Posted by JT Long on Tue, Jun 29, 2010
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Myth #1: Keywords = Jail
Myth #2: Software can Write Great SEO Content
Myth #3: All Traffic is Equal
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Get ready for the B2B marketing version of Myth Busters. In this episode, we dispel the rumor that SEO stands for Stupid, Erratic and Odd
B2B search engine optimization doesn’t mean that you go out of your way to pack headlines and paragraphs with keywords at the expense of clarity, impact or grammar.
In fact, the opposite is true. The more you write to meet your reader’s needs, the more naturally you will attract the search engine attention that will bring you the most qualified leads.
Myth #1: Keywords = Jail
Busted: Well-defined keywords are not handcuffs that tether you to a constrained list of approved phrases. Instead, they are guides to keep you on track. Multiple entries with similar tags show search engines that you have lots of content on a certain subject. It also shows visitors that you have depth of knowledge that could be the answer to their needs. True SEO is a win-win for you and the reader.
Myth #2: SEO Content can be Written by a Computer
Busted: SEO copywriting is an art as much as it is a science. That is why anyone who says they have a computer program that can churn out content based on keywords is missing the mark. Only real people - creative copywriting experts - can bring that creative spark to a subject to explain it in a new way. Only a strategic marketer armed with sound competitive analysis and monster business writing skills will be able to deliver content that meets complex online content and conversion optimization rules.
Myth #3: All Traffic is Equal
Busted: Being found is a long way from being successful. Success means attracting qualified inbound leads. The latter is an order of magnitude harder than the former. It requires a true understanding of your customer’s needs. Only then can you provide the information they need in the format they need it.
How can you tell if you are posting the right content? Ask yourself:
- Does this content help our prospects?
- Does this content help search engines?
The best SEO content does both. So you don’t have to choose between educational, compelling copy and lists of words that will attract Google bots. That is just a myth. The truth is that a well-rounded SEO pro will consistently do both, naturally.
JT Long is Content Marketing Manager for Business Communications Group, a veteran storyteller for local and national publications and a longtime blogger. You can tweet with her @b2bjt.
Posted by Robert Celaschi on Thu, May 27, 2010
Before you cut and paste, at least verify that the information is trueA year ago, Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for several kinds of fraud and money laundering. People trusted him with billions of dollars, and he bilked them instead of investing it. What’s especially astonishing is how he managed to string them along for decades. Ever wonder how he got away with his scheme for so long?
One reason is that when a new investor came along, he saw the prestigious client list and figured Madoff must be all right. Surely those earlier clients had checked everything out, right? The problem is, some of those clients had relied on the famous names of even earlier clients. They never checked out anything, they just wrote out checks.
Recyling dangers
Here’s how this applies to b2b company marketing materials: A lot of people make the same mistake when they start gathering material for a blog or a web page. They see a great item elsewhere on the Internet, and with a few clicks of the mouse they copy and paste it into their own file. Surely the other guy knew what he was talking about, right?
Nope. Very likely the other guy stole it from an even earlier appearance on the Internet. Even if the other guy said where the information originated, you still can’t trust it. He might have stolen the attribution, or he may have garbled things in an attempt to put it into his own words, in the course of internet marketing.
Oooo, shiny!
In some ways, we’re like little kids who see something nifty on the sidewalk and want to play with it. As Mom always said, “Don’t pick that up; you don’t know where it’s been.”
Earlier this year I spent the better part of an afternoon chasing down a statement that supposedly appeared in a “recent” issue of a national magazine. I thought it was a great item. So did about 20 different bloggers and companies who posted the same statement, word for word. Not one of them cited a specific publication date, or even the name of the article. Finally I tracked it down in the footnote of a book. The “recent” article had appeared in 1989. Even with that, I couldn’t find out who the author was, or if he was quoting someone else.
Stats sleuthing
Here’s a great bit of sleuthing that illustrates my point. Mel Gosling and Andrew Hiles tried to track down the origin of some oft-repeated stats, such as the claim that "over 70 percent of businesses involved in a major fire fail within 3 years, if they ever re-open at all."
