by Madi Secareanu | May 24, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Interactive
Website copywriting is an art of its own. Although it contains some traditional elements, it’s very different than blog writing, editorial writing, ad copywriting….you get the idea. However, more often than not, some brands/companies and even self-proclaimed professional writers don’t see this distinction. Here are the most common web copywriting mistakes:
1. Too much copy
This mistake often steers visitors towards the Close button. Too much copy can be overwhelming. The lead should be up front, important information such as who you are and what you do should be easy to find. Now, I know some of you might be thinking that you need a lot of copy for SEO purposes, but that’s not all true. Yes you need to have more than a sentence or two, but even that one sentence, if it contains the right SEO-friendly keywords, can be very effective. Copy should be clear, concise and to the point and SEO optimized.
2. Unorganized copy
Closely related to the “too much copy” issue, this again can cause visitors to steer clear of your site. If your copy isn’t organized and just plopped in without a method to the madness, your site will not perform the way it should. The site-map and navigation should fall under the copywriter’s responsibility – web copy needs to not only read well, but it needs to flow and navigate well too.
3. Not SEO optimized
I touched on this in first mistake but let me expand. SEO is important for website performance and it should not be ignored when writing web copy. Utilize search engine key word tools and look for terms that you should be using in your web copy. Don’t forget the meta tag titles and descriptions – they provide the hook in search results that could turn a search into a visit.
4. No benefits
Similar to advertising, web copy should reflect the benefits of your brand or service. What’s in it for your customers? Why should they choose your brand/service? What do you have that your competitors don’t? Your website can often be your first selling feature, and if you don’t have the benefits outlined you could end up losing out.
5. Not focusing on a target market
Whom are you speaking to? Web copy should speak to your clients and what they need – tailor the message. It’s not enough to simply introduce your brand/service – you have to also talk about what you can do for your clients. There’s a difference between “we offer this” and “we offer YOU this”. If you’re talking to your brand/services more than you’re talking to your clients, your copy needs a refresh.
These 5 mistakes seem like common sense but just take a look around the web, and I guarantee that there’s no shortage of websites that fall victim to at least one of the afore mentioned web copy no-no’s.
Do you have any examples of poorly written sites that we could all learn from?
by Madi Secareanu | May 17, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Creative, Interactive, Social Media
The other day my colleague Lindsay shared a story with us about Klout, a service that measures your online influence and gives you a score between 1 and 100. Apparently it’s been getting people up in arms! It seems to have the power to make or break careers, brands and social statuses …but how and why does this service and your score have so much power?
What is Klout and the Klout Score?
Simply link up your social media accounts to Klout and the Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action online. Every time you create content or engage online you influence others. The Klout Score basically tells the world how influential of a social networker you are through your:
- True Reach: How many people you influence. Klout looks at who acts, shares and responds to your content.
- Amplification: How much you influence others. To attain this, Klout looks at how many people and how often people respond to your content.
- Network Impact: The influence of your network. Klout looks at how they share and respond to your content.
So, what does it mean?
Well, the easier answer is that your Klout Score determines if you’re an online influencer or not. So what does that mean? Well, as a top influencer you are eligible for Klout Perks (free stuff from brands), you’re considered a “somebody” and your resume might get a bit of a boost. As a brand, you can leverage top influencers to generate buzz around your brand (more on this below).
So, what’s a good score?
According to Klout, influence is relative and depends on your goal and peers. The average Klout Score is around 20. Klout also makes it exponentially harder to increase as you move up the scale. They say that it is much harder to move from a 70 to a 75 than from a 20 to a 25, making sure top influencers are working hard for their high scores.
Good for Business?
Brands can leverage Klout Perks, use Klout to measure their own influence online and identify brand influencers.
What are Klout Perks?
Klout Perks are exclusive products or experiences that influencers can earn based on their Klout Scores. Perks enable brands to connect with influencers – people whose friends or social networks look to when choosing what brands to engage with. Giving influencers Klout Perks means they have to talk about your brand – what they say is up to them.
The debate
People seem to love or hate Klout. Common criticisms include:
- But…offline influence doesn’t have a score?
Sure, offline influence doesn’t have a score but most individuals are influential only to a close network of friends, and maybe their friends. Unless you’re a celebrity, us “regular” folks don’t seem to have much impact offline. With Klout, anyone can become an influencer, a “somebody”, if they make enough noise.
