The Confident Copywriter

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?

Well, someone has finally done it…taken the old concept of bartering, combined it with the new concept of social media marketing, and created a brand-new value for the common Tweet.

Leif Abraham, a New York marketer who co-founded “Pay with a Tweet” with Christian Behrendt, tells us, “In general all content creators and marketers want to create buzz for themselves, their brand, product or service. [Pay with a Tweet] is perfect to create a quick buzz around you, your service and your products.”

Officially launched about three weeks ago, Pay with a Tweet allows you to pay for items like a downloaded paper, retail goods, a song, by exchanging the item for a Twitter message. The idea is to use word of mouth marketing to generate buzz for the item, effectively promoting the brand, artist, or retailer.

Abraham and Behrendt envision a platform where online retailers can sell product samples and offer discounts to customers willing to tweet about the product. To benefit, retailers would register on the website and receive a button to embed on their own websites. The merchant can post the message they want ‘buyers’ to tweet so one exact brand message goes out over the digital airwaves. Additionally, the merchant can attach a noneditable URL directing consumers to the merchant’s website. Tweeters may, however, add brief personal comments to the merchant’s message.

Sounds interesting so far? What is less clear is whether any merchants have registered for Pay with a Tweet, or specifically where revenue originates. Still, it’s good to see creativity is alive and well. Only time will tell if this is a concept that catches on with the buying public.

Your thoughts?

The website, www.endtoendtechprojects.com recently reported Facebook growth seems to have stagnated. Only 320,800 new users came on board last month, after a growth spurt that grew the network to 7.8 million new active U.S. users in May and created a 41.1% market penetration.

Facebook claims 125,000,000 active U.S. users.

Inside Facebook Gold, a Facebook data and analysis service, believes it is common for networks like Facebook to reach a saturation point where growth slows or stops.

Could it be the privacy scare of just a few months ago that had users shutting their accounts down in record numbers? The San Francisco Chronicle reports there is too little data to analyze this issue yet.

Could it be a seasonal thing? Many of us see declines in business over the summer months, as people take vacations and sometimes put more thought into barbeques than business.

Or has saturation truly occurred?

According to reports, Facebook has been expecting this to happen. In recent months, they’ve focused on attracting older users, with less attention being given to younger users. Perhaps the ‘younguns’ think Facebook is old hat. Perhaps the older users aren’t rockin’ the network in quite the same way, or this could simply be growing pains as Facebook morphs.

Another reason for the decline could be attributed to games like Mafia Wars, Pet Society and Farmville. CNET writes that, while these games can be addictive, they are generally fads that burn bright and then fade away. (I mean, who really has time to play games?) As well, some game platforms are building their own networks. For the truly addicted, this may be affecting Facebook’s overall numbers by driving traffic away.

For me, the jury is still out. What do you think?

So we all know about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube as great tools for digital marketing. What other options do you have? Plenty.

Here’s just a few:

MailChimp: A free e-mail marketing service that allows you to generate HTML coded e-mails and send them to large mailing lists. Provides analytics like click through and open rates.

Google AdWords: A fee-based service lets you select and bid on specific keywords to guide targeted customers to you.

Prezi: So cool! A free online program for creating interesting and engaging…even animated… presentations. Blows PowerPoint away.

Twello: Free yellow pages for twitter accounts. Search public accounts by category.

Authority Labs: tracks your website’s search engine positioning. Are you # 10, or #1000? Find out with Authority Labs. Free 30-day trial; no credit card required.

UserVoice: a feedback tool for tracking and managing what users and customers are saying about your brand. A great tool for measuring public opinion about your mobile app. Users can vote on ideas from other users, helping you leverage useful suggestions from those using your tool or service.

Grasshopper: Virtual phone system. Callers reach you wherever you are; no hardware required. Enjoy your own toll-free or local number, plug in virtual employees, forward your calls, get your voicemails over email, and lots more – starting at just $9.95 a month. RingCentral is another similar system I personally use.

Social media networking is changing daily. New resources are constantly added to help us all keep up. Stay on your toes with these truly cool tools!

Social media ‘measurement’ isn’t everything. (There. I said it.) If you’re a big company with a big marketing budget, there are some terrific tools available. However, if you’re a solopreneur and somewhat new to social media, your own good sense is the best place to begin. Why? Because when you’re just starting out, ROI is not the issue. Engagement is the issue. All the tools in the world aren’t going to help you until you learn how to engage.

Let’ say you send out 100 LinkedIn invites and most of those people connect with you. Great! You’re in the game. Your next step is to look for synergies… connections offering products and services complementary to your business. This is crucial: don’t simply connect with hundreds or thousands of people. Connect with collegial (friends, coworkers) or complementary organizations. And really connect! Engage with people; ask questions; share information; seek out ways to work together. Along the way, you’ll connect with many who don’t fit either category, but that’s ok….because those connections can open the door for future referral opportunities. It’s important to be selective, but don’t fall into paranoia… you never know where some connections might lead. My advice here is to lighten up a bit and don’t be overly rigid about the ‘value’ of every single connection.

Once you’ve gone thru this process several times, you’ll get a feel for it. Taking 20 minutes or so out of each day to focus on your social media efforts will actually become fun…the upside being that you’ll want to engage even more.

Here’s where your ‘good sense’ measurement comes into play: your activities are sure to spark responses. Consider briefly tracking those responses in a simple spreadsheet, perhaps for a week or two. Be precise and track everything, or simply track the meaningful responses; particularly, any that sound like warm or hot leads. I did this and I was surprised to see how many meaningful connections I was actually making over the course of a week. In the early stages, this is an excellent and easy form of measurement.

