The Confident Copywriter

The Twittersphere was aflutter this week as Bueda (a web startup utilizing research from Carnegie Mellon University) released its new social media marketing (SMM) tool, Five. Designed to help small businesses utilize behavioral targeting and semantics for more targeted SMM, Bueda claims it can “match” you with prospects, stating that early testing of Five shows a 90 percent click-through rate by targeted consumers. The website states, “Five is a smarter social promotion tool that can accomplish 5 hours worth of promotion in 5 minutes.”

What Is It?

Essentially, Five relies on a ‘semantics-based’ search engine (semantics is the study of meaning in language). Programmed to decipher the meanings and relationships between terms, Bueda understands, for example, that if you type in ‘health insurance’ and someone else types in ‘medical policy’, you’re both searching the same topic.

This is very similar to the latent semantic indexing method we discussed here on the Confident Copywriter back in June. It is also very similar to the software recently launched by one of my clients, Ucquence (“Uncover the sequence of keywords that convert.”)

5 Steps to Getting Started on Five:

• Go to www.FiveByBueda.com and register.
• Authorize your Twitter account.
• You will be directed to your first campaign.
• Type in the URL of your website or the site you want to promote (customize tags and add advanced options if you like)
• Wait. Five will start working immediately and send 5 leads to your inbox, in less than five minutes.

Does It Work?

Five can deliver qualified leads, but leads nonetheless – you’ll have to “cold-call” those leads using good, old-fashioned engagement on Twitter – (for now anyway –Bueda hopes to expand to other social networking sites in the near future.)

Five sounds ideal, serving up five leads per day per campaign, for free (10 leads and multiple campaigns are available for $50 a month). But semantics is not an exact science. A mention on Twitter doesn’t necessarily equal a hot lead.

So, while we wait to see what comes of this new tool, let’s agree that Bueda’s Five is a smart way to touch like-minded people. And, maybe, uncover some great leads. Best of all, it costs nothing to find out.

Will you use Bueda’s Five to find prospects? Or is this just another (ho-hum) toy-of-the-moment?

Have you heard, “There is no way to measure social media”?

Are you buying it?

When a client tells me there is no way to measure their social media efforts, I hear something completely different.

A less experienced client may be saying, “I don’t know how to measure social media.”
A more sophisticated client may be saying, “I have the data, but no clue as to what it all means.”
A client who feels overwhelmed may mean, “I don’t have time to do an analysis.”
And finally, the client who fears failure may fear that measuring real data will reveal his or her own ineffectiveness.

We all have our reasons. But are these reasons simply excuses?

The popularity and importance of social media rages on and, very soon, you’ll have to know how to measure your social media efforts to survive as an online business. No longer can we hide behind ignorance, lack of tools, lack of time, or fear of shining a light on our own weaknesses.

In her blog post, 13 Truths About Social Media Measurement, Amber Nausland states, “Measurement is not the goal. The goal is to derive insights that teach you something of value, and then act on them. Measurement is a waystation, a path, but is not the goal in itself. You don’t get a cookie for measuring…. the analysis is what yields direction, plans, action steps, you name it. You START with the data. You need to end up with a course of action, or the act of measuring (and all the time you spent doing it) is wasted. But make no mistake, folks, basic social media measurement isn’t someone else’s responsibility to sort out for us. And waiting for the manual is simply burning time and money.”

Clients often ask me, “How do I know I’ll see any ROI from this social media program?”

Apparently, ROI has become an incorrectly applied buzzword. Like social media, ROI is not the problem. ROI is a result of doing everything right beforehand. All the fancy tools in the world will not build you a yellow brick road to the Emerald City. Measurement is a process, a long term discipline. Your goal is not measurement for measurement’s sake, but to learn something from those measurements.

So let’s stop the excuses. Let’s stop obsessing over tracking. Let’s stop gathering data for the heck of it.

In place of these bad habits, let’s start truly connecting. Let’s begin measuring actions in terms of their ability to help us reach our goals. And while we’re at it, let’s hunker down and do the hard stuff, like planning, creating a Social Media Calendar, and laying a real foundation for success.

Most of all, let’s stop believing social media is about sales and start believing it’s about the experiences and conversations that lead to sales. Only then can we begin to truly measure our efforts.

SeeWhy, a company providing conversion management software, conducted a survey of 476 online marketers in June, to uncover whether this group plans to add the Facebook Like button to their websites, or perhaps had already implemented the button.

