Small Business Marketing

Imagine trying to find someone to date without ever leaving your house or going online. How would you meet anyone? You wouldn’t. You have to put yourself out there in order to meet potential dates and mates.

Same with marketing. If you don’t put yourself out there, you won’t be found by potential customers.

Blogging is one of the best ways to put yourself out there online…if you’re doing it right, meaning with enough of the right keywords and frequently enough.

As a freelance copywriter and now a Copy Coach, I’ve been promoting blogs as marketing tools for a long time now. But this report from Hubspot should convince you. If it doesn’t, I’ll think you want to “stay single” meaning you don’t want to find new customers!

According to Hubspot, companies that blog enjoy:

• 55% more visitors
• 97% more inbound links
• 434% more indexed pages

Still not convinced? Read the article on small business blogging.

Ready to get your blog up and running? Or want help making your blog make more business? Drop me a line!

Although I've been a freelance copywriter for 10 years and I've worked on all kinds of copywriting projects--websites, email, direct mail, brochures, whitepapers, and more--I've resisted doing pay-per-click (PPC) ads all this time.

Why? Probably fear. Unlike organic SEO that takes time to gain traction, PPC is immediate...so I'd know right away if my copywriting was working or not.

But change comes into the lives of all good professional copywriters, including me, and I am embarking on my first PPC ad copywriting project. (Gulp.) 

In doing research for hints and help, I came across this great article of 18 tips for copywriting PPC ads.

Whether you're a freelance copywriter doing PPC ads for clients, or a small business owner tackling that copywriting job yourself, take a look at the tips, they're good.

All right then, enough procrastinating by blogging. Time for this freelance copywriter to earn her keep with some PPC ad work! 

I’ve heard this question from several small business owners lately: “Why have a Facebook page for my business?” As I re-evaluate what I do as a professional copywriter in the age of social media, i.e. the age of user generated content, where the customers create the copy, not the copywriter, I see my role shifting from Copy Writer to Copy Coach. So I take this social media marketing stuff very seriously!

To answer the question of “why,” I made some notes which you’ll find below. If you have anything to add, definitely post a comment! That is social media!

It’s Web 2.0, user generated content (UGC)…people want to talk back to you, and they want to talk to each other about you. Now that is their expectation, that they will be able to. And Facebook enables that.

It’s free.

It works for B2C companies with loyal customers who want to be engaged by the brands they believe in. If you have a ho hum product or service no one gets excited about, a Facebook page is likely a waste of time.

Facebook pages show up in search results, so it can help with your SEO and getting found when people search online.

You can have a vanity URL that’s easy to share and direct people too, like www.facebook.com/yourcompanyname.

Facebook (and Twitter) icons are now commonplace on websites and in emails, encouraging people to fan (or follow) your company. This is still new enough that people will.

For a small business, a Facebook page can replace a website. You can do all the marketing you want via your Facebook page, even solicit email signups. The only thing it can’t do is online transactions (i.e. letting customers buy from you).

If you go this route, your Facebook page is far easier to maintain and update than a website, and you don’t need to pay for hosting.

You can engage prospects and customers in a way you simply can’t with a website or even a blog.

It’s automatically viral. When someone becomes a fan, that shows up on their profile page. And they can easily invite others to be fans. Imagine someone doing anything like that with your website! It’s inconceivable.

Facebook integrates seamlessly with Twitter and blogging. I don’t want to turn this into a “why use Twitter,” but there is an SEO benefit to using Twitter, and when you have your tweets integrated with your Facebook page, you are updating your Facebook page without effort.

I also don’t want to turn this into a “why use blogs for Internet marketing,” but there are several benefits to blogging, among them SEO and credibility. And, like tweeting, your blog can be automatically posted to your Facebook page, keeping content fresh.

Maybe Facebook is going to become a bigger and more important marketing tool than websites. Facebook can be where you engage, build relationships with customers, and market. Your website might only be where business done, downloaded, bought and sold.

Your customers are on Facebook. It’s the third largest “country” in the world in “population.” That’s how many people use Facebook. In the age of social media marketing, guess what? You follow them. You go where the customers are. And the customers are on Facebook.

Still not convinced? Watch this short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8.

And by then I hope the question is: “Why not have a Facebook page for my business?”

Need a Copy Coach to help you get started? Sharon@weknowwords.com standing by…

The marketing tips in my free ebook are from many years ago. More years than I want to admit to! Let's just say, my office has been moved twice since I wrote those tips.

This morning, I started wondering if the ebook was out of date. Maybe I am being an irresponsible copywriter for continuing to offer it to people. One of my biggest pet peeves as a professional copywriters is marketers who give clients out-of-date advice! Was I doing that? 

Literally minutes after I was pondering this, I received a request for the marketing tips ebook from a potential client. I unabashedly asked her to give me her honest opinion about how helpful or not it is given how long ago it was written. I sent her the ebook, and very soon after received this good news:

"I went through all the statements of tips and a number of the paragraphs. I can't wait to read the whole thing through, with my highlighter in my hand! I think it is a wonderful booklet, and it is very generous of you to give it away. I think the ideas are definitely relevant, not only for marketing but for daily life with others. Thanks."

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.
 

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.

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.

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!

I would like to request a copy of your e-marketing book.  I thoroughly enjoy your Web site...such great information. Each morning I look forward to reading new posts on your Blog, and if not a new post...a previous one.  We are in the process of redesigning our Web site and the information you provide has been very helpful. Yes...you “extremely bright, talented, informed and fun” women may indeed be the best copywriting agency on the West coast J

Lynn Mitchell

Woodland Scenics

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!