Beware of bad marketing advice from self proclaimed ‘experts’

I read an article the other day called “How to manipulate people for fun and profit”.  I’m not going to link to it because in my opinion, the advice it provided was utter garbage, highlighting the ease with which one can tout themselves as an ‘expert’ but in reality, prove they are anything but by giving not just poor, but potentially damaging advice.

The article states that action occurs as a result of inducing a high arousal state – a well known concept in Psychology and absolutely correct. My issue however is with how the author recommended you induce a high state of arousal – by outraging people.  The author stated that marketing strategy should focus on writing content that is purposely divisive and intentionally controversial.  So lets get this straight, to go viral you have to become a troll?

According to the author, viral marketing  rests
on your ability to become an Internet troll

The article went on to highlight instances of when highly controversial or outrageous content had been spread and gone viral. I am not disputing the fact that controversy spreads, my issue however is that if your marketing activities purposely manipulate people into feeling angry or outraged, both of these are negative emotions.  For the majority of businesses, i guarantee you, that negative sentiment does not convert customers (unless you are a charity or ethical company wanting to highlight injustices or galvanise action for example). On the whole though, it’s a fundamental fact that negative sentiment doesnt win customers, something any sales or marketing professional would be fully aware of.

The really scary thing, is the massive number of positive comments the author received from other, so-called marketing professionals, who agreed and thought the advice was great! I also found it strange that my very concise and polite response to the article didn’t get published.  Whilst i’m at it, the fact that no dates are included on the blog also rings alarm bells – best practice changes as social media and content marketing evolves.  A lot of advice provided a year ago could now be massively out of date and of little value to a reader – avoiding transparency by hiding publish dates in this way just isn’t the sort of tactic a reputable professional would need to use.

Does manipulating potential customers into feeling strong negative
emotions sound like good business sense to you?

If I am outraged by the comments or tactics of a company, yes, I might go and read about them, I might talk about (as I currently am doing), but I sure as hell won’t shop with them or spread positive word of mouth, in which case, the activity has successfully turned a potential customer into someone who would never, ever be a customer. Which is, of course, is the polar opposite of what any marketing activity would hope to achieve.

In advising people to be purposely antagonistic and controversial in their marketing efforts, this author is essentially telling you how to loose customers. High share rates of such an article might make it go viral, but if that virality spreads and inspires nothing but negative sentiment and drives customers away, how is that effective marketing?

Does any business really want controversy instead
of customer conversions?  Of course not!

I’m assuming that the sole purpose of this article was to spew utter rubbish to get people talking.  Yep, it’s got me talking, even telling my readers about the article, but it’s also put the author and the website on my negative radar, meaning all future content I’m exposed to from them will be aggressively filtered out and ignored. Is that really what any company would want to happen as a direct result of their marketing activities?  Of course not.

No one is infallible, and whilst reputable writers will endeavour to fact check and identify multiple sources before publishing information, we don’t always get it right.  In relation to social media marketing and theory, there often isn’t a right or wrong way to do things, only best practice.

As social media proliferates and it becomes ever easier for people to self-publish, so the threat of misinformation increases. Don’t believe all of the advice that you read just because it is published on a popular blog or is written by someone calling themselves an expert.  At worst some articles are based on nothing more than opinion, at best, on tried and tested techniques which have been proven to work, but that doesn’t mean it will work for your particular customer base or business sector.

Never lose your objectivity and question the authors
professional credentials if necessary

Remain objective, if you aren’t convinced then ask the author a question by leaving a comment on their blog and if you really have your suspicions, see if you can find other sources providing the same advice or do a bit of snooping to uncover the real credentials of the author.

By doing this you will avoid the charlatans out there and won’t end up alienating or loosing customers as a result of executing misguided marketing activities.

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

How to write great website content

In previous posts I’ve looked at why paying attention to your content makes sense, so this time i’m going to discuss all of the basics you will need to be aware of in order to write effective website content.

