[when used in the right way]
I found this article by Ken McGaffin, chief marketing officer of Wordtracker.com, very interesting… over on E-Consultancy… How to write an article with keywords in mind - Which are your best keywords?
It makes me realise potential opportunities of traffic I miss out on when I don’t structure my posts and just start rambling. Like now for instance.
Many companies would like a content-management system (CMS). It saves paying the designer, or web company, money each time they want something changed. It makes sense.
However, one of the key areas of misinterpretation, as highlighted by Vitamin, is the concentrating on the System, rather than the Content.
A good content-managed system is what it says - the management of the content and content comes from people. The Escape is content-managed but it is not by a system, it is by coding (it gives us more control). It also helps us with semantic markup.
So, rather than maybe investing thousands in a content-managed system, why not invest in the people? Teach them about content, about structure. Remember it’s quality, not quantity that counts.
Just read an article at e-consultancy from Next Communications, a digital marketing content company about lack of forethought on Content on websites.
A survey of digital agencies reveals that website launches are
delayed by as much as three months because content isn’t ready or
suitable.Priorities cited for website projects were design (75%),
development (55%) and search engine optimisation (65%), with only 10%
of agencies questioned saying website content was top of their agenda.
It is quite funny that SEO is cited as 65% but needs to be based on the content which is at 10%. Either this is a complete lack of knowledge on the part of the agencies or pure ignorance.
David Meerman Scott at webinknow.com suggests that people respond to negative headlines in this thought-provoking white paper (PDF).
While the ‘negative’ technique most certainly works, it should be used sparingly. Only one negative link is appropriate on a site. And don’t forget — there must be something compelling and interesting to read once people click! Don’t promise something interesting with a negative headline and then fail to deliver.
He also mentions how, and we concur, that the web is so fluid, you can test and try different techniques - nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Forget the meaningless cliches and empty promises. What really matters is what customers take away about a business. That’s what a recent Business Week Article tells us.
The words we choose and use make a big difference and, according to the article, there are five big no-no’s:
Quality - every product worth buying is a quality product. It may be high-priced quality or it may be low-priced quality, but it’s quality either way. That means every company believes it can use the word "quality" in its advertising. Too many have, and as a result, now it has become just seven empty letters.
Value - like quality, is in the eye of the beholder, and every product or service has its own value equation. Saying "we provide the best value" is, therefore, virtually
meaningless.
Service - Have you ever seen an advert promising lousy service? Of course not, which is the reason why claiming good service just falls on deaf ears. It’s funny, but the companies that make the claim of good service the most tend to be those that deliver it the least.
Caring - Do you really believe your company cares more about your customers than your competition does? It may feel good to say so, but the claim flies in the face of
common sense. If your competitors didn’t care about their customers, they couldn’t stay in business.
The above four words all fail for essentially the same
reasons. Not only are they overused, they’re based on variables that
will be different for everyone. There’s a quality/value/service/caring
continuum in each person’s mind for every purchase occasion, and it is
a continually moving target.
But the fifth word is different. The fifth word doesn’t work precisely because it’s not variable. The fifth word is binary.
Integrity - A
company either has integrity or it doesn’t. It’s either honest or it
isn’t. And most people give companies the benefit of the doubt in
believing that they operate with integrity. When a company talks about
integrity in its advertising it’s for one of two reasons, neither one
of them good: They’re either trying to cover up some lack of integrity
(which never works) or they’re implying they live by a higher standard
than their competition.
Every
company needs to have integrity. No company needs to advertise it.
It’s lunchtime, which sounds nicer?
Depending on who your market is, you may get different answers, but I bet you’d pay more for the second option.
I am sure we all understand the importance of well-written copy, especially in business and to be really effective, we need not to be concentrating just on the grammar aspect of an article, but, even more importantly, on the story itself.
But we are not here to tell a story, I hear you say, we’re here to sell our business and services and that’s more about facts. That’s all well and good, but people buy into the story just as much as the reality and especially more so than hard facts.
Seth Godin, pronounces in his book, All Marketers Are Liars, that stories are what make a business service buyable:
Either you’re going to tell stories that spread, or you’ll become irrelevant.
He has a point. Recently I have noticed that a lot of copy we are given to work with, when taken out of context, means absolutely nothing:
They are also very factual and specific and don’t sell benefits or needs.
Anyone of the above examples could be applied to website design, for instance, but I don’t want a web site. I want an on line marketing tool that is going to be very effective, generating business and saving me time. It’s still a web site, yes, but a web site that is effective: Because I also want a quick return on investment (that’s my needs and desires).
So, not only do you need to tell your story, you also need to keep it contextual and, just to add more to the mix, if your copy is for the web and search engine traffic is important to you; you also need to make it keyword oriented. People do not go onto search engines and type in "complete solutions provider", it’s about context: "website designer in hampshire" for instance.
It sounds complicated doesn’t it? Well, it is and it isn’t, but it continues to be one of the most overlooked parts of marketing – great copy sells the story, which sells the product (or service).
Derek Powazek, on the A List Apart Blog, asks all designers: Learn To Write!
It’s time we designers stop thinking of ourselves as merely pixel
people, and start thinking of ourselves as the creators of experiences.
And when it comes to experience on the web, there’s no better way to
create it than to write, and write well.
We agree, so read and write feverishly, developing the talent. I also think that the words you use and the way you use them are integral to your brand. That is why it is an area that needs constant development and inspiration.
Words Also Change
Language itself also develops "dont u tink"? Text messaging may annoy many people but if we hadn’t allowed language to develop we would all be speaking like Shakespeare still, wouldn’t we? Copy in business is becoming a lot more conversational. You need to be appealing!
The key is not to be precious, but to embrace changes and the need for great stories. Who are to speaking to and what are you trying to say, really? Invest in your marketing speak and develop your tone-of-voice. Choice is becoming immense and if you don’t say it the way that your customers need to hear it, or would say it themselves; or, if your story isn’t that interesting; you may just lose them to someone who is.
If you need a little more convincing, read this nice little article called The Story of Branding over at ClickZ.Com
According to this article at WebMetrics, users misspell terms in 10% of their search queries.
Interestingly enough, recently one of our clients had a PDF newsletter with the word ‘minimum’ spelt as ‘minium’ in the phrase ‘minimum wage’ on a link on their web site.
It made up 33% of their search engine visits over a period of a month!
We aren’t suggesting you start spelling things although it is a guerilla tactic that some companies use, especially with Google Adwords. It is also a widely tipped suggestion for finding bargains on e-bay (see Trick #60).
“On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out
of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of the
headline, and why it so highly determines the effectiveness of the
entire piece.”