Boost Your Sales with Customer Reviews

July 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment

People might be ignoring overtly salesy marketing, but they still listen to each other. One of the most persuasive voices for selling your products can be your customers themselves. Whether you’re selling eBooks, renting skips or promoting your expertise, reviews and testimonials can enhance your credibility and build trust with hesitant buyers.

Reviews ’social proof’ your products

Web savvy consumers now search for reviews as well as the products themselves. As Dean Rieck coined on Copyblogger, people look for the ’social proof’ of a product or service. This is the wisdom of crowds in action where people search for feedback from previous happy customers before feeling confident enough to click ‘buy’.

If they don’t find the social proof on your site then a quick ‘Google’ on your product or company name will often do the trick. You can’t just bury your head in the sand if you’re selling a shoddy service.

Criticism can boost your credibility

So should you risk criticism appearing on your own website? In a recent E-consultancy article they suggested that a few negatives amongst the positives can actually enhance your credibility. People will think they’re getting objective advice, rather than being fed a corporate exercise in censorship.

Most reviews are believed to be complimentary anyway.

In a Bazaarvoice survey they found that 87% of reviews are positive. As Bazaarvoice CEO Brett Hurt commented, “This debunks a major myth about word of mouth and should encourage companies and chief marketing officers to be more comfortable with ‘letting go’ and inviting consumers to talk about their experiences.”

Inventing reviews is risky

Currently less than 30% of online retailers use customer reviews. So sharing feedback is an opportunity to differentiate yourself.

Just don’t try writing them yourself:

  • The backlash from customers who feel cheated could discredit you for life, or force you to change your company name to avoid reprisals in the future
  • Jo Public doesn’t worry about putting commas in the right place or writing in the active voice. However, he does write in an everyday, colloquial manner that gives his words a ring of authenticity. Trying to duplicate this can be tricky, no matter how talented a scribe you are
  • Better Business Blogging alerted me to new EU law banning ‘buzz marketing’ and the use of faked campaigns to get people talking about you. This means making up your own customer reviews will be illegal in Europe (although how strictly the law can/will be enforced is another matter)

So whilst your competitors fret about letting people write on their websites, let your customers talk about your products to boost trust, credibility and sales.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Marketing 

Is Your Copywriting Giving Enough Value?

May 8, 2008 | 6 Comments

In a world cynical of advertising and sales spiel, copywriting has to not only persuade but to build trust. An effective way of doing this is to be able to offer value in exchange for your reader’s time - where value is not giving away coupons, but being entertaining or informative.

People like to do business with those they either like, know or trust. Most will keep their credit card firmly hidden in their wallet if they think they’re being manipulated by clever wordplay and false promises.

Promote your authenticity

Being authentic and genuine would be a good start if you want to persuade people to believe in what you’re trying to sell.

Don’t just tell them why they should use your skip hire firm, but show them. Demonstrate your knowledge and expertise in a way that’s useful to the reader, teaches them something new and helps them make a more informed buying decision. Unless you’ve got something to hide of course, in which case your marketing is already in trouble with platoons of online snipers waiting to take you down in the forums if you’re guilty of false advertising or shoddy products.

Unique selling points are not just how long your washing up liquid lasts, but also the people who supply it. Customer service and having a talented backroom team are also USPs. So sprinkle your copywriting with real life examples of your team’s dedication to a high quality service to give it the sparkle of integrity and authenticity missing from the stuffy, robotic corporate copy of your rivals.

Engage with copywriting that offers value

The benefits of marketing that engages with the shared passions of its audience is gaining exposure all the time [link via Engagement Principles’ analysis]. In a low trust world it stands to reason that it’s those offering content of value who’ll garner relationships, rather than those simply shouting one way messages and stamping their feet demanding attention.

Whilst the cost/benefit analysis of engagement marketing might still be missing a few metrics, the nature of value is that you have to be offering it before you can expect any rewards in return.

People now have mental air-raid shelters to resist being carpet bombed advertising messages, but are happy to welcome in those they like and trust.

So aspire to write copy that offers solid value, whether it’s entertainment or education, because it’s what people will be happy to spend their time reading.

Offering value will also build the trust and confidence needed to persuade people to reward you with their credit card details, without them even realising that they’ve just been sold to.

[This post was inspired by a discussion on the Engaging Brand Podcast about the importance of offering value in modern marketing]

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Copywriting, Marketing 

Want to attract higher paying clients? Offer them some luxuries.

