How to write great website content

In previous posts I’ve looked at why paying attention to your content makes sense, so this time i’m going to discuss all of the basics you will need to be aware of in order to write effective website content.

Don’t just write, lay your foundations and plan

Before you can write your content you need to plan it.  Start by thinking about each of the individual content pages you want to have on your website and list them all, a basic bullet pointed list is generally sufficient for this if you don’t already have a fancy site map. If you are re-writing content for an existing website you just need to make a list of the pages you already have.

Plan key messaging and write around that

Next, you need to think about the information that people will need to enable them to make an informed decision about buying your services or products. As well as deciding what key information you need to get across, you’ll need to start thinking about the best way to present this information.

Nothing is quite as dull or off-putting as paragraph after paragraph of text

Hard facts and technical data are often entirely necessary but to present your service or products in a compelling way, it takes more than dry facts and text and this can be a tough one to get right.  Too informal and familiar and you risk sounding unprofessional, too formal and factual and you risk boring your readers and losing potential leads.

Ooh pictures, we love a good picture!

Pictures are good, use them frequently to break up text and add interest, but keep them relevant.  The pictures that you use need to add and not detract from your core messaging.  Read more about the importance of images in web design here.

Quotes are a great way of highlighting key information and breaking up text; tables and graphs are a good way to display complex or comparison data and headlines are essential to the structure of your page. Using a mixture of content will ensure your content is fresh meaning that website visitors stay engaged, buying you more time to win them over.

Be clever, be intriguing and invite curiosity

Not only do headlines break up vast blocks of text, but they offer readers a quick, at-a-glance clue to what the following content is all about.  A good headline is informative, relevant and entices a website visitor to continue reading, so it is critical to get this part right as strong headlines will help to elevate your copy, impacting on everything from your websites search engine ranking through to your conversion rates.

Information and facts are all well and good, but great copy needs to be engaging

The art of website copy writing rests upon the ability to present important information in a way that is interesting and engaging. Personality counts for a lot but that doesn’t mean you need to lapse into informal speech or become a hipster.  You can still be entirely human, likeable and interesting whilst maintaining professional credibility.

Copy writing tips you can take away

• Highlight all of the benefits and/or problems your service or products can solve


• Include information on how to use your service or products


• Be sure to highlight your USPs, this will help give people a reason to choose you over your competitors


• Mix up your content so that you use pictures, graphics, text, quotes and headlines


• Include strong calls to action e.g. ‘contact us now for a free quote’


• Include detailed service and/or delivery information


• The point of all your copy is to inform, persuade and convert so keep those goals in mind


• Use attractive, high quality pictures wherever possible or video content which is even better

For more information on content marketing and how to produce strong content, see the blog post 10 crucial content marketing questions.

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

 

Understanding the business benefits of Pinterest

An introduction to Pinterest

If you are familiar with mood boards, then Pinterest won’t be too difficult to get your head around.  It’s essentially a digital pin board, a place where you can collate and categorise anything visually appealing that you come across online.

You can take a look at my own Pinterest here as an example – you’ll see a wide range of different board topics.  Whilst most of them are related to web design and my profession, I also have a number of other boards that are more personal. As with all social networks, one of the benefits of using Pinterest is that it gives you the ability to define not only a brand, but to expose the person or people behind that brand. This makes it much easier for people to relate to your brand and showcasing your passion, interests and areas of expertise is a great way of connecting with potential customers.

There is more to Pinterest than cupcakes, craft and cats

Whilst Pinterest is very well suited to visual imagery, it is increasingly being used as a way of collecting primarily text based content, such as recipes and blog articles.  A decent blog article will have at least one picture, so posting this picture along with the blog article title and pinning it on a relevant board, can be  great way of utilising Pinterest to promote non graphical content; in particular for service based businesses who don’t have products to promote or attractive lifestyle shots to pin.

