The No1 staff training tool? Marketing content!

Think about it for a moment – it’s your marketing communications that tell your customers what to expect if they have dealings with your company.

So, shouldn’t your staff be singing from the same hymn sheet?

There’s a lot to be learned from the content writers you employ. They put themselves in the position of your customers, and ask themselves “what is it that will encourage me to buy from your company?”  It’s how they’re able to create copy that resonates with the target audience.

The copy they produce answers all the right questions, it reassures potential buyers, educates them and may even entertain them too along the way.

Above all, it instils an expectation about the exact experience, service or product they can look forward to when they transact with your business.

And here’s where it all goes wrong…

The words themselves are meaningless if they are not backed up by actions. Every copywriter portrays an optimistic view of how a business operates. The spanner in the works is reality!

Which his why it makes perfect business sense to use marketing content as the number 1 tool for staff training – covering company ethos, competitive advantage, customer service, product information, delivery expectations and so on.

It’s time to take an honest look at the quality of your service – and if your people are not mirroring the image created in your marketing, you’re failing your customers.

There’s a lot to be learned from marketing copy. It’s not just about paying lip service to the notion of good customer service; it should accurately encapsulate the real substance of your business. It’s about creating an authentic reflection of who you are and what you deliver on an individual, one to one level.

And consider this, a good independent content writer will deliver valuable insight into how the market works, what your customers expect and how to join up marketing with deliverables. Food for thought indeed.

Follow these instructions…

Christmas has been and gone, and with it lots of instructions – new child’s games, more adventurous recipes than usual to cook up in the kitchen, and technical household gadgets that should be simple to use but aren’t!

Which made me spend more time than usual thinking about who writes these instructions – and how do they test them?

I spent no less than 2 hours constructing a constellation globe – my 9 year old left me to it after about 10 minutes – is it just me? Am I less patient than most? Or are we right to grumble about complicated, hard to follow instructions?

I battled on with the constellation globe in the hope that it would all be worth it in the end, but alas, a perfect result was not to be. Thankfully my daughter forgave my paltry attempt and says it’s the best she’s ever had (and as it’s the only constellation globe so far in her short life, that’s not difficult!)

So, my plea here is for all manufacturers and cookbook writers – please oh please take care with your instructions, and have them tested, tested and tested again so we’re not filled with dread and bewilderment when we read them.

Here’s to a fabulous New Year, which should go with a bang, so long as we follow our firework instructions to the letter!

I wanna tell you a story…

For those of you too young to remember Max Bygraves, this isn’t gratuitous use of slang, more a reference to an old phrase of the past, used by a once famous singer – yet it’s a phrase that has considerable relevance to today.

Because marketing people talk a lot about telling the story of your brand. It helps to promote buy-in, loyalty and understanding of what your company is about.

And I’d like to reference a couple of instances in pop culture where story telling has won the day.

The 1st and 2nd best selling singles in the UK of all time relate to real life events – Candle in the Wind by Elton John and Do they know it’s Christmas by Band Aid, they’re kind of real life stories. The 3rd best selling single is Bohemian Rhapsody, it tells a story of a guy that just killed a man, you might remember it!

And in a poll by Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine to find out the best song lyrics of all time, listeners voted for Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon.

I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
Walkin’ through the streets of Soho in the rain
He was lookin’ for the place called Lee Ho Fooks
Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein

Do these words conjure up a picture for you, set a scene, even give you a tangible feeling? They take you on a journey, and that’s the point I’m trying to make.

These words are clever, and they work, and songs like these appeal to our human instinct to want to know more.

The people that love these songs are highly likely the same people that you’re trying to sell to. So, now you know what they like, use this as a guide to help you create your next blog or website content, promotion or presentation. Tell a story and you’ll have a captive audience.

The Innocent brand famously tells the story of their start-up. The founders sold their new smoothie fruit drinks at a London music festival, and asked customers whether they should give up their day job and make their smoothies a full time commitment.

Customers voted with their empties – filling the ‘yes’ bin (yes they should give up their day jobs) in vastly more quantities than the ’no’ bin, giving an overwhelming thumbs up to the product.

It’s a twee story, some might say, but it’s worked wonders for their profile.

So what’s your story? Think Richard Branson selling magazines at school, to Alan Sugar selling car aerials and electrical items out of a van with an initial investment of just £50. Do you have a start-up story that explains how to got to where you are today?

And my story? From my first job in an advertising agency I started writing copy. I didn’t even have a computer then so I’m not sure quite how I did it. Then I got a computer, and several models later, I’m still writing and still helping clients to articulate the features and benefits of their product or service, with some business wisdom and advice thrown in for good measure!

Stories take people on an emotional journey. They help consumers engage with your brand. If you’d like a chat about how we can create a story around your brand, I’d be pleased to help.

Balancing expertise with readability

It seems that more and more, we are all striving to be ‘experts in our field’, better than and more informed than the rest.

