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SEO content marketing roundup, week ending July 28th

July 27, 2010 • posted by Laura

Yes, dear readers, it’s time to get current with the latest and greatest of SEO copywriting and content marketing news!  This post is dedicated to our SEO Copywriting & Content Marketing Queen, Inside Informant, and Generous Educator, Heather Lloyd-Martin. (I can get away with this, because she’s out of town this week!)  Heather will be both presenting and speaking at the SES (Search Engine Strategies) San Francisco Conference-Expo, on Tuesday, August 17th.  Details follow:

As part of ClickZ’s Connected Marketing Week, Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Francisco is hosting its “learn-in” from Tuesday August 17th through Thursday August 19th, featuring the brightest stars of search and social marketing. And yes, our Heather is most prominently featured! First she will introduce the speakers for “Content Marketing Optimization,” and then present — surprise! — “Developing Great Content.”  The agenda details can be accessed at SES San Francisco.

Speaking of great content…other news and links well worth your while, from content mills to content as link bait, to landing page testing, content management, and a 12-step rehab program:

Filed under Blog writing,Conferences,SEO Content marketing

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Content Therapy: Here’s Lookin’ at You, Site!

July 25, 2010 • posted by Laura

As promised, today we’re going to undertake an honest inventory of our content. This will be a somewhat brutal — but ultimately enlightening and worthwhile — evaluation of our web content.  In what Heather has likened to therapy, a “SWOT” analysis systematically examines our relative strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  Ready?

As underscored in the previous Mondays’ posts, researching your competition and tracking social trends, you are not the only wonder in web town!  (I know: Surprise!) So to refine and improve upon your content, and one-up your competition, you first need to truly know thyself, and second, you need a fearless reality-check on where you stand relative to your competitors.

This is where SWOT analysis comes in:

  • Strengths Even if your business is in its infancy, it still possesses certain strengths from the get-go.  For instance, can you sell your products at 10-percent less than your competitors?  Do you offer unique, fun products not found anywhere else?   Besides your intrinsic strengths, consider your external advantages: Do you have a great supplier who ships products fast and works with you on payment terms?  That is definitely a plus in the strengths column!  Try to come up with ten strengths your company has.  If you’re stuck, ask for the opinion of a trusted colleague, friend, or even a client:  you may be surprised by how wonderful other people think you are!

 

  • Weaknesses Just as your business has inherent strengths to bring to the table, the reality is that it – like all businesses – has weak spots.  There is at least one internal vulnerability that you need to acknowledge and eventually overcome in your marketing materials (more on that in a later post).   For instance:  Are you a brand-new company competing against an established one?  Are your prices slightly higher because you can’t buy in volume like the big boys?   Again, list your top ten weaknesses.

 

  • Opportunities Time to take heart!  These insights and visions – opportunities —  are what motivated you to start up your business in the first place, right?  Did you see the beginning of an emerging trend, and notice that there are very few sites offering what you want to sell?  Do you have scads of contacts from your last job that you could leverage as your own, first few clients?  From an SEO standpoint, opportunity can mean that you can optimize for terms and concepts well ahead of – or better than – your competitors.  Revisit your strengths:  what opportunities present themselves from them?  Write down five opportunities that your business has, right now.

 

  • Threats Real or perceived, threats do exist and it is wise to acknowledge the worst-case scenario and make a plan to work around it.  It could be an ex-employee who starts up a competing business.  It could be that your supplier doubles their price of an essential product or service.  This does not mean your competition will take over your market share and drive you out of business.  But it does mean that you should be aware of such threats, and make a solid plan for surviving them!    Again, list your top five perceived threats.

 

Whew!  Great job, and nobody died!  Now that you’ve done your SWOT analysis, try putting everything you’ve listed – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats – into a matrix, like so:

Now, don’t you feel better, knowing where you stand and where you need to focus your efforts? Next week, we’ll delve deep into how to profile your perfect customer and thereby craft precision benefits statements!  Stay tuned!

Filed under Blog writing,SEO Content marketing,Tips and techniques

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Does your content piss people off?

February 16, 2010 • posted by Heather

A few days ago, my husband and I were watching an ad for Teleflora. It was your typical Valentine’s Day ad – a woman received flowers at work – but they were brown and wilted. She was obviously disappointed. The lesson: If you don’t purchase your flowers from Teleflora, the love of your life may question how much you really care.

The ad made my husband angry. First, he said, why are all Valentine’s Day ads targeted towards men? Why aren’t there any targeted towards women? After all, they buy Valentine’s Day gifts too (good point.)

But what made him the most angry was what he felt was the subtext of the ad. In his words, “OK, so I’m a tool if I don’t send flowers – and I’m even more of a tool if I send flowers and they aren’t the right kind. Men can’t win.”

(Fair disclosure: My wonderful husband celebrates Valentine’s Day 365 days a year. His ad resistance had everything to do with the messaging, and nothing to do with the concept of celebrating your beloved.)

When you’re writing copy, it’s so important to consider how the target audience will feel about your content.  On the surface, the Teleflora ad was probably seen as witty and original. But since the target audience is men – and men are getting told yet again that their gifts had better measure up on Valentine’s Day – how effective was this ad, anyway?

This is especially important if you’re writing copy about “touchier” subjects. For instance, think of people who need high-risk car insurance and SR-22 forms. This population is already facing higher insurance fees, and are dealing with the stigma of needing a SR-22 in order to drive.  If you are part of this target audience, would you rather read:

“Accidents, violations = OK!” (The General Car Insurance) or…

“This is auto insurance for people that many insurance companies do not desire to insure or for people that have had a policy cancelled” (High Risk Auto Insurance Ontario.)

You see the difference? The General makes a positive statement (OK!) while the other site reminds the visitor that yes, they did mess up royally.

As I stated in “Do You Know What Your Prospects Are Really Thinking”, your target audience is looking for excuses to NOT buy from you. When you write content that disempowers, embarrasses or freezes prospects with fear, they won’t react well. In fact, the only reaction you may see are huge bounce rates.

The important takeaway from these examples is to always – and I mean always – put yourself in your target audience’s shoes. Ask yourself how you’d feel if you read the copy. Would you feel empowered and positive (OK!) Or would you feel like, no matter what you did, it wouldn’t be good enough (Teleflora.)

Focus on writing copy that’s empowering, exciting and informative. You won’t piss people off – and your site conversions will show it.

(Private note to ProFlowers – your site is still focused around Valentine’s Day – and it’s the 16th of February. Oops!)

Filed under Blog writing,Direct reponse copywriting,In-house Content Marketing,Reputation management,SEO Content marketing,Tips and techniques

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