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When writing copy for email messages, landing pages and a host of product descriptions, marketers need to be more than clear and concise; they must also persuade readers to click through and take action. To help you achieve this goal of engaging—and gently goading—readers, Brian Clark of Copyblogger offers tips like these:
Say it again and again. If people are going to agree with you, they need to be clear on your position. According to Clark, successful repetition requires finesse. “To stay on the good side,” he says, “make your point in several different ways, such as directly, using an example, in a story, via a quote … and once more in your summary.”
Feel their pain. “You want the reader to know unequivocally that you understand his problem because you’ve dealt with it and/or are experienced at eliminating it,” explains Clark. Set the stage with a challenge that would create stress for your prospects—then put their minds at ease by proposing a solid solution.
Gaze into the future. Prognostication can be a dangerous game if you don’t know what you’re talking about. “But if you can back up your claims with your credentials or your obvious grasp of the subject matter,” Clark says, “this is an extremely persuasive technique.”
Do what it takes to draw them in. A technically flawless marketing message will only succeed if it also makes a convincing, believable case for your product or service.
Source: Copyblogger.
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We all know the cliché: you have 1.5 milliseconds to grab a prospect’s attention at your home page and convince him to stay. So why, then, are so many B2B Web sites still not that “sticky”? According to a recent post at eMagine’s B2B Web Strategy blog, it’s because too many businesses assume that site visitors already know what their company offers. Big mistake.
“Even if a user has sought you out in a search engine, or visited your site as a result of a marketing promotion, they still need a reminder upon impact that they have arrived at a site that might solve their business problem,” eMagine insists.
So, how do you show them they came to the right place? According to eMagine, it’s by presenting key “tiers” of information:
Tier One: Tagline. A memorable tagline sets a “tone” for your site. But beware: “A common mistake is using this brief catchy type of message alone,” eMagine cautions.
Tier Two: Descriptive/Value Proposition. This is your condensed elevator pitch. “This can be the most difficult sentence to write on your entire website, but also the most important, hands-down,” eMagine says.
Tier Three: Specific Solutions. A bulleted list of solutions, your vertical markets served, etc. “If done effectively, this is where each of your prospect types can quickly identify their problem or their industry,” eMagine says.
Don’t assume they know you. Apply the “tier” test to your home page to help ensure you’re getting your corporate message out there loud and clear.
Source: B2B Web Strategy.
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There are lots of good frozen-yogurt shops in Simon Glickman’s Pasadena, California, neighborhood. But one—21 Choices—seems to enjoy bigger crowds than the rest, and he explains in his Editorial Emergency newsletter how the small storefront keeps customers coming back from more:
- It delivers plenty of atmosphere. Unlike most corporate chains, the environment is quirky and inviting—multiple television screens flicker with cooking shows and vintage cartoons while the teenage staff “sing and shimmy” to a Motown soundtrack.
- It makes customers feel valued. When the line moves slowly, staffers require no coaxing to hand out samples, genuine apologies and coupons for free yogurt. If it turns out you don’t like a flavor combination, they’ll replace it without charge, and Glickman’s wife once received an extra scoop because an employee liked her sock-monkey key chain.
“But the company’s service ethic goes much further,” notes Glickman, “and this is where you should put down your Snickerdoodle Swirl and pay particular attention.”
Simply put, 21 Choices excels at thinking in terms of community:
- Personalized touches include a poster by the front door that lists regulars by name.
- Since customers care about environmental issues, the shop made the switch to biocompostable cups and spoons. “A handmade sign explains that this move has added to their overhead and resulted in slightly higher prices,” he says. “No one seems to mind.”
“No matter how much money and resources are allocated to make a business like this fit into a community, there’s no substitute for earnestly getting to know and embracing that community.”
Source: Editorial Emergency.
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“Oh, no! I thought that sale ran through today!” Your customer planned on grabbing a bargain, only to realize she got to your store a day after the sale ended. Is there any way you can still convince her to buy? Well, read on.
One researcher recently worked with a kitchen-and-bath store to offer consumers different coffeemakers “on sale.” Customers were told they had just missed a $25-off sale on a Cuisinart coffeemaker. As solace, one group was invited to get the Cuisinart for $10 off. Another group was given a choice of either the Cuisinart or a similar Krups coffeemaker at $10 off.
