The six stimuli that generate action

Best products don’t guarantee buyers; not even the latest technology. It is how you communicate your product information that raises the chance. Unfortunately most marketers create marketing messages for the product and not for the users. But people don’t buy products and services; they buy benefits.

For all we know, buyers are impulsive; they make decisions based on their emotions and instincts. And simple words do not trigger conversion; only words that prompt emotional reaction persuade people to take action.

Studies have also demonstrated that our brain processes six stimuli while making decisions. Marketing messages designed to trigger these stimuli influence buyers. These stimuli are universal and powerful. Incorporating them can highly improve your ability to sell, market, and communicate.

1. Self Centered: Your marketing message should focus on your audience and not your product. The first thing your customer looks for is benefit. They have no interest in your brochures, history, your values and your mission statement-what they want to hear is what you can do for them.
   
2. Contrast: Contrast allows the brain to make quick, risk free decisions. Words like before/after, risky/safe, with/without, or fast/slow create contrast and help your audience to quickly, sort out information triggering a decision.
3. Tangible Input: Written language especially the complicated one slows down the decoding of your message. It automatically shifts your audience to thinking mode, postponing the action. Concepts like “a flexible solution,” “an integrated approach” or “scalable architecture require a great deal of effort and skepticism. Whereas simple, easy and concrete ideas like “more money”, “unbreakable”, “24 hour turnaround time” generates action quickly.
4. Beginning and End: Most people remember only the beginning and end of the movie. Placing the most important content at the beginning is a must, as is repeating it at the end. Anything in the middle of your message will be mostly overlooked.
5. Visual Stimuli: The visual processing capability of the brain is much faster than it takes to process the information. Its impact is so quick that the higher functions of the brain are simply not informed. We are naturally hardwired to make decisions that are mostly based on visual input.
6. Emotion: Experiences like sadness, anger, joy or surprise, floods brain with hormones that generate response much faster and stronger than before. So brain remembers events which are connected with stronger emotions. If your message does not evoke strong emotions in your customers, then how can you expect them to choose your product! Ignoring their emotions is not an option.
   

Optimizing Press Releases for SEO: Add to the power of media

For the past few years, Press Release has steadily evolved as an effective tool for distributing content to the media and consumers. Not only does Press Release prove to be a “direct–to-consumer” communication tool, it can also be easily syndicated creating an excellent opportunity to attract incoming links. Press release not only promotes your company/brand but raises your online profile as well. It increases targeted traffic by helping with your SEO - gaining visibility in the web search results and the news search results and boosting your own site's rankings by building quality back links. When preparing press releases for online distribution, there are a number of factors that should be addressed with regards to search engine optimization.

• Write a sententious (80 character or less,) descriptive headline that includes important keywords. Utilizing important keywords in the headline and throughout the message reinforces the relevance of your message for those important terms.

• Furnish detailed contact information including your website’s URL. If you are hosting the Press Release on your site try to optimize the URLs to be search engine friendly and consider incorporating keywords within the URL

• Use the jargon or the language your audience use when searching for or discussing topics related to your product or industry.

• Link your strategically important keywords to relevant pages on your site, preferably to deep pages rather than the homepage. If they don’t exist, create appropriate landing pages and place content on them that is specifically relevant to the keywords

• Consider using blended search wherein you can include an optimized image with your press release

• Add a link and RSS feed to a del.icio.us page containing relevant historical, trend, market, product and competitive content sources. Keep it up-to-date so that it continues to be a resource to the people who subscribe to this content source.

• Insert a syndication call-to-action (e.g. "News Releases" RSS feed)

• Include a multimedia call-to-action (e.g. "download white paper", webinars)

• Add an audio link such as a podcast or a product announcement into your press release. There are several audio aggregators on the web which spider audio-links and make them keyword searchable.

• Choose a newswire which will allow external multimedia content hosting. For example, YouTube for video or Flickr for photos. These sites are spidered by the major search engines.

Remember that SEO is really the art and science of being found by your audience. Optimize your Press Release and measure how successful your release has been; not only by how much was written about it, but also how well it ranked in the search engines and how well it drove traffic, sales, or other actions from online visitors to your website.

