I found this on Copyblogger, and had to share. ~ Enjoy!
Like this infographic? Get more copywriting tips from Copyblogger.
Comments (0)
Categories : Copywriting
Tags : grammar
What does that even mean to you? For me, it means I’m looking forward to taking a break and enjoying some conversations that aren’t about link development and well-written words on a page.
A change of pace is good for all of us, and it gives us a chance to reflect. These last two years have been crazy busy with the best clients in the world. I’m thankful for Jesus, friends and family. I’m thankful for my husband and my seriously great life, too, which would not be possible without the support and encouragement of all of the above! I’m also very grateful and thankful for you.
I don’t get a whole lot of comments on here, but unlike many in the marketing world, I’m not worried about that at all. I’m not the biggest social media user in the world, either. That ought to give you some encouragement! I’m constantly busy producing, constantly in-demand, and it’s because we’re on the right track. The bottom line is that when our clients are successful, we’re successful. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
We’ve been through some big changes here at Susan Hamilton Copywriting, all because we believe in what we’re doing. My writing assistant, Bridget, has helped me manage our accounts, freeing me up to get more involved with my team at Zero To Sixty Marketing LLC.
Last September, Shari asked me to join her as a partner and I accepted. It’s a wild ride already! So much to do, so much to figure out when you’re growing. We now have a Dallas office and I’m bouncing off the walls thrilled!
My advice to any of you who wonder if the timing for growth is right for your business today, is to listen to Warren Buffet. He says he’s never made buying decisions based on changeable factors, like interest rates. An intelligent business decision is based on provable constants.
I’m excited to be a part of the American economic recovery, and you should be too. That clarity charges my batteries and makes everything I do valuable. I urge you to fire yourself up this week.
Get with your families, support small and local businesses, and instead of talking about how it’s all falling to hell, start the discussions that bring progress and change. We all matter in times like this. We all have something to offer to help or encourage another business.
Our words matter. Encouragement comes in word form. Hearing those words from mouths on faces that express, on eyes that respond or light up … is truly the priceless thing to be thankful for. Ask a soldier. Go to a nursing home. It’s a provable truth, a constant.
Put your phones down this week. Get away from your laptop. Go find out what people are really thinking and plug yourself in. Truly, if evolution existed, where are the extra thumbs and ears we should have by now?
I love you all, and wish you a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving feast. Go Cowboys! ~Susan
Comments (0)
Categories : Marketing Message
Tags : Happy Thanksgiving, local business
Clunky navigation looks like a mess.
Don’t look at it like “at least it does the job.” When consumers are deciding where to spend their money, it’s important to look like you are a quality operation. The appearance of your website navigation really does matter.
Make it very easy for a visitor to go exactly where you want them to go, and keep your options within your landing pages minimal. This is also a search indicator. If bots have trouble understanding your site based on industry-specific terminology and acceptable use navigation, they won’t give your site a good score. That can hamper getting found by customers.
Take a few moments to go over your website this week to be certain the most important tool in your marketing toolkit is doing all that it should be!
What do you need to change? Leave me a comment and tell me about it.
You don’t expect to marry on a first date. Convincing another that you’re there for the long road ahead isn’t that fast, either. Learn the basics, sign up for our Build a Better Website course to understand what it really takes to set the foundation for long-term customer relationship building online.
Comments (0)
Categories : Search Engine Optimization
A follow up message goes out to a newsletter subscriber after the confirmation and welcome letter have gone out. It’s a valuable letter, one that will reach your readers when they are still excited about hearing from you.
Additional automated messages are called autoresponders, but the first one sets the stage for the rest.
Be more detailed and bold in this letter. Cite the benefits of the program they’ve signed up for and introduce other offers that may interest them in the future.
If you develop an HTML newsletter, like on a website page, use widget areas – those boxes of additional, regular content that reappear on all of the campaign autoresponders – to share other related services or products.
Using plain text, however, avoids different appearances that can sometimes happen when it’s opened in readers’ various email clients. If you write it in plain text, offer additional links after you’ve made your focused message very clear in the body text.
AWeber Email Services makes it easy with several templates to choose from that offer different design elements. Yes, you can send out a blog as a newsletter, but you can do so much more.
Develop campaigns around your services or new product lines, and use the newsletter database to introduce those ideas through email blasts. You’ll soon be able to tell what subscribers are interested in, and be more equipped to offer what can truly benefit them.
The next two or three autoresponder messages in a campaign can be shorter. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.
Next, create a sense of urgency in your prospect’s mind. Make a special offer, giving a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these messages, your prospect should want to order immediately.
Phrase each of your final one or two autoresponder messages in the form of a question. If you don’t get a response, ask your prospect why he hasn’t yet placed an order; try to get him to actually respond.
Is the price is too high,- Is the product the right color or
- Does it lack the right features, or
- Is he is looking for something else entirely?
A placed order or a request for more information should still get a question. Use those opportunities to find out what they loved about ordering from you, or what feature they loved about your product.
Everything about your campaign will guide you towards your next one, so be determined to be a student of email marketing!
