Why this blog? Because I'm your customer's advocate, reminding businesses that they must talk to customers, not at them, to get heard. This blog is my means of putting helpful advice, tips and reminders out into the world so your marketing will be more relevant, more targeted...and more likely to get noticed. Happy Marketing!
--Sharon Long Baerny
Today I got a fun email from a company that normally sends me a fairly dry email newsletter. The timing was perfect. Even though I’m primarily a copywriter, it’s my job to know about many aspects of marketing, especially up and coming trends. I’d been thinking on all the case studies and whitepapers I read about social networking that apply to B2C marketing, but was wondering how well the approach will work for B2B.
Then I get the “Can Water Cut It?” email from Flow International with a link to a video featuring Flow Man and asking the question “Can Water Cut a Titanium Golf Club?” Flow makes industrial strength water jets that can cut anything. See the video at http://www.canwatercutit.com. You can also watch them cut a cell phone and a blender.
The videos are tongue in cheek and deliberately amateurish and the approach works. I just watched them with my 10-year-old and her friend and they were impressed. But more importantly, the manufacturer with extreme cutting needs is going to be blown away watching these! And watch them he or she will because they are fun, not “work.” Compare cutting up a coworker’s annoying cell phone to watching a dry online demo!
As soon as I got the email, I contacted Doug at Flow. Doug said they started the videos after attending the Online Marketing Summit in Seattle (where I ran into Doug!). And the videos are working. Flow is starting slow with a gradual introduction but they’ve already gotten leads from the videos!
On the site they let people like us submit ideas for things to cut. And people are! Doug says, “We've already received a bundle of interesting ideas on what people would like to see cut (for example, plasma TVs to laptops to boulders to bread).”
Just this morning I read an article about integrating email and social media. Flow’s “Can Water Cut It?” videos are a perfect example of doing just that.
Kudos to Flow for figuring out how to harness social networking and video for marketing an industrial product in a B2B marketplace!
OK, back to copywriting on a rainy Seattle afternoon…
When I first fell for a cowboy, a friend teasingly sent me a link to a Garth Brooks song about whatcha going to do with a cowboy. And it’s has been stuck in my mind the past few days but with “website” instead of cowboy. Here’s why…
Sunday night at a wedding reception, I fell into a conversation with the owner of a medical billing company. Although she and her partner have a successful and growing small business, they do not have a website. Usually I avoid talking about work at social events, but small business marketing is a subject near and dear to my heart so I couldn’t help myself. I talked shop…
Because they’ve grown without one, they haven’t felt a website was necessary, and I explained that maybe they don’t need one but suggested reasons why they might.
For example, all their business comes from referrals and word of mouth. A website can be a great first introduction. I know people looking for a Seattle copywriter almost always look at the We Know Words website before they contact me for copywriting. And that works well for both me as copywriter and them as prospect: My website is a pre-qualifier. If you don’t like the attitude all over it, you probably won’t like my customer-centric approach to copywriting (as opposed to generic, me too copywriting and web writing).
with a website, this company could give a sales pitch to potential customers by having a website these prospects could go to after getting a referral.
And that can save time. Instead of prospects calling the small business to ask questions about their services and rates, they could get the answers themselves by going to the website.
In talking to the small business owner further about the idea of a site, it turns out there’s a lot of information they need to update clients with on a regular basis, and she realized the website could work for that. Plus I pointed out they could use an RSS feed to push the updates out or at least to let clients know there’s new information.
Small business marketing doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. But it doesn’t have to be copycat either. Maybe the smart approach is to first figure out what you want to do, then look at how a website could help you do it. A website just for the sake of a website is silly. But a website that helps you sell and saves you time and lets you do a better job of serving clients makes a lot of sense.
Is it time to revisit your small business website and make sure it’s pulling its weight? Is there some function you could have your website do to save you or staff the time of doing it?
Whatcha gonna do with that website?
And I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to do with that cowboy!
I know nothing about football. In fact, yesterday at lunch I was even asking a friend ignorant questions about how overtime works because I happened to see the end of the Seahawks/San Francisco game on Sunday.
That’s my disclaimer for what’s going to be today’s post, because it has to do with football but then again it doesn’t.
