Your Knowledge Makes You Stand Out #marketingforprofessionals

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Corporate trainers, lawyers, business consultants, chiropractors and other similar professionals have the knowledge to market themselves with story-driven content and factual narrative.

I wrote a booklet for a corporate trainer based on a book his organization was previously using for individuals.

Partial copy used in a booklet for a consultant

Here's what I did to write the copy and position the content of the book so it had a Business-to-Business (B2B) appeal:

#1 Interviewed the client as I always do and picked out several principles from the book

#2 We chose 4 principles to use as illustrations

#3 I created a format of a Header, Sub-head, Body Copy Illustration, and a concluding Direct Application

The sub-head to the concluding application was about 500 to 600 words in length.

#4 I wrote an intro and made a concluding statement to fit with the consultant's business goals and objectives.

The booklet will be a valuable tool for him and other trainers in his organization to leave with his target client.

You've gained tremendous knowledge in your profession. A booklet, interview, or online article can leverage your time and effort in presenting your skills to potential clients and show how you solve problems.

The material generated for a booklet can be rewritten for social media posts and e-newsletters.

OFFER

October Special -- I'll write your copy with a 1-day rate of $ 225.

As a way to get to know me, my copywriting skills, and my ability to look at the Big Picture needs of your company I'll give you up to 8 hours of my time and write your copy for $ 225. 

I normally charge $ 350 for a day rate.

This includes: 

a 1-hour interview

limited industry research

a variety of written content to boost your business (blog posts, website copy, social media posts, social media profile like LinkedIn, professional bio, press release, online articles, sales letters).

My site: http://contentandcopywriting.weebly.com/
Email: dsimkovich@gmail.com
Phone: 818-667-1789

Marketing Means Knowing Your Position in the Market

A rule in marketing is you must connect your marketing message to the people who will want what you have to sell and who can afford your product or service.

You must know the position you want to occupy and develop your marketing message accordingly.

This became clear to me when I wrote online articles for a property management company in the San Gabriel Valley and they serviced the mid-market range. They offered rental units for a mid-range price. The buildings were older yet maintained well and professionally managed.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, knows this truth. A recent article in Businessweek focused on the lower priced smartphones flooding the world market. This would cut into Apple's business and ruin the future for the iPhone, iPad, and related Apple products.

The article quoted Cook and said he wasn't worried.

“There’s always a large junk part of the market,” he says. “We’re not in the junk business.” The upper end of the industry justifies its higher prices with greater value. “There’s a segment of the market that really wants a product that does a lot for them, and I want to compete like crazy for those customers,” he says. “I’m not going to lose sleep over that other market, because it’s just not who we are. Fortunately, both of these markets are so big, and there’s so many people that care and want a great experience from their phone or their tablet, that Apple can have a really good business.”

Click here to read the Bloomberg article on Apple.

Click here on my copywriting site, LA Content andCopywriting, for a fair market price and high value on copy for websites, social media posts, and online marketing needs.

Keep Your Marketing Message Simple

As a writer, I urge my clients to embrace a simple marketing message.

We may like to appear brilliant, but simple words placed together let others know who we are and what we do. I keep going back to the "Got Milk" campaign. Two mundane words combined with an image to produce phenomenal results.

That's why this Laundromat sign got my attention the other day.

There's nothing brilliant about the copy and yet it's clear and speaks to the prospective customer.

The copy is also well organized using the 3-frame design found on many websites today.

A reason this is useful is that it's at a busy intersection. Cars and busses zip constantly zip by and so the benefits have to stand out.

The same is true for the Internet today. Not too long ago, web designers used Flash animation all over websites and soon realized simple design gave the visitor a better experience.

The same is true for copy. Clear headlines and use of sub-heads let's people skim and gets attention before they click on to the next website or social media post.

One step I take to make simple copy for my clients is to list the benefits and the unique traits about the business.

This is part of the copy planning stage.

Click here to read more on planning.

Remember, a clear and simple marketing message is much more effective than trying to be clever and get convoluted.

3 Ways to Measure Return on Investment for Marketing Channels

Graph from B2B Marketing.net

Wondering if you're along not properly estimating the return on investment for specific marketing channels?

