Day 2 of my MarketingSherpa “Marketing Wisdom for 2010” freelance copywriter insights...

Here's a great example of talking to the customer, not at them, this professional copywriter's mantra: Tyler Garns of InfusionSoft submitted a great example of simplifying the marketing message. His company went from a big promise to a small one, from promising an all-in-one solution to promising an email marketing solution. They found the all-in-one message didn't resonate with their small business audience. Turned out, the small businesses were only looking for email marketing.

I've used this example before, but it is worth repeating because this comes up so often in my work as a professional copywriter: Are you selling new mattresses or a good night's sleep? If your prospect views their problem as poor sleep, and they don't know a new mattress will help, do not sell them the new mattress. Do sell them the good night's sleep.

I guarantee if you take a hard look at your current copywriting and messaging, you'll find you tend to talk at customers. You tend to assume they know they need whatever you're selling. And chances are, they don't.

Take one piece of existing marketing collateral and force yourself to reframe it in customer-centric terms. How different is it? 

2010 is the year I figure out how my role as a freelance copy writer will change in the age of social media. Blogging I got down. I've been pushing blogs as marketing tools for a long time now, and even teaching small business blogging. I think I have a pretty good handle on LinkedIn as a marketing tool. Twitter I'll never figure out. So I've primarily been paying attention to Facebook as a social media marketing tool.

But my friend Jeff just summed up how to use Facebook as a small business with his Facebook page for his painting business.

Jeff did an excellent job applying the principle of KISS: Keep it simple, stupid. And he zeroed in on what people want to see: before and after pictures and real-life painting success stories. And in a format that's easily shared!

This freelance copy writer says kudos to Jeff for harnessing the small business marketing power of Facebook in a way that's a great--simple--example for others! 

As a freelance copywriter who helps out clients with small business marketing, I am constantly on the lookout for new information to pass along to copywriting clients, especially as social media takes center stage.

I'm already pushing blogs as marketing tools, but these days I'm looking out for nuggets on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, trying to wrap my head around how these tools can be put to use for small business marketing.

So this article of using Facebook for your small business caught my eye when someone retweeted it, but it's more of the same: talking about the how, but not the why, and definitely not about the "how to make money" part of the how.

I'm a copywriter, yes. Words are my business. Web writing is my business. Email copywriting is my business. But I also owe it to my copywriting clients to be up to speed on other marketing channels, so I can make sure my work as freelance copywriter fits with their other marketing efforts.

What small business folks lack more than anything are time and money. What they need more than anything is sound advice.

And that doesn't mean telling them how to set up a Facebook page, and to make sure they have lots of friends and family to get to follow them. That means telling them how to make money, how to market their business and convert prospects to customers using Facebook.

But sadly that means looking beneath the surface of the shiny new thing that is Facebook. And articles like this only encourage more small business folks to jump on the Facebook bandwagon, wasting precious time on a tool they don't know how to use let alone necessarily need.

Am I simply grumpy because I didn't get to ride my horse today? Or am I grumpy because I too am a small business owner and I wants facts, not Facebook.
 

Last night we went bowling, something we rarely do so I'm not very good at it. I'm definitely a better freelance copywriter than bowler! In the middle of the second game, my friend said "Hang on to the ball a little longer." I did...and bowled two strikes in a row.

That one little split second change improved this copywriter's bowling game dramatically. Which got me thinking about tweaks, and how one little tweak can make a big difference in copywriting, whether it's web writing or small business marketing or blogs as marketing tools.

What can you have your freelance copywriter tweak to improve your company's marketing? How about email subject lines? The heading on your website's home page? The cover of that postcard? Maybe it's even your staff's signature block in their emails, or the title of your next blog post. Or your call to action? How you word your registration form on your landing page? Your banner ad, the executive summary for your next whitepaper, the CEO quote in your next press release...the possibilities are endless.

Copywriters work with words. But not just any words. The right words used in the right way. Tweaking those words can make a big difference. Never stop looking for places to tweak! 

You might end up bowling a strike instead of a spare.

I like Vertical Response as a lower cost small business email marketing platform, and I usually like the CEO's blog, but my feathers got a little ruffled when I read the 2010 checklist of 10 things small businesses should do this year.

As a freelance copywriter, I do work for small businesses. And the two things practically every small business owner have in common are: lack of time, lack of marketing knowledge.

