What’s Holding Back Businesses From Blogging?

July 31, 2007 | Leave a Comment

If you spend any time reading internet marketing and copywriting blogs it’s very easy to get caught up in all the excitement on how blogs, and other web 2.0 tools, could transform a business’ fortunes. Although the benefits might seem obvious, persuading IT decision makers is another matter. Studies released in the last week continue to reflect how it’s the same old barriers holding back the engagement movement.

Mark White at Better Business Blogging alerted me to a recent trends survey by the Chartered Institute of Marketing. The survey suggests that change might be occurring, but it’s at a very slow pace.

This year, marketing spend on advertising is expected to fall slightly from its dominance of 15%. Online is to increase by a healthy 3.6%, customer relationship management by 2% year and PR by 1.5%, as marketers seek new avenues of communication.

Technology was identified as the main driving factor for the adjustments, with changing consumer attitudes being recognized by two thirds.

Geoff Hurst, the Institute’s Director, hailed the findings, “Playing by yesterday’s rules is not an option for the modern marketer. Keeping up to date with current thinking and maintaining skills have never been more important.”

Whilst the results might seem encouraging for those who believe in greater consumer engagement, there’s still a long way to go.

Although blogs were deemed as a popular digital marketing tool, only 1 in 12 claimed to be using them a ‘fair amount’. The fact is that new technology is still not being used by anywhere near the levels anticipated in previous years.

Marketers might be aware that consumer mindsets are changing, but are still apparently paralysed from being able to respond.

Insight into why many marketers’ hands might be tied was provided by a Forrester Research survey, released last Friday.

Forrester assessed that it was the old traditional metrics of return on investment, backed up by an acute lack of faith in web 2.0 technology, that was holding back new initiatives. Only a measly 11% of the 275 IT professionals interviewed had much faith in blogging’s effectiveness as a marketing tool.

As one commented, “If you can’t put together a good business case that has some cost benefit justification, it’s difficult to get those types of efforts launched.”

Two thirds of the IT decision makers interviewed identified ROI as the benchmark for evaluating success. This puts tactics such as blogging, and engaging with a steady flow of useful content, at a distinct disadvantage in getting funding.

Forrester analyst F G. Oliver Young commented, “Many business users still associate blogs with personal diaries, and some firms use blogs simply as a way to surface existing content, muting the effect.”

It’s not all doom and gloom though for the engagement marketer.

Rob Andrews at Blogging 4 Business last week highlighted ‘The B2B Web 2.0 Tools Report’. Commissioned by Direct Impact Marketing, the report discovered that of the businesses using blogs three quarters were smaller than 10,000 people.

Large monolithic organizations might be struggling to reach a decision that is not based on ROI, but brave smaller enterprises are not so restrained.

Paul Dunay from Bearing Point, one of the study’s sponsors, said, “If there’s one piece of advice for marketers I’d give it’s this: “Lather, rinse, repeat.” Get in there, mess it up, get comfortable. It’s all about trying and experimenting.”

The problem is that for many organizations experimenting and risking failure is not an option. So whilst they continue to watch from the sidelines, there’s plenty of room for those prepared to invest and pursue greater consumer engagement to reap the rewards.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Marketing, blogging 

Why You Should Invest in Copywriting to Convert Consumers

July 25, 2007 | 1 Comment

The results of a new study, released by Marketing Sherpa, on website consumer conversions have been doing the rounds recently on the search marketing blogs, and are worthy of a mention here.

The study, entitled ‘Digital Window Shopping: The Long Delay Before Buying’, has discovered that it’s now taking an average of 34 hours to convert a website visitor into a customer.

The fact that it was only 19 hours in 2005 – and has increased by 80% – has alarmed a few people. Many are now scratching their heads and wondering how they can regain the confidence of these hesitant consumers.

