Blogfeeder - The Copywriting and Marketing Blog from Wordfeeder.com

Announcing Our New E-Guide: Start Up Your Own Writing and Editing Business On the Web

Are you a writer, copywriter or editor who's always dreamed of working from the comfort of home? Finally, after serving clients via the web for more than 8 years, Wordfeeder is creating a long-awaited guide book to help you do just that.

Get ready for The Nitty Gritty of How to Start Up a Writing or Editing Business on the Web!

I used the phrase "nitty gritty" because I'm a practical person. I like to get to the meat of the matter, and that's what I'll be sharing with you. You know... those confusing little details about online business that nobody bothers to tell you about without a lot of prodding and struggling on your part!

Some things you'll learn from our e-guide:

• The critical difference between web and print copywriting
• How to organize, categorize, and present your writing samples for public viewing
• The secret to getting people to your website who already want what you have
• Email newsletters 101: yes, those new marketer mistakes can really hurt you!
• Social networking tactics to blast your good name out to the world and bring you more clients than you know what to do with
• HTML survival basics to give your web content an extra push
• Coping skills for challenging clients (and how to attract the best ones to your front door)

And much more!

Be one of the first to hear about the launch of our long-awaited e-guide, The Nitty Gritty of How to Start Up a Writing or Editing Business on the Web. Sign up for our list below.

 

 

Big Box Stores and the C Word - Oh, Yes, Christmas Advertising is Back in Fashion!

I’ve noticed this holiday season that the C word is once again being bandied about on the sales fliers of retail stores like Walmart and Kohl’s. As a life-long celebrator of said holiday, I’m glad to see that it’s once again fashionable to call out Merry Christmas on one’s advertising if one wishes to do so. However, this makes me wonder why more stores aren’t going for the full monte in their winter marketing campaigns.

What would be so wrong with an “8 Days of Chanukkah Savings,” “Super Solstice Sale,” “Kwanza Extravaganza” or whatever else they can bastardize in the name of creating a retail buying frenzy? If you intend to keep customers coming in droves, isn’t this the thing to do? “Winter Holiday Sale” becomes that much more potent when split 4 ways and called out 4 times, I feel.

What are your thoughts about holidays and marketing? This copywriter would like to know!

The Top 5 Challenges to Successfully Marketing Your Business

It's exciting to plunge into entrepreneurship. You're really good at what you do and you want to spend your time doing it for others and making money at it too. Maybe you're an excellent graphic designer, or a life coach, or a ghostwriter, or a technician. Maybe you worked for others and were frustrated with the limitations on your time and income. So you've broken out of corporate, and you've hung out your shingle, virtual or otherwise.

BUT-- no one told you that you'd have to become your own marketing and sales department too! You thought you'd just do all the fun stuff like designing, coaching, or writing. Well, welcome to the world of business ownership. Initially, you are wearing all the hats and you have to start marketing your business, or your skills will not serve anyone or put dollars in your pocket. 

At some point, an entrepreneur may be able to hire a marketing or sales team, or a sales coach, depending on their budget and size of the company. But let's just say, you're starting out or you're planning on staying small. Then it's time to brush up on your marketing know-how. There's really no big secret to marketing and it doesn't take any highly developed skills. What it does take is some knowledge, a plan, implementation, and follow up. You can do that!

You can gain the knowledge and plan from books, seminars, other entrepreneurs, or a good coach. Then you need to get organized and schedule your action steps for implementation and follow up. A good database management and calendar program that you work every day will do the job. 

Great! So you're on your way to letting people know how great you are at what you do. Before you launch your marketing plan, let's look at the 5 top challenges to successfully marketing your business. Then you can turn these challenges around to create your marketing strategy.

1. Knowing your target market. Many business owners think their product or service can be sold to a broad market. After all, a life coach can help almost anyone of any age or situation over their hurdles. However, if the coach segmented a market, for example, new parents adjusting to their new lifestyle, it might be easier to stand out from the crowd of other coaches and easier to find the market. 

2. Getting the attention of your target market. Now that you're clear about who you want to serve, how do you get their attention? Where can you find them, what do they respond to? New parents could be found through pediatricians, at parenting classes, or through websites. They might respond to informative talks or articles.

