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Top 10 Reads This Week - May 16 - 05.16.08
1) An excellent post by Washington Post-owned Slate on Why search-engine optimization makes the Web a better place. It includes some great stats on the percentage of click-throughs on the first page of Google, to an explanation of white-hat and black-hat practices.
2) In response to the Slate post, Jordan McCollom at Marketing Pilgrim addresses why SEO Is Good, But Not the Same as Reputation Management where Together dating is concerned.
5) Ever wondered how knowing a second or third language might help you in business? Rohit Barghava brings us some compelling reasons with A Simple Marketing Lesson From The "Lingo Kid". 6) Marketing Magazine blog tells us how DDB Canada has created a very funny, very memorable commercial (below) for Subaru Forester positioning sumo wrestlers in the role of sexy car washers. Check coloribus.com for the full creative team behind the ad. 7) It was only a matter of time before traditional media realized the wealth of ready-to-publish content available from bloggers. Mitch Joel announced on Twitter that the Montreal Gazette is now reprinting his posts from his Six Pixels of Separation blog to run as articles. The first is Seven Types Of Highly Effective Corporate Blogs, originally published April 19, 2008.
8) If you have any interest in word-of-mouth marketing, then Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba's Church of the Customer blog is essential reading. This week's pick is 5 things you need to know about women and word of mouth. Exploring Language in a Visual Way - 05.14.08
Recently I rediscovered the Visual Thesaurus, a Web application that Get Clients Now coach Cristina Favreau said was "highly addictive". It is the coolest thing evah! The Visual Thesaurus visually maps words that relate to each other in the context of a dictionary and a thesaurus. Follow the branches to discover how other words relate, explore their meanings and learn a new way to look at language. I can see how using this tool would help to stimulate improved writing and for $20 a year, it is a small price to pay to clear the occasional writer's block.
Social Media for the Masses - 05.13.08
SearchEngineWatch.com reported: David Glazer, Director of Engineering at Google had this to say: "Google Friend Connect is about helping the 'long tail' of sites become more social. Many sites aren't explicitly social and don't necessarily want to be social networks, but they still benefit from letting their visitors interact with each other. That used to be hard. Fortunately, there's an emerging wave of social standards -- OpenID, OAuth, OpenSocial, and the data access APIs published by Facebook, Google, MySpace, and others. Google Friend Connect builds on these standards to let people easily connect with their friends, wherever they are on the web, making 'any app, any site, any friends' a reality."
A Tale of Two Advertisements... - 05.12.08
The second starts off with the question “Need help managing your investments?” with a large heading “Let Fidelity’s professionals manage your portfolio for you.” Beneath that is a paragraph of corporate “blah-blah” that has obviously fallen victim to the legal department. “Having Fidelity professionals manage our money could relieve you of the anxiety and time demands of monitoring the markets and your investments.”
The Fidelity ad has some obstacles to overcome. The legal warnings (i.e. investing has its risks, etc.) take up more space than the body of the copy. By using an easy-to-read sans-serif font on the legal stuff, and font sizes that appear to be the same size as the marketing copy or larger, my eye skips down and starts reading about the perils of investing. I don’t think that was the intent. Next, let’s go back to the copywriter’s mantra of “show don’t tell.” In the Merrill Lynch ad, Martin Yan is at the forefront, as is the story about his relationship with his advisor. By comparison, in the Fidelity ad, the copy reads, “Our team takes a personalized approach…” with a smallish generic stock photo. In the Merrill Lynch ad, they’ve inserted quotes from Yan and his advisor: “John understands my needs,” says Yan. “Now his 15-year-old twins are facing college,” says Ting. “And we’re ready.” Such a simple approach. The Martin Yan quote is a testimonial, with connotations of trust. And his advisor John Ting’s quote is there as a easy-to-relate-to metaphor, that everything is okay. The money is there for the kids to go to college, and no doubt, other financial affairs are in order. By comparison, the Fidelity Investments ad mentions, “…matching your goals, financial situation, and risk tolerance to a diversified, actively managed model portfolio of mutual funds.” Yawn. As fellow blogger Michelle Kostya says, “My eyes glaze over.” As well, I don’t like the “So do the smart thing and call today for a complimentary investment consultation." Perhaps I’m too sensitive, but it sounds a little condescending. Now, for the final aspect that won me over… context. The ads are running in Bon Appetit. The Merrill Lynch ad features a well-known chef, and includes lines like, “When you put something in the oven, you can’t rush it, says Yan. “If you take it out early it’s raw. Same thing with investments.” The other ad? Nope. I’m sure they are equally good companies, but from a copywriting point of view, to me, one is a clear winner. Top 10 Reads This Week - May 9 - 05.09.08
1) Chances are you are scanning this blog. Usability guru Jakob Neilsen discusses the phenomenon in How Little Do Users Read? (Strangely I read the whole article.) 2) Want to know how to evaluate the page power of a particular site? Ann Smarty (SEO Smarty) has written a wonderful article at Search Engine Journal. Thanks to Thad McIlroy of The Future of Publishing for tipping me off to this excellent article!
3) Over at The Guardian, Jeff Jarvis covers the tale of a man, his spit bucket and a webcam in "The Social Media Sommelier. " Finding Your Brand Voice - 05.07.08
Quite often most businesses have a very rigorous brand policy in place that outlines how their logo can be used, corporate colours, typefaces, etc. But how many businesses have styleguide in place, or know their brand voice? The words we chose, our writing style, inflection and even punctuation - all work together to influence our brand voice. Part of a larger brand identity/vision, brand voice comes from a clearly established brand personality. Why is brand voice so important? Because it encompasses everything from the character of all internal and external collaterals, the way the phone is answered, the way customer service department and sales force interact with customers, and the tone of all advertising. So what’s your personality? Here are a few ways to start: A trick from corporate coach Michael Bungay Stanier is the “This/Not This” exercise that helps compile some words to get you thinking about your brand. For example: Bright & vibrant not pastel Classic Chablis not weird Gerwurztraminer Non-conformist not thinks-inside-the-box Uptown not folksy Many marketers create a list of about 20 human traits. (Youthful, honest, daring, reliable, tough, etc.) Once you have a persona, the voice becomes distinctive. Another good start is to examine the target consumers’ desires. In other words, what does your target market want in relation to brand personality? You also need to do a competitive analysis. How are other similar products or companies positioning themselves? Only when you understand that can you differentiate yourself and create customer value. Are there already inherent connotations or perceptions in your industry? For instance, Virgin Mobile Canada is expected to have a hip and cool attitude, whereas the Royal Bank of Canada is expected to be reliable and more traditional. Once you’ve established your brand personality, understanding your brand voice is far simpler. Brand voice makes your company distinctive. Top 10 Reads This Week - May 2 - 05.02.08
1) PageTrafficBlog reports that Feedburner To Serve Google AdSense Units On RSS Feeds, beginning Feedburner's integration in the Google family. Thanks to Twitter pal @seocopyandstrat for the heads up. This brilliant video from comedy sketch group Idiots of Ants acts out Facebook in Reality. |
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