Internet Marketing- It's Still Marketing

SEO Copywriting: How to Write Eye-Catching Headlines

 

Why Good Headlines are Important

Back when I was a cub reporter on the police beat I had an editor explain to me what makes news. He said simply, “If a dog bites a man that’s not worthy of your time but on the other hand, if man bites dog, then you got a story.”

Translation: no one cares about what is expected to happen. They only care about things when something unusual happens. That’s why you need spectacular headlines to move the crowd to view your links, Tweets, Facebook ads and updates.

So how can you to write great headlines that grab attention and show up in search engines?

Guidelines for Great Headlines:

• Try to keep them short, sometimes less than 7 words.
• Include an action verb.
• Make them quirky, off beat or somewhat funny.
• Summarize was is to follow.
• Present an offer (especially for business content).

And most importantly....

USE THE KEYWORDS THAT YOUR AUDIENCE IS USING!

On the surface, headline writing may seem quite easy. But can really be the most difficult part of writing. Anyone can write War and Peace, but it takes a real genius to write “Headless Body In Topless Bar,” one of the most famous headlines in newspaper history.

And speaking of the New York Post, often tabloids and gossip rags have the best headlines. Eye-catching headlines, like Michael Jackson Faked His Death, are why Weekly World News gained more than 43,000 Facebook fans in four days.

How to Write Your Eye-Catching Headline

Making your headline short, less than seven words is tough. In the age of Twitter and 140-character counts this gets a little easier but it’s still difficult to parse your eloquent prose into short burst of “read me,” power.

So here’s a tip:

Don’t start by limiting your word count. Write your headline – no matter how long it is – and then cut words. Cut adjectives, articles and just leave verbs and nouns. You’ll be surprised at how efficient your wordplay is.

Include an action verb. Action verb or active verbs as your English teacher probably called them are one-word stories. They have the subject doing something. Some of the greatest are: eject, crash, whirl, launch, hurl, bury and vent. Action verbs are usually in the present tense (meaning they don’t have an “ed” on the end) and are active voice so the subject of the sentence precedes them. Example: Dick Punches Jane in Hill Battle. Get a list of action verbs here, courtesy of Coherent Visual in Hollywood. Here are list of great action words in action from Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox site.

• Italy buries first quake victims
• Villagers hurt in West Bank clash
• Mass Thai protest over leadership
• Iran accuses journalist of spying

Offbeat and quirky  (read clever) – is popular on YouTube as well as online writing. But it’s often the most difficult thing to pull off. Here’s a tip: If you aren’t normally the funny guy in the room, steal from someone who is. Rip off Caddyshack lines, or others your favorite comedy series and use as a foundation for your headlines. Just don’t plagiarize!

Summarize – make sure your headline actually does its job – tells the reader why they should click, or continue reading. The headline is the road but the copy is the destination so get them there. You can use gimmicky language like: How to Win Friends and Influence People, (still a popular seller) so you might take a rift from that like “How to Clear Your Debt in 30 Days,” or whatever services your business provides. Or you can engage with a question:

• “Do you need more hours in the day?” (We all know that we do.)
• “Want to lose weight by eating all day?”
• “Want to be famous in 30 days?”

Just make sure your copy answers these questions otherwise you’re pulling a “bait and switch,” and readers hate that.

Present an offer: While news headlines just have to reflect what’s happening business headlines should offer some sort of benefit to the reader. Give them an offer they can’t refuse. You can combine questions and offers as well. Try mixing and matching and see what you come up with. But keep it short and simple.

• 10 Ways to Avoid Common Tax Mistakes
• Drop 10 Years Off Your Age in 10 Minutes
• The Secret to Weight Loss for Black Women
• How to Get a Husband and Keep Him (OK that one is from 1950.)

So headline writing isn’t a whim, it’s a science. If no one reads your headline, it’s a guarantee they won’t read your copy. So don’t shirk this duty. Use these tips to write stellar headlines followed by content relevant to your customers.

Still daunted by writing compelling headlines and need a push over your writers block? Contact MiM for help creating your compelling SEO copy.

Post By Guest Blogger Ovetta Sampson, Write Way Writing

 

Using Inbound Marketing to Market Smarter Online - Part II

 

 

In my last Inbound Marketing blog I talked about Hubspot's State of Inbound Marketing Report, which had the following three key findings:

1. Organizations using Inbound marketing strategies to generate leads have a 60% lower cost per lead than organizations who use traditional outbound marketing strategies to generate leads
2. Social media and blogs are the most rapidly expanding category in the overall marketing budget
3. Businesses are generating real customers with social media and blogs

What you need to be doing to generate more leads and reduce your cost per lead.

