Helping startups to get their messaging straight

This month I have been working with a couple of very small start-ups which is very exciting as I get a chance to help them hone their messaging.

The first was someone who knew exactly what he was offering and to whom. He had already written his web copy, but there was so much of it. He was trying to cram so much text onto every page that he had expanded boxes everywhere just to get all the words in. And he was repeating the content from page to page. So I helped him slim the content down so that it was easier for the reader to see what services and value they could get from him, and then dig deeper to find out more.

The second business had got as far as designing a web site. It became clear quite quickly that they were tackling it from the point of view of this is us, this is what we do. In fact they were offering services to three distinct markets. One local, one UK and one overseas. So we left the first two tenuously linked, but the overseas services are to be spun off onto a different web site altogether.

There were common themes that I come across very often:     

•  It’s easy to write about yourself, but actually we need to be writing about our customers and their needs.
•  It’s really important to keep it simple so that readers can understand instantly what’s going on.
• Repetition and duplication doesn’t help. Readers and search engines find it unpalatable.
• I It can take an experienced third party to look dispassionately at your ideas and your site, and see where you can improve.

If you’re a start-up or an established business and you need help with honing your messaging, do get in touch to discuss how Wrightwell can help. 

Making the most of content in sales

Those immensely knowledgeable people at Marketing Sherpa have provided an insight into using content in the B2B sales process, available for a short time only.

Many of the thoughts of their three contributors fall in line with my own experience as a copywriter, so here's a summary of their discussion, together with some words of my own.

1 Make everything work together. Everyone should know what your corporate and product messages are, so wherever and however you promote your company, you should be telling the same story. That's your web site, direct mail, advertising, blog, social media and face-to-face discussions. So as well as having a messaging platform for outbound marketing, you need to pass the message on internally too. Really quick sales guides and information on the intranet are invaluable. And because the message is the same everywhere, you should be able to re-use and recycle your content, tailored to fit the channel and audience.

2. There are different reasons for sharing information at different stages of the sales process:

• Education - your potential customers don't yet know they have a need, but you can explain what issues you address. This is all about proving yourselves as experts in your field. Particularly if it's a complex subject blogs, white papers, webinars and links to external specialists are all good.

• Solution - your potential client has identified a pain point, and wants solutions. Being proactive in providing valuable information on your web site at all times will help to draw in visitors in search of a solution

• Closing the deal - it's time to get into specifics to prove your solution. Data sheets, customer case studies and testimonials and competitive knowledge will all help you win the deal. 

One other point that Marketing Sherpa's experts makes is to involve sales. When you're putting your marketing content together, do you ask your sales people what they need? I know one company that operates almost entirely on case studies as their sales tool, because that's what the sales team finds most useful.

You can find this article on the Marketing Sherpa site until 29 Jan 2011. Contributors to the article, who are also speaking at the Marketing Sherpa Email Summit are Ardath Albee, a B2B marketing strategist, Kristin McElgunn from Western Union Business Solutions, and Michelle Levy of ECI Telecom.

Who are you?

It's the simplest thing to start with, but it's amazing how many people forget this bit.

What should be in lights on your home page? On the front of your brochures? Not just your name, but what you do and who you do it for.

Get some friends of friends to visit your web site. People who know nothing about your business. See if they can tell what you're selling and why they'd want to buy it in your first few lines of copy.

If you're not absolutely clear on this, you need a re-think. Don't make your visitors work hard at understanding you. You need to work at understanding your potential audience and spelling it out for them. In their language. You only have seconds to convince. Make the most of it.

Six tips for writing great web links

When you send out an online newsletter, sales letter or invitation, you want your audience to find out more by clicking on a link that takes them to a place where they can find out more and buy.

How much do you think about the positioning and look of your web links?

1. Are they saying something useful? "Click here" gets your reader to the next page, but it's much better to say something like "Download the white paper" or "Buy here". That's a clear signpost to your audience - and to search engines who will give you brownie points for good links and help to raise your search engine ranking.

2. Are you being too clever with your links? As Gerry McGovern, web guru, points out, if the world is used to web links that are blue and underlined, why try to do something different? It may look great graphically, but it's not going to help your reader get to the buying stage if you disguise your links.

3. Don't be mean with your links. Again, Gerry McGovern shows that the same link at the bottom of the page as well as the top can greatly increase the clicks through to the next stage

4. Think about where your links are taking your audience. If you link items in a newsletter to the home page of your web site, and then expect your audience to search your site for the information they want - they won't. Make sure your links go straight to the appropriate point of the right page.

5. Spread your links generously but with discrimination. You can add links to web sites and blogs to your signature on emails and in communities. This is person-to-person marketing and again appealing to search engines. Don't overdo it though - there's always a thin line between a reasonable marketing push and just being irritating to your readers.

6. Test all your links before you go live!

Finish what you start

In our family we have a copywriter (me) and a web developer. Together we are almost permanently puzzled.

We are confused by the high percentage of our clients who pay us to write or design their web sites, brochures, case studies and more, but never quite get round to publishing them. They are perfectly happy to settle the invoice, but our work never sees the light of day. Why all this waste?

The trouble is, the clients get distracted at the last moment. They've done all their thinking around the project and now it's time to move on. But actually, they just need to add in a few links, get final approval from some managers, even move to new offices. And the project never gets completed.

Actually, it's not just clients. I've done exactly the same with blogs, articles, micro-sites, forum contributions. You get everything done in draft, but never quite proof it and submit it.

A new resolution then, and I for one am not waiting until the 1st Jan. Finish what you start. There is absolutely no business value in work that remains in draft. Get it out there and get noticed.

Making your promotions work harder

When you're advertising, leafleting, sending out direct mail - what do you suggest the reader does next? They could just give you a call, or you could give them a web site address for further information. That could be your general web site, or you could put together a special page - a landing page - that relates to your promotional campaign. How helpful would that be to encouraging sales?

Say you are offering special prices for your products or services for a limited time. You could:

• Add a page to your web site called www.xxxx.com/specialoffer or something similar
• Put this URL on your promotional materials as a "call to action" for more information
  

Use this special page to:

• Give extra details about the offer and prices (very important that you expand on you said in your direct mail or advertising - don't just repeat yourself)
• Clearly and obviously explain how to book or buy
• Provide a link to your main web site to explain more about your business
• Include any relevant approved comments from current customers
  
• Provide links to any other relevant sites - perhaps product suppliers, good review sites or anything else that gives your customers a fuller picture about your offer
• Gather together any data sheets, case studies and more that you can provide as downloads in pdf format
• Provide a Frequently Asked Questions section
  

By focusing on a particular offer and giving your potential customers answers to their likely questions you'll raise customer satisfaction and the likelihood of making a sale, as well as doing no harm at all to your professional credibility.