You can find me at Orion Marketing http://www.orionmarketing.com
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cindeeciana
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cindeemock
Seven Tips on Writing for the Web
Are you fully leveraging the power of your web site as a key marketing tool?
Is your web site a static tool that simply provides information? Or is it helping to accelerate the sales cycle?
First, be clear on what the objectives are for your web site. Is it to educate? To sell? To get the reader to participate in some way? To encourage repeat visits?
Second, make sure you identify your target audience. When you understand what’s of value to your audience, it becomes much simpler to decide what to focus on and highlight in your web copy. A few tips:
- Short, Simple Text – people read differently when on the web. Not surprisingly, 79% of users scan the page, while only 16% read word-by-word. Avoid dense pages of copy. Use short sentences, short paragraphs, and lists/bullets wherever possible. Incorporate links to give readers more detailed information.
- Effective Headlines – Use headlines and subheads liberally, as they help to break up the page. Instead of using descriptive language, convey the benefits (include metrics) whenever possible. For example, which Dell headline (actual) is more compelling? “The Vostro All-in-One for Small Businesses,” or “The Vostro All-in-One lets you enjoy the power of a traditional business desktop in 44% less space?” (Yes, the second one is long, but it’s a banner headline.)
- Offer Variety –Individuals digest information in different ways so appeal to peoples’ different senses. Include a variety of visual, audio and written content using a variety of forms (e.g., video, images, text, podcasts).
- Powerful Visuals – The benefits and unique advantages of complex topics are often best represented when simple, powerful graphics are used to visually convey architectural, conceptual or comparative ideas. Don’t forget to include a succinct caption or title.
- Write Newspaper Style – Start with the headline or conclusion “above the fold,” followed by the details. Use simple language – eliminate industry jargon, fluff and gobbledygook. And differentiate your offering from competitors in order to make it crystal-clear why you’re the better choice.
- SEO – This is a lengthy topic, but suffice it to say: If you want your site to be easily found and read, you need to understand search engine optimization.
- Call to action –If a reader is interested in what you have to offer, give them opportunities to engage further, or take the next step – e.g., buy it, try it for free, download it, read about it, comment on it, or chat with someone about it.
While there are many experts and web resources available, Jakob Nielsen covers a broad range of related topics: http://www.useit.com
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cindeemock
Avoiding “Sterile” Communications
On a recent Saturday morning, I was listening to the “Dining Around Town” show on KGO radio and Food Maven Joyce Goldstein was on the air. She was describing a pastry chef who spent hours and hours making a dessert that used all sorts of gadgets – a huge slicer, a dehydrator, gellan gum, instant freezer, etc. – while showing off his technical skills.
But the chef was far too technical. “Where’s the soul, man!” exclaimed Goldstein. She felt there was no passion, “no sensuality” to his cooking. She called it “machine food.”
The same can be said about some high technology marketing. Especially with products rich in technical depth and whose benefits are not intuitively obvious. Oftentimes, technology companies will take a “clinical” and (overly) technically accurate approach when describing their offerings, resulting in a lack of passion and emotional appeal to the buying customer. In these instances, the relevance and benefits to the buyer are noticeably absent – they’re either missing entirely, or buried in mounds of mind-numbing technical detail.
Technology is an incredible enabler, but sometimes we communicate in ways that fail to connect with the buyer. How would you assess your ability to communicate the value of your offerings?
See related blogs on the power of stories and stories that motivate, or visit our website.
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cindeemock
Stories That Motivate
“Forget about PowerPoint and statistics. To involve people at the deepest level, you need stories.”
Screenwriter Robert McKee in Harvard Business Review, June 2003
On page 1 of The Wall Street Journal weekend edition (7/11/09), there was a heartwarming story about a 36 year old Iraq Vet and his golden retriever, who is trained to help people whose suffering is emotional, not physical. Kind of like a Seeing Eye Dog for the mind.
The story begins with Tuesday, a golden retriever who is following around his owner Luis Carlos Montalvan to make sure that Luis takes his half-dozen pills for the day. We learn that Tuesday is also able to recognize imminent panic attacks and wake Luis from terrifying nightmares with a calming lick or nuzzle.
It’s not until we’re well into the story (the next page) that we discover the organization behind these animals – Puppies Behind Bars Inc., a New York-based nonprofit that uses prisoners to train psychiatric-service dogs.