3. Positioning your message effectively. Positioning is about creating a business name, a visual look and tagline, called branding, and clear benefits. You position yourself so you can stand out from your competitors and speak to your target audience's needs. The new parent coach could call the company QPC for Quality Parent Coaching and get a catchy logo and tagline like "become a quality parent to raise quality children." The idea is to stay consistent in your positioning so you build brand recognition. 

4. Moving your target market to action. What are you asking your prospects to do in your marketing message--on your website, in your brochures, at your talks? People take action more often when they know what you want them to do. You could ask them to call for a free consultation, sign up for your newsletter, or attend your seminar.

5. Converting prospects into clients back to the "s" word - sales! Selling prospects on your services or products is simply a matter of building rapport by establishing your expertise and ability to solve their problem. Then tell them what you will do, how you will do it, what their results will be, and what the cost is. Lastly you ask, "When would you like to start?"

Learn more about copywriting and marketing your online business - visit Wordfeeder.com and sign up for our copywriting newsletter, Word Food.

Citibank: Let's Get it Done Tagline

The newest advertising campaign from Citibank has captured my attention of late. Mind you, I'm not a big TV watcher - it stays in the background, "floats in" to my psyche from the other room. So whatever drama unfolds on their commercials is lost on me, for the most part. But I will tell you this much. Their new tagline, "Let's get it done" has definitely sunk in. And mainly it's because... as soon as I hear it, I'm reminded of that saying that was all the rage with the trucker/redneck audience in 2007: "Git 'er done!!" Don't tell me you haven't seen this proclamation plastered across the flatbed bumpers of America.

So now the question remains: Do you think that the advertising creatives who dreamed this one up actually "dressed up" the "Git 'er done" motto? I'm inclined to say yes. But it sure would be fun to know for sure.

An aside that's worth pointing out: I basically just told you a story of how a simple tagline entered my consciousness and stayed there. It burrowed its way in because Citibank just keeps running those ads, saying it over and over. Lesson to be learned: a huge part of advertising success is repetition. You may start to feel like a broken record, but I assure you this is what effective branding is all about.

So what's your company tagline? Don't have one? Wordfeeder.com can help. Contact dina@wordfeeder.com for a 1-page brainstorm at just $140. Brand your business the right way. Go on, git 'er done!!

Best and Worst Corporate TV Ads, Taglines and Slogans of December 2007

Please excuse the copywriter, it's been a whirlwind 10 days of 2008. I'm a little late in getting this up. But I couldn't leave the auld lang syne behind without mentioning a few noteworthy taglines that I noticed during the blur that was this past holiday season. Maybe now that the rush is past, we can all take a moment to analyze the copywriting and creative presentations that emerged during the most competitive time of the year. Enjoy!

1. Happy Honda Days. Simple tagline, clever, stays with you. Everyone knows that all the car dealers offer great prices at the end of the year. But "Happy Honda Days" works because it's such a powerful play on words. I don't even need to hear the rest of the ad to know that something's going on there. Would I consider driving in on a whim on the way back from my holiday shopping excursion? Sure, if I was in the market for a new vehicle, you bet I would. "Think Honda for the Holidays," the announcer cheerfully suggests. Nice wrap-up line, smooth, works for me!

Happy Honda Days: http://youtube.com/watch?v=wKp-QjNnD74

2. Yoplait. "It is SO good." Not really a holiday ad, but for some reason I remember seeing this everywhere for the past few months. I think I remember it because I find it annoying. Like you can just imagine all the marketing people fretting around the conference table. "What can we write that will really be 'on the level,' you know, resonate with the Ideal Yogurt Customer?" And then the VP or someone blurts out that little gem. "It is SO good." (And then they tell you HOW good in every commercial).

I could have stomached this if they'd used the contraction, "It's so good." Seems more timeless to me. When you change the "it's" to "It is," it comes across in that pretentious Young People affect that I so detest. Why don't they just add an "OMG?"

"OMG... it is SO. Good."

