A Copywriting Principle that’s Becoming Vital for SEO

June 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment

For a while now, I’ve been using this blog as a pulpit for preaching to anyone who’ll listen on the benefits of great content.

Building traffic to your website is one thing. But you still have to consider what you’re going to do when visitors arrive.

Are you merely going to offer them the same self congratulatory copy they’ll find in your brochure? Or offer them useful content that answers their questions, demonstrates your expertise and builds trust in your business?

Well, thankfully my clarion call for investing in great content is now being taken up by the SEO brigade. No longer is SEO merely about keywords and begging for back links.

Now having content that people find useful and want to share is becoming vital if you want to improve your search engine ranking.

Focus on the reader, rather than where to place keywords

Last week I posted about some of the changes taking place in how Google ranks sites, and why human behaviour is becoming a key factor in its algorithm.

Increasingly, it appears as though it’s websites with sticky content, that engages readers for longer, gets bookmarked and shared on social media sites, that are experiencing a boost to their search ranking.

So to improve your exposure, your website needs content that assists people’s buying decisions or helps solve a problem. Luckily, this is something copywriters are adept at providing.

A key principle of copywriting is that it should focus on the needs, desires and pains of the reader, rather than praising yourself.

If Google is grading sites based on how people engage with their content then copy focused on the needs of the reader, rather than your own, is becoming vital for improving your position in the search results.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Content marketing, Copywriting, Search Engine Optimisation 

What Copywriters Need to Know About the Changes in SEO

June 2, 2009 | 3 Comments

There was a time when I ranked on page one of Google for my trophy keyword (copywriter), but then thought it wise to change my domain name and lose my hard won ranking in the process.

Despite implementing redirects, an assortment of WordPress plugins and anything else that might make Google happy, my website continues to languish in banishment (for UK listings anyway) until Google sees fit to forgive my stupidity and allow me back in from the cold.

So, in the meantime I’ve been scouting for SEO tips, and discovered a few things on the Conversation Marketing blog which copywriters ought to know:

1. Write enticing description and title tags – it appears that Google is counting how many clicks organic search results receive. So the more regularly your website’s description entices in a visitor the higher up Google will promote it. Simple.

2. Sticky content becoming more important – evidence suggests that websites able to improve how long they can keep visitors engaged are enjoying improvements to their search results in only a matter of months. So sticky content helps build trust in your business and with the search engines at the same time.

3. Social bookmarking carrying more weight – whenever your posts get Stumbled, Dugg or bookmarked in Delicious they’re being given the thumbs up by real people. So it’s practical and sensible for Google to incorporate these human endorsements into its search results.

4. Getting harder to fake it – bookmarking your own content or forming groups to game the system obviously has a limited shelf life when Google can track IP addresses. So to build sustainable rankings, websites must provide real value that gets naturally bookmarked and keeps visitors engaged for longer.

All these points reinforce the fact that SEO is about more than keywords and back links, or as Google’s Matt Cutts said in an interview last year, "SEOs are starting to embrace the fact that they are marketers. It’s a broader spectrum. You have to think about how you build buzz, how do you get loyal customers, how do you optimize your ROI.”

SEO (the white coloured variety anyway) now requires skills in analytics, page conversion and being able to write great content. Most copywriter’s should have at least two of these hats in their locker already. So maybe it’s worth completing the set now that SEO firms are emerging as website marketing companies.

More on this next week (or this week if the sun stops beckoning me into the garden).

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Copywriting, Search Engine Optimisation 

15 Punchy Copywriting Tips

March 19, 2009 | 8 Comments

punchy copy

“They were easier to read than ignore” – Victor Schwab

It’s often said that copywriting can’t be too long, just too boring.

And sales writing is often only tolerated at the best of times. So if your copy is to weave its magic it needs to be light, easy to read and captivating.

Here are 15 tips for making your sales writing more punchy and compelling for readers:

1. Aim for an average sentence length of around 16 words.

2. Vary between short and long sentences to give your writing rhythm.

3. Split long sentences into two if they’ll survive on their own. Use connecting words such as ‘so’, ‘and’ or ‘because’.

4. Wield an axe to flabby language and unnecessary words. As Anton Chekhov put it, ‘Brevity is the sister of talent.’

5. Sales writing isn’t blessed with a reader’s patience. So ensure every word and sentence means something to the reader and adds to your argument. Don’t waffle or descend into a longwinded diatribe that’s of little interest to anybody but you.