1. The two most cost effective ways to generate leads are:
1. social media
2. blogs.
2. Inbound marketing budgets are increasing whilst outbound marketing budgets are decreasing.
1. Inbound marketing channels are defined collectively as: PPC, social media, seo and blogs.
2. Outbound marketing channels are defined collectively as: trade shows, direct mail and telemarketing.
3. Inbound marketing channels were identified as more important than outbound, and compared with 2009's report social media, blogs and seo were identified as more important in 2010 than 2009 as a marketing channel.
4. The one inbound marketing channel that decreased in importance is PPC.
5. Email marketing which can be either inbound or outbound was also rated as an important marketing channel for 2010.
6. The major factor for businesses increasing their inbound marketing budget in 2010 is because of past success with inbound marketing.
7. Small business is more likely to spend more of their budget on inbound marketing than medium or large firms. This is the same for both B2B and B2C
8. The top most important social media channels for business in 2010, in order are:
1. Company blog
2. Twitter
3. Facebook
4. Linked In
5. YouTube
9. On average 40% of companies reported getting a customer from; company blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
1. B2B was higher with LinkedIn at 45%
2. B2C was higher with Facebook at 68%
10. Frequency of blog is directly linked to customer acquisition.
1. 90% of companies that blog daily acquired a customer, compared with:
2. 38% of companies that blog monthly acquiring a customer
3. A weekly blog is the most common frequency and is up in 2010 compared to 2009.

The take away for business owners and marketers. 

If you're looking to increase leads, remain competitive and decrease your cost per lead you have to:

1. Get started with a company blog, LinkedIn (B2B), Facebook (B2C) and Twitter (B2C and B2B)
2. Blog as often as you can, at least weekly

If you don't have the time, or you haven't seen results spend some money and hire an inbound marketing consultant to help you.

If you're interested in learning more about this research: The State of Inbound Marketing

This was a guest post from Stacie Chalmers an Inbound Marketing Consultant and HubSpot  partner. She has been involved with marketing since the dinosaur and has graduated from the Inbound Marketing University as a Certified Inbound Marketer. You can read her blogs at Stacie's Inbound Marketing Blog.  Originally from Australia, Stacie spent 2 years living in Maine before recently moving to the warmer climate of Florida. However she still maintains her support for Red Sox, Patriots and Bruins !

 

 

Part 3 of 5: How to Harness the Dynamic Power of Internet Marketing

 

Step 3: Implementing the Plan

Harnessing the herd without going over a cliff.

"If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute solving it." ~Albert Einstein 

Unfortunately for many business owners and marketers, this is the stage where they start. There is a distinction between strategy and tactic. Step 3 is all about the using the strategy as the guide book for the tactical.

Your investment in steps 1 and 2 will more than return to you in the  amount of time saved going back and forth with design, copy and functionality changes.

The implementation phase of your internet marketing is where you take the 'how' and turn it into the 'what'. With step 1, you have identified the influences your competition, business and industry have on your prospects as well as how they go about their search. In step 2, you have figured out how to navigate the landscape, tied it into your business goals, set the plan of action and figured out what you need to make it happen.

How to keep a clear head during your internet marketing implementation.

Purpose of Implementation

Well that seems rather obvious doesn't it? Or does it? Inbound marketing is a fundemental shift for marketers and business owners. It means that your prospects are voluntary participants in your sales process and studies have shown that they more likely to buy. Being in the right place, at the right time, with the right message has been made all that much easier with the internet.

The tactics you use for your inbound marketing is likely to be a combination of things, such as:

• Web Design & Development
  
• Search Engine Optimization
• Pay-per-Click Advertising 
• Social Media
• Email Marketing

Process for Implementation 

1-Identify the necessary elements of your persuasive copy. Taking what you know about your prospect's buying mode and your sales process, your goal here is to align your sales process with their buying process using all of the inbound marketing tactics available to you.

2-Create the mock-up. How does the layout come together visually? Elements to consider here are navigation (UI), branding, page titles (SEO), header graphics, etc. Each element should have a function and priority in the conversion process. By giving elements priority it is easy to decide which ones need the most emphasis and where they should belong on the page.