Don’t just write, lay your foundations and plan

Before you can write your content you need to plan it.  Start by thinking about each of the individual content pages you want to have on your website and list them all, a basic bullet pointed list is generally sufficient for this if you don’t already have a fancy site map. If you are re-writing content for an existing website you just need to make a list of the pages you already have.

Plan key messaging and write around that

Next, you need to think about the information that people will need to enable them to make an informed decision about buying your services or products. As well as deciding what key information you need to get across, you’ll need to start thinking about the best way to present this information.

Nothing is quite as dull or off-putting as paragraph after paragraph of text

Hard facts and technical data are often entirely necessary but to present your service or products in a compelling way, it takes more than dry facts and text and this can be a tough one to get right.  Too informal and familiar and you risk sounding unprofessional, too formal and factual and you risk boring your readers and losing potential leads.

Ooh pictures, we love a good picture!

Pictures are good, use them frequently to break up text and add interest, but keep them relevant.  The pictures that you use need to add and not detract from your core messaging.  Read more about the importance of images in web design here.

Quotes are a great way of highlighting key information and breaking up text; tables and graphs are a good way to display complex or comparison data and headlines are essential to the structure of your page. Using a mixture of content will ensure your content is fresh meaning that website visitors stay engaged, buying you more time to win them over.

Be clever, be intriguing and invite curiosity

Not only do headlines break up vast blocks of text, but they offer readers a quick, at-a-glance clue to what the following content is all about.  A good headline is informative, relevant and entices a website visitor to continue reading, so it is critical to get this part right as strong headlines will help to elevate your copy, impacting on everything from your websites search engine ranking through to your conversion rates.

Information and facts are all well and good, but great copy needs to be engaging

The art of website copy writing rests upon the ability to present important information in a way that is interesting and engaging. Personality counts for a lot but that doesn’t mean you need to lapse into informal speech or become a hipster.  You can still be entirely human, likeable and interesting whilst maintaining professional credibility.

Copy writing tips you can take away

• Highlight all of the benefits and/or problems your service or products can solve
• Include information on how to use your service or products
• Be sure to highlight your USPs, this will help give people a reason to choose you over your competitors
• Mix up your content so that you use pictures, graphics, text, quotes and headlines
• Include strong calls to action e.g. ‘contact us now for a free quote’
• Include detailed service and/or delivery information
• The point of all your copy is to inform, persuade and convert so keep those goals in mind
• Use attractive, high quality pictures wherever possible or video content which is even better

For more information on content marketing and how to produce strong content, see the blog post 10 crucial content marketing questions.

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

 

The freelance and home workers guide to productivity

When you talk to friends or acquaintances about working freelance or being home based, you invariably get the same responses.  Envy, shortly followed by incredulity that you don’t simply stay in bed and sleep all day/watch TV/play golf.

“I find the ability to work from home whilst wearing my ridiculous giraffe onesie, a particularly liberating experience.”

After working from home for more than 8 year, I rarely get the chance to work from home these days so when I do, I know exactly how to make the most of my time to ensure I am super-productive.  My alarm still goes off at roughly the same time, I get up and get dressed and am ready for a full working day well before i’d normally arrive at the office, so straight away i’m off to a head start.

To be honest, it’s now such a rarity that the novelty of working from home these days means I want to make the most of it, and it’s not uncommon for me to be dealing with clients in a highly professional manner (of course) whilst wearing my ridiculous giraffe onesie. By doing this, I have proven my working hypothesis; that liberating your clothing choices helps to spark creativity; I’m not advocating spending all day in your pajamas or fancy dress, but the relaxed dress code afforded by working at home, does in my experience have a very positive effect on my creativity.

No naughty sofa man! Stop smiling and go and get dressed!

Get up and get dressed

Discipline is critical when you are working from home, as is the ability to manage your own time.  A lie in is tempting, and of course, one of the benefits of freelance work is that you can do things at a time that works for you, but don’t forget your clients will be up and working, largely between the hours of 9am and 6pm and will expect you to be around then too.

If you work collaboratively, your co-workers who are perhaps office based, will expect you to be accessible during normal working hours too. It might feel like you are on holiday, but you are not.  Set the alarm at a decent time, get up, get dressed, grab a coffee and make sure you are ready to go by 9am.