Using a story to introduce your business helps to personalize your company, making it easier for people to relate to what you’re saying. An effective business story touches on our emotions and helps put a “face” to an impersonal corporate entity. Good stories are memorable and motivate us to get involved or contribute (buy).
Which do you think is more powerful: A story about Tuesday and his master, or the descriptive paragraph about Puppies Behind Bars that appears on its website?
Think about the business stories you can tell:
- How your product or service has impacted the lives of others (success story)
- The quirky personality of your chief geek, who’s developed a new technology
- The inspiring team dynamics behind a recent product launch
Please share with us the stories you’ve heard, or are telling.
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nancyweintraub
What’s in a Name?
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
In this passage, Juliet argues that a name is a meaningless convention. She professes her love for Romeo, the person, not the dreaded Montague family name. Product names are important, but more important are the attributes associated with a product – attributes that customers can relate to and which can be reflected in a name.
When naming my children, my husband and I (don’t laugh!) defined criteria when considering our children’s names. We put these criteria in a spreadsheet and rated possible names. We were concerned with alliteration, meaning, possible nicknames, fit with last name, initials, strength, overuse (we didn’t want our kids to have the same names as 3-4 kids in their class), etc. The result: Benjamin and Jordana!
As a marketing/branding firm, Ciana Associates has applied a similar methodology to product naming. We start by understanding who is the customer/audience, what is the unique value of the product/service, and how it differs from the alternatives. We work with our clients to identify key attributes that we can rank versus the competition and we create a matrix ranking system that looks at the spectrum of literal to highly creative names.
Product Name Attributes: (Rating 1-10, with 1=lowest, 10=highest)
- Distinctive: memorable, different from competitors’ names
- Emotive: beyond image, what are the emotional associations with the brand
- Intuitive: is the name more descriptive (i.e., obvious what the product is/does)
- Form: the visual look of the name, as well as how it sounds (spoken)
- Differentiates: does the name highlight an attribute that’s unique or differentiates the product/service from alternatives?
- Trademark: likelihood that name is available for trademark
Are you in the process of naming a product or service? We recommend that you start the process early, as it’s often difficult to shake a code name. Or better yet, apply this process when choosing a code name, since code names often stick around longer than anticipated!
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nancyweintraub
TWEETLESS AND NOT ALONE
Several months back I signed up for Twitter to learn more about it. I follow(ed) some interesting social networking experts who have something to say and friends who are also experimenting. As I followed folks, others followed me. Much like when I signed up for an afterschool class and found myself habitually absent, I became embarrassed how far behind I was and stopped attending the class. I’ve been virtually tweetless the last month. Life has been catching up to me and I find that I don’t have enough time to live life — let alone microblog (on a regular basis). And I feel guilty.
I’m happy to see I’m not alone. A recent BBC study reports that 90% of the content on Twitter is generated by 10% of the tweeters. Although Twitter is growing faster than any social network (more than 10 million users), most people only tweet once in their lifetime.
As a marketer, I understand that Twitter is an important new way to establish two-way conversations with customers — but I haven’t seen many examples where Twitter connects business to business. Please share your examples of how Twitter helps B2B.
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cindeemock
Surfers or Skaters? Choosing Your Target Audience
There’s a saying that goes “If you try to please everyone, you please no one.” Trying to market to everyone is a waste of time and $$ because your messages become too high-level and meaningless.
In order to get your customer’s attention, you need to segment and target your marketing efforts, since each customer group cares about distinctly different things. The “T” in target is part of our TRUE model and is an important first step when defining your value to the customer.
For example, let’s say that I own a company called Riptide Designs, which designs and sells pewter jewelry. Although anyone (age, gender, race, geography) may be interested in my designs, I need to identify a target audience so that I can tailor my marketing efforts and articulate the value of my offering in a meaningful way.
I decide to target young adults – primarily males – ranging in age from 10 to 24 years old, who are looking for jewelry that allows them to express their individual style, personal taste and symbolism. I know that this group typically shops at places like Hot Topic, Aeropostale, or Zumiez. I also know I need to do more research on their buying behaviors, as well as understand how and where they find information (e.g., word-of-mouth, magazines like Thrasher, websites, etc).
Since Riptide’s product line includes surf jewelry, skate jewelry, leather and trendy fashion jewelry, I can further segment my audience – for example, targeting surfers and skateboarders. I know that surfers and skateboarders both value individuality and that their lifestyles are distinct enough to warrant different language, different visuals and different content on my web pages or in my advertising to better appeal to each of these audiences.
