Masterclass: More Effective Website Copywriting
December 22, 2011
By Belinda Weaver, Copywrite Matters
The ABN Masterclasses are small-group sessions that focus on specific member issues and offer practical advice in a hands-on way. I was honoured to present the very first Masterclass in December 2011, focusing on how to use copywriting to improve the performance of business websites.
If you couldn’t log into the live Masterclass or you haven’t watched the recording, here are the best tips on making your website copywriting more effective and engaging.
Copywriting Health Check Stage 1: Your credibility
When someone lands at your website, they get an instant impression about how reputable your business is. The look and feel of your website plays a big part in that critical first impression, but the types of pages you have also communicate a lot about your credibility.
To create the right impression, your website should have:
- Pages about your products or services
- An About page introducing yourself and/or your business
- Pages that show you’ve worked with other clients (like testimonials or case studies pages)
- A reasonably detailed contact page
All of these pages work together to tell me that you are a real and credible business.
Copywriting Health Check Stage 2: Every page essentials
Every page needs: to back up your value proportion
I call this your simple truth and it is the real benefit you offer your customers (when you get past the marketing speak and industry jargon). To work out your simple truth, imagine describing your business to someone you’ve never met. In response to your fantastically detailed explanation they say, “so what?” You dig a bit deeper. They say, “so what?” When you continue this imaginary conversation, you will eventually get to the simple truth behind what you offer the world.
Every page needs: to answer “what’s in it for me?”
This is the question your website visitors are asking from the moment they arrive on your website. Rather than simply describing what your business does, remember to link your services back to the reasons your website visitor is looking for a solution. How are you making their life better?
Every page needs: a headline
Your headline is the attention grabber for your page. As prime real estate, it’s useful to focus on the key benefit you offer and your main keywords. Imagine if your visitor read nothing else on the page, what is the most important thing they need to know? Another great tip is to make your page headline specific. If your headline would make sense in any other industry, there is an opportunity to make it more specific to your business.
Every page needs: a call to action
A call to action simply instructs your website visitor to perform an action. While you might think it’s obvious that you want people to email you for more information, register for your event or download your free report – a specific call to action will improve your response rate. Make your call to action clearly visible and actionable.
Copywriting Health Check Stage 3: Language and Readability
Once you know your key marketing messages and the benefits your target audience will care about, you can look at the way you communicate those messages. How well your audience understands your message is the key to action and fancy, formal language can sometimes do you more harm than good.
Here are some tips on making your copywriting easy to read and understand:
- Imagine speaking directly to a single person and write like you speak
- Keep your paragraphs relatively short and focused on one idea
- Vary the lengths of your sentences to create a changing rhythm
- Use whitespace to some breathing room around your copy
- Break up long sections of copy with subheadings and lists
Remember, always keep your simple truth in mind and make sure your website copywriting answers the question: what’s in it for me? Oh, and don’t forget those headlines and call to actions!
You can download the live Masterclass now and see my Copywriting Health Check applied to three member sites (along with more tips for effective website copywriting).
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Belinda Weaver – Copywrite MattersBelinda is a professional marketing copywriter who confidently walks the line between writing effective copy and creating an engaging brand personality. You don’t have to choose between them! The words you use really do make a difference and offline or online, you will get more clicks, calls and sales with the right words. It’s that simple. Belinda also empowers business owners to write great copy and the Copywrite Matters Facebook & Twitter pages have FREE weekly tips on copywriting and marketing. She loves to chat about SEO, websites, good business and all things marketing. Say hi and join the conversation!
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Energise Your Business with Easy New Year’s Resolutions
December 13, 2011
By Nerida Gill, Admin Bandit
I’m tempted to add “New Year’s resolutions” to my list of dirty words. The phrase is just too steeped with failure — it doesn’t help, of course, that the media loves to bombard us with abysmal statistics.