Apparently a referee committed the sin of being (gasp) human by…making a mistake. Now I know to the team and fans his call affected, it was a huge mistake, one this Seattle copywrtier wouldn't understand. But that’s not the point of this blog.
I happened to come across this sports blog because admittedly sometimes I just let the Internet sweep me away to wherever. It’s the closest I come to keeping up with pop culture. This post is about how this ref, Ed Hochuli, is so devastated by his mistake. But what got my attention and why I want to write about it is this: He’s responding to his hate mail.
Here’s one man who has been publicly lambasted for an error, and he’s man enough to admit to the error, admit publicly that he feels bad about it, and respond to hate email. Proving that he is in fact human...and a pretty good human at that.
If only more companies could be this human. Here's an example of what I'm talking about (and this does tie back to marketing):
I just ordered my third power cord for a Dell laptop I’ve had for less than a year and a half. My Dell printer just died, again after less than a year and a half. You know what I’d like? I’d like Dell, and other companies, to be human enough to not produce crap first off, and to admit it when they do. (I’m only singling out Dell because they are costing me so much money right now. Plenty of other companies are equally guilty of crappy product. Not according to most companies, of course, but just ask unhappy customers and you'll get an earful. )
Okay, so why am I bringing this up...besides that fact that it shouldn't be so hard for a company to a)make good stuff and b) own it when they don't? well, there are two lessons here: First, marketing isn’t just wooing prospects so sales can convert them to customers. Marketing is the whole enchilada. It’s before, during and after the sale. Second, there’s only so much marketing can do to make up for inferior products or service.
No NFL ref in his right mind would go out and call a lazy game of football, the way Dell is being lazy in their quality control. Ed Hochuli, bless his heart, is paying dearly for a human error. And trying to make up for it by responding to people angry with him.
Imagine a company that cared that much about their product in the first place, and smoothing things over with customers when the product doesn’t live up to expectations. That's a company that people would clammer to do business with all the time. I know I would!
(Thanks, Mave, for copyedit of the above!)
This Seattle copywriter has been swamped!! So I have no time for dating the guy who went from sweet to not-so-sweet anyway!
Being such a busy copywriter means it’s a struggle to find blogging time—which I shouldn’t admit to because I believe in blogs as marketing tools—but that’s my long-winded excuse for referring to something I heard weeks ago at Online Marketing Summit Seattle…
One of the speakers (maybe Aaron Kahlow?) talked about Web sites and how the user has control, the user is like your competitor now. My memory is fuzzy on exactly what was said, but it sparked my take on it as a copywriter/marcom person: The customer now is your competitor. It’s less about your company vs. the competition and more about the customer simply deleting your email marketing, ignoring the Web copywriting by clicking the Back button, or tossing your direct mail.
Because “marketing is like dating” is my favorite analogy, put it in that context: Say you’re a man who wants to date a certain woman. You’re not up against all the other men who want to date her. You’re up against what she wants. She will choose to go out with you or not based on criteria like your behavior and appearance. (If she’s shallow, she’ll also check out your shoes and car apparently.) It’s not you vs. them. It’s you vs. her expectations.
Now apply that to marketing: Customers today are more likely to decide whether or not to buy from you (date you) based on their criteria, not on how you stack up against a competitor. (I’m talking B2C here.) If you’re selling things like pop, clothes, sheepskin slippers, espresso and cars, the customer will first consider how well you fit his view of himself and how he wants to world to see him, not comparison shop.
And it’s your marketing that tells the story the customer bases his decision on! Does your story map to his or not?
Be customer-centric. Be focused on what the customer wants, and do your copywriting in his terms. Make your email marketing relevant. If you use blogs as marketing tools, make your blogs personal and authentic. Purge your database so your direct mail goes to a quality list, not a quantity one. Segment and personalize.
It’s no long you against “them” (the competition). It’s you against the customer. Meet her criteria and she will choose you. You’ll win.
I’ve been taking some grief from people lately for not blogging and it’s true, it has been on my list but at the bottom as all these copywriting clients who were busy doing other things all summer all of a sudden realize they need a copywriter right now! Don’t get me wrong, I love my copywriting clients! But it is funny how one Seattle copywriter can be so quickly buried by an onslaught of work from clients, no matter how much she might love them!
