Archive for the ‘Website & SEO Tips’ Category

« Older Entries

How to Manage Your Googleability

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

j0431629How many times have you checked someone out on the internet before meeting them?

Perhaps you are off to a conference or networking event and you’ve checked out the speaker’s credentials before attending.

Some may call it stalking! But for most of you, being able to read someone’s LinkedIn profile or look at their website before picking up the phone to them, is a useful gauge on what this person is all about.  You get to check out what they may stand for, their tone of voice and even a find a picture to see what they look like.

But when was the last time you Googled yourself?

And what did you find when you did?

(Quick Note: When I refer to Google, I am referring to all search engines)

Hopefully Googling your name produced some great results.  Possibly professional looking online profiles, a comprehensive About Us page from your website, half a dozen articles authored by you and perhaps even a link to a photo of you accepting an award the other month.

But what if you find something that you would rather not have others see?

Here are some of the common pitfalls to being found on the web and what you can do to overcome them.

1. Your social life is there for all to see. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are packed full of photos and videos.  And what happens when one of your friends decides to upload photos from last weekend’s party and you get tagged?

Tagging is a process of adding someone’s profile link to the photo, thus allowing this photo to appear in a search of your name – easy to do but perhaps not something you want to be associated with.  If you find anything you don’t want to be associated with, go and un-tag yourself.

2.Business v Social. You use Facebook for friends & family but what happens when a business contact wants to become your friend?  Rather than ignore them or reject them, make use of the privacy settings.   You get to set the privacy settings specific to your needs.

For example, did you know you can update your status and set it so only certain friend lists are able to view it?

3.Your abandoned online profile is ranked higher than your website. Sites such as LinkedIn and Ecademy are ranked very highly by Google because of the size of these sites and the continuous updates and activity.  So it is very likely that your online profiles can appear above a link to your website’s contact page.

And if you are not active on those profiles or, even worse, they are out of date and don’t reflect what your business is all about today, it could sway the judgement of the person who is Googling your name.  If you have an online profile that shows up on the search, make sure it is up to date.

4.You don’t appear anywhere. Ooops! No record of you anywhere on the internet? Perhaps not critical for some businesses, but for the majority of you who read this blog I would expect a link to your website to come up when your name is Googled, at the very least.

Perhaps your name is not mentioned anywhere on your website – a common preference for some businesses who like to promote their “corporate” brand over their “personal” brand.  Unfortunately when using this approach, your name is nowhere to be found so add your name on your website somewhere, even if it is just in the “About Us” page.

5.Too many other John Smiths! A common problem for name Googleability is having a common name.  This is where sites like LinkedIn and Ecademy can really help get your profile ahead of others who share the same name.  Also submitting articles on sites such EzineArticles.com can get you found more easily.

One other consideration is to use a middle name or even a pseudo name – authors and bloggers often do this to help their name be found more easily.

Getting found on the web is not always easy.  But whether you want to be found on the web or not, is immaterial.  Hide yourself away and protect your identity by all means.  But think of your potential clients out there.

How many of them are able to find you?  And if they can’t find you, what do they do?  Do they try a bit harder and find another way of tracking you down – or take the easier option and move on to the next supplier or contact that has been recommended to them?

Let me know what you find when you Google your name!

Quick Note: This is a huge topic and it seemed to get huger, huger (!) as I wrote it – so if there is anything you are not sure of, or I have glossed over a point too much – do get in touch.  Delighted to answer any questions you have.

Posted in Featured Articles, Online Networking, Social Media, Website & SEO Tips | 8 Comments »

Is it Time to Ditch Traditional Marketing?

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

The past few years have created very exciting marketing opportunities for small business owners.  The ability to get yourself known, both locally and internationally, has been made easier and cheaper than ever before.

The explosion of social media has allowed you to upload videos, publish articles and reach out to potentially thousands of new clients – every day.  And without having to shell out thousands of pounds to do it.

But does that mean traditional marketing, such as printed brochures, face-to-face networking and advertising are things of the past?

Can’t we just ditch all that expensive stuff and put all our energies in to these new, web-tech tools?

It’s tempting isn’t it?

But be tempted and you’ll probably find yourself left with a very quiet business pipeline.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Social media and online marketing techniques can be incredibly effective.  I use tools such as facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn because of they do generate great results for me and my business.

