Patsi Krakoff, who writes a excellent blog on eZines and blogs, discussed the three deadly marketing mistakes you can avoid. Here are the three:
"People aren’t finding you easily online – your website or blog is not updated frequently enough, there’s not enough content with keywords, or you may have poor website design that makes search engine indexing and capturing visitors difficult if not impossible.- There’s no way for people to try out your services or products for free before buying; no information products available; no way for you to capture email addresses for follow-up marketing. Even when you do have a system in place, you aren’t following up with leads like you should.
- Your emails, web pages, blog posts, ezine and other content lack benefits-driven reasons why visitors or email recipients should read, care, and act on your messages. You’re not persuading anybody to do anything. You wish you could hire an expensive copywriter, but you’re the one in charge of your marketing and web writing."
Patsi discusses the need for great writing skills to overcome these mistakes. This goes for the smallest start-up companies to the largest conglomerates.
In Patsi's words, there is only upside to a sound writing strategy for your web properties: "You write about them [your customers' needs], they search for solutions, they find you (your website, your blog, or your landing pages), and everybody goes home happy."
Not sure about this strategy? Do me a favor. Go to each of your competitors' Web sites. Odds are, pretty much all of you are saying the same thing, and in most cases, each make it pretty difficult for your customer to buy - pushing products and services over valuable content. Well, let's shake it up a bit (and do something that actually differentiates your brand from the competition).
Here are a few concrete steps that all marketers need to take in order to make your Web site content work for you, not against you.
- Hire an editor or custom publishing expert/provider. Frankly, extracting great content from your organization is challenging and difficult. It can be done, but most often is better extracted by a professional editor. You focus on selling your products and services, the editor can focus on creating valuable and relevant content.
- Create an Editorial Calendar. Coming from the publishing arena, editorial calendar's are a constant practice...but not for businesses. David Meerman Scott is a huge proponent of this, and discusses this in his book called The New Rules of Marketing and PR. (Also, check out the free eBook.)
The key here is to create a calendar of your ongoing content initiatives...whether that's your blog, newsletter, press release schedule, white paper or eBook, microsite launch, or other content marketing/custom publishing initiative. This schedule is your promise to create ongoing and consistent valuable content to your customers. If you do that, differentiation is possible. - Or, do it yourself. Some small businesses don't have the luxury to hire an editor. If that is the case, take Patsi up on her concept and learn how to write effectively yourself. I'm a big believer in this, but I also believe in focusing your time and energy on your key talents. If writing is not one of them, or you don't enjoy it, find the money and outsource it. Better yet, outsource anything that is not your core competency. Don't believe it's possible?...check out The Four-Hour WorkWeek by Timothy Ferris.
As the great Don Schultz has preached for many years, everything can be copied by the competition...product, packaging, logistics, design...everything except your brand communications. Don's right!
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