April 23, 2008 | 2 Comments

movies

(Image courtesy Betsssssy)

Last month a group of US investors announced their plans to blow $200 million on a chain of 50 luxury movie theatres. Whilst this might sound mad to anybody in the business world, people always want to be entertained, and when things are grim it’s indulging in the small pleasures in life that can chase away the blues.

What’s more likely to make bank managers spit out their coffee is that the movie theatres will be charging nearly double the entry price of their competition.

Village Roadshow believe there’s 10 million ‘upscale and affluent’ Americans who would be happy to pay $35 for a higher quality of service, which includes padded armchairs with footrests, digital cinema projection, concierge service, valet parking and food that’s a touch more upmarket than buttered popcorn and nachos.

Despite an imminent recession, they’re confident they will be able to attract higher paying clients with luxuries and additional services not provided by the cheaper, functional theatre down the road.

The same principle should apply to marketing your writing services.

To justify higher rates, offer a higher quality service

If you want to break out of the $10 keyword article writing sweatshop of monotonous, unsatisfying work for low wages, then start thinking about how you can market the luxuries your service offers.

This revolves around becoming an value-added copywriter, as frequently discussed by The Copywriter Underground. What can you offer a client beyond the words?

Here are some luxuries you can easily learn about and add to your portfolio of services:

Content marketing - providing a steady stream of useful, informative information to convert browsers into buyers, attract links from other sites and build your client’s credibility as a knowledge leader.

Case studies - is your client providing real life examples of how they’ve helped real life customers solve a problem? Are they mining their customer service history for success stories (now a key differentiater in a world where people trust each other more than a marketing)?

Story telling - developing the business’ identity beyond the ‘About Us’ page. What are their founding ideals and do they differentiate themselves everyday?

eBook/white paper - demonstrating credibility and expertise by providing downloadable useful information. In exchange for helping to solve their problem, readers are more likely to reward a business with their loyalty.

Newsletters - writing a monthly newsletter highlighting recent achievements, new product information and industry news is a great way of keeping people in the sales cycle long after their first visit to the website.

You’re not just a writer - you’re also an internet marketer

Whilst businesses struggle to come to terms with marketing on the internet, you could be their guiding light providing the words and expertise to illuminate a path through the gloom and to greater rewards on the other side.

There are businesses crying out for not only competent writers, but also guidance in how to run cost effective online marketing strategies.

Offer a client a writing service that includes luxuries and benefits beyond what they’ll find elsewhere and they’re more likely to award you their business.

There are plenty out there who want more from you than a bucket of popcorn and being squashed into their seat. They want luxury and are happy to pay for it.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Content marketing, Copywriting, Marketing 

Are Your Customers Happy? Then Tell People Why!

April 2, 2008 | 2 Comments

Shopping!

I had scribbled down half a page of notes about the foolishness of forcing every website to be written in English until I realised what day it was yesterday and swiftly cancelled my order for a Chinese dictionary.

Instead I’m going to focus on why it has never been more important to harness customer service stories when copywriting a website, and why simply writing that ‘you aim to exceed expectations’ isn’t enough.

The adoption of customer relationships management software, which integrates customer data throughout a business, means that marketing departments now have a goldmine of data to be drilled for juicy stories.

Case studies, which tell a story about how a product solved a customers’ problem, are marketing gold. Businesses need to be telling these stories because other people already are.

People are talking about your business all the time, and praise or criticism are not limited to phone calls and emails.

Recently I received a junk message about an internet TV service offering over 1000 channels for little more than the cost of renting a DVD. The offer was tempting enough to persuade me to click through to the site, with my scam radar on full alert.

Whilst their landing page copy managed to maintain my interest it counted for nothing when a quick search unearthed an army of unsatisfied customers shaking their fists because the service didn’t live up to the hype.

A business’ internet marketing copy is no longer limited to their landing page, but also encapsulates responding to the comments people are making about a product online.

If your product doesn’t live up to the marketing hype then it’s not going to stay unexposed for long.

However, providing good customer service and showing how you respond to disgruntled customers has never been more visible to anybody doing the briefest of background checks.

People now search for customer reviews and real life examples of a product’s benefits. A business should therefore be providing a flow of examples of when they’ve come to a customer’s rescue and helped solve their problem.

