Getting lots of traffic to your website, but failing to see an increase sales or the bottom line? Well, perhaps your site is missing something. Powerful copy writing.
If you want to get the most from your Web site whether or not you are untilizing a full inbound marketing strategy, consider these seven guidelines. I credit master copy writer Michael Fortin for these 7 laws.
1) Connect with your perfect prospect
They've arrived on your page curious and seeking something, but are you talking to THEM? Or perhaps they've arrived and they are looking for something you just don't offer.
Define your perfect prospect and get inside their head. Yes, it's a buyer persona and you need to know what problem do they need to solve. Even more, what's at stake if they don't solve it or find what you have to offer?
Use the appropriate theme, benefit, or solution that pre-qualifies the visitor. Follow their particular line of thinking and need for answers.
2) Make a Compelling Offer
Simply offering a product or service doesn't cut it. Dig into the value and the end result - how life will change after taking advantage of this offer. It's a cliche, but what does it really mean to them, both emotionally and in terms of business or personal success? Paint a vivid picture of the perceived value.
3) Provide “Reasons Why”
Great copy does not always answer why. Volumes of copy don't necessarily contain the answers, either. Not only should your copy answer the following five essential questions, but Michael Fortin suggests the questions themselves be in your copy.
- Why me? (Why should they listen to you?)
- Why you? (Who is perfect for this offer?)
- Why this? (Why is this product perfect for them?)
- Why this price? (Why is this offer so valuable?)
- Why now? (Why must they not wait?)
4) Create a Sense of Urgency
If you can't provide a reasonable justification for the urgency to act, to respond to your next step or offer, the average person assumes the logical action is to wait.
If there are no consequences to not acting immediately, then its a lot easier to avoid the posible mistake or wrong decision in the short-term by put it off.
Anwer the key questiona - Why now? and What are the consequences of inaction?
5) Provide the Proof
Case studies, recommendations, testimonials are too often overlooked. Be sure to highlight these as evidence that what you are proposing is THE solution.
6) Make a Clear Call to Action
Michael Fortin says to Focus on the “power of one.” Meaning one message, one audience, one outcome. It makes sense to Keep It Simple and Straightforward (Fortin's KISS), yet an inbound marketing camaign may have multiple calls to action and offers. The simplicity applies to each page or "path" through your website.
7) Create Good Copy
Not all of us are Web content Shakespeare's but we needn't be artfully literate as much as effective. Good copy is clear, concise and easy to understand. Good copy reflects the tone that will reach your perfect customer, and on down the list of the previous six guidelines.
At Vision Marketing we provide Website evaluation and copywriting that conveys key brand messages, stresses features and benefits, and drives visitors to a desired action (e.g. call, complete a lead form, download resources). We'll help you:
- Target buyer personas
- Optimize copy for search engine rankings
- Motivate visitors to action
- Convert leads
All too frequently smaller businesses step into building a website because they know they "need to" and only have a vague idea of what it can do for their bottom line.
A successful inbound marketing plan starts with developing a Web site that communicates your brand message and can accommodate the easy import and distribution of content, calls to action and lead capture.
Here's a simple Web Site Discovery Process that we recommend for developing the creative brief and functionality of your Web site. Take the time to walk through these steps prior to talking with a web developer or signing up for cheap online web templates because its "easier".
Discovery: Conduct a complete analysis of buyer personas, site objectives, call-to-action, design goals, features lists and landing page needs.
- Buyers Personas: Identify buyer personas, which help organizations build Websites and publish content that differentiate brands, build relationships, connect with consumers and generate leads.
- Objectives: Define the Website's objectives, such as thought-leadership, leads and sales.
- Call-To-Action Analysis: Identify and prioritize the primary actions you want visitors to take on your organization's Website. For example: schedule an appointment, download an eBook, complete a contact form, place an order, sign up for a seminar or visit your blog.
- Design Goals: Document design goals for the site, including model sites, brand positioning, colors, style and images.
- Features List: Specify desired features and functionality for the Website, including: blog, media room, photo gallery, shopping cart, contact forms, widgets, site search, video, document library and interactive elements.