- Brands are giving customers preferential treatment!
For brands, using Klout to leverage top influencers has several benefits. For one, if you compare it to the offline world where it’s nearly impossible to identify offline influencers, using Klout makes it easy to identify those who will champion your brand. Turning customers into advocates with Klout allows brands to go beyond the review or testimonial.
- The Klout Score is giving me anxiety!
How, what, who…huh? The way Klout measures your score can cause some anxiety. In fact, they changed their original algorithm not too long ago, lowering some people’s score. It’s not just about how active you are….but how active your network is….how active is your network’s network and so on! Should you go to extremes and only choose to follow or friend people based on their influence to help increase yours? What does your high or low score really mean? Some really take their Klout Scores very seriously…and rightfully so. In some cases, high scores do come with some great benefits (Perks!).
- It has too much power!
That it demands some power over your life and your career is a cause for concern for some. Recently, I heard about a man who didn’t get the job he wanted because his Klout Score was too low. Are experience, education and capability no longer enough? No. Not in this day and age. I’m not saying that your Klout Score should dictate whether you will land a job or not, in fact I find its consideration a bit distasteful. But I do think that as marketing, communications and creative professionals, choosing to not participate in social media, as a whole will no doubt close a few doors.
I want to know, where do you stand on Klout? (oh..and what’s your Klout score?)
by Madi Secareanu | May 15, 2012 | Business Success, Interactive, Social Media
I might have said this once or twice before…but it really does seem like there is a new social media site gaining momentum each week. Some of you might be thinking “oh no, not another social media site! I barely have enough time to log on to Facebook”. It may seem like over-saturation at times but not all new social media sites succeed. Their success depends on several factors that include: knowing their audience, ease of use, community development, or linking up to other larger social networking sites. Here’s a look at a few social media sites that failed to capture a large following and several sites that are making big enough noise to keep an eye on this year.
The Ones that Could Have Been
1. Yahoo! Buzz: No niche… no need.
Similar to Digg, Yahoo! Buzz allowed its users to generate “buzz” around stories they read online. Unfortunately for Yahoo!, low user participation rates and low website adoption numbers led to Buzz’ demise.
2. Friendster: Poor strategy.
As one of the first social networking sites to make an impact, Friendster once had more than 115 million users. Its downfall was combination of programming flaws, an unstable infrastructure and poor business decisions. Friendster has since changed course and rebranded itself as a gaming site.
3.Ping: An Apple failure!
A failure is a rarity, but not unheard of, in Apple’s portfolio. Although it’s still active Ping, an iTunes based social networking site, has failed to generate much action. Its censorship, hard to use navigation and the biggie – its focus on commerce not building social relationship has really put users off.
The Ones to Watch
1. Path: Social networking on the go. (Terminated September 2018)
Path was social networking app, which allowed users to keep a journal on the go – a “path” of their life. Users could post photos, travel updates, share interests, music and keep in touch with friends and family. In September of 2018, Path announced its termination of the service.
2. Quora: Has all the answers.
Quora connects its users to everything they want to know. Users ask questions, responses and share information. Users can create their own personalized homepages surround topics, questions, people and content they are interested in.
3. Chime.in: What do you have to say?
Chime.in is a social network based on interests. Users share opinions and questions around their interests while discovering new information and making new connections and building communities around their favorite topics. Top interests include Street Style, Food, Social Media and more.
4. Stipple: Content with power.
Stipple gives image owners power over their content. It powers commerce and content inside of images on the web and mobile while fostering connections and communities. It also permanently connects images to their owners who can share information, media and commerce through their images.
Whether these “ones to watch” will make a lot of noise this year remains to be seen. One thing’s for sure – when a social media site becomes successful – success happens very quickly. We know the story very well – take a look at how fast Pinterest and BranchOut grew. The real determinant of a social network’s success and longevity lies in its ability to keep users interested while staying innovative – remember there seems to be a new social networking site every week, armed and ready to become the next big thing.
What social networks do you think will have the most impact this year and why?
by Lindsay Sleightholm | May 15, 2012 | Advertising, Business Success, Creative, Design
As creative professionals, we all know that it’s not always easy to communicate the thinking behind design solutions to a client. There are several reasons for this. If it’s a new client, they may have yet to trust your expertise, or you have yet to earn their trust. Another scenario, is that the client may not have enough experience or knowledge of design and branding. Lastly, it could be because the creative you presented pushes the client beyond their comfort level.
