If you’ve ever heard a talk about standing out from your competitors, you’ve probably heard about unique selling points. But you might struggle to really define them if your work is similar to that of your competitors. Offering the same service as your competitor doesn’t mean you don’t have unique selling points. It just means you might not know how to communicate them to your audience.

In this article I’m going to give you 5 key areas that you can write about on your site which will automatically set you apart from the competition and make you stand out in your customers’ minds.

• Services you take for granted
• Your personality.
• Who you work for.
• What you don’t do
• Your experience.

 Services you take the granted

This is such a simple way to set yourself apart from your competitors.

Take a process that you take for granted and explain it to your customers. It might be something that you know all your competitors do, so you’ve never thought about it being unique selling point before.

The unique aspects are that your business is going to be the one that communicates the process or system to your audience.

This works because it shows you are an expert in your field. Remember, your competitors don’t need to think you’re an expert, but your customers do. When you educate the consumer about the way you work this builds trust and credibility because you are opening up the doors to your workshop and letting them into the inner circle.

Let’s say that you offer a dog walking service. Obviously you’re going to take them somewhere grassy, but if you communicate this on your site, the consumer will remember your business as the one that takes care and attention to your routes.

Your  personality

Trust in showing off some of your personality, even if you think it conflicts with your industry because it might not be a weakness.

You may be a shy person who runs a marketing company. You would be the perfect fit for businesses that feel conservative when it comes to promoting their business.

Communicate your personality to your customer, whether you swear like a sailor, have a dry sense of humour or hate mornings. A little flavour of who you are can go a long way to make your business stand out and attract the kind of customer you’re going to love working with.

Who you work for

It is so tempting to feel your service is for everyone.

It isn’t.

Don’t be afraid to rule out people that you don’t want to work for or who your product will not help. I had a client recently who was offering a coaching service. I asked who the product would not work for.

Initially she answered “no-one”, but with a little probing we discovered the material wouldn’t be great for:

• People who weren’t committed
• People who didn’t want to work hard
• People who didn’t want to change
• People who didn’t want to invest in the product

We decided to communicate this through the content on her site by:

• Making the prices very clear
• Including a money-back guarantee, to show the customer made an effort
• Explaining the level of commitment required to get results

 Make sure the content on your site speaks to your perfect customer and not to people who won’t enjoy your product.

What you don’t do

 Don’t be afraid of letting people know, what areas you either don’t do or don’t want to do, especially if you’re in a field where people may assume you do particular thing. It might be that you can outsource this service to an expert or it might be something you don’t want to get into at all.

Don’t even be afraid of having a page that states “what I don’t do.” This might seem negative, but it’s just being honest and saves both you and your visitor time. Remember you don’t want just any customer; you want a customer who is going to love what you do.

Your experience

 You probably have your experience listed on the “About” page on your website.

But are you talking about your “unique” experience?

Your unique experience might not be obvious. We all tend to look to our professional experience, but we could be missing other experiences that are just as important, that set you apart from the crowd.

For example, in my business, I used to write and work for a number of very different businesses. It was difficult to show that my experience was relevant to my target market because it covered financial products, insurance products, stag and hen parties and even the international mining industry.

However, my unique experience was working directly with the business owners and working directly with entrepreneurs. That’s what I communicate to my target market. Whilst the products I’ve worked with are important, it’s that experience of working with busy entrepreneurs that my clients trust and enjoy.  

Remember, you don’t have to be unique from your competitors, you just have to write in a way that makes you seem unique to your customers.

About the Author: Amy Harrison runs Harrisonamy Copywriting. She helps passionate entrepreneurs and business owners turn visitors into loyal fans through engaging content. For tips and techniques you can use in your business today, sign up for her free “Copywriting Guilty Secrets” online course, or follow her on twitter: @littleunred for copywriting (and sometimes irreverent) updates.

Your customers have every reason to love you.  After all:

You’re fabulous

You care about your customers

You run a great business

You deliver a first class service

So why is it so difficult to get that across when you sit down to write articles for your customers?

It can be difficult to write articles that really connect on a personal level with your customer. The kind of articles that make them trust you, like you and want to read more about you and your business.

First of all, you’re typing to a computer screen, you’re not talking face to face and you might find that affects your words. You might write more formally than you would talk if you were in person.

Fortunately, if that is the case, there are 4 very simple steps you can take to connect with your customer and make her feel like you’re best friends. (I know you might have male and female customers, but for this article I’m picking out just one of your customers to use in the examples, and she just happens to be an amazing female like you!)

Write to one person, and focus on them.

If you want to make that personal connection, imagine you’re writing a letter to a friend.  Avoid phrases like “most of you”, “Some of you” or “people like you”. That won’t make her feel very special. Even though your website will be read by lots of different people, only one person at a time is going to sit in front of their screen and read your words. It makes it so much more personal if you talk to her directly.

Don’t make her feel bad

Your customers are very special people, and just like you, they like to feel good about themselves. I know you wouldn’t deliberately make them feel bad, you’re not like that. Sometimes though, and I’ve done it in the past, it’s easy to tell your customer how much better their life will be when they hire you, by focusing on how bad their life currently is.

