Who Loves You, Baby? How (and How Not) to Use Positive Feedback

It's happened to all of us: You're browsing the "Now Playing" movie ads and see a brief quote from a rave review that flies in the face of everything else you've heard critics and friends. Then you notice that the quote is attributed to some local radio DJ you never heard of. In the space of a few seconds, your feelings about that movie go from indifference to excitement to skepticism. But that's the problem with testimonials and other types of positive feedback -- they can't always be taken at face value.

What about the testimonials you've posted on your organization's website? First of all, yes, you should have some. Legitimate testimonials from satisfied customers are easy enough to obtain -- all you have to do is ask for a few choice words, over the phone or on paper. What you don't want to do is make up bogus quotes. Sooner or later, some way or other, you'll be found out, and then you'll have some big explaining to do. And viewers can generally tell bogus quotes a mile away. They're always a little too perfectly expressed, they all tend to be the same length, and they often use initials instead of names -- not to protect anyone's anonymity, but to keep you from inquiring further. A testimonial that sounds like a real person wrote it, and has a full name attached to it, is always more credible. So keep it real when you're gilding your web pages with thanks and compliments.

Phony positive feedback isn't just a website thing; it's caused its share of problems on social media channels as well. Yelp is a prime example. It's always had a problem filtering out the fake reviews from the real ones, and I can't tell you how many times I've heard business owners say, "Hey, please go to our Yelp page and write a great review for us," regardless of whether I'd ever actually used their products or services. If your company depends on Yelp for a percentage of its business, you may not be able to control who says what (including the inevitable negative review from time to time), but you can at least keep your nose clean by not blatantly soliciting rave write-ups. Even that marketing monolith, Facebook, felt compelled to remove "like-gating" (the practice of forcing viewers to like a page in exchange for special incentives) as a possible option for business owners. That's bad news for those who love to game the system, but ultimately it adds credibility to the likes a business does receive, making your Facebook popularity that much more meaningful.

All this boils down to the need to go for the purest, most genuine testimonials you can get. If they're over-long or clumsily written, ask for permission to clean them up. A skilled copywriter can do a little cosmetic work that makes a big difference without distorting the meaning behind the quote. I've performed this service for many clients and never had any complaints. It makes the website read more smoothly, and it makes the contributor of the quote sound more eloquent. The right words can really help you boost your business -- as long as you use them properly!

Boosting Your Business's Metabolism

In case you haven't noticed, we're experiencing a sort of national deep-freeze this winter (and unless you're reading this from Southern Florida, you most definitely have noticed). Many areas are struggling to get out of the negative digits, and we're not done with meteorological winter yet. So what are your options as far as keeping warming and staying alive and all that good stuff? Well, there are are two basic strategies: raising your external temperature, or raising your internal temperature.

If you're not willing to wait for your town to thaw itself out naturally (and you can't move to the aforementioned Southern Florida), then raising the external temperature will involve turning up your thermostat, switching a space heater on, or getting a fire going in the fireplace. But heating yourself is usually more cost-effective than heating an entire room or house. Wrapping up in warm clothing is a smart way to keep your body warmth next to you -- but you can also increase the level of warmth by raising your metabolism. This can be done in a variety of ways, including eating calorie-dense foods, performing aerobic exercise, and consuming spices such as ginger and cayenne pepper. Heat yourself up, and you're less dependent on the kindness of a chilly world.

With all that in mind, then, ask yourself: Has your business "gone cold" lately? Has a certain product, service, or even your entire brand cooled off in response to economic seasons, or as a result of sluggish marketing and development? If so, rest assured that you don't have to sit there and freeze to death. Sure, if you have deep enough pockets you might be able to weather your economic environment until circumstances change, but don't count on your competitors hibernating alongside you. Anyway, burning through your emergency resources is like throwing money on a fire to enjoy some temporary warmth.

I suggest a much more active and efficient strategy. Make your business a hotter property by fueling it with new, fresh, stronger marketing. Create content that generates a sizzle and raises the pulse rates of your customer base. Radiate your marketing outward by posting it on a variety of social media outlets. Spark new enthusiasm within the company by launching new marketing initiatives, refreshing the brand, and inviting your staff to jump on the excitement train. If it's a cold world out there, then take the necessary steps to heat things up and thaw things out yourself. Marketing content can be a powerful catalyst, so fuel up on it and get things cooking. You'll probably be rewarded with a healthy flow of that other essential fuel source -- revenue!

