You only get one chance on the web to hook, impress, and motivate your audience, so your web copy ought to be clear, concise, and captivating. The possibility for distractions is limitless when you are on the web because there is so much to do. An average web user may have several tabs open, be writing and receiving emails, listening to music or chatting with other online friends. Since all of these distractions make it very easy for attention to stray, you’ll want to be sure that you really engage your readers.
The first thing that will attract in your audience is the headline, so if you are writing a blog, review, or promotional piece about an upcoming event or product release, you’ll want to spend some time thinking about this. A good headline will be catchy, short, and tell the pertinent information. Once you’ve hooked the reader, you’ll still want to keep in mind the influx of distractions your audience is dealing with. Therefore, when writing your copy, be sure to discuss the most important details first, followed by the least important. This will ensure that if they only read or scan part of the document they’ve still absorbed what you needed them to.
As you get going writing your copy, whether it’s content for your website, a blog, etc, it’s a good rule of thumb to not make any assumptions about what your audience already knows. While it’s always important to have a thorough understanding of who your audience is to direct your tone and writing style to them, never assume they have all of the background knowledge to understand what you are about to discuss.
Making the assumption that they know the least about your company or product will help you to write copy that is clear, concise and easily understood by each member of your audience. The last thing you want is for a pertinent piece of information to go misunderstood or misrepresented. Therefore, make sure your copy is thorough (but not too lengthy) in its explanation. Thinking over your five w’s (who, what, when, where & why) can help you be sure you’ve covered all of your bases.
After your copy is complete, and I can’t stress this enough, make sure that you proofread your work. You don’t want to invest a ton of time into your writing only to send it off with sloppy, grammatical errors. Good copy is the online representative of your company, so make sure it’s professional, thorough, captivating and the best portrayal of who your company is.
Focusing on the Customer Experience
The customer is your company’s most valuable asset, so it’s only fitting that you offer them the best experience with your company, one that’s catered specifically to them. If you embrace this concept you will be off on the right foot to providing a quality customer experience that will undoubtedly generate brand loyalty.
What makes your customers your most valuable asset? The customer is responsible for making your business’ world tick by buying, using, and recommending your products and services. Since their involvement is essentially invaluable, you ought to consider how to make their experience top notch.
So how can you effectively cater to your biggest supporters? First and foremost, get to know them. You should start by creating a customer profile to help you gain a better understanding of who these people are and what is most apt to peak their interest. You can begin by listing their demographics and then determine what the general personality of your audience is. Are these people fun-loving or are they more serious?
Some companies might find it beneficial to poll their customers. If so, create a brief questionnaire inquiring what they are currently satisfied with, what they would like to see improved, etc. When in doubt, just ask! No one can tell you what the customer wants, better than the customer!
How can you engage your customer’s interest? If you’re looking for great ways to get your customers involved, try setting up a contest! Not only do people love to win prizes, but if you are clever in the way you set up the contest, it can get people to repetitively visit your website and instigate others to stop by as well! More ways to engage the customers may include posing questions to gain their feed back, blogging to offer tips or company highlights, or sharing photos and videos. All of these things can be done from your company website, Facebook, or Twitter pages, thus covering a wide reach.
All consumers love to know that you have their best interest in mind. If they are going to invest their hard earned dollars on your products, they will want to be sure that you care enough to make their interaction with your business a positive one. In a day and age where word of mouth can travel to thousands of people instantaneously, you want to make sure that that word is going to be of praise and recommendation.
Start looking at your business through the eyes of the customer. By changing your perspective, you can begin to see what your audience is looking for, how to keep them engaged and what will create customer satisfaction. Remember, be personal, yet professional and you’ll surely provide your customers with an exceptional experience.
Facebook Timeline, What are the Perks?
