copywriting tips

Here’s our top 10 copywriting tips.

1. One-to-One – write with a real person in mind so you can set the right tone and in a conversational style.

2. Make it personal – do try and make your emails and websites personalised for readers and visitors, for example recommending similar product to their interests.

3. Set clear objectives – decide if you are telling them about a new product or if you want the reader to visit a page or request a quote.

4. Captivating design – with images and backgrounds can influence readability and add impact to the words.

5. Be specific – try not to write about big topics, instead tackle niche subjects with clever headlines to attract like-minded readers.

6. Tricky subjects – can be attention grabbing, consider writing about difficult subjects that taps into what many are already thinking.

7. Offer useful answers – to popular questions, by sharing your knowledge unconditionally engages your readers and can build loyalty and trust.

8. Word limits – write content that is tight, concise and clear.

9. Make time – give yourself enough time to meet your deadline.

10. Modify to criticism – feedback will take the form of corrections and suggestions for improvement, it’s all good for a better final outcome.

Overall, be aware of making changes for the sake of it. Often it can change the flow and feel of the entire piece you are writing. So do you have any tips for copywriting? Please share your content marketing comments in the section below or on Twitter.

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Personas are fictional characters created to represent the different types of user that you would like to visit your website. You are likely to have different types of customer and they each speak differently, search differently and think differently. But when they find your website they all think “What’s in it for me?”

web design persona

Here’s how to create a persona checklist.

1. Existing customers – who makes you the most money, who is easy to work with and comes back for more business?

2. Review ideal customers – which ones would you be proud of having? Are they with a competitor? Create an ideal list.

3. Demographics – what age are your ideal customers? Gender, education (do either matter?)

4. Where are they – do you want to attract local, national or international customers?

5. Do they need you – how can you satisfy their demand and what are their pain points? e.g. minimal budget but need more support.

6. Online behaviour – monitor their social media activity and identify the sort of words they are searching for online.

7. Refer and monitor – identify those customers that are happy to spread your good word and monitor the trends they are influenced by.

8. Confront challenges – do they have a goal they can’t achieve? Can you provide simple solutions to resolve this.

9. Meet expectations – what’s important to them (e.g. price, quality, timeframe, budget), can you meet these expectations?

10. Create bios – for your ideal customer, even give a name and a story, make them human to understand them.

Spending the time to clearly identify your client personas will help you to attract and engage new customers. Share your persona comments in the section below or on Twitter.

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Kent 2020

Here’s our top 10 digital marketing tips for exhibitions.

1. Website engagement – before the exhibition starts, drum up interest by adding engaging content to your website, such as a latest news page, blog post, a bespoke contact form.

2. Mobile website – most attendees and exhibitors will be using a smartphone or tablet device so ensure you have a mobile friendly version of your website with prodable buttons

3. Be social – start sending messages before the event and on the day. Consider setting up branded Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages in advance to receive content live at the exhibition.

4. Promote location – remember to Tweet, email, text your stand location with postcode and GPS co-ordinates and use the exhibition’s hashtag e.g. #Kent 2020.

5. Speaking slot – if you are presenting, incorporate digital elements to achieve wider coverage via social media by encouraging attendees to share facts and tips while watching.

6. Moving images – if you have a PowerPoint presentation use moving images with no sound, it’s more captivating.

7. Overdo video – don’t show long corporate videos on your stand, very few will be interested in watching.

8. QR Codes – make them clearly visible and use in your printed material so visitors can scan instantly and view later.

9. Blog posts – aim to write one prior to the event and encourage the exhibition organisers to share it and post one a day after the exhibition has finished detailing the highlights.

10. Email marketing – a week prior to the event, announce your attendance, stand number and include a hook to book an appointment and follow up with a thank you to the business card contacts you collected.

Remember, as well as following up offline leads you should track your website and social media mentions.

If you have of your own digital marketing tips for exhibitions, please do share them in the section below or on Twitter.

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infographic plan

To get the most out of an investment in infographics, consider these 10 tips.