This yogurt tagline leaves a funny aftertaste. Even so... it must work. I can't get it out of my head! And yet I remain a Dannon customer. ;) Have a look at these young boys and their parody of the Yoplait "So Good" campaign: http://youtube.com/watch?v=jOAinRSASbM

3. Kia - "Maniac on the Sales Floor." I generally go light on the TV watching, and yet I managed to lose count of the number of times they ran this ad. Not only is the sweaty sales guy with his flapping hair hilarious doing the Flashdance impersonation, but I really love the very end, when you catch a quick pan of a headless someone standing on a table in heels who then dumps a pail of water over the dude's head ala Jennifer Beals. VERY funny and memorable. Still... will it turn me into a Kia customer? Probably not. But still - this ad campaign was fun, if Kia keeps it up they may just pave the way for the future drivers of America.

Kia - Maniac on the Sales Floor: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Zs-G4YFdlMY

4. Pringle All the Way. I have absolutely no recollection of ever laying eyes on this commercial when it was playing. And yet, the minute I heard them utter the words "Pringle All the Way" I was overjoyed at the campy wordplay. Who can forget the old "Who's got the fever for the flavor of a Pringle" from campaigns gone by? Two thumbs up for Pringles, nice to see you guys saving face in the highly competitive snack food market.

Pringle All the Way - http://youtube.com/watch?v=97DR2QEWPrI

5. The Magic of Macy's. Brilliant Fortune 500 advertising, as it should be. A whimsical fun-pokery at the good-natured expense of well-known celeb personalities. A not-so-subtle reminder that Macy's has several Star Product Lines which add that "magic" to holiday gift buying.

I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know all of these famous people (that would be my lack of TV watching coming across)! I recognize (obviously) Martha Stewart, Jessica Simpson, Donald Trump and Emeril. Everyone is in character, and Jessica Simpson gives the world permission to mock her dizzy personality (who knows, maybe she didn't even know the joke was on her, a.k.a. The Christmas lights are on, but no one's home??)

Magic of Macy's - http://youtube.com/watch?v=UdpkdcvGAaA   

6. 2007 Mac Holiday Ad: I'm not so sure that the Mac holiday commercial of 2008 was their best advertising work. You have the PC guy getting his line in about "Buy a PC and not a Mac" which is supposed to be backward, nerdy humor of sorts. But the truth is: is it really wise to make a joke like this when you've got 30 or 60 seconds to say what needs to be said at the height of the holiday rush? Or will we assume that the Mac audience is so intellectually superior that we don't have to "spell it out for them?" Yeah, it's a Mac ad, I get it. But... ehhh.

To me, it seems like they spent a lot more time getting the animation just right than they did on the copywriting. And who knows, maybe they were under a time constraint, which is certainly understandable. But I will say one thing about Mac. They're actually DOING something. Even if their holiday ad was "cute yet strange," the real point is that they had a holiday ad. Can you say the same for your business? If not, you know who to call. (Okay, I'll spell it out: email dina@wordfeeder.com!)

I know that a lot of my copywriting customers stress and fret over "getting it exactly right." When you spend too much time doing that, you miss out on the whole point, which is getting exposure. So do like Mac did this past holiday season: just write your ad the best you can, put it out there and move on to the next project.

Get your copywriting on the fly! Contact dina@wordfeeder.com for a custom quote today.

The New Trojan Ad - "Evolve"

Hey have you seen the new Trojan ad? The one with the picture of the furry pig that changes into a guy? It says,

"Evolve. Use a Condom Every Time."

Then it says, "Sex. Have you evolved?"

(If we are generally speaking about society, I would say no.)

So what do you think of the ad? Me, I think it's quite memorable. Memorable = brand builder, so that's a good thing.

But I want to know why they chose a photo of a strange, fuschia-colored, Muppet-like pig, when they could have just had a real pig.

Thinking more about this... is this a subtle way of saying, "Men are pigs"?

Tsk, tsk. Poor guys. I don't think you're pigs.

- The Copy Chick, a.k.a. Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing

 

***UPDATE, 2 minutes later***

Ohh... it's a MYSPACE ad... complete with video of a singing animatronic pig who's busy serenading a young, attractive girl at a bar.

I guess this means he wants to pork her?

(Sorry, sorry. This is what happens while attempting to discuss condom ads.)

Goodbye.

What the Font - Great Info from OneLily.com

I had the pleasure of discovering One Lily Web Solutions through a copywriting client of mine who uses them for his website design.