Mastering the Art of Proofreading

Why proofread?

After putting in effort, you would expect maximum readership for your written document. Does that always happen? Well, the answer is sadly NO! And many times well-crafted content and elevated ideas experience oblivion and neglect. The reason is that we often load our documents with sublime ideas to make it grand but forget the basic elements of comprehension - grammar and vocabulary.

A technique that can be really helpful in overcoming this readership challenge is proofreading. Unfortunately, most people find proofreading to be either a job of low order or one too difficult, to leverage its full potential.

Discussed here are best practices which can be instrumental in helping you master the art of proofreading.

Best Proofreading Practices:

• Step- by- Step approach: Don’t try to cover the entire distance with one giant leap. Break the paragraph into independent sentences and analyze them separately for small but critical errors. Modular approach towards proofreading can be effective in comparison to reading the entire paragraph at one go.
• A focused approach: A focused approach of looking at one kind of error at a single point of time is helpful in proofreading. Scan the document first for spelling errors, then punctuation errors, and so on rather than indulging in a simultaneous review of things.
• Backward Reading: Backward reading might sound claptrap but it helps in removing the focus from content flow to surface elements of grammar and vocabulary. Read the last sentence of the page first and then move upwards to discover small but significant errors like inappropriate usage of punctuation, inconsistency of plurals or tense, and rest of the ilk.
• Avoid Spell-Checkers: You may have been wowed by the automation of manual tasks but remember that spell checkers are software programs with limited dictionary, capability, and intelligence. For example, both words “effect” and “affect” would be right according to spell-checker but choosing the relevant word for a sentence is something which the automated software cannot make. Thus, intervention of human mind is required for better proofreading results.
• Overcoming personal loopholes: We all know that to ‘err is human’. You too may have your own restrictions in terms of punctuation or spelling. Instead of glossing over your drawbacks, take out extra time exclusively for your shortcomings; scan the document particularly for your often committed errors so that the final document is error-free.

Writing involves passion; proofreading demands precision. It is only when writing is followed by proofreading that a piece of document becomes publishable. Mastering the art of proofreading is not a herculean task; it’s all about a structured and disciplined approach.

Best Practices of Landing Page

A landing page is a website page that is created for one purpose - to persuade the site visitor to convert into a customer by making a sale, completing a form (thereby becoming a qualified lead), signing up for a newsletter, etc. Also known as a lead capture page, it is the page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link.

There are two types of landing pages reference and transactional. A reference landing page presents information that is relevant to the visitor. A transactional landing page seeks to persuade a visitor to complete a transaction such as filling out a form or interacting with advertisements or other objects on the landing page, with the goal being the immediate or eventual sale of a product or service. Its main purpose is to “capture the lead” and the prospect to a mailing list.

• A landing page has to convince people to
• Fill out a form (but people hate filling out forms)
• Provide personal details (but people hate getting spammed)
• Buy something (but people hate being scammed)
• Read a lot of information (but people really hate reading)

These are all the things users hate to do. But being a marketer you have to persuade visitors to take an action. A user ideally looks for the following things in a website….

• Is this the right place?
• Is this how I imagined it would be?
• Should I click the back button?
• Does this look trustworthy?
• How much time is this going to take?

A good landing page should ideally address all these things. The layout of the landing page, design, content, and call to action are all the things that lead to a successful conversion. On average, only about 3% of paid clicks convert. Indeed that’s a lot of conversions for any marketer.

Landing page starts converting only after it has built a cycle of trust with its customers, only after the marketers start thinking out of the box and create a conversion-focused experience rather than “pages” that capture leads. This paradigm shift can be the first step towards creating landing pages that convert.

Landing pages are often related to the ads especially in PPC campaigns. In order to get the user to click, ads mostly imply a promise: CLICK HERE. GET THIS. A good landing page needs to immediately directly and simply pay off that promise. Whatever the ad says your landing experience must fulfill that message and promise. The simple rule is: Make a promise, pay it off on the next page. Continue doing this until you ask for, and receive, conversion.