Which is my segue into this blog post, which, I might point out to people like Brent, I’m not writing because I have time to, but because it’s easier than putting up with the comments about not blogging. (Said with affection, Brent. J)
This post has been sitting in my head for a few days now, and I hope I do it justice because I’m literally dashing it off in a few minutes…
Once again, I come back to marketing is like dating. Today it’s about you gotta keep courting the customer. Anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis knows I’m single. It has come up a couple of times…at least. But dating is such a great analogy for marketing! And the dating/marketing lesson I just recently experienced was someone being very sweet and very attentive…and then not. What he doesn’t realize is, it was the sweetness and attentiveness that I liked about him, it set him apart from other guys. Take that away, and what do you have? Just another guy.
When you’re marketing, you’re (I hope) being sweet and attentive to that prospect. But once they give you their money and go from prospect to customer, should you stop courting them? Of course not! But companies do. There’s a marketing mindset that’s focused on lead generation, getting new customers, filling the pipeline, etc.
But what about the customer you already have? Do your sales people still pay attention after the invoice has been paid? How much of your marketing is focused on continuing to be sweet and attentive to the people who have said yes to you? Who have given you their money and become a bona fide customer? Or is your marketing focused on the next conquest instead?
Are you taking your customers for granted once they become customers? If so, do you think they’ll continue to “date” you? Probably not, because, like the guy referenced above, when you take away the sweetness, all you’ve got left is just another guy. They’ll go spend their money elsewhere next time, because you’re no longer anything special.
If you already know how to harness the technology, this program will teach you how to choose one marketing tool over another based on sound business principles. If you're still completely oblivious about how best to put email marketing, blogging, SEO, web analytics and more to work, then here's your chance for an overview that won't help you master all these online marketing tools, but will help you know enough to make sound marketing decisions.
A program like this is great for people already working in marketing, and I'm so glad they started it! But we still need to be teaching interactive marketing at the college level too. I wonder how long until that happens?
I found my notes from OMS Seattle!! I had tucked them into the copy of “Groundswell” I got that day. I didn’t win the drawing for the book, as much as I wanted to, but my friend Carmen did, and she kindly gave it to me as she already had a copy. J When I started reading it last night, lo and behold, I found my notes with all my blog topics! So I admit sometimes this Seattle copywriter is a little spacy...
Now, with all these marketing topics to touch on, where to start? How about with this great observation made by Aaron Kahlow, the guy behind the Online Marketing Summit, excuse the paraphrasing: Companies spend a ton of money on lobbies that most prospects and customers will never, ever see. But how many thousands of people will go to their website? And is the same investment made there to make the same great first impression?
Because your website is your first impression, and you only have a few seconds to let the visitor know they’ve arrived at the right place before they click away. Your home page has to clearly and immediately state what people can expect to do/find/buy at your website.
As a website copywriter, it can be a challenge to get clients to look past what they want to say to what the customer wants to hear. Because with only a few seconds to get someone to stick around, your only choice is to talk to customers, not at them! (See my copywriting mantra at the top of this blog.)
And the lobby vs. website analogy is a great one. Imagine an office building with droves of people coming through the door into the lobby, looking around quickly, then marching right back out again. How unnerving for the security guard or receptionist at the front desk! But that’s exactly what happens when your home page fails to communicate right away what you offer and people just click away.
(Makes me wonder if the lobby is really for impressing the potential customers, or more for boosting the egos of the executives? Which some websites seem to be built to do! To boost egos, that is.)
And the really good news is, this is another place where small business marketing plays on a level playing field with big business! It might take tens of thousands of dollars to create a truly impressive lobby. But a truly useful website doesn’t have to cost much at all! But small business or big, you'll want to invest in a great website copywriter, of course. :-)
Every morning I get a bquote from Bguides.com. If you don’t get them, I highly recommend them. Anyone who has been in my office knows how much I like them: I have printed out many and have them taped all over my desk. (OK, most of the time they’re buried, I admit: I might be a really good copywriter, but I’m also a messy one.)
This morning’s quote tied in perfectly with what I was already thinking about blogging on:
"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else." -- Sam Walton (1918–1992), founder of Wal-Mart
Now, he’s talking about sales, but this works for marketing too. And here’s how it ties into what I was already thinking:
Yesterday I was interviewed by potential clients as a Website copywriter. They had sent me some documents and wanted to know how I would position their business based on what they had sent. It wasn’t a fair question to ask of me, since nothing in their documentation delved into their customers’ mindset…which I pointed out, and I launched into my customer-centric copywriting spiel about talking to customers, not at them.