6. Leave long paragraphs to novelists, and limit yours to a single thought. Two or three sentences is adequate.

7. Showy writing isn’t sales writing. Don’t use words just because they sound impressive. And leave jargon and corporate claptrap for the brochure (if you must use them at all).

8. Use positive inspiring language on what the reader ‘can’ achieve and ‘will’ be able to do. Avoid negative terms that might dampen their spirits.

9. Break up up your page with subheads and bullets to aid skim reading.

10. Use power words to charge up your writing’s impact, such as ‘revealed’, ‘proven’, ‘scientific’ and ‘breakthrough’.

11. Write in your reader’s language and the style they’re comfortable with. Read your target market’s magazines and newspapers to gauge the pitch.

12. People are hardwired to respond to stories. Use storytelling on how your product has solved someone’s problem to trigger the reader’s imagination and emotions.

13. Use facts or personal history to build rapport, empathy and to show the reader that you feel their pain.

14. Ask the reader a simple question early on they’ll say ‘yes’ to. This will precondition them to be more likely to agree with you and say ‘yes’ to your offer later on.

15. Sales writing is often compared to a conversation with a pal in a bar. So it should be conversational and sound similar to how you’d speak. Read it aloud to hear whether it flows smoothly.

Another tip I’d add is to keep a swipe file of the best sales writing you find. Study it, highlight key phrases and copy it out by hand to gain an understanding of how to write punchy copywriting that generates sales.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Copywriting, Email marketing, Online-PR, RSS, Search Engine Optimisation 

Lost in Google’s sandbox? Here’s how to find your way out

August 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment

desert

[Photo courtesy Hamed Saber]

Since moving to my new domain in March I’ve been stripped of my glorious Google page one rankings for my key terms (copywriter, copywriting etc), and left groveling with a begging bowl in the dank, dark depths of its search listings. Whilst a brief fall from grace was expected, I’d hoped it would only be a few months before Google learned to love me again.

However, when I noticed that my Yahoo page one ranking had been reinstated I started to panic.

Well, it would appear that Google has banished me to their ‘sandbox’. This is a mystical (some would say mythical) place where new websites are held until they’ve matured enough to be allowed to hang around with the older sites on Google’s top listings.

Whether the sandbox is an actual Google policy or merely a theory is a debate I’ll leave for the SEO experts (which is why I’m being particularly diplomatic in this article).

However, there are some generally agreed reasons why the sandbox would exist and how you can find your way out:

Why have a sandbox?

Google’s continuing success (and future world domination) relies on providing the most relevant answers to search queries. Consequently, their mathematical algorithm for classifying websites has to be able to separate the dross from the silver.

It’s believed (by some) that Google introduced the sandbox to encourage website owners to build a decent volume of good quality content and links from other sites before they’d be allowed a high ranking for competitive keywords.

The sandbox was also (allegedly) introduced to stop people using ‘black hat’ tactics to deceive Google’s spiders (e.g. keyword cloaking and link buying). The idea being that rather than using quick fix tactics, webmasters would be forced to prove they’d obey Google’s rules and could play fairly before their websites would be allowed to run free.

So how do I find my way out?

Opinions vary. But it’s generally agreed that if you’ve got a new domain then you’ll serve a minimum of six months in the sandbox before you can earn Google’s trust and be let out blinking at the bright lights of a page one ranking.

The way to find your way out, and prove to Google that you’ll behave, is to regularly add content to your website that’s relevant to your business and attracts links from other sites. This is something blogs are great at: naturally building your exposure through commenting on other blogs and attracting links to your content.

Attracting links from other relevant sites is crucial. It’s believed that links are the decisive part of the equation for earning a release from the sandbox.

You can’t just build your website, paste its pages with a bulk order of keyword articles and then sit back for six months waiting for Google’s approval. You have to build up back links and then wait for the actual links to age before Google will even think about letting you free from their holding pen.

