Just a short post today to point you to an interesting article that I read today at About: Marketing.com which is run by Laura Lake. Laura makes some interesting points about the differences in the ways that men and women use the internet.

She suggests that these differences should have an impact on the way you market your business. Effective marketing is about narrowing down your target market and aiming your sales message directly at it. Laura is suggesting that gender should also be taken into account.

What do you think? Do the differences between men and women indicate that their gender should be taken into account when planning marketing campaigns?

Is this something that you already do? Let me know in the comments below.

Photo on Flickr by lumaxart

OK, time to get back to a regular service after all that chocolatey goodness!

When you start a blog, you post a few times and sit back and wait for the visitors to come.

You can wait a very long time.

Bringing organic traffic to your blog without using backlinks or article submission websites can prove very frustrating. The golden grail of getting to the top of Google can prove insurmountable for some people. I have tripled the traffic to this blog using one simple strategy which I will share in a minute.

First of all, check that your website has a sitemap and that you have submitted it to Google. This ensures that your website will be indexed more quickly. If you have a WordPress website, then you can use a plug-in to create your sitemap. Submitting it to Google involves signing up for a Google account and posting a bit of code on one of your webpages. This enables Google to check that your website is genuine and being maintained by a real person.

You are also best to have a privacy policy if you have a comments section or intend to run a mailing list. If you intend to monetise your blog with Adsense, then you definitely need a privacy policy. You can find lots of examples of privacy policies out there on the internet if you search for them.

Your website is now well set up: you have a sitemap and Google knows you are there. You have a privacy policy which ensures that visitors to your site know that you are not going to run offer and sell their email details to the first company that asks.

Now for my strategy:

I decided that I would start to blog regularly.

For me that was three times a week.

That’s it. Simple, isn’t it? I taught myself to schedule posts and try to write them in advance. I scour business forums and faqs for ideas for posts and I have managed to keep it going (with occasional hiccups) thus far. It is working. Choosing to blog so regularly is bringing traffic to my website and I am pretty pleased with it.

What about you? Would you like more traffic to your website? Do you think you need to blog more regularly?

How often you choose to blog is entirely up to you. Some people prefer to blog five times a week, others every day. Some people prefer to blog once a week. The more often that content is added to a website, the more Google will like it. However as long as content is added regularly then visitors will increase.

Of course, article submissions, forum and blog comments and backlinks all help too. But it has amazed me how such a simple strategy as making a resolve to blog regularly and consistently could bring such results.

Photo Credit: Photo on Flickr by Lumaxart.com

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Keyboard Keys with Light on Creative Commons by Ysangkok

A previous article on this website gave reasons why you should have a business  newsletter. Here are some more ideas of what to include when writing your newsletter.

Collecting an email list is a great idea from a business point of view. Allowing people to opt in means that you are gathering a list of people who are expressing an interest in you and what you do which can only be good for your business.

Simple Opt-In is Best

Make it easy for potential customers to opt in to your newsletter: include a big opt-in at the side of your blog posts. You can offer free giveaway e-books to encourage subscribers, or offer email courses. Do include some form of validation to ensure that the sign-up is genuine. This can include ‘Captcha’ code which asks the person subscribing to type in a code. This is in order to exclude automatic web crawler programs. Other forms of checks can include your email program asking the subscriber to click on an emailed link to complete their subscription.

There are some great email programs out there such as mailchimp and feedburner. This article is more about the kinds of things that you can include on your email newsletter.

Items to Include in Your Subscription Newsletter

The idea of the newsletter is to keep your business to the forefront of your customers’ minds. Use your logo at the head of the letter and keep it easy to read in an email window. Use a clear font which is a reasonable size. You can post a short contents section with links at the beginning. Include any special offers fairly quickly. You can offer vouchers to print off or special coupon codes which can be used at checkout. You want to encourage people to visit the website and buy.

Next include some hints and tips. It can be a brief article about some aspect of your business – something that adds content value to your newsletter. You can talk about new products coming soon and perhaps mention an exclusive introductory offer for customers receiving your newsletter. Do include low resolution photos which are clear and self-explanatory. No customer will wait forever for a newsletter to load and they may get impatient if it is blocking the rest of their email, but pictures can add extra interest as well as demonstrating the product.

Encourage Feedback on Your Service

Finally, you can encourage customer feedback by posting a survey and asking for client recommendations for your website. Including client recommendations on your site helps to validate the site and offers encouragement to other potential customers browsing.