But use them in isolation? Absolutely not!

Behind my very visible online presence lies speaking schedules, regular face-to-face networking, newsletters as well as postcard campaigns and word of mouth referrals to name but a few other marketing activities I embrace.

google chrome billboardLet me give you a great example of a recent campaign that has taken place over the past couple of months.  Google released its own internet browser, Chrome.  And if there is one company that is synonymous with the internet, it is Google.

Google is dominant in the world of online advertising and it has become a verb, just the way the brand Hoover did all those decades ago.

And yet, when Google launched its new internet browser, did it rely only on the internet?

Absolutely not!

They took out full page spreads in national papers.  They were on billboards up and down the country.  They had posters in and around the underground in London.

They had a full scale, offline advertising campaign going.  And all to spread the word of an internet based product, that could only be used on the internet.

So, it’s not a case of choosing between using social media and traditional methods.  It’s about integrating the two worlds together and making sure your offline world is backing up what you are doing online, and vice versa.

How do you do this?  Here are a few simple suggestions to get started with (and none of which involved a national advertising campaign, you’d be relieved to know!)

  • Have your online profiles on your business card, along with your phone number and business address – give people the option of how they want to get in touch with you.
  • Arrange to have a coffee meeting with a new contact you “meet” on LinkedIn – get to really know your online network.
  • Have your phone number listed on your website, blog and social networking profiles – make it easy for people to speak to you, rather than be forced to message you electronically all the time.
  • Pick up the phone to someone rather than send them a message online – it’s amazing how these conversations can go!
  • Follow up the people you’ve met at a networking event and search for them on LinkedIn – get connected online with the people you meet offline.
  • Use postcards to promote your facebook page or LinkedIn group to encourage more people to visit and sign up – don’t just rely on those automatic email invitations that seemed to get ignored most of the time.

These are just a few ideas to get you going and very few of them need any cash to follow them through.  So, don’t get caught up with the sparkles and glitz of social media and ignore your offline strategies.

The more you can integrate your social media marketing with your traditional marketing, the more effective it will be.

Posted in Featured Articles, Marketing Small Business, Social Media, Website & SEO Tips | 4 Comments »

How does the style of your writing need to differ between your blog, your brochure and your website?

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

style of writing for blogMost business owners find it incredibly difficult to put down in words why they are so great to work with.  Writing can be one of the most challenging skills to learn and master and it’s certainly not high on the list when you first start out.

All the focus in the first few months is around financing, cash flows, business planning and marketing strategy.  But one of the most beneficial skills to have as a business owner is often the written word.

Contracting writing out to copywriters can be expensive and often time-consuming. So when small business owners decide to get on with the writing themselves, without thinking about how to write effectively, they are can be costing themselves dearly.

And writing copy for your brochure, your website and your blog all need different styles and approaches.

Let’s take them one by one.

Writing for your brochure. Your brochure and leaflets are going to be printed so design and layout can be just as important considerations as the words you write.  Your headline needs to be eye-catching and stop readers in their tracks.  This is the time to be selling, to be focusing on what problem the potential client has and how you can make it all better.

Your style has to be strong, punchy and to the point as you’ve usually got limited space.  But you’ve also got to get all the facts in to enable your potential client to make a decision.

Writing for your website. Again, this is the time to be selling.  But just because you may have unlimited space and pages, doesn’t mean you can ramble on aimlessly.

Strong headlines are essential.  Use questions to stop your online visitor in their tracks quickly (you’ve got less than a second to make an impact!)  And sharp, clear benefit-driven copy to outline how it is you may be the answer to your potential client’s problems.

People read differently on a screen than they do from print so use short sentences, 2 to 3 word paragraphs and bullet points where appropriate.

Writing for your blog. Whilst your brochure and website is there to sell your business, your blog is there is to build relationships.  It is here you need to stop selling and focus on giving value, content and useful information.

Your blog is place to showcase your expertise, to share tips and ideas with your readers and build up a useful resource for potential clients to come back to again and again.

Your blog is one of the doorways to your business so welcome your readers and invite them to check out what is inside, linking relevant pages to your website where the selling can take place.  If you try to sell hard at the doorstep, your potential client won’t think about crossing the threshold.

So when thinking about writing, consider the different platforms for your writing.  Know when to sell and when to give value.  And a blog is place where you will sell more but selling less!