In many cases, the folks presenting the stats online couldn’t say exactly where they came from. They saw it, they copied it, they repeated it. Who bothers checking out whether it’s true?
R.e.s.p.e.c.t. yourself
Now, maybe you don’t care about putting junk in your blogs or your web site. Maybe you are just looking for something that sounds good. Maybe you are so anxious to make a point that you’ll grab anything that seems to support it, even though you have no idea where it came from.
More likely, however, you want to be seen as a real authority. In that case, take the extra time to find out where your information originally came from, and whether it’s true. Yes, that means extra work during blogging, SEO copywriting, etc. It’s worth it.
Sleuthing assignment
Here’s a homework assignment: The next time you come across a statement that you’ve always accepted without question, see if you can find out where it originally came from. You may find out that it doesn’t have the pedigree you thought it did.
Posted by JT Long on Fri, Apr 16, 2010
Or, "11 Ways to Give the People What They Want"
What can a 1980s English rock band teach you about writing B2B blogs that click with the social media reality of 2010? A lot. Just listen:
The Kinks’ hit song Give the People What They Want includes the lyrics:
“Give the people what they want
You gotta give the people what they want
The more they get, the more they need
And every time they get harder and harder to please.”
What do they want?
The goods new is that in the age of Google searches, it is easier than ever to figure out what people want. They type it into the World Wide Web for all to see. Your job is to make it easy for people looking for your products and services to find you by using the same words they use.
Don't say llamas and give me ponies
In other words, if you offer llama grooming, you need to focus on washing, trimming and brushing llamas in the words your customers use. Lots of blog headlines that include these keywords will indicate to Google spiders that people who type in “llama, makeover” might be happy if they were sent to your site.
Lose/lose
If, however, they find stories on horse care and feeding, the search engines will not bother to send llama enthusiasts your way. Which is a good thing. Because if they did, the owners of dirty camelids would not be satisfied or buy your services. Lose/lose.
Focusing on relevant topics is not always enough, however. Remember, in this age of information overload, visitors are getting harder and harder to please. So what else do people want?
Headlines that kill
A Captivating (and relevant) Headline: Check out The Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging, or any of Copyblogger’s entries. They know what makes people – and search engines – click. Lists (five ways to, 12 tips for, etc), references to pop culture (even if it is a stretch like our headline above) and controversial statements can draw traffic like a sticky cotton candy to white pants.
- Mind-warping stats: Social media expert Seth Godin knows how to get your attention. In the first sentence of this blog, he catches your attention with a mind-warping stat and then intimates that you, too, could have similar success. It hooked me.
- A great story: Good Magazine bloggers know that a compelling story with interesting characters, a problem and a concluding solution will keep readers going to the end.
- Access, access, access: This ongoing Inc. blog series called the Successful Soloist lets readers in on a conversation in the classic Q&A style with Personal Branding Expert Dan Schawbel. Who are the superstars in your industry and how difficult would it be for you to get them to answer a few questions for your readers?
Wrap up your offering with a great conclusion, an identifying line at the end that links to your bio, an eye-catching graphic and links to similar stories on your site and elsewhere, and you have a blog that would make the Kinks proud.
More importantly, when you give people what they want, they come back, they comment, they share your link and buy your products. What more could you want?
JT Long is Content Marketing Manager for Business Communications Group, a veteran storyteller for local and national publications and a longtime blogger. You can tweet with her @b2bjt.
Posted by Robert Celaschi on Wed, Mar 10, 2010
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Can you get reporters at top-tier business publications to take you seriously?
Of course you can.
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Take a hint from the classic Five W’s that a reporter or blogger needs to put in a story
Not every B2B marketer has worked previously as a news reporter. Few news reporters have ever worked in a marketing consulting company.
Is it any wonder that sometimes the two don’t get along very well?
That’s only the half of it. Say you are an account assistant in your mid-20s, pitching ideas to the top-tier business publications with reporters who have been covering your client’s industry since you were in junior high school. Can you get them to take you seriously?
Of course you can.
One key is to pitch with authority rather than bravado. Take a hint from the classic Five W’s that a reporter or blogger needs to put in a story, then gather some information yourself.
