Using power words that sell

Using Power Words That Sell

People buy on emotion. It’s the ‘I HAVE to HAVE IT!’ syndrome. Marketing is the power to use words and images to increase and encourage that type of thinking. Every inch of a marketing campaign is planned and designed right down to the choice, placement and type of words that are used. Your company image expressed in a complete image so everything has to carry the most power it can in the shortest amount of time. Using power words is one way to increase the success of your marketing with little effort.

Which is more attractive to you? Do you want to buy a car – or a new car? The use of power words can sum up the value and benefits of your company and evoke the kind of emotions that make a sale, or even better, where the purchaser has the overwhelming desire to buy. There is a lot of traffic on the internet and you need to use the words and imagery that attracts people to your site. 

Here are some power words that if you use wisely can help you achieve this:

successful	absolutely	new
professional	guaranteed	unique
tested	improved	immediately
limited	simple	powerful
large	popular	exclusive
valuable	how to	endorsed
unlimited	economical	fundamental
luxury	suddenly	perspective
launching	skilled	reliable

These are power words as they reassure, creating the trust with your buyer that they are getting the product they want of a quality they want, and that’s easy to test out. What sounds more attractive; a powerful pressure washer, or a pressure washer? If you have a product or service you can play around with the words and see what fits your company. Are you a reliable company – or a luxury one? Are you exclusive? Popular or professional? These are all words that build a company image so use them to make them be positive. Every word you use, or don’t use, will say something about your company.

Make sure you explore different options as different mixes create different emotions, but limit how many power words you use at once. An absolutely reliable company is better than an absolutely, guaranteed, well endorsed, skilled reliable company as too many power words make you seem desperate or even worse – like a lie. It’s the same with adding impatient words like ‘super’, ‘mega’ or ‘ultra’ to power words. 

If you’re a young, hip manufacturer of street wear then being an ‘ultra popular, super guaranteed, hip and happening company’ is OK. If you make high quality crystal wedding jewelry it may be wise to think again. 

Here are few more words that are power words:

better	creative	enormous
spotlight	useful	survival
affordable	power	now
unlock	fortune	authentic
announcing	ultimate	gift
introducing	practical	focus
wanted	attractive	lowest
interesting	challenge	approved
highest	expert	advice
innovative	compare	beautiful

These are words that create emotion. Using the same rules you used to create trust, you can use emotional words. Are you a salesman – or an expert? Are you introducing a practical innovation to save time and money, or simply showing them your products? It’s all about how you say it, as to how they perceive it. Knowledge is power, but knowing the power of words leads you to the wisdom of using them.

Nothing is more important to the marketing of your company than the words you chose to represent it. With a little exploration you can create copy that sells and entice the traffic you need to your website. Do not be afraid with words, you cannot play around too much. If it doesn’t work, backspace and try another. Use another web site you really like as a guide. What power words do they use? How do they use them? Which ones speak to you? What can you do to create the same power with your copy?

Copy needs to be infused with power or your website will become lost in the white noise that is the jungle of the internet. Be brave! Stand out! Be bold! And attract the customers that are ready to buy with the use of successful power words.

7 things you need to know about copywriting

7 Things You Need to Know About Copywriting

Thinking of overhauling your web site? Writing a new web site? Or just trying to make you marketing work harder? Then you need to know more about content and copywriting.

Web copy and content are two different things and serve two very different purposes, even though they seem to be used interchangeably by most marketeers. Copy is the salesman of the piece. The writing that makes people want to open their wallets and buy. Content is … everything else. It attracts your audience, engages their sustained attention, demonstrates your unique ability to solve their problems, and paves the way for a purchase. 

Content marketing has become the buzz word in advertising, but it has really been in the background for all time, just unnoticed and often ignored due to cost of production. With the advent of the digital age, content marketing is now relatively cheap and beginning to compliment copy writing to its fullest potential. Smart content and copywriters successfully infuse the two and are producing web copy that can make a difference. 

Here are 7 things you need to know about copywriting to make it successful

HEADLINES

Sex! Violence! Marketing! That got your attention, didn’t it?

Everything written needs a great headline. Even if you have an established audience you’ll still need to entice them to read that particular item and convince them of what it can do for them. The headline needs to be clear and concise, teasing the reader to want to know more. Headlines are no place for waffle, obscurity or extreme intelligence. Grab their attention – then back it up with GREAT content.