What have you done differently in your brochure, website and blog copy writing?

Posted in Blogging, Marketing Small Business, Website & SEO Tips | 3 Comments »

6 Things You Need to Know About Writing Website Copy

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

how to write website copyBiggest website mistake?  It’s when business owners spend all their time and energy on making sure the look and feel is right and then try to bash out some copy quickly so that they can make their website go live.

Absolutely, first impressions do count.  A picture is worth a thousand words and finding a website designer who understands how some colours have better impact online than others will undoubtedly help the success of your website.

But if you spend no more than a few hours writing up 5 pages of website copy, then all your lovely images, beautiful branding and snazzy colours will be wasted.

If the words don’t back up your branding and speak your clients’ language, your potential clients will be clicking the back button as quickly as they can blink.

Last year I published an article on my blog asking the question “Do Long Sales Letters Work?”  And it certainly evoked many comments and thoughts from readers.  But putting the long sales letter formula aside for the moment, there are some essential copy writing points to follow if you want your potential clients to take the next step with you via your website.

1.    It’s never about you but always about your clients. Avoid the trap of writing about yourself and your business because ultimately your potential clients will only care about what’s in it for them.

So what if you are the market leaders in your region – what does that mean to your client?  So what if you have worked with all the big names – how does that benefit your client?  Don’t list the reasons why you are so great.  Focus on the benefits to your clients.

2.    Stop writing “we” and start writing “you”. Print out your home page copy and highlight every “we”, “our” and reference to your business name.  Then highlight every “you” in a different colour.  There should be 5 times as many “you”s as there are “we”s – but you’ll probably find the opposite!

For every sentence that has a “we” or a “our” in it, re-write it and change the reference to a “you” and you’ll be on the right track to having copy that engages with your potential client, rather than turns them off.

3.    Speak your client’s language – not your own. It’s easy to use industry standard pre-fixes and jargon in website copy.  After all, you probably use these words every day when you talk to colleagues or suppliers.  But your clients probably don’t!  Use words they wouldn’t understand and you’ll end up alienating them at worst or coming across too corporate at best.

4.    Correct grammar of course, but don’t be afraid of writing colloquially. If your potential clients use informal language, then embrace it.  If they use slang, embrace it too.

Over the years, I have had the odd email from a subscriber pointing out my occasional spelling mistakes and bad grammar.  But for most of you, the feedback has been that you’ve enjoyed my natural “speaking” style – I write how I talk.  If it works for your potential clients, then use it!

5.    Use short paragraphs, bullet points and selective bolding. Reading from a screen is different from reading the printed page.  People tend to scan and often don’t read word for word.

Make it easier for your online visitor to digest your words by using one to three sentence paragraphs.  Break it up with bullet points where appropriate.  And use the bold selectively (too much & it defeats the object!).

6.    To create action you need to demonstrate pain. Your potential client will only contact you if they find themselves in enough pain.  Whether that’s confusion and lose of direction or losing profitability and sales – if there’s no pain, why would they spend money with you to solve a problem they don’t have?

To identify a reason to contact you, they need to identify with the problems you highlight in your website copy.  So don’t just write warm, fuzzy words all of the time.  You need to hit them between the eyes to create enough reason for them to send you an email or pick up the phone to you.

Writing website copy that sells is not easy.  But it is skill that can be developed over time with lots of practice and lots of learning.

Keep going back to your website copy once a month and review what you have written.  Read up about copy writing and get in to the habit of writing on a regular basis.  It is really worth the time and energy because to have a website that sells your business to potential clients is a business resource worth having – guaranteed!

Got a comment to add?

What tips and suggestions have you got? Or perhaps you have a question you want answering?  Leave your comments below

Posted in Featured Articles, Marketing Small Business, Website & SEO Tips | 13 Comments »

Who the Google are you?

Friday, November 27th, 2009

googleWhen was the last time you Googled yourself?

I was asking around a few months ago for some personal recommendations of a business coach/mentor.  One guy came highly recommended from someone who was working with him at present and I was given his name and contact details.

I always like to check someone out online before phoning them to see for myself how they represent themselves.  So I eagerly put his name in to Google.

He didn’t have a website, which was a little disappointing as I felt that I needed to work with someone who marketed themselves online.  But I decided to have a further look, as he was recommended.

