Advertising Copy That Works Through to the Final Sale

There are two kinds of methods to selling most anything—Hard-selling and Soft-selling. Typically sales people are thrust into a mode of thinking that the Hard-sell technique works and that the Soft-sell method is too flimsy to close a deal. The fact is that Hard-selling does not work because it has no finesse. When a sales person goes straight to the point to sell their product, they are simply telling their prospective buyer that they should buy their product. This type of approach will usually turn a buyer off and negate a sale.

By taking a close look at how the Hard-sell doesn’t work and how well Soft-selling works, a copy writer can take this information and apply it to how they write sales copy, work on ad campaigns and involve their clients in the learning curve of effective copy verses ineffective copy.

Here are a few great points to remember when working on creative materials that involve sales copy:

1. People do not appreciate being sold to.

The Hard-sell approach usually brings the worst out in people. Human nature dictates that when aggressive behavior is displayed, it provokes the receiver to be aggressive in defense of themselves. This is what brings a negative result to both the sales person and the potential buyer.

To apply this to ad copy that works, don’t be tempted to use aggressive sales copy that pushes the hot buttons of your potential buyers. Instead offer sales copy that promotes a positive response.

2. Hard-sales techniques intimidates people.

Buyers that feel intimidated have less interest in making a purchase. Prospective buyers begin to realize that they have negative feelings about the sale, and will transfer that negativity onto the company who is trying to sell to them. If buyers do not like the sales person a company hires, they will not be able to feel good about the company.

Apply this to writing great sales copy by offering tips, advice. Explain how the product/service you’re selling will ease the stresses on their business or how it can improve their life/goals.

3. Hard-selling sounds desperate to others.

This will put off a potential buyer. Buyers begin to wonder why a company/person is desperate and this creates suspicion. This feeling of suspicion turns into mis-trust. Buyers who don’t trust a sales pitch are not likely to buy a product/service.

To write sales copy that will reach out and help buyers trust your product or service, offer key testimonials that assure your buyers that your product/company is a trusted resource, reliable and honest.

4. Hard-selling uses hype and other dishonest tactics.

Prospective buyers can see through hype. They are savvy and know that hype is not fact. Buyers don’t buy from sales tactics that push products/services without factual information.

Copywriters can add statistics and facts to their sales copy. By showing the bibliographical resource behind stats in ad copy, buyers will know that the information they are reading comes from honest trusted facts and not hype. This also builds trust between the buyer and seller.

5. Buyers need to find a reason to make a purchase.

Hard-selling does not allow any time to explain the benefits of the product or service. A sales person that is Hard-selling is using features to sell their product or service and not the benefits of the product/service. Benefits are what tells a customer that they should buy. There is only one question in the mind of any buyer — “What’s in it for me?” Hard-selling doesn’t answer this question for the buyer and as a result sales are usually lost.

Creative marketing copy should always include both features and benefits. Features will explain the product or service and by listing the benefits, buyers will know why they need the product/service.

6. Build a positive rapport with prospective buyers.

By building a relationship with a buyer a company or salesperson builds confidence in a buyer. When buyers have confidence they are likely to make a purchase on the first product or service and will also be encouraged to continue to buy more products and services. Hard-selling doesn’t build this rapport. If there is not a positive relationship initial sales and future sales are lost.

Creative staff can build rapport into their sales copy by helping potential buyers feel confident about the product or service they are promoting. Copy that builds confidence can be, proving how long a company has been in business and/or offering customer testimonials that promote the same products or services being sold. Story-telling or giving the background of how the company was founded or how a product or service was created is a great way to build a relationship with a potential buyer.

7. Soft-selling allows buyers to make their own decision.

When buyers feel empowered by the ability to make their own decision, they are more likely to make a purchase. Hard-selling strategies often dictate or tell a buyer they should make a purchase.

Advertising copy that promotes empowerment, offers ideas, creates a feeling of success for the buyer and promotes the qualities that a buyer is looking for in a product or service. Copywriters who focus on the most positive aspects of their product or service help buyers make the choice to purchase.

8. Soft-selling always outsells Hard-selling.

Persuasion works. Forcing a business or person into something they are unsure of does not. Hard-selling pushes a product or service at a buyer and doesn’t offer them the chance to decline the sale. Soft-selling offers a buyer a product or service by allowing them to choose to make the purchase.

