First the type director. Then the dye sub retoucher, the stat camera operator and the mechanical artist.
Can advertising wordsmiths be the next victim of the business’ transfiguration?

Here’s an interesting thought from a LinkedIn discussion group I belong to:

Jack Neary, Executive Vice President/Executive Creative Director, BBDO Worldwide, says in part:

“Few creative directors want [great copywriters] any more. Verbal virtuosity is dramatically less in demand by creative directors today than in the days when David Abbott, Ed McCabe, Bob Levenson, Phil Dusenberry and many more occupied the pantheon of heroes influencing the next generation of copywriter. The wordsmith’s craft is seldom celebrated, rarely taught, and, therefore, almost never practised. Also, the increasingly fragmented media landscape has shortened consumers’ attention spans putting more of the communication burden on images, which usually connect faster than words.… “There is another culprit still. The heightened, often mindless lust for Cannes Lions has led to more visual, less verbal work because pictures generally do better than words with a cosmopolitan jury.’ I wholeheartedly disagree. As a professional with many years of experience, I find that copywriting is in more and more demand in the digital space (although often devalued and referred to derisively as ‘content’).”

Interesting. Personally, I still believe people recognize good writing (even if it’s purely a great headline); and more importantly, they respond to it. So reports of copywriting’s demise are premature. It is simply evolving in response primarily to digital media.
What do you think?

The First Amendment of the Constitution promises Freedom of Speech.  But does it guarantee Freedom of Tweets? And, should it?

When it comes to tweeting (and other forms of social communication), many brands, companies and organizations are struggling with guidelines.

Even my alma mater – UNC – is no exception. When members of the men’s basketball teams were a little too open with their tweets this season, the athletic department stepped in and told them to tone down their online conversations.

So should there be any rules? And if so, where should the line be drawn?

I believe it depends on who is doing the talking (or tweeting) and in what role they are recognized. When communicating socially, most people fall into one of three categories:

• Personal Communicators: They are not necessarily known or linked outside of personal relationships. It could be your next door neighbor, your child, or even Ashton Kutcher.
• Corporate Communicators: They are linked to an organization because they are speaking on their behalf, they are a fairly high-level executive, or they have purposely associated themselves with the organization. See Scott Monty, head of Social Media for Ford.
• Public Figures: People know them and they are linked to an organization . . . like some of UNC’s basketball players (meet Deon Thompson).

So what should the rules be?

In general, Personal Communicators should have no guidelines other than what they self-impose based on values and common sense.  On the other hand, Corporate Communicators and Public Figures should be held to a higher standard. Intentionally or not, they represent certain organizations and their comments impact those groups, companies and brands.  And by the way, you might fall into more than one category depending on where you are speaking. For example, your Facebook might be totally personal, but on Linkedin or Twitter you might be associated as an employee of an organization.

But I also have a suggestion for the organizations to which these people belong. Spend a little less time trying to control the dialog, and a little more time trying to improve the situations your people are complaining about. This would fix two things:  whatever they are complaining about and their complaints.

And finally, whatever you do as an organization, don’t ignore this and assume it will simply take care of itself. Determine your guidelines, and then make sure your people clearly understand the things you welcome and the behavior you won’t tolerate. Don’t make them guess.

How about you; what’s your opinion?

Oh yea, I almost forgot. Do you know how I found out about the UNC basketball situation? From a Tweet, Toning down the Tar Heels Tweets.

There is a very simple reason why many companies are leery of engaging in social media: control. Be it politics or business, control is power. Lose control and power wanes. Organizations want to maintain and control a centralized voice, not give way to the voice of individuals.

It’s the age-old argument: Is social media a great marketing tool or a communications liability? Depending on who you talk to, the answer will vary.

I think there is an important middle ground/step that can be taken to alleviate some of the concerns. It is pertinent for companies to institute a social media policy.

A social media policy lays ground rules for individuals and ensures that an organization is speaking with one voice, even if multiple people are doing the talking. Your strategic communications goals should shape your policy. Start with the end in mind. Then execute.