Stay on task and stay focused

Unlike being at the office, when you nip into the kitchen for a coffee, you’ll also notice the washing machine light blinking at you to say its cycle is complete.  You’ll notice the crumbs on the work counter, the bin that needs emptying, the rug that need vacuuming.  Strike them from your mind (unless you are having a lunch break) and try to ignore them.  They are not a priority right now.  In general, I will happily do any minor chores in the time it takes for the kettle to boil – anything house related that would take longer simply waits until after 5.30pm.

Minimise distractions

I read an article recently that suggested having the TV on as company/background noise was a good idea.  Not so!  TV is designed to grab your attention – don’t do it!  If you don’t end up slumped and slack-jawed in front of it, you’ll end up getting drawn in to what is going on, meaning your attention won’t be on your work.  The last thing you want is for the quality of work you produce at home to differ from the usual quality of your work.

Build a strong work ethic

Let’s face it, we all have days when we aren’t as productive as we could be.  Perhaps we are distracted, creativity is not flowing or we have a problem we need to find a solution to.  Don’t beat yourself up over down time.  I find I get more done when I work from home and that’s because I do what I want to do, when I want to do it.  I don’t have colleagues distracting me and I don’t have (as many) clients on the phone demanding my attention and taking my mind off whatever I was in the middle of doing. That said, having worked freelance for so long, I knew that if I wasn’t working, I wasn’t earning – simple as that, and knowing that was always more than sufficient motivation for me to maintain a strong work ethic.

Enjoy the freedom

I’ll often find I’ve done everything I wanted to do well before of 5.30pm or sometimes i’ll take a long lunch and use the time to recharge my brain and get a bit of creative fizz back. If my mind is continually wandering, it generally means I need to take a break and whilst at work you can feel guilty and it is frowned upon to simply take a break when you feel like it, working from home gives you that freedom and is probably what I love most about it.

Oh hai little guy. Mr squashy face needs a cuddle, yes he does!

Even when you do finish at 5.30pm, you get the added benefit of no ghastly commute.  There’s an extra hour (or however long your usual commute is) right there that is all yours!  It’s amazing what a difference the extra time can have and really helps to influence your work/life balance in a positive way.

Working from home?  Watch out for these sneaky productivity zappers!

• Loveable pets are dastardly at thwarting attempts to work and will do all manner of cute and endearing things to drag your attention away from work.  A quick few minutes of fussing is fine and a great way to give your brain a quick rest or relieve stress; just don’t let that few minutes of petting turn into playing in the garden or going for a walk – wait until lunch time or after work for that.

• Friends and family are often just the worst at demanding time and attention when you’re working from home.  Be strict, don’t let chatty phone-calls distract you and when there is a knock at the door and a friend turns up for coffee make sure you are very clear in letting them know you work from home.  Just because you are at home it doesn’t mean you don’t still have to be working.

• TV.  Do not turn the tv on, for anything, ever, during work hours.

• Wearing your PJs might be tempting, but isn’t conducive to a professional mindset.  Get up, take a shower as usual and get dressed and your head with be in the right place for work.  Stay in your PJs and you’ll feel like you have the day off.

• Don’t sign in to any instant chat services.  If you use them for work, that’s fine, but make your status ‘busy’ or similar to stop friends popping up wanting to chat.

• Stay away from social media.  Again, if you use this for work fine, but don’t even look at your Facebook wall or Twitter stream because you WILL see several things you just have to read and comment on.

• The cup of tea or mid morning 5 minute break can be a real killer of productivity – if you must venture into the kitchen, either ignore the carnage from last nights dinner or set aside time during your usual lunch break to deal with it.  Don’t let it draw you in and break your work flow.

Do you work from home regularly?  Do you have any tips to share?

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

 

 

Crucial Content Marketing Checklist – 10 questions to ask yourself before you publish new content

With strategic content creation, (the creation of content with a specific business goal in mind), it is critical that you take a systematic approach to ensure the quality and clarity of your content. As a result, I’ve put together this list of 10 questions to help ensure that the quality of all content you produce and publish is consistently high.  I’m often guilty myself of only having a cursory read over articles before I hit the ‘publish’ button.  The excitement of new content always leaves me eager to get it live and share it with people, but haste is not conducive to great quality content.