Quality content builds trust with Google as well as customers

Whilst black hat tactics might work temporarily, Google are constantly fine tuning their algorithm to open the trapdoor on those they consider cheats and to promote those who’ve put in the hard graft and become valued members of their online community.

So writing insightful, valuable and link worthy content is necessary for building trust with Google, as well as with your customers.

Hopefully, this post will go a small way towards encouraging Google to love me again, and expediate my early release for good behaviour.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Search Engine Optimisation 

Is the Home Page Dead? Only One Way to Find Out…

June 7, 2007 | 15 Comments

Are your visitors landing in the wrong place?

 

Well, my website has been bouncing around Google’s search listings for ‘copywriter’ for the last few weeks; however, I’m pleased to announce that it now seems to be stabilising on the lower rungs of page one.

I’m not totally convinced how I’ve managed to get there, and I’m not sure why some of the other sites deserve to be there either, but at least now I’m receiving a steady flow of targeted traffic.

I’m not popping the champagne just yet though as it’s actually my blog which has become my landing page, and not my main business website.

My business might be well sign posted, but when potential clients arrive expecting to find a copywriting service site they simply turn around and walk back out the door, annoyed at not finding what they were looking for.

After contacting my local IT support network I was given some excellent advice by two local experts, Ed Stivala from www.n3wmedia.com and Andy Bircumshaw from networkned.co.uk. Their thorough responses crystallised the fact that my blog has now become my business landing page, and I’m going to have to do something about it.

The problem is finding a format to satisfy both types of visitors.

I have the info hungry surfers looking for answers to their questions, and I have potential business clients looking for a straightforward copywriting service.

I’ve tried adding a copywriting service link to my header, but only 1/10 ever seems to click through. I think a lot of my business service visitors probably aren’t blog savvy, and view them as just online diaries rather than professional marketing tools.

However, my quandary is not an isolated case. With Google indexing pages rather than sites this means people can land on a variety of pages, and not just the carefully composed home page.

Is it time to reconsider how we structure our websites? Is the landing page dead?

The Blog Business Summit certainly seems to think so. Jason Preston highlighted an article in the New York Times discussing how people were now bypassing home pages:

‘media sites are discovering that many people are ignoring their home pages where ad rates are typically highest and using Google to jump to the specific pages they want’

Jason advocates the potential death of the home page as people are just batting it aside in their hunt for information. This might suit information seekers, but what about people looking for a service?

As discussed by Brian Clark this week, landing pages are needed to communicate the value of your offer. You have to get across the benefits of your product or service quickly and succinctly in a short space of time. A big part of achieving this is through your headline, which means for a start my blog title is going to have to get a lot longer.

The problem I now face is getting across the benefit laden features of a landing page without distorting the Copywriter’s Crucible’s blog format for readers.

Integrating the other pages of my business website into my blog should be easy. This gives me an excuse to take a hacksaw to some of its content, and not just a surgeon’s knife. It’s just finding a way to capture business service visitors without a traditional landing page that might be tricky.

If anybody can suggest to me some sites which are as effective as blogs as they are at landing pages then I’d certainly be interested in taking a look.

So, is Jason from Blog Business Summit correct; is the home page dead?

Looks like I’ve got no choice but to try and find out.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Search Engine Optimisation, blogging 

Why Copywriters are now Builders, not just Decorators

May 11, 2007 | 1 Comment

As internet marketing evolves so do the responsibilities of the copywriter. There was a time when the copywriter was just brought in to splash punchy prose over the website’s pages, before packing up and moving on to the next project. It was the web developers who stayed behind to keep an eye on the site, to make sure it was well sign posted and a pleasant place to visit.

However, research on people’s shopping habits suggests that copywriters are now a vital part of a site’s maintenance team.

Not only are they needed for the initial decorations, but also for regular refurbishments and constant building work to make the website is as big, bold and prominent as possible.

I was directed to the basis of this week’s topic by Mark White at Better Business Blogging. In a recent post he linked to a report on how UK shoppers respond to search results.

The report, commissioned by Tamar search conversion agency, provided some interesting insights into the UK’s attitude to search:

  • Over half will switch to a competitor if they see negative comments about a company in the search results.
  • 7 out of 10 will abandon a search altogether if they see negative results.
  • 43% know the difference between natural and paid search.
  • 9 out of 10 prefer natural to paid.
  • Women prefer natural results because they are seen as more relevant.
  • Men are cynical of the keyword manipulation tactics used in paid search, and don’t trust them.