Facebook has taken a new and exciting spin on social media as they continue to roll out the new Timeline for all of its users. While this has been temporarily optional for personal pages, all brand pages have been transitioned to the new setup. It might seem like a whole new world at first and a bit confusing, but once you get acclimated to the new format, I think you’ll really be excited about the display of your company’s history, milestones, and highlights.
To get you somewhat familiar with the new setup, I’ve outlined some of the new features, how they work, and the best way to go about using them!
When you first land on a company’s timeline, you are going to immediately see a bold, stunning, cover photo that stretches across the page (851px x 315px). Considering the magnitude of this image, you should put some thought into what you would like to display here. Some things to think about: is it eye catching, does it represent your brand, and would you like it to be a static image, or one that changes with special promotions or events? The intention of this cover photo is to be a photograph, so keep that in mind when choosing your image and be sure to follow the Facebook guidelines.
You’ll also notice that your profile picture is much smaller(133px x 133px) than it used to be and with the addition of the cover photo, its location has changed slightly. When choosing your new profile picture, try to pick something that will fit the dimensions nicely, and will compliment your cover photo. A good example of this may be your company’s logo.
One of the biggest perks of Timeline is that you can customize the appearance to suit your company’s needs and promote special achievements. By implementing features such as milestones and highlights, you can now keep track of your company’s progress and make these stories more noticeable to your faithful fans!
Previously you had the choice between posting a status and uploading a picture or video. Now included, is the option to post an event or milestone. Events work the same as they always have, with the exception that they are more readily accessible from the status line. Milestones, however, is a new feature that allows you to add important achievements in your company’s history. When preparing to get your Timeline up and running, you might benefit from making a list of what milestones you would like to share with your Facebook fans and then add them accordingly. By including the dates of such achievements, Facebook will place them chronologically throughout your Timeline.
After posting a new status, you are given two options that will pop up on the right hand side of the post. One option is the pencil, which allows you to edit and the other is a star which lets you highlight the story. The highlight feature is pretty straight forward; by clicking the star it expands the post to the width of the page; an excellent way to grab the attention of visitors and make note of important happenings.
In addition to these changes, the edit button now has more choices than ever before. While in the past you could only delete a post, now you can change the date, hide the post from your page, or pin it to the top. By pinning it to the top of your page, it will become the first thing displayed. Your pinned posts will stay at the top of your page for 7 days, or until you choose to remove it.
Sometimes change is unwelcome, but in this case, Timeline has really opened up doors for how we can communicate our company’s story. The more you work with the new features, the more you will see just how customizable and user friendly the new Timeline really is. So highlight your stories, mark your achievements, and have fun with it!
How Can Videos Help My Business?
You may have been wondering, “Why would my company need to spend money on video services?”, or “How could a video help my clients better understand my company and products?” If you have had similar thoughts in the past, I’m glad you’re here to let us answer these questions for you.
The medium of video is extremely helpful for all businesses in all different industries, because it allows you to meticulously and purposefully explain your product or service. It gives you the chance to focus the customer’s attention directly, while giving them helpful and useful information. When using social media to spread the word about your company, video testimonials, webmercials and expertise videos help build and maintain a lasting relationship with your audience base. The more comfortable you can make your audience about your product, the more likely they are to do business with you. More importantly, creating video content for your company gives existing customers content to share about your products and services. Remember, happy customers are always more than willing to share quality content with their social media networks.
Trust In Tricia’s “What is a Closet Analysis?” video is a good example of how video can really help your brand. We recently worked with Tricia Cromwell of Trust In Tricia, a personal fashion consultant and stylist, to help directly explain her products and services and show how they actually work. She had admitted to us that she would often get blank stares from potential customers when she was trying to explain her products and services, because her customers couldn’t quite grasp what she really did or why they would need her. We worked with Tricia to make an “Expertise” video about her services and we chose to put the spotlight on her “Closet Analysis” to help paint a simplified picture for her future clients. The purpose of an “Expertise” video is to highlight your products and services while showing that you, the business owner, are the expert in your field.