Your company has lots of company when measuring ROI.

B2B Marketing.net reports only 6 percent of companies can effectively measure marketing returns "all the time."

The data was generated by B2B marketing in conjunction with Circle Research.

77 percent of companies could measure ROI on occasion.

Local ROI Tracking

I've experienced this on a micro-level in my career while writing content and radio spots for a nonprofit organization and while working with businesses east of Los Angeles in Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley.

Tracking results is helpful, of course, but marketing in different channels means there is a co-mingling or entanglement of outlets.

I wrote a series of online articles and new web copy for a property management company with rental units throughout the San Gabriel Valley. The staff carefully tracked where every renter came from.

There were 2 renters who said they came from online but not the company's main website and they couldn't identify the exact outlet.

It may likely have come from one of the articles I wrote or a re-written portion of the web site.

The good news was the revenue was new and it came about 5 weeks into my stint with the company.

Information Overlap

A reason this may occur is people are looking for information quickly, especially online. They may not care about the source and probably what happened is the renters found one of my online articles through a search engine result, skimmed the content, and clicked on the link to the property management company's main site.

This would have led them to choose a specific apartment building in a specific city. By the time they arrived the property manager asked the source they would only have been able to say, "online somewhere."

We used Google analytics to track website traffic and the number of search terms people were using to find the apartments jumped up dramatically after I began the content marketing effort.

Here are 3 different ways to measure marketing activity:

Evaluate referral sources

This is especially helpful with professional business consultants or companies using Yelp.

Evaluate website traffic

Use an analytics program to determine the geographic location, online referral sources, and keywords entered to reach the main website.

Evaluate coded specials

Coded specials can work great on postcards or direct mailers and the use of a dedicated phone line can help measure, too.

Click here to access the original article onB2Bmarketing.net

Click here for copywriting services.

3 Reasons to Write a Book and Market Your Professional Services

I'm writing a book for a client who does management consulting and training and he's going to use the book as a calling card to show his expertise to the decision-makers at companies he approaches.

The book will be available in print and e-book format.

Benefits of writing a book to market your professional services are many:

Unique Qualities

You demonstrate your unique qualities and that's important in a crowded marketplace like Los Angeles. Just think how many management consultants exist in Los Angeles County and Orange County and the Inland Empire.

The consultant I'm working with wants a 110-page to 120-page book. Yours doesn't have to be that long.

Real estate agents can write up books that are 10 to 20 pages long to list what they know, why they love real estate, and demonstrate their knowledge of a local market.

Stories

Books are great ways to tell your company's story. Remember the adage "Facts tell and stories sell." Books let you package your informational knowledge and reach the audience with an emotional punch to demonstrate how you uniquely solved a problem.

Stories draw in the reader and if you're trying to teach principles or raise the prospect of changing a culture.

Lasting Message

Well-written books have a lasting message and show why you're passionate about your industry.

Books are also likely to get passed around and they should be written with your contact information to aid in word-of-mouth marketing.

You can also sell books and recoup some marketing costs or even produce another stream of income.

Using Headlines and Sub-heads in Web Copy

Fresh content is the best way to get search engines and humans to visit and come back and rank your site as quality.

Presenting the content well is important.

The Importance of Headlines

Readers scan websites for information. Headlines provide critical information. The title itself is a headline and the use of sub-heads directs a reader's attention.

Sub-heads tell them what they're about to read and they can reference as little or as much information as necessary.

Headlines and Design

I'm a writer and not a graphic artist as is painfully clear to most anyone. I do work with various graphic artists and can recommend some.

However, I'm smart enough to employ sub-heads as a form of design. Think of design as flow.

Headlines and sub-heads on web content can provide a pleasant reader experience.

Example – Article

Click here to read this article 7 Ways to Lose Weight, Burn Fat and Adapt to a Healthy Lifestyle.

Lists like "5 ways to …" or "10 Steps to …" are useful because the reader immediately knows what to expect and skim through the 5 or 10 steps and go back and review.

The lists help organize information, too.

Lists are good for blog writing or article writing.