This checklist of 10 things made me squirm in my seat...and I work in marketing! 

I pity the small business owner who reads that, gulps, and throws his or her hands up in the air in despair. These folks are too busy running their businesses to implement even half of a list like this.

Years ago in my early days as a copywriter (yikes, that was 10 years ago!), I read this marketing advice: Do a few simple things. Do them well. Do them consistently.

For me as a freelance copywriter, I confess I started out with a three page marketing plan when I started my business. Hey, I'm in marketing! I should have a long, convoluted marketing plan, right? Over the years as I got busier (i.e. had less time) and smarter (i.e. had more experience), my marketing plan shrunk to less than a page.

Small business marketing has to be simple, easy and affordable. There's no one-size-fits-all plan for it. It might be small business email marketing. It might be blogs as marketing tools. It might be networking.

But it has to be a short list of simple things a busy guy or gal can do well and consistently. Not a list of 10 pie-in-the-sky ideas.

I've just returned from a meeting in Seattle with a copywriting prospect. And earlier today I had another meeting with a copywriting client. Both times, I was called upon to be knowledgeable about much more than copywriting. I've long viewed that as part of my job, to know about all kinds of marketing, so I know where I fit as the Seattle copywriter, and to give the best advice to the client whether we're talking websites or email or (now) social media.

But starting with the new year last Monday, I see my role changing... from being able to give advice to doing certain marketing tasks myself.

I already work as a ghost blogger, something I plan to do even more of in 2010. But I'm still figuring out my place in social networking, as a content provider.

And maybe that's where I'm not sure? I'm in marketing, but my role in marketing is as Seattle copywriter. I have to know marketing to be a good copywriter. But what do I need to know to be a good social media content provider? Maybe it's even too early to say? 

I know how to be an SEO copywriter. I know how to use blogs as marketing tools. I know small business email marketing. I know how to do all these specific things that require specialized knowledge.

But what is the specialized knowledge required for copywriters in 2010? Are we now faced with copywriting 2.0? Or even 3.0 (if I missed the boat the first time around)? 

As I told the copywriting client this morning, it's my job to stay ahead of the marketing curve, in order to be the best freelance copywriter I can be. But I've yet to figure out my place in the new marketing world order.

Something to think on. Any thoughts on it, from other copywriters or people who hire copywriters?

I recently got a new laptop, and opted to leave Outlook with the default settings for images in email. That means most html email showing up in my inbox has little red x's in it. I left the setting alone because I'm curious about how well companies are using alt text in their email marketing. In the past week with my new laptop, I am shocked at how few are, and what a poor job is done by those companies that do use alt text.

This sounds like this should be an email marketing topic, and it is in a way, but it's also a copywriter topic, because it's the copywriter who writes the alt text when it's used.

Something like 80% of email clients (that's the software used like Outlook, or AOL, or Gmail) have images turned off by default. I don't know how many users change that setting so they do get images, but I'll be a large percentage of them don't. That means images don't show up in the emails, only the little boxes with red x's do. And in that box is some boring text. For me as an Outlook user, that text tells me I can right click to download the pictures (and then reassures me Microsoft is only doing this to protect me because Microsoft is truly concerned about me...right?).

But that text can do more! If you're using alt text in your email marketing, that's the text that shows up in lieu of a picture.

No alt text in your email marketing is bad enough. Sucky alt text that shows a complete lack of effort is even worse. In the last two days I've received two holiday email that consisted ONLY of boxes and red x's. And the text telling me to right click to download the pictures. And this alt text: "Holiday Card."

I'm a Seattle copywriter. This makes me absolutely nuts. I bet they hired their copywriter to write the text that shows up on the image (that I'd see if I did right click). So why not hire their copywriter to write the alt text? 

Instead of Holiday Card, how about the actual message? Or something like "A holiday greeting from the folks at ABC Company"? Or a compelling message like "Can't see anything but a red x? Right click to see a beautiful holiday email sent to you with all our best wishes. You'll be glad you did!"

Honestly, those cheesy ideas took this Seattle copywriter about 20 seconds to come up with. So please, people, invest a few extra minutes into your alt text! Otherwise your email marketing is better off never leaving your computer! 

The best alt text I ever saw, bar none, was in an email from the Washington State History Museum. Being a museum, their email message was loaded with images...and each one had a full caption of text stating what the image was. It communicated to me even without the pictures. This is a nonprofit I'm talking about here. And they are kicking alt text ass, if you ask this copywriter.

