Training Marketer

You created a Website to increase sales and enhance your business, and have been spending money promoting it all over the Web. Even with all the advertising dollars you spend, your Website could slowly be “leaking” those dollars away, drip by drip.

So, how do you protect your investment and make sure you’re getting the best out of your Website?

Bill Gadless at the B2B Web Strategy Blog shared five ways your Website could be losing you money. Here’s a quick summary of each:

1. You have an unclear, out of date message that could be “out of synch” with your brand. People will lose interest in your site and leave.

2. Your content is bland, unfocused and lacks important keywords. All lead to disinterest for both human visitors and search engine spiders.

3. Clear calls to action are missing. With no clear path to purchase, people will go to a different site where it’s easier to buy.

4. Your landing pages don’t compel the visitor to continue browsing your site or the offers are unappealing.

5. You’re unable to track sales from entry point through to the confirmation page. This critical data could be showing you where your site is falling short.

Take a look at all of these aspects of your Website and try to see where you need to patch up some leaks. Once a person clicks on an ad and lands on your site, it is up to you to keep them there and close the sale.

What makes a White Paper valuable? Jonathan Goodman of the HRmarketer.com blog recently asked that exact question (via LinkedIN Answers) in the “Hiring and Human Resources” category.

Answers rolled in, not all from HR professionals, but a variety of “industry folks” voicing their opinion on the topic.

Here are a few outstanding quotes:

“The value of vendor white papers to HR officials is inversely proportional to the amount of vendor promotion in the white paper.”

“The pros will be exaggerated and cons will be omitted. The bias never goes away in any white paper…I always feel that I am told half truth.”

“White Papers are only valuable if they contain information that is otherwise very hard to find.”

“I believe that, white paper[s] should never be written just for the sake of writing but always for the sake of answering somebody’s query or dilemma.”

You can read all of the answers on the LinkedIN Answers page.

The conclusion - most professionals read White Papers with skepticism, asking “What are they trying to sell me?” in the back of their minds. But, the responses also show that White Papers still hold communication value, especially on the Web.

Through experience, Goodman advises to take pride in everything you publish. He also reminds us that credibility is something we earn from our readers and their trust should never be taken advantage of.

A recent post on Velocity brings up a good point about most B2B technology copywriting - it’s boring.

Why is it boring?

• It’s written in passive voice.
• It’s full of industry jargon.
• It’s abstract instead of concrete.
• It’s all written in the third person.

“The best copywriting looks the prospect squarely in the eye and says, ‘I’m going to sell to you and you’re going to enjoy it.’”

Take some of your copywriting and try speaking to your customer in a way that they will listen - use the word “you.”

Speaking directly to your reader by using “you” creates copy that is engaging, more conversational and personal. While it may not be appropriate in all situations, it can help you target specific audiences and will help your readers hear a clearer, more direct message.

Test it out on some of your copy pieces. Write two versions, one in third person, the other in second (you). Then, let someone outside of your office read it, preferably someone who is completely unfamiliar with what you sell (for example, Mom or your teenage son). Tally up the votes and find out which version does better.

Copyblogger.com is a tactfully written blog focused on copywriting for online marketing success.

A post from last week gives some useful advice on how to keep your writing clear and direct. From product descriptions to landing page copy and everything in between, there are three “enemies” to stay away from when you write for the web.

1. Metadiscourse - a big word that means writing about writing. Examples include: “to sum up,” “I believe,” “note that,” and “I would like to point out.”

A sentence full of metadiscourse would look like this:

“I would like to point out that we should cancel the meeting.”

Get rid of the unnecessary words:

“Cancel the meeting.”

Get to the point, you don’t have to tell us that you’re pointing it out. You’re saying it, so we know it’s your opinion.

2. Redundancy - don’t use two words where you could just use one.

Examples: “Screaming loudly,” “past history”

3. Pretentious words - don’t try to impress us with “smart” sounding words. Say what you want to say, simply and clearly.

Examples of pretentious words and their better, simpler replacements:

Utilize = use
Comprehend = understand
Inexorable =  determined

Also, don’t forget who you’re speaking to. You wouldn’t use the same terminology for a product description when writing for a product vendor as you would a new customer on your website.

I’ve got to thank those gurus over at MarketingSherpa for sharing their tricks of the trade and some great copywriting tips. In a recent blog post, the author shares the wonder that is the ellipsis (you know “…”).

Especially on the web, people don’t read, they skim, catch a few words here and there, maybe read a sentence if you’re lucky.

This is why the bullet point list is so handy. You give the people what they want quickly in short lines.

But you can’t write up a landing page full of bullet points, which is when you can put some ellipses to use.

The art of getting a paragraph — or a long sentence — read is all about catching the eye. An ellipsis gives you five glorious letter-free spaces in the middle of the paragraph to grab the eye with. An example:

Acme’s widget helps you make more money … lower your costs … impress your boss … and keep your career going strong.

A word of caution - use your ellipses wisely. If you go too far it may start looking like you the period button got jammed on your keyboard.