Jan
13th

Online Marketing Advice From Me And My Dog, Charlie

Posted by Christopher on January 13, 2010 at 10:05 am

11309_mananddogLet’s hypothesize. Let’s just say it’s a new year. Let’s say, further, that one of the things people do when faced with a new year is to make resolutions. “This year I’ll stop eating twelve servings of bacon a day and lose 25 pounds.” “This is the year I ignore the new season of ‘Metalocalypse’ and, instead, write that novel.” Etc.

Now, I could go all faux-philosopher on you and start blabbing away about the calendar year being an artificial construct and, as such, what difference does a new year make, but, yawn, who needs to hear all that? Plus, duh. All I know is this—there’s no better way for me to ensure January is a month filled with disappointment than to make even marginally far-reaching resolutions. Unless my follow-up resolution is to fail to keep any previous resolution, well, I’ll fail. I blame my lizard-brain, the lump on the top of my brain stem that basically just needs whatever regardless of any consequences.

I see the power of the animal urge evidenced every day in our dog, Charlie. Charlie knows, for example, certain things are off limits. Like, say, the fish food. For the most part, Charlie’s dog-conscience, paired with our vigilance, enables him to keep himself from trying to get the fish food. Charlie’s dog-conscience is of a tentative nature, however, because it sure didn’t stop Charlie from eating an entire bag of algae tablets after they fell on the floor. Was he ashamed? You bet. Did he feel guilty? In the way dogs feel guilt, which is to say, fleetingly. Will he refrain from eating another bag of bottom-feeding fish food if he finds it within reach and he’s not being watched, despite the fact that they’re made of freaking algae? No way. Were Charlie to make a resolution, any resolution, it would be broken before he knew he was breaking it.

Our (“our” consisting of me and Charlie) gift to you this year, then, is this advice: make your online marketing resolutions those of the shooting fish in a bucket variety. Kill multiple birds with one rock. Reassess the tree from which you’ve plucked the low-hanging fruit, and see if you missed some. (I’d resolved to use fewer cliches this year. See how that went?) Given the fact that we’ve either just been through or are still enduring a relatively serious recession, it’s not unusual to need to make every marketing dollar count. Plan accordingly. If you’re planning a site redesign, take advantage of the fact that you’ll have the hood up and schedule a usability assessment—it’s way easier to make changes when the IT team’s already dedicated. If you need your SEO spruced up, keep in mind that title tags are at once relatively easy to construct while still being one of the most powerful on-page ranking components. As long as you’re working on those, make sure your meta descriptions are compelling and, more importantly, aren’t getting cut off on the results pages. Make sure your copywriting best practices are up-to-date before you add a bunch of new copy to your site.

Even better, admit to yourself that your valuable time is better spent elsewhere and hire Oneupweb to keep your online marketing resolutions for you (even the difficult ones). We’re the equivalent of a drill sergeant, personal trainer and  constant dog-watcher—all in one.

And thus, I break another resolution (to avoid the use of the flimsy metaphor).

Our (“our” consisting of me and Charlie) gift to you this year, then, is this advice: make your online marketing resolutions those of the shooting fish in a bucket variety.
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Aug
28th

Rocket Skates or Running Shoes, Just Make It Interesting

Posted by admin on August 28, 2008 at 4:09 pm

Sometimes writing website content on a subject you a) know little about or b) have limited experience with is like willing yourself to teleport to France – you can sit there and try for a few hours, but you’ll end up sweaty and frustrated and feeling like a big idiot when you stop.

I came across the late Paul McHenry Roberts’ essay “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words,” floating around Copyblogger. A professor of college English and author of a number of books on linguistics, Roberts told his students to get to the point already.

Editor’s Note: The link above to Roberts’ essay is no longer active. Here is a link to an archived version.

Here are a few things to remember for your next copywriting assignment to help avoid the urge to smash your keyboard to pieces.

1. Dig Up Some Facts

Do a little work. Fill your content with useful information, not what Roberts calls ‘the obvious padding.’ Instead of saying ‘driving fast is dangerous‘ in four or five different ways, show the reader why it’s dangerous; give them broken glass, emergency rooms, and sedans wrapped around telephone poles.

