Posts Tagged ‘Copywriting’

January28

Open Office Bullets on Mac

By: Ben Kelly

Not web related, but if you’ve found this post on Google you’ll know how frustrating it is. On Mac versions of Open Office 3.0, bullet points are interpreted incorrectly from Word documents.

It’s actually a problem with the way bullets are encoded with Word, compounded by the way the Symbol font set works on mac. But, there’s a fix.

All you need to do is substitute the Symbol font set with OpenSymbol. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Go to preferences
  2. OpenOffice.org > Fonts
  3. Check "Apply replacement table"
  4. In the left box, select Symbol, in the right box select OpenSymbol.
  5. Press the green tick, and select "Always"
  6. Save and you are done.

You can now open and save word document with bullets with ease. 

 

We are big fans of Open Source software. Google Docs is great for collaboration and reading most types of document – but absolutely rubbish for creating documents to be printed. Open Office is great too, but niggles like this worry us. Still, at least this time around there’s a fix.

 

Ben

Posted in: Copywriting, Software0 comments

September29

The most imporant thing about a website

By: Ben Kelly

 I was asked today, "What’s the number one thing you look for in a website?".

 Instant answer: "The text. I don’t want to notice the design. In fact, if I notice the design it probably isn’t doing its job. The design should serve the text. Like with a screenplay – you can make a good script into a bad film, but you can’t make a bad script into a good film."

Text is everything online. 

Ben

Posted in: Copywriting, Text0 comments

July23

Foreign Language Translations – get them checked

By: Ben Kelly

It’s far too easy to end up with a mediocre foreign translation. There’s absolutely no point in going to all the hassle if you end up with a mediocre translation. Worse still, is when you have your site translated into 14 languages – but don’t get the menu’s, text-within-images and other key content translated as well.

When going through your site, beyond text content, make sure you translate:

  • Sound & videos.
  • Images.
  • Image captions.
  • Alt text for accessibility.

When all this is done, ask a native speaker to have a brief look at your site. They should be able to tell you very quickly if the tone and style reflects your original language – and if there are any glaring errors or omissions.

Finally, make it clear when your customer service line is English speaking only, or if you only ship your goods to certain countries. Forgetting these crucial steps will drive your customers away, and render all the money you spent translating the text a complete waste of time and effort.

Ben

Posted in: Copywriting0 comments

July16

So what?

By: Ben Kelly

Here’s a quick exerice to help you focus your website. After every sentence, item, image or gadget, ask yourself the question "so what?"

It’s so easy to keep adding to your site, or writing more content because you think it’s what’s needed. What really matters is making sure that what’s on your site is having an impact. If it isn’t, then so what?

Ben

Posted in: Copywriting, Design, Text0 comments

July7

Laser focus vs shotgun approach

By: Ben Kelly

No. This is not a post on firearms (real or fictional), or about the best way to take down a Storm Trooper. This is a post on making sure your website reflects your company’s approach.

There are two kinds of company: the ones that try to do a wide range of things, and the ones that focus on a single area of expertise, or a single product, and focus all their energy upon this like a laser. Here’s two examples of what I mean:

1. Shotgun

Tesco’s. If you want something, the chances are you can get it from Tesco’s. In fact, the chances are that you can get 90% of all the stuff you need from Tesco’s, and the rest probably isn’t "essential" anyway. The more I think about it, the more I struggle to think of situations where you can’t get everything from your local super-store (haircuts, and dental work spring to mind – but they aren’t consumables in the strictest sense – and if you view your dentist as a consumable, then you have issues far beyond what this blog can solve. I digress). Tesco’s have a bit shotgun loaded with popular products, and they fire it at people.

Unsurprisingly, their website does the same thing.

2. Laser

On the other end of the spectrum, are companies like Black Circles (who sell only car tyres), Monster Tackle (who only sell fishing accessories), and The Dolls House Emporium. I’m not a massive fan of any of these (OK, I do have a penchant for car tyres), but if I need a specialist product, I’m left in no doubt after visiting these sites that I’ve come to the right place.

So what about you?

This blog is targeted at SME’s in the UK. It’s therefore likely that you are a laser focused company, and specialise in a particular niche. At the very least, you’ll likely be providing a particular type of service, or selling B2B in a particular industry. And if you aren’t, that’s fine too. It doesn’t matter whether or not your business is successful by having laser focus, or by wielding a shotgun, what matters is:

Make sure your website mirrors your approach.