Copywriters that apply a Soft-selling technique to their advertising copy use the power of positive persuasion in their writing. They can craft their ad copy to encourage a buyer to make a purchase instead of telling the horrors of what can happen if they decline the purchase. Encouraging copy can simply be letting a buyer know what they can look forward to after their purchase.

9. Soft-selling methods are more enjoyable to both the seller and buyer.

Soft-selling forces a salesperson to use more strategies. Building up a product can be done in a multitude of ways including talking to potential buyers. Getting to know a buyer builds relationships that equate to building sales.

Writers who want to incorporate Soft-selling methods into their marketing materials can create copy that speaks directly to their potential buyers. Asking questions and solving problems are some of the ways that words on paper speak to buyers.

10. Soft-selling Pre-sells a product or service.

Warming a buyer up for a sale builds a rapport and relationship with a person or business. In general people like to be introduced to something before they make a purchase.

Advertising copy that pre-sells a product or service before selling is in the hands of a copywriter or designer from the start. Pre-selling to a buyer is a basic introduction of the product or service and usually found in an opening statement or opening page of advertising material.

It’s clear to see the difference between the Hard-sell and Soft-sell techniques used in business. There is a general stereotype of what a pushy sales person using Hard-sell tactics looks like. Once this negative image is in the place of a buyers mind, it will prevent them from accepting a sale. Increase your sales and close more deals by using Soft-selling strategies and incorporating those same methodologies into your marketing materials. Remember your company’s first impression is a lasting one!

Good luck to all the copywriters who are working on marketing materials for clients. Choosing to use Soft-sell copy instead of Hard-selling copy that alienates buyers is one way to promote your clients products and services and a great way to earn more business on their next marketing project!

We welcome new ideas and you might inspire us for our next blog post! Share your thoughts and tips by posting comments for us. Thanks for reading!

By Sara Hassler

Writing sales copy that puts your product or service into the hands of your buyer and money into your pocket isn’t hard to create—if you use a formula.

By studying the basic formula used for writing good sales copy you can fill your website, collateral materials and presentation copy with elements that are appealing, exciting and convert leads into sales. To get started follow these simple steps:

1. Identify Your Target Audience

Know your niche market and customize your sales copy to exactly what they’re looking for.

2. Perform Market Research

Learn about the needs of your target market by finding out what they need, like or dislike. This information will help your sales copy address your targets specific needs. It will also help to anticipate questions and objections your audience will have.

3. Craft an Attention-Grabbing Headline

Limp, lifeless, irrelevant and ineffective headlines clutter a message. It’s a turn off to read a headline that doesn’t address your target’s needs.

Examples are:

Poor Quality Headline:

Drain-Edge – Your Answer To All Your Plumbing Needs!

High Quality Headline:

Do You Have the Worst Plumbing Nightmare Ever Imagined?

Let Drain-Edge Take the Edge Off Your Mind by Helping You With a Low Cost and Easy Solution to Your Leaky Pipes, Busted Toilet or Cracked Septic Tank. Call Us Today for a Free Estimate, Budget Discount Rates and Fast Service!

By creating a headline that is highly relevant, simple and specific your target buyer will read on.

4. Establish Your Credibility

Detail your credentials and provide your target audience with information that makes you an authority.

Tell a story by explaining your business product or service.

Offer testimonials that are packed with positive results from satisfied customers. Make sure your testimonials are specific and describe exact benefits that your product or service provided. Include contact information for your testimonials so your potential buyer knows they come from real people or businesses you’ve serviced.

Add a guarantee to your product or service. A strong guarantee shows that you stand behind what your selling. Many businesses have reported, the longer your guarantee period is, the fewer returns there are.

5. State Benefits Not Features

One of the most commonly overlooked marketing mistakes is not knowing the difference between features and benefits. Sales copy must clearly state what the benefit of using your product or service is. Features are simply describing your product or service.

For example:

Feature:

Drain-Edge works hard to provide you and your home with carefree plumbing solutions.

Benefit:

Enjoy care-free plumbing solutions that put your mind at ease and let you live worry- free!

The basic rule is that a benefit answers the question “What’s in it for me?” By stating a benefit you are inviting your target audience to imagine using your product or service in order to take care of a problem they’re trying to solve.

 6. Format Easy To Read/Scan Copy

• Use bulleted lists
• Add sub-headings
• Create short, chunky paragraphs
• Emphasize important points with bold lettering, highlights or italics
• Use a plain font face that’s easy to read
• Compile relevant graphics and images to push your message
• Don’t clutter your message with too many graphic design elements
• Keeping your designs simple so  your message/sales copy stands out

7. Ask Your Target to Act

Promoting a call to action and encourage your target to act quickly—turn leads into sales.