You should always include an opt-out clause on any newsletter and your privacy policy on your website should clearly state what you do with the email addresses that you collect. The email programme that you choose to use will offer you more information on how these programmes work and how you should use them. You should never use them to spam your customers. Nothing is more likely to put them off your business.

Photo Link: Photo on Creative Commons by Ysangkok

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Photo on Flickr by akqp

So often when you read a sales pitch, something seems not quite right. It makes all the right promises: you will be a valued customer, the work will be delivered on time, the right value for the price etc, but something is missing. This something can be the difference between your decision of whether to offer the job or not.

It’s not about you.

The sales pitch has been all about the company that you are researching. This is what we can do for you, this is how we operate, this is how we are. As a business owner, however, you are looking for something more.

It should be about me.

If I am a company owner taking the time to research other companies, then I am looking to outsource skills that I don’t currently possess. I am looking for other people that I can work with that I know will solve my problems and be able to answer my queries. I want someone that is professional enough to take my work and get it done efficiently and without problems. I want someone that is sufficiently customer-focused to make their pitch about me.

Your Copy Should Offer Solutions

When you have written your copy, then take a careful look over it. Does it tell the reader all about you? Are you focusing on your solutions, your abilities and skills and your excellent time-keeping skills?

That’s great – but so does every other website out there. They all offer the same great experiences, similar strengths and talents and great eye-catching graphics. What will set you apart is the your ability to focus on your customer. Talk about the kinds of problems that might motivate a potential client to research your website and then solve them. Demonstrate that you are able to connect with business users and focus on them.

Demonstrate Your Strengths

Are they looking for a web designer who is able to use social media effectively? Make sure that your Facebook page and Twitter ID are prominently displayed on your front page along with recent tweets and posts.

Is your customer researching luxury holidays? Fill the website with glorious photos and satisfied customer reviews. Use your compelling copy to place the customer there in the resort, their feet up under a huge umbrella by the pool.

Perhaps the client is looking for a graphic designer who specialises in logos and branding. Include examples, a wide sample of your work and emphasise the customised aspect of your projects. No two are the same and satisfied customers are delighted that the work reflects their company so well.

There are many examples of how you can write compelling copy for your website in order to offer your customers more than just a run-of-the-mill experience. Focus on your customers and use your copy not just to fill a page, but to increase your conversions and enable your website to demonstrate exactly why clients should be hiring you.

Photo Credit: Photo on Flickr by akqb

Sarah Charmley is a compelling copywriter who will be happy to discuss your project with you so that you can set up a compelling website of your own. You can contact her for a free quote here.

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Although the success of the internet means that people tend to look online for the products they need, there is still a place for the traditional offline means of marketing including brochures and leaflets. You can tie in the colour and format of the leaflet to your company brand: you can be creative with them and use images and graphics to create a colourful, exciting product that will inform your customers about your latest features and savings. It pays to redesign leaflets fairly regularly to keep them current and up to date.

What should a successful leaflet contain? You need your company brand and logo clearly printed. You need to choose a clear, easy to read font and keep the writing simple and effective. Your message should explain clearly what you are offering, and the graphics and images should relate to the information on the leaflet. Use bright clear photos to illustrate your leaflet, ensuring that you are not using images which are subject to copyright.

Try for unusual or eye-catching designs. Use colour to suggest moods and emotions. Make sure that you have a professionally designed logo so that it can be printed correctly and will come out looking perfect rather than pixellated.

Finally, remember to include your company details so that they are easy to read and can be easily found. There is nothing worse than scanning a leaflet for the details you want only to find them missing or in such a small type that you need a magnifying glass to read them. Your company contact details, including address, telephone number, email and website are the most important part of the leaflet, so make sure that they are included.

Designing a leaflet to promote your company still has a place in the marketing strategies of today. Designed and proof-read carefully, regularly updated and distributed among clients and potential customers, they can help to keep your customers thinking about your company and approaching you when they need your products.

Photo on Flickr by Mike (Inbet_1979)

There is much more to being a copywriter than just sitting down and dashing off 500 words on a Word document. Most of the work that comes in to me requires careful research, first, fact checking and then writing a first draft. This will usually need some revision and editing to ensure that it flows correctly and that there are no daft spelling mistakes (or typos). Then there is often a final read-through before sending it off to the client.

