Author Archives: Jodi Kaplan

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Five Secrets of Successful Copywriting

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If you want to get better results from your marketing, you’ll need better copywriting.

Here are examples of five copywritihg techniques that will help your ads, emails, and web copy shine.

1. Write a great headline

  • Use a number, such as 5 Steps to Building a Successful Business.
  • Promise secrets or inside tips to succeeding at a difficult task:The Secrets of Making Money in Real Estate.
  • Pose a question or make a bold statement that catches readers’ attention and delivers a benefit. Save 50% on Brand-Name Software!

2) Tell a story

Paint a picture with words. If you sell gourmet coffee, describe how Italians have prized it for centuries, and the way its dark and intensely satisfying aroma wafts through Roman coffeehouses.

3) Be specific

Use concrete details that will resonate with the people reading
your site.

For instance, instead of saying you help “small to medium
size businesses experiencing change…in search of ways to increase
the performance of employees and leadership”, say something like, “We
work with small software companies to establish clear employee career
paths and increase retention up to 45%.”

4) Speak directly to your readers

Say “you” or “your” instead of “they” or “our clients.” It’s more personal, and reinforces the idea that you understand your customers’ pain, and know how to stop it.  Or, address them based on something specific to your audience: ” An important message for women over 50.”

If it’s a letter or an email, you can even address them directly by name.

5) Use testimonials

Show how your customers have benefited from your products (the prestige, the money saved, the great haircut).

Here’s one I wrote for my hairdresser:

I have been going to Rossi Salon for over 20 years. It’s not near my apartment, but the few times I went elsewhere I deeply regretted it. The stylists at other salons seemed afraid to cut it.

After that, I realized that it’s worth the trip to Marie because I know that she’ll cut it properly, and it will look great. I can just wash and wear without any extra products, styling, or fussing.

It worked too.  The next time I went for a haircut, Marie mentioned that a new client mentioned that she booked an appointment after seeing my review.

Photo:  scfiasco

Five Web Rules You Should Never Break

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Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/djbrady/1205847589/

I call these Jodi’s rules of web site safety and backup. They’re lessons many of my clients have learned the hard way. Ignoring them can be expensive, time consuming, and truly aggravating.

Own  your own code.

If you use a designer, get a copy of all the files, graphics, forms and other materials that make your Web site work.  If you have a disagreement or the designer leaves town, you will still have everything you need to manage your site.

Try to avoid templates created by your web host. If you want to change hosts, you’ll lose your Web design!.

Make certain everything on your site is transferable if you need to move it elsewhere.

Own your own domain name.

Register your site name in your own name; not your web master’s, and not your designer’s.  Same reasons as rule number one apply.

Make regular backups

Backup, backup, backup! Your host may do this for you, but even if they do it’s a good idea to do it yourself.  You can use a plugin for this (I use Updraft). Set it to backup automatically, both to your current site and to offsite storage (like Dropbox).  Leave multiple copies in both places.  Check periodically to make sure the backup was successfully completed. Don’t ask me how I know this.

Pay your vendors based on milestones, not all at once.

Set up a schedule for payments, generally an initial payment to start, a second payment on completion of a draft (or initial set of designs), and a third payment on acceptance of final copy or completed design.

Use a different host and registrar

The company you pay to display your site on the web is the host.  The registrar is the company that you pay for the actual domain name.  Many companies will do both.  It’s a good idea to keep them separate (just in case there’s a dispute).

The Elephant and the Marketing Plan

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Jennifer on LinkedIn wanted to know if it was worth a large investment of money to redo her web site. She’s an interior designer and isn’t happy with the way her site currently looks. She got lots of answers.

Some advised her to concentrate on search engine optimization (because graphics don’t matter as much as marketing strategy), others recommended she insist on a content management system (an MS Word like interface that makes it easy for a non-technical person to change the site’s content).

I’ve heard others in similar situations insist that words don’t matter because nobody reads.