Create special incentive programs that give your audience a reason to buy now rather than later. Limited time offers and limited supply can nudge a casual looker into a buyer. Coupons, discounts and special bonus offers  also motivate clients and customers to act quickly.

By making it clear what your audience can do to act, you are helping them choose to close the deal and buy your product or services. Motivational sales copy increases potential buyers to take advantage of a special program offer. This can result in a higher return on the time you invested in working on good sales copy.

It’s not too hard to follow the basics of writing good sales copy. The challenge is making the copy work for your target audience and their specific needs. Also consider the time of year and the current economic climate when choosing special promotional offers. Marketing and advertising is a delicate balance between being targeted, compelling and motivational. Good luck and enjoy creating your all-time best sales copy!

We welcome new ideas and you might inspire us for our next blog post! Share your thoughts and tips by posting comments for us. Thanks for reading!

By Sara Hassler

Social Media is a broad communication tool that describes highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques that relies on social interaction.

• It uses primarily web-based technologies that turn into interactive dialogues. Off the web, social media can include various forms of social communication – that encourages or uses social interaction to communicate.
• Web 2.0 used to be the go-to term that described social media as a type of web-based application allowed the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Some businesses use the term Consumer-Generated Media.

Social Media has been classified as a “Sign of our current times” known as the “Attention Age”.

• Social Media is often thought of, as a way for people to blend technology and social interaction in order to co-create something of value.
• This value for some individuals is friendship as found on the website Facebook.
• For many working professionals the value of Social Media has come to mean work-related career opportunity and advancement as found on the website Linked In.
• Businesses all over the world are finding value added reasons to use Social Media platforms to reach out to their consumers.
• Social Media on the World Wide Web allows people to gain information, education, news, and also provides valuable research tools when needed by the means of electronic media.
• Off the internet, Social Media is a way to physically and verbally interact with others through other offline interactions such as events, conferences and educational institutions.
• Social Media has become a mainstay for many people, businesses and organizations to communicate their message because it’s an inexpensive way to publish content or connect with others. There are not any planes to catch, cabs to call or hotels to book when you can chat with an old friend on Facebook or meet a potential employer on Linked In.

Social Media Marketing is often considered the building of what’s known as “Social Authority”.

• Social Authority is when an individual, business or organization works to establish themselves as an expert in their field . By being considered an expert, that person, company or establishment is thought to have the ability to have an influence in that field of expertise.

Recent Statistics reported back in December of 2009 showed that:

• 22% of all time spent on the internet is on social networking sites.
• About 234 million people between the ages of 13 and older in the United States have used a mobile device.
• Twitter was found to have processed over one billion tweets and continues to average nearly 40 million tweets per day.
• More than 25% of the United States internet page views online took place at one of the major social networking sites.
• In Australia, it was reported that they had over 9 million social media users who spent almost 9 hours per month on their social media websites.

Social Media can include popular electronic mediums like:

• Internet forums
• Weblogs
• Social Blogs
• Microblogging
• Wikis
• Podcasts
• Pictures
• Videos
• Rating/Reviewing
• Social Bookmarking

All in all what does Social Media mean for the average person? It has come to be a true benefit for everyone worldwide. Social platforms offer everyone a voice to communicate their thoughts, link with old friends and grow as a person, professionally and personally. More and more people are turning to their social networks to learn about whatever moves them for that day, week or year.

Social Media is up to date, it’s real-time and that’s what makes it exciting. It’s as simple as someone posting a comment on their Facebook page letting their friends know their coffee shop’s pumpkin syrup just arrived for the fall season or that an old friend is dying in the hospital so others know to go for a final visit.

No matter how you look at Social Media it is a fascinating tool that we have all found valuable to our lives in one way or another. Social Media works to improve our daily existence through interactive communication. That communication can be informational or even life-saving. Enjoy your time spent being social and listen, read and see — the voices, thoughts and pictures—of the masses!

We welcome new ideas and you might inspire us for our next blog post! Share your thoughts and tips by posting comments for us. Thanks for reading!

By Sara Hassler

Twitter is an amazing micro-blogging tool that is very popular with businesses of all sizes, celebrities and even athletic professionals. With 140 characters as tools for communicating, everyone is finding the value of using Twitter to send updates on their status and upcoming events. Twitter allows people to stay connected to the world—real-time. In the past, most of us used newspapers, television and radio to get our information. Much of that information was either past event updates or future event planning. Today you can stay connected, up to the minute, hour by hour or day by day. Businesses, organizations and individuals can benefit greatly from Tweeting!