Sure, I’m a Website copywriter, among other things, but how could I possibly tell them how I’d position their company without knowing their customers’ world views, pain points and awareness? And how the customers would find their Website or if they’d even be looking? Or how the customers view themselves, as savvy or helpless? All of that comes into play, as does so much else when copywriting Websites. As I’ve said before, don’t try and sell me a new mattress when all I know is I want a good night’s sleep.
If your copywriting doesn’t talk to the customers’ concerns, they won’t listen, no matter how good your Website copywriter. You won’t even get to the point where they can fire you because they’ll never even think to buy from you in the first place.
Oh, and they loved me and hired me as their Website copywriter. Despite all my preaching. :-)
Last week this Seattle copywriter went to the Online Marketing Summit in Seattle. Although most of the information was stuff I already knew, I took notes and had about eight blog post ideas jotted down, prompted by the day’s presentations. I was delighted to have so much blog fodder, knowing I could post every day for a few days and have sweet Sarah, my Client Success Manager at Compendium Blogware (whose job it is to keep the bloggers blogging!), praising me for my blogging frequency. But alas, I lost my notes! And I don’t lose things! Especially anything related to copywriting. Frustrating!
One thing I remember though: Although the Online Marketing Summit is, of course, focused on online marketing meaning anything from email marketing to web usability, there were two recurring themes I noticed throughout the day:
1) Social media: Again and again presenters either framed their talks around social media, or the attendees asked questions related to it.
2) Face to face: Several times I heard people say something akin to “nothing can replace in-person, face-to-face communication.”
Do you notice those two themes go together? When companies are using social media to market, they are able to act more like they are marketing in person. Think blogs as marketing tools, where you have a real person doing the talking, not a generic, faceless company. Or the segmentation that can be done with email marketing: Your marketing can be very targeted and specific to an audience, making them feel like you are talking just to them. How about User Generated Content (UGC) where the users are creating the content for you, as real people talking to your audience “face-to-face”?
Perhaps most exciting is how doable this is for small business marketing. From small business email marketing to small business blogging, this Seattle copywriter sees plenty of opportunities.
Just something to think about… Meanwhile, I’ve ransacked all my recycling bins and my car and my purse, but I remain convinced those notes are around here somewhere. And ransacking my brain isn’t helping: I’m coming up empty, trying to remember all my great blog ideas!
I was just on a web page looking up the root of a word and I saw an ad for weight loss. No surprise there. But the ad must have been for surgery because the image in the ad was of internal organs. I assume the stomach, I don’t know the human innards very well. And my reaction? Gross! What in the world are they selling!
Well, they’re not selling what the customer is buying! They are selling weight loss surgery, but the customer is buying weight loss. The best image to have there is one of a skinny person, silly advertiser! Sure, you use surgery to achieve the weight loss, so that’s what you’re selling. But that makes for a bad ad no matter how good your online copywriter.
Think about it…
You are selling mattresses but your customer is buying a good night’s sleep.
You are selling small business blogging software but your customer is buying search engine optimization.
You are selling sports cars but your customer is buying status.
Before you do any copywriting, blogging, small business email marketing, anything, make sure you get out of your head and into your customer’s: What is she really truly buying from you? Sell that!
Right now, answer the question: What is your customer really buying?
And about that word I was researching? Sure enough the words smite and smitten are related. This Seattle copywriter thinks that’s pretty funny!
If you’re in email marketing, you’re using a welcome email (aka welcome letter), I hope! It can be one of the most powerful tools in your email marketing toolbox, because it’s the most often read email a business can send to a prospect or customer. (If you’re new to email marketing, or getting into small business email marketing, or just wondering what a welcome email is, it’s the email automatically generated and sent to a new subscriber to your in-house email list, someone who signs up on your Web site.)
Sadly most businesses don’t use one or use a crappy one. Yet the welcome email should be required in email marketing. Not only is it highly likely that your customer will open and read it, it gives you a chance to make a deeper connection with them, further your relationship along, and even up sell them or get them back to your web site.