Rushing to share new content is tempting, but it won’t do you any favours

Even with good attention to detail, proof reading can be difficult, especially when you are the author and as such are highly familiar with the content. When reading the brain makes a number of inferences and educated guesses; instead of reading entire words the brain often picks up a few letter cues and based on those cues will fill in the blanks.  This means that when we read, without realising it, we often skip individual letters which makes it difficult to spot the odd typo.

Once you start writing about a subject it’s easy to veer off topic or end up with content that is unbalanced or even a bit waffly.  To make sure that your content is as good as it can be, considering the following questions will help. This list serves me well and I now have a quick run through it before I post any new content; I hope you will find it useful too.

10 questions to ask yourself before you publish new content

1. How clear is your messaging?

What is the point of your article?  Do you say everything you need to say in a clear and easy to follow way?  Do you waffle on and become irrelevant anywhere down the line? Content can often be edited down to improve the focus and clarity of the piece, but don’t strip it down ruthlessly.  Bare can be just as unappealing as long waffly content is.

2. Are you using relevant keywords?

Does your content contain useful keywords that reinforce the subject matter of your article?  For SEO purposes, ensuring that the keywords people will use to search for your content, are included in the headline and body is important in determining how well your content will rank.

Don’t forget that many commercial blogging platforms also allow you to choose keyword tags and categories for your content to be published under; making effective use of keyword tagging can be an effective way to reach new readers.

3. Have you looked at your content with fresh eyes?

Get a colleague, friend our family member to proof read your content before you post, just to be absolutely certain.  Failing that, leave your content for 24 hours before goming back to it gor a final read through.  You are much more likely to spot any errors you might have missed whilst writing and during your first few read-throughs.

4. Have you included calls to action?

Do you provide clear, useful calls to action in your content?  Actions range from asking people to register for a seminar, picking up the phone and calling your company to find out more or leaving their own comments on the article.

5. Is your headline winning?

A good headline can make or break your content and will seriously determine the levels of engagement you are able to achieve.  A good headline needs to be attention grabbing and should clearly summarise the nature of the content.

6. Does your content pop?

It’s a fact that people respond better to posts that are visual.  Have you broken up your text by using sub headings, lists, quotes and images?  This will ensure you achieve maximum engagement levels.

7. Have you included an Author link?

Link all of your content to you by using the Google+ rel=”author” link.  This will ensure that your content stands out in search results and helps increase your credibility and exposure.  It’s super easy to implement too so is definitely worth doing.

8. Do your links work?

Have you included useful links in your content?  If so, make sure they all work and pay attention to how they open.  Taking a reader away from your page might not be a great idea, in which case you might want to open a new window with your link.

Likewise, deep linking through to relevant content on your website, news or blog page plays an important role in SEO.  Finally, make sure all pictures included in your post are showing correctly and don’t have broken paths or links.

9. When are you going to publish?

The time of day and actual day of the week that you choose to post content on will help to determine how well it is received.

There are universally accepted best times and days to post content. For example, currently, content posted on a Monday morning is reported to achieve the highest levels of engagement but find what works for your audience.

Try posting on various different days at different times and track what happens to find out which day and time work best for you.

Remember though, you can publish your content at pretty much any time you want and simply hold off promoting until an optimal time/day.

10. How are you going to promote your content?

Once you’ve published your new content you need to tell people about it.  It can take Google anything from a few hours to many days before it will pick up and list your new content, so search engines alone should not be relied upon for sending you traffic.

Use all the channels available to you from your clients or companies news page through to social media.  Social is the ideal way to promote your article so make sure you use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc to publicise your new content. Digg, Reddit and Stumble Upon can also generate traffic to your blog but in my experience traffic from these sources is prone to suffer from high bounce rates.

I hope these 10 questions prove useful to you and as always, i’d love to hear your thoughts on this post!

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!