by Cathey Tarleton
I met Sam Horn 12 years ago at the Maui Writers Conference, where she served as Mistress of Ceremonies, chief inspirer and BFF to the eclectic gathering of writers every session. Her spirit-boosting intros and butt-kicking presentations did a lot for all of us and likely generated millions of words across the genres.
Sam's still doing it, across the world wide web, with her Blog, today's edition of which asks me to do just what I'm doing now: "riff off" her content like a jazz musician, repurpose it into equally-dynamite marketing communications and share it from a different platform.
Here's what she has to say:
A client told me, “Sam, I am so busy. I just don’t have time to ‘think-up’ creative content every time I’m supposed to blog.”
I told him, “Want good news? You don’t have to ‘think up’ original ideas every time you blog.”
He said, “That sounds promising. What do I write about then?”
I said, “You riff off the news. You know how jazz musicians riff off standard chords to create new music? From now on, you’re going to riff off current events to create new content.”
He looked at me, a bit puzzled, and asked, “How do I do that?”
See the rest of the article here.
by Cathey TarletonI just "met" Jonathan Fields through social media,Twitter I think. From his bio I'm afraid he's someone I'd love to hate. Not only is he a master fitness guru runing upscale yoga studios, he's a dynamite copywriter, author and a happy dad to boot.
That, plus I'm really excited about the ever-expanding social media universe, and I love Twitter. I don't want anybody to bust its myth or my bubble. But, be that as it may, what he says in "Busting the Social Media Marketing Myth" is something that rings true.
Social media, used for sales and marketing, is still sales and marketing. Conversations, relationships, building trust, nurturing a community...why do we do that? To get leads, to drive traffic to websites, to convert visitors to leads and leads to sales.
Integrating social media into a good direct-response program and/or ad campaign is a great way to deploy the best of both worlds.
Check it out:
"More and more small businesses have moved chunks of their services and marketing online in the last few years. Some are blogging, facebooking or straight-up advertising, but a more recent phenomenon is tweeting. Of those businesses tweeting, a smallish handful are starting to realize the revenue-generating power of twitter. But, they are doing so largely by turning twitter into a 2.0 version of direct-response.And, if you’ve never done list-driven direct response, and done it well, this may open your eyes a bit.
Here’s how really good direct response works. You set up a funnel...
Read the full article here.
I ran across this interesting article from Chuck Green's Ideabook the other day and I can't tell you how rewarding it was to hear that people still value design--value it highly!--in the current market. With all the hype and excitement about social media and its instantaneous impacts, it's a good reminder that solid, quality
design work is still at the heart of marketing.
"...overall I pose that consumers are becoming more sophisticated about the quality of design, not less--and that, contrary to riding into the sunset, designers are just now seeing the dawn of a new day."
He makes the following propositions:
1. Markets are multiplying.
2. More markets mean more stories and more frequent story cycles.
3. Core design skills cannot be automated.
4. The definitions of design, communications, and marketing are ever-changing.
by Claudia Hafner
Forget the list of goals, and instant overwhelm. I'd like to suggest one goal for 2010 - Get connected!
We have all gone to websites that share our interests or that provide needed information. But do we visit those sites often? Generally not very often unless we know there is something new. We may link to a page that updates regularly with news of some sort, a quote/thought of the day, a blog. If we think of it...we may visit. It's sort of a one-way conversation anyway.
Conversely, if we own a website, are we regularly updating the site so it is interesing to visitors? Will they want to come back again and again?
Additionally, if we want to update our website on a consistent basis, we often have to have our webmasters post the new content and that just feels complicated and costly to do often, and we decide to put it off.
Stay in touch with Social Media. What if you could stay in touch with what interests you as well as keep others interested in you? And do it instantly yourself. Any time of the day.
There is a big world out there beyond your website. You have influenced the world with your website (or part of that world), but you feel lost in the crowd. Does anyone really see YOU?
- How much of YOU do they really see?
- Do you wish visitors knew more about you?
- What motivates you to do what you do?
- What other interests do you have?
