On Wednesday night I attended a Networx event called Marketing on a shoestring budget. It was a great night and I think everyone in the crowd learned some good tips and tricks to make a small marketing budget go further.

One idea that wasn’t really expanded on though was the value of good content. I think that if you are going to go to the effort of pulling together a website, some direct mail outs, or even a decent business card (which were all items given the thumbs up), then don’t forget that the right words can really seal the deal.

Hiring a professional copywriter – even for a few hours – can make a huge difference to your brand. We can help you focus your call to action, define a personality for your business, or even simply set up a style guide for you to follow when you write material yourself. In fact, a style guide is one of the most overlooked tools for a small business. Consistency in the way you write sends a message to your potential clients that you are professional and organised – qualities that are good for business!

What are your value-for-money marketing tools?

It’s officially the downhill slide to the end of the year. The first Christmas party invites are starting to filter through, the weather is getting hotter and hotter (around here anyway), and there is a last minute push to get things done before everyone goes on holidays.

The savvy ones out there are also starting to think about their content needs for 2010. While it may be hard to do (with all the frivolity on the horizon), start having a think about:

• What blog topics would you like to cover? Do some brainstorming and map out what you are going to cover for at least the first six months. You can always be flexible (if something more timely or exciting crops up), but having a schedule makes it far less intimidating to keep up to date with posts.
• What special events do you want to target with your business. Mother’s Day? Easter? The local show? If you plan ahead, you’ll give yourself enough lead time to write some cracking content to attract customers and generate sales.
• Who really is your target market? If you haven’t done so already, start analysing your website traffic and metrics, develop some personas of your different types of visitors and target them with specific content.
• Train your staff. We run some great Writing for the web workshops – contact us to find out more.

Small steps such as these will help prepare you for the year ahead. Then you’ll really be able to enjoy all those Christmas parties!

What will be on your content to-do list for 2010?

I’ve been having some problems with Technorati, basically because I’ve changed my blog URL since joining. The site doesn’t seem to pick up my new blog posts, so after much trial and error I am deleting my claim and re-claiming www.snappysentences.com/blog

To get this to work, they need a piece of code. Here it is: fvdq67ky8x

Fingers crossed this works

Part of the key to writing successful web content is understanding your customers. The web is a fickle place – you have such a short amount of time to stop and engage visitors before they hit the back button and leave your site.

So how do you do this? Here are a few things to consider:

• It’s easy to get carried away on your sales pitch, but make sure you stop and think why your website visitor is actually seeking out your product or service in the first place. What situation brings them to need what you are offering? Are they celebrating? Mourning? In the midst of an emergency? Take into account their state of mind and make sure your content speaks to them at that level.
• How are people planning to pay for your product or service? Is it something that needs to be saved for? Are they likely to buy it on credit? Is it tax deductible? Are they eligible for a grant or rebate?
• Who would they trust recommendations from? There’s no use having a bunch of testimonials on your site if your target customer isn’t likely to believe or trust what they say.
• What may make your potential customer hesitate buying/contacting/using your service? Is there a way you can neutralise their concerns?

What do you think? What other tips do you have?

I’ve just had an article published on SNOBs.com.au – check out Snappy SEO: Do-it-yourself search engine optimisation.

Enjoy!

Having a call to action is a simple idea. You want someone to do something after they’ve read your content.

• You want them to call you for a quote.
• You want them to download your white paper.
• You want them to update their details.
• You want them to sign up for your newsletter.
• You want them to buy your product.

But even though it’s a simple idea, it’s often really hard to articulate. You want your reader to do something. You’ve spent the whole page trying to convince them why they should do it. Heck, you’ve convinced yourself that there is nothing more to do to close the sale.

But be careful.

You may be so close yet so far away from that sale/download/contact.

You may lose people if you aren’t clear about exactly you want them to do.

How?

Simple calls to action are fine

You often just want someone to pick up the phone and call you to arrange a quote. That’s fine. But make sure you add to that action. Tell them that you’ll  listen, tell them what questions you will ask, tell them what information you’ll need.

Take “Contact us for a quote” to “Contact us to arrange a quote. Make sure you have the dimensions of the room you want carpeted so that we can give you an accurate price”.

An analogy or imagery often works

Set the scene…

“Sit down and have a cup of coffee and look around your lounge room. Do neutral colours suit your personality? Or does something more vibrant work better? Have a think then call us on <number> to arrange a consultation.”

Making it easy for them to do it

Don’t say ‘Contact us’ then hide  your contact details! Sounds obvious but I’ve been to a number of sites like this. Drives you mad. Add your phone number or email to the page – it’s not a treasure hunt.

Test what works and what doesn’t

The wonderful thing about websites is that you can usually change your content easily. So test what works and what doesn’t. Use your metrics. Experiment.

What are your tricks?

I’ve had the opportunity today to catch up on some reading and have come across Smashing Magazine’s 50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills. A very handy list indeed.

Freelance web copywriters rarely meet their customers face-to-face. We often have clients scattered across the state, across the country, and even across the world. That, plus the fact we usually charge for our services by the hour, means that we need to have a reliable way of collecting all the information about a project to write an accurate quote or proposal.