Who
Within the publications or blogs, who writes about your industry? Names are important, so get them right. I’ve known several co-workers who would save the most outrageous misspellings of their own names and tape them to their computer monitors. You can bet they remembered who sent the worst howlers.
What
Now you know who covers your industry. But what aspects does each person cover? Some may look only at the stocks of public companies in your industry. Others may look only at new products. In this age of layoffs, one person may have to do it all. Know before you pitch.
When
Even with the Internet available 24/7 to showcase their prose, writers and bloggers have deadlines. Find out what they are. They may have special reports of publications scheduled throughout the year. See if they’ve posted that editorial calendar online. If you are trying to get them to interview the CEO of your client company, first make sure the CEO will be there to pick up the phone or see any incoming email.
Where
Some organizations cover the world, others cover only the United States, still others stick to a region. If you want to get a Boston company noticed, don’t waste the time of a writer who only covers Northern California -- unless the Boston company is opening a San Francisco office, or just landed venture capital from a firm in Silicon Valley.
Why
Readers turn to business publications for a reason. Usually, they are looking for a way to make money. How is your pitch going to help the readers do that? Nail this one and you can get a writer’s attention fast. Remember, a story doesn’t have to be a profile of the client company. If the client CEO can speak as an industry expert about current trends, that’s gold.
Proceed with caution
Those are some Do’s. Here are a few Don’ts:
- Don’t rush things. Research takes time, but it’s a good investment. You may discover that you don’t have anything right now that’s likely to interest your target writers. It’s better to wait until you do, instead of annoying them with an idea that’s off the mark. Likewise, good relationships take time to build. The salty reporter has to learn to trust you. And you have to learn to trust Old Salty. It won’t happen on the first phone call or email.
- Don’t ask, “Will the story be positive?” For one thing, what’s positive to you might be negative to someone else. Suppose office space is getting cheaper to rent. That’s negative if you own a building, but positive if you are looking for space. A good reporter will write an honest story and let readers love or hate the facts as they wish. But even if a reporter knows what kind of reaction to expect, that might change during the reporting as new facts come to light. So don’t expect the writer to know how your client will be perceived.
- Don’t be a control freak. Guide, yes. Control, no. Let’s say the reporter asks you about something the company would rather keep quiet for right now. You might be tempted to say, “If you hold off, we’ll give you an exclusive.” The problem is, you can’t really control that. Think about it: The reporter already heard about it. So the story already is floating out there. How are you supposed to control whether somebody else gets wind of it? Reporters want to report news, not the CEO’s second-day reaction to a story that somebody else ran with while the first reporter was waiting for you to give the green light.
Now get out there and win one
Follow these simple tips ... and you still won’t bat a thousand. Nobody does. Even Old Salty strikes out sometimes when he’s pitching an idea to his editors.
Your thoughts?
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Wed, Dec 02, 2009
Repel visitors with ease
By
Rebekah Donaldson*
(*Note: To develop this article, I took Writing Web Content for the Online Reader by Cris Rominger and turned it inside out.)
Websites have been a standard business marketing tool for more than a dozen years, and yet some folks still don’t know how to present material well on the Internet.
People don’t look at the computer screen the way they look at the printed page, or even the television set.
The web demands its own approach if you want your content to grab the eye and get attention.
With that in mind, you may be headed for a B2B website disaster if you:
Get stingy with hard facts
Business-to-business buyers are information hounds. They spend a lot of time researching, evaluating, and compiling information online because it helps them make decisions. According to Enquiro
research, a full 92% of respondents turn to online resources in the early stages of the buying cycle. What b2b folks don’t like is promotional fluff, mission statements, and other marketing blah blah.
Throw giant blobs of text at your visitors
As information seekers, we’re goal oriented, impatient and critical. We scan rather than read. People have a hard time dealing with more than 100 words in a solid block, according to Crawford Killian, author of Writing for the Web. (Also check out Killian's fiesty post How not to write for the web -- I'm e-swooning.)
If you have more to say, break the chunk into two or three paragraphs, each with a subhead, all surrounded by lots of white space.
Avoid transitional phrases so your content chunks can stand on their own. Information on the web works best in modular rather than linear style.