Apparently 25% of us can’t even stick to a resolution for a week and 88% fall by the wayside within a year.
There’s even an industry that analyses the top reasons we fail!
Are we really that pathetic?
No.
I think we fail because no-one has taught us to make effective resolutions — our resolutions are too vague and focus on the negative, which means we either have no plan of attack or have to deprive ourselves of something we love, such as chocolate.
So I’m not going to give up making New Year’s resolutions just yet… I’m just going to make ones that are specific and optimistic. I’ve brainstormed a list of bite-sized things we can all do to boost our businesses and refresh our enthusiasm in 2012.
Best of all, they’re (mostly) free and take less than five minutes to start!
Learn and grow
Professional development is a breeze, not to mention fun and inspiring when you:
- Join an association (and later take on a role)
- Get familiar with your local library’s business section
- Hire a consultant
- Attend a workshop or conference
- Learn how to write a press release
Get organised
A few simple strategies will transform the way you work. To get more done in less time and with fewer hassles:
- Set three to five specific goals at the beginning of each week
- Write a daily to-do list, tackling the most important tasks first
- Divide your time into blocks of related activities to reduce distractions and interruptions. For example, make your phone calls or answer your emails in a single sitting
- If you catch yourself procrastinating, ask yourself, “Is this the best use of my time?”
- Set a time limit on meetings and stick to it
- Spend 10 minutes a day doing those tasks you avoid… it quickly adds up.
Develop your business relationships
Networking doesn’t have to be scary; in fact, it can be surprisingly effortless:
- Join or friend business-related Facebook pages and regularly leave comments
- Say “thank you” more often: acknowledge everyone from your team members to the speaker at a seminar
- Decide to be cheerful: smile, compliment or chat to your customers, suppliers and associates, even if they’re grumpy or difficult
- Give people something for nothing: your time, advice, free samples or even small gifts
Attract more customers
Don’t have a marketing and promotions budget? A little creativity and Internet savvy go a long way:
- Join social networks. Get on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Flickr
- Start a blog or guest post on a related blog
- Create a new email signature with all your contact details, including address, phone numbers, email, website and social networking links
- Engage with small business forums: ask questions, leave comments and share your experiences
- Invite customers, suppliers and associates to join your mailing list
- Develop partnerships with complementary businesses
- Share your expertise: run free workshops, make videos for Youtube or write an e-book to download from your website
- Run a competition or donate prizes to an event
- Start an incentive/rewards program
MORE GREAT POSTS BY NERIDA GILL
- Ho Ho Ho, A’ Christmas Networking We Go
- Entrepreneurial Qualities: Lessons from the Life of Steve Jobs
- Keeping Up With Your Brand: A Reality Lesson from the Kardashians
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Nerida Gill - Admin BanditNerida Gill is the creator of Admin Bandit, a web-based accounting package designed specifically to make keeping the books easy for volunteer treasurers in community groups. After winning numerous business awards, Admin Bandit is in a growth phase after recently attracting external investment.
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Ho Ho Ho, A’ Christmas Networking We Go
November 14, 2011
By Nerida Gill, Admin Bandit
Image by Pixomar*
“’Tis the season to be jolly,” goes the famous carol and I suggest the same applies to our small business activities at this time of year.
No, I’m not suggesting we turn Christmas into a cold, commercial transaction, but I do believe the many parties over the coming weeks give us the opportunity to celebrate our strong relationships and build new ones.
I’m well aware, of course, that many people think the words “work” and “party” are an oxymoron. Or, in fact, just a plain “moron” — we’ve all witnessed those awkward moments of silence or, worse, alcohol-fuelled liberation!
However, it doesn’t have to be that way. I have some ideas to make sure the Christmas parties you go to this year are fun, full of good cheer and networking successes.
When you’re the guest
My number one tip is probably the last one you’re expecting — it’s okay to decline an invitation.
You see, it’s about quality, not quantity.