There are many ways to segment your customers: age, sex, ethnicity, interests, demographics and so on. Or for businesses, you can look at: type of company, industry, role within an organization, shared challenge or issue, etc. There are many categories to look at, but what’s most important is to identify, research and profile a group that shares a distinct value experience.
We segment customers in order to better understand what’s relevant to them. Identify what a customer values, and don’t forget that it can be more than just features – “value” or what’s relevant to them can be measured in price, convenience, service, or experience.
By understanding what’s of value to your customer, it becomes much simpler to decide what to focus on and highlight in your marketing activities.
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cindeemock
WHAT’S IN YOUR MARKETING MIX?
If you’re a small company and your marketing budget is virtually null, how should you invest the few dollars you do have? Should you try to sit out this economic storm and hope for the best?
In our experience, the companies we work with are investing in a handful of highly targeted marketing activities. They can’t afford to go dark. Especially if competitors are scaling back, since that’s often where the greatest opportunity lies. With a solid foundation (e.g., a defensible value proposition) in place and a clear understanding of the target audience, these companies typically focus on the following 3 tactics to “weather the storm”:
1. Website
Use your website as your primary marketing tool if marketing dollars are tight. But make sure you’re using it to appeal to your primary audience. If you’ve launched your product, use your website to sell, instead of simply to educate. Ask yourself: Is my site essentially a collection of product data sheets or is it designed to move the reader further along in the sales cycle – e.g., buy it, try it for free, download it, read about it, comment on it, or chat with someone about it? Re-write key sections for crisp, evidence-based communications (no jargon). And make sure you differentiate your offering from competitors in order to make it crystal-clear to the reader why you’re the better choice.
2. Customer Stories
Customer stories are compelling because they’re concrete examples of why (and how) others are adopting your product or technology. Whether you publicize them widely, or limit them to sales calls or internal use, customer stories help establish credibility, create buzz and boost morale. Investing in a growing portfolio of stories is also a great way to stay in touch with your buyer and gain on-going insights into what matters to them. From one-page customer write-ups to online customer reviews on your website, customer stories are credible marketing tools that can be used in advertising, PR, presentations, videos, at events and on sales calls to show success and momentum.
3. Blogs
Blogs are one of the easiest and cheapest (free!) ways to push your message out directly to the public. Perhaps the greatest benefit of blogging is that while you’re sharing your commentary with the world, you’re also learning from others as they comment and interact with you. You can use blogs to establish your technical credentials so people seek you out. Or you can share your experiences, advice and tips to position yourself as an expert. Before you start your own blog, it’s helpful to comment on other people’s blogs to begin to build your reputation. Blogs can help market and brand your company, but you need to be passionate and authentic in what you write. If you’re a business blogger, make sure you have a purpose and a plan. Don’t blog occasionally – think of blogging as a long-term “campaign” that helps you grow a following and boost your company’s search rankings. It’s easy to get started. We use wordpress.com, but some of the more popular sites are blogger.com, typepad.com and livejournal.com.
Other ideas?
What’s on your “top 3” list for must-do marketing in these tough economic times? I’d love to hear your thoughts – what else should be part of the mix? How would you prioritize your marketing $$?
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nancyweintraub
CASE STUDY: RESUME WRITING TIPS
Last week, we showed how our TRUESM model for value proposition development could apply to writing effective resumes that help you stand out from the competition. We asked readers to submit examples so that we could illustrate how to improve the content using our principles for developing effective messages. Here’s an example from an individual who submitted her resume for review. She is looking to transition from a college-level Psychology Instructor to an applied accounting position.
1. Our first recommendation to this candidate is to TARGET the resume to a specific position (and type of company). If the resume is going to include an objective, make sure the objective is targeted to appeal to the recipient.
Objective from the original resume: “Seeking to bring my communication and analysis skills to a position in regional accounting firm focusing on tax, but also providing opportunities for involvement with other professional services.”
Remember to “tailor your resume for each position you apply for. Make sure that your experience closely matches the requirements of the job.” The applicant can gain more traction by focusing on a specific position within the company and a specific industry.
Our suggested new objective (based on our understanding of her background and the requirements of this internal auditor position): “Internal Auditor position in regional tax accounting firm where I can bring together my skills in accounting with my years of experience as a college level psychology instructor. I can apply findings from psychology and behavioral economics to help people more effectively manage their financial futures.”