Leverage Your Business

Find your target audience and potential prospects on Twitter and participate in industry conversation. People might be talking about a variety of issues including positive and negative experiences. Businesses can benefit by being a part of that conversation. Twitter can be your social happy hour where you can engage with your industry peers and audience in a positive and productive way.

Create Brand Awareness

Businesses can engage followers by keeping their brand in the forefront of their minds. Tweet about what’s new, your next big business plan and promote your business plan by generating buzz.

Get Informed

Twitter can help a business gain competitive intelligence. If your competition is on Twitter, you can count on being able to monitor their tweets to see what’s going on with them. Are they launching a new product, opening a new branch, or laying off folks?  By learning about your competition, your business gains an edge through the use of filtered information. Maybe your company should do an early launch to beat out your competitor, relocate an idea for a new office or consider an acquisition of a company who’s on its way out. Twitter is a key place to monitor what your competitor is doing. You can even pick up new marketing tips on how they’re using Twitter and either model your business Tweets the same way or choose a new technique that’s more beneficial to your specific business model.

Manage Your Online Reputation

The information on Twitter is real-time and the news or comments offered breaks fast. By monitoring what’s being said about your business, you can address issues and communicate a response immediately. Twitter is a social environment where transparency and honest are positive business attributes.

Promote Your Blog

Twitter allows businesses, organizations and individuals the ability to promote their blogs. Automatic feeds can be created that will post your blog comments directly to Twitter.

Use Twitter & Be Mobile

Twitter is simple and is limited to the use of 140 characters which makes it easy for Tweets to be mobile. A business can send and receive updates by using SMS. It’s a great communication tool for anyone on the go, making Twitter a powerful mobile marketing tool.

Use Twitter To Learn

Twitter can help a business learn what their target demographic is, what they are saying and looking for. You can learn what the latest interests are and what your target audience wants.

Let Twitter Feed You Back

Twitter allows businesses instant feedback on new products, websites, blogs and marketing efforts. This allows a business to make necessary changes before a formal launch. In this way, Twitter becomes an invaluable, time saving and cost saving tool.

Use Twitter For Promotions

By  using Twitter, a business can announce off or online events, deals and special offers and other consumer advantage programs.

Boost Your SEO

Great web content needs traffic and if your site has something to offer, you can use Twitter to drive traffic to your website. Tweet with a URL, and your website can become a landing pad that encourages conversation on and about your site.

Let Twitter Be Your Question & Answer Guide

If a business is looking for answers to questions, looking for industry statistics or hoping for general feedback, Tweet ‘n Listen. Posing an engaging question on Twitter can generate a response and point your business in the right direction.

Twitter & Human Resources = New Leads

Need or want some extra help for your business or organization? Tweet your job postings through Twitter and you might get some interesting and viable candidates!

Let Twitter Manage your News

Promote your newest press release and company news by Tweeting about it. This can help communicate what your business is doing faster than a traditional press release. It’s also a great way to engage conversation about your business news.

Twitter has become a popular communication tool. By listening and communicating, businesses can use the power of the internet and its lightening fast speed to share information real-time. Toss those postcards the next time you want to send a quick update or message. Instead, log onto Twitter and love being a part of the digital world!

We welcome new ideas and you might inspire us for our next blog post! Share your thoughts and tips by posting comments for us. Thanks for reading!

By Sara Hassler

Writing ad copy can be easy if you use the right tools of the trade. Here are a few quick tips on how you can strive to write better copy that sells a product and produces results for your client.

Learn your client’s business

By learning about your client’s business and how they operate, you will be able to get a handle on who is buying their product. Ad copy for a restaurant will be much different than ad copy for an accounting firm. Do your research first, and then approach your client with a few questions to learn more:

• Ask questions about what other types of businesses are related to their work or product.
• Find out who their target market is and the median age, gender and other basic demographics about their customers. What you choose to write for 25 year olds will be much different than what you would write for a consumer that is 45+.
• Examine previous advertising copy that your client has had success with and ask to be shown what ad copy has failed to provide sell-through of product. Examine both then improve on the successful ad copy and apply those improvements to your ad copy.