And by that I mean attending a handful of Christmas parties with a networking strategy in hand is better than blindly chasing every balloon and streamer in town.
Consider these ideas:
- Look for parties hosted or attended by compatible businesses
- Find out who else is going to a party and create a list of people you’d like to meet, especially key decision-makers
- Always talk to your host and don’t be afraid to ask for introductions
- Aim to have quality conversations with 5-7 people
- Keep the conversation light and social — your aim is to meet people and have fun, not close a sale
- Don’t limit yourself to work parties — potential contacts have social lives too!
When you’re the host
Throwing a Christmas party is a great way to say “thank you” and reinforce existing relationships, not to mention reach out to new potential contacts.
One of the hardest things about organising an event is to provide guests with incentives to attend. Willingly. You want people to a come along feeling confident and relaxed… and I have three ways to achieve this.
First, entice them with a gift.
This could be:
- A Literal gift, such as a goodie bag, discount voucher or door prize
- A memorable location, such as a museum, chic café or charter boat
- A guest of honour, such as a personality or expert in your field
- An activity, which could be anything from a magician or string quartet to wine tasting or a cooking demonstration or even a guest lecture or workshop. Just make sure your activity doesn’t cause embarrassment or discomfort… not everyone wants to go paintballing or do karaoke!
Second, make sure your party is easy to attend…
…which means sending invites that let your guests know exactly what to expect.
Apart from the obvious, include:
- A finish time
- The purpose of your party; for example, to celebrate increasing sales by 15% over the year
- Who is attending; for example, a select group of loyal and supportive friends, customers and associates
- The names of guests of honour, MCs or entertainers
- A dress code
- What refreshments will be served; for example, a buffet dinner or coffee with sweet Christmas treats
- Any speeches or activities that will occur.
Third, create a comfortable atmosphere and make meeting new people painless.
Do this by:
- Allowing guests to bring their own guest, such as a colleague or family members
- Providing name badges with big, clear writing. Don’t just write a person’s name… add their business, association or link to give context and spark conversation
- Making something happen early… have a welcome speech or some entertainment 15 to 20 minutes into the party to create a sense of unity and open opportunities for interaction
- Having an MC to guide guests through your party
- Having people whose job is to greet guests, start conversations, introduce people and keen an eye out for anyone at a loose end
- Making sure your refreshments are top notch!
Consider an e-party
In these days of global workplaces, not to mention impossible parking, an e-party or, more formally, a virtual event is perfect if you want your Christmas party to be a learning-based event, such as a seminar, workshop or q and a.
A successful e-party has five aspects:
- Technology: while you can buy e-conferencing software, I recommend small business owners keep it simple and use Facebook, blogs or a forum on your website
- A compelling topic: grab interest by discussing a trend, an item currently in the news or a problem that needs solving
- Purpose and structure: know precisely what you want to achieve and have a chair to introduce experts and guide discussion
- Engage participants: create interest and facilitate discussion with videos, images and plenty of opportunities for questions
- Time: give a specific timeframe, ranging from an hour to a number of months.
To give you an idea just how successful even a simple virtual event can be, my friend has been following an ongoing thread on an Australian horse forum that allows horse owners to ask a snake expert questions. Seventeen pages and 3,683 views later, the thread is still on a hot topic on the front page!
MORE GREAT POSTS BY NERIDA GILL
- Entrepreneurial Qualities: Lessons from the Life of Steve Jobs
- Keeping Up With Your Brand: A Reality Lesson from the Kardashians
- Are You Responsible? How Small Business Can Give Back
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Nerida Gill – Admin BanditNerida Gill is the creator of Admin Bandit, a web-based accounting package designed specifically to make keeping the books easy for volunteer treasurers in community groups. After winning numerous business awards, Admin Bandit is in a growth phase after recently attracting external investment.
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What Should I Write about on My Business Blog?