For example, let’s say you run a marketing company for small businesses. Small businesses can really benefit from great marketing and it can really help them stand out against larger competitors. If you want to endear them to you and your company you don’t want to write:

“As a small business, you probably have very low traffic with no-one reading your blog except your mum and your cat…and your cat is probably the bigger admirer. You need Acme Marketing for small businesses…”

This is an extreme example, but if you look around the net you will find plenty of examples where the web copy focuses on the negative parts of the situation. If the Acme Marketing Company wanted to charm the pants of their customer, they might want an approach like this:

“Imagine seeing your traffic to your site increase, with people desperate to find out more about your product. How proud will you feel when you outperform the bigger names in your industry? Acme Marketing can help you…”

Make your customer feel good when you talk to her, and show her how she’s going to feel even better after using your service.

Don’t make her feel second best… to you

Next time you’re browsing different business blogs on the Internet, see how many have “I” in the opening paragraph and throughout the article.

When you’re writing about how you and your business can help your customer, it’s easy to feel that you should be writing about you and your business. But to really connect with your customer, you need to be writing about her. Perhaps you’re using a personal experience to illustrate a point. That can be a very powerful way to show your customer that you have understand her frustrations, but the balance needs to be more about her.

For example, rather than saying:

“I’m always stressed in a morning and what I find really helps is making a to-do list the night before when I’m tucked up in bed, just after finishing my bedtime novel, but just before I have my hot chocolate. It’s great, I get so much more done this way.”

Try this:

“If you’re like me and would benefit from a having a stress free morning, you’ll be surprised how much easier it is taking just a few moments the night before to plan a quick to-do list. You could jot it down in moments before you go to bed, feeling much more relaxed and organised about the next day when your head hits the pillow.

Have a look through your articles. Is there to many “I”s and if so, can you turn them into lovely “you”s?

Ask her how you can help

When you sit down to write your content it might not feel much like a conversation. It’s just you and your keyboard and I’ll admit, it’s a challenge to get your head around that. The more you write and the more you become familiar with your audience, the more it will feel like a conversation.

But if you want a quick cheat then simply ask your customer a few questions in each article or in your web copy.

Try to find questions which pull your customer in and make them see that you are really interested in her. Don’t just ask her if she’d like to have more money / traffic / success, ask her specific and open questions that engage her like

“If you could overcome once challenge in your business, what would it be?” or “How would you spend your time if you didn’t have to worry about looking for new clients?”

Even better, ask her to send you her answers, and if you have time write a personal response. You might just make a valuable connection, or find inspiration for your next blog post.

If you use just one of these steps it will make your content stand out as more personable and in touch with your customers than many other companies out there.

What about you, are there any other methods you use to try and connect personally with customers in your web copy or blog posts? What are the biggest problems you face when you sit down to write for your customer? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

About the Author: Amy Harrison runs Harrisonamy Copywriting. She loves helping excitable business owners communicate to their customers how awesome they really are. Subscribe to her blog or follow her on twitter: @littleunred for more copywriting (and sometimes irreverent) updates.

This is the latest installment from Amy Harrison’s web therapy series, where we review your website.  This month Amy is looks at a website owned by Caroline Jones, www.wrappedinyourownwords.com which sells personalised chocolate wrappers.   The advice that Amy shares is useful for any website, so why not take a look at what she has to say and see if it applies to your website.

Show off your personality and stand out

If you offer the same service as other companies, showing off your personality makes your business stand out. Wrappedinyourownwords.com takes advantage of this and is a charming expression of the characters behind the business.

Caroline and Davina include a home-made video on the home page which tells you how to use the site. As well as a way of promoting new offers and communicating with customers, it is an excellent way to convey the personal nature of the service.

Communicate the unique strengths of your business

Whilst it’s easy to understand in seconds what wrappedinyourownwords.com offers, the content on the site could be used more effectively to highlight what is special about the service compared to the competition.

The opening points on the homepage currently state:

Are you looking for:

Something that is different

A fun way to communicate your message

Something that creates an impact

A way to show that you care

As one of the first areas your customers will glance at when your web-page loads, this valuable space could be used to explain what sets the service apart, for example:

Are you looking for:

A uniquely designed gift solution?

A delicious way to woo your customers?

A friendly and personal service?

A memorable way to market your business?

These phrases will depend on who your ideal customer is. To communicate effectively and encourage sales of your product, it’s important to know what people are looking for when they visit your site, and what kind of features and benefits will appeal to them.  Building a customer profile is an excellent way of pinning this down.

Blow your own trumpet (indirectly)

Many business owners feel uncomfortable at the idea of shouting about how great they are, but letting your customers know that your service or product has pleased others isn’t a bad thing. It’s useful information for the customer and essential marketing for your business.

Currently the testimonials on the site are under the “Over To You” tab. I would consider changing the name of this to “Testimonials” or “Happy Customers”, to make it more obvious and consider including one or two quotations on the home page.

Press coverage is also valuable and something to be proud of. Currently the “Press” button doesn’t take you directly to your publicity so I would look at making this easier so people can find out who has been talking about your product!

Don’t be shy – if you’re offering a good service then you need to let people know about it!