The study reinforces the need for businesses to approach their online marketing as a long-term commitment.

Getting to the top of the natural rankings should be the primary aim, with paid search just a useful tool for getting quick, early customers

Paid search can be very effective if you know your conversion rate, and only need to sell a few high value products to make a profit. Consequently, it suits some businesses better than others.

It is ideal for those whose visitors are more likely to buy on their first visit, and don’t need convincing of your product’s benefits.

The problem with relying solely on paid search is that it’s a bit like attracting shoppers with a megaphone, but not having a sales team to greet them when they arrive.

Few people are ready to buy the first time they visit your site. To persuade them to part with their money you need to build trust. The best way of doing this is through the ongoing provision of content of value, and developing the sales process over time. A natural search campaign can achieve this.

Getting to the top of the natural search results takes a much greater investment of time and energy than paid. With Google’s algorithms enough of a puzzle to support a whole industry, there’s no quick and easy way to get to the top, and stay there.

Natural search optimisation is like building and running a shop. It takes a lot of effort, and requires regular investment long after you’ve first opened your doors. Ongoing renovations are needed to keep it relevant, and to build up the content needed to attract search spiders, garner backlinks and develop trust with visitors.

That’s why copywriters should start thinking of themselves as a website’s resident builder, rather than just the initial decorator. Copywriters are now needed to hang around to keep the website’s content up-to-date, and to pull in the search engines.

Your words are your bricks, and with them you are responsible for constructing a website’s organic material needed to push it to the top of the natural search results.

A natural search campaign is about building concrete foundations. Once your website’s relevance is robust enough to be on page one then you’re there for good, and open to do business with the steady stream of customers flowing through your doors.

People trust you because they know you have spent time laying the groundwork to be there. You are not a fly-by-night organisation who has just bought your way onto their screens.

Paid search is a lot like setting up a market stall at somebody else’s shop door. You’ve paid the market inspector for the pitch, and then you try and waylay as many of the shop’s customers as possible.

Most will pass by because they don’t trust you, but at least one in ten is likely to stop and have a look at your wares.

Paid search might be the quick and easy way of getting noticed. But with 90% preferring natural results you are missing out on a lot of business by not having a natural search campaign.

At present most businesses are still fighting over the best market stall pitches, rather than investing in long-term bricks and mortar.

A recent survey, taken from E-consultancy, highlighted the following:

  • 6 out of 10 UK businesses plan to increase their search marketing budget in the next year.
  • 44% said the rising click costs were affecting the ROI of paid search.
  • The average proportion of a marketing budget allocated to online was 32%.
  • 61% of an online marketing budget was spent on paid search, with only 33% on natural SEO.
  • Most felt SEO had a more positive impact on branding than paid search.
  • The scope of success in driving their search marketing strategy was limited by the lack of internal resources.

Based on this survey, it would appear we still have a long way to go before business mindsets change from focusing on paid to natural SEO.

Once more businesses wise up to the long-term benefits of natural search then they will need copywriters to build and manage their campaigns for them. Not only to provide wheelbarrow loads of news and information, but also to drown out the noise of disgruntled customers.

The Tamar report highlighted the problem of negative comments in blogs and social sites clogging up search results, and scaring off visitors. Over half of those surveyed would switch to a competitor if criticism cropped up in a company’s results.

Copywriters are needed to drive down negative search results, by building a website’s positive exposure with happy news stories and cheery case studies.

But I’m going to have to save this discussion for another day, because it’s time for my tea break.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting, Online-PR, Search Engine Optimisation 

Why Copywriting is the most important SEO skill, and how I proved it

April 24, 2007 | 10 Comments

There was a time when the role of the copywriter was to just write the website’s main service pages, with the requisite keywords craftily sewn into the copy. It was the developer’s responsibility to apply their HTML wizardry to trick the search engines into pushing the website onto people’s screens. However, as Google’s algorithms have evolved so have the responsibilities of the copywriter.

Google increasingly ranks sites based on who is providing the most relevant information and with the most high quality back-links. For achieving both of these aims good quality copywriting is key.