68% of survey respondents said they have or plan to add the button to their websites. SeeWhy Founder and CSO Charles Nicholls explains, “It’s one line of HTML code that can be applied to any web page. Retailers have no reason not to do it—especially since it’s free.”

Since the survey was conducted, 15% of respondents have implemented the feature, while 18% plan to add the button in the near future.

Why are merchants excited about the possibilities for this little button?

Nicholls believes online marketers easily recognize the traffic-driving and marketing opportunities of such a feature. Additionally, after the consumer logs on to the website, the merchant can track the consumer’s activity, creating an additional opportunity to remarket to that consumer via email campaigns. This will also help merchants recover some of the abandoned shopping cart activity…perhaps as much as 15% of that activity.

Because Facebook claims consumers are three times more likely to log in to a website using the Log in with Facebook button, this offers another way for merchants to get the most out of Facebook plugins.

This may amount to a hill of beans if you use Facebook to say hi to friends. For online marketers, merchants, retailers…it may be a goldmine.

Your thoughts?

You know by now that a strong website and a good social media campaign must be part of your overall marketing strategy. But social media is only a marketing tool. Your website is another. Both are useful, but offer different ways to reach your audience. Spend an inordinate amount of time on one and ignore the other, and you may simply spin your wheels.

Why? Because engagement is about more than connecting. It’s about value. Generally speaking, social media engages. This drives people to your web site. Once they land, you’ve got to keep them there. This requires knowing your clients: their needs, their desires, their pain… then providing the valuable content, services and products to help them succeed easier and faster.

Is your website your most important marketing tool? No. How about your social media campaign? Wrong again.

The most effective marketing tool you have is the engaged consumer! A ‘fan’ of your products or services will increase your profits and your reputation by purchasing your goods, telling others, returning to buy more, writing a testimonial, referring new business, recommending you online…the benefits are endless and far reaching. Sometimes though, we spend so much time focusing on the tool, we forget that what we’re really after is the hearts and minds of people.

Try These Five Ways to Engage People

Capture Attention: activities, stories, quizzes, games, videos, polls, surveys, opinions, and questionnaires are all ways to get people involved.
Add social networking buttons: Install social networking buttons on your website in proximity to interesting content, and in a sidebar, so users can quickly and easily promote the content in their own social circles, without leaving your site.

Think Beyond Facebook: The Big 3 (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter) are not the only places to jumpstart engagement. In fact, some people have been turned off to one or more of these three sites, which automatically limits your ability to engage them. Try other sites like Flickr and YouTube. Or go AWOL for a week and try lesser known sites, like Mixx or SocialMediaLink. You may even want to try creating your own radio show at BlogTalk Radio.

Pick Up the Phone: Remember the telephone? It’s still a fantastic way of engaging prospects and clients. What’s better than a friendly phone chat to get the wheels rolling?

Thank You Cards: I never forget those who take the time to send me a handwritten note. On the “Warm” scale, it’s right at the top. People don’t mail cards and letters much today, especially not to simply say “thank you.” It’s a very impressive way to engage people, and at 46 cents (the new price in January), it’s a super cost effective way to show you care. Try SendOut Cards for a nice alternative.

Engagement takes many forms. Certainly, social media and websites are biggies. Just don’t forget…they are only tools on the path to success.

In what creative ways do you engage others, beyond The Big 3?

The tweets are flying about a brand new social media parody website, created by Mike Phillips, a social media marketing guy.

Social media marketing firms have proliferated. The general consensus is that social media marketing firms have figured out how to tap companies who don’t understand or have time to implement social media campaigns; then they sell various solutions to fill those marketing gaps. Nothing inherently wrong with this model. However, the result is numerous social media companies all vying for the ultimate tagline to describe the services they actually provide. And the result of that often is…well…jargon. Corporatese. Double speak.

Mike Phillips recognized this trend, and developed his site, “What the F— is My Social Media Strategy?” The tagline? “Making it up, so you don’t have to.”

Based on two columns of words –one sales-y nouns, and the other sales-y verbs-you simply click and enjoy the nearly-real descriptions of what social media marketing is or does.

It’s a real hoot! You should try it. I especially like this one: “Increase organic growth by exposing audiences to the brand through breakthrough viral communications”

It’s good to laugh at ourselves. But Phillips’ site also points out something else:

Haven’t we all seen this type of language on real websites and said “Huh?” It’s time for copywriters, and the businesses they serve, to recognize that more words…more complex words…more ‘college’ words…won’t sell more product.