SurveyMonkey.com is an easy way to find out how your sales process is working from the customer’s perspective.
By the way, use those questions in your email subject line, but drop the question mark. I find that way too many emails come through with unnatural characters when a question mark isn’t translated correctly between systems.
You may not get an order or a positive response your first time around, but you may get some feedback that will help you improve your game.
If you’d like to learn more about developing email marketing campaigns from scratch, sign up for my Email Success Series for audios and tutorials that will help you get your head around the process.
Are you email marketing? Share your ideas with us!
Comments (0)
Categories : Business Email Marketing
WordPress websites aren’t designed to be set up and left alone. Your business website is more than just an online existence. When you take advantage of all it can do, you’ll find out your website is an active hub that allows you to interact with people in a truly unique manner. It will drive sales, enhance branding, educate consumers, promote authority, communicate with its readers, and collect data. If your business website isn’t doing that, give me a call.
Although automation tools make WordPress websites highly efficient and easy to update, there’s still a good amount to be done every day for it to function at its highest capacity.
Anyone who’s been in business long enough to make money eventually realizes the habits they form early on make or break their ability to achieve success.
Good habits stem from a fundamental understanding that without developing them, your company won’t operate very well.
- You can’t devote an entire day to social media or you wouldn’t get any work done. You learn you have to devote some of your time to it daily, and stay on task with a timer.
- You record financial data daily.
- There are probably set times to answer and manage emails. (I’ve heard it can be done!)
- Weekly staff meetings are usually mandatory.
Developing a habit to work regularly on your business website is just as important.
Every week and every day, some time should be devoted to website management. Regularly, you need to:
- Approve, delete and respond to comments.
- Add fresh content.
- Evaluate navigation.
- Add current testimonials.
- Evaluate page analytics to see if you’re on-target with your message and your audience.
- Check for broken links and fix them.
- Update your theme or plugins to the latest versions to keep abreast of functionality and security.
- Consider visual improvements.
- Look at your text for page relevance. Is it answering the questions people are asking?
- Add special offers, coupons, and landing pages for them.
These are just a handful of the regular tasks that need to be on your to-do list until they become deeply-rooted habits.
Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below.
Comments (0)
Categories : Consulting
Tags : business websites, WordPress websites
I’m so proud to reprint this post by Sheri McConnell! For those of you who don’t know, Sheri McConnell is the CEO of the Smart Women’s Institute of Entrepreneurial Learning (formerly the National Assn of Women Writers-2001). You can visit Sheri, access her free article archive, and grab lots of free stuff at http://www.smartwomeninstitute.com. Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, their four children, a weenie dog, and three hermit crabs. Thank you, Sheri, for inspiring entrepreneurs everywhere. ~Susan
Perhaps you may have read the recent article by Sir Richard Branson on the Five Secrets To Business Success. I loved the article, agree with it completely and found myself still not connecting to it at the deep level I have grown accustomed to. As a woman entrepreneur, I thought you might have felt the same. So I offer my version of the five secrets below. Enjoy!
Live Your WHY
Women who are able to connect their business to a larger meaning or movement are more likely to create a long term profitable business. This is because the business has a WHY for them. As they inevitably run into problems that are part of creating and running a business, they are able to sustain themselves through it all because they know how important it is that their business survive.
Be A Challenger
Successful female entrepreneurs eventually master a graceful balance of being able to challenge themselves, their clients, and the world as a whole in an way that inspires and allows people to proactively move forward on their own. These women know that by challenging their clients and customers, people know how to fish for themselves instead of showing back up hungry again later.
Inspire Your Staff To Quit
Successful women entrepreneurs create cultures in their company that are centered around growth. They walk their talk behind the scenes so much so that often their staff becomes so completely up-leveled that they literally have to go out into the world and live their own purpose. Successful entrepreneurs know that this is all part of the big picture and these women or men will help them from the outside of their companies too. Successful women entrepreneurs take pride in the growth that happens collectively from the culture they created because they know it all comes full circle and is exactly what is supposed to happen.
Be A Visionary
You guessed it. Successful women entrepreneurs look to the future intuitively. They don’t ask how until they are in the trenches building it. They plan around the what and the why and then once they run the numbers for profits, they jump in and just get started knowing the how will be revealed.
Create Positive Change for Others Each Day
And finally, really successful women entrepreneurs can do many things at once each day for their families, their friends, their team, their clients– all because they focus on scalable positive change. They ask, “What can I do with the least amount of effort that will cause the largest ripple?”
Comments (2)
Categories : Consulting
Tags : entrepreneur, Live your WHY
Let me introduce my newest contributor and Assisting Writer, Bridget Skinner. She’s been playing a significant role behind the scenes while my company grows to accommodate new clients. I know you’ll appreciate the insightful perspective she shares on some blogging basics in this post. ~Susan
A quality piece of content work takes quality time. You might think you have all the right content ready to go – and maybe you do, maybe it is. Don’t hit that “Publish” button before you’ve let your piece sit for at least 24 hours. This piece of advice has been instrumental to me in the world of writing content. I can guarantee that when you pick it back up you’ll find changes that need to be made, every time.