Earlier this week I started on whitepaper project for a new client and we were talking about how people would get the whitepaper (because this Seattle copywriter believes how you deliver a marketing message is almost as important as the message itself). I mentioned about using a welcome email and did he want me to do the copywriting for it, and I found myself explaining the welcome letter…which led to a great new term (I think) and this blog post.
I told him to think of it as a reinforcement email, and then had my “ah ha” moment: Maybe if marketers thought of this welcome letter as a reinforcement email, they’d both be more likely to use one and they’d make sure to have better copywriting too.
By “reinforcement,” I mean this piece of email marketing reinforces to your customer that signing up for your email newsletter or email promotions was a smart decision. It’s like a buy for the customer: She is giving you her contact information. In return you will provide her content of value. It’s an exchange of “goods” and you can confirm for her that yes, that was a good idea. It also reinforces your message regarding frequency and what type of information she’ll receive from you via email, ensuring that she’ll be more likely to look for messages from you in her inbox. It can reinforce your brand in tone and voice (which is why I keep mentioning copywriting). And it can reinforce the beginning of your relationship with this person. She raised her hand and said yes to hearing from you. You can take the next step in the relationship with this email.
I hope calling it a reinforcement email instead of a welcome email makes it make sense to marketers, because—like I said already—it is so important, it should be required in all email marketing, especially small business email marketing. If you have a small business, this is one easy way to stand out and differentiate yourself from the big guys…wait, that’s the start of another blog post.
During my re-indoctrination into singlehood, I have met a lot of men. I don’t know why there was the big uproar a few years ago about women over a certain age not being able to marry. As far as I can tell, the world is full of men, both single men and married men wanting to pretend they’re not.
No, I’m not digressing. Promise. Hold on…
At first, I didn’t know what to expect. And there were a lot of men who were self-centered jerks. I started to think that’s all there was.
So then when you meet one of the sweet ones, you really notice. Sad but true. It should be the other way around. It should be that most of the men are sweet and it’s the jerks that stand out. But, no, the jerks seem to outnumber the nice ones.
And, oh my, does this apply to marketing!! This totally ties in with my “marketing is like dating” theory!
Think how many times you actually welcome a marketing message from a company? Um…never? Well, at least rarely. That’s because the company wants your money but they’ve put that want first, ahead of anything that you might want. And they talk at you, not to you. (Remember my mantra? Talk to the customer, not at them.)
So dating the guys who talk about themselves, have little if any interest in you, and want to get straight to you know what, well, they are akin to the marketers who…talk about themselves, have little if any interest in you, and want to get straight to you know what, aka taking your money.
Ladies, guys, marketers: I have seen the light. I have recently experienced what it’s like to have someone be nice, caring, sincere and interested in me. Wayne is to his chagrin, a nice guy (he thinks “nice guy” has a negative connotation). A very nice guy, I might add. And marketers could learn loads by his example because:
And these are all traits admirable in a marketer too.
Oh, did I mention he’s cute and smart and funny and likes my cooking and has really nice arms? OK, marketers don’t have to do or be all that. But you should be using all the other stuff on that list as a checklist for yourself! Like it or not, you are dating that prospect! And they might hand over their number, they might even go to dinner with you, you might get pretty far along. But they might not convert to a customer if you are acting like a self-serving jerk only intent on getting into their—ahem--wallet.
You can be the in-your-face, here-for-the-money-then-I’m-gone type marketer who talks at customers, not to them, who gets the one-time sale, not the long-term relationship. That’s easy, that’s what most marketers do.
Or you can be something else. You can be successful over the long haul.
Marketing is like dating. I guess it boils down to what you’re really after: a one night stand? Go for it. But your success will be fleeting and will require that you oft repeat it, compared to the marketer with the loyal customer base who gains fans for the long haul.
The landing page.
It is fast becoming the bane of this Seattle copywriter’s existence.
It’s such a simple thing in a way, the page a prospect lands on after clicking on a pay-per-click ad or after getting an email promotion.
So why am I complaining?
Well, it could be my ex is bugging the heck out of me right now so I’m in a pissy mood, but I suspect it has more to do with the ignorance around landing pages. Too many marketers go about them all wrong. I run into this all the time as the online copywriter responsible for developing landing page content: What the We Know Words team can do in copywriting is limited by so many other landing page factors over which we have no control…but over which I try and exert some influence, albeit futilely.