If your business does email marketing, even small business email marketing, resolve to use alt text this coming year! 

And if you need reminders, do like this freelance copywriter and turn off the images in your email. Then you'll experience how dreadful the emails sans alt text are...and you'll  become aware of how much more your own email marketing could do, if you just have your copywriter spend some time on some clever turns of phrase.

Just read an article by a very respected SEO copywriter talking about Title tags. If you do any SEO copywriting, or you work with your SEO copywriter, you’ll know the Title tag is a critical part of your search engine optimization (SEO).

 

(If you don’t know, read a quick tutorial I just wrote for another blog here: http://smallbusinessblogging.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/small-business-blogging-for-internet-marketing-why-your-title-is-soooooo-key/.)

 

Normally I really respect this SEO copywriter’s opinion, and, knowing how important Title tags are I was excited to read this article to make sure I know everything I need to to be a kick ass Website copywriter…but in this case, I was disappointed in her advice because in all honesty I think she’s just a wee bit wrong.

 

Why? Because she talked about including the company name in the Title tag. I disagree, unless your business is well known and people are searching specifically for YOU (meaning your business). Even still, if that’s the case, does your company name belong in the Title tag?

 

People use search engines like Google to solve problems. The problem might be they need a new keyboard for their laptop, or they’re searching for a new horse, or they’re researching an arch pain in their foot…there are likely as many problems to be solved as there are Internet searchers!

 

But your Title tag has to match their search in order to work. That means the keywords in your Title tag must match the keywords they’re typing into the Google search box.

 

Is searching for We Know Words solving a problem? Only if the problem is they are looking for my copywriting company specifically. But if that’s the case, they probably already know to go to weknowwords.com. More likely they are searching for a freelance copywriter, or a Seattle copywriter, or a Website copywriter, or an SEO copywriter…meaning they don’t know they want to hire me, Sharon, as their copywriter, they only know they need to find a copywriter.

 

Including the words “We Know Words” in my Title tags would be a complete waste of space.

 

I agree with the author that Title tags are so important and I’m glad she’s talking about them. But too many people will likely follow that SEO copywriter’s expert advice and waste precious SEO real estate with company names that don’t belong. L

 

Note: This Seattle copywriter has been cleaning up a very cluttered We Know Words copywriting Web site. I’ve deleted a ton of files and pages and consolidated and made it much more manageable. I see now what Gerry McGovern means by being a “putter upper.” If blogs had been as easy (and if I’d understood them as well) back in 2002, I would have built a blog to market my copywriter services, not a Web site! Anyway, as I streamline the We Know Words Web site, I find stuff I don’t want to get rid of, so I’m moving it here to this copywriting blog instead. Plus I came across this little plug, and realized I might not have ever plugged my marketing tips ebook in this copywriting blog, oops! OK, enough preface…

 

Most small business owners can't afford professional marketing help. Nor do they know enough about marketing to do it well. That's why I compiled this ebook, "Marketing in a Minute."

 

Small business owners want to grow their companies. But growth requires sales, and sales require marketing, and many small business owners struggle with marketing... and time. So they don't necessarily have the skills, nor do they have the time to learn how to do the marketing.

 

That's where these marketing tips come in. They are short, easy to digest and easy to apply. Without investing in any expensive marketing program. "Marketing in a Minute" offers 104 such marketing tips, written for the realities of small business budget and time constraints.

 

So where does a marketing ebook crammed full of 104 marketing tips come from? Does one just sit down and write it? Not in this case. It took years to create this book...

 

In 2002, I took my copywriting prowess and started writing weekly tips and dispensing them via email to small business owners who desperately needed marketing help but couldn't afford to hire a marketing agency like We Know Words. The marketing tips were deliberately short and basic, but offered new ideas for those too focused on running a business to be a real marketer. The tips were nothing fancy, just text and just enough to fit in one's Preview screen. They covered print, Web writing, email marketing and more. I dubbed them "Sharon's Marketing Minutes" and made sure each one could be read in a minute or less. (Hence the title, "Marketing in a Minute.")

 

I wrote the weekly tips for almost 2 1/2 years until I ran out of time, but not out of ideas. The feedback was always so positive, and more than one subscriber confessed to archiving the marketing tips for future reference. When I announced that I was going to stop writing the marketing tips due to lack of time, many subscribers emailed to say, "Put the tips together in a book."

