UK Businesses Start Taking Business Blogging Seriously

September 19, 2007 | 8 Comments

conversation

Last year, I attended a small business exhibition in my home city of Milton Keynes to distribute leaflets on the benefits of blogging for businesses. I’d hoped it would be a new area in which I could differentiate myself and ride the crest of the wave of the revolution in business communication.

Unfortunately, my attempts to extol the virtues of posting articles once a week were met with glazed eyes and furrowed brows, before I’d even mentioned RSS. Suffice to say, I left the exhibition with few new leads and a hundred or so leaflets that are still gathering dust in a drawer.

Well, a year on it would appear that UK businesses have now started taking blogging seriously, and it’s growing on a rapid scale.

This week, Inferno PR released the results of a survey of 300 businesses with 250+ employees, which even reached the national news [links found via The Marketing Blog].

50% had undertaken blogging in some form and of those nearly 90% said it had generated new business.

Other findings included:

  • 64% of UK corporate blogs have been launched in the last 6 months
  • 66% of managers in the survey have visited blogs in the last 12 months
  • 80% of blog users visit blogs during working hours
  • 33% of blog visitors will access a blog on a daily basis
  • Amongst purchase decision makers, blogs were second best source for influencing buying decisions, after industry reports

Inferno MD Grant Currie commented:

“The research shows that blogging in the UK is fast becoming a serious business tool…UK companies are now beginning to adopt blogging as part of their business strategy and those that have done so are pointing to specific business success and opportunity being created. It seems the hype is over and the real business of blogging is on its way.”

Whilst the findings are very positive, many businesses still need to learn that they need to be providing useful content of value, and not using blogs as a direct sales tool. The survey found that any business creation was because of greater engagement and relationship building, not one way marketing messages.

Grant Currie said:

“Businesses shouldn?t view a blog as another billboard from which to shout their corporate messages. Starting a blog is essentially starting a conversation and as in verbal communication, conversations have conventions, rules and boundaries. Those businesses in our survey who have derived new business opportunities from their blogs, will have found that these successes came indirectly from the blog, rather than directly. A blog is not the place to sell and businesses should get suitable advice before embarking on their blogs.”

One person who could give such advice is Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of the CMO Council in California.

In an interview on this week’s B2B Marketing Podcast (which I’d recommend anybody interested in the changing rules of marketing subscribes to) he discussed how there’s a sea change occurring in how marketing promotes products and services.

No longer is it just about peddling the feature, benefit story. But about building authority leadership and trust in how your products solve a customer’s particular need. You achieve this through your content, syndicated to third party sites as well as your own, and developing an ‘advocacy agenda’ for your products:

“Leadership starts off with creating an advocacy position that you know will help drive adoption and use of your solution. So before you get out there with the product sell, you’ve first got to paint a mural. You’ve got to provide a scenario situation.”

Donovan assessed that an effective, cohesive approach to marketing should be about:

“The whole notion of setup. The whole notion of enabling your channel and your sales organization to be provisioned with value selling content.”

Marketing officers now have a greater responsibility to push content publishing as a major part of their marketing mix, and not just pouring more funds into advertising and direct sales.

Marketing is about building trust and confidence through thought leadership and the provision of content of value. Exactly what an intelligent business blogging strategy should be all about.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Marketing, blogging 

10 Ways To Become A More Confident Writer

September 18, 2007 | 6 Comments

paper bin

A lack of confidence in your own writing can be quite common when you first start writing professionally, and can still occasionally hit even the most hardened pro. As with writer’s block, writing confidently is as much to do with your state of mind as your ability; there are techniques that can help relax your writing anxiety and help you compose words in a flowing, lucid manner.

In continuation of my series of posts on why copywriting shouldn’t be rushed, being more creative and beating writer’s block, I’m now going to assess ways of learning to write more confidently because it should be a pleasure, and not just a profession:

1) Read a lot. Read widely in new genres and formats, and not just within your own area of expertise. Seeing how other authors formulate their paragraphs and project meaning will help formulate structures in your own mind. The more widely you can read the more expansive your points of reference and the influences you can draw on when you sit down to put pen to paper.

2) Write a lot. The more you write the more you’ll relax, and agonize less over every sentence. Write even if your not getting paid for it. Start a blog, write articles for free distribution or write for a charity. Rekindle the feeling of writing for pleasure and remind yourself why you choose to do it in the first place.