No matter what the reason, there are going to be times when you need to make that extra effort to communicate just exactly why your fantastic concept is so… well, fantastic. Chances are, if the client is reluctant in any way, you won’t sell them on the idea. So, in order to avoid going back to the drawing board, try to minimize the margin of error with better client communication.
Here’s 5 tips to maximize your client communication…
1. Start with the basics.
Refer back to the brief. Knowing and having an understanding of the goals the client had in mind is crucial to achieving a solution. Reiterate what was first given as the creative and strategic mandate and tie it directly into the creative solution you’re offering. After that, explain the thinking process that took place for you to reach your creative solution.
2. Don’t use too much design lingo.
Many clients don’t have a background in marketing or design, so it’s best to refrain from throwing out terms that the client may not be familiar with; it’ll only lead to more confusion and frustration on their part. Instead of talking about hierarchy, typography, negative space or Gestalt principles, express these intentions in more universal terms like “focus,” “eye path” and “emphasis.”
3. Show it.
Most clients – and people for that matter – are much more inclined towards visuals than words. Present clear, polished creative options to your client. But don’t just leave it at one solution. It may require a lot more legwork, but an effective and professional client presentation means providing multiple options. As we as creative professionals know, there’s always more than one way to achieve a solution. Give your client the opportunity to see those other options.
4. Throw in a little 101.
Although you don’t want to overwhelm them with industry jargon, you do want your client to get a peak at the method behind the madness. Sometimes that means educating them about the principles of design and the strategy behind the marketing. If your client doesn’t understand these strategies or principles, try explaining it to them. But again, break it down into ideas and terms they can relate to.
5. Listen and address concerns.
Sometimes the brief may have been followed to a ‘T’, but ends up not ringing true for what the client actually wanted. In that case, ask questions and listen to the answers. What’s not working for them? How are your concepts different from what they expected? Dig around a little and find out where you and your client’s thinking differs. It may mean taking a step back to reevaluate the goals and possibly reworking the creative. But it’s important to realize and respond to these concerns so you have more effective communication in the future.
Bottom line: The communication you have with your client can make the difference between a good relationship with them or a bad one. You want them to trust in your expertise. The easier you make it for them to do that, the better it will be for you both. However different your backgrounds may be, finding that common ground will allow for the possibility of greater success on both sides.
What other tips can you share about successful client communication?
by Christine Marr | May 11, 2012 | Business Success, Interactive, Social Media
Can images increase your content marketing results? Retain reader attention? Improve brand loyalty? Can they even help achieve better search engine ranking?
Let’s look at Instagram. Instagram is a free photo sharing program that allows users to quickly edit and share the photos they take on their mobile devices and share on a variety of social networking services, including their own. A social network for photos. Founded 2 years ago, Instagram was recently purchased by Facebook (ahem: the world’s biggest social photo-sharing site) and has already attracted 30 million users! They paid a fortune for it (approximately $1 billion in cash and stock), so we know they believe in the power of imagery. You should too!
Optimize your images to encourage people to share the page and create some great backlinks, “like” and comment on them. It seems instead of talking about random things like “I had a tuna sandwich for lunch”, we can take pictures instead, telling a complex story or idea with a single picture. Today more than ever a good image is more than attention grabbing. If optimized, images can help you achieve better search engine rankings (SEO).
We often overlook images as an asset for search engine optimization (SEO). Drive traffic with keywords, captions and descriptions. Here’s how:
A memorable, top quality, relevant image included in your blog post, website or newsletter, for example, can greatly increase the click-through rate of that shared link. We sometimes purchase a book at the bookstore because we are attracted to its cover. The image you use for your headline will attract the user’s attention and set the scene for what is to come… If you want to attract more attention when your post is seen on social networking sites, use a great image!
- Use keywords in the file name:
Just like keywords in post urls are important for pages, the same is true for images. Using keyword-rich words in your image filename is important for helping search engines determine relevancy. For example, instead of naming your image “image 2748-017”, name it “Jacques-Louis David 017.jpg”
- Use descriptive alt Text (alternative text for images)
Search engines cannot determine the text content of any image, so they rely on captions, alt text, files names that are relevant to the image. Alt text should be short and informative. Here is an example of descriptive alt text from Wikipedia:
[[File:Jacques-Louis David 017.jpg |thumb |160px |alt=Painting of Napoleon Bonaparte |[[The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries]] by [[Jacques-Louis David]].]]