If you’ve got a killer offer – make it clear

If you’re offering a discount, bonus product or some other extra that might encourage people to place an order, then make sure it’s easy to understand, and easy to take advantage of.

The offer of “4 free bars” when ordering  8 could do with a little tweaking to the content to make it absolutely clear what’s on offer and how people can get it.

Initially I wasn’t certain if the four bars had to be used when placing an initial order, or could be claimed at a later date.  Whilst this might not seem like a big thing, when a customer sees your offer you want them to think about how great it is, and not whether they understand it.

Keep it simple to browse

With busy lives and short attention spans, the easier it is for your customer to use your site, the more likely they are to buy.

The site has useful functions like a search facility, a send to a friend option, as well as social media tools, but from a design point of view I would want to keep these together to make it cleaner and easier to use. There is a floating category for “Christmas Bits” which isn’t with the rest of the chocolate wrapper categories and rather than standing out it looks a little forgotten.

I wasn’t a fan of the automatic sound bites which are played when you click on a category although the music for “Corporate” did make me laugh – very Alan Sugar! If you have people browsing on public use computers, or in their lunch break at work, they may not want sound being played for others to hear (especially if they’re buying it as a surprise for someone!)

Make it easy to buy

I would strongly recommend having a form of direct online order form where customers have the option to place their order and pay online in one transaction. These are easy to set up and don’t have to be expensive to run. If customers can only place their order via a contact form to be contacted back, or by placing an order over the phone, it may deter them when other competitors offer direct online ordering.

Overall I think this is a good basis for a small business website and it wouldn’t take a lot to tidy it up, streamline the process and make it more professional without losing its charming and personal touch.

Good luck!

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If you would like your website to be reviewed, please send Amy an email and she will let you know if we are able to review it for you.

About the Author: Amy Harrison. After training as a screenwriter, Amy moved into the world of online business and since 2004 has worked on small to large enterprises both here in the UK and Canada. Amy left her job in online business development in 2008 to go it alone and now offers a copywriting and project management service. Amy will be offering practical hints and tips about maintaining and promoting your business website in our series of articles: “Web Therapy”. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing about your own website experiences! www.harrisonamy.com

Content marketing is an often mis-used and misunderstood way to build trust, rapport and profitable relationships with customers. Your website copy and information articles, blog posts and twitter updates, all contribute towards your marketing strategy to increase exposure of your business, and if you do it right, should ultimately increase sales.

If you’re just starting out, it can take a little while to work out what works well so I’m sharing my experiences to give you a head start on  how to use content to promote your business.

I have had clients in the past who have expressed an interest in getting involved in Twitter, or facebook, or article marketing, but don’t really know what it is they want to say to potential customers.

In the past I have found that:

• The clients who write useful content that engages the reader are the ones who have experienced the most success form their strategy.
• Businesses that use the internet to bombard people with their offers and sales information find this doesn’t work as well.

Done well, content marketing builds up trust, awareness and exposure for your business. Producing reams of articles about how great your business is and “buy now!” demands without offering any other valuable content will build up the wrong kind of exposure and won’t translate into trust or authority.  Done poorly it can have the opposite effect and drive potential customers away.

Today, people are looking for referrals, for word of mouth recommendations and businesses that they feel they can trust. Your relationship with potential customers is very valuable, and has to be nurtured so take a little time to think about how you want to use content to increase awareness of your business.

If you’re itching to hop online and start engaging, it’s worth reading these brief hints and tips before you start typing:

Don’t plaster your offer in every single piece of content

Just as we ignore junk mail through our front door, most internet users have a blind spot to overtly promotional content pieces.

In the same way no-one would buy a newspaper which only contained advertisements, people browsing the internet are not looking for endless adverts. We use the internet today to exchange ideas, connect with others, find out information, look for products and search for entertainment.

The most effective way for content marketing to work is to produce articles which are engaging, interesting and make customers want to find out more about your business.

So what do you write about?

What are current and potential customers interested in?

Just as your service solves a consumer problem, your content should seek to answer the questions people may have about your particular field.

For example, if you offer cookery lessons, your customers might also be interested in simple cooking tips or dinner party menu advice for example. If you offer a website design company, your customers may be interested in design tips to improve their homepage, or in how different colours can trigger different responses to viewers.

Providing valuable information engages your audience and importantly shows your target market that you are an authority when it comes to providing your service.

Offer valuable content

Quality AND quantity are important here. If you’re fast at typing, it’s easy to knock together an article and publish it in haste online. Whilst it’s important to contribute your content regularly to spread the message of your business, it won’t do you any good to churn out low quality content for the sake of getting up the number of articles you’ve published.

You’re trying to build trust with potential customers, and show that you are an authority in your field. By regularly producing high quality content in your field of expertise you will begin to stand out above the chatter when people talk online about your business or service.

Contribute content to various sources regularly

Finding the places where your content is going to have the greatest effect in terms of sales and building customer relationships is going to take a little time and effort. Regular contribution to a number of different sites that appeal to your customers will increase exposure of your business, and the improve chance of making those valuable connections with your customers.

Always direct people back to your website

Chances are your website is where you take enquiries, as well as sales so getting people to visit your site is very important to your business. Every piece of content you produce should have your web address, or a direct link that people can click through to get there. Make it as easy as possible for people to find your website. Remember to include your web address on any social media profiles you may have, as well as on your email signature!