November 11, 2011
By Suzi Dafnis, Australian Businesswomen’s Network
Blog about your passion. For some of you, your passion will be something in your business. However, if you have a passion for something else related to your business (such as direct mail advertising or Google AdWords), then you could write about this and still promote your business.
Whatever you write about, you have to keep your business brand and message consistent. Your business blog should not be your personal blog, or your travel blog. Stick to business on your business blog. Your blog should carry forward the brand from your website and other marketing materials. At one point, we used a blog template that didn’t look like our website and we ended up changing the design so that it looks seamless when compared to our site.
Stay on brand!
If you don’t already have a website for your business, consider setting up a blog. Blog technology allows you to set up a page that looks exactly like a website, operates like a website, can integrate plug-ins for e-commerce and collect names and addresses in the database. It’s a wonderful, inexpensive way to develop a website quickly. See QuickPress for an example of a quick, easy blog platform. If I were to launch a new business today, I would start with a blog.
I’m not saying, “Build it and they will come.” They won’t come. You need to be where they are. You want to go where the eyeballs are. Visit other blogs, make comments and see who’s communicating there and using those social tools.
Blog posts should offer valuable content for your audience.
Posts should engage the audience so that they tweet about the post and link to it. Give users the option to comment, too. One of my posts received 79 comments, which increased traffic to the post and engaged the community. Make sure you also respond to comments too; let your followers know that you are listening.
You can also use polls and contests and ask questions to engage the community. Give your audience a voice. We’ve actually used polls on our blog to help create new products and services by asking women what they care about, what bugs them and what would help them in their businesses.
You should track the traffic to your blog.
Google Analytics works well with most blogging platforms. When we sit down on Wednesday mornings for our staff meeting, the ABN team looks at the number of visitors to our blog, the number of comments, the number of new subscriptions and which posts are most popular. If you make a habit of blogging at least a couple of times a week and reviewing the traffic data, you’ll begin to realise which types of posts draw the most traffic.
If you’re not a great writer…
Consider recording YouTube videos and posting them on your blog. You can also record and post podcasts. But when you post videos, photos and podcasts, be sure to include at least a paragraph that contains keywords for search engine optimisation.
And then there are times when it may be better to avoid blogging. Don’t blog if you don’t have anything to say. If your posts are not engaging and useful, then you will probably lose followers. Remember: “No One Cares What You Had for Lunch!” This is also the name of an online resource with suggested blog topics.
Other helpful resources for blogging include Blogging for Dummies, problogger.net and anything by Seth Godin.
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY SUZI DAFNIS
- How Guy Kawasaki Enchanted Me
- Make Telephone Interviews Work: Tips for Preparing and Conducting Virtual Interviews
- Boardroom to Bedroom – Three cornerstones for success
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Suzi Dafnis – Australian Businesswomen’s NetworkSuzi Dafnis is the Australian Businesswomen’s Network’s Community Director and Chairperson of the Advisory Board. Suzi has been involved with the network since 1995. In 1998, she took over the network from its founder and has since managed and grown the network. She remains its media spokesperson and a champion of women in business. She is also the editor of the ABN’s newsletters, author of the herBusiness blog and presents the In Her Shoes video series and herBusiness podcast.
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Alycia Edgar Helps Business Owners Reach ‘Systems Nirvana’
November 10, 2011
Member Alycia Edgar is making the news with her business program Bizfficiency.
Systems can be the making of a small business, but without them everything falters. When it comes to driving their businesses, some owners can be the roadblocks.
As a small business owner and innovator, Alycia Edgar knows this situation very well, but she also found the solution and created the Bizfficiency program to help others achieve complete business systemisation.
The five-week Bizfficiency – Discover the Business of Business teleseminar series reveals the secrets behind business efficiency, based on techniques tried and tested by Alycia herself.
“I run my business using a number of different systems that all work together to drive efficiency and productivity, making me a much better – and happier – business owner. I have reached systems nirvana and want to share my tips with others,” Alycia, who created the award-winning small business accounting system Bookzkeeper, explained.