So the next time you’re asked to provide copywriting for an ‘About Us’ page, suggest they include links to case studies which show when they really have ‘exceeded expectations’ because it’s copy that people will want to read.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Copywriting, Marketing 

Time to charge for access to your content?

March 27, 2008 | 1 Comment

12345

Regular Crucible readers, and anyone who has read my eBook, will be familiar with my sermons on the need to provide informative, useful content in order to build trust and credibility with website visitors. Whilst giving away free content is a great way of making friends, it’s not going to pay any bills and it certainly doesn’t write itself.

Well, some web publishers have had enough of relying on ad clicks to keep them fed and have moved to paid membership models.

Subscriptions offer greater stability

Over on the Teaching Sells blog, Brian Clark has discussed why a popular eBook and an SEO consultancy have now switched to charging subscriptions for accessing their latest content.

The content they provide is so highly regarded and in such demand that they are now in a position where charging a monthly rate seems the only logical, and sensible, way of compensating themselves for the time they invest in sharing their expertise.

Whilst I can’t see The Copywriter’s Crucible charging an entrance fee anytime soon, I can understand why websites with such a large regular audience and reputation feel that the time is right to evolve from living off a drip feed of ad clicks.

Is there still money to be made from eBooks?

News of the first few sites to switch to subscriptions has arrived just when I’m looking at developing other revenue streams beyond straightforward copywriting.

Since I’ve started reading Skellie’s Anywired blog, about living the jetset remote worker lifestyle, my spare moments are now absorbed in trying to think up a passive business model which can generate income even when I’m not hammering away at my keyboard.

Of the internet business ideas suggested in a recent Anywired post the most feasible for me seems to be that of knocking out a few eBooks and mining some untapped niches.

The principle behind an eBook is the same as any online learning resource - information is freely available on the web and an eBook simply packages it into a coherent format that’s easier for readers to consume.

How can you add value to an eBook?

Perhaps the key to attracting buyers is not only repackaging information, but being able to offer value beyond an ordinary eBook.

This could be in the form of regular updates, personal support or a private forum for discussing the topic - all of which will require ongoing maintenance and support.

For which only a subscription based payment model will suffice.

This is going to need some thought.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Marketing, blogging 

Why a Recession is Great News for Conversational Marketing

March 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment

sunset

Whilst the storm clouds of an economic downturn are covering most in the business world with gloom, for some marketers it could be a storm with a bright silver lining. With no amount of hastily assembled ROI stats likely to save many marketing budgets from the finance manager’s guillotine, there might not be any glossy print runs for a while but for digital media it could mean getting the time under the spotlight it has craved for years.

Whilst pulling down your sails by cutting your marketing budget will save cash in the short term, the mid-long term damage can be much more costly in terms of lost market share, which will be even harder to pull back once your ship sails into less choppy water.

The sensible, brave tactic should be to market more and take advantage of your competition’s stagnation. Whilst everybody else battens down their hatches to ride out the storm, you can present yourself as the dynamic, proactive business sailing swiftly through troubled waters, and consequently picking up customers along the way.

New marketing evangelist Joseph Jaffe recently discussed advertising during a recession in his popular podcast ‘Across the Sound’ in which he advised that slashing budgets and risk avoidance was the worst thing to do. Instead marketers should be even more innovative as clinging on to the status quo is not what will attract customers looking for a business still actively building relationships and talking to their marketplace, whilst others drift aimlessly.

In fact, when times are slow marketing’s importance grows, rather than diminishes, in retaining customers and attracting new leads in order to take a healthy portion of a diminishing pie. It’s up to marketers to show that their activity is not an expense but a revenue generator.

And the beauty of many new marketing tactics is that they’re relatively cheap.

With more business research conducted online than ever, a website should be more than just an online brochure. With new social media tools, such as blogs and podcasts, along with the relatively low cost of producing a helpful eBook or monthly newsletter, it has never been easier to become a custom publisher and a trusted brand by pushing out useful, helpful content to your prospects.

So whilst a mailing campaign of your new glossy print brochure might be on hold for a while, the easy to use tools and relative low cost of conversational marketing means it could start receiving the focus it deserves.

Just remember that conversational marketing is a commitment, and not just a campaign.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Marketing 

How to Cultivate Buzz with Journalists

February 7, 2008 | 4 Comments

whispering

Last week I published my top ten tips for marketing your website, although admittedly many of them have already been covered to death elsewhere. But one tactic that has always posed a puzzle for every marketing and PR agency is how to generate buzz in the traditional media. It’s all well and good being able to publish articles every week, but they’re not going to attract traffic and back-links unless you’re also generating exposure.