Turns out, 87% of the latecomers who were offered the Cuisinart at $10 off said “no thanks.” However, of those who were offered either the Cuisinart or the Krups at $10 off, only 60% said no: 40% made a purchase.
Why did the offer of the Krups boost sales results here? The researcher suggests that consumers may transfer the “negative affect” (regret at missing a sale) to the promoted product itself, leading to a lower opinion of the product.
The message for marketers? You might want to “time sales of different brands, or even of different items in [a] product line, to ensure that a consumer who misses a sale on one product can find another sale on a different yet similar product,” this researcher suggests.
Keep those options coming. When one item goes off sale, consider offering similar products at a slight reduction, to keep sale latecomers happy.
Source: “Releasing the Regret Lock: Consumer Response to New Alternatives after a Sale,” by Michael Tsiros. Journal of Consumer Research.
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When it comes to the analyzing the data you collect at your Web site, you’re doing a great job. You know which of your customers visit most often, where they live, which keywords they use to arrive at your site and which links provide the best traffic. But are you missing out on additional information your visitors would gladly volunteer?
In a post at the Dosh Dosh blog, Maki recommends methods like these for learning more about the people who visit your site:
- Polls. They’re easy to set up and a good way to collect data gradually without seeming too intrusive. “Run a poll for two weeks and change the questions to pull in more information,” he says.
- Surveys. Since these can be lengthy and often require more effort from a visitor, it’s best to include incentives like a special offer or entry in a sweepstakes.
- Interactive features. Engaged visitors can be an excellent source of additional information. “Think strategically about what data you want and create a feature that allows users to indirectly reveal it,” says Maki, though with the caveat that this requires a clear privacy policy and an easy opt-out process.
“Instead of simply monitoring web statistics,” says Dosh Dosh’s Maki, “create opportunities for visitors to voluntarily reveal personal data and opinions.”
Source: Dosh Dosh.
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“Trigger-based email is when you email a message to a customer in response to certain [behavior] or preferences,” Valerie Khoo reminds us in a post at the Sydney Morning Herald’s Enterprise blog. “The email is literally triggered by something the customer says or does, or is based on other information that has been collected about a customer.” According to Eydie Cubarrubia of Mobile Storm’s Digital Marketing blog, each of these messages—whatever their content—has a central purpose: “[To] ensure that a brand remains engaged with and relevant to consumers by giving them important updates.” Reporting from this month’s Adtech conference in Sydney, Khoo outlines the key steps in a trigger-based program:
- Use creative strategies to build your database.
- Determine key triggers.
- Find the right technology.
- Enrich your data.
When done correctly, there are a number of benefits. “It’s extremely low–cost, and when you set up good systems (yes, that’s the laborious part), there is an element of ‘set and forget,'” notes Khoo.
But remember: While the technique might look simple on the surface, successful implementation requires a deft hand. “Think of trigger-based email as the master’s degree after getting a bachelor’s degree in email marketing,” says Cubarrubia.
Pull that trigger! But get some practice in first. “The rules of email marketing best practices must foremost be understood and used,” Cubarrubia says, when sending trigger-based messages.
Sources: Sydney Morning Herald and Mobile Storm.
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“I think one mistake many marketers make is to think of their lead management requirements too narrowly,” says Jon Miller in a recent post at Marketo. He suggests it’s time to move on up—beyond just nurturing and scoring leads—to a higher level of overall lead management.
To help show the way, Miller has offered these Top Five Lead Management Best Practices:
- Be everywhere. “Cast your marketing net wide so customers will find you no matter where they are searching,” he advises.
- Build prospect profiles. Create a lead database to manage and store all your leads, and then make sure you have a strategy in place to keep that database clean (e.g., lead de-duplication).
- Automate lead handoffs. He offers an example: “Define different lead status values to indicate whether someone is a qualified prospect but still nurturing, or a true sales-ready lead.” Then update their lead status in the CRM system.
- Provide sales-lead insight. Give the sales rep the prospect’s history, and offer insight about the “interesting moments” that caused that person to become a lead.