PLAY DUMB (or at least a little dumber)

Copy and content writing is a great place for information, education and persuasion, but you can’t chose who’s going to read it. Being overly clever in copy can lead to confusion for your audience because if this is their first exposure to your company or they know little about the industry, they won’t get the ‘in’ jokes and nuances however funny they are. Being zealously intelligent about your product will also narrow your interaction field down to about 3% of your audience in comprehension – and concentration span. 

A dash of wit and cleverness here and there will spice things up nicely, but like making a ham sandwich, you don’t want to taste all mustard. 

MAKE IT BIGGER

All your content and copy needs to develop an idea. Each component needs to blend with the other writing elements and build on something that moves buyers to where you want them to be. Uninteresting facts and dry information do not tend to build a bigger picture so much as bore your audience to death, so engaging copy and content needs to educate whilst drawing them in to something big. Have a goal to your copy, and point every word in that direction. 

RSEARCH, RESEARCH and RESEARCH AGAIN

All the best copy and content comes from completely understanding the product then mixing it with a boat load of creativity, giving it time to ruminate and become a force au natural. If you are writing your own content and copy be sure you balance your product enthusiasm with skillful manipulation of words to create something that is informative and engaging. If you hire a writer, make sure they are very familiar with your product or service and then give them the time to write exactly what you need. 

“The best copywriters are the most tenacious researchers. Like miners, they dig, drill, dynamite, and chip until they have carloads of valuable ore. John Caples advised me once to gather seven times more interesting information than I could possibly use”  Gary Bencivenga.

That’s about right…

BE CREATIVE

The one common denominator in every piece of unstoppable copy writing is the aspect of finding a unique advantage and combining it with persuasive content that is fed to a hungry demographic. In any industry there is competition so you need to have an edge. Find it, or create it, then use it as leverage to draw your audience in. 

Go out and find the people that need your product and give them they what they want. 

NEVER ‘SEE WHAT HAPPENS’

There is one way to ensure your content and copy will fail – write it with the ‘Let’s see what happens’ goal as your map. You should always have a goal and a call to action. Use your piece to get an email subscription, educate, sell, gain audience, promote your brand – anything you want, but let it lead to a purpose. If you write to persuade your reader to engage in a specific behaviour all your words center around that goal. There will be no ‘boring bits’ or ‘pointless words’, and it will build your integrity and credibility as a provider. If you can’ achieve those goals – you need to employ someone who can. In marketing you’re either going forwards, or going backwards – there is no room in the crowd to stay still.

MAKE ‘EM LAUGH

OK, so maybe not laugh all the time, but you need to stay as far away from boring as you can get, without wandering into a parody. People don’t buy a product because it bores them to death; they buy it because they are attracted to it. Make your product attractive by using words to entertain, educate and impress by using your personality, creative imagery, humour – maybe even controversy, but make it attractive and stick to your big goal. 

Whether it’s a brochure, postcard or complete web site, use the power of the copy and content marketing to further your market share. Words have power. Be sure your tack them into the right harness to be remembered – or you’ll be like the famous luxury pen company that had a marketing campaign around the saying, ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’ – except at launch they forgot the space between the words ‘Pen’ and ‘Is’…

4 reasons you need SEO to futureproof your company

4 Reasons You Need to Use SEO 

Why does everyone have a love/hate relationship with SEO? According to the marketing guru’s one minute it’s the ‘If you don’t have it you’ll just curl up and DIE’, and the next minute it’s, ‘If you have it, your company will curl up and DIE’. Calm down people! It’s only a tool! SEO is not the worst pimple in pocket of copywriting, but it may just be the best. As with all things – you have got to know how to use it. I mean, let’s face it - What’s the point of having a Porsche if you only use it store your snow shovels in? 

The way SEO is used has changed dramatically, and continues to change dramatically with every algorithm change that comes out, but the role of SEO has not changed, so it still trumps most the other social media cards you hold in your hand. You used to have to slavishly follow rules like, ‘use the keyword on the body of the text three times, in the heading and subheading…’ Now with each incarnation of Google that changes, but if you are an excellent SEO professional you’ll know that content is King, and if you write Kingly content, keywords take a back seat linked words.  If you use search engine optimization correctly, you can make sure that your business gets high rankings in search engines, attracts the right customers and makes more money. How? Let me elucidate here …

A well written SEO infused web site gives you:

Access to Billions of Dollars Online

98% of shoppers start their purchases online. That’s 98% of ALL shoppers, online or otherwise. People now plan their purchases, whether they realise it or not. They usually start with an online browse to see what’s out there and what price they are looking at. They key is – they START with online browsing. That means there’s a good chance they’ll find what they want and buy it before even leaving home. You need to be at the forefront of their searching. By optimizing your search engine web content you will be at the top of the search list – in front of all your competitors. Billions of dollars are spent online, and the outcome is – you need to get in front of people. SEO makes sure you are. 