Don’t forget the purpose of your content marketing plan

Writing content about your business can be addictive. Once you start receiving blog comments, twitter followers and favourable feedback, you can begin to feel very popular.  It’s a great experience, but don’t lose sight of your content marketing goal which is to build up a base of happy customers who want to buy your products or service.

Make sure your content is relevant to your business and doesn’t drift too much into the personal realms of what you had for breakfast that morning. Keep producing valuable content, and place it in front of potential customers, and your content will continue to work to generate an interest in your business.

Now get writing and good luck!

Note from Julie: If you have any questions about how important content maketing is, click here to read the Content Marketing Spending Survey from Junta42.  As we move forward into the next decade Content Marketing and Social Media Marketing are going to take greater and greater priority as the way for building relationships and sales with customers

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About the Author: Amy Harrison. After training as a screenwriter, Amy moved into the world of online business and since 2004 has worked on small to large enterprises both here in the UK and Canada. Amy left her job in online business development in 2008 to go it alone and now offers a copywriting and project management service.  www.harrisonamy.com

If you’ve just launched your business you might be familiar with that slightly disappointed feeling that after releasing your beautiful site to the world… it’s two weeks and hardly anyone has visited your beautiful new website …And those that have, have come from your very lovely and supportive friends and family.

This is perfectly normal.

Having a website isn’t like having a shop where a grand opening automatically brings in people off the street to come and have a poke around. With billions of websites out there, you need to let the world know you exist.

Actually, not the world…just your potential customers.

So how do you find these super special people who would delight in knowing your business existed?

Well first of all, you need to know who they are by:

Building a customer profile

If you don’t know who your customer is, you’re never going to be able to effectively market your business. Your message will be too generic or completely miss the mark with your (unknown) target audience.

Chances are you have a few different types of customers who you want to appeal to, and you should build up customer profiles for each of these segments.

For example, perhaps you offer classes to help people set up their own websites. Your customers might fall into the following groups:

1. People looking to begin a new business after losing their job in the recession
2. Freelancers looking to expand their current website
3. Savvy entrepreneurial women looking to set up or expand their business online

Creating a customer profile

You’ll want a separate profile for each group you want to appeal to, so grab a pen and paper and start trying to answer the following questions:

1. What problems do my customers have that I can solve?
2. What are their dreams?
3. What are their daily routines?
4. What media do they watch / read?
5. What websites do they visit?
6. What do they do for a living?
7. How old are they?
8. How do they use the Internet to find answers to their questions?
9. What kind of professional events do they attend?

These questions make you start thinking like your customer, and thinking about where they might spend their time online.

Sample customer profile

A customer profile might read like this:

“Jane Smith is in her mid-twenties and has just been made redundant. She is considering launching her own online business and wants to start with her website. She wants to have as much control with her website as possible and isn’t afraid to learn. She’s been researching online for a couple of months looking for tutorials but finds all the information a little overwhelming.  She receives newsletters for some well known online website tutorials and spends on average 30 minutes a day reading them. She has her own blog but would really like to make the next step to having a full website. She wants to build her business steadily and provide a comfortable income for her future. She is cautious and likes to research things thoroughly but she also wants to start her business as soon as possible. She is looking for someone she can trust to guide her through the next steps of setting up her website.”

This is a useful exercise in building up a live image of someone you are trying to appeal to with your business.

So, you have a pretty good idea about who your customer segments are and how they think.

How do you now find out where these potential clients spend their time online?

Act like them

The way to effectively communicate with your customer is to think like your customer.

Look at the answers from your above list. Taking the example of someone who teaches people how to build websites, perhaps their customers would be looking at the following resources online:

1. Advice websites about how to launch a new business in the recession
2. Freelance advice websites
3. The Women Unlimited website

You could find useful sites like these simply by putting terms into Google that your customers might use, for example: “How to set up an online business in the recession” or “how to expand your freelance business online”.

See what websites come up, spend time on them. Visit them regularly, subscribe to newsletters from websites you think your customers might be interested in. If there are discussion boards or forums, what are people talking about? What questions are potential customers asking?

By moving in the same circles as your customers, you’ll begin to understand their wants and needs more, and eventually, you’ll be able to show them how your business offers a solution to their problems.

Keep your finger on the pulse of your customers

A simple way to keep on top of who is saying what where about the services you offer is using Google Alerts.  You will need to have a Google account which is free and easy to set up from www.google.com/accounts, and once you have that you can go to www.google.com/alerts to pick particular keywords and as soon as an article. Blog, or a news story mentions this, you’ll get an email about it.

So our business owner offering classes on building websites and wants to know where potential customers are might choose to receive alerts for “new website” or “new online business”.

This could direct them to a range of new websites, blogs and forums, and more importantly, you can stay current on what is being discussed that day.

Even if you only spend 15 minutes a day using these methods, you’ll soon find the online hotspots where you can engage with your target audience and not only let people know about your business, but start bringing potential customers to your own website.

Next time I’ll be looking at some of the different methods of content marketing you can use to promote your business online once you know where to find your customers.