When writing website copy, think of a main headline that's 3 words to 5 words and descriptive and a sub-head that gives a bit more information.

Another example I just made up for this blog post.

Headline: Dog Training Tricks

sub-head: Gain your dog's confidence and trust and he'll perform these amazing tricks

Play around with the copy and you'll get a feel for what works and study other websites in your industry to see how headlines and sub-heads are used.

Good copywriting uses a framework of Plan, Create, Engage. 

Click LA Content and Copywriting to read more.

Free Marketing Tip: Listen to Your Customer

When I write marketing copy for clients I have them first listen to what they say and then listen to what customer say about the services and products.

This process is taken from my upcoming book Plan, Create, Engage where I lay out my principles and provide a structure to help business owners structure and write copy for websites, brochures, social media posts, and more.

Listen to Your Customers

Customers and clients who have experienced your products or services have opinions – good, bad, indifferent. You may call some and ask a few questions. Take others out to lunch and get a more complete picture depending on the relationship.

You can read through testimonials or perhaps call a few and use the statements to form your thinking and ideas.

Ways They Found Me – if you know how your customers found you then focus attention on that marketing channel. My most recent clients found me through business networking events in Pasadena and Glendale.

What First Impressions Attracted Them (company, service, product) – what elements got their attention?

How Did They Make a Decision to Buy?

List Needs Met After Purchase / Service Provided – what did you do well and how did your product help the client? In some cases it may be clear.

List Needs or Expectations Unmet After Purchase / Service Provided – are there areas where you risk disappointing a client or the expectations were not met?

Click here for a previous post on planning your marketing content and listening to yourself.

How to Plan Your Marketing Content by Listening to What You Say

Marketing content is more than clever words placed well in a phrase. Effective content must be planned, created and revised, and sent to the right target audience to engage them.

Here is an excerpt from my upcoming book Plan, Create, Engage -- Your Guide to Creating Winning Content:

Plan Your Content - What is a Plan

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A plan for your content becomes a map, blueprint, or framework that has a strategic planning function. What you say about your company reflects your thoughts, your mission statement, and your company strengths.

You perform this function to benefit your customers-clients and a significant portion of your content should focus on meeting their needs, wants, and desires.

Have three goals for planning content:

1. Find three to five significant phrases that will lay the foundation for website content, brochures, social media posts, and other messaging needs.
2. Enter the content into a calendar so you can begin using it strategically and be aware of future events and needs that can help you create a more effective message.
3.  Write a statement why someone should do business with you instead of with absolutely any one else who provides the similar product or service.

Action Step - Review and Listen to Yourself

 

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Review Your Mission Statement, Vision Statement, Core Strengths

This may be personal if you're an independent sales rep or it may be corporate if you're the owner, executive, or on the management team. 

Your mission statement and vision statement should encompass the words and phrases you use. Your marketing collateral should also reflect everything in your mission and vision statement. If it does not, you will need to determine if you need to make adjustments in what you say or how your mission statement is written.

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Listen to Yourself

Write down the phrases you say about why your business exists, what you do, and what you want to accomplish. Be aware of what you say on phone calls and at business mixers or events like trade shows and you write in emails.

--> Why My Company Exists  

--> What I Do and Why I Do It

--> Problems We Solve 

--> Needs-Wants We Fulfill 

--> What Separates Me From Competitors? (personality, vision, goals, service, name, colors, area served) 

--> If You Could Only Say One Thing What Would it Be?  

 The next post and excerpt from Plan, Create, Engage will focus on listening to customers.
Click here for Content and Copywriting.

Don Simkovich is a journalist and copywriter with a background in nonprofit management and marketing. He holds a Master of Arts, Communication Management, from the Annenberg School of Communication at University of Southern California.

5 Types of Content for Your Content Marketing Strategy

The foundation of marketing is having worthwhile content to promote online or use in brochures, press releases, and trade show displays.

Here are 6 types of content you should consider in your marketing plan:

1. Text, Images, Video – the written word, combined with a picture, and even a video clip on YouTube gives the reader/viewer an overall experience and introduces them more to your personality, company, products or services.

