Author: Mary Klest

B2B Video Advantage

Content is more than words on a screen. In a recent collaboration with MicroShare Intl., an Internet marketing firm, a copy writing project quickly transformed into a new video product describing the company’s offerings. The client’s initial page was text heavy. We replaced the text blocks with graphic links so the reader could select the text by topic. The newly formatted text is concise and client-focused.

The company president, Barry Schimmel, made a simple video series using the text as a script. In this way he personalized the message and delivered it directly to his potential clients. Such is the power of video. When three video testimonials were added to the bottom of the page, a new video sales letter product was born. They are using it as an entry product for their more extensive services. Here are some video tips Barry shared.

  • Don’t make it all about you.
  • Try to teach something related to your product or service.
  • Stay personal and project your passion for problem solving.
  • Talk directly to your potential clients. Be authentic.
  • Keep it simple. Try to keep the length of the video between one and three minutes.
  • Tell a story.

People love stories. Think of the fairy tales you liked as a kid. In the beginning something happens to a character, creating a need or desire. In the middle, while the character is pursuing his need he faces an obstacle which causes a struggle to ensue. In the end, the character is transformed. A resolution occurs.

Today, the best businesses engage and educate by integrating all sorts of content including text, video, graphics, photos, and sound. Don’t limit your choices. Use them wisely and selectively.

Fun Friday Worst Sentence

Here is this week’s worst sentence found on the web and a revision.

BEFORE
“Now, it is also important when you read that answer that you realize that if you have an Upsell process and/or a “BACK END” or call center, you MUST take into considersation [sic] the effects your FRONT END offer and conversions play on your BACK END to see the NET RESULT of your campaign.”

AFTER
To see the net result of your campaign, measure the effects your front end offer and conversions have on your back end.

Secrets of a Content Sleuth

Free search tools can open up a new world of content discovery. It has for me. Becoming a content sleuth equips you to respond early and stay current. More than tools, this is a process where content becomes a controllable, valued asset. Learn how to search industry news, monitor social media, and organize real-time syndicated content in one place – Google Reader. You can subscribe to websites, blogs, social media networks, and video feeds.

1.  Establish a Google account. All you need to set up an account with Google is an email address. At the top of your Google page select Reader from the menu bar. Near the top of the page click the + Add a subscription button.  Enter a search word or phrase. Suggestions might be your industry or product, company name or competitor’s name, depending on why you are searching. For example, if you supply solar panels enter those words.

The syndicated feeds that appear include Internet sites with the number of subscribers. Look at the URLs (website addresses) to see if you are interested in subscribing to any. If so, click on Subscribe under the feed listed. The name of the feed you just subscribed to appears under “Subscriptions” (left column) on your Google Reader page. Also, look directly on websites and when available click on the RSS feeds icon on the website page or in the URL address bar.

2.  Add keyword alerts. From the top of your Reader page, select “more” and then “even more”. The Google Options page appears. Select Alerts. Enter your same keyword. In the Deliver to box, select Feed and then Create Alert. This directs your alert to appear on the Reader page, not your email.

3.  To find bloggers, go again to the Google Options page (more, even more) and select Blog search. Click on Search Blogs. Type in your same keyword, e.g., solar panels. Click on Subscribe to a blog search feed in Google Reader at the bottom of the page. Then click on the + Subscribe button. This is a good way to find people (including members of the media) who write about your keyword subject.  You can subscribe to any of these blogs individually by clicking on the headline and looking for the RSS feed icon on the website page or address bar.

4.  To monitor social media, go to the Google Options page (more, even more) and select “Real Time”. Add your same keyword and click on Create an email alert at the bottom of the page. Under Deliver to select Feed. Click on Create Alert.

5. To add videos feeds to Google Reader, select Videos from the menu bar. Enter your same keyword. A list of video URLs comes up. Click on Subscribe to a video search feed for [your keyword] in Google Reader at the bottom of the page. Click on the + Subscribe button.

6.  Get industry news by selecting more from you Google Reader page menu, then News. The Top News Stories feed appears. Enter the same key word as before. Click on the Search News button. Then the “Follow [your keyword] news” button. This adds the keyword search to your list of “News” items. For some unknown reason, I can only access this feed from the “News” page and not in Google Reader. I add the Top News Stories feed to Google Reader anyway so I can open it from my Subscriptions list and then select my keyword subject from the News page.