- Use anchor text (this is the visible clickable text in a hyperlink)
Anchor text is usually below 60 characters. The words in the anchor text help determine ranking by search engines, by providing the user with descriptive and contextual information about the content.
- image should match content
Anchor text, Alt text, file name, keywords – all should be relevant to help search engines know that you are not spamming.
Images can help achieve better search engine rankings, improving your visibility and make your site search engine friendly. An image is worth 1,000 words… how about 1,000 views!!!?
Image credit: 123RF Stock Photo
by Madi Secareanu | May 8, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Creative, Interactive
It’s happened to all of us. We’ve been on Facebook posting something on a friend’s wall about a specific interest, like tennis, and the next thing you know Facebook is showing you an ad about tennis rackets. That’s the power of Facebook ads – it lets brands engage and target people based on interests – what they’re talking about and what they like.
Facebook ads can be a very powerful tool to help to generate interest, brand recognition and brand loyalty. It can be an advertiser’s dream – targeting using the information people willingly share with others or enter in their profiles. But it’s important to know the ins and outs of advertising on Facebook before you get started.If you’re planning on launching a Facebook advertising campaign, here are some things to keep in mind before you get going.
- Identify your goals
What do you want to achieve? Is a Fecbook advertising campaign the right strategy? Do you want more likes on your brand page? Do you want to get people to enter a contest? Do you want to drive brand awareness? Do you want to acquire new sales leads? Your objective defines your strategy, so make sure you know what your goals are before launching your campaign. Make sure to establish your objectives prior to launch but be prepared – with Facebook the strategy may vary throughout the duration of the campaign.
- Know your audience
Who do you want to reach – who is your audience? Think about what categories your customers fall into. Not only define them by demographics… dig deeper than that. Knowing your audience well lets’ you target your ads more effectively by tailoring your imagery and your copy to get your target audience’s attention.
- Set your budget
Set a clear budget as you would for all advertising efforts. Identify how much you want to spend daily or during the ad’s entire lifespan and identify your cost per click or cost per thousand impressions bid. How much are you willing to spend? What’s your strategy? Should you initiate a cost per thousand (CPM)or a click through(CTR) campaign.
- Know the rules
Get to know Facebook’s advertising policies and approval process. You’ll find useful information on what you can and cannot advertise, say or show. Knowing the guidelines before hand will lower your ad’s chance of getting disapproved or shut down.
Now, you might be ready to launch your Facebook advertising campaign, but don’t know if it’s going to be a success. It’s always hard to forecast if an ad is going to be successful or not, but if you know your audience well enough and you have a clear objective and a well-defined strategy, you can help improve your ad’s success rate. Here are a few useful tips on creating more effective Facebook ads:
- Copy is key
Develop to-the-point copy that grabs your viewers’ attention. Use a call to action like “Click here!” to help incite your audience to act. Also, use any keywords that you may have if you’ve done your psychographic targeting.
- Draw the eye
Facebook ads that have simple images generally perform better. Use people’s faces where possible as it can help create a more personal connection – but keep it relevant. Avoid using images with hard to read text. Again, try to keep it simple.
- Prepare for landing
Keep your landing page in mind. Where are you sending your audience? Your landing page should reflect what’s being advertised. It may seem a bit obvious but if you’re asking your audience to enter a contest, the landing page should allow them to enter a contest…and so on. Keep it consistent.
- Analyze the performance
The real beauty of Facebook advertising is that you can stop ads and launch new ones…in a blink of an eye! In order to do that though, you need to create many alternative ads in order to test them and analyze which ones work, which don’t and why.
As marketers, we already know the power of Facebook and what it can do for customer engagement and brand loyalty. We know how we can better integrate our brands into our customers’ daily life through Facebook – keep them talking about a brand by asking questions and through constant engagement, stay in front of their eyes and at the top of their mind. Recently, Facebook announced that it would include ads in the news feed – making ads even more integrated in customers’ every day Facebook activities.
What are your thoughts? Do you think Facebook ads are effective– any success stories that you’d like to share?
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