There was a linked-in profile, but not up to date.  There was the odd reference on Ecademy but that was all.  Then on page 2 on his Google search I found a link to his Christmas letter which he obviously sent out via link to a webpage.  Not only could I read his Christmas letter, I could read the past 6 year letters in all their glory – photos, personal references, the full works.

A quick scan and I realised that he wasn’t to be the right personality fit with me.

What is the moral of this story?  Check yourself out on Google today and see what comes back.  You may not be able to control everything that you find and yes, there may be other people out there with the same name.  But if someone out there was to Google you, what would they find out about you and your business?

It’s worth a look!

Got a comment to add? I would love to read your thoughts and ideas.

Posted in Marketing Small Business, Online Networking, Social Media, Website & SEO Tips | 2 Comments »

Completion not perfection

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

business perfectIt can be expected that everything you do in your business, you want done right.  To have the correct grammar and spelling.  To have the right message and images in your marketing material.  TO have the your logo in the right corner of your invoice.

After all you have standards and the right business image to create.

But to strive for perfection is business suicide.

Perfection means that everything has to be just right.  And to be just right it can take weeks, if not months, of checking and checking again.

Running your own business means that you can’t afford weeks of indecision and making the smallest of corrections before launching a new product or service.

Actions need to be taken for you to move forward.  Projects need completing for results to be seen.  And you can’t find out what is and what isn’t going to work until the results come in.

So if you are a perfectionist and are waiting for a final check before you launch that website, send out that email, speak to that client – just remember the completion not perfection rule.

Take action and do!

What are your thoughts? Do you find yourself putting off project launches because you want everything “just right”? Leave your comment below

Posted in Marketing Live Events, Marketing Small Business, Website & SEO Tips | 1 Comment »

Have you finished your website yet?

Friday, September 25th, 2009

http websiteWebsites are often something that sits on your to-do-list, waiting to be ticked off.

You spend a few sessions with a web designer or graphic designer, write your copy and get it published.  Tah-Dah! It’s live. Your website is complete!

But actually your website work has only just begun.  A website is NOT something that just gets ticked off from your marketing list.  A website is actually an evolving tool which needs to be nurtured, cared for and grown to keep up with your business.

One of 1-2-1 clients was getting very frustrated with her new website the other week.  She had decided to set one up using www.mrsite.com [a great way of getting a very affordable, user-friendly website up and running very quickly].  But after a week of playing around with different templates and writing copy for her 5 pages, she was pulling her hair out.

I shouted “Move away from the website!!!”  It was time to take a break and stop trying to make it perfect.

My advice to her was to leave her website alone for a week and then come back to it for an hour or two every week over the next month or so. No more, no less.  The site was working, the right pages were up, people where able to book a place on the workshop she was launching – but to keep fiddling to make it perfect before “launching” was just driving her nuts!

You see, a website should never be finished.  When you run your own business, you are probably evolving and growing at a rate of knots.  You start working with clients you hadn’t thought possible, you create products and partnerships you hadn’t quite planned for.  You are being flexible to meet the needs and demands of your clients [or you should be!].

And your website has to reflect this.  It’s not a corporate brochure that once printed, has to be thrown out when out of date.  It’s moving and evolving marketing tool that you need to be reviewing at least once a month. 

Have you finished your website, yet?  Good – so you shouldn’t have!

Posted in Marketing Small Business, Website & SEO Tips | 4 Comments »

Small Business Owners: Beware the hype of internet marketing!

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

shout It is easy to get caught in the hype of all the online marketing.  With the number of internet marketing programs you can buy into, it’s easy to feel that by having 20,000 followers on Twitter and 5,000 friends on Facebook, these are the reasons behind building a successful business. 

But behind every successful online presence there is usually a very successful offline one first.  The two go hand-in-hand.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Building an online presence is important and, in fact, integral to many small business owners, particularly those of you who sell services and their time on a 1-2-1 basis.

But when someone meets you face-to-face and your online presence it is not backing up the online presence – is not congruent to what they’re expecting – everything you have built online will just crumble instantly.

So when building an online strategy, never ever forget the power of networking, the power of standing up and speaking at events, the simple act of handing a business card to someone physically.

Always remember that behind every successful online presence there is usually a highly successful offline one too.

Posted in Marketing Small Business, Online Networking, Social Media, Website & SEO Tips | No Comments »

What if we called long sales letters something else?