A social media policy should include the following:

• It should mirror your corporate culture
• It should define who can speak on behalf of the organization
• Train people, through examples, of what is appropriate and inappropriate, personal and professional, and clearly define the consequences of unethical behavior
• Be authentic when posting
• Add value through your posts

Yes, many on the outside are going to criticize you for not being totally transparent and there is credibility and truth to that. However, it could also be a key factor in getting a company or client to tiptoe into the social media waters so they can witness first-hand the power and positive aspects that social media brings to their brand. It’s social media with rules that can change the perception of social media as a liability to that of a positive marketing communications tool.

A simple and straightforward social media policy may be the difference between a company or brand engaging in social media or not. Think about it.

I was recently asked by a magazine editor about the differences between snail mail and email. Is one replacing the other? Is one better or more effective than the other to accomplish my company’s corporate marketing objectives?

At JMG we use both email and snail mail effectively in reaching prospects. So it is not an either-or situation. It really depends on our communications objective. There is no question that the primary challenge with both methods is cutting through massive clutter. If messaging is not unique, relevant and motivating, it won’t matter how its delivered…it will not be effective.

Email

Email requires careful upfront planning for effective use. The sender has to be sure they are using proper authentication tools that help inbound-email servers classify which of the messages they receive are authentic and which are not. If receiving networks cannot verify the source domains can be blacklisted. Consequently emails sent are not delivered. Then there are opt-in opt-out issues that must be addressed. On to the subject line. A good subject line (unique, relevant and motivating) is the most important driver of open rates. Once opened content is key.

For simple messaging, short copy can work. For more involved messages or newsletters, longer copy is involved. The more personal the relationship with the prospect, the more likely it is that longer copy will get read. Call to action. We typically want to drive a prospect to our website or a microsite on a given topic. That way we can track interest in our topic and do personal follow-ups with prospects who show interest in our message. Finally there’s integration. Email campaigns should be consistent and integrated with other digital efforts…Twitter, website, likepages, etc. to be most effective. Email is definitely not a one trick pony.

Snail Mail

Most of our snail mail efforts to prospects have one major objective: To reinforce our creativity as a company. So snail mail for the most part is limited to dimensional mailers that stand out and beg to be opened. Inside there is a something unique that reinforces the message we are trying to convey. For example, several years ago we pitched an aviation client who thought that the biggest challenge they had was the managing the complexity of the markets they served. So we sent them a dimensional mailer that contained two three dimensional airplane puzzles…one in pieces and one already built. The message on the top of the box said, “We understand that your business is made up of many different parts.”

When the box was opened, the recipient saw a bunch of loose parts in a tray.

Removing the parts they saw another message, “But we’re confident we can figure out how they all work together.”

When the tray was lifted from the box a fully assembled airplane was revealed.

This mailer proved to be a very intrusive and engaging approach which addressed the prospect’s biggest challenge.

Another technology we have used for our clients that has made snail mail more effective is the ability to personalize and customize messaging to prospects with variable data printing. This highly personalized approach allows for high quality brochures, mailers and postcards to have much more impact because each mail piece is not only personalized with the recipient’s name, but may also include copy that speaks to their special interests. Once again there should be a call-to-action to a website, a personalized URL or toll free number so tracking can be monitored.

In summary both methods have a reason to exist as part of any marketing program. The challenge is to carefully evaluate the big picture communications objective and then determine the best strategic and tactical elements to deploy based on available budgets. Obviously email is generally less expensive to implement since there is no print production or postage involved. But there could be a strong rationale to spend extra dollars on snail mail to impact high value targets. So, for best results always choose your mail-weapon carefully.

What’s worked best for you?

In several conversations over the last few weeks, I’ve run into some puzzled looks when I mention the term “conversion” in relation to measuring website success. “What’s this guy talking about? My website isn’t trying to make proselytes,” their faces seemed to say (they had very expressive faces). Now, among the analytics/web design crowd you won’t run into any confusion on whether you’ve strayed into a theological discussion, but not all analytics terms have gone mainstream. Whether you’re a marketer on the client or agency side of the business who is responsible for a website’s success, understanding the concept of conversion is essential to achieving and measuring that success.

Conversions Defined

Example of a contact form tracked as a conversion activity on jacksonmg.com.