I like my work to be as perfect as I can make it before my clients see it. I take pride in my work and enjoy seeing it up on websites. I offer a professional service and I expect to be paid a proper wage for my work which has to cover sick days, holidays and all other expenses.

Now picture someone that you have found on a job bidding website. They have put in a low bid in order that you will take notice of them. They may not be from your country, although sometimes they are. They rely on lots of small jobs in order to make a living which means that they are producing a high volume of work in a short space of time. They may not have time to research properly and do not expect to fact-check. They rely on their word-processing editing tools to spot spelling mistakes and grammar errors. They may well read it through again before sending it to their client, but they will miss errors because once one piece of work is done, then they are thinking about the next one. They are constantly writing, constantly sending in work because they cannot afford to do anything else.

These people may be good writers, but without the time to edit properly, you might never know it. Writing is hard work when you are writing constantly, you have to look after your muscles and posture and you can get aches and pains like everyone else. It must be like a sweat shop to sit at a computer screen day after day, hardly making enough to get by.

Then there is the quality of the work produced. With Google trying to crack down on useless content, the days of keyword-stuffed garbage are numbered. The search engine will penalise websites that it suspects of using SEO tactics such as adding simple articles containing no information but keywords. It is better to build up your SEO using a blog and articles which are relevant to your niche and contain useful information.

So, should you use a cheap copywriter? Obviously I am a little bit biased here, but I would suggest that you get what you pay for. If you are looking for cheap rubbish, then move along, nothing to see here. If you are looking for well-written articles which will add genuine value to your website, then hire a professional copywriter.

Photo Credit: Photo on Flickr by Mike (Inbet_1979)

Sarah Charmley is a professional copywriter who enjoys researching and writing on all subjects. You can contact her here to discuss your copywriting project.

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I have long been a fan of Enterprise Nation, the UK website devoted to helping small businesses. Recently Enterprise Nation added another website to its stable: Bitsy.

Enterprise Nation was always good for regular Twitter chat and had really helpful forums. Bitsy has take that community one step further and created a way of listing your business as well as joining a lively community and chatting about all kinds of issues whether business-related or not.

It is free to join the Bitsy community and as it is such a great resource, I highly recommend that you do so. The access to experts across the full business spectrum is amazing considering how long the website has been going. If you want to be listed as a seller, it currently costs £5 + VAT or you can choose to become a premium seller for £8 + VAT and list numerous ventures.

The website is growing all the time. It will be holding monthly web chats for members and there is Twitter chat daily on Monday to Friday. For the solo business person working from home alone, it offers a great sense of community.

If you want to link up with me through Bitsy, please feel free to do so. Let me know that you came from my website.

Sarah Charmley is a freelance copywriter and editor available for writing gigs large and small. She is listed on Bitsy, but if you want to contact her through this website, then do use the Contact Me form.

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Sometimes you have a large amount of information which you need to get in a document. It can feel overwhelming and be difficult to know where to begin. Spend a little while organising your thoughts which can help you sort it all out.

Sketch Out an Overview of Your Report

Start with a piece of paper and a pen or a blank document on the computer and begin to write down the aims of your work. What do you want to get out of it? Who is your document aimed at? Why are you writing it? Is it for a blog or an article? Is it a white paper or report? Then think about what kind of information you will want to include.

Make a rough list of the information that you consider essential to include in your work in the form of rough headings. If you have a lot of information, then you may wish to divide it up into parts and schedule regular releases of your work as a series of blog posts or reports. If it is to be one long document then divide it up into chapters and start each chapter on a fresh page.

Write Out Your Information under the Sub-Headings

Now you have a choice. If you are happy with your headings and ready to write, then write up your information under each heading. If you are going to insert photos, then you can show this with an asterisk for the time being. If you are still organising your thoughts and your information is scattered throughout your notes, then you can continue to write rough notes before writing up the information properly.

This may take two or three days depending on how much information you have to write up and how easy you find it to write. Some people are able to write easily and it flows, others find it much more difficult to think in writing. Take your time, be methodical and check that you have the information that you require.

Check Spelling and Grammar in Your Document

If any work is due for publication either on the web or in a document, then you will want it looking as professional as possible. Use your spellchecker and read your document out loud which will help you identify awkward sentences. You can also ask a colleague to look it over to check for glaring errors.

Once you are satisfied with your work, then it is time to publish. If you are using your work for blog posts, then schedule the posts, remembering to add tags, media such as photos or video and links. Apart from checking that the schedule goes ahead, your work here is done – apart from promoting the posts on blogs and forums with useful comments.