- Landing Pages: Define landing pages needed for existing or planned Internet marketing campaigns (i.e. AdWords, banner ads, etc.).
Vision Marketing is proud to officially announce its collaboration with Monica Yadav of MY Creative Services. MYVision offers a powerful new way of providing affordable professional video production services integrated with Internet and inbound marketing expertise.
As seasoned broadcast journalist and marketing/PR professional, Monica and Gayle see a lot of poor quality video applied in all the wrong ways in the marketplace. Home-made or shoestring video has its place and can be quirky and funny, but it rarely is created with a target audience and call to action in mind. When not planned to accompany specific marketing goals, video may or may not be entertaining, and hardly ever produces bottom line measurable results.
How MYVision can help you:
- Plan your video marketing initiatives to target measurable goals
- Avoid many of the common problems associated with DIY video (sound, lighting, etc.)
- Save time planning, scripting and coordinating a time-efficient shoot schedule
- Choose and set up the best online video hosting and sharing for your needs
- Save money by re-purposing raw footage or B-roll into multiple packages
- Integrate video with calls to action, lead generation and other inbound marketing tools
What you get:
- A professional, efficient pre-production and productionte team
- Broadcast quality, HD footage for online or commercial broadcast
- Professional voice-over talent
- Multiple options for your finished video package, based on pre-planning and contract
- Delivery and full ownership of clean B-roll footage for future use, also held in our archives.
MY Creative Services is a full service TV and Video 
Production Company. We are backed by a team of veteran journalists with more than 15 years of award winning, writing, broadcasting, TV and production experience. We are communicators, we know deadlines. Let us put our specialized skills crafting TV commercials, website videos, marketing and demonstration videos plus full length TV programs to work for you.
Visi
on Marketing specializes in the new PR and marketing using inbound and content marketing strategies, SEO and optimization, social media and video sharing tools. A mix of PR/Marketing experience and digital savvy, gives us the wherewithal craft your messages, optimize content, help you generate leads, build sales and ROI using the most current tools and techniques. We are proud to be the Suncoast’s first certified Hubspot Partner Agency.
More and more people are discovering the power of using online video content as part of their inbound marketing strategies. Video emotionally engages your viewer far more effectively than plain text content, even when accompanied by photos.
Google loves video and, of course, now YouTube is the #2 most used search engine. So video content on your website, social media profiles and other online properties will drive up the likelihood of being found by the people who are seeking and craving your content.
When you weigh the use of video content as part of your marketing strategy, here are some stats to consider:
Increases visits to business profiles by 100%
Increases visits to company web sites by 55%
Increases click throughs by 30%
At minimum, increases action (call, purchase, etc) by18%
However 0ptimizing your videos is a very important factor for success.
Videos are searchable so take these steps to increase the likelihood of them appearing high ion the results on search engines such as Google and YouTube.
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Place relevant keywords in your video's title, description and tags.
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Promote your videos on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.
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Embed your video on your blog or web site.
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Comment on related videos on YouTube or other video-sharing sites and include a link to your video.
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Keep an eye on related videos and who has linked your way to promote link building.
Bettina Hein, founder and CEO of Pixability, co-author of Video Marketing for Dummies and a presenter at this week’s Inbound Marketing Summit in NYC describes and emphasizes the importance of video marketing and SEO.
Telling people about your company through ads (traditional marketing) is not enough. 
Creating relevant and engaging conversation (inbound marketing) is the key to making your company known and more importantly remembered. On October 17, 2011 guest blogger on AdAge and musician will.i.am challenged marketers to Make Conversations, Not Ads.
whatever you think about the future of business...
whatever you think your brand means to the masses...
whatever your strategy is for marketing to youth...
one thing is certain...
we are in the midst of a major shift...
In some ways it's like we're back in the 1600s when everybody was racing to discover the new world...
google is the french...
twitter is the spaniards...
facebook is the english...
microsoft is the dutch...
freakin' apple is the portuguese...
the ocean is the internet and computers and software are the ships...
and they are all sailing to find and conquer new land...
the shift is happening everywhere...
in politics all over the world...
in the corporate realm...
in entertainment...
in manufacturing...
businesses and brands have to ask:
why is it happening???
what caused it to happen???
if you don't ask you won't be able to stay relevant when the energy of change is finished...