Writing for Your (Unintended) Audience

Not too long ago I met with a representative from a non-profit educational technology organization. This group had been blogging on their own for some time, and they'd finally decided that they would be better off outsourcing that laborious, imagination-sapping task. The representative noted that the articles seemed "dull," overly dry and technical in language and tone. After looking at some the previous posts, I had to agree.

But that led to the next obvious question: Who was the intended audience? His answer: "Well, primarily we want to reach out to IT managers and administrators at school districts. But we also get some teachers and non-technical people who read the blog too." 

That second group the rep was describing is what I call the secondary or "unintended" audience. They're good to have on board. They could help talk up your products or services. They may even be the ones who end up using and benefiting from those products or services most directly. They just don't happen to be the specific population will place the order. The problem is that this group doesn't know the technobabble or business buzzwords that your core audience bats around so effortlessly. So what do you do? Do you "dumb down" your content and risk turning off your target demographic, or do you continue using inside lingo that informs the intellect without grabbing the guts?

Fortunately, it's not really an either-or question. A skilled copywriter can present extremely sophisticated processes and concepts as clear, simple, engaging text. This opens up a blog or website to a broader potential readership, allowing it to attract many potentially valuable individuals the owners might never have thought to cater to. This approach doesn't alienate the industry insiders, either; it simply addresses the topics that matter to this audience in a more entertaining and readable way. Who wouldn't appreciate that? 

This approach is especially important if your prime directive is to create new customers, encourage repeat business, recruit supporters -- you know, persuade. (And that's pretty much everyone, if you think about it.) Are you worried about the accessibility of your written content, but you aren't sure how to fix it without robbing it of its depth. Then put that project in the hands of someone who knows how to translate it into powerful, meaningful words for a larger chunk of the World Wide Web.

Have I made myself clear?

Frequently Asked Questions About Frequently Asked Questions

No, the title of this post isn't some bizarre typo caused by one too many late-night writing sessions. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) pages are a fixture of Internet commerce; in fact, it's pretty hard to visit kind any kind of business site without seeing an "FAQ" tab on the home page. FAQ pages serve a valuable purpose. They can help you defuse common concerns and objections right off the bat, smoothing the way toward a purchase or at least further conversation. They can debunk popular myths about your industry, explain individual products or services, dispense important advice, explain how to place orders, and shed additional light on your business's values and mission. Having written my share of FAQ pages for clients over the years, however, I've come to realize that they can inspire as many questions as they aim to answer. So here's a little FAQ page about FAQ pages.

Q: What should my FAQ page include?

A: There's really no list of "must-have" questions and answers, which means that there's no single way to populate an FAQ page. One of the beauties of FAQ pages is that you get to decide which questions need answering. Simply ask yourself which questions you hear all the time from your clients, prospects, and referral partners, or go through old emails to see which questions you've answered over and over again. At the same time, think about including questions that you wish people would ask, or that you suspect they're keeping to themselves.

Q: How long should my answers be?

A: There are no particular rules about answer length, but use common sense. Abraham Lincoln stated that a man's legs should be long enough to reach the ground. Your answers be long enough to answer the question -- and no longer. If your reader see that his question has an interminable answer, it'll only make him more leery to wade into deeper waters.

Q: How should I address legitimate worries or known problems in my industry or product line?

A: Either don't include them on the FAQ page at all, or answer them honestly. You can always find positive ways to couch those negative situations, such as: "We know you're concerned about this issue, and so are we. That's why doing X, Y and Z to make your outcome more pleasant and productive."

Q: Should I put my company bio in the FAQ page?

A: Probably not, although you could answer some specific questions about skills, experience, et cetera. A full bio paragraph about your company or its leaders more properly belongs on your About Us page. Reserve your FAQ page for questions that might come up after the reader has perused your Home, About Us, and Products/Services pages.

Q: Should I leave some popular questions unaddressed?