You might publish your work as a PDF or print it out as a report. If you are printing it out, make sure that you are certain as you can be that every error has been corrected. There is nothing worse than checking out your newly printed document and spotting an error on the first page!

Sarah Charmley is a freelance copywriter and expert in organising other people’s thoughts. If you would like to find out how she can help you with your blog project, then contact her through the form on the Contact Me page.

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Image via Wikipedia

Finding good clients and customers is can be difficult. Small business owners have to work intensively for their leads and to gain new clients. The most important thing to do to make sure that all your hard work does not go to waste is to cultivate a relationship with your client and keep them for a long time.

This is not a hard thing to do, but it can take a little forethought and planning. Looking after your clients is a way of looking after your business so here are some ways to help you keep your clients.

Be Polite

The way you treat other people says a lot about you. Treat people nicely – all the time, not just when they are potential clients. Try not to get pushy about sales, chill out and relax and make sure that you maintain the same easy tone when writing emails as well as on the phone. It is incredibly easy to be misunderstood on email, so make sure that your emails send out the information that you want them to, professionally and with courtesy.

Return Calls Promptly

There is nothing worse than sending an email or leaving a phone message and being left hanging. This is especially important if someone is waiting for important information. Try and get back to clients promptly with information as soon as possible. This can be difficult if you are waiting for a third party to come back to you. Even so, you should keep your client informed as to what is going on and do your best to press your person to get back to you asap. Keeping communications open keeps your clients happy.

Establish Project Parameters

Know exactly what it is your client wants. This applies particularly to businesses that offer a service such as copywriting and web design. Some business people ask clients to fill in a questionnaire to help explore their needs for the project.

Deliver Products and Services Promptly and on Time

This is one of the most important things that you can do related to customer service. If you can consistently deliver your work on time, or deliver your products quickly, then you will get a great reputation and recommendations from other people. When estimating service times you should include extra time to make sure the work is done.

Ask for Customer Feedback

If something went wrong, then you need to know about it. Encourage your customers to talk to you about your services and products. Hopefully you’ll pick up some nice comments and references. If something went wrong, then make sure you put it right.

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Photo on Flickr by Tambako the Jaguar

It can be good to talk to people about their opinions on how your business is doing. When we deal with customers, it is important to know that we are doing a good job and that our customers are happy with what they are receiving for their money. When you are first starting out, it is important to get feedback from a trusted source: someone in the same line of business, perhaps with more experience. This is valuable feedback that can help inform your business and what you decide to do.

Feedback from Peers

When we seek feedback, the response is usually thoughtful and helpful. However we can be given unsought feedback from peers and friends which seems to be more like unhelpful criticism.

Although your first response might be to get angry and be rude back, it is best to sit back and take stock of what has been said. You may need to separate the words from the manner in which they were delivered and consider them both separately. Some people do not come across well when delivering feedback. They feel awkward and struggle to find the right words to say. If this has been the case, then you know at least that the feedback has come from the heart and perhaps the words should be considered carefully. You can ask other people about the issues to try and confirm whether the first comments were correct or not.

However, occasionally you feel that the feedback can have ulterior motives: that the speaker wants to put you down for some reason. You might feel that they are jealous because you have a job that you can do from home, or your business is doing better than theirs – whatever the reason, the possibility is that the criticism stemmed from a desire to bring you down rather than build you up.

Answering Criticism

Hard as this can be to take, the correct response is to do nothing that will reveal how cross you are. You will need to calm down before responding to the criticism and then answer in a measured way. Don’t feel the need to justify yourself, but if you must answer their comments, then do it calmly and don’t let them know how much they have upset you. If possible, allow time to go by before responding. The best way to answer criticism is to allow time to prove them wrong and for you to be even more successful than you were before.

Feedback from Customers

Feedback from customers on how your company is doing is a positive thing and should be sought out wherever possible. Ask customers for references; provide feedback forms on your website and encourage them to use them. Post glowing praise on your website for other customers to see – with their permission of course!

You can use your company Facebook fan page to ask customers to give you feedback or you can pick up comments through Twitter. Some bigger companies are now monitoring Twitter chat so that they can improve bad experiences of customer service. However you do it, encourage your customers to engage with you and tell you their experiences good or bad. You need to know how your company is doing and your customers are the best-placed people to tell you.

Photo Credit: Photo on Flickr by Tambako the Jaguar

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