 

It took years, but most of the marketing tips are now gathered together into one extremely useful resource for small business owners and those in charge of marketing for a small business.

 

See sample tips, learn more about the marketing ebook, and read some glowing testimonials at www.marketinginaminute.com. Or just request the ebook sight unseen by emailing info@weknowwords.com and putting “book” in the subject line.

I’ve had several bad espressos from those cheap looking, roadside coffee stands. To the point where I won’t even risk it anymore. I’d sooner go to a Starbucks—which is against my principles as a small business supporter and champion—than risk one more really bad latte. My brain knows they can’t all be that poor quality, those little independent barista booths. But my stomach and taste buds have been burned enough times to avoid anything like that.

 

I’m wary of the roadside coffee stand, I admit it. Just like women are wary of a certain type of guy. At the risk of stereotyping and offending, say a woman keeps dating artists and finds they are consistently moody and unreliable. After awhile, she’ll probably avoid artists as potential dates, even if a guy is rational and reliable as well as artistic. She’ll end up lumping all artists together into one kind of category, just as I lump all roadside coffee stands into one type of category: to be avoided.

 

When your coffee really is stellar and worthy of a drive by, how do you stand out if your audience is wary due to all your competitors who serve crappy cappuccinos? First off, you’ll have to make sure you truly serve good coffee. That will get you the word-of-mouth marketing that money can’t buy. Secondly, you need marketing and copywriting that differentiates you and makes you stand out as better.

 

And this applies no matter your business: If your potential customers are lumping you into a category you don’t want to be in, or don’t belong in, only two things can get you out: Your product or service, and your marketing. The former will be your proof that you’re better, the latter will be your story telling people about your proof.

 

Is your business perceived as a roadside coffee stand or a flaky artist? Then make sure what your selling is better than the competition, and make sure your marketing and copywriting effectively communicate that fact.

This Seattle copywriter is finally updating the We Know Words web site. It's a running joke that I need to hire a website copywriter to keep the web site maintained! But a pleasant lull in the copywriting business is making the update doable.

Part of the update is simplifying the site since I now rely more on blogs as marketing tools. (More on that in my next blog.) But I as a copywriter have a tendency to get a little fond of copy. As a result, I'm posting an article on email newsletters here since it's being deleted off the copywriting web site. It's an oldie but goodie and maybe a bit unusal to spot here since I've become such an evangelist for blogs as marketing tools. Why would I be encouraging the use of email newsletters? Granted they are not necessarily the best choice for small business marketing, but for the right size business, and right business, email newsletters are still great for marketing, even in an age of social media. Enough explaining, here's the article...

Market with email newsletters
Perhaps the hardest part of marketing is to keep doing it. The irony is, this is also one of the most important. One contact with a potential customer is less effective than repeated contacts over time. We also live in a world of skepticism and doubt, a world where trust matters more than price when people make buying decisions.

To market effectively, you need to establish and nurture a relationship with a prospect. Ditto for existing customers: Once someone has bought from you, don't assume she'll be back someday. You must stay in touch with her on a regular basis so she'll think of you next time she's ready to buy, and possibly refer you to others in the meantime.

 

So how do you stay in touch with your past, present and potential customers on a regular basis? E-newsletters. An e-newsletter is perhaps the most effective and cost-effective way to build and maintain relationships that earn their trust. And trust is crucial to sales.

E-newsletters reinforce your other marketing efforts too by:

 

·         Driving traffic to your Web site through links and special offers.

·         Establishing credibility and positioning your business as a leader and resource.

·         Improving your search engine rankings: Archiving the newsletters on your Web site adds to your content, and search engines love good content!

 

So why are we suggesting email rather than print? It's cheaper than printing and mailing a hardcopy version, for one thing. Plus you don't know if a snail-mailed newsletter even gets read or if it goes straight into the recycling bin. With an emailed newsletter, you can know right away how many people opened it and even how many clicked on a URL to go to your Web site. Email marketing also gets a higher response rate than direct mail: 10-15% compared to 1-2%.

 

Of course, as with all good marketing, your results depend on doing your e-newsletter correctly. Newsletters that are infrequent, boring, purely promotional, or sent to people who didn't ask to hear from you only harm your marketing efforts. But do your email newsletter right, and you will reap the rewards of that ongoing contact as you build relationships, earn trust…and make sales.

