A Nation of Ideas

From the New York Times this morning comes this non-analytical, but interesting comparison of word frequency in the lexicon of Barack Obama and George Bush.

By contrast, “State of the Union” ranked third among Google’s most popular search terms this morning, right after “what is an iPad” and “toyota recall.

Source:
The Words They Used
The New York Times
January 28, 2010
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/01/28/us/politics/28obama_graphic/popup.jpg

Five Benefits Your Ghost-Blogger Can Never Deliver

In nature there is no right or wrong, only consequences.

Ghost-blogging isn’t misrepresentation. It’s a missed opportunity.

Even worse, if your business blog is ghost-written, it’s a missed opportunity in which you’re investing precious marketing dollars.

The mistake arises when business leaders assume blogging is the latest way to make marketing communications appear chic and up-to-date. As a result, they approach their blog like every other marketing tool in their arsenal. It becomes another receptacle for promoting the corporate message, only with the addition of a “personal face” slapped over it.

A ghost-written corporate blog often reflects the same me-too marketing attitude that leads to cookie-cutter web copy, ersatz press releases and boilerplate brochures. The rush to join the blogosphere translates to the blog’s regular content: Rather than take time to develop a personal voice and perspective, executives hire someone else to crank out content under the assumption that high-frequency posts indicates an abundance of wisdom and authority.

Social media advocates have spent a lot of pixels to call ghost-blogging inauthentic, and even unethical. These charges seem a bit dramatic to me. It’s enough to call ghost-blogging ineffective.

First, I tend to doubt that most ghost-written executive blogs attract a loyal following or deeply engaged readers. Even if they do, the most important relationship on a blog is between readers and content, not readers and the by-lined author. That’s why people say content, not authenticity, is king.

So, I won’t go so far as to say ghost-blogging never works. Some executives work closely with their ghosts to develop a strategic and uniform message for their business blog. They remain invested in the content, and take ownership for it.

The problem is that there are far more effective ways to communicate the corporate message, especially with the help of ghost-writing talent.

Regardless of how it’s applied, blogging is by nature a personality-driven medium. Yes, content matters. But take a look at which blogs influence a large, loyal and chatty following. The majority of them aren’t ghost-written company mouthpieces. Rather, they showcase the immediate and personal perspective of a charismatic blogger, and his or her following.

So, the problem isn’t blogging, or ghost-writers. It’s combining the two, which puts them at odds with each other. It’s a misapplication of marketing tactics, not strategy.

If your goal is to increase the visibility, credibility and authority of your business or its executives, and you wish to leverage the talents and logistical benefits of a ghost-writer, then the most appropriate marketing medium is an emailed newsletter.

Regularly emailed e-newsletters allow all of the logistical benefits of a ghost-writer, and carry far more value as a marketing tool than a blog. Among the benefits:

1. A more realistic schedule: Whether published weekly, monthly or quarterly, newsletters are simpler to plan and coordinate with a ghost-writer. Also, their regularity promotes more focused communications: Most businesses can find one or two items of genuine interest to report every month.
2. More active outreach: Rather than driving people to your blog, a newsletter brings content to the people.
3. A well-defined funnel: Since most newsletters require registration, they can more clearly define the scope and characteristics of people at the top of your marketing-to-sales funnel.
4. Better tracking: Blog analytics tell you a lot about your audience, but a hyperlink-rich newsletter can tell you more about what motivates individual audience members to take action.
5. No comment: The authenticity issue with ghost-bloggers congeals in a blog’s comments section, where readers can engage with the perceived author. No matter how talented your ghost-writer, he or she is poorly qualified to interact on your behalf. A newsletter not only eliminates this issue, it relegates any unwelcome reader perspective to the privacy of an email response.

Bottom line: Ghost-blogging is a symptom, not a disease. The disease is ineffective application of sound marketing tools. Fortunately, there’s a cure: Put your ghost-writer to work where he or she won’t create unnecessary and often counterproductive layers between you and the audience.