Almost on cue, last week Anna Farmery on her podcast ‘The Engaging Brand’ discussed ways of generating buzz with veteran business journalist Nettie Hartsock, who now concentrates on helping individuals and companies to get their stories heard.

Nettie shared some valuable tips on not only how to engage with bloggers, but also how to get your stories noticed by traditional journalists.

Discover what stories they cover

A key point she raised is that whilst bloggers have the creative freedom to set their own topic guidelines journalists can only cover stories that fit within their editorial framework and appeal to their target audience.

Therefore the trick is put together a dossier of the type of stories being covered by your industry’s 5-10 journalists and then assess how you can build a similar story around your own company.

Once you’ve got your story together, Nettie’s advice is to compose a two paragraph, concisely worded email in the style of a query.

Detail to the journalist your interest in the last couple of stories they’ve covered, and then offer some fresh insight into how the topic could be expanded.

Become their trusted source

Journalists are always on the hunt for new sources to feed them fresh, unique content in order to stay on-the-ball and to be able to offer their readers info they wont find elsewhere.

By reaching out in this helpful and respectful manner, rather than trying to mail bomb them into submission, journalists will be more inclined to respond and listen to what you have to say. Then you can start feeding them details of your own company’s story and why they should be the main feature in their next issue.

For this tactic to work you have to be able to offer the journalist useful information they won’t find after a quick search on Google. This means you either have to become and expert in your industry or find someone in the company who already is.

Then you’ve got to coax them into spilling the beans on what the journalists are missing so you can offer a story that differentiates you from the hundreds of pitches a journalist is bombarded with every day.

Not everybody spends all day online

It’s easy to get carried away with all the enthusiasm for throwing all your marketing onto the internet when you read blogs all day. But it’s important to remember that the majority of people still get a lot of their information offline and from the traditional media.

Consequently, journalists can be powerful friends because they still wield significant power in cultivating buzz for your products and brand.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Marketing 

Top Ten Tips for Marketing Your Website

January 30, 2008 | 10 Comments

town_cryer

If you’ve started the New Year with a shiny new website, and invested in some copywriting for the landing page, you might be thinking that you can just sit back and wait for the sales to come flooding in.

Well, it’s not that easy I’m afraid. It takes a lot of effort to successfully market and manage an effective website.

You’ve got to find a way to signpost it so your customers can find you and then you’ve got to work out how you’re going to sell to them when they arrive. There are barriers to building trust online; people want to see more than some JPEGS and PayPal buttons before they’re ready to buy.

But fear not because (inspired by a similarly themed post from Junta42) I’ve scribbled down my top ten internet marketing tips for getting your website noticed and building credibility with customers (I’ll give you a hint: it all revolves around becoming a publisher and being generous with your content):

1. Regularly post useful articles that contain your keywords

Preferably articles should be posted onto a blog of some description so you can interact with customers and perpetuate the love affair between blogs and search engine optimisation. The key is to be offering insight and advice which will not only attract the search spiders, but will also help promote your expertise and answer the questions that might be blocking a sale.

2. Let everyone know the traditional way

Tell all your contacts about the new site. An emailed message is too easy to dismiss. So dust off your telephone and call them up to announce your new venture, or send them a concisely worded and designed postcard. Both methods are relatively inexpensive and will make more impact than email bombing as many people as you can.

3. Network online

Find out who the thought leaders are in your industry and then comment insightfully on their blogs to introduce yourself. Many industry news websites have now integrated comment sections, so you should be able to find somewhere to print your name. This will help attract attention to your own site, create valuable backlinks to boost your Google rank and build authority in your online marketplace.

4. Drive traffic with social bookmarking

It might still be regarded as a niche way of searching the web, but social bookmarking can send you a lot of traffic. If you can get enough people to vote for your articles, you can literally attract thousands of new visitors via sites like Stumble Upon, Digg or Del.icio.us, and a host of other services to choose from.

The trick is to integrate yourself into the social bookmarking community by tracking who votes for you and then returning the favour. Over time you can build a network of social bookmarking pals and assist each other in driving traffic.

5. Print your web address everywhere

Get your website address added to every email signature, letterhead and piece of marketing material you send out. Even if you manage to get a leaflet into someone’s pocket at a networking event, if they’re interested the first thing they’ll want to do is check out your website. So make sure they know the address.