We shot the “What is a Closet Analysis?” video with Tricia in 6 hours. She was a doll to work with and has such great knowledge of her industry and a perfect personality to match. Throughout the production process we were discussing this project with a few friends and colleagues, who also didn’t quite understand Tricia’s line of work. After viewing the completed video, every single one of them now understood, not only what she does, but what to expect by booking a service with her. For Tricia, this is priceless, because now people have a great understanding of what she does, how she does it, and that she really is a fashion expert.
So, whether you see video in your future or not, just know that by providing your audience with quality content, you will have the ability to literally show clients why they would want to work with you through video. Start brainstorming how you could incorporate video into your marketing budget so that you can start building new relationships and get social media word of mouth working for your business.
Why Should I Proofread?
There is nothing more irksome to a writer or your audience than seeing poorly proofread copy go public. Truthfully, proofreading your work won’t take you that much time, but it can make a world of difference in the way that your audience perceives your brand.
Publishing writing with spelling and grammatical errors will not only make you look unprofessional, but lazy as well. When building your online presence, you must realize that your written content is the first chance that your audience has to form an opinion of your company. You are not in front of them to explain in a dynamic, energetic, and professional manner just how wonderful your business and products are, so you need to be sure that your writing is an accurate portrayal of your company image.
The fact of the matter is when someone comes across a spelling mistake in your work they are going to make one of several inferences. They might first say, “wow, I can’t believe they missed that” and then start to ask themselves if you even cared about the quality of your work or if you were more interested in getting it out the door. If you value your company (which of course you do!), you most certainly don’t want the words rushed, lazy, or sloppy associated with what you are trying to promote.
Furthermore, if you want to show off your command of the English language, remember that the biggest pet peeve of writers and readers alike, is the casual misuse of your and you’re or there, their, and they’re and its/it’s. Yes, of course we’re all guilty of making these mistakes when we’re in a rush, but do not let these errors make it from the drawing board to the final product or your audience may start to question your credibility.
What it really boils down to is an extra ten to twenty minutes re-reading your writing and maybe having one or more co-workers, friends, family, whomever, give it a look over as well. Sometimes a second or third pair of eyes can be really beneficial. After reading your words several times over it’s very easy to skip over mistakes because your eye is trained to read what your brain thinks that you have written. A second or third reader can catch that pesky error you’ve been overlooking.
Devoting a few more minutes to your work can have lasting benefits by creating error free, professional copy that will really “wow” your audience.
Learn it, Do it Workshops: Introduction to Social Media
With so many options out there for social networks, you might be wondering, which one is right for your company and where do you begin? While it may seem daunting at first to get your sites up and running, Do Something Different is offering their Learn it, Do it workshop to make this process as seamless as possible.
So why is social networking so important to you and your business? For starters, it’s a free and easy way to interact with your target audience while improving your company’s brand. Through establishing a dialogue with your audience you are creating a friendly, accessible, and personable brand that people will feel more inclined to trust. However, word of mouth is a very powerful marketing tool that travels instantaneously across the internet. Understanding that, it’s imperative to your company’s brand to know how to use these networks effectively and appropriately, to create positive feedback.
The Learn It, Do It workshop is based around the principles that learning is doing. With that in mind, Do Something Different will walk you through, in a small group setting of 40, all of the necessary steps to set your company up with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn accounts. The benefit of teaching in a small group, is that we will be able to answer your questions as they arise. When the seminar is finished, not only will you have learned how to effectively create posts and navigate through the sites, but you will have already done it!
The Learn it, Do it workshop will help to clear up any questions you may have and send you on the right track to effective social media marketing. By joining us on Saturday, June 23, you will gain hands on experience with setting up, navigating and posting to your sites, as well as the knowledge and a plan to make the right first impression.