Bizfficiency graduate Kelly Exeter from Swish Design said she now understood the need for firm systems in business after completing the program last year.
“Creating these systems allowed me to outsource all the jobs I hated the most and freed me up to spend more time doing what I love, and that is being creative. Being creative makes for happy days,” Kelly said.
“In fact, I have applied many of the principles I learned from Alycia to my everyday life and am now using that increased productivity to free up time to spend on myself and with my family, rather than to just ‘do more stuff’. This has given me a better quality of life, and if I am honest, has made me a nicer person!” she added.
Using her own experiences as a small business owner who struggled to keep all the balls in the air before systemising with great results, Alycia launched Bizfficiency with a free call on 2 November 2011.
The series starts on 8 November and covers a different aspect of system implementation every week:
- Weeks One and Two – Personal Productivity System
- Weeks Three and Four – Marketing Systems and Client Systems
- Week Five – Financial Systems, Strategy and Measurement Systems
“Small business owners who commit to systemising their operations now will start 2012 ready to thrive, because they understand the link between their business goals and financial numbers and are armed with productivity tools to drive that success,” Alycia added.
The Bizfficiency program includes five weekly teleseminars, checklists and templates for $397.
For more information about Bizfficiency visit www.bizfficiency.com.
To find our more about Alycia Edgar go to www.bookzkeeper.com.au and www.numbersarelife.com.
Alycia Edgar is one of our herBusiness bloggers.
Enjoy these great posts written by Alycia:
- This year is nearly over… but not yet
- Take a Chance
- Stop! Let me off this train, this wasn’t the ticket I bought!
- I don’t know enough.
- What can you achieve in 90 days?
- Can you care too much about clients?
Four End of Year Tribal Connecters
November 2, 2011
By Kate Tribe, Tribe Research
How are you connecting with your tribe for the end of the year? It is time to start implementing some ideas. Here’s four of my tips.
Find a way to support a core segment of your business
At the end of last year, I wanted to help other small business owners. I took on a Christmas mission to buy all of my family’s presents from Australian SMEs.
- It allowed me to think creatively about what to buy because I wasn’t just walking into a department store to find the best option. I needed to think about the business owners I knew and if their product or service would be great for one of my family.
- It helped me to understand the buying process of my friend’s businesses and give them feedback about it.
- I advertised the purchases along the way so that they were promoted at the same time.
- I had a story to tell my family when I gave them their gift.
I wrote about my Christmas mission at the time.
Individual presents for clients
Don’t select one item and give to every client. It might be quicker to select one item, like wine, and give it to all clients that you’ve decided to give a present to, but it isn’t as special. Another way to give a special thank you is to make it. You can do it in a way that shows them another side of you and is generous.
Connect clients together that could help each other
Instead of going on individual lunches with various favourite clients, take two or three out together so they can meet and network. It will educate your clients about other work you do and allow them to find out some of the other amazing people you know. A slightly larger group makes it more fun and saves you time.
Find a way to reconnect in the new year
Instead of sending end of year cards, utilise the quieter period in January to write new year cards. It will allow you to enjoy the end of the year and you’ll be top of mind at the start of the year.
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY KATE TRIBE
- Customer Feedback Survey Response Rates
- More isn’t always better when getting survey participants
- Grandpa didn’t understand the term networking. It’s just good practice.
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Kate Tribe – Tribe ResearchKate Tribe is the founder and Managing Director of Tribe Research. Kate has developed Tribe Research into an innovative and creative company focusing on accessible ways for business, non-profit and government sectors to grow from a better understanding of their tribe. Tribe Research aims for customers to explore their tribes of clients, customers, suppliers and staff, to uncover their views, and drive change in each clients business. Kate understands that as leaders of an organisation you need to be clear-headed about your marketing and business planning priorities and has made this a primary focus of Tribe Research’s solution. Kate believes that getting to know your tribe should be an enjoyable journey of discovery that gives you a clear head and direction to move forward, to drive change in the right direction.
