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“Your Morning Cup Of Marketing Know-How”
7 Tips for Improving Your Online Marketing Writing
1. Write with a single person in mind.
The more you can picture your perfect client in your mind’s eye, and write something that appeals directly to him or her, the easier it’s going to be to create a one-on-one marketing effect (which, of course, should be your goal).
2. Say what you mean, as clearly as possible.
Where a lot of business people trip up is trying to think like professional writers, when they should simply communicate clearly. When in doubt, use a simpler word instead of a more complex one. Aiming too high with your language doesn’t always make you look smarter; it can just as easily come across as jargon. Or worse, it may sound like you are talking down.
3. Support your key statements.
If you are making a claim that flies in the face of common sense, or accepted wisdom, try to back it up with something credible. Often, a statistic or case study will do. However, if those aren’t available, a personal anecdote or testimonial from a customer can be helpful. There is a fine line between being unconventional and being out of touch, so support your strongest statements in the best ways possible.
4. Always end your writing on a strong point.
Every marketing communication you put together (with the possible exception of short tweets and personal notes, of course) should end with a definite conclusion, a call to action, or both. If at all possible, invite the reader to take the next step, or share an opinion. I practice this rule in every communication I write, from emails to staff or clients, to closing out my twice-weekly blog articles. Simple truth: if you don’t ask for a response, it’s less likely you’ll get one.
5. Write once and edit twice.
A lot of what people consider “writer’s block” is just a lack of momentum. For your first draft, just keep putting words together and trust you’ll find the ones you need. After you have a complete draft, edit twice. The first time for structure and organization; and the second time to eliminate anything that isn’t needed to help tell your story or make your point.
6. Read the document out loud before you send it.
Most simple typos, grammatical errors, and structural problems that people struggle with can be fixed by simply reading the draft out loud. Take your time and don’t rush over the words. You’ll find that as much as 90% of the most common writing issues can be taken care of this way.
7. Never send or publish something you’ll have to take back later.
We live in a world where a single ill-advised email, blog post, or social media comment can lead to big problems. So, before you publish something to the Internet, or send it to any of your contacts (or especially, to all of them), think carefully about whether it’s an idea you really want to express, or a thought you may want to keep to yourself.
source: socialmediatoday.com
Business Articles
What a silly question, right?
As marketing professionals, we all understand the importance of marketing plans. However, not everyone in your company thinks this way. To some, writing a marketing plan is a waste of time. In this article, you’ll find a surefire way to get upper management on your side.
Before we start, here’s a quick primer on what role marketing serves.
Marketing:
Communicates a consistent message to the ideal customer. Discovers what customers want and need as well as what price they will pay. Knows where to find customers that will most likely buy. Builds the foundation for sales through multiple channels. In short, marketing creates the sale opportunity.
So, where does the marketing plan fit in? It becomes the roadmap for achieving your business goals.
A Marketing Plan:
Tracks Costs / Measures Value: A marketing plan provides a step-by-step guide to what you are spending money on and when. It enables you to budget marketing expenses–helping you keep control of your expenditures, manage your cash flow, track sales to marketing expense ratio, and measure success of your marketing efforts. It also ensures that product development dollars are not wasted.
Helps with Focus: Your marketing plan gives the company something to rally behind. It helps staff understand goals and become customer-focused. It also empowers them to make decisions on their own that are consistent with the company’s objectives.
Charts Success: A marketing plan helps you chart your destination point. It becomes a guide through unfamiliar territory.
Serves as a Business Handbook: Your marketing plan is a step-by-step guide for your company’s success. To put together a genuine marketing plan, you have to assess your company from top to bottom and make sure all the pieces are working together in the best way. What do you want to do with this enterprise you call the company in the coming year? It assigns specific tasks for the year.
Captures Thinking on Paper: The finance department isn’t allowed to run a company by keeping numbers in their heads. It should be no different with marketing. Your written document lays out your game plan. If people leave, if new people arrive, if memories falter, the information in the written marketing plan stays intact.
Reflects the Big Picture: In the daily routine of putting out fires, it’s hard to turn your attention to the big picture, especially those parts that aren’t directly related to the daily operations. Writing your marketing plan helps in determining your current business status and provides a roadmap for business goals.
Becomes a Document to Build On: Creating your very first marketing plan is a time and resource consuming endeavor, but well worth the effort. Once the plan is complete, you just need to make minor adjustments and tweaks to it; you won’t have to re-create it from scratch. It will serve as a template and benchmark for you to work from as you define your objectives and strategies for next year. It becomes a living document for measuring sales success, customer retention, product development, and sales initiatives.
