address your audience, but it also gives the director and editor a clear written blueprint for the entire video, saving time (and therefore money) in post-production.

Do you want to appear on camera or not? The great advantage of the voice-over narrative is that it allows you to record the whole thing at your leisure without having a camera pointed at your face; the editor will simply insert the completed audio wherever it needs to go in the finished product. And since you’re not on camera while you’re delivering your spiel, you don’t have to memorize anything. This is a big deal, believe me, unless you have a TelePrompter or cue cards standing by (and even then, your eyes may betray the fact that you’re reading). In some cases it may be worth it to hire a professional actor to serve as the face of your company, at least on video. On the other hand, if you are already known as that face, you’ll need to find a way to deliver the text yourself. A skilled copywriter will often help an on-camera novice by scripting a series of shorter speeches taken as multiple shots, as opposed to long monologues. Believe me, I’ve seen a LOT of time and money wasted because some poor non-actor was forced to nail a demanding speech in a single take.

So while it’s fantastic that video technology is cheaper and easier to work with than ever before, remember that to some extent, you still get what you pay for. And paying for a professionally-written script can make all the difference between a glorified home video and a genuinely effective marketing presentation.

For more about my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.