How to build on online reputation

Marketing is a vast subject – and impacts on every area in your organisation no matter how big or small.  Reputation marketing is a small part of it.

So what is reputation marketing exactly?

It’s taking control of your online profile (and equally your offline profile, but that’s another blog) so you build the reputation you want.

It’s a process of educating people on your area of expertise – sharing your knowledge in a way that creates belief in your status as an authority in your industry.

It’s about making sure that your message is consistent and frequent so you are highly visible to the people that you most want to reach.

It’s offering value, quality and support freely to build your reputation as a generous expert.

What’s the best way to do this?

Identify your ideal clients – know what’s important to them and what they want and target the benefits they can experience in relation to those things.  If you know who you can help and how you can help them you can offer them something of real value.

Make sure your message is clear, consistent and easy to understand – and this applies to your website, your blog, social media, newsletters and marketing material.

Think benefits; how does what you do help your clients?  In other words ‘what’s in it for me?’  People aren’t interested in what you do, they’re interested in what they get and buy on emotional triggers, not on ‘nice to have’.

Don’t try to be all things to all people, be a specialist for your target market.  If you have several different services think how they can be brought under a single heading as a package.  It’s tempting to be drawn into the ‘We could do that for other types of business’ mindset, but you’ll get a lot more higher paying business if you’re positioned as a niche expert.

Use short cuts

This doesn’t mean short-changing the client – but it does mean that one piece of marketing material can be repurposed to save reinventing the wheel. 

The people who read your blog are not the same people as those on your newsletter list, or those who you’re connected up to on social media.  Even if they do see the same information in more than one place it’s likely that they will see it as consistency and be pleased that they’re one step ahead of the rest by having read it already!

A blog can become a newsletter and also broken up into social media posts – linked back to your website, of course.

Several blogs on a subject can become a report or free giveaway document – or a chapter of your first ebook!

It’s all about working smarter, not harder.  Create a strategy, put the plan in place and get that great reputation that people RAVE about.

Does your website make these 3 big mistakes?

When you're in charge of writing the copy for your own website there are some pitfalls that should be avoided - but they're difficult to see when you're inside the business.

Let's be honest, if you're a business owner you are likely to be excited about what you do (if you're not, maybe you should rethink what your business should be about).  The challenge is that when given the chance to tell other people about your business it's a bit like turning on a tap - all that stuff that you're passionate about comes flooding out - and here lies a problem.

These are the three biggest mistakes that you can make when creating the copy to persuade people to buy your services or products:

Mistake number one

Writing about yourself and your business

Hang on a minute - isn't that what the website is for?

Well, yes - and no.

The website is there to persuade potential clients to take action and either buy something or at least get in touch with you.  People aren't interested in you - or in what you do; they're interested in what they get.  This means that your copy needs to be focused on the reader so not:

We do this

But

You can have that.

It's a subtle difference, but a powerful one.  Remember what it's like on the other end of this - when you meet someone and politely ask 'So what do you do?' you really don't want to know exactly what they do - you want to know how what they do might help you in some way.  When you hear the word 'we' or 'our' or 'us' you may have a polite (but probably lukewarm) interest; but the minute someone says 'you' your ears prick up and you start imagining yourself in the situation they're describing.

This is called 'engagement'.  That's what you're aiming for on your website.  So banish the word 'we' and replace it with 'you'.

Mistake number two

Information overload

When someone arrives on your website they want to know if you've got what they're looking for.  They don't need to know how you do it, the manufacturing process, the technical jargon and so on.  This means that you need to cut what you write down to the bare bones - and these bones should be focused on the benefits that the reader will experience, the problems that will disappear and the positive changes they'll experience by choosing to work with your business.

We're back to keeping your passion in check.  It's easy to start explaining everything in detail, but it's worth asking a few of your existing customers what kind of information they would be looking for if they were just starting to look for your services or products.  Asking existing clients is a good way to get them involved and remind them how customer-focused you are!

Web pages should be no longer than 250 words, ideally just under 200.  If your SEO company suggests writing much longer page, my suggestion is to write 200 words, put your call to action, then an image and then the remaining copy - which, in most instances, will only be read by the search engines.

Mistake number three

No reader guides

Eh?  What's a reader guide?

OK - when you arrive on a web page and there are four paragraphs of copy, no headlines, no subheaders, no bullet points, nothing that stands out - how likely are you to get started?

No?  Very few people really want to read online.  They do want to find information though so it makes life easier if your message has guides.  This means that, if people are scanning over the page quickly there are bits of text that they'll pick up on and will tell them if this is something they need to stop at and read more carefully.  For instance:

The headline - not the page name; but something that captures the attention of the reader at the beginning

Sub headings - these break up the text and stop the eye as it's scanning down the copy.  Even short pieces of copy benefit from these to re-engage the reader at key points.