Your website’s copy has never been a more significant, central pillar to your search marketing strategy. Copywriting is what will attract search engines, as well as consumers. Copywriting is the glue that holds your SEO playbook together.

Search marketing guru Lee Odden recently hosted a poll to assess what SEO skill was the most important. Lee’s readership is certain to include some of the most experienced and savvy search marketers around. His poll’s results should provide an accurate insight into the search industry’s thinking.

Here are the results at the time of writing, but please check Lee’s original post for the latest figures. I don’t think anybody will be surprised by the result, and judging by the comments section nobody was:

  •  Copywriting (30%)
  •  Keyword analysis (13%)
  •  Marketing strategy (10%)
  •  Web analytics (10%)
  •  Online research and search (8%)
  •  Traditional link building (8%)
  •  Social media for SEO (5%)
  •  Online PR for SEO (5%)
  •  Account management (3%)
  •  Creative and design (3%)
  •  Coding (2%)
  •  Sales process consulting (1%)
  •  Media and link buying (1%)
  •  Server side issues (0%)
  •  Blog marketing (0%)
  •  Blackhat skillz (0%)

Steven Bradley, another SEO specialist, offered his insight into the poll. He assessed that although no discipline on its own is the answer, copywriting is the central skill needed to drive most SEO tactics.

As the industry moves increasingly towards link building and visitor retention, the importance of good copywriting is only set to continue.

Internet marketers have long advocated how copywriting is the most important element of your website. Only your words will truly engage with visitors and persuade them why they need your product or service.

Internet marketing is now venturing into the realms of engagement, online PR and blogs; copywriting has never been a more crucial skill for getting attention and effectively marketing yourself online.

Lee’s SEO skill poll’s result couldn’t be more appropriately timed judging by my own recent experience of search marketing.

In the last week there has been a slow trickle of visitors reaching my website for my key search term ‘copywriter’. It would appear that Google has seen it fit to push my website onto page 2 of UK search results.

Reaching the higher echelons of UK copywriter websites is now within my grasp. If I can raise my game and post to the Crucible more often, I might be able to turn this trickle into a flood of targeted traffic, bursting into a torrent of phone calls when I have clawed my way onto page 1.

Google’s decision to promote my business revolves around the copywriting (or technically speaking the ‘content’) that has gone into the Copywriter’s Crucible.

If I hadn’t started blogging then my website would probably have remained treading water in the outer reaches of search results, a place that receives so few visitors and such little attention that it becomes a virtual graveyard of failed businesses.

Simply by posting once a week on subjects relevant to my business, and that I hoped would interest other people, I have been able to overtake my competitors’ near-static websites, sat complacently watching the world go by.

Copywriting and blogging has been the fuel that has kept my website vibrant and healthy. Writing regularly is what has given my website the wind to power my search marketing strategy, and hopefully eventually sail my way onto Google UK’s front page.

The search term ‘copywriter’ is the lighthouse by which people will find me. Now my website has nearly reached the shoreline of page 1’s search results I will soon be able to dock and wait for business to arrive, rather than be stranded out at sea without even a paddle.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting, Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, blogging 

Why Businesses Aren’t Blogging

April 12, 2007 | 2 Comments

I am a business blogging evangelist. There I’ve said it. I think businesses should be selling their services through education and building trust with information of value. What better way of achieving this than with a relevant and regularly updated blog?

Sometimes I wonder whether I do get carried along with the whole web 2.0 crowd and should stop to see why business blogging hasn’t yet taken off on a larger scale. After all, not everybody thinks there is going to be an imminent revolution in how businesses communicate.

This week I’m going to step down from my pulpit of normal sermons, on the need for businesses to engage with their marketplace, to see what the other side thinks.

Last week’s Blogging4Business conference was an opportunity for those in marketing and PR to listen to blogging’s proponents and decide whether to be afraid or rejoice.

The BBC sent a reporter along so, with their government mandate for objective reporting, I was interested to see what impression was being broadcast to the wider world.

The BBC’s reporter attended a session hosted by Microsoft’s Darren Strange, one of their leading bloggers, who gave a typically browbeating speech:

He delivered an impassioned plea for firms to allow staff free reign to write their own blogs.