In its most basic sense, conversion in regards to website activity is simply getting visitors to do what you built your site for. Do you have an e-commerce site? Then a site visitor making a purchase is a conversion. Is your site built as informational, supporting other distribution channels? Then a PDF download of a product spec sheet or manual could be a conversion. Maybe your site gives information on your service offering; then a conversion could be an appointment made or an inquiry sent through a web form.

Conversions Selected

So how do you decide what specific conversion activity or activities to track for your site? Well this takes us one step back in your website design process. Ideally, before a site is built, an explicit purpose is laid out and the success measures are defined. This is the point when the key performance indicators (the KPIs term has been borrowed from Six Sigma for all kinds of success measurement, including online) are chosen, and out of those, the determination of which conversion activities to track can be made. For instance, if a KPI for your site was sales inquires made, then as a conversion activity, you would be interested in tracking the number of visits that included a request to be contacted by a salesperson.

If it’s a bit late for planning your website – say your site has been up and running in some form for several years, there is still an opportunity for defining your KPIs and conversion activities. While you may not have stated it when you were building your site, you did have a purpose in mind or you would not have committed a budget to the effort. Look back and determine what those main goals of the site were and define their related conversion activities. If looking back at your site you come to the realization that your site isn’t really providing the conversions you need for your business, then it’s time for a redesign – because a website that isn’t directly contributing to your overall business goals is just a needless drain of company resources.

Each site will vary in how many KPIs and related conversion activities are needed to truly gauge the site’s success. A very simple brochureware site might only have one KPI and conversion activity to track, while a deep corporate site with customer service, product support and e-commerce components could have several conversion activities being tracked in each section. Regardless of the number, tracking conversions is essential to justifying the purpose of any site and providing guidance for needed improvements.

Conversions Measured

Defining the conversions that need to be tracked is the hard part; the actual tracking is usually not that difficult. Any quality web analytics software currently on the market allows access to the data needed to track just about any conversion activity you can define. The only variance between the software offerings is how easy that data is to get out and present in an easily understandable form. Assuming you have access to an analytics professional for your site (and I hope you do), this is a great task to let them work their stat magic on.

Sample of a conversion path visualization from Google Analytics.

When properly programmed to recognize the activities you have defined as conversions, the best analytics programs can not only show you the rate at which visitors are converting, but also show you the path they take on the site before converting so you can determine where most visitors are being lost in the process. For example, say you have a page of information detailing the service your company offers that includes a link to a sign up form. Should a visitor select the link to the form, they are then greeted by a page requesting basic information, followed by another page requesting credit card information. When tracking the conversion rate of visitors who sign up for your service, the web analytics software will allow you to view the three pages as a path to conversion and will show the percentage of visitors who make it through each step in the process. Information like this not only shows how well your site is currently converting visitors, but allows you to test any modifications throughout the conversion process as you seek to improve your conversion rate.

Converted?

So can we agree it’s best to decide on what you want your site’s KPIs and conversion activities are before building the site (saving yourself the trouble of building a site focused on the wrong things)? Can we also agree tracking your site’s conversion rate is worthwhile and truly essential if you want to find ways to improve your site over time? You’re not going to tell me we can’t agree on anything? Did I fail to convert you at all? If so, tell me, and I’ll redesign and give it another try.

On a couple of recent occasions, I’ve had friends ask about tips for leading brainstorming sessions, or at least how to get more out of them.  There are a variety of tactics I use – some are borrowed, some are original.  Most have become second nature, but in an effort to capture a meaningful list of tips, I decided to write them down.

The keys to success include everything from preparation to expectations to location to actual facilitation.  Each group and topic will be different, and the facilitator should always be sensitive to the situation and be flexible.  But regardless of the specific session, I have found that most of these practices, when implemented, will yield stronger results.