When Should Content Be Free?

Photo credit: kalandrakas

I’m not asking. Ann Handley of MarketingProfs is. Specifically, she raised the question last week on OPEN Forum, an oddly titled site since it’s only open to American Express cardholders. Even so, I recommend reading Ann’s post here. You’re welcome to offer your own thoughts below (credit cards welcome, but not required).

To summarize, Ann correctly posits two approaches to distributing your eBooks and white papers:

1. You can require interested readers to register their name, email and contact information before they access your content, or
2. You can offer content free for download, thereby encouraging readers to share it and hopefully turn it viral, thereby generating maximum exposure for minimum expense

I can see how the latter possibility would appeal to marketing types. Who would turn down bragging rights for an article that’s become the darling of the chatocracy? As Ann explains, marketers are disinclined to hide content behind a registration wall because “the real goal is visibility with your audience.”

I respectfully disagree. Visibility is the mission of advertising, not marketing. Admittedly there’s some overlap here. But the desire for content to “go viral” falls squarely on advertising’s side of the advertising-marketing Venn diagram.

Content goes viral because it promotes a shared emotion, experience or attitude, which is fundamentally what advertising aims to achieve for a brand. In a sense, the role of advertising is to feed marketing, and the role of marketing is to feed sales.

So, is content more valuable when it’s behind a registration wall, or when it’s set free to propagate on the internet.

I’m wondering why this is an either/or question. In researching this post, I referred to blog posts and slideshares of Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale. Interestingly, I found he cited two almost identical statistics that seem to contradict one another.

In the first, Brian wrote on his blog that registered content could drive away 75 to 85 percent of potential leads.

In the second, he notes in a slideshare that 80% of marketing expenditures on lead generation are lost, ignored or discarded by sales. Among the top reasons, he cites, are that leads aren’t properly qualified or prioritized.

So, maybe the question should be how to qualify leads without scaring away prospective customers.

The answer isn’t a matter of which approach is better, but rather which approach applies, and when.

It’s unwise, for instance, to demand registration for content early in the buying process when customers are beginning to gather information about you and your competitors. High-level perspective, such as industry articles, buyer’s guides, web copy and case studies help customers place your value against a larger context.

This content should be offered gratis.

Make it easy for prospects to get educated about what questions to ask. You build trust by making it safe to learn those questions from you.

As customers move further along the buying process, their questions become more knowledgeable and specific. They’re better equipped to recognize content of value to their research. If you’ve already built trust by helping them learn what questions to ask, they’re more likely to submit a name or an email in exchange for more specialized content.

Carroll makes an excellent point about minimizing prospects’ commitment during the process. He recommends using a series of “micro-conversions:” requiring an email for a white paper here, a job title for an article there. Eventually, by enabling prospects to educate themselves, you’re also compiling a profile to help guide sales to close the deal.

Content Is People

Photo Credit: sndrv

Most direct mail marketers regard a letter with a 3% response rate to be a smashing success. When you’re targeting a consumer market numbering in the millions, a 3% success rate actually means something.

But B2B is a different kettle of fish. Its market, by definition, is on a smaller scale. Sure, direct mail – or marketing copy of any kind – can still generate new leads, expand the client-base and soften up the marketplace before the troops land. But most B2B revenue models need skin in the game in order to compete.

In B2B, the best marketing content is people – sales people… Whether on the phone or on the convention floor, they’re the folks who talk to the customer. And, if they’re any good, they’re probably listening as well. If anyone knows what the customer is asking, or buying, or reading, it’s the sales staff.

That’s why marketing strategy should follow sales strategy, and why marketing copy should do likewise.
Sales staff are like actors hired to tell your company’s story. They’re out there on that stage every day performing variations on a theme. As the guy hired to write the script, I generally request some time with the actors.

Unlike marketing and executive folks, sales staff are only one degree removed from my copy’s target audience. In some respects, they make an even better focus group than the customers. Their jobs depend on knowing what plays well with the audience, and what lands with a thud.