Remember that 90s principle, K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid)? As copywriters, this should be our goal. When the client balks at the simplicity of your copy, remind him or her: a copywriter is a “person employed to write advertising or publicity copy”, not jargon-filled dreck. Complicated words are why millions of people have never learned how to program their VCRs.

I’d like to hold Bob Bly up as a great example of simple writing. When I first began my copywriting career, I couldn’t understand why everyone thought Bob was so great. His website was super simple. His writing samples showed none of the creativity Mad Men has taught us to expect. Only after my skills matured did I see that Bob’s writing style is classic copywriting: simple, to the point, interesting, thought-provoking, but not especially flowery or verbose.

Swedish information designer Pär Almqvist writes in his book, Fragments of Time, “A modern paradox is that it’s simpler to create complex interfaces because it’s so complex to simplify them.”

Something all of us should consider as we work to simply clients’ brand messages in an increasingly complex world.

Wikipedia defines sales as “… the pinnacle activity involved in selling products or services in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity.”

Do you confront rather than consult with your clients? If so, it may be why you need more and more ‘sales’.
What qualities should you think about when approaching a potential customer?

First, take money off the table. This is the worst way to approach business. I understand it’s difficult to ignore that big stack of unpaid bills. I’ve got them too. But customers don’t buy desperation. Instead, think of customers as new friends who need help solving a problem.

If you saw someone on the side of the road with a flat tire, would you jump out and start listing the top 5 steps to changing a tire, or mention the 3 closest tire warehouses, or begin lecturing the poor chap on how to avoid a flat tire in the first place? Of course not. You’d probably open up with, “Hey, buddy, do you need help?”

Buddy? You don’t know this person. Why the friendly approach? Because you want to help, and you want him to know you’re sincere. So you treat him like a friend. In fact, as you’re helping to fix the tire, you might converse with this stranger. You may discover who he is, where he is going, who’s waiting for him to arrive…all kinds of useful information. Why don’t we do this more often with prospects and customers?

Yes, killer copy is important. We hear it repeatedly every day. Yes, the right pricing is key. Managing your time is crucial. Marketing yourself if imperative. We’ll all go extinct without SEO or social media. But before any of that begins to count, we must focus on the personal exchange of information. Don’t assume you know what your client needs. Share, give advice, offer real-life examples to demonstrate your problem solving skills. Respect the person at the other end of that email string or phone call, and help in any way you can.

Going back to Part I of this discussion, many service business owners shun any idea of ‘sales’. They feel awkward. They don’t like talking about fees, or asking for money. They are not sure how to approach the issue and fear offending the client. Usually, this is because people perceive the sales process as a battlefield…a power struggle, if you will. What I call Car Lot Syndrome.

It doesn’t have to be when you view yourself, not as a salesperson selling a product or service, but a friendly neighbor stopping to help a stranger who’s just had an unfortunate blowout.

Your prospect needs a problem solved. You’re thinking about money. Snap out of it! Find common ground. Find a solution for this prospect, and you will find yourself with a sale.

Have you ever tried to persuade a child to give up his lollipop? Selling to prospects can be like that.

Especially in our challenged economy, businesses are ever more vigilant about spending. That means you must become that much more creative about selling your services.

What does it feel like to be over-persuaded? Well…uncomfortable. Cornered. Irritated. Worst of all, you’re probably unlikely to do business with that person.

I know “sales” is a dirty word for many copywriters. “I’m not a sales person.” “I don’t like to sell.” “I don’t like forcing people to listen to me.”

Wow. Selling sure has gotten a dirty rap over the years. Actually, from the moment you were born, you’ve been selling. When you cried to be changed or fed, yelled for Mom when you skinned your knee, or begged for permission to use the car, you were using your best skills to persuade someone else to see things your way.

You’re probably much better at persuasion and negotiations than you think you are. But today it’s not about selling. Sure, your ultimate goal is to do business. It’s just that whacking prospects over the head won’t get you there.

Matt Heinz, founder of Heinz Marketing and author of Successful Selling: How to Attract, Manage, Close and Keep More Business in a Buyer-Centric World agrees the B2B sales process has changed dramatically. Today, there is no “sales and Marketing Department” per se. Heinz says, “Everyone shares in the role of growing a business, based on a client-centric approach.”

And the best way to be “client-centric? “By helping the client calculate the cost of his or her problem.”

Heinz continues, “Take their problem and ask them questions to identify and quantify the problem in a way they might not have been able to do themselves. Too often when they can’t do that, they find the easiest thing that they can understand, which is price. And you don’t want to have to compete on price.”

You see, in sales, there are no magic words. If there were, I probably wouldn’t be writing this blog post.