Get New Customers

Imagine having a store that never shut – not for statutory holidays, illness or otherwise. It just kept going and going with no running costs. Welcome to the digital age of retail! The internet NEVER sleeps. The internet is everywhere. If your site can get in front of the people who want to buy, then you can ring in the sale whether it’s Joe from round the corner, Jose from the Andes or Joachim from Germany. SEO gets your site in front of a world audience, and they all want to buy. NO store is capable of doing that. 

A High Conversion Rate

By understanding and incorporating SEO, it enables you to tailor your website to the unique needs of your customers and bring the information to them instantly. If your SEO activities target the right customers with the right keywords in the right buying cycle, your sales will increase dramatically. Modern SEO tools can help you find the best keywords to use, and by leveraging them in your website in a way that romances the search engine bots, you can sweep the board. If you don’t know how to use SEO rich copy in your web site – employ someone who does. Your conversion rate will thank you.

It’s all about Metrics

SEO is totally trackable. It enables you to tailor your website to the needs of your customers. You can monitor how many visits you get to your site, what they are looking at and what they buy. You can also see what they are not looking at and what they are not buying which will help you tailor your web site to be a lean, mean selling machine. You can compare SEO pages to non SEO pages and see the difference. Some websites don't make money although they serve a huge market. By creating and tracking targeted landing pages that focus on different issues and problems, you can find the issues that are most important to your customers

Its Cost Effective

An SEO pay per click campaign is not the only way to use SEO to get noticed by your chosen demographic. They are an effective way to increase site traffic, but it doesn’t stop there. White Hat SEO techniques that can be employed by a Web Designer will offer a steady flow of new and returning customers. You can write your own copy based around simple SEO strategies but to really make an in road in the heavy competition you need to SEO ALL of your digital strategy. Mixed media marketing is not for the feint hearted, it needs a consistent, well organized, well researched writing on every aspect of your company image. When you want success in your complete company image, hire a professional. It’ll work out cheaper in the end. 

Search engine optimization is important for the future of your business – in fact, search engine optimization IS the future of your business. Stay current on how SEO is being used and it will guide you to places where your customers are, and bring them to where they need to be. If you want great results fast, then you need to become and SEO pro – it’ll mean that you’ll soon be taking that Porsche out for a spin, and putting your snow shovels in front of the snow shovellers. That would be the best result for everyone.

Corporate Image and branding

18 May 2013

Subscribe

inShare

Corporate Image and Branding

When I was in University corporate image was THE buzz word for marketing. Everything lead back to corporate image – marketing established corporate image, focus groups provided feedback on corporate image, mission statements defined corporate image, even pre-calculus factored corporate image (ok, so maybe I’m stretching it a bit), but these days corporate image is considered ‘old news’ and less than applicable. Anyone wandering down this dangerous train of thought could be building a kill switch into their company. Corporate image may no longer be the buzz word, but it should be the code you live by and at the center of all you do. Corporate image should mean excellence in everything.

Corporate image is the composite psychological impression consumers have of a company. It is little more than the public perception of your company rather than an actual reflection of its state or position. Every department, worker, correspondence and behavior sent out from your company makes up your corporate image. Good corporate image is vital to business growth and sustainability. So how do you create a corporate image that rivals Bill Gates in success and Mother Teresa in honesty?

The fluid nature of corporate image makes keeping a positive position much harder. One unfortunate happening or decision, and you can switch from flavor of the month to dog of the day at the flip of a coin. Establishing an image that is robust and consistent is the basic building block of a good image. If there is a foundation of positive image consistently coming from the company the buy in to trust is easier. For instance, if a client comes to visit and your selling your products from the back of an old 1930’s camper van with one headlight in the parking lot, the judgment is made about the quality of your company, integrity and product as a whole in an instant. If you send out your invoices on a crumpled piece of paper with a whacking great big coffee ring on it – don’t expect another order anytime soon. Something as simple as a logo, letter head or web page expresses who you are and what you are about. First impressions aren’t one thing – they are the only thing! You only get one shot at a first impression, make sure it’s expressive.

Make sure everything that leaves your company has the company theme on it. Get a great logo, go the extra mile with your printing, make your web design unforgettable. Spend a bit more to add a touch of luxury, go and find the talent you lack that makes the difference. These are all basic elements to establishing a robust corporate image that can weather a storm – or scandal –or two. Make sure your buildings are neat and tidy; your employees are positive and care about what they do, especially in the customer care department. It may sound anal, but it’s the way good images are made, and kept. With corporate image – consistency is the bomb.