Go figure, but that’s useful information to me.

Knowing the actors doesn’t hurt either, particularly if I’m writing sales materials like brochures and PowerPoint presentations. Some sales staff prefer to do the talking, and use printed content either for emphasis or as a leave-behind for the prospect.

Knowing up front how they use my business copy allows me to draft an appropriate level of detail. Clearly, illustrative material needn’t be as granular, whereas a leave-behind had better anticipate and answer any customer questions, and include a clear call to action.

The first rule of B2B copy isn’t to sell, sell, sell. It’s to do no harm to the people who use it. It shouldn’t be overly clever, or promotional or expository. It shouldn’t upstage the salesperson, or impose textbook marketing rules that fall apart after first contact with the customer.

Like any well-designed tool, business copy should integrate so seamlessly into the business mission that the two are virtually indistinguishable.

Specialist or Generalist? How to Choose the Freelance Path for You.

Photo Credit: piccadillywilson

Is it better to be a copywriting specialist or a generalist? Should you do one thing very well, or be a jack of all trades?

Today’s the day that all-around copywriter Peter Bowerman, and white paper expert Michael Stelzner will go head to head on that topic in an online debate.

I predict the debate will conclude that choosing to be a generalist or a specialist is a matter of personal preference. (If the conversation continues beyond that, I predict it’ll focus on how to pitch the path you’ve chosen.)

So, let me begin where I think today’s debate will end:

You choose your path, and then your marketing strategy, not the other way around.

Archilochus, the old soldier poet from ancient Greece once said:

“The fox knows many things, and the hedgehog knows one big thing. But they both gotta hustle if they expect breakfast.”

Okay, I may be paraphrasing that a bit. The point is you can choose to be a fox or a hedgehog, but without clients you can’t eat. Either way you go, you need to communicate what value your services return.

The hedgehog
A specialty makes it easier for prospective clients to find you – in fact, they’re already looking for you. They’ve already decided they need to outsource a white paper or case study. Or they need someone intimately familiar with their particular industry or market.

They’re not quibbling over whether they should hire a writer. They’re actively searching for the best writer in the niche.

The trade-off for specialists is often geographic. Although their target market is actively searching for their services, it’s a smaller market than what generalists enjoy. So, specialists need to build visibility and credibility where their market congregates.

Luckily every market congregates on the internet. So, pitching a specialty through SEO tools is an easy approach. Launching a blog is a little more challenging, but it builds credibility. Specialists reaching for the brass ring will find the time do speaking engagements, or publish a book on their area of expertise.

The fox
Generalists have to hustle more, a lot more. They can solve a wider range of copy-related problems, but fewer businesses are looking for them. So, raising visibility isn’t as critically important as building trust.

The hard reality generalists need to accept is the market doesn’t particularly value how well they write. Unemployed staff writers and journalists are flooding the freelance market. Meanwhile, websites like oDesk.com and Elance.com are awarding assignments to low bidding writers, and writing shops in Asia are underpricing even them.

The market perceives generalists as a commodity, and prices them accordingly.

So, generalists who hope to survive and thrive are wiser to avoid piecework, and instead build and maintain strong relationships. Finding sustainable work as a generalist is an inside job, gained by referrals from past clients and through word of mouth.

The majority of businesses out there don’t intuit the value of good copy, much less the value of outsourcing it to a freelancer. So generalists need to get close to their prospects and listen. They need to be able to identify business problems that good content can solve. They need to have a realistic idea of how better copy can solve it. And they must be able to make a compelling case for the value of their solution.

Freelancing is a business, and keeping a business is hard enough in a good economy. Whether you choose to be a fox or a hedgehog matters less than how intelligently you market what you do, and how passionate you are about what you write.