Sure, we’d all love to know how to get every client to buy from us every time. But like that child with the lollipop, it’s not so easy, once the buyer’s mind is made up.

According to Heinz, the mistake many of us make is that we try to sell robotically to people who are…well…not robots.

Take cold calling, for example. There we sit, staring at a list of names and phone numbers titled “Prospect List”.

Immediately, the human aspect is removed. That prospect is simply an anonymous name attached to an email.

So here’s the kicker: You, me and the other guy are all unique in terms of what makes us purchase. Stop selling “out of a can”. Humanize your prospects. Don’t sell; consult and advise. You may not get a sale on the first call, but you will enhance the relationship.

Part II coming up Thursday. In the meantime, what positive tips can you share about ‘selling’ services in a weak economy?

Recently I’ve been asked more than once to explain why I use The Confident Copywriter to talk about topics that don’t seem to have much to do with writing copy. There is a method to my madness, and it is this:

Copywriting has changed completely in just the last few years. Today, it’s not enough to know how to string compelling words together on a page. The best copywriters grasp the latest technologies and techniques, including social media marketing. They know how to seek prospects, close the deal, get referrals, and stay busy.

Let’s face it— social media is where it’s at. This is where you’ll find prospects, customers, vendors, competitors, partners…and if you have ignored the task of getting up to speed on social media because you believe it doesn’t apply to you as a copywriter, I promise…you will get left behind.

If you are a successful copywriter, meaning you have enough loyal clients willing to pay your rates, a nice amount of referrals coming in, slightly more work than you can handle, a growing email list and so forth, I applaud you. It ain’t easy today by any means.

But you are not the norm. I talk with copywriters all day, via email, Skype and my 30/30 Coaching program. Copywriters often express the same ‘wants’. They want more work. They want higher pay. They want pricing that reels in customers but makes them happy to be doing the work. They want time in their day to accomplish their goals. They want to understand the myriad marketing choices laid out before them.

Rather than regurgitate the same old rhetoric, I’ve taken this approach over the years: The more you know, the more you can educate your client, thereby becoming a trusted advisor, their ‘go to’ person, rather than “that copywriter”. This is the idea behind this blog as well. It’s up to you to read the information and put your brain to work figuring out how to profit from it.

For example, did you realize mobile marketing opens up a nice opportunity for copywriters who prefer to write short, advertising copy? Those 160+ (and quickly counting) merchants currently using mobile marketing need the right words to entice buyers via this new medium. So will the millions that follow. Mobile marketing is no fluke. It’s growing faster than the Starbucks line on Free Frappucino Day.

Did you know social media…in particular, LinkedIn…opens up a world of copywriting possibilities? Millions of profiles, and no one to help members stand out using just the right words…

Even Twitter holds opportunity…have you checked out all the job listings for freelance copywriters lately? It’s like craigslist when it was fresh and new!

Perhaps most importantly, did you know the fate of your future business rests on how much people like you? What better tool to get ‘popular’ (maybe even famous!), reach out to others, prove your value, and help others, than social media!

All the tools for success are in front of you, many of them at your favorite price…FREE. Next time you hear yourself saying, “But I can’t…”, or “I don’t know how…” or even, “I can’t afford…”, stop! You can. You will find out how. You can afford to do the things you want to grow your business, because the truth is, you can’t afford not to. Not if success is your main objective.

So, the next time you visit The Confident Copywriter and find a post on social media, mobile marketing, semantic indexing, SEO, or other topics that seem irrelevant at first glance, take a few minutes to read the post through. You may just stumble right into the lap of new business.

Tell me…in the past week or so, what new tool have you used, or what new task have you accomplished, that surprised you or helped you get new business unexpectedly?

In Part I of this topic, we learned mobile marketing is growing in popularity, as more consumers purchase 3G-enabled smartphones.

Does this new technology apply to you or your business? Let’s see.

Dan Butcher, associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily and himself a mobile marketer, recently referred to an important survey conducted by PriceGrabber, a Experian-owned, Los Angeles-based online shopping site boasting more than 11,000 merchants and 23 million+ unique shoppers monthly. The survey polled 2,445 online consumers from March 26 to April 12, 2010, focusing on smartphone shopping behavior, specifically the increase in consumer mobile shopping (especially purchases of digital content and consumer electronics).

Mobile purchases have seen a steady increase since 2009. Over the past year, ownership of 3G-compatible Web-enabled phones shot from 48 percent to 64 percent. Fifty-three percent of online consumers own a ‘smartphone’. Twenty-two percent indicated they planned to purchase from their mobile device in the next 12 months.

