Content is Still King
January 8, 2010 at 4:49 pm
That’s the first thing I learned when I started working on websites back in 1999. It was important then, and it’s equally as important now. It doesn’t matter how beautifully designed your website is, if it’s got nothing to say people won’t come back to it. Often businesses put up the blurb from their marketing brochures as the text on their website.
WRONG!
On the web, the big difference is that people can click away from your website and land on a competitor’s site in a couple of seconds.
When they’re reading your brochure, that’s not as likely to happen.
So – what can you do?
- Write 50% less than you would normally. This is because we know that people – even when they’re concentrating really hard – take in 25% less when reading it off a screen.
- Write your headlines like literature; body text like a tabloid journalist. ie. Be really clear what your text is about… but when you’re writing it, keep to short sentences, no multi-syllabic words, keep it simple.
- Stick to classic copywriting rules about sentence structure and length. Bulleted lists. Punctuation and more.
It’s not rocket science, but you do need someone to show you how to write for web just the once. After that, you’ll fly. If you write content that is published on websites, on a blog, on emails, or you just generally want to spruce up your business language style generally – you might be interested in attending a 1 day online copywriting course run by Brightspark.
Thursday 28 January, 10am-5pm, Dublin City Centre, €295: www.brightspark-consulting.com/write-for-web.htm
We’ve been teaching Irish people how to write for web since 2001 and get great results. Online copywriting is a core skill for business this century. Why not get 2010 off to a good start and skill up in this important area? All that – and we guarantee you’ll enjoy yourself. More info on online copywriting training.
Tags: online copywriting training, Write for Web Training
How Things Change (Not Really)
August 13, 2009 at 9:46 am
I’ve been doing a fair bit of networking recently and have noticed a rake of new Internet Marketing companies about. Some position themselves as social media marketing specialists. Others focus on just search. There even seems to be a mini-industry around events aimed at PR and advertising people teaching them how to Tweet, Blog and take part in social media! I believe there’s plenty of room for everyone because budgets are moving over to digital and with the exciting opportunities that emerge day by day, there’s sure to be plenty of work to keep everyone busy.
What I’ve been reflecting on is how I market my business now as opposed to 2003.
- In 2003 I set up Brightspark as a pure Internet Marketing Ireland provider. Services offered were search, pay per click and email. Much of my time was spent making the case as to why budgets needed to be allocated to internet marketing. This was not long after the dot com bomb which was built on the mantra of ‘build it and they will come’.
- By 2005, Google had IPO’ed and everyone who came to Brightspark wanted a ‘website and a number 1 on Google’. I had added in website design to the Brightspark mix because I had found in many cases I was working on driving traffic to sites that failed due to poor design. I had a lot of conversations at this time about why a number 1 on Google was not necessarily the best bang for a (limited budget) buck. Business blogging and repackaging blog content in the form of emails for marketing were often a strong alternative.
- Web 2.0 dawned in 2006 and we were on the case. For corporate Ireland, this didn’t mean an immediate switch into App-land. But Brightspark made a point of incorporating blogs, links to Flickr, and other social apps into as many sites as possible. We were responsible for the creation of Ireland’s first social networking site aimed at Spanish speakers – created on the Ruby on Rails platform. You could say this was the start of social media marketing. At this time there was a huge appetite for blogging training and writing for the web training. Corporate Ireland had switched on to the importance of content. By now, design focused on the user experience was included in all of our websites.
- Today we are blessed with such a wide variety of tools. The industry has matured and specialisms have emerged. Web design has come down significantly in price thanks to Wordpress. And it’s increasingly difficult to find examples of really bad sites when preparing for the various training courses I offer. Before I presented people with a list of services on offer. Nowadays it’s much more tailored to the individual company’s needs. No, that’s not marketing speak, it’s true! Most internet marketing strategies begin with listening. A quick scoot around Twitter and the blogosphere to find out what people are saying about a brand, a company, or in the absence of that – a need. And then come up with an online strategy that will reach out and engage.
If I was to summarise what I’m doing now, it’s less about offering services from a menu - more about listening to the company and having a conversation with the management team about their vision for the business. Our job is to know what’s hot online and to advise on what will work and what won’t work for a particular business. We work with clients to help them to translate their business vision into something that will work well online, generate a return on their investment, and make us all happy.