Your Story is More Interesting than You

Photo Credit: A Journey Round My Skull

Echoing A Rebel Without a Cause, I titled my high school journal A Hero Without a Plot. Dreaming of the glamorous lifestyle of a writer, I figured all I need do was live an interesting enough life, and my memoirs would practically write themselves and fly off bookstore shelves.

At fourteen, success was about being me – or rather an idealized version of me. All I had to do, I reasoned, was realize that vision of myself, and John Q. Public would climb over his grandmother just to hear me lay down the Wisdom.

My mistake was assuming I was more interesting than my story.

Narrative always trumps character, even for sensations like Susan Boyle and Captain “Sully” Sullenberger. We remember the act long after the actor.

Ever hear of Aron Ralston? No?

Well, how about  the hiker who spent five days with his arm trapped under a boulder before severing it with a knife, rappelling down a 65-foot cliff and hiking eight miles back to civilization? That ring a bell?

See what I mean? Chances are the words “stained blue dress” resonate more strongly with you than the name Kenneth Starr.

Remove our narrative, and we become invisible. Stories are what distinguish us.

The same applies to products and services. Like most characters, your product is just another face in the crowd. It remains indistinguishable without a story, and that story is the unique or superior value you provide.

Marketing and public relations approach narrative overtly, by telling a story in press releases, case studies, trade articles and web copy. That doesn’t mean they represent an automatic slam dunk. If anything, these long-form formats demand more compelling use of narrative to grab and hold readers.

Advertising and branding approach narrative more obliquely, allowing the unique value to take shape in a customer’s imagination. Advertising for Coca Cola, Apple or Carnival Cruise Lines, for example, invoke what the customer might experience, rather than the specific features their products deliver.

You may have spectacular products or services. But you have human customers, and they’re hard-wired for narrative.

I plan on exploring this topic in more detail. So, feel free to share how narrative has helped you or your clients craft more effective messages.

Friday Link Love

Photo credit: dawnzy58

Leading this week’s Link Love is blogger Dave Fleet’s open invitation to lurkers – i.e. readers who frequent a blog, but rarely ever leave a comment – to come out of the shadows and say “hello.”

Since Dave frequently writes about ghost-blogging, I’ve frequently read his posts – often long after comments are timely. Even so, that qualifies me as a lurker. So, I gave him a shout out in the comments section.

Now I’m inviting you to do the same. Any regular readers out there? If not, that’s cool too. I won’t feel as obligated to stick so doggedly to my weekly blogging schedule.

Speaking of ghost-bloggers, Mark Schaefer tackles the issue again, only this time he proposes some ground rules. If you must hire a ghost-blogger, Mark suggests, at least try to do it legitimately.

I respect his attempt, but I felt it was an academic argument. The underlying problem with ghost-blogging is a misapplication of strategy, not tactics. It isn’t merely unethical marketing, it’s ineffective marketing. Have your ghostwriter draft you a nice e-newsletter instead.

Interestingly, Mark’s next post introduces what could be the blogosphere’s first Authenticity Policy, which he and his blog’s readers helped inspire. Drafted and posted by Anne Giles Clelland, President and CEO of Handshake Media in Blacksburg, VA, the policy is posted here.

There’s social media thought leaders, and then there’s just social media leaders. Full props to Ms. Clelland.

How to spot a writer
From authentic bloggers, we go to authentic marketing writers. A post by John White on the aptly named How to Hire a Writer blog, recommends you ask prospective freelancers about their method.

Are you a writer? Then you have a method, right? …RIGHT?

If not, you’d better go commit John’s post to memory, because the toothpaste is out of the tube now.

Last but not least, Corey Freeman, teenage wunderkind gives props on her Writer7 blog to another wunderkind, blogger Alex Fraiser, who with his wunderkind co-blogger, Seth, publishes Blogussion.