“I know it sounds scary that you have hundreds of people writing what they like about the firm, and you having no control over it,” Mr Strange said.

“Yes, things will go wrong, people will say things that perhaps they shouldn’t but the benefits outweigh the downsides.”

The room of PR executives meanwhile had been stunned into silence.

It’s a common theme in the blogosphere that the traditional PR and marketing mindsets are struggling to come to terms with the new attitudes to communication. It would appear that this view is also shared with the wider world and still a reason why business blogging isn’t being pushed along the traditional lines.

People often fear what they don’t understand or think they can’t control. Mainstream exposure of blogging is always beneficial for the movement’s growth, even if it’s just to highlight the gaping void between the traditional mindset and new breed of online proponents.

In my search for people prepared to stand up and challenge the beliefs of the business blogging movement I came across a white paper by Lewis PR. The report is well researched and objective, and does give a clear insight into some of the barriers holding the movement back.

Here are some of its key points:

  • In a survey of 300 companies from 10 countries only 5% had a blog. A stark contrast to the popular and oft quoted Jupiter research report that heralded 35% of companies would be blogging by the end of 2006. The fact is that business blogging hasn’t yet taken off and is still mainly the preserve of individual professionals, marketing and new media agencies.

  • There is uncertainty about the benefits and best practices. More mainstream awareness is needed of case studies and businesses who have gained from blogging.

  • There is less enthusiasm to invest in new technology simply because it is the latest fad. Businesses are no longer going to spend money just trying to be cool. People are keeping their fingers in their pockets after getting them burnt in the last misfired internet explosion.

  • Blogging requires a significant investment of time, skill and knowledge. You can outsource the first two, but will still soak up an employee’s time providing the third.

  • It’s difficult to assess the value of blogging in terms of cost-benefit. We are still missing a recognised set of metrics for measuring engagement, although some would argue that a lot of marketing takes place without robust metrics anyway.

  • It’s difficult to pitch blogging to a CEO. Without quantifiable benefits like bringing in sales leads and reputation enhancement, but with the much publicised risks, it’s a difficult sell. Page 10 of the report does, however, provide a good summary of all the possible benefits for HR, marketing, sales etc.

  • Marketers and blogging gurus might read a lot of RSS feeds but that doesn’t mean business people do. Will your blog be able to gain their attention with all the emails, industry magazines and sales calls they receive in a day? (Research was, however, published by Edelman showing that blog readership contains a large proportion of influencers: people responsible for buying decisions who want to be up to date on the latest developments. RSS has also only been integrated into browsers for a few months).

  • Your blog has to be able to provide news and information of value to attract readers. If your business isn’t in a fast paced industry then you might struggle to provide enough for the business crowd.

  • Blogs need to be transparent and fit in with the blogging culture, if this doesn’t fit in with your business’ culture then your blog might struggle. Corporate speak doesn’t work online.

  • Your blog might attract negative comments and feedback if you’re in a controversial industry or attract criticism. Animal testing firms should probably think twice.

Lewis PR’s report highlights many of the issues business blogging is facing: lack of awareness, lack of well known case studies and the fear of jumping in before everybody else.

The business blogging movement still continues to gain pace though, with SEO firms now signing up and many PR agencies making hesitant enquiries.

Last year I went to a small business exhibition in Milton Keynes to distribute leaflets on the benefits of blogging in the hope of riding the web 2.0 wave. I’ve still got a pile sat in my drawer. Lewis Global PR’s report shows that it might still be too early to give them another airing just yet.

Business blogging might not be appropriate for every business. But for those wishing to reach a global audience with a niche product, the time is still ripe to start talking about yourself and engaging with your online marketplace. I still know which side I’m on, even if it is just because it’s more interesting.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting, Marketing, Online-PR, RSS, Search Engine Optimisation, blogging 

“Google is not a search engine. It’s a reputation management system”

April 5, 2007 | 6 Comments

The relationship between copywriting and search marketing has never been closer; I now find myself covering the same stories as eminent SEM pros Lee Odden and Andy Beal. All three of us have recently covered issues highlighted in a Wired article about ‘The See-Through CEO’, a story about how being transparent can enhance your image, and how Google is now your mirror.