- Could they become interested in visiting you more often?
If you could say something each day, what would it be? Would you feel more connected if there were the possibility of being responded to?
Get Connected.I'd like to inspire you to play with getting connected.
Pick one (or both) of these social media tools - Facebook and LinkIn. Facebook is a casual to business casual environment. LinkedIn is a business professional environment. Each has a different voice, and audience.
Profile. Begin filling out your profile(s) and have fun with it. What do you want others to know about you? What do you want to be known for? Revisit your profile periodically and update. As you get into this experience, you may want to include more about yourself. It's ok to ease into it a bit.
Interests.Next, think about your interests and search Facebook/LinkedIn (FB/LI) for people, groups or organizations for those interests. See what comes up. What looks interesting to you? For instance, I love PBS, so I found the PBS fan page on Facebook. (Facebook fan pages are the equivalent of a business page vs. personal page). Once you add them as a connection, their posts will appear in your account. Instead of going to the PBS website and trying to figure out what is new, they 'feed' information to your account automatically. One connection may lead to another. One interesting group to another interesting group. You'll start thinking, "I wonder if so-and-so is on FB/LI"?
Check in. Each day, sign into your account and browse what appears there from your connections. No obligation to read, start by browsing. Watch and listen. When something catches your eye, click on it. And if you are so moved, leave a comment. How does that feel? Do you feel more connected with them because you can do this? Do you also feel more connected to the world at large?
Learn. Look at the tools FB/LI offer. You may be able to add photos, add special links, etc. Look for the Help section. Explore!
Keep the conversation going. Try saying something of interest every day. What are you working on? Comment about it. Have you attended a special event you'd like to promote? Post it. Do you have a question? Ask it.
Facebook is a casual place so you are freer there. Think of it as a real-time scrapbook or even a sandbox - posts, comments, photos, links. Connections to interesting things in the world.
Get creative. Notice what others are doing. You'll start to get a sense of it. What types of things do they post? Do you find their posts interesting, not only because of the content, but because of who they are? Would people who know you find your posts interesting because they know you? Would they be compelled to let others know about you and what you posted?
Eventually you will find your voice within the social media arena.
Don't stress. Take your time, but be consistent. Keep it going. It can be fun!
We have some very good books on our resources page that will give you ideas, explain real world situations and solutions for getting connected, and why you should. And they are fun, easy reading.
Let me know how it goes by posting a comment below.
by Cathey Tarleton You're wasting your time.
No, really. If you are writing a blog post for your business, in hopes it will improve website performance, enhance inbound marketing and generate leads--and you flip flop the words "your" and "you're" the wrong way--You're wasting your time. Because if you don't write right, you don't look like the influential expert you really truly are.
It's like making the PowerPoint presentation with your fly down or your slip showing. You're not putting your best foot forward.
And, as we pointed out with "It's vs. Its," silly grammatical slip ups can catch a reader's eye and distract them from your brilliant blog, superb sales message or terrific tweet. Don't do that. Write right.
YOU'RE has the apostrophe. YOU'RE means YOU ARE. The apostrophe means something is missing, in this case the letter "A."
YOUR does not have the apostrophe. YOUR means "belonging to YOU." It's another example of confusing pronouns (like your, yours, my, mine, our, ours and their, theirs) that have driven people nuts since the inception of the English language. Don't try to understand it, just be like Nike: Just do it.
To figure out which one to use, remember this sentence: "You're wasting your time." (You are wasting time belonging to you.)
YOU'RE=YOU are. YOUR=belonging YOU.
Another tip is to reverse it. "Your wasting you're time." What does THAT mean? "Wasting belongs to you and you are time." it sounds like those bad translations for imported products.
Write right.
by Cathey Tarleton
It's distracting. And it is happening more and more. There you are, happily reading an interesting blog and its content is great, its style entertaining. Then, all of a sudden, ouch. It's like your eye gets stuck on that ornery little apostrophe with its hook between two letters and you have to stop for half a second. It's one of the most common errors in marketing communications, and it's not that hard to write right.
Who cares? What's the difference?