1. Find data – that is sourced from research experts and is relevant to client needs.

2. Select a topic – and set goals and match the data making sure it is of high quality.

3. Create a story – with the data, plan the narrative logically and make it flow easily.

4. Sketch ideas – design to fit the purpose and make it a readable guide.

5. Look and feel – make sure the header grabs attention and has a strong title; spend time selecting the perfect font to convey your message and style.

6. Edit and redesign – make sure it has stepped points within the overall design so you can share sections.

7. Test – on someone that was not involved in the design process, a fresh pair of eyes.

8. Host and promote – create a blog post for the infographic and support through social channels.

9. Schedule tweets – about specific data points mentioned then over time link back to the infographic.

10. Create a video – explaining the infographic and promote it through YouTube and other video hosting services.

Sharing the data is the most important tip. There are plenty of good-looking, easy to understand infographics out there but they are a best kept secret because they are not shared. So use the relevant key words for optimisation to help increase link traffic and improve search visibility. Share your infographic thoughts in the section below or on Twitter.

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email signup

Here’s our top 10 email marketing sign up tips.

1. Offer something in return – offer an incentive to sign up, a special offer or discount.

2. Easy to find – make sure the sign up is at the top of your screen or ‘above the fold’ so you don’t have to scroll down.

3. Provide free content – offer a free download of an ebook or white paper.

4. Strategic placement – not all visitors land on your home page so consider putting the sign up box in a fixed position in the header or footer.

5. Data capture – make sure you add the data capture field on the page so the potential subscriber does not have to click through to another page to sign up.

6. Add to social media – post messages on Twitter and Facebook asking if they are on your enewsletter list.

7. Forward to a friend – if your customers believe in your product /services they will be willing to spread the word and pass on to a friend.

8. Position in email signature – add a hyperlink to your email newsletter after your normal sign-off information.

9. Privacy policy – have a policy laying out how subscribers’ information will or will not be used.

10. How often to receive – state clearly about the email frequency, whether it’s daily, monthly or quarterly.

Email marketing done properly can encourage customer loyalty. There are no tactics guaranteed to boost your email sign ups. However, at least you can have an exact return on investment by tracking the number of subscribers. Share your email marketing sign up comments in the section below or on Twitter.

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content marketing

Here’s our top 10 content marketing tips.

1. News – update your website with regular news items, new wins, latest developments.

2. Video – these create a buzz and are great to embed: YouTube and Vimeo.

3. White papers – statistics, research recently published – add your insight to these findings.

4. Ebooks – if you read these, review them and share to benefit others.

5. Infographics – and diagrams are useful tools to help understand complex information simply.

6. Case studies – create these about your own customers and share your business successes.

7. How tos – the classic top tips and lists that are simplified and easy to use.

8. Q&As – anticipate what your customers want to find out more about and publish before they ask.

9. Slideshare presentations – create these in short snappy slides and publish to a wider audience.

10. Social Media – share your content on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, StumbleUpon, Reddit and other social sharing websites

By spending time finding and enhancing content – and sharing it on social networks – you’ll build value in your brand. This, quite simply, increases reasons to re-visit, refer and interact. Share your content marketing comments in the section below or on Twitter.

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PR SEO

Here’s our top 10 press release SEO tips.

1. Audience – always clearly define your goal and write the press release for your target audience.

2. Research – do your homework and research popular keyword phrases (one or two per press release).

3. Content – add target keyword phrases to the title, subheading and body of the copy (but you must know what they are!).

4. Not “click here” – use keyword phrases when linking to landing pages or other websites.

5. Media-rich – add images, video, audio to the release and create in alternative formats.

6. Conversations – if these are important to you, use tracking codes to monitor them.

7. Online newsroom – post the press release to your website news page and other online channels.

8. Blog version – write one to link back to the press release, maintaining the same messages.

9. Distribute – the press release via respected online wire services to gain wider coverage.

10. Monitor – press release rankings, social mentions, traffic and outcomes.

Do you have any SEO tips that we’ve missed? Share your PR and SEO comments in the section below or on Twitter.

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velocity

Here’s our top 10 quotes that stand out for us (in no particular order!).