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ProBlogger Training Day – Top tips to improve the performance of your blog
October 27, 2011
By Suzi Dafnis, Australian Businesswomen’s Network
Last Friday, Australian Businesswomen’s Network members and bloggers Yvette Vignando, Vivienne Kane, Alycia Edgar and Johanna Baker-Dowdell and I (along with over 300 others) attend the ProBlogger Training Day in Melbourne. The one-day event was been created for bloggers of all levels to come together to learn and network – with the goal of building better blogs.
We decided to put together our top take-aways from the day – ideas that resonated with us and that we think you will find valuable.
“Create a profile of who your ideal readers would be.”
Attending blogging conferences is always enriching for me especially because of the variety of people I meet there with interesting niches and fascinating blogs. But the ProBlogger conference had an extra edge for me because some of the speakers were also at the top of their game when it comes to blogging and monetisation of a blog.
Reflecting on the messages and information that would be especially relevant to the general blogging community, these are the ones that stood out for me:
- Be careful to value your blog and its niche when dealing with requests for PR. Phoebe Montague (aka Lady Melbourne) stressed that it is not usually a good idea to use your blog to work for free or very little. So for example, instead of reviewing a product worth $50 in return for keeping the product, consider charging a fee (perhaps double that) for the review – the income pays you for your work.
- It’s not always possible to write with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in mind, but make sure you write on your main topics regularly to keep your Blog optimised. (And by the way, although we don’t use WordPress for the happychild.com.au blog, we were told that there is an Editorial Calendar plugin for WordPress that could be useful.
- Create a profile of who your ideal readers would be and then use it to create posts that are relevant to them.
- “Branding is what people say about you when you are not in the room.” Try to understand what your blog’s brand is and make sure that this clarity is reflected in what you write.
— Yvette Vignando, happychild.com.au
“Motivate your readers to come back.”
The most important points for me from the morning sessions were:
- Don’t assume your reader is you – it’s probably a much broader audience than that.
- When you write, write as though you are speaking to one person – make it personal.
- Your “voice” and content should differentiate you – be authentic.
- Motivate your readers to come back – ask questions and be a problem solver.
— Vivienne Kane, Minuteman Press Prahran
“Nothing is more important then being yourself”
When trying to attract readers, nothing is more important then being yourself, including sharing personal insights, anecdotes and your own photos. Productivity can be an issue if you’re blogging as well as working, so write posts in batches and use comments and questions to help source new topics.
When putting together a strategy for blog content, brainstorm ideas and then ask readers which topics appeal to them.
— Johanna Baker-Dowdell, Strawberry Communications
“There is a fine line between giving away too much and devaluing your paid products and services.”
A comment by special guest Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week: “a lot of teaching fails from too much information, not too little,” rounded up my learnings at the ProBlogger event.
Sonia Simone of Copyblogger, in an earlier session, had spoken extensively about tribes and the know, like and trust factor with some great information, but the message I truly received from this uber-intelligent person was this:
If you start to develop a tribe, people will pay to be a member, for access (without trolls). People will also pay for exclusive access to you, advanced training and Q&A sessions are like gold.
In other words, while freemium is a great model from a marketing perspective, there is a fine line between giving away too much and devaluing your paid products and services.
Sonia summed it up beautifully (IMHO) — “How can you become their latte so they can’t live without it?”
Put the really juicy stuff behind the paid wall, value those that are paying money for access, but still provide great free content as a marketing tool.
— Alycia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Services
And me…
“Always make it clear what you want people to do.”
- Put more YOU on your blog and in your posts.
- To create trust – show up, pay attention, don’t lie.
- Don’t dilute the sales funnel with distractions. Focus the message.