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About the Author: Amy Harrison. After training as a screenwriter, Amy moved into the world of online business and since 2004 has worked on small to large enterprises both here in the UK and Canada. Amy left her job in online business development in 2008 to go it alone and now offers a copywriting and project management service. Amy will be offering practical hints and tips about maintaining and promoting your business website in our series of articles: “Web Therapy”. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing about your own website experiences! www.harrisonamy.com

Most women I’ve met who are starting up their own business have similar concerns about marketing. They just don’t feel comfortable standing on a soap box shouting “me me me!”, which is a common conception about marketing, harking back to the days of flashy adverts and pushy sales people piling on the pressure until you wither and agree to buy their product.

Fortunately, marketing techniques have evolved since then, and more subtle methods have evolved which can result in sales for your business and can be used by even the most introverted and humble amongst us.

One of these methods is:

Content Marketing

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is sharing information as a way to attract and engage your customer base and to make people aware of the value in your business service or product. Rather than garish adverts and bold promises, content marketing works by offering people useful information related to your service or product. Producing high quality content establishes you as an authority in your chosen market niche as well as building trust and loyalty amongst your customer base. The objective of content marketing is that potential customers will return to your site for further information about your service, and will be more likely to buy a product from you rather than buying from an unknown brand.

For example?

There are many excellent sites out there that use content marketing to reach their customers. One that is relevant to me as a copywriter is CopyBlogger. At first glance, this site is an information site about the issues and topics of how to market your copywriting business. It has interesting, up to date articles and an archive of information that would take you more than a cup of tea and a packet of hob nobs to get through. In addition to information however, the site also sells products, and when I was looking for a product within this field of expertise it was a no brainer that I would trust a site I had been visiting for months and one that had already given me reams of valuable, free information.

Why is content marketing great news for those who feel uncomfortable with marketing themselves?

It’s not about shouting the loudest

Marketing is all about communication, but now, more than ever it’s about:

“Conversation”

This means engaging with your target market, not just selling to them.

With the growth of the internet, customers are more empowered with information. It’s no longer about which company can buy the most expensive advertising space, or has the slickest advertising agencies, the power lies in listening to what your customer base is interested in and providing them with valuable content about this.

For example, if your business sells life coaching sessions, you could produce a range of articles online about the benefits of life-coaching, the different areas in your life that can be improved by life coaching, or perhaps some short snappy articles which include useful exercises that people can take away with them and try out for themselves. Forget pushy sales letters, and think valuable articles that will be of interest to your potential customers. This information acts as a trailer to the main feature; give potential customers enough information to interest them and prove you are an authority in your field and when they are ready to buy, your brand will be in the forefront of their mind.  Content marketing does take time, patience and passion, but by building it into your daily business routine you will be investing time in a cost effective marketing method that has substance and longevity. Even those on a small budget can compete for business with the bigger brands out there this way.

Why is content marketing effective for your business today?

The way people shop has changed

These days, people research more than before, think about how you would look for a product or service, you might ask a friend for a referral, or do some research online to see what people are saying about the products you are considering. Information is power and to beat the competition, establishing your authority in your chosen niche is more important than ever. Having useful content published on the Internet for people to find when they search for your product, your business will seem credible, trustworthy and authoritative. You are building a relationship with your potential customer from the word go.

Content Marketing is flexible

One of the great aspects of content marketing is that there are many different ways you can use it to promote your brand and business in ways that suit you. You can keep a blog on your site, provide twitter updates, update your facebook page or simply submit articles to websites. You can provide as much or as little content as you want, but producing relevant and informative content on a regular basis will increase the chances of being found by your target customer base.

But how do you push your business service without feeling pushy?

The objective of your business is to sell or promote your product or service, and publishing content alone isn’t enough – you have to know where to publish it for maximum effect. This is the real beauty of a good content marketing strategy. The basic process of successful content marketing includes:

Finding your market

A sure fire way to make you feel good about yourself when marketing your business or service is to find people who want what you’re offering. There are some great tools online that help you find people who might be interested in your product or service. Google offers a free tool of being able to search through blogs online for keywords, so if your business sells bespoke suits for women for example, you can find out if anyone is writing a blog about this, or if anyone is mentioning this particular product on other blogs. With a little research you can soon find out where people talking about your product or service “hang out” online

It is through these different sites, forums and blogs that you need to reach them, not as a pushy sales person…but by…

…listening to the conversation

The brilliant part of content marketing online today is that it’s not a one way street; it’s not just about letting your market know about your service, it’s about listening to their needs and questions. Once you have identified a few websites or blogs with similar audiences to your market, you can spend some time regularly visiting to find out what is going on.

Even if it’s only 15 minutes a day it will give you an idea of what people are saying right now about your industry and it won’t be long before you want to:

Join in the conversation

Whatever your business or service, if there are people talking about it online, you can join in the conversation. Content marketing is all about sharing information to build up a relationship with your target market so that you eventually have a loyal audience interested in subscribing to your service or buying your product. Get involved in discussions online, comment on blogs that are written about your industry, post articles on guest blogs and relevant sites to prove to your target market that you are an authority in your field. Not only will the credibility of your brand increase, but you are increasing the exposure of your business online to targeted markets as well as making it easier for people to find you and your business when searching for your particular product or service.