Observe how your client has positioned their business in the marketplace

Once you can figure out the personality of your client’s business it will become easier to develop an ad campaign that works to fit their current profile. How a company wants to brand themselves and the products they sell is key to how they present themselves in words. You can work closely with company executives to learn about their wants and desires. Some businesses want to sell their product with ad copy that doesn’t match their company’s public profile. This can lead a company to a failed ad campaign.

• Question how your client wants to be seen by the public.
• Ask about the type of reputation they want to achieve.
• Find out how their competitors are viewed, expand on the competitions weak points to make your client stronger in the marketplace.

Adhere to your clients desires

As a copywriter you might not have enough time to learn about how every business operates.  It is up to you as a professional in the field to learn enough about each of your individual clients needs and how it pertains to the specific work you do for them. By listening to your client’s needs, learning what their desires are and working towards a common goal, you can look forward to creating successful ad copy that benefits the business you are working for.

• Working off ideas that you might think are inventive or ideal, may not benefit your client’s long term goals.
• As a copywriter it’s important to remember that most businesses work on a plan over the course of months or years. Your goal is to become a building block.
• Taking one step at a time is one of the most beneficial ways to incorporate your creativity and genius into  your client’s goals.

Working as a copywriter may seem like a no-brainer job for most. But for those who do the work, it’s an intense job that requires thought, sensitivity and a professional ethic that goes beyond your own thoughts of greatness. The best copywriters are the ones that match their style, their work and their creativity to their client. Once someone is able to generate good copy that matches their client’s goals and needs, that writer can count on being called back again and again as a team member that is known for their beneficial contributions.

In the ever changing world of advertising, copywriters can easily become an invaluable piece of a company’s  marketing plan. Match your skills to your client’s needs. Once you do this, you will be able to count on a long and productive relationship with your clients for years to come!

We welcome new ideas and you might inspire us for our next blog post! Share your thoughts and tips by posting comments for us. Thanks for reading!

By Sara Hassler

There are lots of ways that the top designers and firms work to meet their clients goals and being successful in the world of design means having a handle on how to create original ideas. Most designers would agree that it’s the execution of a great idea that makes it a success.

The Hartford Business Review recently published an article on their website by Warren Berger entitled Four Phases of Design Thinking . Warren Berger is the author of GLIMMER: How design can transform, business, your life, and maybe even the world (Penguin Press). He edits the online magazine GlimmerSite.com too. His article was so informative, we thought it was well worth our time to review how designers work to create successful innovative ideas.

Throughout the world of design, there are some shared behaviors that top designers follow in order to achieve significant breakthroughs. Second nature habits that were found to be common among expert designers and to their ability to transform an original idea into a successful innovation included; asking questions, caring, connecting and committing. If you’re a designer you will recognize these shared behaviors and if you’re looking for design work to be done, these are the steps that a top notch designer will most likely follow.

Designers Ask LOTS Of Questions

• Seasoned designers ask lots of questions.
• They work to raise questions in order to begin their design project.
• Designers strive to challenge the current reality or assumption in an industry.
• The creative mind works to learn the mainstream obvious and then figures out a way twist or morph it into an original idea that will turn into a successful innovative idea.
• A creative individual will often ask basic “why” questions that might seem naive and sometimes puts people on the defense.

When a designer asks why, they are really encouraging people to step back and reconsider old problems or practices that might be out of date. This gives the designer the ability to re-frame and steer thinking in a new direction. By striving to stretch the question of why to all facets of a project, they are able to rethink the basic fundamentals of a business. In the current economy and ever so volatile marketplace, this breeds innovation that gives birth to success.

A Great Designer Cares

• Designers do their best work by stepping out of the corporate bubble.
• They immerse themselves in the lives of their target market or audience.
• By observing and paying close attention to the customer they are trying to reach, they are able to dig out the consumer’s deep unspoken needs.
• Designers work hard to be present in people’s lives.

Lots of companies can say they care about their customer’s needs. Focus groups and questionnaires don’t really scratch the surface as to what makes an individual choose to buy a product. In order to reach a consumer on an emotional level, you have to empathize with them. This is the leverage that a good designer brings to the creative table. They strive to learn how their customers feel, how they think and how they live. By doing so, a seasoned designer learns what pushes a person to buy a product, join a marketing campaign, or become a faithful follower and consumer.

Designers Are Able To Connect

• A designer works to synthesize ideas.
• The creative thought process can take existing elements or ideas and combine them together in new ways.