If you are a shotgun, have a website packed full of information and products. Your customers will expect it, and it will work well – it mirrors what you do. However, if you are a laser, make sure that your website is ONLY focused on what your company offers, and how it brings benefit to your potential customers. Everything else must go.

Though I try and follow my own advice, I will admit I’m guilty of the same thing. I make websites, and I develop excellent strategy for website owners. The real value of what I do lies in the latter, but in any case, they work hand in hand. On my website, www.alphawavemedia.co.uk, on the services page I list "hosting". Hosting is something that I do as a reseller, and the service I provide is your standard excellent top of the range package. Hosting is cross-selling to existing clients, and for as long as I continue to do it in an excellent fashion, it will always be profitable. And yet, I’ve never had a customer come to me for hosting, and then ask for a website. It’s always website first.

Why on earth do I have hosting as a separately listed service on my website? Well I don’t. Not any more. Why? Because I am laser focused on providing excellent web strategy. I do this by building websites, improving existing websites, and running effective online marketing campaigns.

Go through your website, and see if you can cut any fat out. The websites I listed above work because they are completely focused on what they do. If you are an SME and your customers are coming to you online, it’s because they want to find the real specialists in the field, not the jack-of-all-trades. If they wanted an online shop that did everything, they’ve got a dozen places to go already. Add value by focusing on your core services and products.

Why does this matter? Because once you’ve made that work, and have a good following and happy customers, THEN you can expand and bring in new products. Amazon used to sell books, Play.com used to sell only DVD’s. Get the niche right, then expand.

Ben

Posted in: Copywriting, Design, Usability0 comments

June25

Make it personal

By: Ben Kelly

Don’t have your picture on your website? No information about yourself?

Your customers are more likely to engage if you put some personal information about yourself on your website. This is true whether you are offering one on one services, or selling to a mass audience.

People don’t come to websites trusting you in the same way they will when they walk into a shop. Showing who you are and telling people about you engenders trust.

Ben

Posted in: Copywriting, Marketing0 comments

June23

Stop hiding the info

By: Ben Kelly

If you’re selling something online, especially a service, is it a good idea to put your prices on your website? Surely it makes sense to skip over the information – after all, that way people have to get in touch to find out don’t they? And once they’ve made that first call, it’s all the more easy to entice them in. Isn’t it?

No.

Hiding information drives people away. Even if you’re still getting a decent number of leads and sales from your site, not showing basic information about the cost of your service or product will put people off. People are strapped for time. If you make it harder for them to get to the information they want, they’ll go somewhere else.

Ben

Posted in: Marketing0 comments

May28

When Less is More

By: Ben Kelly

If content is king, shouldn’t we all try and fill our websites with as much text as is humanely possible? Won’t that get us the highest ranking in Google? Why don’t we just write pages and pages and pages of stuff, as much as we possibly can, and we’ll get to number one, won’t we? After all Content is King.

Content is king, but only if the content is high quality and is genuinely helpful to your users. Anything else is indulgent at best, and harmful at worst. Why? Because if you follow every SEO rule, you will have a highly visible website that no-one wants to visit.

Is it better to get 100,000 viewers a month and a 10% conversion rate, or 50,000 viewers a month and a 20% conversion rate? Without a doubt, the latter. It’s cheaper to market to 50,000 people, it’s cheaper to pay for the bandwidth of 50,000 visitors. In fact, the only argument I can think of for the former is "brand awareness" – but that argument falls flat on it’s face – because it’s better to have fewer people who love you than many people who like you.

Content is king when it’s quality content. Quantity is fine if you’re the next Wikipedia, or have an amazonian amount of stock for your online store. Even then, Amazon and Wikipedia have excellent quality (and no that’s not debatable – wikipedia may be a dubious source of real fact sometimes – but it delivers exactly what it promises – an encyclopedia by the people for the people).

Most websites would do better with half the word count. Are there ways in which you can cut down on your content? Remove anything that doesn’t give real value to your customers. Ask yourself the simple question after each sentence – so what? "Alpha Wave Media are pioneers of excellence and employ cutting edge technology to serve our clients needs" – so what? Yawn. I expect that from any web creation company. "Alpha Wave have 8 years experience making websites work for businesses". It’s shorter, but much better.