The post on Blogussion that caught Corey’s attention, and that I’ve since bookmarked, offers a list of 18 articles to help you write better blog headlines. That sort of exhaustive resource could only appeal to a generation that doesn’t yet feel time is their enemy

Seriously though, I’m digging this new crew of bloggers, and what they’re bringing…

The Fearful Secret of Copywriting Success

Photo credit: bobster855

I owe my professional success, in part, to knowing which fights to pick. Picking this one may not represent my smartest play, but here I go…

Let me state up front that I have no professional or personal ax to grind with organizer Michael Stelzner, or the other copywriting luminaries putting their time, expertise and necks on the line at the Copywriting Success Summit 2009. I’ve actually purchased and read publications offered by several of the Summit’s speakers. I frequently read many of their blogs; and I’ve even exchanged friendly correspondence with a few.

Even so, this is one copywriter who won’t be shelling out the $297 early bird rate to hear any of them speak at the Summit.

A brief, but relevant digression
Social media guru Chris Brogan has taken hits lately for profiting off the professional network he took years to build with free content and advice. The profits in question stem, in part, from his publication of Trust Agents, a well-received New York Times bestseller about social media relationships.

For more on that debate, visit here and here. My take on the issue is very simple: The decision to put a price on content belongs solely to those who create it. The rest of us can vote with our wallets.

Which brings me back to the Copywriting Success Summit 2009, and why I won’t be attending…

Apologies in advance for pissing anyone off. I recognize I could just as easily cast a silent vote. But there’s a discussion worth having here about whether our profession benefits more from a communal or competitive model. Put another way, should our relationships with other freelancers be governed by capitalism or communism? (For the irony impaired: IRONY!)

I’ll be brutally honest with you. I tend to be a capitalist when I’m providing a service, and a communist (IRONY!) when I’m receiving one.

So, it’s more a reflection of me – not the Summit speakers – that when I read about these kinds of events and products, I find myself wondering whether their expertise reflects an ability to attract new clients, or extract money from new copywriters. Did success lead them to promote their methods, or did promotion of their methods lead to their success?

I digress. This isn’t about me, and it isn’t about them. It’s about all of us.

Here’s my question
What is gained and what is lost when we pay others for the secrets to their success?

Bob Bly, the Godfather of copywriting gurus, once said that tapping the proven methods of veteran copywriters can reduce your learning curve from 100 hours to 10 hours. I agree.

I still have dog-eared copies of Bob’s books, and others from Peter Bowerman and Michael Masterson on my shelf. They were constant references when I launched my freelance career nearly eight years ago. They provided some very sound advice, such as:

• Establish a niche for yourself. It’s easier to grasp the value of a specialist, than a generalist.
• Define your ideal client before getting started
• Demonstrate, rather than promote, your skill at writing persuasively
• Sell the benefits, not the features of your copywriting services
• Learn the comparative application and benefits of marketing tools – for example, email vs direct mail, blogging vs e-newsletters

All very good stuff and – another disclosure – some of these lessons came from online seminars similar to the upcoming Summit. I think it’s wise for budding copywriters to invest in materials and events that will help them cultivate expertise. I do.

But I also believe that there are certain traits to successful freelancers that, by definition, can’t be taught. These I rarely ever see the experts breathe a hint about. Among them:

• Enthusiasm bordering on a compulsive desire for the self-employed lifestyle. (Today’s enthusiasm becomes tomorrow’s hard-boiled commitment when business gets slow)
• Dogged – and I mean dogged persistence at marketing yourself. That includes building and sustaining a network of prospective clients
• A high pain threshold for risk, uncertainty and a sometimes fickle marketplace. It’s not personal, deal with it.
• A rock-solid perspective about when you’re beating yourself up, and when you’re letting yourself off the hook for mistakes
• Confidence – not cockiness – confidence that you know what constitutes good copy
• A self-sustaining and monstrous work ethic
• Attention to self-care: Your creative side is linked to your physical, mental and emotional health. Working on your writing means working on yourself
• Savings: There are no unemployment benefits for the self-employed. Debt and insolvency are not your friends, particularly when you’re sitting at the negotiating table
• And lastly, an ability to be in the right place at the right time (i.e. everywhere)

Just because these things can’t be taught doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be mentioned. Freelancing is not an easy business, and not everyone is cut out for it.