Hiring a designer doesn’t always mean that a business will be forced into a new set of marketing materials or professional identity. It’s the job of a designer to also consider their clients current business elements and think laterally. Sometimes new ideas are not born fresh or invented from scratch. New ideas can be found by searching for new ways to combine current or older ideas. Designers do this by connecting them in a new way. They generate a new idea that is often comprised of scattered or mismatched ideas that didn’t seem to go together. This can be a shortcut to innovation. By combining previous ideas, this can help a business retain their original identity and brand, and simply strive for a new look, new message or re-tool their branded look to be more attractive to the public.

Designers Achieve Success Through Commitment

Designers are able to commit early to an idea.

They take original ideas and move them beyond imagination by giving them Form.

This Form makes an idea Real.

Designers are comfortable with putting an idea out into the marketplace when it’s young and imperfect.

A designer knows how to accept short-term failure.

Creative professionals have the ability to “fail forward”.

Some of the greatest designers have gone back to the design board more than once to tweak an idea into success. With their focus on commitment, the creative mind is often very comfortable with risk, more so than the average person is. They know that small failures are useful tools that provide a process for learning what needs fixing. In times of fast dynamic change, many companies need a confident designer on their team that can operate in a “test and learn” environment. In this type of work situation a designer will be required to create multiple or rapid prototypes. In design, the name of the game is often—Change it—Revise it — Until it STICKS!

Businesses and designers can look forward to forging a profitable partnership when they work towards a common goal. One way to do that is for the designer to explain what they will be doing, how they work their process and why they follow certain steps to achieve success. Through the use of an open line of communication, businesses can learn how to apply their designers behavioral habits to their own creative process. Being able to generate innovative and fresh ideas that  are attractive to consumers can push a business from hum-drum to sensational and victorious!

We welcome new ideas and you might inspire us for our next blog post! Share your thoughts and tips by posting comments for us. Thanks for reading!

By Sara Hassler

Enjoy the value of Facebook and build your business by creating a Facebook business page. By having a Facebook business page you can increase your online presence and gain even more exposure by; including  your Facebook page link in your email signature, posting your link on your business website and adding it to your print and advertising materials. Facebook can be an excellent and valuable business tool if used properly. Check out the research and stats below to find out just how powerful Facebook is in the world of social media networks.

Recent studies performed by Edison Research showed:

• 48% of Americans, over the age of 12, had a profile page set up on a social network site.
• 30% of those same individuals logged on to their social network page multiple times each day.

The statistics from  Facebook are astounding:

• There are more than 400 million active users.
• The average user has an estimated 130 friends.
• People are found to be spending over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook.

Use Facebook to Build Your Business

In order to use Facebook so it benefits your business you can incorporate these ideas:

• Choose a keyword name that will improve your search engine ranking. Try matching your Facebook name to your business name so folks can find you online in cyberspace and on Facebook under the same name.

• Work on creating a comment posting schedule that fits into your work schedule. Posting  on a regular basis can help others get to know you and your business. It will also increase your chances of gaining followers.

• Ask you Facebook friends to interact with others on your page. You can do this by posing questions to spark conversation. The idea is to create a conversation that encourages multiple replies.

• If friends post on your page, respond to their comments as often as possible. This will let them know your available.

• Text is great for getting things started, but make a concentrated effort to share photos and videos so your Facebook business page is interesting and stimulating.

The Importance of Maintaining a Business Website & Blog

Once your business is set up on Facebook with a custom page, turn your efforts to expanding your online presence with a solid foundation like a website and blog. Many businesses wonder why they should spend the time in creating a business blog when a Facebook business page appears to be more interactive. The answer is that you don’t own your Facebook page. You are using Facebook as a place to simply interact and connect with others. They key to using Facebook is to make it beneficial to building your business and that is done by driving your Facebook friends to your own website and or blog.

Think of your website as a central hub for your business and your blog as your social outreach for your marketing and public relations. Since you own your website and your blog, it’s yours. You have complete control of the changes, the longevity and the future of your site and blog. On Facebook, you don’t own your page and any content created on your Facebook page could disappear if Facebook vanished.

Be in Control of Your Destiny

Choose to be self-reliant and maximize the time you invest on your social network pages by creating a strong central business homepage, website and up-to-date well- managed blog. Brand your business by creating an internet storefront. Your store can be filled with creative content that describes your business mission, goals , products and services. At the end of the day, your cyber shop will also be in place for as long you own your business!

We welcome new ideas and you might inspire us for our next blog post! Share your thoughts and tips by posting comments for us. Thanks for reading!

