Please see MarcieBrockBookMarketingMaven.com

Hello!

If you've made it to this blog, it shows the power of search and how posts you wrote a long time ago can still

be relevant.

However, I've decided not to update this blog any longer, in favor of a more focused blog, specifically about book marketing for new and aspiring authors and those on a smaller budget. Please visit Marcie Brock - Book Marketing Maven for tips on developing your platform, social media marketing, email marketing, and much more.

Thanks for your interest!

Laura

Marketing Mishaps: The "I should hope so!" factor

Marketing Mishaps: The "I should hope so!" factor

 

A few years ago, I read an article offering advice about how to be an "exceptional" employee. This was before the big stock market crash of 2008 that precipitated the recent unemployment surge, but presumably intending to guide folks toward keeping their jobs, nonetheless. The advice contained suggestions like:

• Be on time for work.
• Dress approrpiately.
• Know where all your files are, so that when the boss asks for them, you can hand them to him/her immediately.
• Don't use work time for personal matters.

I am not kidding or exaggerating — these were the tips this writer offered about being an exceptional employee. Of course, my first reaction was, "Are you serious?! This is the very least someone should do to be an ADEQUATE employee, one who receives a check next to the 'Meets Expectations' box on those infernal reviews."

Well, these sorts of "I should hope so" episodes are not limited to advice articles. Sometimes you find them in companies' marketing materials, and there's no quicker way to blend in with the crowd.

Yesterday I saw a bus stop ad for a law firm. The main message of the ad was, "WE WIN CASES!" Immediately, I thought to myself, "Really? Isn't that what you're supposed to do? And how many cases do you win? 20 percent? 30 percent? 90 percent?"

To their credit, they had a fairly small space in which to work. However, what they gained in space they sacrificed in a compelling message. What if they changed their message just a bit, to say instead, "We win cases other firms won't take"?

This happens more than you may realize. Have you seen ads for bedding companies that tell say, "You'll sleep through the night on our mattresses"? Or hotel promotions that emphasize their "clean, comfortable rooms"? Isn't that the least you expect from a mattress or a hotel room? I suppose it's a slightly different matter whan an airline brands itself as the "On-Time Airline" because the industry standard is to seldom be on time — but even so, isn't arriving on time a pretty average expectation? It's kind of like saying, "We screw up less than everyone else in our business."

I once saw a brochure for a summer camp. This was a glossy, full-color, 12-page booklet touting the beautiful location and all the exciting activities children would experience at this $2,000/week camp. Then came the testimonials, which said things like, "Little Bobby had so much fun and made lots of new friends!" Again ... seriously?! Isn't that the least you should expect from a summer camp? How is that in any way compelling to a parent?

It can be difficult to stand out in  a crowded field, but mine your features, benefits, and characteristics until you hit on what really makes you unique and different from everyone else — and then promote THAT.

Location.
Price.
Success rate.
Specializations.
Length of time in the business.
Green technology.
Additional apprecaited by unexpected offerings.

Whatever you do, avoid using words that will make people think, "Really? Isn't that the least this company should do?!"

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Until next time — happy marketing!

____________

I invite you to do 2 things next:

(1) Visit Marcie Brock - Book Marketing Maven and subscribe for twice-weekly book marketing tips and strategies.

(2) Visit my Facebook page — and "Like" it if you like it!

Marketing Mishaps: Pushing the "Edgy" Envelope a Bit TOO Far

Marketing Mishaps: Pushing the "Edgy" Envelope a Bit TOO Far

Twice in two days, I came across branding that caught me off-guard. First, I was directed to this "coaching" site; then, I saw a new business near my house.

Now, I'm not a prude, but the coaching site really stunned me. Maybe it's the giant cow's nose on the Facebook page. Maybe it's the whip. Maybe it's just use of a crass word for a business that looks as if it desperately wants to be professional.

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The F-Bomb store actually made a lesser impact. More of a "Hmm ... check that out," because I know it's not a place I'll likely ever shop.The thing about my responses to these two "brands" is that they are personal. My dad must have told me a thousand times, "There's no accounting for taste," usually when I was complaining about politics, food, or someone's choice of a partner. And he was right — there IS no accounting for taste. Except for places and instances when we generally expcet things to be tasteful.