Ploughing some capitol into marketing always raises the bar on corporate image. Innovative marketing companies know their trade and can add positive image with a good ROI. They are skilled at presenting a company in its best light and have experience on how to influence the public’s perception positively. Corporate image will always give you a good return ask any large company. They have budgets bigger than the gross national debt of a small country assigned to marketing to make sure their corporate image in always in the pink. Good marketing pays. If they can make a dental practice or colonic irrigation clinic look like as attractive as a trip to theme park, they can make your company look like a rival to Apple computers.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by your day to day business and forget to see the ‘whole’. Once you have a good design and a great marketing plan for all your media and communication, all you have to concentrate on is the ‘human’ element of your company image. With something as important as the corporate image of your company, do not be afraid to ask around, interview marketing companies and see their portfolio. They are used to having their craft examined. They should be able to express what you envisage and nurture your ideas into a solid influencing image. Though the image that is a product of Bill Gates and Mother Theresa is a little disturbing…

Picking a good post

10 May 2013

Subscribe

inShare

Picking a Good Post

Not even as long a decade ago, teams of marketing people would sit round a table, then a desk ,then  light box to produce a powerful and enticing image to get you to consider their product as the one you NEED to have. Today, whilst marketing gurus with goatee beards and red pointed shoes still sit round the table and discuss concepts, slavishly following the same lengthy process, fleshy bites of promotion are thrown to the consumers in real time via social media. These mighty morsels that whet the appetites of potential customers, customers and competitors alike are becoming an important part of building up an audience for the upcoming promotions, so much so that they have taken on a whole persona of their own.

Being in ‘the now’ has never been so important. But just simply ‘being in the now’ is no longer enough to influence people. Social media used to be run by the over worked and underpaid office junior or acne ridden intern, who’s only goal was to ‘fill up the space’ and hit send, but this random attitude of quantity over quality now is detrimental to the marketing of a brand. Taking the time to choose the right post is the only way to find yourself at the top of the feed and multiplying rapidly. Picking the right post has never been so important.

Creating the perfect post that goes viral is the Nirvana all social media writers seek, but writing is not enough. Most viral posts start with a good quality, expressive image. If a picture paints a thousand words – make every one of them count. Choose a picture that is clear, well composed and has an alluring clue as to the content of the post. The image will always make the first impression, and in 99% of the cases, become the deciding factor of whether the content is read or passed over. There is a vast range of free photos available on the internet, you are literally spoiled for choice, but check copyright before you post them. Just because they are in the public arena does not mean they are a visual free for all.

As human creatures we are visual learners. Out of preference we will go for information with a picture on it rather than one with text. Don’t believe me? Think about road signs. How many times have you been lost in a new city by not paying attention to road signs, or text based map signs – as opposed to falling off a cliff or getting hit by a moose, which are all purely picture based signs? I rest my case.

One thing that has been a recent innovation all social media followers have taken to heart is the rise of the … infographic. Infographics are exactly what they say they are – information in a graphic form. Any one remotely interested in a desk top publishing platform is able to make one, but there are infographics already made on every subject. Hats, wars, doughnuts from the 1950’s – they all have at least two infographics on them, and on social media they spread like wild fire. People love to learn, and using a visual platform easily feeds that hunger. There is even a serious bonus, visual based information it easy to retain and recall. Why else do those men and women in goatees and pointy red shoes spend so much time and money on logos?

One adage you need to ALWAYS remember when working with any media – Content is King, and you need to be King Content of the Content people. Make your pictures interesting, pleasing, informative, but make your writing more engaging, entertaining and enriching than any visual image. No amount of professional photography will make up for boring content. Maybe it’s time to promote your intern to ‘coffee and donut runner’ and find someone to manage your media who can draw the people in, and get your name out. That’s what the medium does best.

So next time you’re looking at your web page, twitter feed or you’re stumbling upon, remember what you see is exactly what the world sees. Three pictures of yesterday’s coffee, a joke from the 1970’s and a grumpy cat is not really going to pull the hordes in flashing their money at you. A little time spent thinking about what to say and dressing it up ‘pretty’ may just mean it’s your turn to be King Content of the Content people. Next stop – red pointy shoes and a goatee…

Professional Marketing - Is It For You?

What is Professional Marketing?

