The Work Media Internet Marketing Blog

In a previous post, we discussed the need to write for two entities: people and search engines. Today, we are going to look into how to write specifically for people.

The number one rule is to think like a copywriter.

Think of the text on your web site as salesmanship in print. You need to write from the reader’s perspective. The visitor to your web site is not really all that interested in the details of your product or service. The visitor wants to know what your product or service will do for him. There is a difference. Copywriters know how to emphasize features over benefits. You need to do the same thing.

Features are the specifics of your product or service. It is physical attributes like height, width, wattage, and color. It is the description of what you are going to do. Benefits are what the features do for the customer. If a feature of a stereo is that it is surround sound, then the benefit is that it will sound like you’re at a concert. Before going into detail about the features of what you sell, first tell the reader how she will benefit from doing business with you.

The copy should focus on benefits to the prospect. Marketing consultants have preached this for years, yet few businesses do it, and even fewer do it online. This represents a lack of originality on the part of the ad writer. It is much easier to just write a list of features than to actually translate those features into benefits for the customer. But YOU CANNOT EXPECT THE CUSTOMER TO MAKE THIS CONNECTION. You have to do the thinking for them. If you have a web page devoted to a particular product that is a list of features, it is likely going to convert poorly. Instead, it needs to SELL! List features, but later in the copy, after you've gotten the prospect's attention. You can convert features to benefits by asking yourself what each benefit does for the customer. For instance, if you're selling 21" computer monitors, 21" would be a feature, but benefits might be less eyestrain or more work efficiency because of greater screen real estate. So those would be the things you would discuss first, with the technical features coming later.

You should think of your web site as a sales machine. Think of the web copy as words being said by a salesman. Remember that the point of your site is to get your visitors to perform some particular action. If you don't know what that action is, then you need to step back and decide what you want your visitors to do. Then continue with wri-ting or re-writing your web site copy. And sell, sell, sell.

Two of the most effective words to use in your copy, especially in headlines, are “you” and “free” – for example, “You will get a free widget for joining our newsletter.” People love the word “you” because they are for the most part only interested in themselves. And everybody loves getting something free. Think carefully about the words you use in your web site copy because certain words can have a powerful effect on people.

Testimonials are very effective, if used properly. If you post a testimonial on your site, you need to give as much information as possible to prove that it is a real person. If all you do is list initials, the testimonial will seem suspect and will do more harm than good. You should, at a minimum, list the person's full name and city. The testimonial should also be as specific as possible. A testimonial that mentions the quality of a specific service of product is much more credible than one that just says what a good job you did, without telling what it is you did.

Don't concern yourself too much with using some maximum number of words. Not everyone who arrives at your web site is going to buy what you’re selling. The person just may not be a good prospect. But if he is a good prospect with a need, then he will take the time to read about your product or service. So don’t worry about keeping your web site or email copy to some maximum length. Just write however much you need to write to make your case. Having said that, one good device to use to make your writing easier to read on screen is bullet points. Bullet points chop the copy up into small blocks, making it easier for the reader's eyes to scan the page.

If you would like help writing the copy for your web site, call Work Media at 1-888-299-4837 or email us at info@workmedia.net.

When you engage in a linking campaign for your web site, you may experience frustration early in the process as you run out of places to get a link. You have to use some creativity, and you have to do a lot of searching, but there are a ton of places where you can place a link, which will help drive traffic from direct click-throughs and from improved search engine rankings.

The most obvious place to start is with directories such as Yahoo! and DMOZ. The Yahoo listing will cost a fairly high fee (probably around $300), but may be worth it for the search engine boost, but it is unlikely you'll get many click-throughs from your directory listing. DMOZ and most other legitimate directories are free. There are hundreds of directories you can submit to. It is debatable how much benefit you will gain from submitting to the many little-trafficed directories, but the Work Media viewpoint has always been that it can't hurt.

Once you run out of general purpose directories, you need to search for industry-specific directories that relate to your product or service. These may actually be more influential to the success of your linking campaign because of the increased relevance.

Once you've submitted to all of the industry-specific directories you can find, you can begin submitting to other types of sites. One method is to place ads on classified sites linking back to your site. While many clasiffied sites are pure junk, some have very high Google pagerank, so they can be a very powerful way to improve your own pagerank.