3) Overcome your fear of people reading your work. If you’re not yet yet writing professionally, share your writing with friends or post it on writing community websites. Stage fright at the thought of exposing your words to others can often hold back many from taking the jump into the professional arena. The fear of criticism of what you’ve poured out onto the page has to be conquered if you want your talent to be appreciated.

4) Understand why you want to be a writer or why you became one. Was it from friends enjoying your short stories, work colleagues commenting on your writing or just your self belief in your own ability? What was the spark that made you realize you had the talent to write professionally?

5) If you’re writing professionally, appreciate what it has taken to get you to where you are. It takes confidence and bravery to start relying on your brain and word processor to produce the words that will keep a roof over your head and stop you going hungry. Appreciate your successes in getting work, and that you’re earning a living from your talent; which would otherwise be just a hobby.

6) Learn to accept criticism as feedback. Writing is a personal experience and as such writers are supposed to react badly to criticism. You’ll need to break out of this stereotype if you want to grow. Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to identify room for improvement, to which you’d otherwise be blind.

7) Learn to accept praise. The temptation is to be modest as you knew all along that your latest work was a masterpiece, but take pleasure and satisfaction in the fact that your writing is appreciated and that you’ve yet again delivered. Keep a portfolio of your best work and testimonials to revisit on days when you’re wrestling with self-doubt.

8) Always approach every project with maximum effort and treat it as part of a long-term business relationship. You’ll then get the satisfaction of knowing you did the best job you could and given yourself the best chance of repeat business and referrals, where most of your work will probably come from.

9) Take note of Chris Garret’s warning on avoiding the ‘Copywriter’s Curse’: if you worry too much about achieving perfection then the anxiety can grind your writing to a halt. Don’t confuse the writing stage with the editing process. As with beating writer’s block, just get words onto the page and then shape and mould them to your heart’s content afterwards. Perfection is something you can always aspire to, but will rarely reach in the first draft, if ever. Even Shakespeare would probably tear up a few of his manuscripts if he were to revisit them today.

10) Appreciate that the occasional doubt in your own writing is part of the creative process and is what keeps you striving for higher standards. Use it as motivation to improve and to learn how to become a better writer, which is a lifetime pursuit in itself.

Follow these steps, work hard and remember that even Stephen King had to go through having his work marked in black marker pen at some stage.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting 

Warning: People Are Ignoring Advertising. But They Do Read News

September 12, 2007 | 7 Comments

Just over 20 years ago, David Ogilvy noticed that people weren’t reading his ads as much as they were the editorial sections of newspapers. In fact, the main content was receiving five times the amount of attention as his well crafted copy. Ogilvy, never one to shy away from pushing boundaries, came up with the novel idea of making his ads appear more like news, and so the advertorial was born.

Advertorials have now become a stable form of newspaper advertising. Ads disguised as news can be indistinguishable from the editorial content, apart from the footnote to inform/protect readers.

Advertorials work because they play haywire with your anti-ad radar. Normally your sophisticated array of anti-marketing defenses can identify an incoming sales message and disable it before it can reach your attention.

But advertorials are the masters of disguise. They give the impression of offering content of value, and unwittingly dupe you into letting down your defenses and consuming their content.

Resistance to advertising is almost a source of pride amongst online surfers. They’re in control of what content they’re going to receive and aren’t about to have their time wasted by anything which isn’t offering value.

Marketing online is achieved through information and content of value. Not a bombardment of marketing messages in the hope of a few getting through.

This was illustrated by a recent study by web usability guru Jakob Nielsen on eye tracking on websites (link via Marketing Pilgrim post).

The heat maps below show how the blindness to ads in newspapers is being replicated online:

banner-blindness-examples

Red shaded areas received most attention, whilst the ads (green borders) were ignored.

Nielsen has reluctantly concluded that ads need to appear more like the main content if they’re to attract attention. This means ad campaigns focused on getting the ads right for specific sites, rather than mass syndicated networks.

Nielsen’s study might not cover pay-per-click ads on search listings, but these encounter a similar ad averse culture. Other studies have shown that most people don’t click on PPC ads, with the vast majority putting their trust in Google’s algorithm and the natural search results.

People use the internet for information, not advertising messages. Maybe clever marketers should take a leaf out of Ogilvy’s book and start thinking about writing advertorials for relevant websites; providing content that offers information of value, whilst promoting the benefits of your product or service.

Many businesses are continuing to struggle in applying the old methods of advertising they have grown up with. But this is one old advertising technique that might just work.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Marketing 

10 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block

September 6, 2007 | 6 Comments

Stuck for Words


Have your fingers frozen over the keyboard waiting for your brain to warm them up with the right words?

