Dynamic Copywriting

The New Rules of Marketing & PR
With my apologies, this article is a couple of weeks over due, but I have been busy with several other writing projects.

I had promised a second part to my review of David Meerman Scott's wonderful book, "The New Rules of Marketing & PR."

If you recall from part one, Mr. Scott experienced an all-too-typical example of the wrong way to market when he went online to gather information about buying a new car. All three of the big US automakers' web sites began with the assumption that he was ready to buy now when he was still at the information-gathering stage.

He was assaulted with TV-style broadcast advertising with one-way messages focused on price.

Compare this approach to what he calls the new rules and how you and I as marketers can implement them.

The first step Mr. Scott suggests is to create "Buyer Personas" for your target demographics. In other words, break each visitor to your web site, each person who may eventually buy your product, into distinct groups based upon what each group of people want and need and what information they seek, regardless of whether this information will lead them directly to make a decision to buy.

For example, political campaigns have long targeted groups they call "Soccer Moms" and "NASCAR Dads." By singling these groups out from the electorate, they can identify what concerns these groups and what they will base their votes upon. Also by giving these "Buyer Personas" names, they make them real to the marketers involved in the campaign (and let us not for a moment think that a political campaign is not a marketing effort).

Suppose the car companies had done this when they had built their web sites. They would have realized that not every visitor was in a "buy now" mode. They would have realized there were many who wanted to simply gather information, get user generated feedback, check out safety, reliability and fuel economy information. They also could have treated different visitors as having distinct wants and needs.

Instead, they thought of all their visitors as a single entity. Don't you think that NASCAR Dads and Soccer Moms would have different motivations they could have appealed to?

Once you have create profiles for all the distinct "Buyer Personas" that have an interest in your web site or your company, Mr. Scott lays out one of the main themes of his book: "Think Like a Publisher."

Thinking like a publisher means to create content and information that would be of benefit to these Buyer Personas. This does not mean product information or sales content, but to simply understand what information could benefit these groups.

For example, what content can you create that would solve problems for your identified Buyer Personas without mentioning your company or products or services?

Some examples Scott uses is an automobile tire company that could produce an ebook or video on how to drive safely over snow and then offer it free on your web site, on YouTube or to give it free to auto clubs or drivers' education schools.

Another example could be a catering company that could produce content on how to plan a wedding reception or a dinner party.

Notice that all of these address problems for certain identifiable groups of buyers without being overt sales pitches. Having said this, however, this kind of non-selling can often be the most powerful selling tool you can create because it positions you as an expert (an unselfish expert) in your field.

Another very interesting example he cites is a company called The Concrete Network. A "brick and mortar company if ever there was one, the Concrete Network diligently produces how to information, problem solving information and media releases that address the needs of both their b2b and b2c (sorry, "business to business" and "business to consumers") buyer personas.

These include buyer guides on all sorts of home improvement projects and a Find-A-Contractor service that links homeowners to builders on 22 different specialties in 192 metropolitan areas in the U.S. or Canada.

Does this content always lead directly to a buying decision? No, but they do imply a generosity of spirit in these companies.

Several years ago, during the late 90s dot.com meltdown, I volunteered to do career counseling for a group of downsized managers and executives. One of the first things I had my classes do was to think of themselves of solutions to specific problems.

One by one, these folks all "got it" and it transformed their thinking from being job seekers to people who were very, very good at solving particular problems for organizations. Once this occurred, their whole approach to the job market was transformed. They were not job applicants, they were solutions to a big problem.

I think Mr. Scott is talking about the same thing here. When you begin to "Think Like A Publisher," you start producing problem-solving information for targeted groups of potential customers.

Be sure to pick up The New Rules of Marketing & PR. You will be very glad you did.



COPYRIGHT © 2008, Charles Brown




The New Rules of Marketing & PR

What is Pico Marketing?