You care. And the difference is between saying what you want to say and saying something else. Between looking like an expert and--well--not.
To remember how to write right, remember this:
IT'S worth ITS weight in gold.
IT'S has the apostrophe. IT'S means "it is." The apostrophe indicates something is missing. In this case, the space and the letter "i" are both MIA. Maybe they ran off together, with the "n" and "o" from "can't." Let them go.
ITS doesn't or does not have an apostrophe. ITS means "belonging to IT." "ITS" indicates possession, which can be demonic or not.
I know, I know. "But, hey, apostrophe+s means possession. We learned that in 5th grade English." You're right, of course. That's usually true. Cathy's Clown, Hawaii's Big Island, the horse's mouth, my brother's keeper. But there are exceptions.
Some of the most confusing exceptions have to do with possessive pronouns: yours, ours, theirs, his, hers, my, mine and its. These don't or do not need the silly apostrophe. We know His & Hers from our bath towels. And we know what's mine is mine and not "mine's." Mine's" would mean "mine is." Like, for example, when the kids are fighting:
"That's not yours!"
"Yes it is! It's mine!"
"No, it's not. I can tell by its red color."
"Mine's red!"
"Hers is red!"
"No, his is red and yours is blue."
"It's mine!"
"It is mine!! Mine mine mine!"
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. For now, when you're trying to figure out whether to use IT'S or ITS, remember this sentence, "It's worth its weight in gold." IT's=IT IS. ITS=belonging to IT.
Write right.
Check out the first post in this series: Inbound marketing with a Blog. How to write right.
by Cathey Tarleton
Every business needs a blog now, right? It's key to integrating inbound marketing with your overall marketing strategy, the next rung up the evolution ladder for good old-fashioned Word-of-Mouth. And, whether you're Fortune 500 or fortunate enough to have 500 bucks, if your blog is well-written, remarkable content, it will help your business get found and generate leads.
A few boot-camp basics of "writing right" will help you look more like the expert you already are. And, isn't that why you are blogging in the first place?
You can be a brilliant blogger, a miracle-working e-marketer and a sales superhero, but if you don't write better than a fifth grader, grammar-wise, your content is worth the paper it's printed on. (That's a joke.)
What difference does it make? Any writer will tell you they use good grammar for ONE reason: to keep the reader reading.
We do whatever it takes to make a reader/potential customer turn the page, click through, scroll down and read on. We don't want their eye to get caught on a dumb error and screech to a halt...
You know what I'm talking about: the misspelled word, the exclamation point overload, bad comma, missing periods and wrong quotation marks.
"Wait a minute," a flashback from English Class says, "Wait a minute. Isn't that supposed to be...?"
Let us help you be just as impressive and inspiring on the page as you are in person. Hafner Creative Communications presents a series of posts about some of the most common grammatical errors - and how to avoid them.
Look smart online. Sound like you know what you're talking about. Write right.
by Claudia Hafner
Specialized landing pages and calls-to-action reduce costs by increasing the value of your prospects.
When a visitor clicks to your site from a paid search (pay-per-click) or banner ad, it has already cost you the price of a click to get them there. If the page they landed on is specific to the ad, you may have increased the value of that click in several ways.
- Google likes to see content that matches the Google ad your visitor clicked on. In such cases, Google actually charges less for that click than it would have otherwise.
- If the visitor sees what they are looking for as soon as they land on your page, they are apt to stick around and read it...and maybe even take some form of action.
- If you offer your visitor something compelling (a call-to-action) in exchange for their contact information, this person has become a lead, which, over weeks, months and years, can potentially bring continued revenue.
As you move your advertising dollars away from
interruption marketing to inbound marketing, you want to keep giving your visitor more of what they are looking for through
specialized landing pages and calls-to-action.
Think about the different traffic streams through which your visitors are reaching your site. Can you provide more focused content through a landing page designed to give them what they are looking for? Give this some thought and leave comments about the challenges you are facing in this regard.
Start creating your specialized landing pages with this downloadable worksheet.
