Do you want to see your website in Top 10 position in Google or other major search engine?”
Day after day I receive umpteen of these emails from SEO companies (and others) telling me they can get my website into a top 10 position in Google.
First, this is obviously a blanket email, because if they’d done any research they’d realise that my website was already on the front page for my chosen keywords.
And secondly, it’s addressed to ‘Sir/Madam’, so they haven’t bothered to take the trouble to personalise their email.
Not a great start then.
We’re all used to getting these types of emails, but it’s essential that you don’t fall into a similar trap when undertaking your own email marketing.
To spam or not to spam, that is the question
A little while ago I posted on the UK Business Labs forums about email marketing and how to get the most from it by offering relevant and targeted emails to your own, home-grown opt-in marketing list.
This caused a furore as it was intimated by a reader that email marketing was spam regardless of whether you use an opt-in list or a bought list.
However, provided you follow a few basic courtesies you should avoid alienating any of your customers.
Be clear from the start
The only way to gain trust and keep your customers happy is to be clear and upfront with then from the outset.
If you are cultivating your opt-in list to send out a newsletter, tell your customers how frequently you’ll contact them.
If you want to send a newsletter and occasional email marketing messages or offers, again let them know. If possible, offer a choice of messages so they can opt-in, for example, to your newsletter but not your other emails.
Giving them choice and being open and honest about what you intend to do with their email address will generate that all important trust that’s vital for strong and lasting customer relations.
Divide and conquer
As mentioned above, splitting your email marketing list and offering different communications that people can opt in and out of will help you target your marketing efforts.
That way, you won’t cheese off half your customers.
Get personal
Don’t send out generic emails addresses to ‘Sir or Madam’. Use their name and make your communications personal.
So, is using an opt-in list spam?
Not in my book.
People who want to receive your news and offers gave those email addresses. So, provided you stick to your promise of what you’ll send them and when, how can that possibly be seen as spam?
SEO is about your customers not the search engines
Nope, we haven’t gone mad; search engine optimisation really is all about your customers.
Most SEO companies are now playing nicely and not condoning devious techniques such as link buying, hidden text and generally exploiting every loophole and short cut they can find.
Why?
Apart from the fact that they were attracting hefty penalties for their clients, they’ve now realised that search engine marketing is more like social marketing and everything must be centred around the customer not the search engines.To be successful on line today, your strategy must include not only general keyword optimisation for your website’s structure and content, it must also involve social media marketing aimed at your customers.
No, that doesn’t mean sending out a raft of marketing messages every minute in the hope that you’ll wear down your customers and make them buy from you. Instead it’s about engaging with your audience, providing them with useful content and information and optimising your web content to reflect your customers’ needs.
For many start ups all of this can be quite confusing so this 10 minute video by Maile Ohye of Google might help. In 10 minutes she talks you through some basic search engine optimisation techniques for start ups to help you get on the right track.
If you think marketing and advertising are one and the same, there’s a pretty good chance your marketing efforts are being less than successful.
If you cast your mind back to the bad old days, companies would advertise to you left right and centre. You would be bombarded by less than subtle sales messages wherever you went.
Our TVs, magazines, newspapers and mailboxes were full of ‘buy from us now’ messages desperate to grab your hard earned cash.
But the landscape looks very different these days, with businesses moving away from advertising and towards marketing.
Nope, still don’t get it
In that case, you’re probably a business that has dabbled in social media, blogging, article and video marketing only to decide that it doesn’t work for you.
Well, the reason it’s not working is probably because you’re still advertising rather than marketing.
Let me explain.
If you’re advertising, you’re effectively shouting at your customers ‘buy now’ with little regard for what they actually want.
Perhaps that approach used to work for you, but today’s consumers want more than that, they want to be appreciated, wooed and persuaded.
The subtle art of marketing
Today’s marketing channels are social media, video and article marketing and blogging. Each of these disciplines offers the consumer engagement, information, and advice – effectively something for nothing. Or at least that is how it appears.
You see, people now want to feel as though you, as a company, value them and their business. They don’t just want you to come along, take their money and then head off into the night.
Today, you must engage with them, talk to them, offer them great information, be responsive to their questions and generally take in interested in what they want. And that’s why you must market and not advertise to them.
You see, marketing is all about getting to know your customer and being interested in what they really want, their likes and dislikes and being prepared to chat with them to build relationships.
Think carefully about them and how your product or service will benefit them and then show them.
The days of the blatant advertising are numbered; today your consumers want more. Talk to them, engagement with them and give them something for nothing. As you do so something magical happens, they begin to trust you and that trust will be manifested in the form of their credit card.
Market to your customers and they’ll be customers for life.
If there’s one thing that never changes in the world of marketing, it’s the power of the written word.
Adverts, websites, brochures and emails would be nothing if it wasn’t for the carefully crafted copy that persuades their readers to part with their hard earned cash.
That’s why I wanted to bring this post back from the archives. It’s as relevant today as it was 3 years ago. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the power of words:
Words can be a powerful force when used correctly.
In a novel they have to conjour up an image in your head so you can visualise the characters and scenes they are playing out. In the world of marketing they have to be direct, simple and to the point.
This is something I frequently have to remind my clients – not all, but a few.
A while ago, I was writing for one client and nothing I produced seemed good enough. It was frustrating because I knew what I had written worked. No matter how many times I explained my reasons for using certain layouts and words, it wasn’t good enough.
The reason…
“I thought you were supposed to make me sound more intelligent.”
Eeek! And there was me thinking the whole purpose behind copywriting was to generate sales.
So what does a freelance copywriter do?
Working as a freelance copywriter, it is my job to create great copy which will be interesting and sell – but without being ‘in your face’ super sales hype.
I write all sorts of copy from SEO website copywriting through to reviews and just about everything else in between.
Let’s take website copywriting as an example. If you could ask someone what their reaction was when they landed on your website, which scenario would you prefer?
Scenario 1
Reader – “Gosh, what a superbly written site. You are obviously incredibly intelligent and well edcated.”
You – “Why thank you, and what did you think of our product?”
Reader – “Product? Oh, were you selling something too?”
Scenario 2
Reader – “Amazing, that’s just what I’ve been looking for. It’ll solve all my problems.”
You – “Great. What did you think of the writing on the website?”
Reader – “Writing? Oh, I don’t know. I was too interested in your product and how it would help me.”
I think I know which one I would perfer.
Invisible writing
It sounds rather strange that your writing should be invisible to your reader, but that’s how it should come across. The words you use have one purpose only – to convince your reader the product you are selling is the one for them.
Becoming blinkered by your own writing ego is the fastest way to churn out redundant copy. If someone is reading your website or brochures, they are doing so for one reason only – they want to know if your product is a fit for their needs. If they can’t find that our quickly, they’ll move on to the next company’s product.
Clear, conscise and simple – that’s it. No frills, no sparkles and no sequins.
Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies, and more. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, ‘re-pin’ images to their own collections and/or ‘like’ photos. Pinterest’s mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting” via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing. Pinterest allows its users to share ‘pins’ on both Twitter and Facebook, which allows users to share and interact with a broad community.
Personally, I haven’t. It’s not something that I really ‘get’ – admittedly because it doesn’t really appeal to me.
But there are a lot of buisnesses out there who’ve had a lot of success with it and a study by SteelHouse identified that ‘Pinterest users are nearly twice as likely to purchase than Facebook users.’
However, many B2B businesses (like my copywriting business) are struggling with the whole concept of promoting themselves through this pictorial platform.
Thankfully, those wonderful people at SocialMediaExaminer have come up with a post helping people just like me.