- Sometimes selling does not involve money – often you’re selling a concept.
- Your readers cannot find your old content – so repackage content to make it more readily available.
- Always make it clear what you want people to do.
— Suzi Dafnis, Australian Businesswomen’s Network
I really enjoyed the day.
The speakers were first class (I’d recommend you put the next one in your schedule if you want to be a better blogger or just create better content for your social media and your website).
You can read more about the Problogger Training Day here.
And I also recommend you subscribe to Darren Rowse’s Problogger blog here.
RELATED BLOG POSTS
- Why my Blog isn’t getting Comments
- Keeping Up With Your Brand: A Reality Lesson from the Kardashians
- How to Get Your Awards Entry Shortlisted
What If?
October 27, 2011
By Julie Wise, The Silver Owl
If you ever ask my team when they run for cover, they would immediately say when she starts a sentence with, ‘What if’.
I have to admit, I use this phrase fairly often when I sense there’s more we can be doing or when I really want to challenge the way a business is doing something.
Surprisingly, or perhaps not, we come up with so many ideas…
When we do ask that question – What If:
- I stopped producing that report – would anyone notice?
- We opened only 4 days a week?
- I dropped my website?
- We didn’t have an office – could my staff do their jobs?
- We only used Facebook – no email, no paper, or intranet?
- We had a best ‘what-ifs’ of the year competition running?
The trouble isn’t really generating the possibilities. You will end up with a list of ideas, some more plausible than others, because that’s just how it works. The problem will be being paralysed or overwhelmed by the list.
I invented a simple ranking system to help put some order on the list.
The ranking system looks like this…
| Points | Description | Follow Up |
| 10 | Of course it’ll work | Why are you even bothering to think out – Just Do It |
| 7 | I reckon it’ll work | Might need to cite some examples or some numbers from the finance beanies |
| 5 | Like Government | Approximately fifty-fifty chance of delivering result. |
| 2 | If I cross my fingers and squeeze my eyes really tight… | Put it on the desperate list! |
| 0 | NO | Bin It |
It’s a good idea to rank the ideas quickly without too much thought by using your first instinctive reaction to the suggestion - you understand your business better than anyone else, so TRUST yourself!
Now start working on the ideas ranked 7 or higher to look at what or where they improve your business and start making the changes.
So if you’re ever wondering how to get some ideas, or looking to resolve a problem, ask yourself: ‘what if’.
What if I called this brainstorming?
MORE GREAT POSTS BY JULIE WISE
- Networking – Beyond the Business Card Shuffle!
- Build your Business: Steve Jobs Style
- Mobile Devices : Is your slip still showing?
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Julie Wise – The SilverOwlJulie has over 25 years in business operations, strategy and performance improvements. She is an accredited Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and an alumnus of the Institute of Executive Coaching. She established The SilverOwl specifically to help businesses with their strategies and operational efficiencies. With Julie’s wealth of experience, and network of associates, The SilverOwl provides access to a vast range of business performance solutions and experienced professionals. Julie is on the Australian Business Women’s Network Advisory Board and the NSW Committee for the Australian Women’s Archive Project. In Jan 2010, she joined the Fred Hollows Foundation.
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Why isn’t my blog getting any comments?
October 21, 2011
By Cheryl Hayman, Hayman Strategy
When you develop any communications strategy, it ultimately takes a lot of hard work and dedication to build an audience that cares enough to speak up. This is also true for your blog when you’re using it as a marketing or communications tool.
Assuming you have developed a blogging strategy (with the end user in mind), that you fully understand your brand’s core characteristics and that you have considered the topics and areas of relevance to your consumers or customers, then a part of this strategy should be about enticing commentary to your blog.
Without comments, your blog is on a one-way street.
Remember, it’s a communication tool and hence it needs to be part of a two-way system. It will work best if it provokes interactivity. Otherwise, it’s more akin to a brochure or a book, and the power of a blog is its ability to stimulate the audience to respond and engage. It gives them a voice, and this is what drives loyalty to the brand and also provides advocacy on many occasions.
