Entries Tagged 'marketing' ↓
January 31st, 2014 — marketing
I’m always scouring the internet for information that will help me in my business. Hopefully, the little nuggets I find will help you too. Well, today’s search led me to an interesting post on Socialmouths.
Infographics are everywhere at the moment.
They are a great way to get across information in a succinct, colourful and fun way. But, if like me, you’re not a designer, the use of them within your own marketing usually comes with a hefty price tag.
Well that doesn’t have to be the case any more.
Now you too can create your own infographic.
Their post, How to Make an Infographic (Even When You’re Not a Designer) takes you through several free and paid software/service options.
Plus, they run through some general design principles to get you started, such as:
- Data must drive your design
- The importance of clarity
- White space
- Showing and not telling
- Creativity
This is one of my shorter posts because I’m heading off to have a play.
Hope you find this useful.
Author: Sally Ormond
December 20th, 2013 — copywriting, copywriting tips, marketing, website copywriter, website copywriting
“We don’t like the first draft, it’s too marketing; it sells our services too much.”
That is a real life response from a copywriting client.
Yes, I was stunned too.
Apparently, the copy had to be more ‘jargonised’ and in the language of ‘high business’ and not focused on what they can do for their clients.
No. That’s not how it works.
Your website is your sales tool
Your website is available to people all over the world, 24/7/365.
It exists for one reason only – to tell readers what you can do for them and how their lives (or businesses) will be richer by using your products or services.
How do you do that?
Through high quality website copywriting that focuses on your reader and tells them the main benefits of what you do.
If your website focuses on you and is full of jargon, at best it tells the world your company exists, but that’s it.
Great, you exist. So what? I’m going to use these other guys who have taken the time to tell me about how their service is going to help me.
You are missing a trick – a potentially very lucrative trick – if you ignore this advice.
How to market through website copy
As mentioned earlier, you have to remember that:
- Your website is a sales tool
- It exists to tell people what you can do for them
- It is not a soap box from which you can rave about your company
The copy that you write has to be:
- Focused 100% on your reader
- In the second person so it ‘speaks’ to your reader
- Focused on the benefits you provide
- Engaging and interesting
And it should all be topped off with a strong call to action telling the reader to get in touch, buy now, sign up, or whatever action it is you want them to take.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking your website is there to tell the world about you. That type of thinking is lame, boring and a disaster waiting to happen.
Please, please use your website as it should be used. Make it all about your reader and not about you.
Thanks for allowing me to get that off my chest. I feel much better now.
Author: Sally Ormond, copywriter at Briar Copywriting Ltd
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Image courtesy of Clare Bloomfield/FreeDigitalPhoto
November 22nd, 2013 — marketing
You know Christmas is coming when the new series of “I’m a Celebrity” starts. 
A couple of weeks ago, the intrepid celebrities headed for the Australian jungle. For the first time in ages, I had actually heard of the vast majority of them – makes a change.
You may be scratching your head and wondering what on earth this has to do with copywriting, the answer is absolutely nothing, but it is to do with marketing.
Although all the celebs are taking part to raise money for charity, you have to ask yourself what’s in it for them?
The simple answer is promotion – they’re there to market themselves for future TV projects.
Admittedly, this hasn’t always worked in the past – who could forget Gillian McKeith’s disastrous appearance? But many have gone on to do other things.
Having watched several series (all for research purposes of course), I can’t help but notice a recurring theme.
When the celebs first arrive, those that jump and scream at everything usually end up doing the lion’s share of the trials.
Marketing to stand out
Look at this year’s constellation of celebrities; Matthew Wright became an instant target for the voting public with his jumpy shenanigans before he’d even reached the jungle.
For someone who is apparently scared of everything, he’s put up some incredible performances in the trials. So, is he really that afraid of everything, or is it a clever ploy on his part to stand out from the rest to get the most airtime?
Similarly, there’s Joey Essex. Not so jumpy, but his inability to tell the time, or blow his nose (he has learnt to tie his shoe laces though, because that’s a life skill he needed) has encouraged the British public to vote for him to do the trials.
As a result, the two of them have been hogging the TV coverage.
Then of course there’s the love interest – no prizes for guessing who that’s supposed to be (Joey and Amy) – and Rebecca Adlington’s priceless comment the other night when she and Steve Davis were subjected to the sight of Amy massaging Joey’s back – “It’s like watching porn with your parents.”
But a new pretender to the jungle throne has now made an appearance. Kian Egan has been a fairly quiet character until the ‘Hang out to dry” challenge. Desperate to get food for his starving camp mates, Kian out smarted the ostensibly unbeatable Joey to win food for his camp mates – the rise of a new Tarzan? Time will tell.
It’s all about how you are perceived
When you are marketing your business, you present it in a way that you want people to see. This is exactly what each of these celebrities are doing.
Some are quietly working behind the scenes, doing only what’s needed to get by.
Others are pushing themselves, trying to become the leader in their niche (hero, joker, scaredy-cat).