I'm writing this in response to a very interesting article Peter Jakob wrote called Are You Pico Marketer?, on his blog, B2B Marketing - Open For Business, which was itself a response to an article he read from Velocity.

To use a baseball analogy (Peter Jakob and the folks over at Velocity are British, so baseball analogies probably aren't the first things that come to mind for them), Pico Marketing means concentrating on hitting a lot of singles and doubles rather than always trying to hit a home run at every at bat. A team that gets more men on base with small hits generally wins more often than a team that lives or dies by the long ball.

Another analogy used by Velocity, and quoted by Mr. Jakob, is the Monopoly metaphor. The player who owns Boardwalk and Park Place will probably not do nearly as well as the player who owns a lot of little properties all over the board.

So back to Pico Marketing. Since I finished writing my ebook, The Plot Thickens: Why Case Studies Create New Customers, I have been trying to promote it by contacting bloggers I respect, emailing various individuals who I regard as thought leaders, and issuing online press releases.

I've also mentioned it on my Linkedin profile, written one article so far on ezinearticles.com, commented on blogs, and set up a Squidoo lens called Case Study Writer, and on and on.

In other words, I am taking a lot of little actions to get the word out about The Plot Thickens: Why Case Studies Create New Customers (I'm buying up the little properties on the Monopoly board and hitting singles). I am finding that promoting the ebook is as much work as writing it was (sigh).

I really can't afford to conduct an expensive paid advertising campaign for an ebook I am giving away to promote my case study writing services (in other words, I can't buy Boardwalk and Park Place).

But this is what it takes these days. I am already at the top of Google for the keyword, "marketing with case studies," (don't be too impressed, it is not a phrase that gets a lot of hits). But "marketing with case studies" is one of the long tail search terms I'm going after.

Having said that, search engine rankings come as a result of a lot of little things done all over the internet. From Facebook to MySpace to YouTube to Digg, little mentions from a lot of places get Google's love.

So will all this effort succeed? I sure hope so!

I guess you could say I am conducting my own case study on Pico Marketing. I'll keep you informed of my progress. Watch this blog to see how I do.

COPYRIGHT © 2008, Charles Brown

The New Rules of Marketing & PR


I've never written a multi-part book review, but I already know that no review of David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing & PR could do it justice in a single article.

I've only read four chapters so far and nearly every page has sections highlighted, Post It notes attached or my own additional comments written in the margins. I keep finding myself putting the book down just to think about what Scott is telling me.

In other words, The New Rules of Marketing & PR is such a wealth of information that I am going to give you my reviews on the installment plan as I go along.

So strap yourself in and let's get started.

Let's begin with Scott's experience back in 2006 when he wanted to buy a new car. Like most of us these days, he went online to gather information first.

His first stops were the big three U.S. automakers' websites. "At all three," he said, "I was assaulted on the home page with a barrage of TV-style broadcast advertising. And all the one-way messages focused on price."

"All three of these sites assume that I'm ready to buy a car now. But I actually just wanted to learn something."

Lest we all snicker at how automakers just don't get it, we should recognize that this is the approach most companies are taking with the web. They are simply trying to adapt the old advertising, marketing and PR campaigns to a new media. It's laziness really, rather than learn new strategies, they (meaning most businesses) simply want to slap on the tried and true ways of yesteryear's marketing to the internet without learning the new rules.

The first new rule, according to one of my own aforementioned comments in the margins, is that people search the web for information, not canned commercial messages.

Scott goes on to say:

At each site, I felt as if I was being marketed to with a string of messages that had been developed in a lab or via focus groups...If I had wanted to see TV car ads, I would have flipped on the TV....They were luring me in with one-way messages, not educating me about the companies' products. Guess what? When I arrive at a site, you don't need to grab my attention; you already have it.

Contrast this with the experience Scott had when he found places like Edmund's Car Space, a free consumer-driven social networking site. Here he found photo albums posted by owners of various makes and models, user groups categorized again by makes and models, favorite links of the car owners. He even found over 2,000 messages by owners just on the Toyota FJ Cruiser.