By Sara Hassler

SEO, otherwise known as Search Engine Optimization, refers to the steps followed to optimize a website. Websites  are optimized by changing or improving parts of their internal or external features, like improving website copy text, keyword tags(internal) or web hosting controls(external). SEO also works to improve site design and content that will increase traffic. The ideal traffic that the optimization targets is search engine traffic.

There are individual consultants, small businesses and large firms that specialize in SEO. Some Search Engine Optimization specialists are focused in one specific area and others are broad and generalized. Because optimizing a website requires attention to a variety of unique elements, some specific and others general, many SEO professionals describe their work as being in the open field of website optimization.

Companies and individuals need Search Engine Optimization because web traffic is controlled and “driven” by the top commercial search engines, AskJeeves, Yahoo!, Google and MSN (AOL pulls about 10% of searches and is powered by Google results). Web users who are looking for content, services, products or information are generally using a key method of web navigation—search engines. If a website can’t be found by these major search engines or the content of a website can’t be put into their databases, then those sites lose out on valuable traffic.

To simplify, the words we use when we type letters into the search box are valuable. These searches are called search queries and usually contain a phrase that is then best matched to a specific website. Many people agree that their experience has proven that search engine traffic can have a tremendous impact on a website’s success. Since targeted visitors can offer publicity, revenue and exposure, Search Engine Optimization offers a substantial rate of return on investment.

Search engines like Yahoo!, AskJeeves, Google and MSN need SEO help because they are limited in how they operate. Search Engine Optimization helps to make content available to the search engines and can also boost search engine ranking. With content that is easily found, sites are placed where web users can see it - page one of a search, instead of page 32. Organizations, businesses and individuals can pick up visitors, attention and lift a website to gain more visibility by performing Search Engine Optimization.

As you begin on your journey into the wide world of Search Engine Optimization here are a few quick tips on how to make website text search-friendly!

Search engines cannot index certain text styles and as a result, many sites struggle with making their text search-friendly. Search engines cannot read, index or pull the following text styles:

• Text embedded in a Java Application or Macromedia Flash file
• Text in an image file - jpg, gif, png or other image.
• Text accessible only through a form or other on-page action

Search-friendly text can be described as text that the search engines can spider and index. When creating text in HTML it’s critical to website rank and getting indexed properly to make your website text search-friendly. Search engines measure the phrases and terms in text copy and pull information about that page based on their findings. Finding the right balance of how to create content that is reader friendly and “search-friendly” could be considered both an art and a science. The following rules apply when working to optimize on-page text for search rankings:

Create and make the primary phrase/term stand out.

Keyword density is now considered useless. General frequency is what helps ranking.

Create web content that is high quality and on-topic.

Search engines are sophisticated and analyze content to find quality pages. They also have teams of researchers that work to find quality writing.

Structure your text/document.

A journalistic format is common and preferred. The copy starts with a description and then moves from broad to narrow in subject and content.

Cozy content works so keep website text together.

When creating a document or on-page content, it’s important to avoid breaking text through coding. One way to do this is by using tables that have text sections like content, ads and navigation that flows.  Too many “nested” tables can create broken sentences and paragraphs that are not search-friendly.

Layout and keyword usage has little value.

Website layout and keyword usage used to be considered important in search engine ranking. That’s no longer the case. Structure and keywords offer a slight boost in ranking, but the overall benefit is low.

By following these basic search friendly rules when creating your online copy content, you will enjoy higher search engine rankings, increased traffic and possible income potential and growth. The World Wide Web is forever evolving and keeping up with the newest and most up to date information is crucial to successful website design and development. Search Engine Optimization is for people, businesses and organizations that want to grow their online presence through the use of technical, creative and structured content.

We welcome new ideas and you might inspire us for our next blog post! Share your thoughts and tips by posting comments for us. Thanks for reading!

By Sara Hassler

Color speaks volumes when you are trying to attract an audience, friends or work on your social network marketing campaign. Refer to the characteristics of color when creating business graphics, website designs, blog layouts and social media pages. It’s been reported that color can evoke an emotional response within 90 seconds of viewing.

Color can motivate, persuade, impress, influence and encourage. It can change behavior, bring to mind emotions and can impact a physical response.

Color is also cultural and specific to regions and is also age related. Your location and target audience should always be considered when choosing the right colors for communication. Make an impact and send a subliminal message to your audience by knowing the secret language of color.