1. ‘Have the balls to make the calls’ – use judgement and intuition not to hang back and wait for that business car crash to happen.

2. ‘Don’t just give people choice help them to choose’ – be one step ahead thinking for your customers.

3. ‘Recognise a clean straight line to the customer’ – create a product or service that makes people’s lives easier and more fun.

4. ‘Inspire a culture of strong values, learning, delivery and service’ – identify the doers and make sure it gets done.

5. ‘Nobody cares what you say you do until you show that you do it’ – make it happen and act fast.

6. ‘You can’t improve what you can’t measure’ – you need a clear sense of direction, define clear metrics, execute and deliver.

7. ‘It’s not about the content, it’s about the vibe’ – bring your product or service to life and ensure it’s truly engaging.

8. ‘Don’t be a backseat driver, but do know when to take the wheel’ – step up and take responsibility at the right time and right place.

9. ‘Make everything useful, useable and delightful’ – continually modify your product to define a new business environment.

10. ‘Have attention to details. Every detail’ – treat your company as a product that could always be improved.

You can track your Velocity index by clicking here. Share your comments in the section below or on Twitter.

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2013

Here’s our top 10 website problems to deal with in 2013.

1. No search option – if you have an ecommerce site and don’t have a search option, you really should know better, how many customers will just give up and not purchase?!

2. Font size is too small – this makes it difficult to browse and be generally ‘unfriendly’ particularly for users of tablets and smartphones.

3. Instant pop-ups – as soon as you land on a website, a pop-up is in your face. Add a time delay for the pop-up to appear so that visitors can read the content.

4. Too much scrolling – it’s a real pain for a visitor to have to scroll down horizontally to get to the content they are interested in, some websites force vertical scrolling too.

5. Filling in forms – if a password is required to be entered in a certain way, make sure these instructions are clear upfront, it can be frustrating and you could lose a potential customer.

6. App reminders – having messages to ‘install the latest version’ every time a visitor returns to it can be irritating, so make sure they can switch it off.

7. Remember me – some sites cannot remember who the visitor is and whether they are logged in or not – fix that!

8. No new tabs – when shopping online, it’s useful to able to open a link in a new tab. Many sites don’t give this option.

9. Don’t force sign-ups – if you want people to sign-up for a new service, it’s poor to give them no option but to sign up to Facebook or Twitter to find out more.

10. Original images – try and avoid using stock photos for your website. Consider investing in original content or crowdsource from your own social communities.

Undoubtedly we’ll have missed some of your pet hates, so share your comments below or on Twitter.

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2012 business books

Here’s our top 10 business books for 2012 (in no particular order!).

1. 30 Ways To Use Social Media To Boost Your Marketing, Catherine Parker – a great snapshot of social media, helping you spread your message with little effort at minimal cost.

2. Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff, by Richard Carlson – if at times you’re finding managing business stressful, you can learn how to put it all in perspective.

3. The Complete Fundraising Handbook, Herbst and Norton – a fundraising bible in its 20th year in print, brought bang up to date for the new digital fundraiser.

4. The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, by Tony Schartz et al – business case study research about how to improve the way we work to help perform at our best.

5. All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, Robert Fulghum – it’s a collection of everyday observations that can teach you a thing or two about business.

6. Emarketing Excellence, Dave Chaffey – a practical guide to executing e-marketing plans, it’s written to support experienced e-marketers.

7. Who Moved My Cheese?, Spencer Johnson – such an easy and amusing read. Cheese is a metaphor for what you want to have in life; it really does make you think.

8. Help, Oliver Burkeman – it’s a witty and thought-provoking story with a quintessential English sense of humour considering ‘happiness’ in a business context.

9. Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell – it’s become an iconic phrase when you recognise the moment an idea or trend ‘tips’ and spreads like wildfire, it’s explored excellently.

10. The Art Of Happiness, Dalai Lama – this is a highly-respected classic. Before I read it, I had no idea why His Holiness is such a hugely sought-after business speaker. Read this and you’ll see why

Did we miss one of your favourites in 2012? If you wish to view our other favourite books, view our Pinterest page. Share your comments in the section below or on Twitter.

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