Some Pinteresting stats

• Pinterest is now either the 2nd or 3rd biggest social network, depending on which statistics you read, and is currently showing the fastest rate of growth


• There is no vertical size limit on pins, providing a great deal of scope for creativity


• Approximately 58% of Pinterest users are females


• Product pictures pinned with a price are more effective (that is to say they will generate a better CTR) than product pins with no price shown


• Click through and sales conversion rates are better on Pinterest than on either Twitter or Facebook


• Pinterest users tend to have a higher than average disposable income


• Some of the most popular Pinterest topics are interiors, DIY, cookery, fashion, hobbies and crafts


• Shoppers referred to a website via Pinterest spend 10% more than those referred by other sources

Example of a fully optimised Pinterest board

What’s the point of Pinterest?

Pinterest provides the opportunity for businesses to demonstrate expertise and credibility in any given area.  For example, when an interior design brand puts together a board featuring a large number of inspirational room themes, potential customers will often be inspired by such a board and will not only trust that brand, but will also look to it for ideas – you can effectively use Pinterest to add value, which is a great way of attracting new customers and increasing your appeal to existing customers.

Pinterest will not only provide you with more backlinks to your website, a crucial SEO ranking signal, but it will also increase your visibility.  Instead of people finding your website, being visible on Pinterest gives you additional potential touch points.

Pinterest lets you source and post appealing content that others will find interesting and will want to like and share

Pinterest is an excellent way of showcasing your products and of demonstrating your passion and expertise in a particular area, and when your content engages people, they will like and share (repin) it, helping your content spread virally.  This ensures that your brand reaches additional would-be customers, who might not otherwise have been exposed to your existing or usual marketing channels.

Pinterest tips

• Make sure you write an interesting profile, make it informative and try to give it a bit of personality


• Research your competition before you set up your own boards, see what topics your competitors cover so you can create boards that will be popular and interesting


• Add your main website address and be sure to follow the Pinterest verification process


• Give each board an informative name and make sure you include a compelling, keyword focused board description


• Optimise all the images that you upload – make sure the file names contain descriptive keywords.  Once uploaded, edit your pin to include a link back to the original source or related content on your website.


• Keep the width of Pinterest images to around 540px and make the most of the fact there is no vertical size constraint.  Narrow, long pins are much more eye catching than short images


• Write a number of ‘how to’ guides that deal with common problems your customers encounter, providing them with real value


• Create a board to showcase your latest, best selling or favourite products


• Don’t forget to include calls to action on your boards and in pin descriptions


• Make sure you add the Pinterest share button to all of your product and content pages on your website and blog


• Comment on, like, share and follow other relevant boards

To find out more about Pinterest and how it can help your business, take a look at this great article from Econsultancy Pinterest: nine best practice tips for brands.

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

Beware of bad marketing advice from self proclaimed ‘experts’

I read an article the other day called “How to manipulate people for fun and profit”.  I’m not going to link to it because in my opinion, the advice it provided was utter garbage, highlighting the ease with which one can tout themselves as an ‘expert’ but in reality, prove they are anything but by giving not just poor, but potentially damaging advice.

The article states that action occurs as a result of inducing a high arousal state – a well known concept in Psychology and absolutely correct. My issue however is with how the author recommended you induce a high state of arousal – by outraging people.  The author stated that marketing strategy should focus on writing content that is purposely divisive and intentionally controversial.  So lets get this straight, to go viral you have to become a troll?

According to the author, viral marketing  rests
on your ability to become an Internet troll

The article went on to highlight instances of when highly controversial or outrageous content had been spread and gone viral. I am not disputing the fact that controversy spreads, my issue however is that if your marketing activities purposely manipulate people into feeling angry or outraged, both of these are negative emotions.  For the majority of businesses, i guarantee you, that negative sentiment does not convert customers (unless you are a charity or ethical company wanting to highlight injustices or galvanise action for example). On the whole though, it’s a fundamental fact that negative sentiment doesnt win customers, something any sales or marketing professional would be fully aware of.