Blue

Blue is a popular color for business. It suggests financial responsibility, security, trust, reliability and dignity. Dark “corporate” blue is important and confident. In general blue is calming and a natural universal color associated with the blue sky above all of us. In culture it symbolizes religious beliefs, is thought to bring peace, and keep evil spirits away.

Brown

Brown speaks of kindness, cooperation, efficiency and wealth. It has been associated with stimulating appetite and is found in living and non-living materials. Universally it is associated with being wholesome and earthy. It is a dependable color.

Black

Black is bold, powerful and elegant. It is authoritative, seductive and sophisticated. It is a classic color and is also associated with evil. In nature, black is thought to be the absence of color. In western countries, black symbolizes mourning. For young people it is rebellious.

Gray

Gray is a serious color that quietly suggests authority and practicality. It is honest, traditional and conservative. In our culture, dark gray is used for mourning and light gray for celebrations. Overall it is a formal color.

Green

Green has been reported to be the easiest color on the eye. It  symbolizes wealth, status, freedom and growth. It is often associated with health, fertility and nature. It’s naturally a restful color and calming. In cultures it symbolizes the environment and the Spring season.

Orange

Orange is a vibrant playful color that suggests pleasure and cheer. In nature it’s associated with warmth and stimulates the senses. Cultures recognize it as a color that represents the changing of the seasons, the sun and good health.

Pink

Pink is feminine and nurturing. It is associated with being sweet and innocent. It suggests well-being. In nature pink is seen as soft and culturally pink is delicate.

 Purple

Purple is an upscale color, artistic, spiritual and dignified. It is luxurious, wealthy, authoritative and sophisticated. In nature purple is thought to be sacred and precious. Different cultures think of this color in a variety of ways, some use this color for mourning, royalty or authority.

Red

Red is aggressive, strong and dangerous. It is associated with sex, passion, excitement and speed. Red has been reported to stimulate a faster heartbeat and increase breathing. It is naturally a hot color. In culture it is powerful. Some countries think of this color as pure and joyful and use it for celebrations or to attract good luck.

White

White is pure, clean and honest. It is contemporary, loyal and affectionate. In nature white is brilliant. Some cultures think of white as innocent or for royalty, others use it for mourning.

Enjoy creating your own special message about your business, goals and products by engaging your audience through the use of color. Color speaks to us in a non-verbal communication that is strong and emotional. Use color to your best advantage by being sensitive to how color can impact your print materials, online presence and social media networks. Be creative and color your business to success!

We welcome new ideas and you might inspire us for our next blog post! Share your thoughts and tips by posting comments for us. Thanks for reading!

By Sara Hassler

If you have an opinion (and don’t we all??) or just want to share facts about a topic you feel passionate about, Squidoo is the perfect format for doing just that. It’s a community website where members create free web pages called “lenses” for a variety of topics. These lenses can then be linked together so similar topics or authors can be found.

If you’re asking “What is Squidoo?” you may be in the minority. In fact, Squidoo is ranked in the top 500 most visited websites in the world and is in the top 300 most viewed by people in the United States. In 2009, Squidoo grew an unprecedented 91% with an impressive 900,000 people-built lenses as of February 1, 2009.

Squidoo is not published in an ezine format and it isn’t a blog. It’s just pages of information where you can spin whatever you want, about whatever you wish. The lenses are very easy to make with a menu-driven application. So even (or maybe especially) if you’ve never built a website or written a blog before you can have your lens up and running in a very short time and sharing your opinion with the rest of the world.

When you create a lens with Squidoo, you have the choice to add different modules to your web page. There are modules for adding content, photos, featured lenses, YouTube videos, Amazon and Ebay auctions, and others.

Links to other websites are allowed on the lenses so you can even promote products as an affiliate marketer…do I smell profits? Yes indeed, Squidoo offers you a chance to collect income from your lens. Squidoo earns money from affiliate advertising with Google AdSense, Amazon, Ebay and other sites and keeps track of the earnings of each module then splits the profits with you 50-50. Wow! As if that weren’t enough, here’s another cool thing about Squidoo: it can help you feel good about yourself. Yup, you not only get to say what you want while standing on the world’s biggest soapbox, but Squidoo allows you to set up your page to donate your profits to charity, if you choose.

So if anybody asks you, “What’s Squidoo?” you can tell them it’s a great website that allows you to create a web page about your interests, passions and causes for free. It also allows you to contribute to charity or make money for yourself. So, “share what you care about, get found, get followed and get influential.” (Quoted from Squidoo.com). What could be better?

By Deborah Munger