3- Design without color. I know of some designers who will spend weeks deciding on just the exact shade of blue to have the right emotional impact. That is fine, however at this stage you want to be able to look at the mock up to decide without emotional influence. If it looks good in black and white, it will be fantastic with color. This will make your design decisions easier and faster.

4-Add color. I leave this to my designer experts. It is an art and a science all of it's own. The right use of color should create consistancy and a positive emotional response.

5- Development. It's alive! Now begins the HTML development. (Again, something I leave to the experts!) Things to consider here are download time, compatibilty with multiple browsers, CSS that is compliant with Web standards and fonts that can be easily read on a screen.

6- Testing! Before your site or campaign goes live- test that links go where they should, forms work, copy is proof-read, etc. Even though a website will always be a work in progress, it doesn't hurt to put your best face forward.

By first creating a persuasive wireframe that lays out the processes that are fundemental to your business goals and to conversion, you create a structure that your designers and developers can work within and support.

Imagine cowboy Joe and how much time he would waste (and cattle going off a cliff) because he did not know the landscape, where the preditors lurk, or ended up on a route that was impassable. He just trotted out and followed all the other cowboy's paths, because they must know where they are going right?

Now imagine cowgirl Nellie with a GPS, topography map, and a heat sensor to see where animal activity is happening. Which one do you think is more likely to make it to their desitination (goal) safely, on time, and within budget? Does this mean that Nellie won't encounter issues and dangers? Of course not, but she is less likely to be overwhelmed by them, is able to keep her sanity and cool, and deal with issues  swiftly and decisively when they arise.

Does internet marketing overwhelm you? Do you feel like part of the herd headed straight for the cliff? Download the presentation I did with the Maine Marketing Association where we will talked more about how you can take the reigns of the internet for your business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Reasons to do a Keyword Analysis as part of your Internet Marketing

 

I was not sure where to start with this week's post- most of the time my posts are inspired either by questions clients ask me, questions clients should be asking me, or recent trends and topics that I have read elsewhere (that I either agree with or wonder ....what the heck are people thinking?). Since I did not know where to start, I made the very wise choice to start at the beginning!

One of the first steps to search engine optimization is a keyword analysis. For any search engine optimization or paid search campaigns, it is still an essential first step. In order to drive traffic to your site, you need to know how people are searching for your product or service. You need to use the words people use when they're searching (not the ones you use, your boss uses, your sales team uses- but the ones that your potential customers are using!)

How to use your key word analysis:

• Copy writing

Write relevant and compelling website copy by incorporating terms that people immediately identify with. Use the phrases in your keyword analysis to speak the same language as your customer, not the lingo of your industry. Don't limit it to your web copy, create a consistent message with your email copy, or print copy, or ad copy- you get the idea...

• Pay-Per-Click Campaigns (PPC)

Plan profitable pay-per-click campaigns by building up a broad range of
keyword phrases that will capture your market. There is no need for guesswork- develop your PPC strategy around your key word list and offer.

• Content Strategy and Management

Develop the content that directly addresses your customers' needs. Is there a large search volume surrounding particular phrases? Review your web site content to see how you address those needs and fill in the gaps.

• Customer Behavior Marketing

Understand your customers' behavior and concerns by analyzing the words that they use. Are their search terms more general, indicating that they are early in their buying process, or are they more specific? Are they searching on ‘how to' or ‘best' or ‘compare'? A keyword analysis gives you the clues you need to understand their motivations.

• Market Research

Measure the size of a potential online market by the number of searches conducted. Determine the competitive landscape by the number of occurrences that appear for the same key words.

• Business Expansion

Develop new revenue streams by using popular keywords to inspire new product
and service ideas. An example that comes to mind is the custom luxury home builder who asked me to set up their PPC campaigns for them. After finishing their key word analysis we found a large number of searches focused on custom home design. The builder wisely decided that in order to gain the building  contracts that they needed, they would need to have a designer or architect  on staff to bring people in.

Ok, I know the post title says 5, but I just could not leave out the last one.

And one more tip- a keyword analysis is not something you do once and then forget it. Ideally a key word analysis should be updated quarterly so that you can see where trends are going, see how volume has changed, and pick up on any new phrases that are emerging.

Whenever someone comes to me overwhelmed by all the components of internet marketing, this is where I tell them to start. A good key word analysis is the rock solid foundation of any successful internet marketing initiative.