Overall

1. Goals:  where there is no vision the people perish. Are you trying to develop a mission statement, solve a problem, come up with a new idea, or refine a current program?  If you don’t know exactly what you want to accomplish before you begin, chances are you will end up with a bunch of discussion but little accomplished.
2. Planning:  the devil is in the details. Everything from location to participants to discussion topics to brainstorming tactics is critical.  Yes, you want the group to have a casual feel, but that doesn’t mean that you need a casual approach to planning.   The more thoroughly you prepare, the more you will accomplish.
3. Focus:  keep your eye on the ball. Because brainstorming is open and free-flowing, and because there are “no bad ideas,” there is sometimes a tendency to get off track.  It is critical that the facilitator continually steer the group towards the overall objective.  This takes tact, because you don’t want to spurn participation, but it is critical.
4. Inclusion:  there is no “I” in “TEAM.” It is important to include all participants in the brainstorming.  You cannot afford to let one or two people dominate the group, nor can you let anyone quietly remain silent.  There is a reason each person is involved, and each person’s opinion is valuable.

Preparation

• Expectations: When inviting attendees, set clear expectations about why they are involved.
• Invitations: Make sure all participants know when, where and how long the session will last.  Don’t begin the session until everyone has arrived.
• Commitment: Make sure everyone in the group is committed to the goal, to attending and to participating.
• Attendee Preparation: While it’s okay for attendees to have a general idea why they are attending, they generally should not bring prepared ideas.  This leads to people “selling” their pre-conceived ideas versus trying to come up with the best ideas as a group.
• Group Size: Brainstorming can be done with groups of all sizes, but generally a minimum of four and a maximum of eight people is best.  If you need to conduct sessions with larger groups, then be prepared to introduce topics and divide into smaller sub-groups (e.g. if you have a group of 24, then introduce the topic, break into six sub-groups of four, and then have each group report back).
• Topics/Questions: The facilitator should come prepared with enough topics/questions/thought starters to fill the time and achieve the objective.  However, they should also have the flexibility to move in the direction the brainstorming leads, as long as it ultimately results in achieving the overall objective.

Space

• Location: Pick a space that is private, free of distractions, relaxing and preferably different than most are used to (e.g. avoid a conference room normally used by the group, go off-site).  Also pick a room that fits the group (you don’t want 20 people in a small conference room or six people in a gymnasium).
• Supplies: Have plenty of flip charts (or butcher paper), pads of paper, pens and markers.  Also supply drinks and snacks.  Another good idea is something for people to do with their hands while thinking (clay dough, small plastic toys, nerf balls, hacky sacks, etc).
• Distractions: Remove/turn off all phones, email, televisions and other potential external disruptions, including cell phones.

Facilitation

• Moderator Role: The moderator is a facilitator – not a participant.  Their job is to focus on guiding the group, soliciting feedback and moving the discussion forward.  They should not be offering their own ideas.  Also, the moderator needs to have energy.  If you drag, your group will follow.   And remember, brainstorming should be fun . . . not work!
• Documentation: Make sure ideas are being captured, usually through flip charts.  Flip charts are good because they are visible to everyone, people know their ideas have been captured, ideas remain visible to spur other discussion, and you can refer back to earlier ideas.
• Support/applaud ideas: There are no bad ideas, even if it is a bad idea.  The quickest way to quell ideation is to start judging and shooting down ideas.  Remember, often off-track ideas lead to other ideas that move towards the solution.  Don’t let people in the group judge or put down ideas.
• Parking Lot: Create a “parking lot.”  This is a flip chart where you write an idea down to come back to later.  This is a great tactic for keeping the group on track.  When someone brings up something that isn’t relevant say, “let’s put that in the parking lot and come back to it later if we have time.”  This way you don’t have to ignore someone, yet you can keep the group moving.
• Process: Separate brainstorming (idea generation) from the judging of ideas.  Many times when a group needs to get to a final short list of recommended solutions, they have to go through a multi-step process (oftentimes over multiple sessions).
  • Step 1:  Brainstorming (get all the possible ideas on the wall)
  • Step 2:  Evaluation (everyone votes, discusses and narrows down to the best options)
  • Step 3:  Combine/Refine (combine some ideas and refine others)
  • Step 4:  Finalize (determine the final recommendations)
• Probe: When preparing for you group, come up with a variety of different questions to get to the same end.  For example, if I wanted to know what someone enjoys doing, I could ask the following similar but different questions:
  • What is your favorite thing to do?
  • What is the coolest thing you have ever done in your life?
  • If you could spend this afternoon doing any one thing, what would it be?
  • If you had one day left to live, what three things would you do?
  • If you could spend one day with your favorite person in history, what would you do with him/her?