Stories are compelling. Stories are how people passed along knowledge, lore and culture for thousands of years before the written word. If you have children, you know how compelling stories can be: There are some stories kids can’t hear enough. (I used to know “The Little Engine that Could” by heart, I read it so many times to my son when he was little.) Even longer books keep kids engaged: “Wolf Story” is a chapter book I read dozens of times to Evan, then later to his sister.

 

Or think about a dinner party: Who’s the most entertaining guest? The story teller, the one who spins the yarns while everyone listens and laughs.

Whether you're marketing your small business, freelancing as a Website copywriter or SEO copywritier, or focused on blogs as marketing tools, you should be telling stories every chance you get.

 

It’s part of what I call Indirect Marketing. The soft sell. The nuance. The influence. You tell a story about, say, a customer, and other potential customers will relate to that customer’s story much more than they’ll relate to you talking about you.

 

Here’s an example from the University of Washington Foster School of Business Web site, telling a story about how one person is involved at the corporate level to get other C-level executives interested in getting involved with the school too. The story is about Bill Ayer, CEO of Alaska Airlines, and his personal and business involvement with the school. By telling his story, we’re encouraging other execs to picture themselves there too, playing a similar role and getting a similar benefit.

 

Stories happen all around you all the time. You just have to get your antenna tuned to notice them. Then, guess the best place for your stories? Your Web site definitely, maybe your email newsletter if you do one, but your blog is the best place for your stories. Your stories can start there, in your blog, where it’s easy to post them. Then they can morph into Web content, printed content, an article in your email newsletter, etc. But if you’re blogging and constantly scratching your head, while at the same time using blogs as marketing tools, start telling your stories!

 

And you’ll be a hit at the next dinner party too.

p.s. Yes, I wrote the  Bill Ayer story after interviewing him. Delightful person and the only person I've ever met who talks faster than I do!

How many times has a prospect told this Seattle copywriter their site was optimized for search, and it wasn’t? Enough times that I could get rich off the “if I had a dollar every time…” way of thinking.

 

If you want a quick and easy way to know if your website—or your competitor's—is optimized for search, go to the website and look in the very upper left-hand corner. That white text in the blue bar along the top is the Title (created in the html using a Title tag). If it says simply Home, or About Us, or the company name, that website is not optimized for search. I don’t care how many keywords might be plugged into the body copy, that Title tag matters for SEO. (It also mattes when people are searching for you as it is THE text that shows up in the search results! But that's another copywriting topic for another day.)

 

I’m happy to say Old Friend Footwear finally got their long awaited site launched, and it’s a great example of SEO copywriting! Go to www.oldfriendslipper.com and check out the Title tags on that site. Plus they were willing to work with me to have lots of pages of content (oh, guess I should clarify: I was the SEO copywriter for this project! J), and more content means more opportunities for SEO.

 

They were also great to work with because they let me do my SEO copywriting without any “vanity” keywords, i.e. those keywords the client wants to win but has no chance at without a lot of money and effort. We have a lot of great long tail keywords, meaning keywords made up of three or more words. And we have a plan for adding content over time. The perfect Website copywriter client!

 

On top of all that, Old Friend Footwear believes in blogs as marketing tools. Now that the site is live, we’ll start blogging for SEO, using relevant keywords, winning searches, and driving traffic to the site. I look forward to reporting on their small business blogging success!  

Confused about how and why to use blogs as marketing tools? Here’s a little help…

 

Last week this Seattle copywriter spent a day at Market to the Max, making sure I’m up to speed on the latest and greatest in marketing techniques and trends. I looked forward to the panel on blogging in particular, for two reasons: One, I’m a firm believer in blogs as marketing tools, and two, my friend Chris Baggott was on the panel, and I’m always intrigued by what he has to say.

 

The panel was a borderline disappointment, however, because Chris’ view, the only one that makes sense for the majority of businesses, was the minor one. (It was also a disappointment because of the moderator’s inappropriate behavior, but that’s irrelevant to my blogging point.)

 

Chris’ view on blogs as marketing tools is that businesses, including small business marketing, use blogging to get found online. It’s blogging to win in the search engines. What do search engines love? Fresh, keyword-rich content. What do blogs provide? Fresh, keyword-rich content. (OK, now I’m starting to sound like Chris, better be careful!)