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You may have heard me rant about the business coach I once heard speak who described herself as a "business pimp." Crikey — that term still gets under my skin. Wonder how that branding worked out for her.

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Another incident involving a speaker brings home this idea of each person's taste being unique. A friend recently told me about losing all respect for a national speaker who, in telling a story during her keynote at national convention, said something to the effect of, "I laughed so hard, I nearly peed my pants."
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"So what?" I wanted to ask my friend, who clearly thought the comment was tawdry and unworthy of the speaker. We each have differing degrees of what we consider appropriate.

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Entertaiment may be the one place where it can benefit an act to push things to an extreme. I was just out of college when Van Halen released an album titled, "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge." In case the words don't ring a bell, check out the initial caps in the title.

Then, more recently, a little Law of Attraction movie created quite a stir. Initially titled, "What the #$@! Do We Know!?" it became colloquially known as "What the Bleep?" I'm not sure the title had anything to do with the movie's success, but I'm not sure it didn't, either.

People have different perspectives about coarse language in the business world. Right Spot Media makes the case that such language can actually help public speakers: "[R]esearch shows that—at least for speakers delivering presentations—obscenities can increase the perception of passion and enthusiasm." Of course, they go on to mention mild epithets like "hell" and "damn," but in some places not long ago, use of those by a speaker would have been considered scandalous.

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Similarly, the following excerpt from Influential Marketing Blog makes a case for pushing things a bit to attract attention:

The first time I thought about this was when reading about a wonderful social marketing campaign from Saatchi and Saatchi that was done close to 20 years ago. It was for an organization fighting childhood hunger on the streets in Canada (I think) and as the ad featured visuals of young homeless boys on the street just trying to survive, the following voice-over of a boy's voice came on:

                "If I said 'I'm hungry,' that probabbly wouldn't bother you."

                "If I said f*ck, it probably would."

                "F*ck, I'm hungry."
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That being said, there are still those who seem to agree with me that some words just don't belong in business, particularly in a brand name. Case in point: this discussion on the use of swear words in domain names.
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There's no accounting for taste.

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It was from branding expert Peter Montoya that I first heard the comment, "Good branding repels as much as it attracts." The thing the marketer/brand/business owner needs to determine ahead of time is how far they can safely push the envelope and still reach their intended audience. I may be the perfect demographic for the whip-wielding coach, but I will never hire her because I find her brand name tacky.

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When you're building a brand, it will serve you to remember a couple of key points:

1. You are not your client.
2. Test everything. 

If you have examples of branding that gave you a bad taste in your mouth or left you wishing the business owner had been a bit more selective, please share them in the comments section  below.

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Until next time — happy marketing!

____________

I invite you to do 2 things next:

(1) Visit Marcie Brock - Book Marketing Maven and subscribe for twice-weekly book marketing tips and strategies.

(2) Visit my Facebook page — and "Like" it if you like it!

Good copy is relatable to your readers, regardless of the venue

Good copy is relatable to your readers, regardless of the venue

Years ago, I had a conversation with an Internet marketer who asked me how my writing differed, depending on my audience. He was taken aback when I told him that my writing doesn't really differ much depending on my audience. My single goal is always to communicate my message as clearly and simply as possible.

"But ... but ... but ..." he protested, "what about times when it needs to be formal, times when a more specific kind of writing is called for?"
OK, there may be small degrees of difference in formality, like perhaps fewer contractions or an upleveling of vocabulary, but overall, my tone and style of writing don't change from project to project. They are almost universally upbeat and conversational.

My friend implied that I must be mistaken, insisted that was definitely a need for different kinds of writing. I pushed back. "Even legal writing is only stuffy and formal because we've come to expect that — and it keeps lawyers in business. But as long as all the required elements in a brief or legal filing are included, the way it's said is more or less irrelevant."

This, I believe, is the gist of Brian Clark's quote, and as founder of CopyBlogger, he should know!

People often seem to be terrified of writing because they think it's difficult, when in reality, every piece of writing is an act of storytelling. Yes, there is a bit of an art to selecting the words that will draw your reader to you, as opposed to sending her packing, but it's not about the formality, structure, or informality of the writing. It's about how well the words themselves resonate with the reader. No matter how much time, effort, or money you pour into your copy, it will ring hollow if the reader doesn't feel you are speaking to him in language he can understand.