New times call for new thinking...
looking to the past is no way to secure a future...
look at the movies:
there's a new "planet of the apes," a remake of "conan the barbarian...
while on TV, there's a new "charlie's angels," and a new "hawaii five-0"...
it's as if we aren't imagining anymore...
where have all the creative minds vanished to...
or...
who stop investing in the dreamers???
the music industry is still selling plastic discs...
also known as albums when today's music fans buy or listen to songs on the net or streaming to their phones...
today is all about accessing the physical representation of collective consciousness.
before...
collective consciousness was a concept...
now...
it's on your smartphone and it's called twitter...
twitter is a physical representation of collective consciousness where you can tap into the consciousness of millions...
you don't have to guess what's on the minds of people today...
people are connected...
to stay relevant, you or your business or your brand need to be part of the connection...
you need to be part of the conversation...
or start conversations...
you need to invent, or amplify culture...
brands need to listen to the community...
think about all the businesses that are prospering and the ones that are suffering...
many that are suffering rely on TV commercials and haven't figured out a new way to sell their products...
the ones that are prospering don't have commercials but still succeed.
when's the last time you saw a facebook commercial???
when's the last time you saw a zynga commercial???
when's the last time you saw a twitter commercial???
or one from any of the growing businesses that bring community together???
there is a whole new concept of brands and businesses that bring community together...
you don't have to go about the traditional way of marketing and advertising...
today, you need to turn a moment into momentum and momentum into a movement...
that can't be done with 30-second commercials...
you need to create conversations with your customers...
so I say, MAKE CONVERSATIONS NOT ADS...
In 2012 you can't be doing business like it's 1992 or even 2002 if you're trying to find your customers....
especially the youth market...
what caught you yesterday is not going to catch them today or tomorrow...
yesterday's practices won't solve today or tomorrow's problems....
it used to be that businesses went where the money is...
today...
to have a business...
you need to go where the people are...
people have the power to kill brands or make them a success...
i think we need to go from marketing to COMMUNITING...
we have marketed so much that we have killed communities...
we have marketed so much that we have harmed our customer...
we need to conduct business in a manner that enables and sustains communities...
COMMUNITING is about COMMUNICATION between people and companies that enables or sustains a COMMUNITY...
in the intersection of people and company's in a conversation is where COMMERCE is found.
COMMUNITING will be the new standard:
If your ad, marketing plan or communication doesn't increase, rebuild, enable or empower community, then don't do it.
Traditionally we have operated in a world where advertising, sales messages, PR pitches,
direct mail and E-mail were blasted out - shotgun or targeted- to get the attention of the market.
In today's maket a smart inbound marketing strategy utilizing the best tools and practices outperform the old strategies - more results, stronger ROI.
If you have not already experienced your own transformation, hang on to your hat! The smart thinkers at Hubspot, namely founder Brian Halligan, are helping many of us ride that wave of change confidently and with great success.
Elements of content marketing strategies are being employed by many businesses. If you are blogging and developing content, how do you know if you are effective? Are you getting the best bang for your buck (time!) Is it worth the time and effort?
Here are some A-B-C's and back again, C-B-A, to help you measure your R-O-I.
A is for ASK
What are your prospects asking for? What problem can you help solve for them? What do they want to know? What information do you have to give them? To answer these questions, you can listen in on related issue or industry groups on LinkedIn or industry blogs. You can also ask your own readers, followers and current client base to initiate the conversation. The answers you get will lead you to the keywords most likely used in their searches.
B is for Blogging
Blogging has become a critical piece of internet marketing and business success. In 40% of U.S. businesses us a blog for marketing purposes and 2 out of 3 3 claim their b log is critical or important to their business. Statistics show B2C businesses with regular optimized blog posts earn 88% more leads per month than those that don’t. For B2B companies that statistic is 67% more leads per month.
C is for Content
Target your content to meet the needs of a specific segment of your market or buyer persona. Make it useful, easy to digest and visually interesting with images, video, and infographics.
If you've analyzed and prioritized the performance of your keywords, select topics with those keywords in mind to optimize in your content.