The Importance of Social Media
In a world where media is king, you may have asked yourself, “what is all the hype about social networking and what can it do for my business?” It seems these days that you can find the phrase “like us on Facebook” or “follow us on Twitter,” plastered just about anywhere, from billboards, to websites, email signatures, and occasionally even a moving van or two. As this begins to saturate your media experience, you’ve probably been thinking, “Hey, should people be liking us on Facebook?” The answer is yes.
Social networking gives your company the ability to interact with a limitless audience. While your reach may have only previously extended to your region or country, you now have the capability of offering your products and services to customers on the other side of the world with the click of a button. That being said, it is important to reach out to these people, but there are several things to consider: how will you represent your company and what will you post to promote dialogue?
As you get going with your first tweet or Facebook post, start thinking about your audience – who are they and what is most likely to peak their interest? Start generating posts geared towards your target market that are either informative, intriguing, or create a call to action. By updating as regularly as possible and responding to your comments you will start to create conversation. Positive and helpful responses to comments not only get the people talking, but it makes your audience aware that you value their feedback.
While keeping your audience’s interest in mind, make sure you don’t forget about your brand image. How do you want people to perceive the personality of your company? Whatever your brand identity is, it should shine through in all of your postings. The internet exposes information to a vast audience, so it’s important you put your best brand forward and establish your business as a company they can trust.
In short, here are three things to remember in your social media endeavors:
- Update regularly- you want to establish a presence and online identity.
- Respond to your comments whenever possible –be positive and helpful.
- Follow/join groups, organizations, or individuals that will identify with your company -determine who your target market is within social media.
- Put your best brand forward
Be personable, yet professional with your social media marketing and your networks are guaranteed to grow!
The Importance of Taking a Good Photograph
People often mention that a first impression is a lasting impression, so it only makes sense to “wow” your customers at first sight. When you land on a webpage the first thing that your eye is drawn to is more often than not, the colorful photographs. How your website or products appear to your audience upon first glance can determine whether or not they decide to stick around and make a decision to buy.
Since photographs are the only representation an online buyer has of your product, it is extremely important to take good, quality photos that represent your product in the best possible light. Your pictures should be sharp, eye catching, and true to life, to show the marketable product that you know you have. To ensure sales and loyal customers, there are a few simple things that you can do to make sure your photos are an accurate representation and entice the customer to buy.
You might consider getting a professional photographer, but if that option’s not for you, you can start by focusing on these three essentials: lighting, angle, and composition.
One of the best examples to express the importance of these elements, are poorly shot realtor listings. If you’ve ever gone in search of a new apartment online, there might be a few instances where you immediately turned down what they were offering you. In my experience, this has come from apartment ads with poor quality photographs. Usually, these photos are of a dimly lit apartment, that is dirty, cluttered, and doesn’t accurately portray the amount of space. The second I see something like that, they have immediately lost my sale, and probably several others.
When photographing a product, try to think from the consumer’s point of view. While you are well informed about the phenomenal qualities of your top of the line item, the audience is not, so it’s up to you to show them. An easy way to sell that same dark, cluttered apartment is by taking control of the composition. Step back and take a wide angle shot that shows the depth and size of the room. Open the shades and let a little sunshine in! It can do wonders to warm up the room and the picture. And third, clean up the clutter! If you have a picture of this beautiful bedroom and in the corner is a heap of dirty laundry, not only is it distracting, but it takes away from the potential and integrity of both the apartment and seller. If an unsightly object is in the line of view, either move the object or move your shot.
Through the eyes of your customers, the quality of your photo, can essentially mean the quality of your product; poor image = poor product. The real beauty of photography is that you have the power to take control of the situation. By adjusting the extraneous variables, such as lighting, angle, and distracting objects, you can truly optimize your images.
A picture is worth a thousand words, so make sure it’s sending the right message.