The really scary thing, is the massive number of positive comments the author received from other, so-called marketing professionals, who agreed and thought the advice was great! I also found it strange that my very concise and polite response to the article didn’t get published.  Whilst i’m at it, the fact that no dates are included on the blog also rings alarm bells – best practice changes as social media and content marketing evolves.  A lot of advice provided a year ago could now be massively out of date and of little value to a reader – avoiding transparency by hiding publish dates in this way just isn’t the sort of tactic a reputable professional would need to use.

Does manipulating potential customers into feeling strong negative
emotions sound like good business sense to you?

If I am outraged by the comments or tactics of a company, yes, I might go and read about them, I might talk about (as I currently am doing), but I sure as hell won’t shop with them or spread positive word of mouth, in which case, the activity has successfully turned a potential customer into someone who would never, ever be a customer. Which is, of course, is the polar opposite of what any marketing activity would hope to achieve.

In advising people to be purposely antagonistic and controversial in their marketing efforts, this author is essentially telling you how to loose customers. High share rates of such an article might make it go viral, but if that virality spreads and inspires nothing but negative sentiment and drives customers away, how is that effective marketing?

Does any business really want controversy instead
of customer conversions?  Of course not!

I’m assuming that the sole purpose of this article was to spew utter rubbish to get people talking.  Yep, it’s got me talking, even telling my readers about the article, but it’s also put the author and the website on my negative radar, meaning all future content I’m exposed to from them will be aggressively filtered out and ignored. Is that really what any company would want to happen as a direct result of their marketing activities?  Of course not.

No one is infallible, and whilst reputable writers will endeavour to fact check and identify multiple sources before publishing information, we don’t always get it right.  In relation to social media marketing and theory, there often isn’t a right or wrong way to do things, only best practice.

As social media proliferates and it becomes ever easier for people to self-publish, so the threat of misinformation increases. Don’t believe all of the advice that you read just because it is published on a popular blog or is written by someone calling themselves an expert.  At worst some articles are based on nothing more than opinion, at best, on tried and tested techniques which have been proven to work, but that doesn’t mean it will work for your particular customer base or business sector.

Never lose your objectivity and question the authors
professional credentials if necessary

Remain objective, if you aren’t convinced then ask the author a question by leaving a comment on their blog and if you really have your suspicions, see if you can find other sources providing the same advice or do a bit of snooping to uncover the real credentials of the author.

By doing this you will avoid the charlatans out there and won’t end up alienating or loosing customers as a result of executing misguided marketing activities.

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

Facebook Basics Part 1 – Understanding the business benefits of Facebook

Introduction to Facebook pages for business

Facebook is the king of social networks and as such, almost doesn’t need an introduction.  It is likely that you are already familiar with Facebook and probably have your own Facebook profile. With over a billion users, it’s the biggest social network with a user base that is still growing.

As with other social media platforms, Facebook allows businesses to build a community with the potential of turning a proportion of those community members into customers. By clearly showcasing a combination of the attractiveness of your goods and services, your customer service and your brands personality and/or USPs, you can use Facebook to attract new customers to you and foster brand loyalty in your existing customers.  Just like on your website, your aim is to make people stick around long enough that you get the opportunity to persuade them to buy in to your brand  and become a customer.

Don’t make the mistake of using Facebook like a one-way sales channel. Bombard your Facebook fans with offer after offer, and you’ll find this is the quickest way to lose potential customers (unless you have a deal based business model such as Groupon or Wowcher).  As a rule, no one wants constant hard sell filling up their timeline. The key to successful use of Facebook for businesses lies in your ability to engage followers, listen to them and to balance the content you are publishing.

What’s the point of Facebook?

Facebook provides businesses with the ability to create and grow an engaged community of customers and potential sales leads.

Building communities and individual relationships

Facebook provides an excellent means by which a company can not only demonstrate their expertise in any given area, but they can actively create a brand personality, in keeping with brand values and marketing strategy and promote their unique selling points.

Facebook is all about engagement and adding value. As a result of reaching out to your customers, you’ll obtain highly valuable insights that will shape your communications (extending to other social networks and even transferable to your traditional marketing channels), making them even more effective.

Successful use of Facebook relies upon effective engagement and in your ability publish fresh and interesting content.

Building a community doesn’t come easily and it certainly won’t happen overnight.  You will need to commit to and invest in a long-term strategy that will underpin all of your social media activities.  If you are after a quick win or instant results, then social media is not going to provide that, unless you are using paid advertising.

Whilst this introduction to Facebook deals primarily with the free page all businesses can set up, you do have the option of enhancing your presence further by taking advantage of promoted posts and Facebook ads. Similarly enhancing your page with free or paid-for Facebook apps, can help to improve the quality of your content and help you to attract more visitors.

Facebook pitfalls to avoid

Ignore your Facebook wall at your own peril

Checking your social media pages every now and again just isn’t enough, and for any page with more than a few hundred Likes or followers, it is critical that you are regularly monitoring interactions.

Consider this scenario.  An irate customer posts on your Facebook wall complaining about a customer service issue.  Respond to such a post quickly, providing an apology, reason and resolution and you can effectively turn the situation into a positive PR opportunity.  Consider that same irate post on your Facebook wall left un-answered for several days.  This makes it look like you don’t care about customer service and also shows that you don’t pay attention to your Facebook wall, sending a very negative message to anyone visiting your page and it certainly won’t help you convert new customers.

Once set up, the single most important thing to remember is to monitor your Facebook wall.  Whilst daily monitoring is acceptable, for active Facebook communities, then you are going to want to check your wall for any mentions, pre-sales questions or customer service issues several times a day.  Read more about the perils of not monitoring your Facebook wall in the article Keep track to avoid social media fail.

Fake likes are largely worthless to you

You are likely to come across companies offering to sell you ‘Likes’ and for a new page, this can certainly be tempting.  Consider this though – why do you want to buy likes?  What benefit do you get from appearing to have more likes? The real value of Facebook comes in the form of genuine fans, which should largely be made up of existing and potential customers – these fans are receptive sales leads and so have an intrinsic value, making it worthwhile to invest your time into engaging them.

Buy likes and your new fans will have no real interest in your brand and as such can’t be categorised as potential sales leads, in which case they are of little or no value to you.

Failing to engage sends out negative signals

To make Facebook work you need to give people a reason to come to your Facebook page; when they are on your page, your goal is to ensure that they see something they are interested in, resulting in a desirable action, such as clicking through to your website.  If you rarely update your wall you aren’t giving people a reason to come back.  If however your content is interesting and fresh, then people will like your page and will keep coming back.

Facebook and all social media, is about crafting two-way conversations.  Engaging fans isn’t about constantly pushing out content; it’s about publishing content and then pausing to listen to your fans responses.  This way you will learn what they like and will be more able to understand how to reach your target audience.  When a fan is actively engaging via activities on your wall, they are highly receptive.  Give them what they want and engaged fans can turn into customers.

Controversy can increase the viral potential of content but is unlikely to win you customers

Some believe that posting controversial content will help that content spread and go viral.  Whilst this can be an effective strategy for achieving viral spread, it isn’t recommended.  Controversy often stirs up strong emotions which can have very negative implications.

Stay away from being too controversial, you don’t want to polarise or alienate people; you might have strong political or personally held views, your business’s Facebook wall however is not the right place for you to express them.

To read about viral marketing and controversy see the article Trust me i’m a marketing ‘expert’.

Beware of the Facebook Troll

Lurking online is a special breed of person, known as a Troll.  Simply put, a Troll is someone who is purposely antagonistic, argumentative and/or offensive.  They will often respond to posts just to create an argument or cause a reaction and will frequently use abusive or offensive language.

Depending on your point of view, you might see them as a harmless nuisance or you might see them as anarchistic trouble makers.  Once identified as a Troll, my own stance is to block the offender from posting.  Blocking or banning should not be taken lightly though – if someone has a real customer service issue or complaint to air, it is always advisable to deal with it rather than simply removing the post and banning the user.

Don’t be tempted to deal with the potential threat of the Troll by locking your profile down and stopping people from posting on your wall altogether though. If you do that, you will no longer see any of the true benefit that social media provides, as you will no longer be inviting two-way conversation, turning Facebook into just another one-way marketing channel.

Part two of this introduction to Facebook will be published later this week and will provide you with some facts and tips that will help you get the most out of your Facebook activities, as well as some suggestions for engagement activities that you can take away and implement.

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

Free people graphic image

Time for another free image!  Below you will find two free graphics for you to use that feature a group of people, the first graphic is in shades of gray.

Here is the second variation of the free image, showing a colourful group of people. This free image is ideal for use on your blog, your website or in your direct emails.

Please feel free to download and use these images – I place no restrictions on their commercial use, all I ask is that you leave me a comment letting me know you’ve used the graphic(s) and a link to where you have used it so I can take a look!

Enjoy!

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

Facebook inforgraphic – How social media users feel about brands on Facebook

1,000 social media users were asked how they felt about liking and interacting with brands on Facebook.  This infographic from Lab42 lays out some of their key findings.

Courtesy of: Lab42

Facebook Basics Part 2 – 15 practical Facebook tips and activities

Following on from my Facebook Basics Part 1 -  Understanding the business benefits of Facebook article last week, this is the second  and final part and looks at some Facebook facts and tips that will help you get the most out of your Facebook activities. You will also find some suggestions for engagement activities that you can take away and implement on your own Facebook wall straight away.

Some Facebook Facts

• Facebook has over a billion worldwide users, making it the world’s biggest social network.


• Almost half of the population of the UK now uses Facebook.


• Functionality differs on Facebook pages for individuals and Facebook pages for businesses. People can follow (become a fan of) your business page by clicking ‘Like’ rather than having to make or accept a friend request.


• Whenever you post to your Facebook wall, your page fans will see your content show up in their own Facebook news feed.*


• Building a community takes real, sustained effort to achieve and does not happen overnight.


• Facebook is continually evolving, with the new Timeline introduced in March 2013 and Facebook Graph Search rolled out around the same time.


• A Facebook advert or cover image must contain no more than 20% text.


• There are countless Facebook apps for smart phones that make it super easy to monitor and post content to your page when you are out of the office or away from your desk.


• 1 in 3 small businesses actively use Facebook.


• Facebook insights provide you with in-page analytics which will help you identify the type of content people like the most and the days and times when engagement is at its highest.

*This is not always the case.  Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm governs exactly what your fans will see in their feeds (or not) and it is possible for people to become fans of your page but choose to ‘turn off’ your content so that they don’t see it in their feed.  People only tend to do this if the content you post is not relevant to them (which means they are highly unlikely to become customers) or your content may be relevant but annoying due to repetition or too high a posting frequency.

15 Facebook Tips

1. Facebook has lots of rules and guidelines.  Fall foul of these and you could find your page shut down.  Not much of a problem for a new page with few followers, but for an established page with a thriving community this can be devastating so make sure you have a good read of the rules before you do anything.


2. When you set up your business page make sure you choose the most appropriate category to list your business under.


3. Your page should be called the same as your business name and don’t forget to set up your vanity URL so the link to your page doesn’t include a random string of numbers.


4. Unlike on your personal Facebook page, your profile picture should usually be of your logo or something clearly branded and immediately recognisable.


5. Make sure you make the most of your business page by including a clear, attractive cover picture and by filling in all of your company information including your website address and contact details.


6. If you are the admin for more than one page, make sure you post on the wall under the correct company identity, by selecting the “use Facebook as” dropdown option at the top right of the page


7. Always post pictures to accompany your text – not only does this increase engagement, but this also means that you can then edit the text content of your post should you need to.


8. Include calls to action whenever you post sales or action oriented content, ask people to click for more information, ask them what they think and so on.


9. Include product links or links through to information pages on your website whenver you post to make it super easy for people to find out more or buy from you.


10. Use a URL shortener  whenever you post links such as Bitly or goo.gl  to make long URLs easier on the eye, that way they don’t detract from your content as much.


11. There is nothing more off-putting that an unloved Facebook wall.  Avoid sporadic posting, if you can’t do an update once a day, then at least a couple of times a week, but even if you only update a few times a week, you must monitor your wall at least daily.


12. Don’t put too much effort into building an audience for your page until you’ve got some content on there.  If you go to the effort of attracting new visitors and your wall is empty, they won’t have any reason to like your page or to stick around.  Try to aim for around half a dozen posts on your wall before you start actively promoting.


13. Make sure time is built in every day, to monitor your Facebook wall – this is critical in allowing you to join in and shape the conversations that are evolving and to be available to answer customer service or any pre-sales questions.


14. Track and analyse your Facebook wall stats and you’ll gain valuable insights into what activities work best for you.


15. Be creative!  Engaging people isn’t easy and takes a flow of almost constant creativity to achieve; always be on the look out.  What has worked for you as a consumer responding to a business’s posts?  What have you seen that you could adapt to suit your audience? 

Practical activities you can carry out now!

Post a poll – Ask your fans a relevant question on a topic of interest.  For example, you could ask them who they think is going to win the big game, what their plans are for the weekend or anything that means they can express their opinions or get involved.

Post a picture – People respond to visual imagery far better than they respond to text alone, so you’ll find that engagement levels increase when you post pictures to your wall.  Post a picture of your latest new product, your latest advert, a picture you think is cool or anything you think is relevant or that your fans will like.

Show some personality – Interacting with a faceless brand carries little incentive, if fans can relate to the human side of your brand however, they are more likely to interact with you.  We all love a good laugh, an inspiring quote or breath-taking landscape from time to time; these kind of posts can work well, putting a smile on people’s faces is a great way to build relationships.

Get behind a good cause – If you are involved with any charities, local fundraising or perhaps sponsor a team then you can use your Facebook wall to spread awareness or raise funds and generally leaverage your community for a good cause – proving it’s not all about hard sell and profit is good every now and again.

Gain some insight – Ask your customers what they like most about your goods or services, ask them what they’d like to see more of, don’t be afraid to use them as a focus group.  As with polls, people love making their opinions known, just make sure you monitor things closely.  The last thing you want is to find your post to backfire and turn into customers sharing negative experiences (as was the case with McDonalds now legendary 2012 Twitter campaign, dubbed McFail when their hashtag was used to highlight negative customer experiences).  Monitoring all activity remains key, allowing you to step in and respond in real time should the need arise. You also have the added benefit of having far more control over your Facebook wall too.

Give your fans credit – A simple thank-you can go a long way to making your community feel valued.  Acknowledge the part they play and thank them for their support and participation.  If you want to go one step further you could create a regular ‘super fan’ contest, or every now again hold a flash sale where you give your Facebook followers a special discount code.

Run a competition – Create a Facebook specific competition where you use your wall to tell people about a competition running on your website, or use a Facebook app to run a competition right there on your Facebook wall. By using an app, you can also make it a requirement that people share and/or like your competition in order to enter.

Create a Facebook-only promotion  - You can publish a special voucher code on your Facebook wall, or better still, use a ‘fan gate’ app to incentivise none fans to ‘like’ your page to get access to the promotional code.