How about you?  What needs to be added to the list?  What techniques have worked for you?

Authors: Susan M. Drake, Michelle J. Gulman, Sara M. Roberts

If you have any doubt in your mind about the value and importance of internal marketing to build employee loyalty and performance this book will make you a believer! In just under 250 pages this “how to” book covers it all: the benefits of internal marketing; interesting case studies; proper messaging; audience segmentation; appropriate delivery systems; measurement tools; survey samples; recognition strategies and integrated planning timelines.

A brief summary of the authors’ description of what internal marketing is all about:

“Here’s the long and short of internal marketing: Employees must buy your message before your customers do. They must understand why your product or service is important, know what it can do for customers, believe in its integrity, and be inspired to make it even better. Employees have to understand where the company is headed and why. And they must be treated as grownups who can handle the truth, even when it is unpleasant. They have to be dedicated to working together to build the business. And finally they should feel proud to tell people what they do and where they work. When they feel like that, everyone will know it—especially your customers.”

The “E” Factor

The process for creating motivated employees is based on practicing what the authors call the four “E” behaviors:

1. Engaging: Involve employees in helping create your company’s vision and then paint a clear picture of how to execute it. Let them help define the heart and soul of your brand…what makes it different, special and wonderful…valued by customers and employees alike. Then craft the story and keep talking. Authors cite Steven Jobs, CEO and founder of Apple as one who has an amazing talent for sharing a clearly defined story and cause as he articulates to his employees what Apple stands for and where it’s headed. He really gives employees something to believe in. The result: Apple is a “cult brand” and an inspiration to many of its employees and customers.
2. Enabling: Once the vision, mission and values are created a company must provide a supportive and positive work environment along with proper training, tools, direction and the power to make the vision a reality.
3. Empowering: Great companies provide the autonomy and platform for employees to do what it takes to do their jobs well. They give people permission to make mistakes. They let them know the desired outcome, but allow employees the flexibility to do it their way.
4. Ensuring: Great companies have methodologies in place to establish clear goals, accountability, measurements for success and give appropriate rewards and recognition for performance.

“E” Employees

“E” employees are the kind of people who:

• Take risks
• Make suggestions
• Support others
• Smile a lot
• Motivate their co-workers
• Enjoy work
• Attract trust
• Like customers
• Define service as whatever the customer needs (whether it’s an external customer buying the product or an internal customer who needs assistance with a project)

“E” Employees Wow Your Customers

The authors state that the greatest differentiator a company can achieve is its reputation—its brand—for phenomenal service, superior products and quality in everything it does. And that kind of brand is built on the shoulders of “E” employees.

Engaged employees are passionate about the company and their work and this comes through every customer interaction, every product or service and the quality of everything they do. At the end of the day, a company does not take care of its customers—employees do.

Enabled employees have the resources and information to provide better customer service, deliver higher quality products and services and help the company grow. Being enabled imbues employees with the responsibility and accountability to be successful.

Empowered employees have a sense of ownership that makes them extremely passionate about their work. They also have the freedom to provide the highest level of service for customers.

That’s why:

FedEx management focuses on internal marketing because they understand their “E” employees will deliver fantastic service, wow their customers and turn tremendous profits. They named their corporate philosophy after a concept called PSP—people, service, profits in that order.

Richard Branson, the highly successful entrepreneur, and CEO of Virgin has the same philosophy, “We give top priorities to the interests of our staff; second to those of our customers; and third to shareholders. This is not only a reflection on the importance of our people; it is also the most positive way of fitting together these three priorities.”

Southwest Airlines is also a firm believer in marketing to its employees. As a result the company has created one of the strongest internal brands and cultures in the world—a culture of happy, loyal employees who want to treat their customers well. Southwest has been able to sustain its culture by constantly strengthening its internal brand through its core values.