Marketing should be an integrated approach with your offline activities linked into your website. You can only fit so many words onto a tri-fold brochure. But there’s no shortage of space to develop your offer online.

6. Promote with online press releases

You no longer need contacts in the traditional media to get exposure for your business. And you don’t need a new product launch to justify a press release. You can use online PR distribution services to publish useful articles offering insight to your target customers. This could be advice to schools on setting up a cycling policy to promote your bike sheds, or the healthiest way to cook chicken to promote your grease free grill.

Press releases push out links back to your website and cement your credibility if you’re providing useful information.

7. Publish on other people’s sites

If you’ve already been networking with bloggers in your field then why not approach them to write a guest post. This will help you attract more attention by showcasing your expertise as well as generating a backlink from a relevant website. If there aren’t enough bloggers around, try approaching your industry’s news sites to see if they’ll accept submissions. Everybody needs fresh content to keep eyeballs occupied.

Just make sure you’re providing useful articles, and not a blatant sales pitch, if you don’t want your submission dumped in the recycle bin.

8. Give away a free eBook

What questions do your customers have before they make a purchase or how can your product make their lives easier? Both can be answered in a free downloadable eBook that demonstrates your credibility, expertise and builds a closer affinity with your customers.

If you’re being useful by giving away free information then you’ll be rewarded with the customer’s increased trust and confidence.

9. Start a monthly newsletter

In this age where everybody expects to get content for free, it might be getting harder to charge customers for words but it has never been easier to publish. So why not take advantage and produce a newsletter to maintain contact with your latest news, articles and product guides long after prospects have left the site.

10. Stick to the plan and don’t expect instant results

Even if you follow steps 1-9 it can still take a number of months to build your Google ranking, attract a steady flow of traffic and build your customer base. However, if you don’t invest in building your web presence then your shiny new website will simply remain hidden away and ignored. So put a strategy in place for regularly generating and promoting your content, be persistent and if you build it they will come.

In this age of niche products reaching global marketplaces, sending a town crier around your local shopping district didn’t make my list. It won’t hurt if you want to attract local business, but it wont be enough to find you customers further a field.

Investing in good quality copywriting for all your pages (including the ‘About Us’ page), and not just the landing page, is the first step. The next stage is to become a publisher and be generous with your content.

Becoming a publisher will boost your Google rank, attract traffic and develop credibility with your customers, who will have more trust in you because you’ve invested time in making their buying decisions easier.

Enjoy this post? Vote for it at Digg. Thanks!

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Copywriting, Marketing, Online-PR, blogging 

Content Marketing. Who’s on board?

January 23, 2008 | 5 Comments

train

Whilst the economic outlook might be doom and gloom, the content marketing bandwagon is rolling at full speed. It’s filling up with enthusiastic new supporters at every stop, and gathering pace towards its destination in marketing boardrooms.

The ideas I first encountered when researching business blogging have been picked up, dusted off and given a new set of clothes in the form of content marketing. People are ignoring advertising, so the future is to barter for their attention with content of value.

Add to the equation that the costs of becoming a publisher have plummeted along with the price at which you can sell content. Content itself is now a promotional, marketing tool for building a closer affinity, rather than a way of generating income in itself.

I think content marketing has a bright future and is a future field for copywriters. In my own experience I’m finding more people who not only want words for the search engines, but also words that can provide ammunition to their sales teams and educate visitors.

This week I thought I’d share some of the blogs I regularly read on the evolving demand for high quality, useful content. I’d recommend adding them all to your reading list if you’re interested in where marketing and copywriting is heading:

Copyblogger - what initial started as a blog about copywriting techniques has now evolved into a speakers platform for sharing advice on writing for the web and the need to invest in quality content, rather than hammering out posts as though your PC is about to explode.

Web Ink Now - blog of viral marketing evangelist David Meerman Scott who shares his views on offering content of value and throwing overtly sales tactics in the bin.

Junta42 - a blog dedicated to content marketing. Whose doing it well? Who needs to start doing it? And how can you do it better? All questions dealt with using real life examples. They’ve recently announced their own list of content marketing blogs - so much to read, so little time.

Engagement Principles - blog of veteran copywriter Tom Chandler of Copywriter Underground fame focusing on engaging with content that appeals to people’s desires and interests, rather than blandly bores.