 

But two of the panelists were too focused on using blogs to establish oneself as a thought leader. That’s all well and good and legitimate, but Mychal at Kona Kai doesn’t need to be a thought leader in the coffee business to make his small business successful. He needs to get people into Kona Kai for food, drink and fun (and free WiFi). His blog needs to attract people in Kent, Washington, not New York or Boston or …

 

Using blogs as marketing tools in the way the other panelists presented isn’t misdirected, it just wasn’t very helpful information for a room full of people charged with marketing their organizations.

 

Thinking about blogging? Start with a goal. Do you want to be a noteworthy leader in your industry with thousands of people subscribing to your blog? Go that route. Or do you want to sell more products and services and make more money? Then use your blog as a marketing tool and win the search wars.

 

Earlier this week, this freelance copywriter spent the day on the Seattle waterfront at Market to the Max. As always happens at these marketing conferences, my brain went into overdrive with blogging topics! Here’s the first…

 

During a (disappointing) panel on getting results from social media, I heard one insightful statement: Large companies can use social media to have small conversations. (Social media meaning blogging, social networking like Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

 

And that’s one more advantage small business marketing has that too few small business owners take advantage of. If you’re small business blogging, you’re already having small conversations. And you’re uniquely positioned to do so. The CEO of a major corporation might blog (or seem to blog using a ghost blogger), but you’re not going to walk into his factory and meet him in person.

 

But if it’s Michael at Kona Kai or Harpreet at Punjab Sweets, guess what? You are going to meet them in person when you walk into their place of business.

 

Part of the appeal of spending your money with a small business is knowing the owner and/or staff. There’s a real relationship there, one that can grow and be nurtured via small business blogging.

 

Small business blogging also enables you to tell stories that engage, to keep people up-to-date on your business and events, to even turn customers into evangelists when they can share your content.

 

I’m not sold on other social media tools for small business marketing. But I’m definitely sold on small business blogging.

 

Another (also disappointing) panel on blogging made me aware of how much confusion there is about why to use blogs as marketing tools, especially for small business blogging. More on that in this copywriter’s next blog…

Why the *&^%$ aren’t more businesses blogging? And even more frustrating, why don’t I see more small business blogging?

 

I’m a firm believer in blogs as marketing tools. An advocate, even. And I’m continually amazed at how many businesses still don’t use blogs as such. Whether you’re striving for search engine optimization or thought leadership or both, you should be blogging. Period.

 

I’m such an advocate for blogs as marketing tools, I work as a ghost blogger for some clients. Some people have an issue with that, they think blogs should be written by the CEO or whomever. But they’re missing the point of blogs as marketing tools. That’s great if your CEO can write intelligently about topics people want to hear about, using the keywords that matter most to you in the search wars. But it ain’t gonna fly if that CEO lacks the time and/or ability. Especially if your reason for blogging is getting found online. And for most businesses, especially small businesses, that should be your number one reason for using blogs as marketing tools.

 

So some of my copywriting clients have me ghost write their blogs, and I work hard to make sure the content is compelling and useful, and the keywords are used the way they need to be. One client’s blog has been very successful, getting noticed and subscribed to by experts in the industry, even though our primary reason for blogging is SEO. (And we’re doing well there two. Last time I checked, we are on the first SERP in Google for our two top keywords, and on the second page for another keyword.)

 

If this client relied on the CEO or someone else at the company to blog, it would rarely happen, the content wouldn’t be as rich, and the SEO results wouldn’t be as good. I as the ghost blogger make sure I write three posts a week for them, so the frequency is there. I work hard to learn about the issues and provide useful content in a well-written way. And I am able to use keywords, because I’m an SEO copywriter. The result? The client scores big time with me as the ghost blogger, without ever having to worry about whether it’s getting done or not.

 

Small business blogging is particularly cost-effective marketing and SEO, especially as more and more people go online to find local businesses. If someone’s searching for a coffee shop with free WiFi in Kent, Washington, or a tavern in Burlington, Washington, that coffee shop owner or tavern owner will do well to blog and win those local searches. Search engines favor blogs over static Websites, meaning small business blogging can even take the place of a Website for some small businesses.

 

Are you small business blogging? If so, tell me about it! If not, tell me why not?