Now that we know the benefits of a marketing plan, we need to take a step back and decide where to start.
Where Do We Start?
The best place to start is to evaluate where you are now. How are you positioned in the market? How do your customers see us? What are your strengths/weaknesses, and what are some emerging market threats and opportunities?
Typically a marketing plan is done in sequential phases–the next part of the plan builds off of the phase before it.
The marketing plan also needs the help of most everyone; it cannot be completed without the assistance of many people within the company: manufacturing, finance, operations, sales, management, and marketing.
Management also needs to sign off on the marketing plan before it starts so that everyone supports it and dedicates time to it. Without management buy-off, it is very difficult to put together a successful marketing plan.
Who should see your plan?
An abridged version of the plan should be shared with everyone in the company.
Now, wasn’t it a silly question to ask why you need a marketing plan?
source: MarketingProfs.com
The Shelf Chronicles
Hello everyone…
This installment of “The Shelf Chronicles” features the Robot from “Lost In Space”. For those of you who are unfamiliar with “The Shelf Chronicles”, refer to my original post from 2008 and my “revisited” post from 2012.
I have always wanted a “Lost In Space” Robot for my collection, but finding just the right one was a challenge as I did not want to get just any old action figure or something that was clearly a “toy”. I finally ran across this one from Trendmasters which perfectly fit the bill. He is a highly accurate sculpt, has retractable arms and has the classic “Danger Will Robinson” sound effects which can be set to manually activate or can be set to go off when the lights in the room go on or off (which was initially very cool but wears off VERY quickly) :).
In any case, here he is. Enjoy!
“Lost In Space” Robot
Crumbs from the Scone
We live in an age when many companies have an online-only presence. “But for most enterprises, a website serves a slightly different purpose—augmenting an already well-established business that conducts the lion’s share of its merchandising offline,” writes Bill Post at MarketingProfs. These brick-and-mortar companies often struggle to adapt their messaging for an online audience, and their sometimes-clumsy web presence might actually hinder the image they want to project.
To avoid that fate, Post has this advice:
1. Maintain a consistent look and feel. “When customers look at your website,” he notes, “it should be crystal clear to them that they are ‘entering’ the online establishment of [a business with which] they are already at least somewhat familiar.” In other words, use the same logos, fonts, colors and lingo that they encounter in your store.
2. Make clear what you provide. Don’t take for granted that an online visitor will instantly understand what your company does—instead, assume they’ve never heard of you. Describe your business, list your top products and services and provide links to in-depth descriptions, an FAQ page and a page with contact information.
3. Show visitors the faces behind your URL. “Let your customers know all about your team, your staff, your management, and even your pets,” he suggests. “Don’t be afraid to include pictures.”
4. Don’t let your website get stale. If your homepage still trumpets an event or sale from 2010, a visitor will know she has just entered an online ghost town. So keep your site—both content and technology—up-to-date.
Build online business for your offline company by making your website an obvious extension of your brand.
Source: MarketingProfs enewsletter.
Crumbs from the Scone
How often do you gather your team for a day of brainstorming? Jeff Hirsch calls these freewheeling powwows “ideation sessions,” and they might just produce an idea that leads to your company’s next great feature, product or service. “You’re in the moment, sparks are flying, your brain’s going a mile a minute,” he notes at MarketingProfs. “The friendly competition from a diverse range of bright, talented colleagues stimulates original ideas that you never thought you could have.”
If you want to get the most from an ideation session, Hirsch recommends rules like these:
- Jump right in. Lengthy preambles and presentations will kill the energetic buzz you’ve stoked with a buffet table of caffeine and carbs. “Say hello, state the target problem in one sentence, and then start with a crazy creative exercise,” he says.
- Bring in a few ringers. Hirsch likes to recruit creative non-marketers—e.g. actors, musicians, writers and artists—who keep the conversation going during natural lulls. “They might not know ‘the business,'” he allows, “but they do understand, intuitively, how to communicate and connect with people.” The outside perspective can also challenge your company’s usual way of thinking.
- Give concepts the benefit of the doubt. Some ideas might grow on you; some might lose their appeal in the light of day. “So if there’s even just an inkling of something you like about an idea, keep it around for a while,” he suggests.
The best ideas happen when you create a conducive brainstorming environment and give them a chance to develop.
Source: MarketingProfs email newsletter.