Take Control, Organize

From the Google Reader page, you will see all of your keyword-designated feeds listed in the “Subscriptions” box. Create a directory folder to organize your feeds. At the bottom of the Subscription box click on the “Manage my subscriptions” link. Your feeds appear in alphabetical order. Click on the Add to a folder button. Then select New Folder and give it a name, e.g., Solar. This becomes your directory folder name. Add the others to this folder. When you subscribe to anything related to your keyword, add it to this directory folder using the Manage my Subscriptions link.

You now have the latest Google syndicated news coming to you in real-time for free. Check the feeds every day. Do you have other methods for gathering news that work for you?

Fun Friday – Worst Sentence & Observations on Content

We are calling our end of the work week posts “Fun Friday.”  You will find our “World’s Worst Sentence” along with observations made during the week. Our intention concerning the “worst” sentence is not to be harsh, but to honor those who take the time to proofread and edit their content. If YOU have a better suggestion for how to edit the “worst,” share it here.

This “worst” sentence appeared in an e-book I downloaded from a website.

BEFORE

If you are more philanthropic, profit mat not be your main motivation and you may want to sell more products to help more people and where your fruition comes from enhancing lives, but for the purposes of this example I will simply focus on the how to make the maximum profit for your company and its shareholders.

AFTER

Profit may not be your main motivation when selling products, yet increasing profits for your company and its shareholders may be the best way to enhance the lives of those you care about.

****

From Used Car Lot to Show Room

I attended two webinars this week. One was awful and the other sublime. I liken these experiences to walking in a used car lot vs. entering a show room.  I didn’t know either of the speakers and learned something from both. But why did I feel sleazy during one and successful during the other?

The difference was tone, trust, and the call to action. It became apparent to me that one was selling while the other was sharing. The first relayed a sense of urgency and how easy it all was if I only follow his direction. He offered a free gift at the end. On the webinar window was a counter showing an impressive number of attendees. He described the sales cycle and how to up sell people during the purchasing process. He wanted us to become affiliates of something he was selling. Meanwhile, the counter kept dropping until near the end there were less than a third of the original attendees still listening.  I think he needs to go back and do some marketing homework.

The sublime experience was during this year’s Blogging Success Summit, an annual event sponsored by BlogWorld & Social MediaExaminer.com. I had attended their events before and knew they only invite leaders in the field to speak. So Douglas Karr had been vetted by people I trust. He is also the author of Corporate Blogging for Dummies. His voice was friendly. He generously shared his contact information at the beginning. His content was current and engaging. What is the biggest factor influencing your site’s search engine rankings? Not keywords, not page titles, but incoming links. I tweeted a few of the good points he made. His call to action was for us to engage and ask questions. I did. Then shared the answer with a client. My esteem was heightened. Which book will I buy to learn more about corporate blogging? As a journalist, who will I interview for an article on corporate blogging?

How to Position Your Call for Action

Before adding a call to action on your website or blog, determine what you want your audience to do. Then use your content to provide context for that action. For this blog, we want people to link to our site and subscribe to our RSS feed. But there are many actions people can take. For instance, do you want to get an opinion? If so, don’t write as if you are the ultimate authority on the subject. Admit your ignorance. This gives your reader a chance to add something. People will love to fill you in. We were not sure which graphic design to use for this blog so we requested input from business friends on Facebook and other social networks. The feedback we got was tremendous and helped us understand what design would be most effective.

There are a number of decisions to make when buying something is your call to action. If your audience knows your company and products they may already trust you. But if they are unfamiliar with what you offer, you need to build trust. Disclose everything a potential buyer may need to know about the company and its products as well as any relationships that influence your selling process. Word choice is important in getting people to act. I recently learned that it is sometimes better to use the word “Continue” rather than “Buy” during the online purchasing process. The idea is that people love to buy but hate to be sold to.

At a website usability conference I attended, the importance of a phrase was revealed. Guess which words resulted in the most clicks: “Sign Up” or “Click Here to Sign Up” or “Get Started Now”? The last phrase resulted in a 35% click rate compared with 17% for the first and 22% for the second. That is substantial.

When trying to get readers to subscribe to your e-newsletter offer them something useful in return. For that universal question always lingers: “What will I get out of it?” Be sure to explain the benefits they will get from responding to your offer.

If you want someone to link back to you, do as author and business communications consultant Chris Brogan does. He sometimes adds a last paragraph to his blog post saying: “I’d love to see YOUR post on this. Please post and link back to this url.” He copies the URL and adds it to make it easier to respond.

People are so busy it may be hard to get them to act. Content that is engaging, easily understood, and of benefit to them helps. Have you found ways to increase your call to action response? I would love to see your post. Please post and link to here. Or if you feel like taking another action, subscribe to our RSS feed to stay current on best business to business content practices.