Every page of your Website is a potential “home” page. That’s because any one of your Website pages could be the one that shows up in the search engine results page (SERP) when someone is searching online.

 

For example, type Seattle copywriter into Google and it’s not the We Know Words home page that shows up on page one of the SERPs, it’s a page within my site.

 

When working with your Website copywriter (or me), remember that each page must be able to stand alone. When a visitor lands at any page on your Website, they should still get a sense for where they are, what they’ll find, and what to do next.

 

With or without your copywriter, review each page of your Website and make sure it stands alone, and it includes at least one call to action to do something or to click to another page on your Website.

 

And along those lines, regarding a call to action, make sure every page is selling. As a freelance Website copywriter, I like to figure out one key action we’d like visitors to take, and to call that out on every page. See for example www.agrmarketingsolutions.com. Our primary goal is to get people to schedule a discovery call. So every single page of the Website includes that call to action in the sidebar.

 

Whether you’re focused on small business marketing or a huge ecommerce production, search engine optimization or blogs as marketing tools, you can easily make sure every page is a landing page, and every page is selling.

And if you want an objective eye reviewing your Website, ping this Website copywriter at sharon@weknowwords.com. I'll do a Website assessment to determine how well each of your pages is doing its job. Because in this competitive economy, you can't afford wasted space, even in cyber space. Every Web page has to do its job. And that job is to help you sell.

This Website copywriter's blog topics are often prompted by current copywriting projects. Right now I’m working on a small business Website copywriting project that’s requiring a lot of education…and all we’ve worked on so far is the home page.

 

People get confused about the real job of a Website’s home page. It’s not going to sell or convert. But it should get visitors deeper into your Website…and that’s the home page’s job. It should be short and concise and direct enough to tell someone at a glance what you’re offering, and compelling enough to get someone to click on a link to dig deeper.

 

As a Website copywriter, I think of home pages as doorways. A visitor knocks on your door when they land at your home page. You want to invite them in and have them accept the invitation. Then you can start leading them down the path to conversion, whether that conversion is to buy, to register, to subscribe, etc.

 

That means your home page has to be very targeted, another area where clients have trouble understanding how Website copywriting works.

 

If you have one main audience, one ideal type of customer, you’re better off speaking to that specific group with your home page rather than watering down your message trying to be all things to all people in just 150 words.

 

I once read words of wisdom that will stick with me always: Would you rather have one client who pays you what you’re worth or two clients who don’t? (I think it’s from a book called “Your money or your life.”) Every single time I’ve asked a small business client that question—and I do when they want to confuse, clutter and water down their message—they always, always answer “one client who pays me what I’m worth.”

 

If you try and make your home page work for a bunch of potential clients, you’re speaking to the masses and you’re less likely to get that one client. If you speak directly to that one client, you’re more likely to get him/her/it.

 

You also lose credibility when you try to be all things to all people on your home page.

 

So next time you sit down with your Website copywriter (or if you choose to work with me on your Website), remember these things about your home page:

 

·         It’s a doorway into your Website

·         It should tell your ideal audience what you offer at a glance

·         It should be the right balance between concise and compelling

 

And now this Website copywriter must stop preaching, er, I mean blogging and get back to copywriting!

 

On March 11, the Seattle Direct Marketing Association hosts Market to the Max, a full day of top notch speakers and panelists presenting on topics from paid search to email marketing to blogging and more.

 

This Seattle copywriter will be there to make sure I’m up to speed on all the latest and greatest marketing trends. If you’re a marketer in the Northwest, anywhere from Seattle to Portland to BC, you’d better be there too! My plan is to soak up all I can on blogs as marketing tools and email marketing and search engine optimization, so I can do a better job on email copywriting and ghost blogging and SEO copywriting. I also look forward to spending the day hanging out with a bunch of smart marketers! And the end of the day networking is always a blast as everyone winds down and relaxes with a drink.

Don't think this is just for big companies. There's lots that applies to small business marketing and small business blogging!

And don't think I'm going just because I was the copywriter for the core messaging either, although that was fun. MRM Seattle did such an awesome job on the concept! A game board, with real playing pieces! What a great agency to work with!

 

Speakers will be from industry leaders like Google, Microsoft, Alaska Airlines and Virgin Airlines. For a complete agenda, go to http://www.markettothemax.com/agenda.htm.

 

Hope to see you there!!