Marketing Sherpa Content Director, Anne Holland, has offered four suggestions on how businesses can improve their conversion times:

1. With every page now potentially a landing page, it’s crucial to provide an ‘about us’ explanation or link on every page so that visitors know where they are. You don’t want to waste all the time and effort on an organic search strategy just to lose shoppers because they think they’ve arrived at the wrong place.

2. Grab email addresses early before visitors have reached the shopping cart. That way you can develop the sales process even after they’ve left. Offer discount coupons, a newsletter or white paper to persuade them to trust you with their email address.

3. Content, content, content – provide generous descriptions, specs, case studies, comparisons and reviews to remove hurdles tripping up a sale. Consumers don’t just make a buying decision by price, but by trust. What’s your business’ background? How have you dealt with a customer’s problems in the past? Why is your product and expertise superior to your competition? All questions you can answer through clearly worded, engaging content.

4. Offer an exclusive bonus that can’t be found elsewhere. Give visitors a reason why they should buy from you. As in point 2, offer a white paper, discount or free gift with every purchase. Leverage your knowledge and expertise to provide the customer with something of value and you’re laying the groundwork for repeat sales at the same time.

A lot of search marketers seem to be dwelling on the need to change their PPC campaign analytics to reflect the fact that less consumers are purchasing on the first visit

Perhaps the main concern should be why fewer consumers are converting in the first place. With the internet now a resource for product and service information, many shoppers will spend hours trawling forums and reading reviews before they’ve built the confidence to make a purchase. If you can provide a one stop resource for all that research, and answer all their questions, then they won’t need to leave in the first place.

Many businesses continue to spend a large portion of their internet marketing budget on short term PPC, in the hope of converting a certain percentage of visitors. Maybe it’s time to think about investing more in a website’s copywriting so you can convert a higher percentage on a long-term basis.

Reports on the need for good quality copywriting, and a generous supply of content, are piling up all the time. Consumer mindsets have changed. Maybe its time more business mindsets did as well.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting, Marketing 

Blog theme change

July 23, 2007 | 4 Comments

Regular readers will know all about my search for a blog format that will satisfy both blog readers and business visitors. I might be attracting plenty of potential customers through the doors, but they’re not finding what they are looking for and promptly leaving.

For the latest reincarnation of The Copywriter’s Crucible I have switched from the popular Cutline theme to a three column layout called Vertigo by Brian Gardner. I chose the new theme because I think it looks more professional and allows me to communicate much more information above the fold, which should hopefully improve my sales proposition.

I now have room for a full blog feed, details explaining to visitors where they are and some nice comments I found on other sites (thanks Ponn Sabra at Empowerwomennow.com, Sara Scott at Smallbizpod.co.uk and DIB Marketing for your generous words). I’ve placed the comments above the fold not just to feed my own ego, but to build trust with visitors – independent recommendations are marketing gold.

I’m a lot happier with the new look and the early indications are promising, with some business visitors making it all the way to the contact page before leaving. There’s still some tweaking to be done, but I think I now have a much more professional looking shop window with a clearer path to the checkout till.

Let’s just hope my business visitors think so to.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under About 

Articles or Blog Posts? It’s Quality that Counts

July 18, 2007 | 6 Comments

Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen recently shared some of his pearls of wisdom on the role of blogs as marketing tools, and promptly upset a number of business blog experts in the process.

Although I don’t agree with his rather narrow pigeon holing of blogging as being for websites that sell cheap products where customers are easily converted – or completely understand how he formulated his graphs – I do appreciate his point on the need to be providing high quality content.

Nielsen makes the valid point that to differentiate yourself from the competition you simply have to be providing better insight and value:

“To demonstrate world-class expertise, avoid quickly written, shallow postings. Instead, invest your time in thorough, value added content that attracts paying customers.”

Whether your content is in the form of a white paper or a blog, for your words to be an effective marketing tool they have to be concise, engaging and offer value to the reader.

