Let's face it folks, every website is selling something. The trick is to craft the wording in a way that appeals to the visitor. Take the perspective of the client and not as the shop or business owner. Ok- I can hear the grumbling from here about the educational sites and the non-profits who are trying to simply provide services and information on where to find help for their visitors. Yes....I understand all that. However, the fact of the matter is, that the writing on your site needs to engage, inform and trigger a call to action. That is selling something! Does your site do that?

Does your website content...

• invoke a sense of credibility and professionalism?
• tug at the heart strings of the visitor?
• engage the reader and their interests?
• trigger a call to action?
• make the visitor pick up the phone, email you or go directly to the store?

or

Is your website...

• leading the reader in circles with big words and elusive ideas?
• making the visitor work too hard to find the information he/she needs?
• distracting them with extraneous and useless bits of information?
• overwhelming them with too much "stuff"?

Try to take a step back from your website, clear your mind and read it out loud. Better yet - have someone else read it to you while you have your eyes closed. If you weren't the owner- would you know what the site is selling or why a client or customer would be compelled to buy from you or keep coming back?

Selling on the web is really about getting the message across quickly and effectively. It's about creating an immediate sense of "aha" - I need this or "aha"  - he has the same philosophy as I do and I want to work with him. If you need help reviewing your site to determine its effectiveness, call me! I will be happy to let you know what's working and what isn't.

One of the biggest challenges that web developers encounter is getting content from clients for a website. Sometimes it is because the client gets overwhelmed by the enormity of the project and sometimes they just dig in their heels because THEY want to do it and don't need any help. I am sure there are other reasons like the fact that they are busy working and have no energy or time at the end of the day or don't know what they want to say, despite your best efforts to guide them. I won't even get into the fact that many times what they deliver is not going to cut the mustard for the web and you find yourself "cleaning it up."

If you are having troubles pulling content out of clients, think about using one or all of these techniques.

• Only ask them to produce one page/article/blog post at a time. Something they can do in 15 minutes or so. Once they begin to get these small pieces done, both you and your client will start to feel a sense of accomplishment and will start to gain momentum and excitement around the project.
• Reuse and recycle old content from their last site. Gather their old brochures, newspaper articles or blog posts. Have them take what is good and relevant and rewrite them a little. Believe me, if they have been in business for any length of time- they will have a back log of collateral you can glean information from to help them along and populate a site.
• Make a half an hour phone call appointment and ask them about a recent success. Perhaps they made a big sale or landed a big client. They will love talking about this and will get excited to tell you all about it. Then you can ask them what they think was the reason behind this success- their approach, their literature, an email or phone call..... Now, if you are listening well and taking notes, you should be able to create a bullet point list of the highlights of that conversation that you can then give back to them to work from.

People love to talk about their business, but often times have a hard time writing about it. So, do try steering them in the right direction if you can. Sometimes a simple prompt will get their creative juices flowing!

Good luck!

Do you know why you have a blog or what you should be doing with it?

If the answer is NO to either of these questions, then it is time to rethink the whole blogging idea. I can't tell you how many times people tell me that they need a blog because someone told them it is critical to helping them rank well with search engines. Ok- that is true for the most part. The big BUT here, however,  is that if you don't know what you are writing about, don't have time to post new blogs or you really hate to write, then you are not doing yourself or your visitors any favors.

There are many reasons to maintain a blog whether it lives on your website or is a stand alone blog site. Here are a few.

1. When you update your blog regularly, the search engines like that. It's called fresh content and helps to drive traffic to your site.

2. Blogs are a fabulous way to educate your readers, visitors, and potential clients about the subject matter at hand for your particular profession or business.

3. They help you gain credibility, enhance your reputation and keep you on the minds of others.

This all sounds good right? Well, of course it is all good, unless..... you don't have a clear vision or strategy for capitalizing on the use of this tool for marketing purposes. Sometimes, you need to try a few different approaches to the topics you will  present to see what works best for you. Once you have a theme or a style, stick with it and continue on that same vein because it is what people expect from you. It really is not a good idea to blog willy nilly about unrelated topics or ideas if you are trying to develop increased traffic or regular visitors.

In addition, be smart about the titles and content. You will want to use rich keywords and catchy titles. (This helps SEO for your site.) You might also consider commenting options for your visitors.  Many marketing professionals will tell you that commenting is key! The one reason that I think this idea is incredibly valuable is because comments offer you feedback. More importantly, it provides you with ideas for more blog posts and fresh marketing techniques. If you don't have time to monitor comments, don't feel comfortable allowing the general public to participate or simply don't feel like dealing with it, well that is up to you to decide. Not everyone needs to have that option on their blogs. Perhaps they get feedback through other channels.

In summary, blogging is a great way to drive traffic to your website and you don't need to write one every day. Just be consistent. Once a week, once a month, twice a month, seasonally....whatever feels right. But let me tell you this-if you let it go stale, you are worse off than if you didn't blog at all. Stale, old and outdated content is a bad thing all the way around. So, if you aren't going to commit to using it as part of your marketing strategy, I would suggest you take it down or turn it off until you are ready.

If you need help getting started, give me a call and we can brainstorm ideas, review old posts or work together to write some new ones! Happy Blogging!

My brain doesn't ever stop working!

I am always thinking about what I can do, should do, want to do and of course, what others should do. I have been a marketing consultant full-time for over a year now, have been a creative content writer for close to 10 and have been working with businesses to help them make good decisions for growth and development for 6. What's the problem then, you might ask? Well, the problem is that I have too many ideas and my head is about to explode.

So, in order to make use of this skill, I am going to market an arm of my consulting services as "Contagious Ideas!" (unless I come up with another cool name). For those people who:

• Have a great idea and don't know what to do with it.

• Need a great idea because they are completely stuck.

I love coming up with new ideas and so this is right up my alley. I don't want to take over your marketing department or run your business. I just want to motivate you to get going already!!!  I do a lot of this already with my clients, but as a true entrepreneur...I am often reinventing myself for one reason or another and this just feels right. What do you think? Would you pay me $70/hour to help you get excited about your own ideas or motivated to implement some new ideas?