Download our Landing Page Worksheet.
by Cristine Hafner
The purpose of integrated marketing communications is to ensure that your message is consistent in the variety of media you use to reach your customers. This includes both online and offline promotions and advertising with the intent to create maximum impact at a lower cost.
Why is integrating your marketing media and tools important today?
- There are so many more choices in the delivery of your message and the form it takes that it makes it more imperative to be consistent.
- Customers have 24/7 access to services and products so you need to include 24/7 marketing tools in your mix.
- Today’s ability to target audiences allows you to maximize your marketing dollars by being selective.
- Global competition has leveled the playing field meaning you are competing with many more vendors with bigger budgets.
How will integrating your marketing communication pieces make a difference in your business? Often small businesses use the newspaper, magazine or radio station they are advertising with to create their ads. Then they have the quick print company put together a brochure or sales sheet for them. Each one develops a different look and message and does something different with the logo, the colors and fonts. The result may cost you fewer dollars but nothing looks related. There is no synergy. So is money really being saved or is an opportunity for
branding your company being squandered?
Suppose every day you went to do business in the community wearing your nametag, but you disguised yourself as someone different. One day you had neat black hair, and looked sharp in a brand new outfit. The next day you had curly gray hair down to your shoulders, heavy rimmed outdated glasses and had a very casual outfit. And then the next day, gelled hair looking like a rock star. Would anyone recognize you? Would they associate you with your business if they didn’t read your nametag? I doubt it. If you are consistent with how you present yourself people will recognize you even without reading your nametag. They will automatically know you by how you dress and act.
It’s no different with your advertising and communications pieces. Take a look at all of your
marketing materials and do an assessment. Are the quality, message, coloring, imagery, and overall tone consistent? Remember with consistency comes recognition. And with recognition comes trust. And with trust comes sales.
Next look at the media you are using to deliver your message both online and offline. Do you go with the least expensive or do you really look at what media would have the most impact to reach YOUR customer. Do you make decisions based on who knocks on your door instead of following your plan? Do you use print advertising because it’s the only thing you are familiar with? Maybe it’s time to mix it up and try new ways of communicating with your target audience.
Integrate your media by trying alternatives to your previous marketing methods. For example a
direct mail campaign that is supported by an online
landing page with calls-to-action and follow-up emails might produce more results than an on-going print ad in the local newspaper. Or consider a special promotion to encourage your store customers to sign up for online offers using your print ad that directs people to your web site. It’s time to think of ways to use social media to nurture client relationships.
Keeping your marketing communications consistent and the mediums varied becomes easier over time because you are clear about your message and how you present yourself and how to effectively reach your audience. This will save you money and attract many more customers.
Follow us on Twitter for deals on printed materials and timely marketing packages that will help you integrate your marketing communications.
by Claudia Hafner
Tailor specific messages to specific calls-to-action
This is the first in a series of posts devoted to learning more about how specialized landing pages can help convert your visitors and generate leads.
A landing page is literally a page that visitors land on when they click to your site or log on to your homepage. Any page of your website is potentially a landing page. What we want to talk about here are specialized landing pages and calls-to-action.
Your customers are not one-size-fits-all and neither should a single web page try to sell (inform, educate, etc) everything to everyone. Your main website pages have general information that pertain to your broader base of visitors. Hopefully you have traffic coming from a variety of specialized or targeted sources and calls-to-action. Some of these sources might include:
- a link from an email
- a paid search ad
- a banner ad
- an offline print ad
- a direct mailer
Calls-to-action literally ask someone to take some action. They might include:
- Download worksheet
- Subscribe to my blog
- Request information
- Learn more
All these sources and calls-to-action require some type of specialized landing page.
Specialized, targeted landing pages increase your chances that your visitors from targeted sources will find what they are looking for because the specialized page is customized to talk to them. They may even click on something else you present them with. You want your visitors to stay interested in what you have to say, but you also want to talk about what they are intersted in. Specialized landing pages can really help in this process.
Start creating your specialized landing pages with this downloadable worksheet.
Download our Landing Page Worksheet.