Just Scratching the surface

There are a number of ways you can use content to market your business and in the next series of articles I will be looking more specifically at different methods and mediums you can use to get your business message out there to a targeted market in a way that won’t make your skin crawl!

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About the Author: Amy Harrison. After training as a screenwriter, Amy moved into the world of online business and since 2004 has worked on small to large enterprises both here in the UK and Canada. Amy left her job in online business development in 2008 to go it alone and now offers a copywriting and project management service. Amy will be offering practical hints and tips about maintaining and promoting your business website in our series of articles: “Web Therapy”. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing about your own website experiences! www.harrisonamy.com

Thank you again to all those who submitted their sites for review in the clinic. Last month we looked at the importance of communicating a clear message to your customers about your business service. This month we look at a website that has a strong grasp of how to communicate with customers, and wants to look at spreading that message to new audiences.

www.GoLearnTo.com is a travel experience company offering learning courses abroad. GoLearnTo has already been featured in The Daily Mail and the Independent and founder Vanessa Lenssen got in touch with for a little feedback from the Web Therapy Clinic.

First Impressions

The site has a clean and clear design complimented by relevant and high quality images to illustrate the courses on offer. High quality images make a notable difference and can give even the most simple of sites a professional edge. From the home page it is clear that I can use the search function, or the menu buttons to navigate my way around the site and find a course I am interested in.

Design

The light grey background keeps the site neutral in its design and makes it easier to find images of any colour that will look good throughout the site. A strongly coloured background can make a bigger impact and is effective if you have strong branded colours, but if your business needs to use a lot of images like GoLearnTo, it can be tricky to find suitable pictures to complement a bolder design. The layout of the homepage is logical and its format is mirrored throughout, giving the customer a sense of consistency and familiarity. I think a few easy tweaks however could help streamline the first impression of the site.

On the home page, the “Recommended Holidays” are listed with each course title written in thin blue text on a dark grey block background. The title could be better emphasised by making the font thicker and perhaps a lighter colour to contrast with the grey. Because the recommended holidays are grouped together, there are many dark grey blocks together. I would be tempted to choose a lighter colour for this background to make it more in keeping with the neutral design of the site.

Spacing or reducing the list of the “Popular Courses” on the left hand side will make it more attention grabbing to a visitor. Displaying a range of the most popular products on a website is a great way to point customers towards to items they might otherwise not have seen. The site currently lists seventeen courses and the typeface is small making the individual titles difficult to distinguish at first glance.

Content

GoLearnTo is a good example of a site that understands their customer’s needs. Someone considering booking a learning course abroad will want a lot of information and GoLearnTo provides this in a clear and easy to find fashion. There is an extensive FAQ section, live chat support as well as information on the individual courses. These details are essential in providing the customer with the confidence that they will need to book and pay the deposit online.

I would consider reducing content only on 2 pages: the main “Activities” and “Destinations” pages. The reason for this is that the choice of destinations and courses are currently at the bottom of the page and rewriting the content at the top to make it more succinct will bring these further up the page and make them easier to spot to potential customers, particularly those viewing the site on a smaller computer screen.

There is an informative travel blog on the site with regular updates about current travel news and course information. As well as providing information to potential customers, this will also enhance the site in search engines such as Google by having regular and relevant content posted on the GoLearnTo website.

Spreading the word

Vanessa is looking at increasing the viral marketing and word of mouth recommendations for her products and site. The key here is to let visitors to the site know about other ways to keep in touch and up to date with offers, and to give customers and potential customers reason to keep coming back to the site even if they have booked or taken their holiday. GoLearnTo currently uses social networking sites, like Twitter and Facebook to promote the products and services. I would consider adding to the homepage icons which let people know they can find out about course updates through these popular networking sites.

Contributions from customers through videos, photos and reviews can also be a great way to spread the message of the products as well as increasing the content on the site. Building this community aspect gives customers reasons to return to the site in addition to booking a holiday. In addition to including more customer photos and media on the website, GoLearnTo could use external photo and video sharing sites like Flickr and YouTube to publish photos and videos about the course they offer, increasing the number of sites the business is featured on. I know that Vanessa plans further developments to the site throughout the year and I would love to see more customer interaction and community aspects helping to promote the business this way.

If you would like to submit your site to the clinic send your website address with some brief details about your business and what you would like to improve most on your site to: amy@women-unlimited.co.uk

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About the Author: Amy Harrison. After training as a screenwriter, Amy moved into the world of online business and since 2004 has worked on small to large enterprises both here in the UK and Canada. Amy left her job in online business development in 2008 to go it alone and now offers a copywriting and project management service. Amy will be offering practical hints and tips about maintaining and promoting your business website in our series of articles: “Web Therapy”. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing about your own website experiences! www.harrisonamy.com

A lot can be achieved by sending the right message to potential customers through your site’s content. Here are some brief hints if you have a website for your business and you’re thinking of writing your own content rather than hiring a copywriter.

Keep your landing page simple – pull people in

People have little patience when it comes to websites so you need to make sure that the content on your front page captures the audience’s attention (in a good way) and explains simply how your service or product might be of interest to them.