Realtors have a way of finding unique and enticing descriptions for what is essentially a design flaw. An over grown broom closet with a half hanging door becomes a, ‘Snug little hide way for all those special items that need a little bit more than average’, or an ugly 1970’s faux brick fireplace painted lime green becomes a, ’quaint and expressive retro feature, oozing with authenticity’. If there isn’t a description for it, a realtor will make one. Some would argue that professional marketing is the art of selling sand to a nomad and nothing more than a glorified sales man, but that is NOT what professional marketers do, or should do.

Professional marketing is now a recognized part of marketing teaching curriculums and is very successfully raising the bar on the whole ethos of marketing. Gone are the days when flaws are overlooked or turned into a selling feature; this no longer washes with a well-informed, tech savvy consumer demographic of the digital era. Real estate may still have room for inventing the non-informative, but the momentum behind professional marketing is to make products more transparent and to answer the eternal consumer question, ‘What will this do for me?’

Professional marketing is a road to achieving your goals faster. The whole concept is to create a marketing presence that is infused with quality, integrity and excellence across the whole range of the campaign and the company image. Professional marketing binds all the media used by the company and creates a uniform, empowered image that reaches out to the demographic and demands attention. It doesn’t matter what the media is, digital, optical or traditional, it needs to follow the concept of the campaign and promote the company brand. 

There are many facets that need to be considered in a professional marketing campaign for any company. First and foremost a well thought out web site, with specially designed logo and branding sets the tone for the rest of the media. One of the foundations of an effective professional marketing campaign is the quality of the website. Do not underestimate the merchandising power websites have. The ability to ‘Wow’ the consumer with eye popping graphics, seductive content and ease of use all play a part in creating a unified brand that is purpose of professional marketing. 

When the foundation of a creative rubric, logo, brand and impressive website has been established then the company image can be leached into all the media that leaves your workplace. Your professional marketing image leaves behind the stuffy, perfunctory need to simply pass on your contact details and turns any contact with your company into a transferral of passion and pride about your brand. 

With the need to consistently improve the concepts and applications of professional marketing , campaigns are based around the processes that make marketing successful. SEO, content management, networking and blogging all need to be optimized for maximum potential for success, but also for company branding. Professional marketing leaves no facet unleveraged or misaligned.  It’s a win/win situation. You get a professional, unified company image and you promote your business at the same time. And as a definite bonus, you don’t have to hinge your reputation on the virtues of a lime green fireplace.

Content Marketing vs Social Media

... And the Winner is ...

The newest buzz word in the marketing industry is Content Marketing, the question it is posing is - will it replace social media? What do you think? Let a seasoned and talented Calgary Online Marketing agency explain ...

To answer this question we need to understand what content marketing and social media is, how it works, what it does and how it can be used as leverage.

So What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the use of words to educate, inform or entertain to create the attention that leads to buying. So it may be an article, video advert or internet event that creates a lead, a sale or people to advocate for your business. It is aimed at clients, customers and potential clients. The strength of content marketing is that it is structured. Content marketing is sleek, informative and well produced. Often the result of a planned and directed campaign, content marketing has many faces but always has the intent to persuade and inform.

How is Content Marketing different from Social media?

Social media is a great network for testimonials. Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc are all a vehicle for customers and potential customers to discuss your product and services and do your promotion for you. As a Calgary online marketing agency we use the right media for the right channel, for the right purpose, for the right customer - because it works. As a bi-product of active and effective social media you can reach out to your chosen demographic directly, tap into their thoughts and produce what they want, when they want it. This communication can result in leads, sales or advocacy, but is often less structured and conversational, and can be reactive too, as social media is increasingly used as a customer support channel.

The goals of content marketing are consumption, then behavior. The goals of social media are participation, then behavior. Knowing this will help you successfully use each individually, or for an explosive marketing campaign, combine them.

Social media is the new telephone. Content marketing is the new brochure.

Michael Brenner said, "Content marketing and storytelling are as old as human beings. We have always needed to find ways to convey important information in useful and entertaining ways. Social media is just the latest evolution in the way we can tell the stories. I think soon we will drop the “social” and go back to calling it plain old “media.”"

Will marketing budgets towards content-focused marketing initiatives potentially exceed those for social media marketing? It could well do. But with all media - you need to know HOW to use it. Would you buy a $6million thoroughbred to pull your plow? No, just as you wouldn't buy a tandem to use as a wedding car.

Content marketing uses words intelligently to persuade, inform and educate. Social media gives people an opportunity to network. Someone with a need to buy will use both to make an informed decision, so both have a use. What it boils down to is - what is the final deciding factor in making a buying choice? Information in your brochure or web site, or something they read on Facebook? Sometimes it's a toss up ....