Take your time getting to get to the point
Heat maps and eye tracking studies repeatedly show that headings grab our eye. To leverage their impact, use descriptive phrases that tell the reader what the content is about.
Place information carrying words at the beginning of headings to quickly convey meaning and use language your readers understand. If they "pick up an information scent" (Cris' term), they’ll drill down. And if they find relevant information that serves their needs or interests, they’ll read.
Write in a flowery style
Use strong verbs. Write in the active voice. Get to the point. "Marketing prose" does more than slow readers down. It annoys them.
Make readers work for information
Help the reader learn what the paragraph is about by using boldface type for information-rich keywords.
But don’t go overboard. Too many bolded words are distracting and hard to read. Use bulleted and numbered lists when appropriate. They rank right next to headings as the most-scanned areas of a page. Bullets are a great place to convey key benefits.
Consider tables for voluminous information. Tables or matrices can quickly convey and compare information that is easily lost in text.
Make the page too gray
Use photos, graphics, and captions to guide the eye and reinforce your message. They are called anchor points. They are the places where we start looking at a page.
Don’t worry about the design
A sloppy or confusing design hides your message. A good design instills confidence and trust. The right visual segmentation and hierarchy will help readers see how to interact with you.
Posted by Robert Celaschi on Mon, Nov 16, 2009
It may be time to give your marketing materials a refresher
By Robert Celaschi
If you check out the little bio under my photo at the bottom of this article, you’ll see that “Robert has been a business journalist for 22 years...”
But it’s not true.
The fact is, this month marks 25 years since I started writing for business publications. I bring it up not to brag, but to point out how easy it is to let the details of marketing copy slip out of date. Where did the last three years go?
Even after all the research, all the editing, all the nice graphic design, you still need to keep an eye on the finished product to make sure it doesn’t get left behind as the rest of the world marches on.
Often it’s the little things that trip us up. For instance there’s that little line on most newspapers and magazines that says something like, “Vol. XXVI, No. 49.” Every edition should get a new number, and the volume number typically changes ever year or six months. It’s so easy to forget to change the number that many publications make part of their standard production checklists.
Even then it’s too easy to let the mind coast. I have seen weekly publications that dutifully change the number of the edition each week: 49, 50, 51, 53, 54 ...
Eventually someone says, “Hey, weren’t we supposed to change the volume number after 52 and start over with 1?”
Your turn
If you have been using the same marketing copy for more than a year, go back and read through it with a critical eye.
- Have any of the facts changed since they went into the brochure or onto the website?
- Do the photos and graphics still show reality? (Of course we assume that they did originally)
- Do the press release dates include the years?
- Do all your web links still go where you think they do?
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Robert has been a business journalist for 22 years, both as a reporter and an editor. He joined Business Communications Group in 2005.
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Need a fresh pair of eyes?
A fresh pair of eyes can help you ensure your marketing materials will be effective in 2010... especially if they're attached to an experience B2B marketer. Get help >>
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Mon, Oct 12, 2009
National Business Group On Health publishes "Choosing the Right Hospital" toolkit with our help
By Molla Donaldson, DrPH, MS and Rebekah Donaldson
With all the talk of health reform, one issue that keeps coming up is that people should have access to affordable quality care. But how can we know what quality of care is when it is so complex? Part of the answer is to make quality of care information publicly available. Another part is to take the language of quality ("mortality" "risk" "variation" etc.) and translate it to plain English.
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See the Toolkit and Employer's Guide we helped write. What do you think? Please comment in the Comments area below. |
The National Business Group on Health has published “Choosing the Right Hospital,” an online toolkit developed to help people choose the hospital where they are likely to receive the best care. Molla Donaldson and I helped prepare it, under the leadership of National Business Group on Health President Helen Darling, and Director of Benchmarking & Analysis Karen Marlo.
We also developed a guide for Human Resources officers to help employees use the guide.
“We are grateful that Molla and Rebekah were able to lend their expertise to the development of these valuable tools for employers and employees alike,” said Darling. “Helping employees understand the importance of using quality hospitals and providing them with tools to do just that is imperative to improving the safety of care in our hospitals and helping to control health care costs.”