So a question: is your blog struggling to get responses from readers? If so, then you may be committing one or more of the mistakes listed here:
- You are not responding to comments
- You make it too difficult to comment
- You don’t network with other bloggers
- You are not rewarding commentators
- Readers don’t comment because nobody else has
- You don’t ask for comments
- Or, sadly, your blog isn’t a reflection of relevant and interesting insights for your ideal audience
Remember to maintain your content in such a way that it will satisfy your audience.
Choose topics that are unique, trendy, topical and so on. Only these types of topics bring more blog participation. While it is usually true that controversial posts encourage large number of comments, use them sparingly.
Similarly, respond to comments in such a way that the users will comment more.
As you can see, there are a lot of different reasons why people might not be leaving comments on your blog. Comments play a huge role in the structure of a blog, reflect the interest of your readers and turn a blog into more of a conversation.
If your blog is not a forum for discussion and comments, perhaps you need to realise that your blog isn’t working as effectively as you had hoped. The best advice is to experiment with different things, alleviate the ‘mistakes’ listed above and find out what works best for you.
MORE GREAT POSTS BY CHERYL HAYMAN
- Approaching Your Boss – a Mentoring Perspective
- Uncover, communicate and nurture your personal brand
- Tip No. 7: Advice for a Business Owner with a Strong Marketing Focus
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Cheryl Hayman – Hayman StrategyCheryl Hayman owns and manages a strategic marketing and business consultancy, Hayman Strategy, providing a broad range of business and marketing solutions to corporations. Prior to establishing her own business, Cheryl had over 20 years experience as a senior marketing executive in multi-national organisations spanning Australia, NZ and the UK. Cheryl undertakes a number of non-executive Board roles and sits on several Advisory Boards including the Australian Businesswomen’s Network. Cheryl is a Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute, holding a CPM.
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News: New Google AdWords Information Hub developed to support women in business to get online
October 20, 2011
The Australian Businesswomen’s Network today launched a Google AdWords information hub on its website.
This new multi-page feature provides resources and easy-to-follow details on how Google AdWords can help small businesses drive results.
Within this hub, small business owners can access all the AdWords basics including how to begin, what to expect and how to make the most from advertising dollars (which are often scarce in small business).
“By introducing this new information hub, we hope to provide small-business owners with new tools and skills to harness the power of an engine like Google and to drive the traffic that we know is available to them if they get their business in front of the right eyeballs,” explained Community Director, Suzi Dafnis
“It’s not news that more and more people are looking online to find what they want. We want to be sure our community members are armed with the tool and knowledge to use internet traffic to drive people to their businesses,” says Dafnis.
Google AdWords Information Hub
A few features of the Google AdWords for Small Business Information Hub are:
- Free eGuides show businesswomen how to grow their business with adwords and provide tips for finding new customers online, measuring results, understanding how to pick great keywords for ads and how to write attention-grabbing ads
- Ask a Google expert – Viewers can ask their questions online and Google AdWord’s expert Kate Conroy will reply with customised answers.
- Case Studies – The hub features a number of real stories from small businesses who share their AdWords results and the results they’ve seen since they started using AdWords.
- Free Webinar – The Australian Businesswomen’s Network is offering a free Google AdWords for Small Business webinar in November to give women access to even more resources and education.
Take a look at these resources:
- What is Search Advertising?
- Why Google AdWords Makes Sense for Small Business
- How to Grow Your Business with Google AdWords
- Free Tools and Resources
PLUS – visitors can request a free voucher to try AdWords out. The vouchers, valued at $75 are available to first-time Google AdWords users.
The Australian Businesswomen’s Network looks forward to working with its community members to improve their understanding of Google AdWords and to having them start to get the types of results these small business owners have enjoyed since they started using AdWords.