Particularly consider the use of short videos to share your story and expertise. Videos make your pages “sticky” – viewers linger and are more likely to click through for more if the videos are concise and well-done.
C is for Channels
Content can be repackaged and recycled to fit the format or channel. Short messages with links on Twitter are necessary. Brief teasers/information with photo, video or blog links on Facebook as well questions, surveys and contests can be effective. Longer form content with additional links and video can go a long way on LinkedIn, especially in groups. Good content can also feed the old outbound channels of print and broadcast, direct mail and E-mail campaigns.
In addition to posting content on your own blog/website, YouTube channel, social media accounts, seek additional options that are relevant to your industry or niche. Perhaps there is an industry site, or influential blogger, where you can show your own expertise by posting portions of your smart content. You will also want to create longer form content packaged as “offerings” suh as an E-book, whitepaper, special tool or video that your readers might want to download for reference.
B is for Building Trust
And that brings us to building trust. If you’ve followed the rules above and you have truly shared your expertise without being pushy or “spammy”, as they say, then it is likely that the people you care about are beginning to listen to you. When you become a “trusted advisor” and a name they are familiar with, then you have the traction that can lead to real results. By this time you will be offering longer form content and those special offers.
A is for ASK AGAIN
They trust you and have high regard for the expertise you present. All along the way you have included small “Calls to Action” at the end of your posts. If you have captured the resulting leads for prospects that have downloaded your offers you have the opportunity to nurture those leads with relevant content. Studies have shown that it is only in the last third of the sales process that customers want to engage with a sales person. Now is your time to ask again. Call to qualify and schedule an appointment, demo or whatever the final steps are in your unique sales cycle.
ROI
Best practices of content marketing fold the SEO, optimized content, and calls to action in with customized landing pages, lead nurturing campaigns for a fully rounded inbound marketing effort. Marke ting integration tools allow leads captured to be nurtured and integrated with a CRM (customer relationship management) system (SalesForce, Sugar or numerous others) for further action, thus enabling you to measure the conversion rate of leads. Of course you also can measure traffic increase, page views, click-through rates as well as keyword performance. Yet real ROI is measured by the clients who sign on, make a purchase or increase their engagement with you.
1. Own all your properties.
This advice sta
rts with your website and applies to all social media accounts and content. Be sure that it is your company owns the URL, the hosting account, and own the structure and all rights to the website. Keep all account details and log-in information on file. Be an administrator on your company Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel, etc. The most credible and effect SEO operations will make a point that you have this access. Pay attention to the red flags if anyone tries to tell you otherwise.
In the case of social media agencies that offer to drive your sales by promoting your product/business on their own highly popular or well-trafficked accounts and websites, beware. It might result in some visibility and even some click-thru traffic, but this set-up does very little for your own organic SEO. The same is true if they offer to host your blog or videos on their own websites.
2. Set meaningful goals that will grow your business.
The goal to increase traffic, gain followers, increase Likes or whatever the activity, it is still just activity if the online interaction does not lead to a goal connected with your bottom line. Agree upon realistic targets for increased traffic and a timeline. But also set expectations for the increase in sales transactions or revenue within the same timeline. Make sure that you and your SEO/social media partner understand your respective responsibilities to help reach those goals.
3. Ask to look under the hood.
Any SEO/social media partner worth their salt will be able to explain in layman’s terms what process they follow. Ask about keyword selection, site architecture, o n page SEO and Off page SEO, timing, analytics, content development and optimization, ongoing evaluation and adjustment. What about posting, sharing and developing content for the social media? Are you a true partner in that area ensuring that the activity fits your brand?
4. Keep it real. Keep it relevant.
Business-oriented social media posts and content that have a brand personality or voice are more successful. The brand can be represented by a real person by name, which is thought to be more effective, or in the style of a branded voice and personality, which is often the most realistic within a business that has outsourced social media.
Relevance is also important. If your traffic, followers, or Likes are largely driven up by means of reciprocal connections with other clients managed by your social media agency, your audience is not relevant to your business. Likewise, if shared posts with content unrelated to your business are used to increase views, the content is irrelevant to your target audience. Your brand is diluted and you are unlikely to increase sales or revenue from such activities.