The click is mostly a split second impulse. Either the user saw something that caught her eye, or she was searching for something and your ad seemed relevant. The key is to create an experience that keeps them in the “split second” flow that they are in when they click on the ad. Presenting them a simple, relevant choices and letting them flow through a conversion path without any distractions lead them to the point of actually converting. When you simplify your experience, your conversions automatically increase.

Too many choices are equal to too much distraction for the users. Creating a simple page with a couple of choices lets them have a more relevant experience. Once the user makes a choice, the next page pays off that choice with relevancy. More relevant experience means more conversions.

Finally testing brings the momentum all marketers hope to achieve. Testing the landing page to optimize it (headline color, image, call to action), mostly increases conversions. Yet rather than focusing on optimizing elements on a page to increase conversions, one must think about testing widely differing experiences in order to see what really moves more people through your leads funnel.

Landing pages are not wandering generalities. They are specific, measurable offers. You can tell if they're working or not. Try, test and review your landing pages to make them work better. Take a heretical approach to your testing and see changes in your conversion rate.

WEAVE YOUR SEO MAGIC AROUND KEYWORDS

If you think maneuvering keywords in web writing is a hard battle to win, you are not alone. Many web writers feel that their writing becomes redundant with keywords’ density. It not only disrupts the flow of their writing, but also makes their content less creative. Yet there is no denying in the fact that keywords are a critical ingredient of a successful SEO writing recipe. You might have a well drafted content on your web site, but without rich and effective keywords it is next to non-existence. Keywords are one of the most important tools in ranking high on search engines. Ignore them!! Abuse them!! And you will suffer the consequences.

There are no hard-and-fast rules to integrate keywords effectively. There is always a "puzzle" aspect of SEO writing: no matter how cumbersome your keywords are you need to find a way to make it sound natural. You have to maintain the delicate balance of keyword density, by not overstuffing keywords in text yet spacing them adequately throughout the text. With imagination, you can get your content to read naturally while still being SEO-worthy. Following are some of the important things you need to remember:

• Go for relevant keywords. Remember that keywords can give your website a boost in rankings. It all comes down to how well you use them, and how relevant they are to your content. Therefore, use keywords that are relevant to your article.
• Use longer keyword phrases. Although most good keyword phrases are between 2-5 words, it’s better to have longer keyword phrases than shorter ones. A combination of two keywords is all the more effective. For instance, we have two keywords ‘Web 2.0’ and ‘Marketing Techniques’; we can club the two keywords to have a more effective keyword like ‘Web 2.0 Marketing Technique’.
• Ensure right ‘Keyword Density’ in the right places. It’s a good idea to have your keyword or keyword phrases appear about five to six times within the first 100 words of your content. Feature your keyword(s) in the first, as well as the last paragraph.
• Insert keyword in your title. Search engines generally rank your content higher for keywords appearing in the title of your article, as well as in the link texts and close to the start of the body text.
• Place your keywords in Meta Description and permalinks as well. Try to keep it short and simple.
• Choose keyword variations or synonyms to make the article flow better. Avoid keyword stuffing. Although you don’t want the keyword density of your text to be too low, you also don’t want it to be too high as you may be accused of “keyword stuffing.” A good keyword density is anywhere between 3%-5%.
• Get inbound links from other sites with the right keyword in the anchor text.

Arthur C. Clark coined the expression “any sufficiently advanced technology seems like magic”. SEO magic begins with keywords. Web writers whip out viable and effective keywords just as a magician pulls rabbit out of his hat. Like a skillful magician, they know what people are actually searching for; understand which keywords should be targeted for SEO optimization; and weave their SEO magic around them. This ensures that when their optimized copy is indexed, it magically moves up through the search results.

Beginner’s Guide- How to Write an SEO Friendly Article?

If you think SEO article writing is beyond you, or that you need to be an SEO expert to get high rankings with your next article, think again. SEO writing isn’t weird science; and it is no more complicated than writing a standard article for a magazine. The only difference is that there are a couple of factors to consider.

An SEO article is made up of two distinct, yet important components: it has to contain relevant and value added content; and has to be supported by good website infrastructure. Here are few quick tips you need to remember for your next SEO article:

• Write for your audience. Though the idea of writing an SEO article is to get high ranking in the search engines, remember that real people are going to be reading your article. Write your article for the readers first, and try and keep it focused on one central topic. After all, content is king. Get that right, and you are already half way there!!