Click here to see my copywriting site for use of screen shots of documents to use as images. 

2. Showing Customers / Clients How You Benefit Them – the heart of business is solving a customer-client problem or giving them what they want. Blog posts or online articles are great for this. Describe how you do this by posing the overall problem, how the customer-client came to you, and the specific actions you took and the end result.

You can also call these "case studies" which have more structured and formal language in my opinion.

3. Stories – the old adage Facts Tell and Stories Sell rings true at all levels of marketing. You can tell stories indirectly related to your business or your customers. Again, blogs work well for this.

4. Lists – 5 things to … 6 ways to … 10 Tips for … readers like lists because lists are concise and easy to skim. Like this post.

5. How to Tips – free ebooks, blog posts, or even have a solutions page on your website to show your customers-clients "how to" take a step that solves their problem. It gives you credibility and you're offering value.

Website Wednesday and Web Design Trends Using CSS

I like poking around and consider the future of web design or where trends are headed in the near term. Take a look whether you're looking for affordable web design or just browsing.

Design is one essential part of branding and thus an important element in an overall marketing campaign. Here's an article from Webdesigner depot on CSS. Good reading even if you're not a designer.

If the recent flat design trend has demonstrated anything, it’s how incredibly limited web designers are when it comes to composition. Now that we’re no longer distracted by bevels, gradients and gloss it’s clear that web designers have one structure to build their designs around: rectangles.

Click here to read more of the article on Weddesignerdepot.

Click here to consider affordable web design options in your marketing mix.

Website Wednesday: Website Design Trends

Staying up on website design trends keeps you in the "know" and serves as a measure to evaluate the effectiveness of your web design.

This 3 column design is used on an American Express business forum.

The three-column design is everywhere. Corporations like Starbucks, McDonalds, and the American Express Open Forum incorporate the format.

Mid-size companies, small businesses, and the solo entrepreneur can easily make three symmetrical blocks of information using images and text.

The format organizes key blocks of information and a horizontal image on the home page allows the blocks to show above the fold.

Easy-to-use drag and drop platforms mean you can create three columns and bring in the text boxes.

You can see this in my website Running a Small Business.net which is in process.

Need a robust Do-it-Yourself or professionally designed website, then I can provide through Right Touch Marketing.com. Contact me there for a free quote.

One of the credible sites to read up on website design trends is Enfused. One of their topics focuses on the need to design web sites so they respond to different devices, especially smartphones.

Click here to read more from Enfused.

I have no affiliation with them and you can click here to read more on 2013 web design trends.

Use Color to Stand Out from the Competition

This free marketing tip focuses on using color so people recognize your business in a crowded marketplace.

Cabin of an A 330 used from Virgin Atlantic blog

There are small ways to catch the attention of a customer that may require using creativity but not much money.

Virgin Atlantic is a good marketing case study in doing little things to differentiate itself from the competition of other airlines.

I flew the airline for the first time in July 2013 from Los Angeles to Seattle and the first thing that caught my attention was the soft colored lights when boarding.

The hues were red and blue and had a more calming effect than Southwest, United, or others.

The flight attendants outfits seemed classier, too.

When we departed in Seattle I had the feeling I had experienced just a bit of luxury even though we paid less than $275 per person. The cost was less than other airlines.

A simple use of colored lighting is one way Virgin Atlantic sets itself apart in a crowded marketplace.

Business owners can use colors to set themselves apart.

Choose a color scheme for your business and keep it easy to replicate.

A shirt and slacks, business cards, portfolio, and thank you cards can all be the same color. Use the theme on your website, blog, and enewsletter.

It may not make a difference right away but over time referral sources and potential customers will begin to associate you with a particular color scheme.

The use of color is one way to get noticed in a crowded marketplace.

Click here for the 2011 Virgin Atlantic blog post showing the interior of an Airbus A 330.

My Experience Creating a Small Business Website

The basic five page small business website is easy to create for business owners. There are several free website platforms available that are drag and drop with no knowledge of html.

An easy-to-create website isn't necessarily best, though. The most important step is before you log on to the platform or expect a professional designer to shoot back a great-looking comp.