There you have it! The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Tags: Blogging Training Ireland, Business Blogging Ireland, Email Marketing Ireland, Internet Marketing Ireland, Search Engine Optimisation Ireland, Social Media Marketing, Web Content Writing, Write for Web Training
Great Value Training Courses
June 8, 2009 at 5:12 pm
My top three training courses are:
- Writing for the Web
- Internet Marketing
- How to be a good Blogger
I run these as public courses from time to time. I also run them on behalf of industry bodies. And now I run them in association with Europa Training Academy. That’s the one that Bill Cullen is involved with. It’s a really smart venue located just off the M1 and, importantly, they do a really good lunch as well!
Europa is offering some amazing value right now – check out all its training courses here.
The really great news is that you can get ME for just €195!
I normally charge way more than that; Europa are much more generous than me!
Check these dates and if you’re up for increasing your knowledge in these areas, book your place now:
- 25 June: How to be a good blogger
- 26 June: Write for the web
- 29 June: Internet Marketing
Tags: Blog Training Ireland, internet marketing training, Write for Web Training
Why Do I Blog?
April 20, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Because I have something to say. Most of the time. And I like to write. Plus it allows me to get things off my chest.
Search engine benefits of business blogging:
- If you’re writing 1 blog post a week, that’s one time per week more than your competitors that your content is changing. Google likes frequently changing content and will give a higher ranking to you than your competitors cet. par. (Wow, I haven’t used cet. par. since Trinity days!)
- Your site’s ranking will be further assisted by quality inbound links when other bloggers link to you. Or indeed, when you comment on their blogs and leave your name and website address.
- If you use tags correctly and tell Google what each post is about, this will facilitate deep ranking, ie. it’s not just your home page that will be ranked, but individual blog entries too.
Other benefits:
- If you’re selling professional services, it’s a great chance for you to show off your knowledge on your subject. If you do it often enough, it will soon attract the attention of canny journalists, so there’s even free PR.
- Blogging makes email marketing even more of a no-brainer. Your blog is your email’s content. Come email marketing send date time, simply repackage the best of the blog and ship it on out to your list who will love you for it.
- It’s a great discipline. Writing regularly hones your skills at communicating your thoughts concisely and effectively. You can plug things that you like through your blog. And diss things you don’t like. And even threaten to write about things in your blog when people are being assholes and are refusing to pay for services you’ve provided in good faith.
Soft and fluffy benefits:
- You make new friends! Because blogging is not just about writing your own one, it’s about reading and commenting on other blogs too, you will get to know loads of new people with similar interests to you. Bloggers are generally a nice bunch so you will end up falling in friendship with your new love.
- Puts people off you. By this I mean that people who do not like your style will not come knocking on your door once they read your blog! That’s a good thing. The corollary is that like-minded potential clients will read it and be turned on by it – and that’s the type of person you want to do work for.
So what are you waiting for?
If you haven’t got a blog, and you’re itching to get writing, then get in touch and we have you up and running in an incredibly short amount of time. If you’ve suddenly been tasked with writing the company blog and you’re a bit unsure about how to start, you might want to attend one of our writing for the web or blog training courses.
Tags: Blog Training Ireland, Write for Web Training
Write for Web Training – this Friday!
November 17, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I was quoted in The Sunday Business Post the other week saying that it’s a lot harder to find examples of really bad website writing nowadays than it used to be. I started delivering web writing training back in 2002 and back then it was very easy to find examples of how things shouldn’t be! TD’s were often used as examples of those whose sites tended to be crap. But last year’s general election saw many of my favourites improve their online writing style.
I’m preparing a fresh set of examples for the web writing training course that’s being delivered this Friday. I choose examples that are relevant to the sectors of people who are attending. Corporate Ireland has switched on to the importance of web content. No longer is it acceptable to simply paste in your marketing brochure.
What participants in my course will learn is how we read online and how to structure their writing to make sure it works. Setting up content so it scans easily, ie when people land on your page and give their attention for a couple of miliseconds – does your content make them want to stay?
Then when they make that all important decision of engaging with your content, is it written in a way that they will take it in? A mix of tabloid journalism style with clear explanatory messaging is what we’re after here.
The course is suitable for those who have to write stuff that will be read on the web. It includes writing killer email copy, as well as some little tweaks to style that work for intranets.
It’s very practical and requires no study afterwards; all the messages get planted direct into your head. There are a few places left. If you fancy entering 2009 with the knowledge of how to write to be read, contact me and I’ll put your name down for this Friday.