• Identify main keywords and key phrases to use within the content of your article, so that they show up in search engine results. There are a number of tools like Digital Point, WordTracker, and Keyword Discovery you can use to compile this information.

• Put your main keywords at the very start of your articles headline. This is useful for search engines to know what the article is about and also to your reader. People have become very selective in what they read online. If they are looking for an article on “Creative Writing” and they see it easily in the article title, they are probably going to read it.

• Use the primary keyword in the first or second sentence in the first paragraph. These keywords and key phrases must appear seamlessly in the article; they should enhance it and be inconspicuous at the same time. You can also use keyword combinations or synonyms to make the article flow better.

• Make a list of other keywords related to your main one and sprinkle these through out your article. Having keyword-rich articles does not benefit only the search engines rankings but also human visitors. If used correctly, readers can actually relate the content in the page with what their situation is. Some people recommend a keyword density of about 3-5%. This equates to, about your main keyword being used about 3 to5 times for every 100 words that you use.

• Remember Meta-tags, the most important of which is the Title tag, and the Meta description tag. A Meta tag contains a description of what your site offers and if it is well written, can entice visitors to click on your link.

• Create hypertext links that are embedded within the content of an article. Linking to other interesting articles or websites is a great way of increasing general interest, as well as increasing your link popularity. This also increases visitors’ traffic to your site.

• Finally, get inbound links from other sites with the right keyword in the anchor text. It will rank your article higher in search engines for more competitive keywords. Variations in anchor text make the links natural. But don’t force it if you can't.

SEO is vital for any business. Good content based on keyword research, built-in links on those keywords in the text and syndicated articles should be an important arm in the armory of a good SEO copywriter. With few key points above, you are ready to write search engine friendly articles. Try out your SEO writing skills now!!!

Words that Sell

Words urge people to take action - the right words at the right place can generate the desired results. The words that you use choose, determine the success and failure of your campaign. The knowledge of proven words not only saves you time but gets you leads. Wrong words force you to spend most of your time convincing prospects to do business with you.

Here is the list of action words to create landing pages that generate conversions.

Words that grab attention

Announcing, Bargain!, Be your own boss, Discover, Do wonders, With, Do you want more money, First time ever, Free! Secrets, Free Book, How much income do you want, How to, Introducing, Mistakes that cost, Name your, Name your own company, Never before, Now at last, Own your own, Profits for you, Revealed, Save, The Secret of, Throw Away your, Who else wants, Why, 273 ways to, 50 reasons why

Salutation line

Greetings!, Attention!, Welcome to, A special invitation, Come with us, You are about to Join, Get ready to enjoy, We want to, You have been selected.

Most powerful words in advertising

Discover, Easy, Guarantee, Health, Love, New, Proven, Results, Safety, Save.

Most used words in marketing

A special invitation, accept, actual results may vary, advice to, affect, all, amazing, announcing, at last, bargain, beautiful, because, best, better, big, bonus, booklet, breakthrough, cash, challenge, comfortable, compare, complete, comprehensive, customer, deluxe, discount, don’t delay, don’t wait, dozen, earn, easy, easy-to-use, economical, endorsed, enhanced, enjoy, exclusive, extra, extra value, fast, fine, first class, forever, fortune, found, free, free trial, full, fully documented, future, genuine, get, gift, give, good, great, half price, handy, happy, heavy, help, here’s why, high, home, hot, hottest, how to, hurry, idea, image, important, include, introduce, it’s here, job, join, joy, just arrived, keen, keep, last chance, limited edition, live, long, low cost, magic, many, miracle, model, money, money back, money-making, natural, need, newly designed, news, news flash, no obligation, no risk, no-nonsense, now, offer, official, one of a kind, only, opportunity, order today, original, personal, plan, power, powerful, practical, priority, proof, protect, proven, quality, quick, ready-to-use, real, receive, reliable, remarkable, reveal, revolutionary, right now, risk-free, rush, safety, sale, sample, satisfaction, guaranteed, save money, save time, secret, send, sensational, sign up today, simple, smooth, special, startling, step-by-step, strong, success, suddenly, sure, surprising, take, tested, thousands, time, time-saving, today, trail, under, unforgettable, unique, unit, unmatched, up-to-date, update, urgent wanted, useful, valid, value, vary, venture, wanted, when, who else, why, win, works wonders, write, x-ray, yes, yours, yourself, zero, zip.