The National Business Group on Health is an association of many of the country’s largest self-insured businesses. Their website and publications provide a large employers’ perspective on national health policy issues and practical solutions to its members’ most important health care problems.
Through this project, I (Rebekah) learned how frequently medication errors, surgical mishaps, and other patient safety issues occur. The Institute of Medicine (with Molla’s help in 2000) alerted the public to medical errors almost 10 years ago in a widely publicized report. There was great hope that safety would improve. But in a follow up study, the federal government’s 2008 National Healthcare Quality Report found that hospital patient safety measures have worsened by nearly 1 percent each year for the past six years.
When people can choose a hospital, it is most likely based on their insurance, where their doctor practices, and advice from family and friends – but this information may not be accurate. There are good web sites now, and our work tried to make it easier to understand the quality and safety information–and what patients themselves report — at the federal government’s site, Hospital Compare.
We’ve written in the past about how organizations do well by doing good. The National Business Group on Health has merged doing well with doing good. Choosing the Right Hospital helps everyone compare quality and safety. We believe that the more people know about and insist on safe care, the more likely it is that health care will improve.
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(Note: comments were imported 11/6/09 during migration from Wordpress)
Posted by Robert Celaschi on Thu, Oct 01, 2009
Have pity for the poor sentence that is asked to do too much
By Robert Celaschi
I did promise not to get all grammatical in these blog posts, and I'm not going to bring out the chalkboard today. I'll only make a quick mention of nouns and verbs. You can say a lot with just a pair of nouns and a verb.
You probably remember: A noun is a thing, and a verb is what the thing does. If you have a company - for instance, Niftycorp - that's a noun. If you introduce a product, "introduce" is a verb. And "product"? That's another noun.
Now, in a product announcement you need a few additional words or else you'll sound like Tonto: "Mmmm, Kemosabe. Niftycorp introduces product." But watch out when you start loading up the sentence with details.
Here’s how it typically starts. Your company is announcing its brand new line of framdoodles. You start writing,
“Niftycorp has introduced its new line of framdoodles.”
It’s better than Tonto, but still not very good. It does tell me what the product is, but it doesn’t tell me what’s so new and special about it. So you expand it to,
“Niftycorp has introduced its new line of color-coded framdoodles.”
Ah, that’s good. Of course we have to include our trademarked product name:
“Niftycorp has introduced its new line of Framtastik® color-coded framdoodles.”
Oh, and don’t forget that the Big Boss wants us to play up the product’s durability.
“Niftycorp has introduced its new line of Framtastik® shock-resistant, color-coded framdoodles.”
But wait, there’s more!
While you were writing all that, a few more important people have weighed in with their suggestions. Before long, you have an announcement that says,
“Niftycorp has introduced its new line of Framtastik® shock-resistant, color-coded, industrial strength, environmentally friendly, anodized, high-throughput, permeable framdoodles.”
Of course, you can’t pass up a chance to tout the company itself. And you need to identify your target audience. And you want to show the company’s reach.
So:
“Niftycorp, the leading provider of provision leadership solutions to the cost-object deliverables industry in the greater tri-state metroplex, has introduced its new line of Framtastik® shock-resistant, color-coded, industrial strength, environmentally friendly, anodized, high-throughput, permeable framdoodles.”
If you can’t tell yet what’s wrong with that, try reading the sentence out loud. Now try doing it in one breath.
Yes, you have many important points to convey. But when you try to make everything stand out as important, nothing stands out as important. So start with a couple of nouns and a verb. Lightly sprinkle them with one or two ultra-important bits of information, like the product name and what’s new about it. Save the other important information for later sentences.
Your turn!
Pick up some of your marketing materials and read them out loud. Do you start stumbling over sentences that are trying to do too much? Do you run out of breath? If so, take a deep breath and start splitting the message into manageable loads.
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Robert has been a business journalist for 22 years, both as a reporter and an editor. He joined Business Communications Group in 2005.
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Posted by Robert Celaschi on Mon, Sep 14, 2009
By Robert Celaschi
Something strange happens to people when they send marketing email. They’ll take a powerful, persuasive marketing message, and torpedo the whole thing by slapping a lousy subject line on it.