It Starts With Culture

The process starts with a company’s culture…a reflection of a company’s leadership, philosophy, history and shared beliefs and values. A company’s culture inevitably affects whether employees will support or hinder desired change; it drives behavior. Misalignment within a company’s culture can cause employees to be resistant and slow to change. They may even sabotage desired behaviors. Internal marketing communicates a vision of the company culture, strengthens an already powerful brand culture and gives employees a roadmap for action.

When management lives and communicates the culture every day two very important things happen:

1. Employees see that management adheres to the company’s stated beliefs, also known as “walking the talk.”
2. It proves that management believes employees to be the heart and soul of the company.

Brand promise + Company’s ability to deliver = Business results

Eight Steps to Success

The authors have identified eight steps to implementing a successful internal marketing program. A lot more detail is provided in the book but here’s a very brief outline:

1. Set a course from A to B – SWOT analysis and goal/objective setting for the plan.
2. Define your audiences – Segmentation by associate profile, level of responsibility and location.
3. Assess the climate – Take the pulse of the organization by area or department. Are employees happy, disgruntled, trusting or suspicious?
4. Define your key messages – Motivational, strategic, news, training, management directives, and recognition.
5. Match the vehicles to the message – Company meeting, video conference, newsletters, email, and intranet.
6. Choose the champions – Leaders and managers who are articulate, enthusiastic, well liked and have a vested interest in the success of the program.
7. Execute the plan – Launch strategy and scale. Timelines, milestones and frequent communication.
8. Measure and adapt – Measure performance against objectives: focus groups, surveys, interviews.

What I’ve shared are just few of the ideas and thoughts from this great book. If your company or brand is overpromising and under delivering, Light Their Fire will provide you with inspiration and direction that could reignite your organization and set it on a course for new growth.

Of course, reading the book is the easy part. Implementation will take serious dedication and commitment.

Watch for the next book review on Living the Brand. In the meantime if you have any thoughts on internal branding in your own organization I’d love to hear them.

I was reminded recently when one of my colleagues decided to leave Jackson Marketing Group and move back to her home state, how few people actually prepare for a job interview. It never ceases to amaze me those that will enter an interview not knowing one thing about what we do specifically, who our clients are and/or how their skills can help us. In fairness, the ones that do research and come prepared almost always knock my socks off.

So I decided to write a quick blog post on job interviews from the PR perspective. Some of these rules can be applied when interviewing for any job. Some are specifically for public relations applicants.

• Research the agency and your interviewer. Know who our clients are, know the person that you will be talking to (almost every company has bios online) and know the focus of our business.
• Briefly research an agency’s clients. You don’t need to know anything in depth about them, but it’s an interview killer when someone asks, “So, who are your biggest clients?”
• Be specific on how you can help a company. We are a specialized industry. The public relations discipline consists of numerous specialties in and of itself, from media relations to crisis communications to media training to speech writing. How can your skills best be utilized?
• There is one thing that all public relations professionals should be: master communicators, specifically master written and verbal communicators. If you can’t write well, if you don’t have a grasp of proper grammar and punctuation and you don’t like to speak in front of people, this isn’t the business for you.
• Follow the news and know what is going on in the world and in your community. How can you help a company communicate and position a company positively, if you don’t have your pulse on what is taking place in the world or in your community?
• Understand that PR is not a 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. job.
• Dress appropriately and conservatively. For heaven’s sake, you’re being interviewed to be the spokesperson for a company and agency and/or a brand. Don’t you think they want you to represent them in a positive light?
• Follow up. I will never hire someone who doesn’t follow up with me following an interview in writing. Period. First, it’s rude. Second, it’s arrogant. Third, it’s a great way to show someone you really aren’t interested in the job. Finally, on the positive side, it’s a great way to showcase your writing skills. If you really want to get in on my good side, follow-up with a phone call, too.
• Communicate your pertinent extracurricular activities. Do you love social media? Are you writing a novel? I don’t care if you were a member of the sailing club, unless we have a sailing-related client. I do care if you are fluent in another language. I don’t care if you were your fraternity or sorority photo chairperson. I do care if you were photo editor of your school newspaper.

If you follow these tips, then you are sure to make a positive impression, stand out amongst most other candidates and give yourself a much better chance of getting hired.