Do you have stage fright at the thought of thousands of people getting lost in your muddled sentences and meandering paragraphs?

Writer’s block is a common symptom that afflicts every writer at some stage. There’s a range of reasons why it can occur: anxiety, low moods, tiredness and just a complete lack of confidence can all grind the creative process to a halt.

The symptom isn’t terminal, however, and there are plenty of ways to counter it’s dehibilitating affects:

  1. Have you worked out a structure for your writing? If not, brainstorm every section to find new ideas to generate new paragraphs.
  2. Set yourself a schedule and reserve your most productive period to writing. Emails, phone calls and checking Facebook can wait.
  3. Remove distractions: shut your door, close down your email and do your best not to wander onto the internet.
  4. Use a timer and force yourself to sit at your desk for that period, and then reward yourself with a short break at the end.
  5. Just write anything and worry about perfection later on. Blank screens can seem daunting, fill it with words and you’ll feel like you’re making progress. Even if what you write isn’t up to scratch you can revise and edit as much as you like later on.
  6. Go for a walk, relax and listen to some music to charge up those alpha waves.
  7. Try mental exercises such as simply writing impulsively whatever comes into your head. This will help you relax when typing and not wringing your hands over every word.
  8. Work somewhere new, where you wont easily be distracted, to break out of your familiarity zone and spark new ideas.
  9. Talk to someone about the subject, or try imagining having a conversation about it. This can help create new ideas and give you a sense of how to structure your writing.
  10. Realize that writer’s block isn’t a medical condition, and can be treated by following points 1-9.

If you catch writer’s block then don’t panic, and just accept it as part of the ebb and flow of the creative process. You can’t expect to nail it in every sitting.

Painters will go over areas of their greatest masterpieces repeatedly until they’re satisfied. Writers enjoy the same luxury. A blank screen is merely your canvas and you’re free to sharpen, mould and enhance to your heart’s content.

Just sit down and start splashing words onto the screen and eventually your creative genius should kick in and do the rest.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting 

The Power of a Tailor’s Tale

September 4, 2007 | 5 Comments

englishcut

Once upon a time, there was a young tailor who was struggling to make a living selling his handmade suits. Every month he would scramble around to find the money to pay the rent, hoping he would eventually be able to find enough wealthy customers to keep his business alive.

But as time went on, his dreams of becoming Saville Row’s youngest successful tailor continued to fade.

One evening, he was drowning his sorrows in a London tavern when he decided to share his plight with a friend. After listening to the tailor’s woes, the friend, who happened to be a marketing wiz, devised a plan to help the tailor attract more customers and sell more suits without requiring a king’s ransom.

The plan was simple. Under his friend’s guidance, the tailor would start writing stories about his business: on the training involved, choosing the right materials, the techniques used to craft every suit and to offer a window on the life of a traditional old world artisan.

From sharing insight into his profession and expertise, the tailor was able to build an audience very quickly, attract new customers and build a phenomenal level of online exposure. His blog, English Cut, is now recognized as a casebook example of effective internet marketing in action, and was featured in Robert Scoble and Shel Israel’s book Naked Conversations.

The tailor’s sales have now trebled, he has recruited apprentices and started selling a new line of £150 shirts. His client base has now spread across the pond to the US, where he now pays regular visits to Manhattan, Chicago and anywhere else his services are requested.

The tailor drives his marketing simply by sharing stories about his profession and insight into the care and attention that goes into every suit.

People have been telling stories longer than recorded history.

Stories are powerful.

Stories swoop under the reader’s radar scanning for advertising. They can enable you to develop an emotional connection stronger than any sales chart or cleverly worded marketing message.

In the online world, you can’t talk to customers as you would in a shop. Therefore, you have to find other ways of introducing yourself and letting people know what you’re all about. What better way than in an ongoing discussion about your business and expertise?

Whether it’s in the form of a blog or newsletter, it has never been easier or cheaper to build relationships through the power of storytelling.

Every business has plenty of stories to tell, but here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • How was the company founded? Where does the name come from?
  • How have you overcome a challenge? What did you learn from it?
  • What stories do your customers have to tell about your business?
  • What insight and opinions can you offer on the latest industry news?
  • Who are the people that came the company going? Who is the person on the other end of the phone?

As internet marketers understand more about the challenges of selling online it’s becoming ever clearer that customers want to know more about you than what they can find on your profile page.

People like to trade with those they know and trust. You can build this trust by sharing your knowledge, expertise and history in a friendly, transparent manner.

So what’s your story?

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Marketing, blogging