Transitional words

These are the words that can be used to move from one idea to the next, smoothly.
All this and more!, Also, Although, And, And here it is, And that’s not all, And if that’s not enough, Another, As a result, Best of all, But, But hurry!, But there’s even more, Consequently, Did you ever ask yourself? Don’t forget, Even though, For example, For instance, Furthermore, Hence, Here’s how, Here’s why, How can, However, In addition, In other words, In short, Interested?, It’s that simple, Moreover, Most important, Nevertheless, Now, for the first time, Of course, On the contrary, On the other hand, Similarly, Simply stated, Sounds incredible?, Still, That’s why, The result?, The truth is, Then, There’s more, Therefore, These are just a few of the, Think of it, Thus, Want proof?, What’s more, Why?, Yes you too can, Yet.

Positive Action words

Educate, Gratify, Listen, Nurture, Organize, Prioritize, Qualify, Reflect, Seize, Transform, Venerate, Excel, Accomplish, Acquire, Act, Analyze, Apply, Approach, Assert, Assess, Assure, Boost, Bridge, Build, Charge, Claim, Confront, Conquer, Convert, Create, Deliver, Demand, Demonstrate, Determine, Develop, Devote, Direct, Double, Empower, Establish, Evaluate, Facilitate, Focus, Get, Gain, Grow, Identify, Implement, Improve, increase, Influence, Inform, Involve, Join, Know, Learn, leverage, maintain, make, manage, motivate, negotiate, organize, persuade, prioritize, promote, read, reduce, resolve, sharpen, show, situate, streamline, strengthen, tackle, perform, spot, analyze, see, improve, collect, attract, track, report, respond, But hurry!, But our product doesn’t do that, But that’s not all, But there’s even more, But wait…there’s more

Words that describe benefit

Save time, Know how, Find out, Evaluate, Substitute, The one and only one, The real thing, All the features, Complete in one package, Comprehensive, Everything you need, Exhaustive, thorough, Simplifies, Get more out of it, Don’t settle for anything less, Exclusive, Members only, Private, Magnificent, Go for it!, Keeps you ahead of, Succeed, Unleashes your creativity, You owe it to yourself, Permits you to, Monitor, Service motivated, The solution to your own, We’re in business to help your business succeed, We offer a full range of, Modified, Re-created, Times are changing and so are we, Invaluable, Improved, Indispensable, The foundation of, Alters your perceptions, Everything you always wanted to know about, Gives you the facts you need to make important decisions, Unlocks the secrets of, Experienced, Expert, Ingenious, Resourceful, Sophisticated, Elegant, Limited edition, Approved by, Endorsed by, Legendary, Phenomenally successful, Preferred buy more, Dependable, Distinguish, Highest quality, Incomparable, Outclasses, Paramount, The undisputed leader, Unrivaled, It’s about time, Just when you thought, Long needed, Save time, Be the first one to know, Sharpen your, Drive revenue.

Asking for Action

Act now, Buy now, Buy one today, Buy today, Do it today, Don’t delay, BUY today!, If you act now, we’ll give you a free, Just do it!, Just mail the card enclosed, Last chance to order, Order now!, Order today, Priority number one, Rush delivery, Send in the coupon, Visit us at, Sign up now. Join for free, Sign up for free.

Offers

Exclusive offer, For a limited time only, New low price!, Now only!, One day only, One day only!, Special introductory offer!, Take advantage of this offer while it lasts!

Guarantee

Guaranteed satisfaction, If you’re not satisfied, we’re not satisfied.

Time sensitive offer

Hurry, If you don’t act now, this limited-time offer will expire, Limited supply, Limited time offer, Order will be filled on a first come first serve basis, Our price is guaranteed for thirty days, Prices going up soon, Prices may change without notice, Quantities are limited, Supply is limited, This offer will expire on March 31, Time is limited, While they last.