Frustration comes easy when you think you have it all together, but something doesn’t seem to fit. If it doesn’t seem to fit after your first draft then let it sit! It will most likely be a difficult read to your audience if it’s difficult to you.
What do you offer that helps your reader?
Writing content for your business is more than just writing for you. To be the business that your client needs, you’ll need to look through their eyes for the best perspective when you’re writing. Get to know what will be helpful to your reader before you publish anything.
Then read and re-read your work again – making sure you’re capturing the client’s attention. Does it make sense? If not, try again. Article quality will be improved by the time you spend away from your original copy. When you pick it back up, the changes needed will be right in front of your face.
Will your reader follow the train of thought?
Subject matter is important, but so is keeping their eyes on the page. You want to review the length of your sentences. Are you being too wordy? Can your run-on sentence be made into two sentences? Can you get rid of some content altogether and avoid saying the same thing twice?
Titles don’t come easy, and if I can grab your attention with an exceptional title then I want to keep your attention with an exceptional article. In order to do this I need to read what I am writing out loud, and reading it once is just not enough. I might need to read it over a few times. After I’ve cleaned up any grammar and punctuation changes, it’s ready to go! Practice this yourself and watch your posts improve.
Don’t get frustrated with a blog that isn’t getting noticed. Figuring out how to write to your audience can be tricky when you’re just starting out. A little extra time put into detail will really make the difference.
Do you have trouble writing your blog posts? Tell us what you’re doing to improve your content in the comments section below.
Sign up for the Richardson Copywriter to get these posts sent straight to you. You’ll be a better writer in no time at all.
Comments (1)
Categories : Business Blogging
Tags : content writing
By Susan Hamilton · Comments (0)
Monday,
August
1st,
2011
As you claim your company name within directories like CitySearch or YellowPages, you’ll realize that often you’re already listed. The problem is that if you haven’t claimed your company, you can’t improve it and you’re subject to whatever they’ve drawn on you from whatever resource online.
It’s easy to end up in large directories more than once. This video discusses what to do in that case and why you should not ignore that situation. It runs about 6 minutes.
Let me know if this helped you. If you have any questions, please ask! Leave your comments below.
Comments (0)
Categories : Local Marketing Online
By Susan Hamilton · Comments (0)
Friday,
July
29th,
2011
Managing categories inside directory dashboards can be confusing. It’s highly important, but very easy to get wrong or leave incomplete. Each directory has slightly different category choices, and within them sub-categories that may not be very evident. Take all the time necessary to be sure you’ve chosen every category that your business could fall under.
I want to point out that my Richardson Copywriter Local Business Pages is not among the directories I’ve been discussing. That listing is a free service for exemplary local businesses within the NE Dallas area and is available by referral only. If you know of a business that deserves to be listed among the best, be sure to follow that link and submit their information to me. I love to promote the good guys!
Anyway, here we go. For the next 4 minutes and 16 seconds, you’re going to learn about managing your categories and how to engage the directory if you find that your items aren’t posting as you like.
I hope you found this helpful. Remember, if you get sick of doing this yourself, it is a service we offer through my national association with Zero To Sixty Marketing. We can take this off your plate!
You can save a dime if you do it yourself, but you need to do it right or you can have a mess on your hands. Tell me, does this information help you better understand how to list yourself? Do you have any questions I can answer for you? Please get in touch with me or leave me your comments below.
Comments (0)
Categories : Local Marketing Online
By Susan Hamilton · Comments (1)
Wednesday,
July
27th,
2011
Are images important to your directory listing? Not only is it important to have your own hand-chosen image uploaded into your listing for brand recognition, you also need to be certain pictures unrelated to your business aren’t already associated with it. I talk more about that briefly here. 3:11
Let me know if this information was helpful in the comments below. Do you have any questions I can answer for you about directory inclusion? I’m happy to help, just post your questions below and I’ll get right back with you.
Comments (1)
Categories : Local Marketing Online
Tags : posting images
Follow Me!
Categories
- Brochure Copy (1)
- Business Blogging (11)
- Business Email Marketing (8)
- Business Solutions for Working Virtual (1)
- Consulting (5)
- Copywriting (5)
- Local Marketing Online (8)
- Marketing Message (3)
- Media Release (1)
- Networking (1)
- Outsourced Business Writing (2)
- Search Engine Optimization (4)
- Social Media (6)
- Target Marketing (1)
Zero To Sixty Marketing LLC
It's time to start thinking outside the box. With a virtual marketing firm, you save money on your overhead. You're not paying for vacations, insurance, office space, or benefits AND you gain a fresh perspective - a viewpoint from outside your organization.
Maybe you don't need a full-service marketing package, or maybe you're just seeking less expensive options. As independent small business owners ourselves, we DO understand that the money isn't always available when it's needed. But marketing your small business is crucial to your business growth. Studies show that the businesses that continue to creatively market themselves during tough economic times, are the ones that not only make it through, but thrive.
Susan Hamilton Copywriting
Copyright © 2012 All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2012 All Rights Reserved