“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”  – Jerry Seinfeld
via Think Exist

Perhaps only one thing strikes more fear into a Creative’s heart than not coming up with the big idea. That one thing? Actually presenting that big idea. And let’s face it; rarely does an idea sell itself.  So for 99% of the time, presentation skills are necessary. But the reality is most Creatives, from the obscure to the Boguskys, view these presentations with a mixture of fear and trepidation. We’re human after all.  And like others of our kind we’re prone to developing the dreaded “butterflies”.

How to overcome that fluttering feeling in ones tummy may be as simple as recognizing and remembering a few things:

Rehearse

Spend as much time preparing to present the work as you did putting the work together. Rehearse in front of your partner, your coworkers and the family dog. Jot down your key points. Again and again from memory. Do it until you know your material like the back of your hand.

Be yourself

Don’t stand in front of a room pontificating and throwing around $10 words. Present the work in a conversational and passionate way. If clients feel you’re BSing them, they’re less inclined to accept your solutions. It also sounds like you don’t know what the heck you’re talking about. One of my favorite people in the business always warms up his audience with a relevant, funny story told with a Catskill Comedian-like delivery before launching into his spiel.

Know thy client

Ernie Schenck, of Hill Holiday, describes it this way:

“I try to bulletproof the work in my mind as much as possible. I can do that because other than new business, I know the clients I’m dealing with. And I go through a lot of trouble to do deep surveillance on each and every one of them. The quirky stuff they like or don’t like. That kind of thing.  Know who you’re presenting to and you know what to avoid, what to say, what not to say, where not to go, how far you can take things.”
via The Ranch Blog

Make it about them

Try to keep yourself out of it. Two words you should never utter when presenting creative to clients is “I” or “we.”  You should make it about them.  Remember you’re not selling your brilliance; you’re solving a business problem.  So your presentation should be all about the business problem, and how the ideas you’ve developed might help that problem. By keeping yourself out of the equation, you make the conversation less personal, and you end up looking like more of an expert in the process.

Finally

Clients don’t want to be sold; they want you to be sold. You’re the expert, so present work you believe in.  Have an opinion. Have a recommendation. Tell the client what they should do. After all, that’s what they’re paying us for. And, believe it or not, most clients want to like what you’re presenting and most of all, they want to like you.

Got any presenting tips of your own?  Would love to hear them.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the practice of optimizing specific aspects of web pages in order to increase the overall traffic from the search engines. The majority of website traffic comes from the search engines, and if your site isn’t being found, then you can be losing out on incredible opportunities.

The benefits of SEO are numerous, but today we’re only going to focus on six areas: usability, code, rankings, traffic, cost and brand visibility.

Usability

The usability of any website is extremely important, not only from a search engine perspective but also from the users’ point-of-view. SEO can bring a lot of new aspects to the development table that will increase both the search engine results and the user experience.

User Experience

Even if your website gets tons of visits, if you’re not converting users, then the traffic is worthless. Making sure your users have a good experience is what separates a typical website from a site they’ll continue to use.

Examples of issues that can create a bad user experience:

• No prices or requiring users to call for prices
• Minimal or incomplete descriptions of products
• Poor quality images or no pictures at all
• Inconsistent navigation
• Poor organization

Search engine optimization is all about being thorough, so give your visitors all the details they’ll need and your site will be seen as an informative, user-friendly resource.

Clean Code

SEO is not the sole reason to strive for clean code, but it does go hand in hand with sites that are coded efficiently. Websites can be developed in numerous languages and techniques, and some methods are going to be better than others when it comes to search engine rankings.

A site that utilizes clean and semantic markup is typically going to outperform a site that doesn’t. Adhering to SEO guidelines is going to give your markup a more defined outline as well as making the hierarchy more clear to your users and the search engines. Document heading outlines, navigation, URLs and category management are all going to be indicators to your users on the architecture of your website. Make sure that your website is organized in a logical fashion no matter where you enter.

Search Engine Rankings

Optimizing websites for search engines means that your sites are going to be in front of your users when they’re ready. Most other forms of advertising are time and location sensitive and can mean your potential customers will never see your beautiful ad.