Demystifying White Papers

Chapter I

White papers are in vogue and why not? Recent Marketing Prof’s convention announced that White papers are among the top 4 lead generators in B2B space. According to some analysts, corporate decision makers rely on white papers more than almost any other source of information available to them.

So what are white papers?

A white paper offers a stimulating level of education, explanation, and discussion on a topic which is not present in abbreviated forms of collateral.

Put simply, business white papers are documents that provide useful information to the reader and lend validity to product claims–thus vitalizing their further interest in the offering. They also complement other pieces of marketing collateral, providing useful information on a particular business problem to a defined audience.

Common business marketing white paper types include

• Business implication discussions
• Strategy discussions
• Industry trend overviews
• Issues’ analysis

Combining white paper types into a single document for desired results is a common practice these days. In some cases, however, selecting a single white paper style can be more effective.

Goal of a white paper

The reasons a company elects to develop a particular white paper are varied, and may include the following

• Demonstrate thought leadership for a particular issue
• Thoroughly understand a given business issue or challenge
• Analyze a marketplace
• Describe best practices to meet challenges
• Address the audience’s perspective, not merely the author’s perspective
• Explain a product’s (or service’s) ability to solve a business or consumer challenge
• Promote a new technology

White papers explain innovative technologies in a compelling way that helps potential customers understand both how and why the offering will benefit them. Therefore it won’t be wrong to say that White Papers shoulder a lot of responsibility; probably the reasons why most white papers are ineffective.

In the next chapter we will talk about this performance pressure that every white paper faces and the reasons why most white papers fail.

5 'Must Follow' Rules for Writing Online Articles

It is universal-writing has no particular formula. It primarily depends on how well you weave your words to create a spell on your readers – entertain them, enthrall them, enlighten them. Language, structure and vocabulary play a major role in an article’s success. Let’s explore the must follow rules to get those readers hooked to your writing.

Prepare

Brain Storm- Whenever you start writing, quickly pen down your thoughts.

Introduce

The opening line should be impressive and noticeable as you need a ‘hook’ to reel in your readers. It should continue talking about what you have mentioned in your headline.

Use

• Words like ‘You’, New, How To as the reader easily relates to it
• Short, crisp sentences
• Real world analogies- Complex ideas can be simplified by using real world analogies, the reader relates to this!
• Polite and easy language
• Active verbs

Example
Correct: “Susan opened the door”.
Incorrect: “The door was opened by Susan”.

Keep in mind

• Use conversational tone: Try and deliver information in a conversational tone, this keeps the reader interested. For instance, asking questions in between makes it sound as if you are directly talking to your reader.
• What’s in it for me: There are plenty of articles available on the web, so make sure your article has some food for thought. Ask them about a problem they might have, which you can solve. Highlight the benefits so that they can easily respond.
• Lead by informing your reader: Once your reader is hooked, introduce a segment that is totally new to him and simultaneously present your solution. Once you have provided the information, you need to educate the reader and establish the relevance of the same.
• Be Clear and Emotional: Your article should move your reader to laugh, smile, agree or cry? So, for effective results your copy should be easy to read and the message should be clear and direct.
• Be Objective: Your article should provide facts and be objective at all times to be more credible and believable.

But Avoid…

• Words like ‘We’ and ‘It’ and ‘Our Product”
• Mentioning personal opinions or biases
• First person in business communications unless it explains personal change on the part of the narrator
• Passive voice is a sign of formal language; avoid it as much as possible
• Usage of Caps or more than one exclamation point at a time

And Finally

• Give them a call to action: It is important to inform and educate your reader to sell. This is your ‘sinker’. Always, give them a call to action by providing a solution to their questions.
• Edit/Proof read: Before you send your copy edit it. Check for grammar or bad spelling.
• Enjoy writing: If you enjoy what you do, this will reflect on the quality of your articles. So, you will write articles that would be informative and enjoyable and grant you with the desired results.

Effective marketing copy should inspire you first, and then your potential customers. To create a niche in the market, make sure your writing follows a structure and style. At the end of the article, give them a call to action.

Go ahead – create a spell!