You can also piggyback off your competition by searching for sites that link to them, and then requesting a link from those same sites. To find those links, do a search in Google for "link:www.website.com" (replacing "website" with your competitor's web site address).

We will discuss more ways to get links in later articles, but the single most important thing you can do to get links from other sites is to write high quality content that changes often (and then put your site "out there" so people can find it).

In our opinion, success in online marketing requires three things: creativity, technology, and systematic effort.

You have to have an element of creativity because online marketing is still marketing - you still have to use words and imagery to convince the visitor to your site to do something. We've noticed some big search marketing firms use very formulaic approaches when writing ad copy for pay-per-click ads. That is not the way to write ads that convert. You have to use creativity to write interesting ad copy, and then combine that with lots of testing to fine-tune your ads. Your web site will needs interesting copy and possibly some graphical elements to convince the visitor to order a product, fill out a form, or whatever you want him to do.

There is a certain level of technological proficiency that must be achieved to engage in online marketing. Even if you hire outside firms to build and promote your web site and engage in other marketing activities, you need to be able to read and understand the reporting those firms will provide. If you can't understand the performance metrics that your vendors are providing you with, then you will have no idea if they are doing a good job or not. If you do all of your own online marketing, the use of technology such as automatic submission software and search engine optimization software will make your life much easier and more efficient. For example, if you use articles to promote your site, you will likely need to submit your article to dozens of article directories. If you do this manually, you will spend hours submitting each article after spending hours writing it. In this situation, automated article submission software would be an excellent investment.

Probably the most important of the three things necessary to be successful in online marketing is systematic effort. If you begin a marketing campaign but then slack off, you may see temporary results, but they will be fleeting. You need to have a set of activities you do every day/week/two weeks to promote your site, without exception. For example, every day or every other day you should update your blog. If you use articles for promotion, you should write an article every week and then submit it to the article directories. If you use pay-per-click ads, you must monitor their performance - what keywords are performing, which ads or landing pages are converting, etc., and make adjustments as necessary.

So keep those three keys in mind - creativity, technology, and systematic effort - and your online marketing will be successful.

Please take this time to learn from my mistake. I recently extinguished a forrest fire because i misspelled one word in a keyword meta tag. I have a client that was threatened with a lawsuit over the letter "C". That's right..the letter "C".. I apparently defamed a company in a similar field by referencing their company instead of the inteneded client. As you're aware this is NOT the practice of Work Media. In fact, we've been known to blow the whistle when we see unethical practices being used. (better watch it boys!) Luckily, we were able to resolve the issue with a simple disclaimer and all is well again. When you're optimizing a site and creating title/meta content, check your spelling to ensure you're not creating a potential legal battle in the process.

Questions and comments are always welcome!

Work Media
info@workmedia.net

Today begins a new life for the Work Media ("ICanBeFound") blog. We will now be updating the blog almost every day with short articles related to Internet marketing, along with longer, more in-depth articles that will be available through the Work Media newsletter (you can sign up at www.workmedia.net).

Today we're talking about designing your web site for two entities: people and search engines. Both of these groups have to be made happy, but they look for completely different things. People need to be led - guided to the desired action. This often involves the use of presentational graphics or multimedia, combined with well-written copy. Search engines just need to be able to get to the main copy on your web pages as quickly as possible. Search engines don't care what your site looks like - they can't "see" it like humans do - they only care about what your site says. So what you want to do is write benefit-filled, keyword-rich web copy. If your site makes heavy use of multimedia at the expense of text, you really lose out on both fronts. The search engines will not rank the page because they won't be able to tell what the page is about, and you lose the opportunity to use words to convince your prospect to take action.

Don't be afraid to write lots of copy. A human prospect who is really interested in your service will take the time to read about what you have. And search engines love content-rich sites. So if you take the time to first write strong sales copy, and then tweak it to achieve more desirable ratios of keyword density, keyword prominence, etc., then you will be well on your way to satisfying both groups.

We will pick up this topic again and discuss specifically how to write for search engines and how to write for people.

Call or email us if you have any questions about writing for search engines and humans.