Examples of time and location-sensitive advertising:

• Magazine ad (hope they buy the issue, read it, see your ad and act on it)
• Billboard ad (hope they drive down that road, read the billboard and know what they’re supposed to do)
• Commercial (hope they’re watching TV, that channel and ready to let the info soak in)

Of course, all of these mediums have been used effectively for years, but there are also a lot of variables that can limit your ability to capture the attention of the audience.

24/7 Results

The nice thing about search engines and online sales is that your website doesn’t close, so your site can generate traffic and sales 24/7. Effective search engine optimization helps your site make the most of this advantage.

Long-Term Results

We hear a lot about search engine rankings and algorithms changing, and to be a good SEO you have to constantly know what Google is doing. While for the most part that’s true, you don’t have to spend all your time keeping up with the newest SEO techniques in order to get good rankings. A site that’s optimized with ethical, white hat SEO techniques can do very well on the search engines for a long time. As long as you follow a few basic rules, all of your sites can do well.

Targeted Traffic

Ideally, when writing content you’re optimizing the web pages for specific keywords and phrases. I see a lot of companies that don’t even think about keyword phrases until after all the content is written and the site is live. They wonder while they’re not showing up for “keyword phrase A,” and the phrase isn’t even mentioned in the content.

A huge benefit to SEO is that you actually control what kind of traffic your website is going to generate. By doing keyword research, you’ll be able to analyze which terms generate traffic and which terms will be the most beneficial to your company’s goals.

Keyword research can also give your company an indication on how the average consumer talks about your products or services. Many times, companies think their customers talk about them using certain, specific words, only to find—through keyword research—that they actually refer to you slightly differently. If you had known the alternate way your customers referred to your products, then you could have included that verbiage in the content to generate more traffic.

Cost-Effective

Having to pay a qualified SEO writer to do keyword research and optimize content can turn a lot of companies off, but if you look at the long-term costs, it’s a much better ROI than PPC (Pay Per Click) or other forms of online advertising.

Of course, having an in-house SEO is going to be the most cost-effective way to keep updating your website with quality content, but if you have to outsource the writing, then it can potentially be a one-time fee. Obviously, the more active you are in your SEO campaign the better you’ll do over the years, but if you’re looking to just get started, then optimizing the content once a year and then analyzing the results on a quarterly basis can be very cost-effective.

PPC can be a good way to generate quick traffic, and it definitely has its place for certain types of campaigns; but if you opt to only participate in PPC, then your advertising budget is going to continue to increase as the year goes on.

The budget throughout your PPC campaign is going to depend on a lot of factors. Cost of keywords, how many keywords, how targeted your content is for that particular keyword, how long the campaign runs. You could easily spend hundreds or thousands of dollars a month for multiple campaigns.

SEO can be a one-time fee that can pay for itself in just a few months, leaving the rest of the year generating profits on every sale. You can target as many keywords as you like without having to worry about how expensive each keyword is. Additionally, SEO doesn’t need the kind of hand-holding and ongoing monitoring that PPC can require, which gives you and your staff the flexibility to focus on other tasks.

Brand Visibility

If I search for your company name, I should find your site on the search engines. That’s a given, that’s not SEO. If you’re not found for your company name then you should fire who ever created your website and start over.

The real benefit of SEO when it comes to brand visibility is when a user searches for a general topic and your site comes into their results. For example, if I searched for “Forklift Parts” and you sold forklift parts, wouldn’t you want your site to be on page one of Google? Is it? Have you even checked?

If you take the time to create unique content on a consistent basis, you can begin to dominate the search engines for many variations of your targeted keyword phrases. Each time you create a new piece of content, you’ll generate a new listing in Google’s index. The more indexed pages you have, the more places you’ll show up in front of your customers. With a well-optimized campaign, your customers won’t be able to get away from you.

Conclusion

The Internet offers a wealth of business potential, and it is important for companies to take advantage of it. This means making sure your websites and everything you put online are optimized. SEO is a great way to put your company in front of your users and generate more leads and sales. The benefits of SEO are endless, but these six areas should be enough to get you thinking about what your current site is missing. Get started optimizing your website today with SEO and watch your rankings, sales and profits grow.