Some key questions your visitors will have when visiting your landing page are:

• Who are you?
• What can you help me with?
• Why would I be interested?
• Is it a product I buy, information I use or a service I hire?
• Where are you based?

Your landing page should try to answer a couple of these questions – and make it simple for them to find out the rest of the information. Clear navigation buttons with titles such as “Services”, “About Us”, and “Contact Us” let the customer know that answers can be found with ease.

Talk to your customer – ask them questions

Questions are a good way of transforming dull text into lively and engaging content. You are asking for a personal response and the answer just might make it clear to the customer that they need your product or service, for example:

• Does your current web content need livening up?
• Do you feel your business message isn’t clear on your brochures or flyers?
• Are you looking for an affordable, quality service?

Questions can also be used to pre-empt any objectives or doubts the customer may have:

• Why should you use our service?
• Do we offer both online and offline content writing?
• Can we work on short deadlines?

Don’t be pushy but don’t be shy – sell your service

Think of a sales person who you liked. Chances are they weren’t pushy – listened to your needs and possible objections and gave you enough information to show you how their product would help you. Your website is part of your online sales team and should work in the same way.

Content shouldn’t read as though it is forcing the customer to do something “You must buy this product or else!” Stay away from negative connotations and focus on how the benefits of your product or service can help a customer:

Don’t write:

“Buy this product or you’ll never make friends and you’ll end up lonely and miserable”

Do Write:

“Our product can give you the confidence to shine in a crowded room and connect with more like minded people”

All statements pertaining to your product should of course be true – and if you have statistics to prove your claims – even better!

Strip out the jargon

You are an expert in your field – your customer may not be so keep your content straight forward without dumbing down your business service. Even if you are a highly specialised technology company, someone looking to hire you may not be the head of IT, but a project manager who knows what needs to be done but is not familiar with the industry terminology.

Don’t write:

“Improve your SEO and reduce bounce rate.”

Do Write:

“Let your customers find your site easily in search engines like Google, and keep their attention when they get there! ”

Check Spelling

Check your spelling and then check again and then have someone check it for you. The same goes for grammar. A typo may not be the end of the world for your business, but it shows care, due attention and respect for your audience. Spelling mistakes happen to the best of us but we should do everything in our power to prevent those cheeky mixed up letters getting through our quality filters!

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About the Author: Amy Harrison. After training as a screenwriter, Amy moved into the world of online business and since 2004 has worked on small to large enterprises both here in the UK and Canada. Amy left her job in online business development in 2008 to go it alone and now offers a copywriting and project management service. Amy will be offering practical hints and tips about maintaining and promoting your business website in our series of articles: “Web Therapy”. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing about your own website experiences! www.harrisonamy.com

Welcome to the first edition of the Web Therapy Clinic. We had an excellent response and I want to thank everyone who submitted their site for a little therapy.

Clear communication is essential for a successful business and one of the most important things to consider when setting up a website for your business, is ensuring the message you send to people visiting your site is clear and sells the benefits of your product or service.

This virtual “conversation” between your website and potential customers is achieved through the design, layout and the words you use. Imagine your website is not only your virtual shop front; it is also your online sales assistant. It should act as a tour guide to your business, showing visitors what it is you offer, and more importantly, why they should buy your product or use your service.

This theme of a virtual conversation is one that we can look at in more detail with our first patient:

www.straightthinking.co.uk is run by Sophie Brett, a qualified NLP practitioner based in Hertfordshire.

First Impressions

Straight Thinking has a clean and simple design and as a site is easy to explore. There are the important sections such as “What’s Involved”, “About Us” and “Contact Us” and there are glimpses of enticing content written with the customer in mind.

The main area for potential improvement is ensuring that a clear message about the service is more prominent throughout the site, making it easier for customers to understand how Straight Thinking can benefit them.

Straight Thinking Homepage

The first question for potential clients on the website is eye-catching as it asks:

“Are you satisfied with your life?”

And then:

“Is there a specific problem that you would like to overcome – stress, weight loss, phobias, recovery from ME?

If you have someone who has answered yes to these, you have their attention – now is the time to finish your opening statement by explaining what service Straight Thinking offers to help.

Rather than:

“Straight Thinking is an organisation that has helped many people…and it can help you”

Something similar to this would be more effective:

“In one to one sessions with a qualified therapist, Straight Thinking offers a range of services from NLP to Hypnosis to help people overcome problems in their life and achieve their dreams.”

It’s still short and snappy but let’s your customer know very quickly that you offer a therapy rather than a product, a book, support group, medication or a distance learning course for example.

Free Consultation

This is a fantastic offer and I would love to see more emphasis on this. No-obligation free consultations are excellent in generating interest especially if potential customers are unfamiliar with the type of therapy you offer. Why not have a permanent link on your navigation bar which directs customers to a form for the free consultation?

Design

I don’t think the design needs to be much more complicated but it would benefit from having more images – especially of people. Professional photos of friendly looking people will make the site more personable as well as breaking up the text and adding depth. For professional royalty free photos, I use images from www.istockphoto.com and spend about £1 per image.

On some pages you do break up the text by using bullet points and I would employ this more throughout the site. Break the text into bite size chunks and you will have a customer’s attention for longer.