A: In my humble opinion, yes. Generally speaking, marketing materials that try to cross every T and dot every I leave the reader with the impression that there's nothing left to ask -- and that could very well kill your chances of receiving calls and having productive chats that result in closed sales.

So, there's my brief FAQ page about FAQ pages. Do you feel a little better equipped to write your own? I hope so -- but if you still don't feel like bothering it yourself, rest assured that I can help you in that department too!

A New Year Calls for a New Marketing Plan

So here we are, already well into January, hustling and bustling to build new success in a new year. (I'm cooking up some new notions myself, as a matter of fact.) For many business owners, the beginning of the year is an ideal time to launch new programs, projects and directions -- including some new and improved marketing strategies to help turn all these great ideas into real-world revenue. Why? Because these folks aren't interested in continuing to run in place; they want to gain speed and move out ahead of the crowd. But before you can change your fortunes, you usually have to change your plan.

How's your January shaping up in that regard? Are you perfectly content to keep on keeping on, or are you looking to make some changes that will enable you to grow, adapt and thrive in an ever-changing environment? After all, new marketing trends, technologies and techniques spring up seemingly every day. Google adjusts its algorithm, and the entire online marketing industry changes course accordingly. Traditional websites are supplemented by mobile websites, then morph into responsive websites. In short, times change -- and so do buyer behaviors. So if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results, how sane are your current marketing strategies?

I encourage business owners to refresh their marketing plans periodically, and the beginning of the year seems as sensible a time as any. Some of the items you might want to look at include:

Your overall business plan - Does it still address your company's needs, mission, values and goals? Are its timelines and milestones still doable? Do the various budgets (including the marketing budget) need adjusting?

Your marketing content - Does your current marketing content do your business proud? Does it actively boost your conversion rates? Do your latest and greatest products and services require promotion via new content? Are you prepared to freshen the existing content on a regular basis, and if so, what's your plan for that?

Your channels - Have you fallen behind the curve in utilizing a full array of social media and other state-of-the-art marketing channels -- or do you actually need to narrow your focus in this area? Could your website be more responsive to a wide range of browsers and mobile devices? Do you need to get more interactive in handling comments and questions from current and prospective customers?

Your analytics - Do you have an information collection system that sifts incoming buyer data into metrics you can use to guide your future marketing endeavors? Do you need to engage an outside provider of turnkey Web analytics, monitoring and management? Could you do a better job of building drip campaigns that automatically send out the right marketing touches to the right customers at the right point in the relationship?

There's still loads of time to make this year your best-ever year for new business growth and development. Just make sure that your marketing grows and develops too!

How's Your Marketing Health?

For many, the transition from Christmas into the New Year represents a drastic course correction, especially in terms of health and wellness. If you've ever glutted yourself in December with the notion of transforming your eating habits come January, then you know what I'm talking about. Or maybe you'll resolve to take up a rigorous exercise regimen after a year spent lounging around in tattered underwear watching TV. Why? Because you suddenly realize that your physical health matters to you.

But what about your marketing health?

Your business or organization runs on revenue, just as we fuel ourselves with food. That revenue comes from customers who were drawn to your products and services by -- you guessed it -- marketing. That means your marketing "body" needs to achieve and maintain tip-top condition. How would you rate the health of that body's following parts?

Heart - We romanticize the heart as the seat of emotion -- but in marketing, feelings, drives and compulsions mean a lot. Not only must your marketing "heart" contain your company's mission and values, but it must also use emotion to convey those convictions to your target market.

Brain - The brain plans, conceives, evaluates and initiates everything you do; it's your master planner. Your marketing "brain" has the same job. It consists of your detailed short-range and long-range marketing plans, as well as the key personnel who write those plans, update them as needed, and occasionally throw them out entirely in favor of a new direction. Do you have these key personnel? Is your marketing plan still valid?

Eyes and ears - Your eyes and ears bring you the wide world in all its detail (with or without some help from your optometrist and audiologist). Your marketing body must see and hear clearly, too. To do this, it needs to position its "eyes" and "ears" along the huge array of media channels available to it -- from Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/et cetera to client reviews and comments posted throughout the Net.