The beauty of blogs is that if the reader is interested in what you have to say then they can subscribe to your feed, enabling you to develop trust and confidence over time. A point I think Nielsen missed.

Blogs are, in essence, content management systems, and it’s up to you how you use them. If it’s for business purposes then you should be writing to showcase your expertise and educate the reader about your company.

With consumers now averse to advertising and marketing messages, it has never been more important to start selling through information and education. Exactly what well written copy, whether it’s in the format of a blog or not, should be aiming for.

This follows on from a post I wrote, this week, for Empowerwomennow.com, in which I discussed how investing time in one thorough post a week can be more effective than three quick ones. It’s all about quality rather than quantity, particularly if you’re a SME with limited time.

There’s plenty of value to be found in commentary, links to useful resources and the latest news; however, I think thought leadership should be the cornerstone of any business focused content strategy, and this can be best achieved with insightful and well researched posts.

The issue of the quality of web writing seems to be a popular theme at the moment as Walter Burek, author of Inklings blog, discussed it this week with the release of a new book, The Cult of the Amateur. The author, Andrew Keen, assess the negative impact of blogs by revisiting T.H.Huxley’s notion of infinite monkeys on typewriters:

“spewing an endless stream of amateur journalism, uninformed commentary, and wretched poetry, fiction, reviews and essays ? infinite monkeys providing infinite information for infinite readers, perpetuating the cycle of misinformation and ignorance.”

It’s the duty of professional writers everywhere to educate businesses on the value of well written and thought through content.

So, write engagingly with value and purpose, and differentiate yourself from the competition, whatever format your writing is in.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting, blogging 

Want to Engage? Just be Helpful

July 5, 2007 | 6 Comments

I frequently preach on the need to provide content of value to build trust with consumers. I, and many others, believe that the best way to sell products and services is through information and education, not carpet bombing sales messages.

Cynical consumers don’t trust adverting anymore, and will only pay you attention once they think you have something useful to offer. ‘Engagement’ is the buzz-term for bartering for people’s time to try and create such an impression.

Marketing departments worldwide are now being penetrated by the engagement philosophy. It’s now generally agreed that top down advertising is struggling, and the new engagement approach is needed.

Whilst there might be growing agreement on the need to engage, there’s still a blank space when it comes to a universal definition.

Dan Belmont, from live branded experiences company Marketing Arm, has a stab at it in an article in CNN Money.

He starts with a well composed quote from Yahoo CMO Cammie Dunaway, who said that, ‘Content is no longer something you push out. Content is an invitation to engage.’

Dan assesses that engagement is about creating an active involvement between consumers and brands. It is not about just getting attention, but is a deeper approach involving ‘content, experience and dialogue’.

Consumers want brands to provide them with something which is relevant and useful. Dan believes brands have to meet this with content that ‘resonates with consumers and ideas’.

As with everybody who has tried to box ‘engagement’ into one sentence, Dan finds that it’s just too complex to be narrowed down to a single phrase. None of the philosophy’s components (involvement, connection, experience, relevance) are new to marketers, just the way that they are now being used.

As Dan concludes:

“Marketing is more than simply delivering messages to passive receivers. Our consumers are people with lives and interests that lie beyond our products and services. To persuade them, we must try to engage them, no matter how we choose to define it.”

So how does this relate to small businesses? Not everybody has the budget to open their own store in Second Life, or create their own multiplatform social network?

The mindsets of consumers are the same whether their switching over from your TV adverts or binning your sales leaflet. They want you to provide them with something of value before they’re going to show you any love.

Small businesses can use one of their biggest assets to engage – their knowledge and expertise.

If you approach your newsletter, blog or white paper as an opportunity to offer a solution to a customer’s problem then you’ve already taken the first step on the road towards engagement, and winning their trust.

So whether you’re a multinational brand or just a skip hire firm, if you want to appeal to cynical consumers simply start talking to them in a helpful manner and the benefits will spread both ways. Just like the conversation.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Marketing, blogging