Regardless of your venue — social media conversations, ad copy, your website, or your blog — spend time honing your relational writing. Take a page out of Joe Vitale's book and discover the art of hypnotic writing. If you worry less about correct and formal and more about connection, you will find your writing resonating in a way you may never have dreamed possible.

Here’s to your successful writing!

____________

Next, I invite you to do 2 things next:

(1) Visit Write | Market | Design to download your free eBook copy of The First-Time Author's Guide to Hiring the Right Editor for YOU! (2) Visit my Facebook page — and "Like" it if you like it!

Blogs: Still the place you should begin your social media campaign

Blogs: Still the place you should begin your social media campaign

You know social media is crucial to your marketing strategy, but if you're like many who have hesitated to jump in, you may be wondering where to begin. This very question often arises with my clients when discussing social media and other low- to no-cost marketing strategies. I've got to agree with Chris Brogan: Blogging offers, hands-down, the best ROI on your time and energy.

Before you tackle Facebook, start Tweeting, or create your LinkedIn profile, get your blog underway. There are a few keys to successful blogging:

• Quality content
• An image/graphic with every post
• Posting on a regular schedule
• Commeting on other relevant/related blogs  

But why should you start with a blog? What exactly is the power in this platform that began as an online journal tool?

Blogs allow you to do 6 important things:

1. Generate lots of relevant content that the search spiders love. The World Wide Web turned 20 this week, yet generating traffice remains perhaps the biggest challenge for new sites. Because a blog is much more dyamic than a traditional website, in that the best bloggers are adding new content at least once a week, the search engines love well-populated blogs. A blog is the perfect platform through which to add gallons of relevant new content to your site. Not only will the spiders love this content and pull you up in the rankings, but if it's relevant to their searches, your readers and prospective clients will love your content, too.
2. Work wonders in long-tail* searches. Generally speaking, smart bloggers focus their blogs around a reasonably narrow topic or niche, rather than taking a kitchen-sink, one-size-fits-all approach. When writing on such focused topics, an interesting thing tends to happen. Search results and traffic will wend their way to your blog via long-tailed queries that might never have occurred to you. Long-tail searches can generate a lot of traffic to a newer blog, with much less competition for those all-important rankings.

   
   * As explained by MarketingHub.info, "The term ‘long tail’ is used to describe the strategy of targeting less-competitive niche markets rather than the hugely competitive broad keywords. A long-tail keyword might be something like ‘Small Business Web Design,’ while the short-tail would be ‘Web Design.’"
3. Produce high-quality, link-worthy content. Although links to your site from other well-populated sites are not as crucial to successful SEO as they once were, they are still important. But the only reason anyone will link to your blog is if you create content that's worth linking to. Producing regular, high-quality blog posts will give you something to offer site owners so that they will want to link to your blog.
4. Become a credible expert. If you're new to your business or industry, one of the biggest challenges, both on- and offline, is becoming a credible expert. A blog can be a means to catapult right over that little difficulty, if you take the time to do your research and write posts that demonstrate your qualifications and expertise. A great blog post won't necessarily seal the deal for you, but it will lead prospects to you and open the door for an initial conversation. It can also demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of your subject matter so that your prospects feel a certain level of comfort in doing business with you. A high-quality blog can also give you an advantage over the others in your industry if you become the person in your industry who stands out as the expert.
5. Provide a focal point for your social media. Blogs are the organic nexis of any well-crafted social media campaign because they offer syndication tools that make it easy to link to other social media outlets such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 
6. Build rapport with your clients, prospects, readers, colleagues, vendors, and other interested folks. Once upon a time, not so long ago, when you wanted to contact a company, you scoured their packaging for their mailing address, wrote a letter, smacked a stamp on it, found a postbox, and crossed your fingers that someone who cared enough to write back would open the letter. Then came traditional websites, which allowed you to learn a lot more about the company – things like their mission statement, product descriptions, and even employment opportunities with their organizations. But there was still a disconnect between you, the consumer, and the folks running the company. Blogging has changed that. Now, companies – even large ones – use blogs to communicate directly with their customers. Take GoDaddy's Bob Parsons, for instance. He’s famous for his personal blog in which he offers commentary and advice to GoDaddy patrons. Think of your blog as your opportunity to sit down for a cup of coffee with every client or potential client. Chat with them. Be personal. Build a relationship. The fact that your readers can post feedback and comments  helps you create a conversation with them, which is the first step in building rapport.

