Keeping with tradition, here’s another fascinating article from my angry Copywriter.

If I have to shift one more paradigm, or think outside of one more box, somebody’s getting it!

So I was having a discussion this afternoon with Rick Stiles (founder of Stiles Marketing) and he asked me to read a sales sheet that was posted by a competing marketing company on their home page. The article was bursting with terms like “outside of the box”, “paradigm shift” and a plethora of buzzwords that both Rick and I choke on.

First of all, thinking “outside the box” was something we all did in the 1990’s. Secondly, shifting paradigms is giving me a headache and boring my clients to tears. With all respect to the Marketing and Advertising communities, can we please begin to talk about tangible and measurable contributions like “competitive advantages” or even “strategic market placement”?

The continuous overuse of corporate marketing buzzwords has no place in bringing a product, service or a corporation to the forefront of the business world. What does have a place is bringing a tangible and measurable product and/or service to your customers. Quality marketing organizations don’t use these terms because they are basically meaningless ramblings to make the listener feel like they’re talking to an expert. Well, I’m here to tell you that people seeking to market their businesses are not idiots and they can see through these ramblings and overused phrases and terms. So please, for your own sake, and more importantly your customer’s, can we stop thinking outside the box?

I will continue to do my best to copy write sales letters, technical documents, ebooks and other collateral for my beloved client base, but please. . . . .don’t ask me to shift anymore paradigms.

rik

The other day while I was in a meeting with a potential customer I got the feeling that he was just counting the seconds before I was done so he could kindly ask me to leave. It felt as though I had just stepped into a lion’s den. I stopped and politely asked if something was bothering him or if anything I had said had offended him in any way. He then told me he had recently held a meeting with someone I’ll refer to as an “SEO Monkey”.

The term (while not my own) can be applied to any person who offers “Search Engine Optimization” services, and claims that it is the end all be all of the online marketing world. They usually go on about how they can increase a businesses profits merely by doing a bit of on page optimization and tossing a few backlinks your way.

He went on to tell me that working with them felt much like tossing his advertising dollars inside a live volcano. The SEO salesman offered little information on what exactly he was doing for this client, and after a few weeks was not reachable at all.

Now, I do not want to give people the wrong impression, the fact is that Search Engine Optimization coupled with a solid strategy can over time help businesses get more exposure on the internet. I would however warn business owners to be skeptical of anyone who claims they can get your business on page 1 of Google inside a week, or any similar claim.

There will always be people out there trying to take advantage of others and their lack of knowledge in any field. If something seems to be “too good to be true, it probably is” If you’re thinking about hiring someone for the purpose of generating more traffic online, make sure you feel comfortable with their ability to do so. For more information on picking the right person take the time to read and educate yourself.

Read Google’s SEO FAQ

It details some information about basic Search Engine Optimization, and goes into detail about how to protect yourself against such malicious practices.

Many of my clients today find themselves faced with the decision as to how to best market and represent their business.  In the days before the internet, it made sense to invest your advertising budget in press documents that were designed to cover large markets. Taking out expensive printed ads in the yellow pages or news papers was a great way to increase your business, and reach your potential clients.

Fast forward 20 years and we find ourselves in the midst of a media and information revolution. I remember when you needed to find a gas station on the side of the road if you wanted to use the telephone.  If you were really fortunate, there was a telephone book there with all of the pages still intact. Now as we enjoy an overflow of information at our fingertips, I find myself thinking. . . “When was the last time I touched a phone book”.

Heading to your computer or your intelligent mobile device is now the preferred method of finding the information you seek. (Remember when cell phones used to just make phone calls?) By web searching for your information, you don’t just get the address or the number, you get the complete business. The internet is the single most widely used and accepted method of gathering information that is currently available.  More people globally use the internet as their source for searching products and services than all other methods combined. While printed advertising and marketing campaigns still have their place, the internet is clearly the medium of choice for the masses.  Whether your customers use cell phones, PDAs, IPhones or desktop computers, they are on the internet and we need to be there too. It kind of reminds me of the old expression “if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a noise?”.  Bringing your business services to the internet will insure that they are both seen and heard.

Many companies still employ outdated marketing techniques that will ultimately impair their business growth. Let me be clear here.  While press and print ad campaigns definitely have a place in today’s advertising world, they are far better used to enhance a campaign than to drive one.  Advertising on the internet is fast, inexpensive, and can bring quick and tangible results to your bottom line.

Here’s a very revealing exercise that I ask my potential clients to do.  Next time you are at a computer, simply open up your browser window and do a search for your products and services in your local area.  When the results appear on the page, try to find your business. If you have difficulties finding your business or services, there’s a good chance your potential clients are too.

As an Internet Marketing Consultant, I work with my clients to enhance their market presence by making it easier for their clients to find them. It also gives us the ability to monitor and adjust our marketing and advertising campaigns while they are active, unlike older printed media.  Want to offer a product or service special?  That can be done instantly online, and will be immediately available to your client base. The internet gives us the ability to stay in front of our clients, while keeping our message timely.

I recommend to all of my friends and clients that we take a little time and get to know the internet a bit better.  Specifically, how we can take advantage of the many ways we can get our message in front of our potential customers.  By adding a solid web presence to your existing marketing efforts, you can cost effectively reach a broader range of clients quickly and easily.

First and foremost, for those of you who are not familiar with Google Analytics its a wonderful little tool that allows you to analyze the traffic that’s visiting your website. It’s got graphs of all shapes and sizes and gives you an endless stream of data for you to in turn take and better your website.