Seth Godin - Seth is constantly preaching on the need to tell authentic stories and to be more remarkable in a world filled with mediocrity. His massive fan base of disciples will be the ones pushing content marketing when Seth gives them the nod.

Chris Anderson - the editor-in-chief of Wired will soon be releasing a new book on the internet’s economics of giving away for free so you can profit in other ways. If it has the same impact as ‘The Long Tail’ then expect to see it referenced in the national media sometime soon. Here’s a link to a speech he recently gave on the subject to whet your appetite.

So there you have it. It’s not just be banging my drum but a whole orchestra of bloggers playing the content marketing tune. We write about it every week knowing that eventually our combined noise will be loud enough to penetrate corporate marketing boardrooms everywhere.

Hopefully this will then lead to a bright new world in which freelance copywriters and article writers are called upon to drive their content marketing campaigns, and not just think up their next ad’s tag line.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Copywriting, Marketing, blogging 

Copywriting and Blogging Dead? Bar Humbug.

December 12, 2007 | 8 Comments

The run up to Christmas is a time to reflect on the past year. It’s a time to think about which areas of your business are working, and which need an overhaul in the New Year. Some people are taking this reflection seriously, with copywriting legend Bob Bly and blogging supremo Brian Clark both being forced to question the future of the well written word in 2008.

The rise of social networking sites, such as YouTube and Facebook, swallowing time and attention has raised questions over the marketing value of carefully written sales pages and well thought out blog posts. Some are saying that the plethora of new tools at a marketer’s disposal has diminished the need to keep copywriting and blogging in their arsenal.

chop shop

Cheap copy and Facebook

Bob Bly questions whether the decline of print ads and abundance of badly written websites suggests the art of copywriting is dying.

The internet’s literary form is still struggling to evolve from its keyword obsessed past. An entire industry of content writing chop shops has grown to feed the demand for words, shipping out articles wielded together from parts scavenged throughout the web. These articles might not be pretty, but they’re cheap. And they’re availability from low paid writers, both home and abroad, has damaged the valuation of writing amongst some businesses.

Brian Clark comments on a similar lack of faith in the value of well written words, in response to a post by Stormhoek’s marketing mastermind Hugh Macleod. It would appear that some marketers have abandoned blogging altogether, hoping that the billions (supposedly) on the verge of being thrown at Facebook will turn it into the dominant marketing platform. When there’s so much buzz about user generated content, many fail to recognize the value of useful, informative blog posts.

Brian is too savvy to get flustered by those without the foresight to see where marketing is going: the ease with which you can publish online means that every business is now a media company, and need to be telling their story if they want to build credibility. Blogs are not, after all, just online diaries but a web 2.0 powered content management system.

consumer magazines

Content marketing is not just about magazines

When I first abandoned my corporate ladder to live by my wits and word processor, I realised that I had to find a way to differentiate myself. I had to be able to offer value to clients beyond merely stringing sentences together.

So I jumped upon the business blogging bandwagon, hoping to join the anticipated revolution in corporate communication. Learning that blogging can get you to the top of Google and build relationships with customers was just too enticing to not absorb and share with potential clients.

By the end of last year, I saw blogging grow into the engagement philosophy, which in turn was enveloped by content marketing. The shared ethos is that of providing useful content which appeals to customers’ interests, rather than dictates with one way sales spiel.

With the movement being driven by smart marketing brains, such as those of Joe Pulizzi and David Meerman Scott, it should only be a matter of time for the philosophy to start penetrating mindsets, and websites, on both sides of the pond.

An effective content marketing strategy demands good writers. Writers who can engage with informative, valuable content that sells by building trust in a business’ expertise. You’re not going to pickup this quality of writing from the content chop shops found via Craigslist or Elance.

goodcontent

B2B buyers use the internet as well

Ecommerce has hit the headlines yet again this Christmas because of the frenzied online spending spree. The same movement has occurred, but with less fanfare, for B2B buyers, the people marketing agencies are desperate to reach.

It’s not enough just to chat at your exhibition stand and get a brochure into the B2B buyer’s jacket pocket. The first thing they’ll do when they get back to the office will be to visit your website, which means it needs to be well written and offer insight that differentiates your business. Yet more demand for writers who can take your news and convert it into engaging copy that entices and sells through education.

So is the marketing demand for copywriting and blogging dying? Far from it. It’s still evolving.

Enjoy this post? Vote for it at Digg. Thanks!

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Copywriting, Marketing, blogging 

Next Page »