The article discusses how a CEO openly talked about his business and reached out to his marketplace. By exposing some of the myths and taking out al the ‘sales baloney’, he was able to build relationships with customers like never before. He also appeared to upset the rest of his industry in the process, but I digress.

In our new connected age it is impossible for businesses to rely on smoke and mirrors to disguise their problems. People can now spread their opinions and experiences faster than a Paris Hilton home video. Companies such as Sony, Walmart, Dell and South West Airlines have all felt the wrath of disgruntled customers, haemorrhaging their reputation with relish.

The powers of a company to control their message are dissipating. People can now block out their overt PR and sales spiel. Transparency now appears to be the language to adopt, spoken with the vocabulary of relevance and value.

The key area of my shared interest with Lee and Andy in the article is the impact of comments and opinions on search results. Google loves regularly updated websites with plenty of back-links. It’s these that are highlighted as the most relevant and pushed onto people’s screens.

When the uproar over Dell’s customer service exploded the first two search results were posts attacking Dell’s reputation. The lesson is that if you don’t talk about yourself than somebody else will, and you might not like what they have to say.

With hindsight, Dell should have simply released an apology and a promise to do better. Customers get angry when they think they aren’t being listened to, but can be forgiving if they feel their problems have at least been acknowledged.

Google is no longer just an online directory, but a reflection of your reputation. Its search results show what is being said and what information has the most influence. Internet marketing is no longer just about getting your website to the top, but also about getting to know the search results around you.

Previously brands would hire a PR agency to push positive stories onto the news channels to influence what people were saying. Now people are creating news channels of their own, free to say whatever they like and with an audience that listens intently.

As the Wired article comments:

“Being transparent, opening up, posting interesting material frequently and often is the only way to amass positive links to yourself and thus to directly influence your Googleable reputation. Putting out more evasion or PR puffery won’t work, because people will either ignore it and not link to it – or worse, pick the spin apart and enshrine thosecriticisms high on your Google list of life.”

The same topic was covered by a panel at the Bloggin4Business conference, currently in full swing in London. The panel of experts were discussing the impact of social media on advertising and marketing.

“Marketing needs to completely reinvent itself because the media world has completely changed,” commented Anthony Mayfield from Spannerworks, “Success means earning attention by being useful.”

The notion that online marketing is purely about SEO is dated. It’s now about becoming a relevant and active cornerstone of your marketplace’s community. You need to become an ‘authentic brand ambassador’ and an integrated part of your online ecosystem.

A brand’s internet marketing strategy should be about being as transparent as possible and generous with their news and information. Not burying their heads in the sand and hoping people in the internet bubble will run out of air.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting, Marketing, Online-PR, RSS, Search Engine Optimisation, blogging 

E-consultancy Roundtable Online-PR report

April 3, 2007 | 3 Comments

Discussion of Online-PR continues unabatted with the ever reliable e-consultancy releasing their report on the status quo.

A few of the key points:

  • There might be widespread use of Online PR for defensive purposes, such as reputation monitoring, but there is still little proactive use for marketing due to lack of experts and PR agency knowledge in the area.
  • Companies need an integrated offline and online approach with activites supported and reflected in both.
  • Uniting online and offline PR is a recent development -“SEO internally is quite easy but persuading the PR team to take online PR seriously is difficult because they don’t understand the value it can bring to the business.”
  • “Traditional PR is about cuttings and circulation. Online is about influence and conversation. What is putting a lot of traditional PRs off is that it’s seen as being about technology. But it’s about relationships and conversations.”
  • There are SEO agencies offering Online PR services, but these agencies may not have the online copywriting skills needed to carry out important aspects of online PR effectively.
  • Bloggers can be particularly powerful in niche areas.
  • “It’s about remembering why people form communities in the first place. It’s got to be relevant otherwise there is no point in being there.”

So far, my attempts to develop Online-PR in Milton Keynes hasn’t met the groundswell of support I had been hoping for. The perception of blogs as a marketing tool is still taking time.

In my experience, whenever you are trying to push something new people need to hear about it from a number of sources before they start to take it in. Now that e-consultancy are on the case they should be hearing a lot more about Online-PR from a lot more people very soon.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Marketing, Online-PR, RSS, Search Engine Optimisation, blogging 

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