2. RELEVANT: In applying for a job, candidates can improve their chances of success by focusing on the requirements of the job, not necessarily on what he/she does best if it does not map to the requirements. For this candidate, instead of highlighting universal skills like “experienced teacher and advisor, superb writer, experienced public speaker, strong research skills using library databases,” try focusing on points that relate to the position (degree in accounting or finance, ability to research and present findings, strong communications skills):
- Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Accounting with 3.85 GPA
- Innovative tax preparer helping clients understand basis for deductions, saving an average $200 per year
- Top ranking instructor at a high-ranking small private liberal arts college for five years teaching classes in research methods focusing on statistical analysis
3. UNIQUE: This candidate has distinctive skills that set her apart from the next candidate: as a Ph.D. in psychology with a strong analytical background and an author of instructor manuals to accompany textbooks in her field, she is able to bridge the accounting and communications skills required in the internal auditing profession. These differentiators should be highlighted in her summary of accomplishments and discussed in terms of the relevancy to the position during any resulting interviews.
4. EVIDENCE: This candidate can benefit from changing the language in her resume from descriptive to more results-oriented by highlighting proof-points that she created or proof others have created:
For example, when she says she “worked with diverse population to communicate basis for taxes and gave advice about possible deductions that could be taken,” she can highlight her achievements more specifically by saying “helped low income and middle bracket taxpayers better understand taxes and deductions resulting in average taxpayers savings of $200 based on uncovering legitimate deductions.” We know stats are hard, but even if she estimates savings, it’s much more powerful.
Rather than describing that she “developed ‘Money and Happiness’ course which teaches basic financial as well as psychological concepts,” she can use independent endorsements as evidence of her accomplishments: “Received top ratings for college course I developed ‘Money and Happiness’ which teaches basic financial as well as psychological concepts.”
Once she gets the interview, she can draw upon her experience as a psychologist and training in finance and accounting and tell a compelling story of how she has helped one or more individuals or companies more effectively manage their financial futures.
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cindeemock
QUICK TIPS FOR RESUME WRITING
Have you sent out dozens of resumes without getting a single call back? You’re not alone. It’s a tough job market out there, and hiring managers have the luxury of choice. Clearly, you need to stand apart from your “competition.”
The TRUESM model we use for value proposition development can also apply when writing your resume.
- TARGET your resume. One size does NOT fit all. Many of us have had diverse careers, and we’re proud that we can demonstrate a number of disciplines and areas of expertise. Too often, we feel we need to list everything, but what’s needed today are specialists, not generalists. So tailor your resume for each position you apply for. Make sure that your experience closely matches the requirements of the job. If you’re not thinking “This job exactly mirrors my background!” then be aware that there are probably (many) others whose background it does closely mirror.
- Show how you’re RELEVANT. Include an executive summary – remember, the recruiter is only scanning your resume, so the more succinct you are, the better your chances. Write executive-style (i.e., assume you have 20 seconds or less to make your case). Concentrate on 1-2 points that show you’re a strong fit for the job. Focus on accomplishments (e.g., “I designed a new process based on customer data that resulted in 32% sales growth…”) as opposed to responsibilities (e.g., I “coordinated…” or “worked with…” or was “responsible for…”), which were simply your duties.
- Highlight why you’re special or UNIQUE. Do you have any distinctive skills or relevant experiences that set you apart from the next candidate? Another way to separate yourself from others is to make your points succinctly and powerfully using the fewest number of words possible. Think white space, not dense copy. Keep rewriting to make your resume & cover letter tighter and stronger with every draft.
- Cite EVIDENCE to gain credibility. Use proof that you’ve created (e.g., “I pioneered the restaurant’s signature ‘stack’ dishes and increased revenues at Chez Loran by 110% last year…”) or proof that others have created (e.g., “I received the James Beard Outstanding Chef Award in 2008…”)
Finally, if you get an interview, prepare 3-4 stories illustrating different areas of expertise you can comfortably talk about. For example:
“We had planned our new product debut in 90 days, but our fiercest competitor surprised us with an early announcement, so we had 30 days to launch – with no support staff and on a shoestring budget! I put together a team of 3 marketing people, and I personally developed the competitive analysis, wrote the sales materials, conducted the sales and partner training and designed a successful launch, on time and on budget. I thrive in a fast-paced environment where speed, flexibility and a focus on results are key. In fact, these products were the fastest ramp-to-revenue products in the company’s history!”
Do you need help with your resume? Send us excerpts from your resume and we’ll illustrate how to improve its content in a future blog using our principles for developing effective messages (while maintaining your anonymity).