And what are all these people buying?

• Consumer electronics: 57%
• Ringtones: 61%
• Books: 42%
• Clothing: 34%
• Jewelry: 16%

Hey! Just like a day at the mall, sans wasted gas, traffic, angry shoppers, screaming babies, rude salespeople….this mobile marketing thing may just catch on after all!
What else are people doing with their smartphones?

• Checking prices…22%…compared with 16% in 2009
• Researching products…21%…compared with 16% in 2009
• Browse for products…compared to 14% in 2009

Barbary Brunner, PriceGrabber’s chief marketing officer, explains the trend, “Because mobile is an anywhere/anytime device it can enable a brand or retailer to connect with consumers at their moment of greatest interest or need and is most meaningful for the retailer. Mobile devices reduce the gap between the virtual and the physical world, allowing for greater efficiency for and value to both the purchaser and the seller.

Consumers are not only researching products, they are also making purchases and comparing prices. When purchasing from a mobile device, consumers currently favor digital content like apps and ringtones, as well as consumer electronics. By providing all the tools and information that consumers need to make purchases in a format that is easily consumed on mobile devices, retailers can drive more in-store traffic and ultimately increase sales.”

In today’s blink-and-you-missed-it marketplace, businesses of all types seek groundbreaking methods for building consumer relationships. Yet, the very speed of business chops the typical merchant/consumer dialogue to bits. By time the buyer shows up, credit card in hand, they’ve already done the legwork to reach a buying decision…and the merchant often loses the powerful opportunity to influence that buying decision. Technology like mobile marketing restores some of this two-way transparency.

As more mobile applications are brought to the marketplace, consumers with smartphones will continue to scout out the best deals ‘over the phone’ in greater numbers, ultimately transforming how we research, evaluate and purchase the items we want and need.

Is mobile marketing in your future, either as a merchant or a consumer?

Mobile commerce. Mobile marketing. Have you heard these terms? What’s the difference between the two?

Mobile Commerce, also called M-Commerce, mCommerce or U-Commerce, allows merchants to sell products and services via mobile devices.

Mobile marketing is “The systematic planning, implementing and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products where the primary point of contact with the consumer is via their mobile device.”

What a mouthful! Basically, mobile marketing is ‘marketing to consumers via their mobile devices.’

And what qualifies as a mobile device? A cell phone, PDA, smartphone, dashtop mobile device, and so forth.

So mobile commerce is the platform; mobile marketing is the implementation plan.

Internet Retailer recently published some interesting mobile marketing statistics:

“Today more than 160 web merchants of all sizes engage in mobile commerce…”

Jamba Juice, JC Penney, Wendy’s, Chick-Fil-A, and other names you’d recognize have jumped on the mobile marketing bandwagon… many are currently testing coupon programs mobile users opt-in to receive.

“…and that number could mushroom within weeks to more than 700 retailers and consumer brand manufacturers based on recent deployment initiatives from Shopatron and other m-commerce platform developers. “

Mobile commerce isn’t exactly new. The idea has been kicked around for a few years. But the recent popularity of geolocation software (Think Foursquare for Starbucks) has merchants thinking differently about how to reach their target audiences. You thought social media took the digital world by storm? Mobile marketing is going to be BIG.

…”And consumers like using their web-enabled iPhones and other devices to shop online—every month from February through April 2010, 7.3 million mobile phone users accessed m-commerce sites, up 46% from the prior year, says web measurement firm comScore Inc..”

Another publication, DM News, concurs: “At the end of 2009, the number of mobile subscribers had grown to 280 million, reaching 87% of U.S. households. The availability of unlimited data and text messaging plans has pushed consumer mobile usage beyond voice to text messaging and Internet access.”

It seems mobile marketing quietly rose through the ranks and is now hurtling forward. I’m curious…did you buy anything using your cell phone in the last few months? I didn’t think I did, until I remembered that one application I purchased for $1.99. Oh, and once I was in a rush and bought movie tickets. Then there was the music I downloaded. Oops! Guess I did.

Part II, coming up, will look more deeply into this topic.

In the meantime, feel free to weigh in on these questions:

• Do you find these numbers surprising?
• Do you think mobile commerce is a good purchasing option for you?
• Ultimately, will we have a choice? (Some industry ‘experts’ are predicting billions of people will shop via their mobile devices by 2014.)
• Does the thought of grasping yet another new marketing technology bother you…or excite you?