Most people that use Google Analytics are quite used to seeing this screen:

This is a basic “who’s been to my site and how long did they stay” screen. Which is a great resource, but I was surprised to learn that most people that use GA don’t completely understand what this tool is capable of and how to take the information given to better serve your customer base… which is why the tool is so great in the first place. The majority of people use GA as a glorified page counter, which is really a waste of a great free resource given to us by the all mighty Google.

So what else can you do?…

You can practically break your visitors down to what kind of underwear they prefer.

Inside of the visitors drop down, you’ll discover all the information you’ll ever need to know about who’s coming to your website. You can see what operating systems are being used, what screen resolutions, what ISPs, what browsers, and the list goes on and on.

So what can you do with all of that nifty information? Well for starters you can make sure that you’re catering to the largest of those particular groups. If more people view your website in 1024×768 resolution then you better make damn sure that your website looks good on their screen. Or if you’ve got most of your traffic from people with low speed internet connections then I suggest you’d better drop all the flash graphics. Which by the way you should do that anyway because there’s nothing worse than going to someone’s web page and having to sit through a 2 minute short movie about how great they are before being able to do what ever it is you came to that page to do.

Look at the Content section to find out where your visitors are spending most of their time.

Inside the content tab you’ll find detailed information on what pages of your website are attracting the most attention from your viewers. If your “Frequently Asked Questions” page is receiving a great deal more attention than your sales page you should probably incorporate some easy ways to buy from that page. You should also hire a new copy writer if your FAQ page is more fun to read than your sales page.

Use Site Overlay!

This feature shows you exactly on the page where your visitors are clicking. This is a great tool to test your offer names, article names, future kids names, etc.. If you see that very few viewers are interested in a specific offer you can change that offer until it gets the attention that it really deserves.

Taking the time to explore and learn the functions of Google Analytics will help you better understand your internet visitors and, in turn, better serve them. Now a days, internet marketing is all about traffic, traffic, and more traffic… But all that traffic is in vein of your message falls on deaf ears.

I was speaking with my copywriter the other night (his name is rik), and we were discussing the state of the American Auto Industry.  rik (who never capitalizes his name) put together a short plea to the American Auto Industry that I found both accurate and amusing.

Dear Auto Manufacturers,
I am writing you today because I am deeply concerned about the great American Auto, and the state of a legendary American industry.

When I was growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, newspapers and magazines were filled with pictures of amazing looking cars that were coming out of Detroit to make their impact on the American public. These cars were visually captivating and offered us “freedom” and a sense of pride and value, because we were behind the wheel of something spectacular. These machines announced their presence with both audible and visual appeal.

So last evening I find myself watching a car commercial, hosted by a very famous ex-football player. He was sharing details about the wonders of a feature that is not offered by the competition. A feature that would send help for you should you be involved in an accident. While I applaud this and the many other safety innovations that have been developed over the last quarter century, I am formerly requesting a new feature.

I would like a feature that has long since been exorcised from the American Auto Industry. In short, (and with all respect to Justin Timberlake) I want sexy back. Where’s the feature that stops the development of incredibly boring and mundane physical appearances? Who do I have to talk to in order to get a vehicle that not only speaks to my wallet but to my soul?

As I continued to sit through the commercial, I kept thinking “why would a car manufacturer work so hard to put all of these amazing and innovative features into that physically unappealing chassis?” To make matters worse, they displayed their competitor’s car next to theirs in this commercial. Here’s some free advice on advertising and marketing. Never put something ugly next to something appealing and then tell me why I want the ugly one. I will live happily without the “remote notification feature” or the “extra 3 mpg” if I can have a vehicle that is both physically and mechanically appealing.

Do you remember the first girl that caught your eye in high school? Chances are excellent that she didn’t catch your eye because she was the smartest, or the nicest, or the “right choice” for you. She simply appealed to you. This is a philosophy that has long been abandoned at the American car manufacturers.

Let me share something with you that could potentially save you a great deal of advertising dollars. Are you ready? This is of vital importance and you don’t want to miss it. Got your pencil and paper out? You’re going to want to write this down. OK . . . Here it is. “Make cars that appeal to all of our senses, not just our wallets”. I know, I’m a genius and you can thank me later for the wisdom that I’ve bestowed upon you. But in all seriousness, think about it. When you buy a shirt, do run to the store and say “this looks like it would fit me perfectly, and it’s an excellent value”, totally disregarding the physical appearance of the garment, or do you say “how does this look on me?”

American car manufacturers are using the same tired advertising ploy’s our parents and grandparents used to use on us to get us to eat our vegetables. “They’ll make you grow big and strong”. While there’s little doubt in anyone’s mind that vegetables are nutritious, they also taste (largely) like crap. Sure, over time you “develop a taste” for them, but wouldn’t life be so much easier for all of us if they tasted good the first time you tried them? Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s, automobiles looked good the first time you saw them. They exuded masculinity, pride and power. They didn’t remind you of the sweater your grandmother knitted you for Christmas last year that you graciously accepted and immediately hid in the closet. No, they used to be pretty cool looking. What happened?

Ok, I will slide my soap box back under my desk now and let it rest for a bit. But before I thank you for reading, I just want to share that I am a firm believer that American cars are among the finest vehicles produced anywhere in the world. So please Detroit, take a good long look at what has been rolling off the lines for the last number of years and take the steps necessary to make Americans feel good again about purchasing a new car. My guess is that if steps are taken to change the way we (the consumers) feel about American cars, the financial crises of the American Automobile Industry will start to resolve it’s self.

rik