The graphic designer focuses on the design, the wordsmith on content, and the SEO expert on optimization.

It’s like the old folk tale about the blind men and the elephant. One touched the elephant’s side, and declared the elephant to be like a wall. A second felt the tusk and said, no the elephant is a spear. A third, holding the trunk, insisted the elephant was like a snake.

The truth is that the elephant, and the Web site, are all of those things: side, tusk, trunk, words, design, marketing strategy, and traffic.

A web site with poor design, that’s hard to use, or read will not be successful. A site with poor wording will not convince anyone to buy; one with no traffic (or the wrong traffic) will not make sales if nobody sees it.

The design, the colors, the layout, the traffic, the marketing strategy (her points of difference, her story, her call to action) must all work together. Without legs the elephant will fall. With no trunk, it can’t eat.

With no marketing strategy or poor traffic, the web site will founder. Take away any single one, and the whole thing fails. Look at the whole elephant (and the whole site), not just pieces.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/spisharam/2370577213/

Is Advertising Broken?

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Chris Brogan argues that it is.

As the comments on his blog noted, the traditional advertising ad in The New York Times is an “all about me” (the advertiser) message. Not much of a conversation. They present the news (and the ads) and we read them (or not).

However, the Times’s slumping ad sales proves that the old big media/advertising model of talking and interrupting, the idea that the audience has to listen because the advertiser said so, is broken.

Instead, even large companies are starting conversations, monitoring their brand on Twitter and other social networking sites, and taking positive steps to help customers solve their problems. For example, Comcast’s Frank Eliason monitors Twitter. When he sees a customer complaining about a poor phone experience, a modem that won’t work, or a billing problem. He responds with offers of help, tips on how to reboot the modem, and technicians if needed. He’ll send direct messages, call customers, and give a friendly, helpful, human face to a big corporation.

(Imagine if AT&T or Verizon did that…)

Faced with a whole brave new world of reading options, declining book sales, and the Internet, HarperStudio came up with creative ways to build a following. They’re encouraging authors to start blogging after the book is acquired, showing them how to use Twitter, myspace, facebook, and stumbleupon. Authors are given flip cameras to create video stories about their books. Fans can watch the videos, send them to friends, and “stumble” the links.

Other book sites, such as librarything, offer ARCs to devoted readers, or first notice of new books to fans, with authors joining in on discussion groups. Same thing with musicians, who must now make the music part of a larger experience with blogs, souvenirs, special editions, etc.

What are you doing to build a “tribe” of loyal followers and fix the broken old advertising model? Share your stories here.

Photo: jpcurio

The Best Time to Invest in Customer Service

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The demise last year of BlueSky, a company that specialized in fulfilling orders placed from the catalogs of non-profits, left many people thinking that the nonprofits had ripped them off. Customers were left with cashed checks, credit card charges — and no merchandise.

It’s a customer service and public relations disaster, particularly since many of the organizations affected didn’t have any of the order information and couldn’t tell who’s missing what.

According to DM News (4/9/08) Winterthur [the decorative arts museum in Delaware], “… refused to take any responsibility for orders placed with catalogs sporting its name and logo left unfulfilled by BlueSky.”

“ ‘Winterthur is not responsible for resolving issues related to the operations or outstanding orders of BlueSky Brands and does not have information on the orders that have been placed,” the company said in a statement on its site. “Credit card issuers may be able to assist in resolving billing disputes with BlueSky Brands for those orders paid for by credit card.’ ”

On the other hand, The National Wildlife Federation reacted by collecting inquiries, sorting them and working on developing a plan to manage them; the Smithsonian posted a Q&A on its site.

The best time to invest in customer service is before something like this happens. Have policies in place that encourage your reps to go out of their way to help customers: check on which store still has a particular book in stock, or where they can find their favorite flavor of your pasta sauce. The second best time is after something like this happens. Instead of washing your hands and walking away, try to negotiate on your customers’ behalf with your vendors, investigate what happened, and do your best to make it right.

Photo: brycej