But I’m not going to blog on how to make your landing pages right because that’d be a looooonngggg blog, and because a great little guide from Pardot will put you on the right path. Go to Pardot’s web site and get it at http://www.pardot.com/company/white-papers/landing-page-conversions.html. It’s just a primer, but surprisingly, the basics it covers are just the very basics I find myself arguing about with copywriting clients all the time.
Even if you think you are a landing page rock star, get it and give your current landing page approach a quick checkup.
Now, to put my ex in his place…kidding!!! I’m holding back, I promise.
When it’s not an email newsletter, of course…
This past week I spoke to a prospect with a target demographic of men between 16 and 30 years old who spend a lot of money customizing their cars. They want to stand out and get noticed and are on the lookout for the latest, hottest cool stuff to put on their cars first, before anyone else. These guys are going to be on YouTube, MySpace, etc.
Yet on the company’s Web site, they offer an email newsletter signup as part of their small business email marketing efforts.
Picture these guys that make up the target market: Do you think they want to sign up for and read an email newsletter? Neither do I.
Nor did I think that this company was investing the time and resources into creating content for an email newsletter. So I asked what they really do send out as part of their small business email marketing. The answer: emails about specials and promotions.
OK then, that’s what the signup should be selling, “Sign up to get special email specials and promotions.” That’s going to have much more appeal to a teenager than “Sign up for our newsletter.”
Lessons here:
I’m not saying email newsletters are bad. At We Know Words, we love email newsletters because we do the copywriting of them for clients. But we are going to make darn sure that the content is serving the prospect first and the client second.
I’m just saying make sure your email newsletter is the right vehicle (pardon the pun) for your email marketing. And although I’ve been talking about small business during this whole blog post, just because it’s top of mind, this applies no matter how large your business. Because I’ve certainly seen plenty of useless email marketing campaigns coming from the bigger businesses too, when they’ve focused on what they want to say, and not on what the prospect wants to hear…
This fits right in with my “marketing is like dating” theory: BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse just took me out to dinner to court me as a customer.
Yep. My kids, my best buddy Rico and I got to dine for free as part of the training for a new BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse. They are opening in the Seattle area, in Tukwila, and I had received an invite for a free meal for four during their training time. We all thought it was pretty neat to take part in the training…and get a free meal. OK, three of us. My teenager is too cool to think anything is pretty neat. It’s the first BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse in Washington state, so the newness of that was fun too.
We had fun with the casual atmosphere as the servers made occasional mistakes, and we had a great meal and some really good beer. (The highlight for me was when I ordered a “Nitwit” and Rico ordered a “Brewnette” because it sounded like we were talking about each other!)
Now you’re wondering what the heck this has to do with marketing…and why I’m saying it’s like dating…and why a Seattle copywriter would even think you care…
Because it’s brilliant. Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell talk about “napsterizing” your business, figuring out how you can give away free samples so people can try before you buy. I think the BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse experience is a fantastic example of how to do just that.
Not only did we get to sample the food and the beer and the pop (they make their own root beer, cream soda and black cherry soda). We got to experience the atmosphere, what it was like to physically be there. For me, that’s huge because I’m not usually a fan of chain restaurants. But I liked this place and can easily see suggesting to Seattle friends reluctant to drive all the way to Kent (where I am) that we meet there.
Did it cost them money? Oh yeah. The restaurant was packed when we were there. BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse was giving away a lot of food! But it was both part of the training and part of the marketing, so therefore money well spent. I’m sure it created buzz: I know I’m telling people about the restaurant! And the best training comes from doing, so that was a smart investment in their staff. The only other cost was in the direct mail invitations that went to people like me, and those were pretty simple. No blogging, no email marketing, just plain old fashioned direct mail.
So BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, kudos to you on several fronts: for good food and beer and atmosphere (at reasonable prices!), and for marketing like dating.
Now, what would happen if you took your customers out to dinner? What’s the equivalent for your business? Could you be bold and spring for an investment like that, knowing you’d be getting ROI on that investment for some time?
How can you date your customers with your marketing?
If you want to grow your in-house email list, use blogs as marketing tools. Huh?