What's funny about One Lily is that they're actually (for now) a team of "three lilies" - three very attractive, fair-haired women who pack a wallop of web and graphic design muscle. Go visit their site at http://onelily.com and take note of the strong brand presence.

Last night I was poking around over there and came across a very helpful piece about website fonts, which I honestly wish I'd read when I first arrived here and started messing around with website design, having pretty much no clue what I was doing.

Did you know that there are only nine web-safe fonts, three of which are sans-serif? (I personally detest serif fonts for any type of body copy - they're just not smooth, too much visual static).

Find out what you need to know about fonts from One Lily Web Solutions - read "What the Font: Understanding Typefaces on the Web."

- Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting (partial to Arial or Verdana 9 point myself)

Email Forwards as Marketing

Ever notice how some people forward emails like it's their job? Something about those two magic letters, FW. You could be in the middle of being held at gunpoint and *ding* - a new email comes in. And it's "Hang on, Mr. Burglar... I just have to forward this email!" And the robber would be all "Wait let me see... ha ha, good one!"

That said, email forwarding is, believe it or not, a viable way to get your website out into circulation. But let me stress, it only works for *certain types* of businesses and forwards. For instance:

Entertainment. I once received as a forward called ChappelleTheory.com. If you "who is" their domain you'll discover a marketing company based out of Philadelphia. Kind of a cool and sneaky way to get exposure, huh?

Humor. If it's funny, it's forwardable. Like this goofy song, White Chicks and Gang Signs that unmistakably comes from VeryTasteful.com as we are informed at the start and end of their video.

Humanitarian causes. A site like LittleFishBigRiver.com could send out an email forward explaining their mission to reach 50,000,000 recorded acts of kindness by December 2007. Think people would pass it on? I do!

Generally, if you're willing to go out on a limb and make an ass of yourself on video, you have the best change of virally marketing your business via email forward. Second runner up strategy would be to create an edgy website and/or a compelling forward.

But of course, if "weird wacky fun" is not your shtick to begin with, then it simply won't work.   

Just another observation from Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing

Too Many Ideas?

The other day, my copywriting and marketing client said to me something like:

"My problem is that I have too many ideas. So if I toss one at you, and you don't think it'll work for the website, feel free to just say, 'Sorry, (name of client), but we can't do that.'"

What do you think my response was to that?

(Okay, I'll tell you.)

This is the web. There is unlimited opportunity to get your content out there.  If you think you have *too many* ideas, you are mistaken.

• The articles section of your website is neverending.
• The chance to develop whatever topic you'd like on your blog, is infinite.
• If you want to publish a story or take a new audience angle on your website, but you don't feel that it's a fit for your current theme, publish it somewhere else.
• You can even publish your musings, discoveries, advice, reviews, etc... on other people's blogs that feature your name and bio - your very own author column!

There is an entire planet of people with an internet connection eagerly awaiting your "ideas." It is not only desirable for you to share these ideas as a way to grow your reputation, but you must do it simply to get clicks coming into your website. The web needs your content.

More places to slip those "misfit" ideas:

Future issues of your ezine or email newsletter
Other people's email newsletters (arrange an "article swap" with your pals)
Web 2.0 Hot Spots such as Squidoo (here's a cool one I created for Ann Zuccardy the shortbread lady)
News sites where you can publish your own PR

The thing that stops people from leveraging the power of the World Wide Web is NOT that they have too many ideas. It's that they don't know how to properly manage the ideas they DO have.

I'll give you an example from one of my recent projects - Web Content Awareness Day.

A couple of people asked me "when I needed the articles by" for this event, and after a few of them went tardy with their submissions, they again asked, "Do you still need an article?"

Don't ask me if I need an article. Just write one and hand it to me. What's the worst that can happen... I say no, thank you? Well, now you have an article that you didn't have before. USE IT. Send it out to your mailing list.

If you are:

a. creative/full of ideas, and
b. on the web

...then if you have an article turning about in your brainy little noggin, write it, save it... and when the opportunity comes (for example, WCAD), take it. Open your file, pull out the goods, and pass it on so the world can get to know you and your ideas. This is how to drive business on the web.

If the content fails to get used in the place where you expected it to, use it somewhere else. Submit it to a couple of places.