Media Marketing and Real Estate
As many of you know, there is ample opportunity in the real estate market today. With all the foreclosures and short sales happening daily, you must be on your game to beat the ever growing competition. Many people have decided to take the plunge and start their own real estate investment company in hopes to supplement their current income or in many cases, replace it. Traditionally, real estate services have been provided by the experts (big companies, realtors, agents, brokers etc.), but it is becoming more and more common that self taught investors are providing similar services. You might ask, how do these self taught investors have the credibility of these other established businesses? Thats where the hang up lies.
Because of the influx of information on the internet and the ease of posting a webpage, people all over are setting up lead capture pages and websites for their personal investment businesses. Many of whom, are looking for people struggling to pay their mortgage so that they can help them out of their current financial struggles. If I am a struggling homeowner, how do I know that A. your company is legitimate, and B. you are an accredited business? If you are an investment company, here are a few things to think about when promoting your business online.
If you are advertising yourself as the investor that you are, I have no doubt in my mind that you know what you’re doing and that a struggling homeowner would be safe doing business with you. But, when I find you on the internet, it is up to my discretion (the web user) to decide if you are legitimate and accredited. You need to use branding and media marketing to your advantage in this situation. Provide information to your potential client through transparency and solid branding. In today’s world, your company needs a custom logo that is designed for your direct audience. You need to provide history of your company and its mission so that people can feel more comfortable about contacting you with such personal information. Provide your name, photo and biography of yourself so that your audience can get to know a person rather than a company. Don’t forget that media marketing is also about the content you provide. Clearly, you are looking to get something from your viewers (contact info, etc.), but what are you providing them? Instructional videos are a great way to set yourself apart from your competition. Provide your audience with up to date information about local housing laws, short sale exit strategies, or any other information that you would need if you were in your audience’s situation. The use of stock images is very helpful to create the feel that you hope to emote from your audience. Stock images with no purpose, however, can actually hurt you. Don’t just grab images of professionals in an office if this is not congruent with your company/mission/brand. Internet users are quick to sniff out (a lack of a better term) BS content and you wouldn’t them to overlook your company because of this. Just remember, your company on the internet is only as good as your brand and media you provide. If you think that your website/content isn’t that important, then that message will come across as your brand and you may lose potential business.
Social Media and Brand Transparency
Remember when there was a time when businesses would advertise on local television stations and their call to action was to “look them up in the yellow pages”? Seems like the stone age right? Nowadays, the consumer is directed to company websites and social media outlets. Why are social media outlets like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter so crucial to brands and their transparency?
Social media sites allow companies to create a distinct brand identity. They do this by creating a unique voice for their company or brand. Although automated phone systems are still widely used by corporations, the main means of feedback and communication (customer service) for most (hopefully more, than not) companies are social media sites. These sites allow customers to submit public feedback, both positive and negative, directly to the company. Some may think that this could be potentially damaging to the brand (because of negative feedback), however, this actually helps the brand by giving them the public chance to amend the relationship with any unhappy customers. For the consumer, this shows brand transparency and will allow you to see a brand’s true colors. When used properly, social media has saved sales, created extremely significant word of mouth campaigns and ultimately tightened the relationship between the brand and the consumer.
Your social media voice is something that has to be genuine and congruent with the company brand. A lot of business owners think Facebook or Twitter is used as a bulletin board to post sales flyers. Although you can reach a large audience this way, Facebook and Twitter are two way media platforms. They are meant to start a conversation, gather feedback, and improve customer service methods. Your best bet as a business owner is to ask your customer base relevant questions. Keep them related to your brand, but feel free to get creative and expand the conversation past your products. The number one thing on your customers mind, is their own best interest. Ask questions concerning them, post photos/videos that would be relevant to their daily life, offer quality information and tips within your area of expertise. We are in a time where consumers often determine which brand to choose from their own house. Make sure they have a relationship with your brand through social media. Take a look at the wall on your business Facebook page or Twitter and ask yourself, “Do the posts on this page interest me enough to respond, or engage myself with this brand?”