Friday, May 29th, 2009

purple_question_markYes, oh yes! It’s obvious from yesterday’s comments on my article “Do long sales letters work?” that most of you hate them.  And yet you still recogonise that this is the way generally adopted to sell products or services online.

It’s interesting.  We hate to be sold to and yet we love to buy.

No matter what our monthly budget is, we still find ourselves buying this, that and the other online and yet when we are faced with a hard-core sales pitch for a particular product it can be a real turn off for a lot of you.

Now I am not here to convince you that the long sales letter is the right and only way to sell things online.

Everyone of you has a different business, different target client and different branding.  Just because something works for one business, doesn’t necessarily mean that it will work for another.

But what if we called long sales letters something else?

What if we called them “everything that your target client needed to know about before purchasing your product or service”?

What if these web pages where incredibly helpful to your clients and presented all the information in one place which made it simple and easy for them.

You see, I think it’s the word “sales” that puts a lot of business owners off from using the concept.

Yes, there is no doubt that a lot of internet marketers use the long sales letter formula to the extreme because they have no intention of building up a loyal list of subscribers.  They want to [and need to] sell there and then.

But what if you looked at the long sales letter formula – the buying psychology behind it – broke it down and wrote in a way that wasn’t salesy? Wrote it in a way that presented everything in a conversational and friendly way?

What if you presented your product so that your target clients didn’t feel like they were being sold to but instead they enjoyed buying from?

What do you think?

Tags: , ,
Posted in Marketing Small Business, Website & SEO Tips | 4 Comments »

Do long sales letters really work?

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

long sales letterHave you ever found yourself on a web page that seems to scroll on and on and on?

The page usually starts off with “Dear Friend” which then flows in to an endless banter trying to get you to buy what ever it is that is on offer.  And it’s usually punctuated with dozens of testimonials, hundreds of bullet points and the odd yellow highlighted text.

Welcome to the world of long sales letters.

But for most of you, it seems, you scream silently at your PC screen and hit the back button.  This is not a world you want to be associated with – especially when it comes to selling your own products and services.

If you hate them so much, why do so many marketers on the internet use them?  And do long sales letters really work?

First of all, let’s be really clear on what we mean by a long sales letter.

A long sales letter is not just a whole load of ramblings typed up on to a webpage.  A long sales letter is actually a carefully constructed piece of copy writing that can take days, if not weeks, to put together. 

It takes the reader on a journey, captures their attention and overcomes every possible objection until you reach the infamous “Order Now” button.

A long sales letter is a 24/7 sales representative that is there to convince you, the website visitor, to make a purchase right there and then.

And if you don’t make a purchase right there and then, there is every chance you will never return.  You are lost for ever and the sale will never be made.

If you are selling a product or a service through the web, making that sale is critical to your long term success. 

So why do you hate them so much?

Now, don’t get me wrong – there are some down-right awful long sales letters out there.  Really cheesy ones that usually start off with that cringe worthy “Dear Friend” [how can I be your friend - we've never met!!]

And the reason why these don’t appear to work with you is that the copywriter has probably been following a formulated script that they have just filled in the gaps with appropriate words. 

What they haven’t taken in to account are the most important ingredients in the whole mix – who their target client is, what it is that these target clients want and what style of language they like to be communicated with.

Without these ingredients, a long sales letter is like that bore you meet at a networking event who just keeps going on and on about their business and has totally ignored everything about you and what you do.

But written with your target client in mind, long sales letters can work.

And, especially if you are relying on the internet to make the majority of your sales, will be far more effective than just listing a whole load of features, the price and a buy now button.

If you are not answering every conceivable question that your target client may have about your product or service in your website copy, it is too easy for your target client to click away and keep searching for something that does answer all their questions.

A well written long sales letter can engage, inform and delight your target client – especially if what they receive after ordering exceeds their expectations.

So, love them or hate them, the long sales letter can work – that is as long as you take the time to really understand your target client and use the style of language that is going to reach out and engage them.

And spending the time to learn how to write great copy that reflects this can be one of the greatest investments you can make in your business.

What are your thoughts about long sales letters? Add a comment at the end of this article.  I would love to read your ideas, too.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Marketing Small Business, Website & SEO Tips | 20 Comments »

« Older Entries