5. Go organic with optimized content.
While there are some caveats to “over-optimizing” content, it is generally most effective to follow a disciplined process of identifying competitive keywords, the easy to moderate ranking word that can be effective for you within in 1-4 months and developing content optimized by and speaking to those key search terms.
While traditionally, businesses have invested in public and community relations without a clear means to measure the return on their investment (ROI). With the online strategies we’ve been reviewing you have the opportunity to complete the process using the best practices of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing further leverages social media, SEO, blogging, link building, and online influencers to create an organic "inbound" demand for your product/services. Content and value added offers integrated with compelling Calls to Action (CTA) direct your readers back to custom landing pages on your website. If the call to action or value-added content is compelling enough, your prospect completes an online form and a lead is generated. You can measure not only traffic, but conversion rates, and A/B test for the most compelling calls and content. Success in this area requires a strong working partnership between you and your agency. Whether their core competency is SEO, web, PR or marketing, they must be experienced with inbound marketing.
Brand marketing is the foundation upon which your entire organization and marketing campaigns are built. Start by answering these 12 Questions You Need to Ask to Define Your Brand Marketing Stra
tegy.
Next, integrate them into your Web, search marketing, inbound marketing and content strategies, advertising, marketing collateral, social media and public relations strategies.
Your organization's brand strategy starts with the discovery phase. VISION MARKETING uses existing internal information (past customer research, historical sales data and patterns, brand positioning and known competitive strategies) and surveys of key internal personnel, as well as secondary online research, to conduct a strategic brand analysis of audiences, customers, competitors and the industry.
The information gathered during the discovery phase is instrumental in the creation of messaging and campaign strategy. Key questions addressed during the discovery phase include:
- What makes us different?
- How do we express that differentiation in words, images and actions?
- What is our “sustainable competitive advantage?”
- Why do customers buy from us the first time? What keeps them coming back?
- Where do we perceive our current brand is falling short? Do external audiences share these perceptions?
- Who are our primary buyer personas?
Internal Brand Analysis
Conduct brand discovery surveys to assess the brand’s history and identity, define internal perceptions, and identify strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats. Online surveys are completed by the internal project manager and key personnel.
Customer Analysis
Utilize existing data and internal insight to analyze trends, motivations, unmet needs and segmentation (i.e. how the brand is being positioned to different audiences).
Competitor Analysis
Utilize existing information and online research to assess the brand positioning, Internet presence, strengths and weaknesses of competitors.
Industry Analysis
Research trends and forecasts affecting the industry, and potentially influencing the organization’s future direction and branding.
Hubspot blogs improve your content and lead generation. However, if you have a website on the WordPress platform and wish to keep your blog link there, you will need to re-direct to an external (Hubspot) page. While Hubspot easily allows you to redirect to both internal and external pages, WordPress requires you to download a plugin.
The best plugin that I found for linking our Hubspot blog to our WordPress site was: Quick Page/Post Redirect DEV version 4.2.2 by Don Fischer. This plugin allows you to maintain website best practices of opening links in a new tab (after installing the plugin, make sure you go to the Redirect Menu on the toolbar and check open links in a new tab.) After installing the plugin, complete the following to make your Hubspot blog link from your website:
- Create a new page. Name it the same as your Hubspot blog.
- Go to the redirect plugin that appears below the visual/html input section.
- Check the following; make redirect active, open redirect link in a new window, show the redirect link below instead of the page URL (see image below.)
- Copy the URL of your Hubspot blog and input that URL in the redirect URL field (see image below.)
- Click publish and experience a seamless redirect to your Hubspot blog!
Note: If you would like to add this page in your menu toolbar, go to Appearance, Menus: Under Pages, select the page you would like to add to your menu (name of your Hubspot blog.) Then click add to menu and you can arrange the placement of your menu in the Main box to the right.
Important! When making changes to any site, always have 3 browsers (Firefox, Safari and Chrome) open to check compatibility with the code/plugins, etc. Not all web browsers react as quickly to your changes and you may notice that some could take a couple of hours to reflect the changes you have made.