Hold on, let me explain…
Think from the end: People sign up for your email newsletter or email marketing when they are at your Web site, right? So one way to grow your email list is to drive more traffic to your site.
People go to search engines like Google and Yahoo because they have a problem to solve. You want them to find your Web site when searching, right?
That’s why I suggest you use blogs as marketing tools. Done right, a blog helps with search engine optimization so you get found online when people are searching for solutions to a problem. That’s because search engines like fresh, up-to-date content, which blogs are assumed to have, so search engines rank blog content faster than static web sites. And because blogs are by their very nature more targeted in subject matter, making them naturally keyword rich
Blogs as marketing tools are not ends in themselves though. You use your blog to drive people to your Web site: They search online, they find your blogs, they then find your Web site by clicking on a link in the blog. Once they are at your site, you sell them on the idea of signing up to get emails from you. That’s how you build your in-house email list using blogs as marketing tools.
Then your email marketing is for continuing and building the relationship. Ideally once they are at the site, they sign up for your email newsletter or email promotions. They are opening the door to hearing from you by doing so, giving you permission to market to them.
Think of it as a three-step process involving a series of yeses:
The customer has found you and engaged with you, and you’ve grown your in-house email list. All because you blogged.
And this use of blogs as marketing tools works no matter the size of your business. In fact, it might just be the most effective way to go about small business blogging and small business email marketing!
I’m perfectly content to drive myself to and from SeaTac airport due to SeaTac Park. I chose them originally because their Web site answered all my questions and I loved their branding. The colors are bright and cheerful and the SeaTac Park mascot is a Volkswagen bug. The tone is friendly and helpful and easy. I stick with them because the service is always prompt and the employees always friendly. And I praise them and make referrals to them on a regular basis.
So keep in mind my affection for this SeaTac airport parking lot when I pick on them for a minute…
Recently SeaTac Park gave me a flyer for a loyalty card. It spells out what I’ll get if I choose to sign up for the SeaTac Park loyalty card with a bulleted list of benefits. I had to laugh when I read it though because one of the benefits involves email marketing:
“Be in the system to receive blast emails and special parking offers from SeaTacPark.com”
Their branding is straightforward which I admire, but this goes just a little too far or they are simply misusing the word. Because no one wants to receive “blast emails.” Blast emails are the ones that go willy nilly to everyone, by marketers who don’t get email marketing.
Email marketing done correctly, even small business email marketing which is what SeaTac Park is doing, should be select, targeted, relevant and useful.
Blast emails are unsophisticated email marketing that adds to the clutter in everyone’s inbox. Blast emails make small business email marketing even harder to do well as a result, because of fatigue on the part of the recipient, because it increases the numbers of emails we get and therefore the competition for attention.
I hope SeaTac Park isn’t really blasting out their emails. I hope that was just a poor choice of words on their part, by someone who doesn’t know about small business email marketing. I wouldn’t know because I didn’t sign up for the SeaTac Park loyalty card in part because I don’t want to get blast emails, even from a small business I champion.
No one does.
As much as I push blogs as marketing tools, I confess my own is the first to be neglected when I get busy. But I still keep learning more about marketing with blogs and blogging, so I can pass that wisdom along to my copywriting clients. (I’m really pushing small business blogging, because I am a blogging believer! Even though I neglect my own!)
The other day I was reading up on blogging best practices, and came across a blog that said to link out, link out, link out…. This blogger was really pushing the concept of getting your blog fodder from reading other blogs and linking to them.
To me, that’s a strange concept. I find my blog topics come from living, breathing, doing…seeing real-life examples of marketing and copywriting at their worst and at their best both. If I focused on reading other blogs and commenting on them, what would I really be adding to the conversation?
It’s my own experience, like the grief I had the other day on Verizon’s web site trying to view a photo a friend sent me, or the conversations with clients who just don’t understand email marketing but think they do, or a story from one of my kids…
Maybe it’s because I blog on marketing, and marketing is something that goes on all around us all the time. Whether it’s my daughter trying to talk me into buying her a Slurpee, or a man asking me out on a date, or me as Web site copywriter helping a client with SEO…it’s all marketing all the time. So maybe that means I don’t have to turn to other bloggers for blog fodder. Besides, that sounds boring. I’d rather live and comment on living (as related to marketing, of course) than spend any more time online.
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