At times, copywriters avoid the meat and potatoes of a subject; they become lazy and opt out of creating tangible writing for writing that’s general and unspecific. Uncovering and sharing useful facts can help when you run out of things to say.

2. The Dreaded Word Count

Why let a number torture you? Why strive to constantly cram the neat, one-word holes you’ve dug with useless ten word phrases? Sure, you’re a little closer to your mark, but so what? Your ultimate goal is for the click-through. If your writing doesn’t generate conversions, that means the content you’ve created is sloppy and essentially worthless filler.

while e coyote by ebalaskasFor example:

If you are absolutely in need of the most advanced and up-to-date booby traps anywhere in the entire world, then you have certainly found it here at the original Acme.com, the national leader of booby trap making and specializing in innovative booby trapping technologies to bring our customers the highest quality booby traps anywhere.

Can be simplified to:

Welcome to Acme.com, the national leader in high quality booby trap design and booby trap technologies.

Granted, a little marketing copy is sometimes needed with the advertising style of writing, but even the most susceptible coyote doesn’t want to wade through a lot of useless words to get to his Acme Jet Propelled Pogo Stick or Giant Mouse Traps.

3. Topical Paradise

Any topic can come a website copywriter’s way; running shoes, beachfront property, booby traps – an endless parade of topics ranging from the most entertaining to the least. Topics or clients can change, but the principle is the same. Roberts throws down this gauntlet:

The subject is one on which you have few convictions and little information. Can you be expected to make a dull subject interesting? As a matter of fact, this is precisely what you are expected to do.

Try a new approach, new language, new anything to engage your website visitor/reader in an interesting way, to get them impassioned about your products or services.

Image: ebalaskas

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Aug
1st

Victoria's Secret & Woot – The Benefit of Selling Benefits

Posted by admin on August 1, 2006 at 9:37 am

Why is it that some sophisticated marketers suddenly forget the difference between a feature and a benefit as soon as they get online?

Is it that old, “geeks talking to geeks” mentality? I hope not. Online shopping is years past the “early adopters” stage.

Maybe it’s that eternal “implied benefits” argument. It says, if we list enough neat sounding features stuff – like “fully integrated, dual digital hydraulic whack sacker” – it’s gotta be good. Forget for a moment that nobody outside the cubicle of a cackling technical writer named Murray knows what the hell a fully integrated, dual digital hydraulic whack sacker is.

Remember that if we don’t make that leap of faith that “if Murray says it, it’s gotta be good”, there’s no payoff to me or you, the potential whack sacker-enhanced thingie consumer. We’re left thinking, “this is a good thing?” Thanks to the skills of Murray, it sure sounds good. But is that enough to make us buy?

Consider Victoria’s Secret. They don’t spend their efforts flouting their magic underwire cleavage creator with adjustable dual grabby over-shoulder anti-bounce stabilizer strap. They sell the sex – the ultimate benefit of all that satin and steel technology. You’ll look attractive, men will adore you. Forget for a moment that you probably don’t have the same shape as those double-jointed super models who don’t seem to own any pants or sweaters.

Now look at one of my favorite sites – Woot.com. I go there for the writing. Every day Woot copywriters are given the daunting challenge of selling the world some overstocked, frequently out-dated piece of technical wizardry.

With no apparent benefit save it might make a nice boat anchor, the Woot copywriters set about creating tongue-in-cheek benefits when there are none. They often fabricate elaborate stories, sometimes using a genre literature style (one of my favorites was a scene painted straight out of Jane Austin) suggesting some really cool benefit such as the robot vacuum will actually herd household pets.

Even though you don’t buy the fictional benefit, many consider the benefit of the low cost of being cool implied in the copy. And always, Woot follows by listing the features.

This convoluted journey brings me to a suggestion. If you’re writing landing page copy where space and visitor attention spans are infamously limited, stick to the benefits.

What’s in it for your potential consumer? How will the features of this product or service make them happier, richer, thinner, less harried or more beautiful?

Sell the benefits, gang. The features can speak for themselves.

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