I can tell just by doing a simple project where I collect a handful of expert articles from people and publish them in my newsletter, who out of my colleagues has the "web mentality" and who is stuck in the creativity-stifling corporate world mindset where there can possibly be such a thing as "too many ideas."

If you are a creative person trying to make it on the web, the best thing you can do for yourself is to get organized. For some, that may mean applying some self-discipline. For others, maybe it means hiring a virtual assistant or copywriting and marketing pro to help you get it together.

Whoever is reading this, here's what I want you to do. Think back to the last piece of content you wrote that you felt was "unused, unloved," didn't get the attention you thought it deserved, or simply needs something minor to be called complete (say, a rousing title, an ending, whatever). Take a fresh pair of eyes to it. Find a home for it. Copy, paste, and click PUBLISH.

It's not that complicated. Really.

Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing

From Copywriting to Logo Design

Logo design seems to be the topic of interest lately. Today my friend, Cynthia McKenna, asked for my creative input on the new logo for her counseling business. So I referred her to an article that I discovered just two days ago, covering the fundamentals of good logo design. If you're thinking about branding your business for real, then I strongly recommend that you read it.

So, in her quest for logo enlightenment, Cynthia remarked that she "really likes my logo." (Gee, thanks, Cynthia!) Which is kind of funny, because I don't have a logo. I have a "graphic," whatever that means. That header thing with the yellow chick at the top of my copywriting and marketing website. I, uh, made that.

I realized it wasn't a "real logo" when I tried to use it for purposes other than the header of my website. The first purpose being, a smaller "graphic" for my ezine. After shrinking it down to 300 pixels, I noticed that something "just wasn't right," with the company description becoming unreadable and the little chick taking a rather sad, shrunken appearance.

I also figured out it wasn't a logo when I began studying actual logos. I realized that in order for it to become a logo, I'd basically have to hire a graphic designer to "stylize" the chick and make him look like he was "carved out" of say, a block of wood. Maybe make him a puzzle piece. But then, if he's a puzzle piece, he obviously can't be munching on his "word food" anymore, and there goes the damned joke.

Oh well.

So, Cynthia, since you asked me about my logo, I will tell you the story of how the Copy Chick came to be. Brace yourself now, this is quite the tale (not it's not!). Back when I still had one foot in the corporate world and the other in start-up land, I thought, "Hey, I have all of these copywriting portfolio samples. Why not scan them and stick them up on a website?"

First things first, I had to figure out "what my website name was going to be." Being the cheeseball that I am, I of course wanted a good pun that would show off my verbal dexterity. So I wrote a list that contained such priceless gems as Wordbrain, Word Bird, Wordhouse, Wordsworth, and so on down the list.

Then I went to Earthlink and proceeded to do a domain availability check on all my top word puns. Wordfeeder was one of the few that cleared, so I grabbed it. In retrospect, Word Food is the better play on words, but coincidentally "feeds" (as in RSS feeds) came of age on the web at the same time as I did, so oddly enough my domain choice was a pretty good one.

Anyway. Next I thought, well, it looks like it's going to be bird imagery. And off I went in search of stock photos of birdfeeders. As you might imagine, all of the birdfeeder images looked rather dumb on my new web page (it wasn't a site at this point, it was a page - and it wasn't that berry color yet, it was brown and white). So then I hunted for bird houses and bird seed and birds eating seed. I selected a chickadee in a wooden birdhouse and then I did something in Photoshop that I will probably never figure out how to do again - I turned a photo into a "painting." And I had this brown and white bird in a wooden house thing, that was my "logo."

Then, three website redesigns later, a woman on Ryze told me my website lacked energy and I was inclined to agree. The Chick made his presence known. So I snatched him up and gave him a new home at the top of my website. I switched my color scheme from brown, tan and white, to maroon and white. Later came blue and yellow accents on the sidebar - to kind of pick up the yellow in the chick's fuzz.

I guess that what happened is, I based my entire website design around a photo of a baby chick.

This is getting boring, I think I'm going to pass out. Cynthia, I just want you to know that all of this developed over the course of several years and many "design" flubs. So, don't worry if you can't get a counseling logo by the time you go to the trade show. The best visual they can possibly get is the one of your kind eyes and warm smile!

Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing
"Get your copy on the fly!" (just another bird pun for you)