Go through your website and after every question, ask yourself "So what?". The result will be clear concise text that resonates with the people you can help.

Ben

Posted in: Copywriting, Design0 comments

May21

If I notice your design, it’s failed

By: Ben Kelly

A website can be a thing of art. There are an ever increasing number of very talented artists who turn their hand to graphic art, and amaze us with gorgeous design. Ranging from simple black and white layout, to fully animated flash interfaces, there are a world of options available to the website owner when trying to revamp a tired site.

What if your website has so much artistic merit, that you win an award. Isn’t that the highest accolade an audience can bestow on a webmaster – awarding her for creating a work of art? Isn’t that what we should all strive for?

No.

If I notice your website’s design, it has failed.

Art works for the art industry. If you are a creative agency, sell art, offer fashion consulting, or even design necklaces for kittens, art is not only appropriate, it really does help. For everyone else, if your design is the most remarkable thing about your website – it has fallen flat on its face, as have you with it.

Too many people get swept along with the notion that a website must have an artistic design. Nothing could be further from the truth. The design for your website should be the framework within which your content is best placed to appeal to your users. Your content is generally text if you offer a service, or an image if you are selling a product. Design should be good (but not great), and should be lower on your list of priorities than strategic planning, usability, seo and copywriting.

Successful websites rarely win design awards. They count their winnings differently. They tend to be much longer numbers with a £ sign preceeding them.

Ben

Posted in: Copywriting, Design0 comments

May19

Appealing to everyone

By: Ben Kelly

Any business wants to sell its services or products to the highest number of potential clients, don’t they? We all want to find a global audience for what we do, and have as many satisfied (and paying customers) as is physically possible, don’t we? After all, isn’t that the way to make it big?

To this end, shouldn’t we make sure the text we write, the image we display and the language we use as appealing as possible to the highest number of people? Shouldn’t we avoid anything non-PC, that risks being offensive, or really that even takes a stance on controversial issues? That’s the way to appeal to your biggest target audience, right?

Wrong.

If you appeal to everyone, you’ll dilute yourself so much, you’ll end up appealing to no-one. Ultimately, you can never be anyone but yourself. Your business is unique too. No two businesses are the same. They have unique voices, unique ideas and a unique identity. Embrace your difference! Don’t be afraid to show yourself for who you really are. Rather than weakening your appeal to the masses, you will strengthen your appeal to the customers who are ideally suited to your service or product. These are the customers you want.

How do you make this work online? Here are some ideas:

  • Create interesting bio’s with pictures – show yourself, and write something interesting about you (something interesting that’s non-business orientated).
  • Write a blog. If you are going to write a blog, make sure it’s focused on a small number of people whom you can genuinely help or interest. This blog, for example, is focused only at business owners who want to improve their online marketing. Other’s may get some benefit (if you are in marketing, sales, or work for a business), but really I am writing to the informed business owner who wants to improve website strategy.
  • Make your blog personal. Don’t be afraid to let yourself creep into what you write. I love fast cars, and travel. I hate watching TV (apart from The Apprentice) and can’t stand cats (I’m allergic – which is a half-decent excuse). If any of these things put people off me – then they probably aren’t the kind of person I’ll be able to have a good relationship in any case – why try and pretend otherwise?
  • Actively dissuade the wrong type of customer from purchasing from you. This idea may sound off-putting at first, but it is real gold. Tell your prospects when not to buy from you. I make websites – if your budget is less than £1,000 over the course of the year – I’m not setup to help you. There are dozens of very good designers and programmers who can – but I’m not one of them (though I can help you find one if you need it). Why is it a good thing to tell this to prospective customers? If someone only has a £500 budget and I’m not aware of this up front – then we both waste a lot of each other’s time before discovering we’re not a good fit. If you sell flowers in Hampshire and not in Devon, make this clear on your website. You’ll save a lot of wasted time telling people "no, I’m afraid we don’t deliver to Devon", and you’ll also appeal even more to all the prospects in your Hampshire region – if I want flowers and live in Hampshire, I’m more likely to pick up the phone to you when I know you can deliver to my area.

Have a good long think about how you can make sure your unique voice comes acorss on your website. And if you still don’t believe me, take a look at companies such as lush and innocent – they are pretty unique, and last I heard they were doing pretty well…

Ben

Posted in: Customer Service, Marketing0 comments

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