This is the kind of site a person who wants information will seek out, not a site that simply throws advertisements at us. I've said it before, but most sites I look at still remind me of a brochure or some company's Yellow Page ad.

What is so exceptional about The New Rules of Marketing & PR is that Scott provides a roadmap that anyone can use. Whether you are a big company or a mom and pop. A non profit, an artist, a major corporation, a rock band or a church or a politician.

As I confessed earlier, I am just getting the tip of the iceberg so far. But the sweep Scott gives in this book is very impressive. He discusses blogs, podcasts, forums and wikis, viral buzz, YouTube, content-rich web sites (music to my ears), online PR campaigns, thought leadership, SEO press releases, social networking and much more.

In short, The New Rules of Marketing & PR is a college course on how to use the web's new tools to get your message out.

As I said before, I cannot possibly fit this book review in one single article. I plan to make this a series. It is by far the best book on web marketing and PR I've read in a long time. So see you next time.

COPYRIGHT © 2008, Charles Brown
<

A Review of Chirstine O'Kelly's ebook, "How to Write Optimized Press Releases"

I've been an SEO writer for three years now and I am still learning new search engine optimization tips. My latest learning experience came from reading Christine O'Kelly's ebook, How to Write Search Engine Optimized Press Releases, which she offers at her website, www.selfmadechick.com (the ebook is free, all she asks is that you subscribe to her RSS feed in exchange for the download).

The first point O'Kelly makes is that with so many online press release submission sites, it makes sense to send out releases not only to get favorable mention in the media, but also for the inbound links from the submission sites themselves.

In this regard, an SEO writer would not only be writing for a human audience, but for search engine robots as well – similar to submitting online articles to sites like www.ezinearticles.com.

Each submission site enables other online and offline media to pull the press releases for publication on their own sites, providing the opportunity for an SEO writer to create viral distribution of each release.

But even if a press release is not picked up by any other source, the submission site itself will often have a high page ranking and will point back to your site.

The second point O'Kelly makes is something of a surprise, but I think she is on to something here.

SEO writers are often faced with a conflict between writing keyword-dense headlines and writing headlines that humans find irresistible to click.

She says that given a choice between writing headlines that will persuade human readers to click your link, or to fill the headline with keywords to attract a search engine, the SEO writer should choose the keywords first. In her own words, "if you have to choose, pick keyword over clickable."

She supports her keyword-first approach by pointing out that the human reader will not see the link if it does not get a good ranking.

Fortunately, she then solves the need to get humans to click on the links by suggesting that a subtitle be added to the press release that is designed to get clicks. A neat solution to a consistent problem.

Her third point is to write an SEO, keyword-rich summary for each press release. This summary is often reprinted in the search results for the human reader to see, with the keywords in bold text. And of course it is also another opportunity for the search engines to pick up the theme of your release and rank it accordingly.

The final point (note: O'Kelly doesn't say this explicitly, but this is a point I took away from her book) regards an old habit I may now have to break.

I've always held to the notion that press releases should really hit the "newsworthiness" button hard. In other words, in the offline world, you don't want to get the reputation of wasting an editor's time with trivial press releases.

But with online press releases submitted to submission sites, this is not quite as demanding a standard.

This is not to say it is okay to submit a lot of junk, self-serving press releases that have no hope of ever being picked up by other media sources. But it does broaden the scope of what is, and what is not, newsworthy.

A new product or service, a new published report or ebook, a newly hired executive or partnership, might all become good topics for press releases.

As I read Christine O'Kelly's ebook, I was more than a little surprised that she is giving it away free of charge. I highly recommend it to any SEO writer or webmaster who is looking for more ways to get targeted traffic to their websites. Check it out at How I Ranked in 5 of the Top 10 Search Results in Google.

COPYRIGHT © 2008, Charles Brown