- Recycle leads as necessary. If your sales rep can’t follow up right away, or the prospect isn’t available, don’t let a lead just sit and turn stale. “[H]ave a process in place to reassign the lead or escalate the issue,” Miller advises.
Take more control. “[M]arketers need to move away from a mindset of ‘generating leads’ and toward a model of ‘managing leads,'” Miller concludes.
Source: Marketo.
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Uh-oh. Just when you thought e-commerce might survive these dreary days, a new report comes along that says online merchants didn’t do nearly as well last year as they could have done. Why, you ask? Because online shopping is just too scary for some people.
According to research results released mid-March by Javelin Strategy and Research (working with eBillMe and First Data), consumers’ fear of identity theft, and of Internet shopping in general, caused retailers to miss out on $21 billion in online sales in 2008. Ouch.
Some stats: Of those surveyed, 39% believe that online stores will sell their information; 50% believe they will receive junk mail and spam if they shop online. And 12% of fraud victims report they no longer shop online at all, while 25% say that the frequency of their online purchases has decreased.
So what’s a kind and gentle marketer to do? Multichannel Merchant reports that, according to the survey results, the top-five motivating factors that would convince consumers to shop more frequently are:
- Assurance that information is secure (83%).
- Offering zero liability against identity theft (81%).
- Stronger security at the store Web site (80%).
- A guarantee that the purchase will match the quality expectations of consumers (80%).
- A guarantee for the best price online (79%).
It’s time to reach out and touch your fearful customers. Be as upfront as possible about your privacy policy, and offer satisfaction and security guarantees to help them feel safer in these uncertain times.
Source: Multichannel Merchant.
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“When it comes to website copywriting, design and development,” says Rick Sloboda of Webcopyplus, “simple is always better.” While an overly complex site will do nothing but confuse and frustrate many of your customers, a straightforward approach makes it easier for them to:
- Find answers for basic questions
- Absorb and digest key messages
- Accomplish what they came to do—whether finding information, making a purchase or subscribing to a newsletter
Sloboda quotes French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” In your pursuit of this ideal, it’s important to know a few things.
Effective simplicity doesn’t just happen. Success starts with skilled designers and copywriters. “[W]hether manipulating words, images or code,” he says, “it takes knowledge, experience and time to plan and develop appealing, functional and simple websites.”
And it requires a sophisticated touch. “There’s a vast difference between communicating simply and communicating poorly,” notes Sloboda. Even if your copy aims for the 8th- or 10th-grade reading level, for instance, solid writing will still appeal to visitors who have more advanced comprehension.
“Effective web content isn’t about flashy graphics and fancy words,” says Sloboda. “It’s about communicating key messages and getting tasks completed. Simple connects.”
Source: Article submitted by Rick Sloboda of Webcopyplus
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“I am not going to go on a rant [about] adding a ‘share this,’ ‘follow me,’ ‘digg this,’ or another technology to your email programs in order to drive cross-channel adoption of your email strategy,” says Dylan Boyd in a post at the Email Wars blog.
Instead, he wants to know one thing: Are you loading up email messages with social media add-ons just because it’s the fashionable thing to do, or because you have a solid plan built on connecting with customers where they spend their time? He hopes it’s the latter.
According to Boyd, adoption of social media options for email is not about your tech choices, it’s about your customers’. In other words, to make the best use of social media tools, you have to determine which ones your customers are actually using. “You are not going to be the driver of new technology adoption,” he explains. “[Y]ou are going to be the one to leverage existing places that [your customers] might ‘live.'”
And as you do so, remember to keep it simple! If recipients see lots of completely unfamiliar social media icons in your emails, argues Boyd, the messages will begin to look like a NASCAR racer cluttered with advertisements—and that doesn’t achieve anything for anyone.
Downshift. “Instead of rushing to add the next new thing to your email marketing programs,” says Boyd, “take a step back. Look at your audience and see if adding these things [is] valuable to your subscribers.”
Source: Email Wars
When writing copy for email messages, landing pages and a host of product descriptions, marketers need to be more than clear and concise; they must also persuade readers to click through and take action. To help you achieve this goal of engaging—and gently goading—readers, Brian Clark of Copyblogger offers tips like these:
