Using message structuring to develop your audience base

If you're just hanging with your friends, you don't need message structuring. In fact, in many friendship circles, slang and informality go a lot farther than grammar and vocabulary.

But things are a lot different in the business world. Although it sometimes pays off for a salesperson in a one on one presentation to abandon business formality, it almost never pays off in a larger audience. Even your best buddy may feel humiliated and embarrassed if you speak and act the way that you do when the two of you are just hangin' out.

In the venue of Internet Publishing, if you are seeking to build a large audience in the business community, there is a very fine line between formality and personality. Unfortunately, that fine line moves drastically in one direction or another depending upon the specific audience on which you are focusing.

Let me illustrate this by referencing two writers whose articles are featured regularly in the right sidebar of rainmakerwebsites.com

Jill Konrath writes articles that are specifically geared towards helping those sales organizations and sales people who are involved in long term sales processes with large corporations. Within these processes, there are several sales stages which need to be respected and are only occasionally skipped. Both the critical nature of these negotiations and the amount of structure that is built into the organizations involved necessitate that the presentations be relatively formal. In her writing to this audience, Jill must focus more on the structure of her message than on presenting herself within her message. However, enough of Jill's personality comes through to make her message viable in the internet venue.

Rosa Say writes articles that translate sound business practices and processes into the Hawaiian traditional culture and which help integrate traditional Hawaiian values and principles into activities which result in long term business profit and growth. As part of her effort to communicate these values both to the business owner on the islands and to the internet business world outside of the islands, Rosa must incorporate more of her own personality into her articles as a means of illustrating the principles and values of the Hawaiian culture.

Both Jill and Rosa use message structuring as an essential tool for communicating with a business audience.

If you want your business message to develop a visitor base or an internet audience, you need some method of organizing the process you use in developing each of your postings. David Peralty suggests one method of internet article development in "Organizing A Blog Post."

Avoid Ruining Your Brand During A Bad Economy

During bad economic times, some business are too short sighted. In order to make short term profits they resort to tactics which continue to have negative consequences on their company after the economy recovers.

Steve McKee wrote an article in BusinessWeek entitled "Five Don'ts for Marketing in Tough Times."

The moment that changed the world forever

I suppose it depends upon what world we are talking about.

Actually, what I have in mind in this posting is your prospect's world. Have you had a prospect who seemed to like your service or product but never seemed ready to buy?

And then one day, seemingly out of the blue, the prospect who would never budge, decides to buy?

Has that ever happened to you?

Maybe something happened that changed your prospect's world.

Craig Elias wrote "Shorten Sales Cycles - By Capitalizing On Trigger Events."

Transparency can destroy Mental Commodification

Have you ever found yourself faced with a long term client who is beginning to waver about whether or not to switch to your competition?

The reason this happens is because of mental commodification.

Although you are always trying to differentiate your company from your competition, on some level this client has decided that the difference is relatively insignificant.

But what would happen, if instead of your TELLING the client that you are different, the client was able to SEE the difference?

Sean Hazell wrote an article entitled, "Take Your Customer to Work Day."

Starting A Business Consultancy

Are you thinking of becoming an Independent Business Consultant?

Let me guess. You have been an employee of a Fortune 500 company for over 10 years and you know everything there is to know about succeeding in Business. Right?

Believe it or not - Many people who know Wall Street inside and out, who have opened markets all over the world, who have been on the inside of several M & A deals - stumble when they try to go independent.

Anne Holland, the CEO of MarketingShepa, wrote an article entitled, "Launching A Consulting Career."

Are You Quotable?

Have you ever looked up a concept in a Book of Quotations? Have you ever inserted a Shakespearean line into a text?

What is it that makes a statement quotable? Why do some quotations endure while others are fads that gradually disappear?

Maki wrote a great article that summarizes some of the ideas in another writer's piece on writing compositions.

If you want your Internet Publishing to be read and passed around, then read "How To Say Nothing in 500 words."

Why Are You Trying To Be an "Ugly Duckling?"

Another title for this post could have been: "No One can hear you WHERE everyone is yelling."

Too many marketing efforts fail because a Small Business Owner or an Independent Agent thinks that they have to market in the same way and in the same venues in which everyone else is marketing.

Nothing Could Be Farther From The Truth.

Several Years ago, on a different blog, I wrote an article entitled "The BratWurst Rule of Marketing." (Google returns over 37 Thousand page results for a query using the three words Bratwurst Rule Marketing as the search query. The first entry, in August 2008, is my article from 2005.)

The best thing that a Small Business person can do is find a marketing venue that is profitable and that is not being fully exploited and market there. For example, Real Estate Agents are really dropping the ball when it comes to Web Feed marketing and Internet Alliance marketing.

But trying to talk the average Small Business person into embracing the fact that he is a SWAN and not a Duck - is like trying to convince a flat earther that Copernicus was wrong and Galileo was right.

Mike Moran wrote an article entitled "Why Web Marketing Favors Small Business."

How to start a Business Newsletter

This posting is not going to contain a whole-hearted endorsement of an article. However, the article which I am going to recommend that you read, does contain many good ideas.

I will provide a link to the article at the bottom of this posting, but the article is "Starting An Ezine" by Corte Swearingen. Tips 2 and 3 are very good. The other three are good, but ....

Regarding Tip #1: If you do not plan to publish your ezine as a downloadable or as an e-mail attachment, then I agree with Corte's tip #1. However, if your audience agrees to receive your newsletter as an attachment, then a PDF is greatly superior to HTML e-mails.

Regarding Tip #4: Let your audience community "drive" your content. Too many business newsletters focus on "telling" the audience some viewpoint or philosophy which the business wants to promote, instead of focusing on what your audience wants to hear.

Regarding Tip #5: PREselling is like salt in a cooking recipe. Too much salt will ruin a recipe, too little salt makes some foods taste bland. I strongly recommend that you keep your PREselling content to less than 20% and that you treat it as delicately as great copywriters treat the inserting of keywords into copy. In other words, keep it to a minimum.

Corte Swearingen wrote: "Starting An Ezine."

Why you need to understand heterogeneity

Your average client is
A certain age
A certain education level
A certain income level
A certain marital status

So is that sufficient information to really know your optimal audience?

No, it is not.

There is still the matter of heterogeneity.

Wendy MacQueen wrote "Know Your Customer - It’s Not Just About Demographics Anymore"

By The Way - she does not use the word "heterogeneity" but she does discuss it.

And You're Telling Me this because ... ?

About four weeks ago, I wrote about the need for a business to have a purpose for existing.

In this posting, I would like to focus on content's need to have a mission.

Your website's visitor is not Sergeant Friday and presumably you have something which you hope to accomplish by having a web site.

So the textual content (the copy) of your website needs to further the mission which you are hoping to accomplish.

But some website copy seems to be self-destructive when it comes to accomplishing the apparent purpose of the website.

Ardath Albee wrote "Content Without A Goal Is Unemployed."

Improving The Effectiveness of your Homepage

What happens when someone sees your website address on your business card?

Well, let's hope for the sake of discussion that they visit your website's home page.

Now what happens?

Well that depends on how effective your website's home page is.

Edward Chan shows five ways to improve the effectiveness of your website's homepage in "Does Your Homepage Engage Visitors?"

Does the textual content of your website swing?

Some websites are written as if they were corporate reports.

Well, as Duke Ellington said, "It Don't Mean A Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing."

Sonia Simone wrote "The Duke Ellington Guide To Copy That Swings."

Web Copy That Sells

What is the difference between an effective marketing website and an ineffective one?

Content.

Content that Persuades versus content that just sits there and Bores the visitor to Sleep.

Clayton Makepeace tells us the "Seven Characteristics of Great Sales Copy."

Make It Easy on Your Visitor

If your website could benefit your business in one way and one way only, what would you want it to be?

To create frustration in your Visitors.

No?

Then why is your website so fancy and so cool but absolutely a labyrinth for the visitor to use?

Angie McKaig wrote: "Why Your Website needs to be Simplified."

Earning the Right To Ask

Two of the best resources for making more sales are "Warm Referrals" and "Prospect References."

A "Warm referral" is a referral in which the person who is giving you the referral has already informed the prospect that you will be contacting them or better yet personally introduces you as a recommended provider to the prospect.

"Prospect References" are highly credible contacts who have agreed to let you use their name and contact information for referring a prospect to them as a recommender of your services.

Lee Salz wrote: "Your Sales Need A Little R & R."

Real and Yet Professional

One of the ways in which Internet Publishing differs from writing white papers is that successful blogging usually requires that the authors personality can be seen in what is written, while in writing white papers there is a need for more objectivity.

However, sometimes an internet writer lets his hair down too much. The article resembles a stereotypical photo from the 1970s. (I graduated from High School in the 70s, so I am allowed.)

How does an Internet writer show his audience his or her real self while also maintaining a degree of professionalism necessary to developing a good brand?

Chris Brogan wrote "If You Intend to Blog Seriously."

Branding - Is there a real ROI or is it just a Gimmick?

Many new entrepreneurs and small business owners completely misunderstand the meaning of the word "brand" and therefore misunderstand "branding."

Brand is NOT your Logo, your product name nor your tagline. These things are tactics for creating a brand identity. But a Brand and a Brand Identity are NOT the same thing.

However, you can not have a brand if you do not have a brand identity.

What is a brand? A brand is the mental reaction that the general public has to being exposed to your brand identity.

The words "Chevrolet" and "Mercedes Benz" are brand identities. The reaction which you have when you read those two words is the brand.

So? Are brands really important or are they just a gimmick?

Having a good brand is much more important than having current inventory!!!!!!!!

A good brand can recover from a financial disaster, faster than any competitor with no brand or a bad brand.

Brad VanAuken wrote "The Business Impact of Strong Brands."

Relationships or Cold Selling

If you don't already know it, I hate selling that focuses on overwhelming or manipulating propects.

My clients know that if they ask me a question, the answer will be in their best interests not in mine. I am not the kind of business owner that thinks that everything he sees is a nail, because all that he has is a hammer.

If you are looking for making your website into a web application or if you want to create a point of sale website with ever changing inventory, I don't try to convince you to hire me, I refer you to someone else. Why? Because building business relationships is the route I have resolved to tak in building my business. If I can't be your friend, then I don't want to "sell" you.

Bruce Fryer wrote "Push Sales: Does It Work For You?"

E-Mail that Successfully Sells

Because of Can-Spam laws, e-mail is a difficult medium to use for marketing. Sometimes if you are not careful, your e-mail can actually cause you to lose clients

Ritu of Marketing Hackz wrote: "6 Steps to Effective e-Mail Marketing."

Boiling Marketing Down to Five Ingredients

Do you ever wish that an Author, would just "bottom-line" his thesis?

Seth Godin explains what marketing is - in "Five Easy Pieces."

(And he does not include, Price, Place and Promotion.)

Client Driven Sales

In the 1970s, I learned Sales, the wrong way. Oddly enough, I had been doing Sales the right way for years. But I had not been doing it effectively the right way.

The right way to sell, is to place the client in the driver's seat. The salesperson asks questions, offers suggestions, provides advice, does research, but does not attempt to manipulate or overcome the client. The right way to sell, makes the salesperson a resource for the client.

I no longer do Sales, the way that I was taught. I have no desire to persuade someone against their will. But if I can help my clients, I go out of my way to find solutions which make their business more effective. If I can not help, I refer them to someone else - I don't try to get them to buy something which is not in their best interest.

Karen Swim wrote "Five Things Freelancers Should Know About Sales."

When you need some Publicity

Sometimes availability, advertising, publishing, contacting and marketing just don't seem to be enough - and a business owner decides that what we need is some good old-fashioned publicity.

Today, I am suggesting an article about publicity BUT before I do, let me tell you that I disagree with the first point in the article. Expressing a USP frequently sounds like blowing smoke. (blah, blah, blah, blah, BLAH.) I strongly recommend that you consider a Value Proposition and make that as unique as you can.

Ritu Pant wrote "Five Publicity Strategies ..."

If you Want Commitment, Then You Have To Give Commitment

Many companies have what are called "loyalty programs." But what they tend to be is bribery and commoditization programs. If you really want your clients to be loyal to you, you might want to start by first being loyal to them.

If you want love, you got to give love. If you want good branding, then you better give customer service and satisfaction bountifully. If I am your customer, I don't want your discounts and your rebates - I want to know that I can trust you and that when I have a complaint that I will have my problem resolved as if I were your absolute best friend.

If I have a choice and the service is available from all three, and my choices are Comcast, at&t, and Earthlink. All things being otherwise relatively equal, I am going to go with Earthlink. Why?

Because even though Earthlink does not offer me six months at half price or a hundred dollar rebate, Earthlink has always (at least as far as my memory remembers) made me happy when I had a problem. And if it can be resolved, they resolve the problem with very little hassle.

I can not say the same thing about Comcast and at&t.

Steve Yastrow wrote an article (on Walt Goshert's blog) entitled "Turning Customer Loyalty Upside Down."

Getting your Prospect To Agree

I hate traditional objection handling. You tell a salesperson "no," only to have them start rattling off an obviously memorized response to your negative.

Rather than trying to "close" a sale, what if you could get the prospect to agree to buy?

It is much easier to get sales, if you are giving the prospect what the prospect already wants.

Jonathan Farrington wrote, "Getting to 'Yes, I'll Buy' More Easily."

Successful Appointment Scheduling

There you are, sitting at a restaurant, five minutes after the scheduled time, wondering if your prospect is going to show or not.

Sound Familiar?

Would you like to radically reduce the number of times that this occurs?

Jared Reitzin wrote Setting Appointments With Clients.

Successful Lead Conversion

What is the most effective way to get your traffic to give you their contact information and their permission to allow you to send them marketing materials?

Giving them something for Nothing!

But not just anything. It has to be Desirable, Valuable and Irresistable.

But first you have to figure out what they want. They don't care about what you want to say. They care about their own desires.

Ivana Taylor sets down a Four Step Process for learning what premium gifts will be successful in inducing your audience to co-operate with your marketing program.

HIgh Ranking Persuasion

The purpose of web copy is to persuade humans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ranking is not the purpose, ranking is a tactic. Copy which makes ranking the main priority is self-defeating.

But there is a way to do SEO correctly. But it takes a writer who can write persuasive copy. Many SEO people couldn't persuade a child to eat candy!

Karon Thackston wrote an excellent article showing the difference between good web copy and SEO garbage. It is entitled "Stop the Slaughter of Innocent Copy."

You're Website is Up To Bat. Did it Get A Hit?

SEO thinks that the goal of SEM is getting a click.

It isn't. The Goal of SEM is satisfying the Visitor when he first arrives.

When a Search Engine user clicks a link on the Search Engine page for your webpage, its time for your website to step up to the plate. Will the batter, your website get a hit? Will it be a base hit or a triple or a home run? Or will your website STRIKE OUT?

If the visitor from the search engine looks at the link's landing page on your site and decides that this is NOT what he was looking for, then your website, STRUCK OUT! If the visitor decides to click on a link, that is a base hit.

What makes the difference between a STRIKE OUT and a Base Hit?

Content!!!!!!!

Copy which is Keyword loaded is probably going to STRIKE OUT! Copy which is focused on persuading the user may get a hit.

Maki wrote an article on how to reduce the number of visitors who leave your landing page without looking at any other content.

Myth: Marketing Assists Sales, Not Vice-Versa

Sales should be Assisting Marketing. The relationship between these two departments should be a two-way street.

Impossible, you say? No, in many companies it is standard procedure.

The problem is that because modern marketing is a much younger innovation than Sales, it has traditionally been seen only in the role for which it was originally invented. As marketing has grown and developed it has become increasingly obvious in the corporate world that both marketing and sales are equally necessary and that you can't have one without the other.

But change is hard in organizations, much harder than it is in small business. In an organization, change is frequently only achieved once the highest echelons have bought into a vision and successfully communicated that vision through all levels of the organization. The problem is that change has to get past the mindset that the current way of doing things is both the appropriate and correct way. As Alvin Toffler showed in "Future Shock" it is very difficult for many people to adapt to new discoveries.

Some business organizations have discovered (and are taking advantage of the fact) that their sales force is able to accumulate valuable research data while prospecting and selling which should be channeled to marketing because it is more cost effective and efficient than gathering the same data through other means.

Bruce Fryer wrote "A Salesperson's Other Job."

Developing a successful Local website

Business Owners whose market is geographically limited often think that only SEO can get them the exposure in local search that is necessary to be found. However, just as with any other website ranking in Search Engines is not limited to the artificial sounding copy which many SEO firms produce.

(In an upcoming post on this website, I will present an article from a copy writer whose use of keywords is so deft and subtle that it does not interfere with the reader. I once had to read a paragraph twice that she had written to find the second occurrence of the key phrase that she was embedding!)

John Jantsch wrote an article in which he shows a real life case study of a company whose Search Engine ranking was achieved by concentrating on Content, Links and HTML coding.

Successful Pertnership

Partnerships are scary.

Your business has reached a point where going it alone no longer makes good business sense. The problem is that you have heard all kinds of horror stories about Partnerships that went sour.

You have a choice. You can either taper back your business and let it stagnate or you can create a successful partnership. But how do you create a successful partnership?

Is a partnership contract sufficient for insuring a successful partnership? No.

A partnership contract is ESSENTIAL, but it will not insure your success if you have not taken steps before entering a contract to make certain that the final outcome of this partnership is not litigation.

Jonathan Fields wrote "11 ways to avoid Entrepreneurial Divorce Court."

Quit Trying To Dazzle and Start Selling

Wow! That was brilliant!

Place an Order?

We'll get back to you on that, we want to consider our options.

Have you ever gone to a website and had to wait until the most fantastic and gorgeous multimedia presentation that you have ever seen L - o - a - d - e - d and then spent 1 to 2 minutes running before finally showing you the website?

Recently I tried to read an article and was shown an advertisement which was supposed to go away in ten seconds, it had a countdown feature, but when the countdown reached 3 seconds it resetted itself and started over, the first time it happened, I ignored it but when it happened again I started thinking about it. It took a few seconds but quickly dawned on me that the site assumed that all of its visitors would have their cookie settings set to "accept all." That is just as stupid as the company that places downloadables on its site in a format which is not "universal."

(Universal refers to formats such as HTML, PDF, JPEG, SWF, etc which are accessible on Windows, Mac OS Classic, Mac OS X and Unix/Linux without purchasing a proprietary application.)

Many small business website owners get talked into using audio, video, or flash as a means of impressing their visitors. Do not misunderstand, I am not talking about using audio samples to sell music or recorded materials, nor am I talking about using video to build a social media community, nor am I talking about using flash in a widget or to present a 300 by 100 sidebar graphic. I am talking about full-screen splash intros on a investment advisors website and background music on a mortgage brokers website. The use of "stuff" which does not actually SELL your service or product but is only for the purpose of Impressing or Dazzling or Entertaining is a marketing mistake.

Do you think I am wrong?

Don't take my word for it. Read what Clayton Makepiece wrote about worthless movie-style TV ads in the Major Corporation market.