Bullet-point lists - people like reading lists so if you've got a few key pieces of information, turning them into a list is a smart way to get people to pay a bit more attention.

Words or phrases in bold - really clever copywriters can pick a number of key phrases out of the page, turn they into bold text and, if the reader only  reads those words they still get the message.  Bold text, even within a paragraph just makes things stand out.

Images - a page full of text with no images looks really lifeless. Add relevant images to give the page more energy.  However, do remember that people read from left to right and position your image to the right of the copy so people read into it, not away from it.

Your assignment, if you choose to accept it ...

Review your website to see if you've managed to avoid these pitfalls.  It's worth looking at any other material that you hand out to clients or customers too - don't put obstacles between your message and your audience.

7 Steps to Social Media Success

Social media is a powerful tool – for both social and business use.  It’s like being in a massive networking event where you can seek out exactly who you want to talk to and get into conversation.

If you’re in business this is excellent news – and most business people understand that social networks offer huge opportunities.  The surprising thing is that many of these people don’t know how to make the most of their presence on the various platforms.

These are my 7 tips for creating an online profile that starts building relationships.

1. It’s a business tool – so it only works if you use it properly.  Get educated about which platform(s) will work best for your business.  If you’re selling business to business then LinkedIn is a good place to start; if you’re selling direct to consumers Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram (or all three) are likely to work well for you.  This means you do need to know your audience and where they hang out.
2. Complete your profile – if there’s no information people tend to assume you’re not active on the platform and don’t waste their time trying to engage you.  This is particularly important on LinkedIn where there is quite a lot of material to complete.
3. No picture?  What are you hiding?  A professional headshot is worth its weight in gold – it carries lots of subliminal messages about you.  Make sure you look friendly and approachable, are smiling at the camera and are either on a blank background (preferable) or in a professional environment.
4. Get involved, get into conversations, join groups, take action and help others.  If you are simply in the numbers game counting connections/friends, people will quickly forget you.  If you’re a ‘lurker’ it won’t build your relationships with the people you want to get to know.
5. Join groups where your target audience – or possibly their suppliers - hang out.  Being in a peer group with other people who do the same as you isn’t the best place to find new business!
6. Share your knowledge, add value and help people – this will get you a reputation as an expert and an authority in your core area of expertise.  The more visible you are the more people will remember you first when they need your kind of help.
7. Have a plan of action – assign time to your social media posts and activity and stick to it.  Put it into your diary – it doesn’t have to be hours, a regular 15-20 minutes maybe 3 times a week is better than an hour once a month; and you’re more likely to get into the habit if it’s a regular occurrence.  Be aware of the distraction factor too – if you’re on Facebook for business learn not to get drawn into your personal account home feed!

These steps will get you ahead of most of your competitors who dabble!

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If you need help with your strategy for online marketing – give me a call on 01245 473296.

Does your marketing pass the readability test?

If you're creating marketing material then you really need to get the message targeted - and most marketers know about that.  They do lots of research into what attracts their ideal client's attention.  However, few marketers know HOW people process information - and there lies a massive sink hole!

Combining what people read with how they read will improve the pull of all your marketing material.  So what do you need to know?

• People handle different types of flyer in different ways.  So if you give them an A4 single sheet they'll read it differently to the same A4 sheet folded into a trifold.  If it's on card they'll look at it differently to a paper document - you need to watch how people handle different flyers; where they're looking most is where your key message needs to go.

• The core message needs to be focused on what your reader wants - but it also needs to be in the place their eyes go first.  The first thing they read needs to be a compelling headline that encourages people to want to find out more - and it needs to be in the right place.  If you understand where this is you'll have a much better return on your marketing investment.

• When it comes to the copy part of the document - remember that nobody HAS to read your material.  If you make it look hard going, they'll simply file it in the bin!  Long paragraphs put people off - they like 'easy' short paragraphs, with lots of white space.  The same applies to sentences - keep them short and to the point, when you get to an 'and' or 'but' see if you can break the sentence into two shorter ones.  This will encourage your reader to keep going.

• Write at basic English level - don't use your marketing copy to show off your command of the English language (or any other language, come to that).  Stick to simple language, words in common usage - the KISS technique - Keep It Simple and Short.  If people don't understand they stop reading.  People with a larger vocabulary won't notice that there aren't any long words - and the secret is to make it all effortless to take on board.

• There's a great deal of controversy about the number of spaces that are needed after a full stop.  There's an argument that this was an invention created when typewriters had comparative spacing.  However, there's more to it than that.  While you may not consciously register how big the space is that slightly bigger space creates a 'brain break' and allows the reader to digest the previous thought before moving on.  It really has got nothing to do with typewriters!

• People like lists!  We are usually more willing to read a list than a paragraph so, where possible, break up your paragraph into a bulleted list - people will read more of your message.

These are just a few things that will improve your marketing messages' readability - and they are things your competitors almost certainly don't know!