What makes it really strange is that the email might contain a press release or other message with a really great headline. The sender could have cut and pasted it. But no, instead they type a vague or garbled mess of words that makes me shrug and move on.
I’ll confess I’m sometimes guilty of sloppy subject lines. I’ve struggled and sweated to craft the right message. I’ve set the right tone. I’ve targeted the right people. I’m ready to press the “send” button and then — oh, yeah, gotta put some kind of subject line on this puppy. Zip-zip-zip, done. Instead, I should take even more care with those precious few words that may determine whether the email even gets opened.
Let’s look at a half-dozen real subject lines that real marketing people emailed to me in the past month.
Subj: New Dilemma For Small Business Car Leases After Unemployment
Huh? Let’s see: I gather that there’s a new dilemma of some sort. For whom? Small Business Car Leases After Unemployment. Uhhhhhhh, sorry, does not compute. This one would work better with a simple colon after “Business.” Not great, but better. The story is about businesses transferring the leases on company cars, because they’ve laid off so many of the workers who used to drive them.
Subj: Non-Profit
That’s it, just “Non-Profit.” There are a lot of nonprofits out there. They do a lot of different things. I had to dig way, way down to discover that this nonprofit is a foundation that helps children. They are holding a fund-raiser this month in Miami. If I hadn’t picked this as an example for the blog post, I wouldn’t have bothered to find out any of that.
Subj: Survey: A Quarter of Firms Scaling Back Training
A direct hit. Tells me everything I need to get started. Now I’ll open the email and find out the details. Whoops — turns out that while 26 percent are cutting back their training programs, 28 percent have expanded. But, hey, they got me to read it.
Subj: Boston – Social Media Capital?
I don’t like questions for subject lines. Why are you asking me? Don’t you already know? If not, go do some more research and get back to me.
Subj: Time for Change in Credit Card Game
Maybe it is indeed time for a change in the credit card game, but since I have no idea what this means, it’s hard to say. The easy fix here would have been to condense the first line of the enclosed press release: Consumers now can say “no” to credit card interest rate hikes.
Subj: July home sales increased 12 percent; median home price declined 19.6 percent
This one delivers. I feel like a double winner, because I learn about sales volume and about price. This is about the California housing market, by the way. Bad news if you are a seller with a fat mortgage.
Your turn!
OK, you get the idea. Now take a look at the email you’ve sent in the past month. If someone didn’t already know your message, would they get the right idea from the subject line?
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Robert has been a business journalist for 22 years, both as a reporter and an editor. He joined Business Communications Group in 2005.
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Get help to make marketing materials that encourage prospects to take the next step.
Posted by Robert Celaschi on Thu, Aug 13, 2009
By Robert Celaschi
I won't buy your product or service if you don't tell me what it is.
Fun and games!
Here’s a fun game:
Guess what each company is selling, using these lines from their press releases.
“…an expert in the image solution arena.”
“This is a result of an improved customer focus and strong actions to improve our solution competitiveness.”
“… delivers business-aligned solutions
“… a provider of mobility solutions”
And my favorite of the moment:
“… a trusted solutions provider to customers in manufacturing, health care, financial services, public safety, transportation & logistics, and other industries.”
Believe it or not, these companies sell specific things: elevators, servers, computer consulting services, camera phones, iPhone applications.
Drifting off message
I know how we got here. Back in the mists of the 20th century, some truly brilliant marketing folks got the idea that their company did more than push a product out the door; the product actually solved a problem for their customers.
“Mr. Customer, we aren’t just selling you a widget polisher, we are providing a solution to your scuffed-widget problem.”
But somewhere along the way, companies got so fixated on “solution” that they forgot to say what they are selling.
Think about the marketing material you are writing right now. When it falls into my hands, it may be the first time I have run across your company, and I’d really like to know what business you are in. But I don’t have time to play detective. Tell me the specific product or service, preferably near the start.
If you want to call it a “solution” later on, that’s fine.
Reality check
Here’s your homework assignment: Pick up some of your marketing materials and look at them through the eyes of someone who never heard of your company. Is it clear from the start what you are offering? Or are you merely providing vague “solutions” for an undefined problem?
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