Jerry attended the Internet Retailer conference in Chicago and will be writing a series of articles about it. The first one is below. Also, we recently released our first book, an online marketing guide entitled "Aggressive Online Marketing Fundamentals: the Work Media approach." More about that below.

Notes from the Internet Retailer Conference: Growing Business with Loyalty Programs

This is the first in a series of articles we will be publishing relaying thoughts and ideas from the Internet Retailer Conference in Chicago, which occurred June 5th through June 7th. Mark Goldstein, CEO of Loyalty Lab (a company that implements loyalty programs for merchants), and Gary Korotzer, CMO of Red Envelope (a company that specializes in selling gift items), delivered a presentation about loyalty programs. Red Envelope currently has a loyalty program managed by Loyalty Lab.

Loyalty programs are taking off. If you have a retail web site and you don't have some kind of loyalty program...chances are that by the end of next year you will. Jupiter Research expects that by the end of 2007, 78% of retailers doing business online will have a loyalty program, compared to 24% now. So what's the big deal?

It costs a lot more to generate a new customer than to sell to a repeat customer. Loyalty programs allow you to build a customer base that is loyal to your products, and will continue to purchase from you, rather than your competitors. A loyalty program is some kind of program that allows your customers to build up credit to apply to further purchases, or to redeem for cash. For example, a retail web site could grant a customer "points" for every purchase he makes. When he has enough points, he can redeem them for a discount on more merchandise, or possibly redeem them for cash.

To implement a loyalty program, you need some way to keep up with your customers' accrued points (or whatever kind of measurement you use). This should be done by keeping records of a customers' transactions in a database. Goldstein and Korotzer recommended tying the information to a customer's credit card number. Every time a customer makes purchases with a particular credit card, a record of the purchase is recorded along with the credit card number. In this scenario, if a customer used a different card than in previous purchases, her existing loyalty account would not receive additional credits.

You should try to make it easy for a customer to know how many points he has. Out of sight, out of mind, as the old saying goes, so make sure your customers are aware of how many points they have and how many more they need to redeem their rewards.

When you begin the process of deciding on the details of your loyalty program (exactly what participants will receive, and how much they have to purchase for redemption), Goldstein and Korotzer argue that you should explore your company's economics as deeply as possible. Two important statistics to examine are the lifetime value and acquisition cost of your customers. This will better help you determine how much you can afford to give to your customers. Another critical consideration is exactly who gets to participate in the program. You may choose to only extend an invitation into the program to the top 20% (or whatever percentage generates the majority of your revenue) of your customers. If there is a segment of your customer base that represents the majority of your income, then it makes sense to concentrate your marketing dollars on that group.

Another point that Goldstein and Korotzer emphasized is that your loyalty program should be cross-channel. In other words, if you operate a physical retail location and take orders by phone in addition to your web site, the loyalty program should extend to all of the channels. Avoid confusing your customers. Make it easy for them to gain credits and cash in on their loyalty regardless of what channel they use to make purchases.

Loyalty programs have been around for years in certain industries (i.e., airline frequent flyer miles) but are just starting to gain traction with a lot of retailers. If you sell retail, you should begin the process of researching the implementation of a loyalty program now - before your competition does. Feel free to contact Work Media for information on implementing a loyalty program for your web site.

Announcing the Release of "Aggressive Online Marketing Fundamentals: the Work Media approach"

Jerry and Chris have just released their first book, an online marketing guide that is a high level primer on implementing an aggressive, multi-pronged Internet marketing attack. Although the book does not go into great detail about the specifics of implenting the techniques, it will definitely give readers knowledge about online marketing and ideas to try. The book is a free pdf download on the front page of www.workmedia.net. Work Media may release an expanded, more in-depth version of the book later this year.

Work Media is Nashville's premiere Internet marketing firm. Jerry has been the Manager of Search for Shop at Home TV, a top 200 retail web site, and Chris has been the Director of Online Advertising for a highly successful advertising firm that specializes in promoting law firms. Call us today at 1-888-299-4837 or email us at info@workmedia.net to talk about creating an aggressive marketing plan for your business. We do one thing: we drive targeted traffic to web sites.