You must plan your website.

Log on to this link below on an article I wrote on Yahoo Finance and you'll see what I mean.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/first-person-creating-business-website-195400359--finance.html

I raise a few key questions in the article:

• what do you say about your company
• what do your customers say about your company
• why do you really operate the business - what is you are helping the customer achieve? 

Answer these questions thoroughly, or enlist someone like me to help you, and you can plan a strong website on any platform and enhance your web presence to aid in marketing and customer relations.

Marketing Services using a Professional Biography

A well-written professional biography is a marketing tool that conveys credibility. A consultant and service provider can benefit tremendously from a professional biography that shows accomplishments and reveals their personal traits.

I wrote a biography for a woman is a former executive with a Fortune 100 corporation. She is offering voluntary employee benefits through an established company local to greater Glendale and Pasadena, California.

Here is how I wrote the copy:

A one-hour interview and took notes, jotting down personal details like how she developed her interest in company benefits during childhood and when in high school she decided on it as a career path.

Reviewed her resume and LinkedIn profile and noted what was similar to the personal interview and what was missing.

Integrated passionate information with factual information at the beginning to hook and inform the reader.

I wrote the biography combining narrative and bullet points so the reader can skim, wrote a letter she could send out and wrote the info for an improved LinkedIn summary that would be more likely to show up in search results.

A well-written bio will give the reader a sense of professional ability and clue them in on personal traits and passion.

Marketing Interview Questions and Why I Ask

Marketing begins with the interview, a series of questions designed to pull out the "why" a business exists, the promised result for customers and clients, and the deeply held values for the entrepreneur-business owner.

As a writer, the interview questions are essential to get me "inside" the mind of the entrepreneur and the people I'm interviewing.

I recently wrote web copy for two hotels where I spent the night. I toured the properties and interviewed some of the key staff at length.

The interview gave me the chance to pull out the unique qualities the hotels possessed and to give the reader a greater chance to experience the property via the web.

Marketing generates promised results when the target customer or client has a positive experience and gains value.

I'll share some of my questions in the next post.

How Tesla Motors is using financing and tax credits for marketing Model S

Offering favorable financing terms to customers is a tried-and-true method of marketing. 

Tesla Motors announced this month that it's offering financing to buyers and will guarantee the residual value of its Model S.

 The company states on its web site that "When considering the savings from using electricity instead of gasoline, depreciation benefits and other factors, the true net out of pocket cost to own a mid-range Model S drops to less than $500 per month."

A full article is available on my LA Business News Examiner page or log on to Tesla Motors for full financing information.

6 Benefits of Having a Copywriter Create Your Content

Benefits to hiring a copywriter to create your web site content include:

1. Having someone provide feedback and confirm your marketing message
2. Having an objective voice shape your ideas
3. Hiring a professional who knows not just how to write your content but where and how to distribute your content
4. Letting someone skilled write about you to attract human interest and search engine interest
5. Hiring someone who knows the challenges and rewards of being an entrepreneur
6. Letting someone skilled in taking what you do and showing readers how your solutions meet their needs

For more on website copywriting, click here for an overview of my copywriting services.

Click here for website services from Right Touch Marketing.

Market a Professional Image by Detailing Your Car

A professional's personal image can create an important first impression and that image includes the car, SUV, or even truck.

I used to think that detailing a car was something people did who truly loved their cars more than anything else in life but then I have come to realize that's not true.

As a writer and consultant to small business owners, detailing one's car and keeping it fresh looking can be part of a marketing effort.

Many times, prospective customers or those in our referral networks see the vehicle professionals drive. The car doesn't have to be a luxury brand to be perceived as valuable but it does need to be clean.

The point was driven home to me when I met Chris Davison of Formula 1 Mobile Detailing in West Covina. Chris services business owners and residences throughout the cities of Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County, and Orange County.

Detailing preserves the paint and gets rid of swirl marks and scratches. In many cases, Chris can give customers a one-year warranty and up to a five-year warranty.

Click here to visit his website, Formula 1 MobileDetailing.com.

Consider getting your car detailed as one small part of projecting a professional and credible image.