So if you have a new mission, message, company, book, service, or product the world needs to know about, I encourage you to wholeheartedly embrace social media – but start with a blog.

Here’s to your successful blogging!

____________

Next, I invite you to do 2 things next:

(1) Visit Write | Market | Design to download your free eBook copy of The First-Time Author's Guide to Hiring the Right Editor for YOU! (2) Visit my Facebook page — and "Like" it if you like it!

What if you had to spell "there" correctly before you could post a comment online?

What if you had to spell "there" correctly before you could post a comment online?

Yesterday, I posted a blog at Marcie Brock, Book Marketing Maven about the annoying trend of misusing apostrophes to create plural words. My brother-in-law saw it, and sent me these hilarious graphics from DangerousMinds.net.

I know it's snarky, but I love this idea. Of course, I also did a recent post about spelling skills (or lack thereof) not equating with intelligence. There's a giant distinction, though, between actual learning challenges that make spelling difficult and laziness or apathy. 

Sometimes it feels as though we're losing the smart language battle, but I insist that attention to these details matters. This is especially true if you plan to publish your writing publicly, whether in a book or a blog.

Here’s to your successful writing!

____________

I invite you to do 2 things next:

Visit Write | Market | Design to download your free eBook copy of The First-Time Author's Guide to Hiring the Right Editor for YOU!

Visit my Facebook page — and "Like" it if you like it!

Marketing Mishaps: Using Tech Speak (or Industry Lingo) with Non-Techies

Marketing Mishaps: Using Tech Speak (or Industry Lingo) with Non-Techies

Sense. You're not making any.

I came across a blog today, the intent of which is probably to help the company build business. The problem is that it's a tech company whose writer(s) does not know how to address a non-techie audience.

This month I promised to tell you how to save money by virtualizing your server(s).

This is one of the most powerful money-saving and environmentally friendly concepts in computing today. And one of the cool things is that you don't sacrifice performance. In fact, in most cases performance is enhanced.

Again, this might be a little technical, but [our company's] techs are always able to help you navigate any issues you might have.

The problem here is that the blogger/company assumes (a) the reader understands enough of the concept of "virtualizing your servers" to know (b) they need to do it and (c) be willing to spend money on this upgrade. Pay particular attention to the text in red. This writer KNOWS the info is technical, but instead of figuring out a way to simplify it, he/she thinks the fact that they have pros on their team is going to get him over that little challenge. WRONG.

Granted, there is more to this post than I am quoting here, but it's full of more techie mumbo-jumbo like "redundant machines," "virtualization platform," "load balancing across diverse hardware," and "host architecture."


Say you run the small to medium-sized business that is looking to enhance its technology performance. Are you going to read this and think, "Yup. That's probably what we need. Let's write a purchase order"? Or are you going to head back to the search engine to find a company that speaks a language you can understand?

Years ago, I remember my friend, master techie Matt Moran, telling me he threatened to fire any of his employees who spoke tech-speak to their clients. His thinking? Their job wasn't to overwhelm the clients with the depth of their computer knowledge; it was to explain the situation to the client in words they could understand and fix the problem. Period.

The thing to remember is that this issue is not exclusive to the technology field. I was in a meeting recently with a printer who was obviously adept at his business but had ZERO ability to translate the conversation into everyday English for my client — who was his potential client. She had no idea what full-bleed (printing that goes to the edge of the page) meant, not did she need to. Not in this meeting.

A while back, I did a post about the dangers of being too insider in your industry. Going top-heavy with the insider language is a perfect example of what you don't want to do.

If you're not sure whether your copy is resonating with your clients — and PROSPECTIVE clients — test it. Have non-insiders read it and give you their honest feedback. If they can describe to you what you meant to say, you know you've succeeded. If they're confused by any of it, it probably needs to be rewritten. Remember, the onus of communication is on the communicator, not the one receiving the information. Don't lose potential clients by talking right past them.

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I invite you to do 2 things next:

Visit Write | Market | Design to download your free eBook copy of The First-Time Author's Guide to Hiring the Right Editor for YOU!

Visit my Facebook page — and "Like" it if you like it!