Here’s my point: It’s not about tracking. It’s about connecting your actions to your progress. The only tool you need to get started is right between your ears. If social media marketing works for you (you enjoy the process, you’re meeting great people, getting leads, referrals, etc.) you’re doing it right. Keep doing it! Later on, you can worry about formal measurement tactics.

If you’re feeling confused about social media, wait till we start talking about mobile marketing!

If you are a small business struggling to get noticed, you don’t need me to tell you things are tight- money, resources, even your pleasant demeanor may be stretched to the limits some days.

So no wonder you flinch when the conversation turns to marketing costs and ROI! With limited resources, you’ve got to put your pennies where they will do the most good. It seems there is always more outgoing than incoming, no matter what you choose to do.

Although you probably know I’m a huge promoter of social media, much of what you can do with these innovative tools costs only your time. So what’s the one big area that might cost you money…but which you should never overlook?

Your website.

Brooke Howell, small business editor for SmartBrief, relays that 75% of all web users admit to judging websites based on innocuous items, such as too many third-party ads, PPC advertising, poor navigation, colors or fonts that are hard on the eyes, and little to no background information about the company behind the website.
That 75% represents a potentially rampant bounce rate…and you may be completely unaware why this is happening to you.

So here’s the thing: When you scrimp on your website, it shows. People want to feel safe when shopping online. They want various elements of a typical website to be as they expect: for example, your phone number prominently displayed in the upper right corner, or your privacy policy clearly accessible within the site’s bottom navigation. While you do want to be creative enough to allow your brand personality to shine through, don’t get carried away with the bells and whistles. This is where most merchants lose their shirts…all those shiny objects can be so tempting!

Look at Google, for example. Nothing fancy there in terms of design. What does that tell you? Remember when Google introduced screen-sized front page photos? The outrage was stronger than spring at a horse farm.

When you plan your website, think simple. Think intuitive. Think easy. Sure, some of those ‘simple’ items can actually be costly. But at least you know your money is going towards something that will bring a return. When people are comfortable on your website, they’ll stay longer, come back again, tell their friends, and generally become your willing sales force…now that’s what I call an ROI worth working for!

Your online business may be international, or you may be supplementing the family budget.

You may work from a corporate office, or from home while caring for a busy family.

You may have employees, or work alone.

A few short years ago, this would have mattered, but today, it doesn’t.

The Internet has transformed marketing, communicating, and purchasing…completely.

No matter where you work, the lifestyle you live or your business goals, you must:

• Remain marketable and competitive via the Internet…
• Leverage the power of the web to reach out and engage you’re your customers
• Find affordable and effective ways to target your audience
• Engage, engage, engage!

I’ve dubbed this entire four-step cycle “Coax, Capture, Convert & Crush!”

When you put on your marketing hat, your job becomes:

1. Coaxing traffic to your website
2. Capturing traffic to turn into leads
3. Converting those leads into customers
4. Crushing your competition, optimizing your site with tools like Google Analytics to understand and adapt to buyer behavior

No matter what products you sell…which services you provide…how much or little you spend…where you live…what your marketing budget is…what accreditations you enjoy…

If you are going to sell online, you must achieve these four goals.

Old marketing techniques captured a broad audience, then prayed for a good response. Tradeshows, telemarketing, teams of salespeople, and print advertising ruled. If your promo saw a 3% response, this was healthy. But what about the other 97% of the market? Today it’s more about inbound tactics. The Internet has drastically changed how people shop. People want information, and they get it, through Google, websites, SEO, PPC, blogging, landing pages, and other marketing tactics. Buyers want to compare, learn about different vendors, and find out about models, colors, styles, prices, etc. before ever actually doing business with you.

By the time most buyers are ready to purchase online, they have all the information they need to spend their money exactly as they please.

This means you, the seller, have far less opportunity to get to know your customers early on in the sales cycle. This creates a “swinging door” effect, with customers coming and going at will, and very little to no relationship-building taking place.

No other time in retail history has experienced so much customer control.

How are you going to respond to this shift?

This article was the subject of my June Internet Marketing newsletter. If you’d like to receive more information like this to help you build your business online, simply use the handy sign up forms to the right.

Psychologist Dr. Glenn Livingston is a brilliant marketer. Recently, he made a point that really caught my attention. He mentioned that sometimes, despite our best intentions to get new customers, we inadvertently ‘unsell’…then wonder where we went wrong and why business has slowed.

What is unselling? Loosely, it involves persuading someone not to believe in the advisability, worth, or truth of a product or service. In other words, talking the buyer out of buying.

I once worked with someone who was always ready to explain to clients what we couldn’t do, instead of what we could. “Oh, no, Mr. Jones, we never carry that part. My suggestion is to call around to some of the other dealers. They might have it.”

WHAT?!

It sounds silly when seen in black and white, but this kind of thing happens all the time. Perhaps you do it yourself without knowing it.

If your income or client base is less than you hope for, despite great effort, you may be unselling clients without realizing it.

• Are you hyper-focused on price, rather than the client’s goals?
• Are you typically a “little” late for appointments, meetings, calls?
• Are you unprepared or disorganized?
• Do you miss deadlines or make excuses for behaving unprofessionally?
• Have you ‘niched” yourself into extinction?

Believe it or not, these things, and others like them, send a subtle message to your client that you are more important than their business.

Dr. Livingston blames this tendency on human nature. He says, “We always want what we don’t yet have. Which means we’ve always got our eye on “the next level”, too frequently forgetting about the people who got us where we are now.”

He suggests we ask ourselves:

• Why do my best customers stay with me?
• What have I STOPPED doing for my best customers?
• What have I done recently which could UNSELL my most hyper-responsive people?

The honest answers to these questions could help you stabilize your business…perhaps even grow…and maybe, just maybe, get you where you really want to be.

What can you change or improve today to get back on track?