Tongue - To engage in normal speech with others, you need a tongue that is capable of forming words properly and stating ideas effectively. Your marketing "tongue" is your copywriter or copywriting team. These professionals can receive instructions from your marketing "brain" and translate them into the most effective message for your specific goals.

Fingers and toes - When you want to grab something, you reach out and pick it up with your fingers. Your marketing body does much the same. Its "fingers" are the advertisements, Tweets, blog posts, emails, and business calls sent out to reach prospects and clients. (They call them "touches" for a reason!) And what about the toes? Toes help you maintain your balance when standing, walking, or running. Your marketing body's "toes" are your marketing metrics -- those critical numbers that, when properly assessed and interpreted, can help you adjust your marketing efforts and keep your business upright.

Digestive system - When you eat, you don't just put food in your mouth; you chew it, swallow it, and (hopefully) digest it. Well, your marketing body can't be content simply to bring new prospects to your business. It must process those prospects by converting them into satisfied paying customers, just as your digestive system must process the food you eat before it can do you any good. Think of your conversion tools and strategies -- a well-designed website, easy-to-use points of sale, opportunities for buyer/browser feedback, big data collection and interpretation, and followup communications -- as the "guts" of your marketing body.

So while you're making those New Year's resolutions to lose weight, build muscle, increase your flexibility, or engage in smarter wellness practices, give some additional thought to your marketing wellness. Then resolve to enjoy optimal business health in the coming year!

Freelancing on the Move: How to Write from Anywhere

One of the great advantages of being a freelance writer is the fact that you can write for any client, anywhere. This opens up fascinating possibilities for people who need to earn a living but don't necessarily want to spend every moment of their lives cooped up in the same office -- or even the same city. I've heard of folks writing entire book manuscripts and other large projects while roaming the country in an RV, for instance. After all, how hard could it be? All you need is email, a Web connection, and a laptop. Right?

Well, sort of. That’s a good start, but there are other considerations to think about, too. I would expand that list to include:

• Internet/email connectivity
• Voice connectivity
• A writing machine
• A solid client base
• Peace and quiet

The technological challenges are fairly easy to overcome. Most major cell phone services have an option that enables you to use your cell phone or smart device as a mobile Wi-Fi hot spot, so you can work and communicate online as long as you’re in a place that gets decent coverage. Some RV parks offer wireless connectivity as part of their service. If your “day job” boss has sent you on an assignment that includes a hotel stay, you can simply use that facility’s Internet. Then of course there are all those free hot spots in coffee houses, restaurants and libraries across the U.S. I wouldn’t want to share sensitive information over public airwaves, but for everyday writing tasks they’re safe enough.

You choice of writing device will have an impact on how easily you can do a day’s work. For me, a proper writing machine has to have a proper keyboard, so that rules out touchscreen solutions such as tablets. I’ve found Chromebooks perfectly adequate for writing on the road, at least in most situations -- especially since you can save documents to an external thumb drive or hard drive, solving the question of limited storage. If you plan on doing a large percentage of your writing offline, however, you may want to spring for a more fully functional traditional laptop.

A solid client base is always desirable for any freelancer, but it becomes an even bigger deal when you spend long periods of time away from your home base. That’s because you’re losing opportunities to network and have face-to-face meetings with local clients and prospects. Sure, you’ll meet people on your travels, but it’s harder to turn those encounters into long-term business relationships. My advice would be to develop a deep pool of strong hometown client/colleague connections before hitting the road.

Don’t discount peace and quiet as a critical factor in your success as a mobile writer. You can’t write if you can’t hear yourself think, and that isn’t always easy when you have little no control over your surroundings. The friendly hustle and bustle of a coffee shop might boost your mood and energize your imagination -- until a screaming 2-year-old sits appears at the next table. RV parks and campgrounds can be notoriously rambunctious. Even the most sophisticated executive suite may have paper-thin walls, which is pretty much like inviting all the neighbors over to party while you try to meet that writing deadline. But don't lose hope; earplugs and iPods are among the traveling writer’s best friends. You might also get good results from synchronizing your writing schedule with quieter times of day or night.

Give these issues some thought before your next great adventure -- and then have fun writing from (and for) Anywhere, U.S.A.!