You may want to consider having a photo of you Sophie, on the “About Us” page. As your service relates directly to you, people may feel more comfortable putting a friendly face to the name. You may also want to include a contact number for your business as well as a contact form.

Content

Below I’ve picked some of the main pages to consider revising for a stronger impact on your audience.

NLP

Currently a very informative but lengthy quotation explains NLP. I would include a simpler, less “text-book” definition at the top for customers to read first:

“Ever wondered why some are afraid of spiders and others aren’t? It’s all to do with the way we have taught ourselves to behave. What might feel like automatic reactions that we have no control over are simply habits we have built up over time and some of those habits can stop us being happy: being afraid to fly or putting off achieving our goals for example.

NLP, which stands for Neuro-Lingusitic Programming, teaches you how to “re-program” your reactions so that you can board a flight without breaking into a sweat, or start and complete that book you always wanted to write.”

What’s Involved

I would include some more information here about what the customer can expect. A detailed explanation isn’t necessary but think about the common questions a potential client may have:

• Is it one to one or group work?
• How long is a session – is it 8 hours straight?
• Will I get any materials after I complete the session or techniques to practice?
• What is the centre like and how do I get there?

Case Studies

This is a useful section but seems to lose steam at the end. Rather than base these pages on testimonials, why not re-work this area as “What problems can Straight Thinking solve?” Include information on how the problems can be overcome, punctuated with short excerpts from testimonials.

Links

Here you can provide links to other websites relevant to your customers. Perhaps you know people offering services that complement yours and you could promote them here whilst asking them to promote your services on their site?

Blog

I am a strong advocate of having a blog (or web-log) on websites and will be covering this in future articles. A blog is an online journal for your business and is an excellent way of showing that your business is current and up to date. By constantly adding useful entries and content that relate to your business and industry developments, your website will stand out as an authority in your field.

Thank you again to Sophie for submitting her site. If you would like to submit your site to the clinic send your website address with some brief details about your business and what you would like to improve most on your site to: amy@women-unlimited.co.uk

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About the Author: Amy Harrison. After training as a screenwriter, Amy moved into the world of online business and since 2004 has worked on small to large enterprises both here in the UK and Canada. Amy left her job in online business development in 2008 to go it alone and now offers a copywriting and project management service. Amy will be offering practical hints and tips about maintaining and promoting your business website in our series of articles: “Web Therapy”. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing about your own website experiences! www.harrisonamy.com

Ever wished you could travel back in time to impart wisdom on your younger self? If this were possible there are a few pearls I would pass on:

“Buy stocks in Google. Worry less. Don’t get your hair cut from the mumbling village barber because he only charges £3.50 – the resulting mullet will never be seen as a bargain…”

Though time travel is impossible, it doesn’t stop the past sometimes catching up with you to offer its own valuable advice.

From age old shopping lists to last week’s diary entry, I am surrounded by an eclectic range of documentation written by an Amy of all ages. It was no surprise then, that during some routine filing (procrastination), I found a list of goals from many years ago.

The goals; including starting my own business, were still untouched. Some dreams had been amended to include more realistic deadlines – I now have until 2010 to run away with Bruce Springsteen to a mountain ranch. Phew.

My dreams hadn’t changed since then, so how had I accomplished so little? With a demanding career in online business development I couldn’t see how I could possibly fit any more into my day…

My younger self was shaking me by the shoulders with the answer:

The job had to go.

Four months ago I decided to go it alone and set up my own business. Since leaving my talented team of designers and developers I have had to learn firsthand how to set up a blog, buy domain names, create a website and promote my business online, all on a shoe string budget.

So far it’s been an exciting journey, and now I want to take you with me.

Web Therapy

This series is about passing on my experiences through practical articles that will show you my trials and triumphs and give you tips to help you set up an affordable virtual shop front regardless of your business.

This series is for you, designed to show you what you can achieve without a huge budget or technological know-how. I will respond to your suggestions on areas you want more information on and would love to hear about your experiences as well.

A feature of the series is a regular “Web Therapist” spot. You can submit your site to the “Web Therapy Clinic” and I will do a profile on your website with hints and tips on how to improve it.

This series aims to:

• Dispel the myth that having a website is expensive, complicated or a lengthy process
• Give you practical information in a jargon-free format.
• Show that you don’t need a fully operational business before starting your website. A simple website can develop as your business does.
• Help in choosing and buying a domain name
• Show you easy-to-use programs to build a website
• Help you start your first blog and use it to promote your business
• Explain Twitter, Facebook and other social media applications and how to use them to market your business

As well as useful articles, I will be sharing my own experiences so you can see what has or hasn’t worked for me. As an anonymous source once said:

“A smart woman learns from her mistakes; a wise woman learns from the mistakes of others.”

Let’s hope there is plenty you can learn from me!

Till next time.

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About the Author: Amy Harrison. After training as a screenwriter, Amy moved into the world of online business and since 2004 has worked on small to large enterprises both here in the UK and Canada. Amy left her job in online business development in 2008 to go it alone and now offers a copywriting and project management service. Amy will be offering practical hints and tips about maintaining and promoting your business website in our series of articles: “Web Therapy”. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing about your own website experiences! www.harrisonamy.com