Maybe that’s my problem with seminars, kits and books that make success seem like it’s the product of a secret formula. These materials highlight the potential road to riches, and proven methods that have worked for others. But they don’t talk about the external risks, and they ignore internal factors.

They don’t tell me about me – my strengths, my weaknesses, which flaws I can correct and which I need to work around. This stuff gets brushed aside in the promotional materials because it doesn’t sell. There’s no profit in it.

And yet, I would argue that my second list of bullets plays a far greater role than the first in determining a freelancer’s long-term success.

Bottom line: I’m not out to take food off the plate of any expert who wants fair recompense for his or her expertise. But neither do I want to see the genuinely challenging path of freelance writing to be presented as a cakewalk – if you only know the secrets.

Here’s the fearful secret of copywriting success: Freelancing can be damned hard at times – anything worthwhile generally is.

So do we cultivate the next generation of freelancers by billing them for our hard-won expertise, or by freely sharing our experience and support through networks, blogs and mentorships?

What say you?

Is Registered Content Intrinsically More Desirable?

Someone asked this week whether a white paper they had written would have greater marketing value if readers had to submit contact information before accessing it.

My answer was no. Exclusivity can preserve the value of content, but not contribute to it.

Putting content behind a registration wall has its trade-offs. It will be invisible to search engines, for example. Plus, unless you rigorously promote it, expect it to attract fewer eyeballs.

The one big benefit to registered content is that it allows you to qualify your hottest leads.

Exchanging contact information for free content implies two things about the exchanger:

1. Your content’s value motivated them to actually submit information about themselves, and
2. They’re open to further contact

At the very least, registered content should include a call to action at the end – either to contact you for more information, or to click through to a website where additional content more specific to their needs is available. Either approach allows you to track and measure your content’s effectiveness.

Registered content works best when it has a clearly defined role in a business’s sales funnel – or rather a marketing-to-sales funnel – which my friend, colleague and drinking buddy Greg Donahue explains at greater length here.

Friday Link Love

Photo credit: Nganguyen

There was a lot of good content on the blogosphere this week, and it was all I could do just to keep current on my reading. (Busy work week here.)

The news on newspapers
I managed some brief comments here and there, but the only post that still has me thinking was Leo Babauta’s “8 Valuable Lessons Newspapers Must Learn from Bloggers to Survive.” Part of the reason the post resonated with me was because I learned this week that our local paper now charges $250 for an obituary. Obits used to be a free service that newspapers provided – sort of like, you know, news.

Personally, I feel any newspaper that charges $250 to announce the death of a local loved one deserves whatever obsolescence is coming to it. It’s a parasitical business model. Blogs aren’t killing newspapers. Newspapers are killing newspapers.

Writing on writing
Other recommended reading includes Kickbutt Writing Skills Still One of the Most Effective Marketing Strategies, on Peter Bowerman’s seminal Well-Fed Writer Blog. The title is self-explanatory and if I had had more time, I might have argued that kickbutt self-marketing skills come before kickbutt writing skills – except I’m pretty sure Peter already knows that. Also, kickbutt writing gets you noticed only insomuch as an absence of mistakes gets you noticed. Good writing is really a sort of passive virtue compared to saving clients time, money and brain cells.

Blogging on blogging
Sonia Simone of Copyblogger.com offers some genuinely good reminders of bad blogging habits in The 7 Deadly Sins of Blogging. One omission under Boorishness is abusing other bloggers for self-righteous criticism, like this new blogger did.

Conversation about conversation
And lastly, I’m am not a big fan of the celebrity interview – and Danny Brown is sort of a social media celebrity – but blogger Jay Baer does a pretty good Q&A that reveals, among other things, that Mr. Brown recommends spending 20% posting on your own blog and 80% commenting on others. Sounds like someone I know…