Enter the client brief.

Getting a comprehensive client brief starts a project on the right foot. It gives a copywriting project a far higher chance of success – which means a happy client.

My client brief (which gets filled out to kick start the project) contains:

• Name of company and motto (so I get the spelling right in the content).
• Contact name, phone number, and email address (so I know the person to chase up with any project related questions, and also who I’ll send the final version to).
• Description of project – for example one 250 word web page using existing marketing material (gives me a feeling for the size of the project, how much content I need to write).
• Unique selling points of product or company – for instance the only authorised supplier of xyz in Brisbane (helps with developing an angle for the content).
• Five words to describe the personality of the product/company (helps me decide on the tone and language to use).
• Company website url (for obvious reasons).
• Supporting information provided (so I know how much research I’m going to need to do).
• Main competitors (gives me an understanding of the industry).
• What do you want your call to action to be (such as give us a call, download our whitepaper, subscribe to our newsletter)?
• Who is your target audience (retirees, youth, parents etc)?
• Specific keywords to use in the content (so I fit in with any other SEO activities you may be undertaking).
• First draft of content required by (helps me plan).
• Final version of content required (again, helps me plan).
• Format required – for example .doc (I use Word 2007 generally, but I can provide other formats such as a plain .txt file).

I’ll also ask if you have an in-house style guide that you use. Helps me with things like heading style (of course I always recommend sentence case).

Do you think anything else should be added to the list?

Ok, I’ve got something to admit – I’m a sucker for an e-book. My laptop is full of downloaded articles, books and reports. A lot paid for. Most of them unread.

In the past I’ve found that a lot of books leave you feeling warm and fuzzy and ready to take on the world – but when the push comes to shove they are light on with the real nuts and bolts of *how* to do it. Or, they seem too far removed from anything that you could possibly achieve – so you give up before you even start.

Today I had some reading time and discovered two gems in my collection: The Unlimited Freelancer and SEO Secrets.

Both have been written by people who I admire – clever, friendly and interesting web copywriters. Both are meaty – The Ultimate Freelancer is 200 pages and SEO Secrets is 213 pages. Both are great value for money.

And best of all – both give you some real, practical tools that you can apply to YOUR business.

The Unlimited Freelancer

The Ultimate Freelancer is written by Mason Hipp and James Chartrand (from Men with Pens) and published by FreelanceFolder.com. It’s easy to read, to the point, and very practical – real get your hands dirty advice (which I like). The focus of the book is on the behind the scenes stuff that a successful freelancer needs: good systems; a good team; and good revenue generating assets.

It’s been written to benefit any type of freelancer, not just writers – so it’s a lot about business sense not the freelance writing industry.

Software is suggested under the ‘Systems, software, and automation’ section – and there are even some that I can use (being in Australia). I am now on a mission to figure out what combination is going to help me the most.

I would have liked some extra case studies (I like seeing how others have done it), and even though it’s great that there are 200 pages – I did end up printing it out for quick reference. Which is good I guess as it’s definitely something I’ll go back and refer to as I clean up my systems and processes.

All in all, an excellent book – and a bargain at US$29. You can download The Unlimited Freelancer from the FreelanceFolder site.

The Ultimate Freelancer

SEO Secrets

First a quick disclaimer: I haven’t been paid in any way for this review but I have signed up for Glenn’s affiliate program for his book. So, if anyone from this site purchases the book I do get a commission. So please, if you are going to get the book – follow the link from this page

I found Glenn Murray from Divine Write on Twitter and have been an interested follower ever since. When he released version two of his SEO Secrets book, I was quick to download it. I admit it took me a while to get through it (it’s so big!), but now I’m kicking myself that I didn’t do it sooner as – even though I do know a fair bit about SEO – this book is going to be my go-to guide for any of my SEO questions.

It’s very practical, and drills down to a level that – if you follow the step-by-step instructions – you can improve your website quickly, easily, and without any real technical knowledge.

It covers:

• keywords
• search engines
• optimising WordPress blogs
• content optimisation
• developing optimised sites
• social media.

It’s an entry-level book on SEO – but covers the fundamentals so well that even people who understand SEO well will benefit from a read. At US$79.95 it’s also well worth the money.

SEO Secrets - Click image to purchase

I was catching up on the news the other night and noticed that the journalist (who was reporting on the budget), had written a lot of ‘last year the…’, ‘the last budget…’, ‘the last time this happened…’ etc.

Interesting.

When I was studying communication at the Queensland University of Technology in the late nineties, I had a lecturer called Roslyn Petelin who taught us that under no circumstances the word ‘last’ should be used if you meant ‘latest’ or ‘past’ (I will add that I was quite scared of Roslyn so this has stuck with me).

‘Last’ is final. You can eat the last biscuit in the packet, but (unless you are Nostradamus) hopefully 2008 isn’t last year.You can have the latest budget (or past budget), but the last budget indicates there isn’t going to be anymore.

I’ve done some research on the web, and it seems that this rule isn’t as hard and fast as it was during my uni days. But, what do you think? What is your preference?