The jungle is a microcosm of business marketing – which are you? The quiet business working away in the background and getting by, or the one that stands out as the leader in your niche?
October 25th, 2013 — Achieving goals, marketing, Starting a freelance business
No two people are the same.
We all have different strengths and weakness and excel in different areas. That’s why, for your team to be successful, you must have a wide range of people types.
That is the view of Don Fornes, CEO and Founder of Software Advice who has identified different psychological profiles, such as the ‘Giver’, ‘Champ’ and ‘Matrix Thinker’.
The one I want to look at in this post is the “Savant”.
They are amazing at what they do.
According to Don:
“Highly-functioning Savants can apply their innate ability, intelligence and determination towards the development of exceptional talent in a single field. They tend to be skilled writers, researchers and engineers.”
But at the same time they tend to be introverted and can struggle in social situations.
So what are their qualities?
Well, a Savant is usually:
- Creative
- Independent
- Committed
- A problem solver
Why does your team need them?
Simply because they’re great at what they do and because they tend to find one thing they are good at (e.g. writing, researching or engineering) they can provide your team with the expertise it needs to flourish.
Many writers show characteristics of the Savant because of their innate ability to learn and desire for perfection in everything they do.
But at the same time, these traits can cause problems. Their social anxiety can make them poor communicators, they can encounter self-doubt and depression when they discover they can’t achieve perfection in every aspect of their lives and, being non-conformists, they can challenge authority leading to clashes with management.
I’m a writer, am I a Savant?
As a copywriter, Don’s post would suggest that I am a potential Savant.
Am I creative?
Yes, I spend every day creating copy for my clients.
Am I really good at what I do?
I guess you’d have to ask my clients that one, but judging by the testimonials, recommendations and repeat business I get, then I’d say yes.
Am I focused and determined?
Most definitely, because I won’t give up until a project is complete and, when required, I can turn around work quickly.
Do I love to learn?
Considering I always have my nose in a book (when I’m not working), then yes, I do love to learn.
Am I a perfectionist?
Most definitely, in all parts of my life, I won’t let anything get the better of me. Even if it’s something I’m not the best at, I always give it my all to do the absolute best that I can. But if it falls a long way short of others, I do have the tendency to doubt myself and get very down.
What about social anxiety?
With friends and family I’m fine, but put me in a business networking environment and I clam up.
I have been working on this aspect of my personality and have started making inroads. It’s still far from my favourite activity, but I’m getting there.
Do I challenge authority?
This is where I differ from a typical Savant. Confrontation is something I avoid at all costs; so no I don’t tend to challenge authority.
What about you?
Do you recognise yourself?
Perhaps you’re one of Don’s other psychological profiles?
For any team to thrive, multiple personality types are a must. Each brings its own take on things giving a wider perspective on the project you’re working on.
What’s your take on this?
Do you believe we all have a ‘type’, or do you think we meld our personalities to the situations we find ourselves in?
Leave a comment below.
Thank you to Software Advice, who commissioned the original research, for allowing me to comment on their research.
October 23rd, 2013 — Advertising, advertising copywriting, marketing
Have you ever had an original thought?
Something no one else has ever thought of?
Probably not, after all, with the many millions of people in the world (past and present) it’s a tall order to come up with something completely original.
So where does that leave your marketing strategy?
Is it a bit predictable?
Well, now’s the time to do something about it.
Recently, I was lucky enough to hear Dave Trott speak at the Professional Copywriter Network conference in London.
He talked out how important it is to out-think your competitors.
For example, if your business has 8 direct competitors (your products are the same) and your campaigns are very similar, there’s nothing for your consumers to distinguish between you.
The chances are your market share has stagnated or is reducing – neither of which are good.
So what do you do?
You have to out-think your competitors.
During Dave’s hugely entertaining presentation (if you get the chance to hear him speak, grab it with both hands) he illustrated the point with an example of one of his own advertising projects.
A few years ago Dave was tasked with coming up with an advertising campaign to prevent chip pan fires.
Previously, the issue had been tackled by showing how quickly a fire could take hold, each incarnation more gruesome than the one before. But these tactics weren’t working.
It was time for someone to look at things differently.
Rather than taking the traditional view of ‘to prevent fires we must show the audience what will happen if they have a chip pan fire’, Dave opted to look at it from a different angle.
If there were lots of chip pan fires that meant the fire brigade would be called out to lots of fires. So instead of showing housewives the devastating effect of fire, Dave chose to find a way to reduce those call outs.
So Dave produced an advert that showed housewives how to deal with a chip pan fire safely, therefore reducing the number of call outs.
That’s (award winning) creative thinking.
It’s not looking at the obvious need, but instead turning the problem on its head and looking for another, possibly easier, problem to solve.
So next time you create a marketing campaign, apply a different way of thinking. Look at every aspect of what you’re trying to achieve to see if you can come up with something that’s going to make you stand out.
For more about out-thinking your competition, Dave has a ‘must read’ book out called “Predatory Thinking – A Masterclass in Out-Thinking The Competition” (link to Amazon page).