But in our quest to be the best, are we in danger of being boring or even irrelevant? Sharing knowledge is a common element of a content writer’s brief. “Show my customers how much I know, that I’m a thought leader and the go-to person for help and advice”.

So, my challenge is to balance this drive for ‘showing off’, with ensuring we’re not talking over the heads of our target audience, but giving them the information that they really need.

Yes, it’s important to show knowledge and expertise – but it’s how these skills benefit our clients that readers are interested in. So my approach is to take the in-depth expertise and spin a commercial angle onto it.

It’s all about the outcomes – what’s the answer to that ‘so what?’ question.

Take a look at this example:

“So you have the most advanced technology in the UK but how does that benefit my company? Oh, so you can cut traditional production times in half? Now I’m interested!”

By addressing the pain points suffered by customers, (in this instance, a lengthy production time) you’re more likely to strike a chord. It puts your product or service offerings into context so that customers instantly grasp how it is that you can help them.

We acknowledge that we are all time poor, that we have just a few seconds to capture and engage with website visitors. Offer answers to your customers’ problems, talk about the issues facing them right now and they will respond in a positive way.

 A place for ‘heavy’ content

There is of course a strong case for serious, knowledgeable copy and for including it on your website. Perhaps though just not right at the front. ‘More reading’, ‘knowledge hub’ etc, however you want to call it, signposts your more considered, detailed and thought-leading pieces to those that are interested in the finer points of your knowledge.

White papers, e-books and other publications are the perfect resting home for in-depth content, and are very valuable in proving your prowess, and positioning your business as a leader in its field.

So please take a look at your website and be sure to look at it through the eyes of your typical customer. Ask yourself if you are giving them the information they need in a friendly, palatable way, and whether your content needs a re-shuffle, to deliver the best possible online experience.

The importance of delivering on expectations

I’ve been very disappointed twice recently, by big name brands that quite frankly, I’d expect better service from.

One was a holiday company with whom I’ve booked a trip of a lifetime (I’ve a big birthday coming up!). They sent me an email recently to request the balance of payment. Fair enough, the balance is now due, however, the tone of the email was not what I would expect from a well-known holiday brand.

The words that upset me were: please keep in mind that if we don’t receive your payment by your balance due date your holiday will be cancelled.

What? So no provision for the possibility that I may not receive that email or I may be away on business or another holiday? Do I not get a second chance? These words were in the 3rd line of the email – not at the bottom, away from the rest of the message where it could have been added in the form of terms and conditions and in a more friendly tone.

So, I complained. I explained that I had high expectations when booking with this firm, after all, their marketing is second to none, and customers are left in no doubt that they need not expect compromises when holidaying with them.

I also stated that, based on the company’s outstanding reputation, I was even more disappointed at the tone of their letter than I might otherwise have been.

Which is why it’s so important to deliver on expectations. Marketing is only worth its salt if it is true to the word and customers receive the product or service that they were expecting. Anything less just leads to disappointment and feeling let down.

The response to my complaint was equally disappointing: whilst they stated that their intention was not to offend customers, this notification had come from their accounting team.

There’s a point here for all companies to note: make sure all departments in your company are aware of the marketing activities going on and see themselves as equally responsible for delivering on expectations no matter what their role in the company. Every member of staff is a company representative.

Moving on, my second disappointment has come from large retailer from whom I made a purchase last October. Since then I have been bombarded with emails, each one complete with an unsubscribe button that, when clicked, takes you to a normal web page, and not an unsubscribe page. Quite simply, there is no option to unsubscribe.

Despite many emails to complain and bring this to the company’s attention, I’ve been assured that my email address will be removed from their marketing lists (though this may take a few days) yet I’ve received virtually no acknowledgement that the unsubscribe button doesn’t work.

I’d expect a company of this size to operate in accordance with email marketing rules and not repeatedly send emails with the same non-functioning unsubscribe option – especially after the fault has been reported.

This blog may seem like a rant, and perhaps it is to some extent, but it’s to make an important point. Whoever you are, whether your company is a multi national conglomerate or a sole trader, it’s absolutely crucial to deliver on expectations. Don’t set yourself up for a fall with misleading marketing messages, as people, like me, won’t be too forgiving.

Who needs content marketing anyway?

It’s a bit of a buzz expression I know, a bit like social media and the like. So do you really need to pay attention or will ‘content marketing’ go away in time?

Here’s a quick heads up – we’re all making our buying decisions differently today to how we were just a year or so ago. Continue reading “Who needs content marketing anyway?”

Not all content is the same

What I mean is, you can’t approach all content the same way. And the art of content marketing is to understand your audience, the way they operate, and the choices they have when they make buying decisions.

  • Who are you talking to?
  • Where are they in the buying cycle?
  • What language do they respond to?
  • Do they need educating, entertaining, informing?
  • Do they prefer hard facts, statistics and results?
  • Do they rely on you for updates, trends, and news of innovation?

It’s good to think of content as an ever moving feast – customers’ needs and desires change at a rapid rate. Anticipating that change, and moving with it will keep your communications fresh, interesting and relevant.