Redesigning Your Website? Overhaul the Content Too!

Are you redesigning your website? If so, you’ve got the perfect opportunity to overhaul your content too. “But,” you may be saying, “why would I take the extra time and expense to fix something that isn’t broken? I’ve got all the information I need and my new site is beautiful.”

It’s true that first impressions count when it comes to your website, so it should be beautiful. But you need a variety of interesting, dynamic and compelling content to help your site get picked up by search engines and to give visitors a way to take action.

With a website redesign, you’ve got a gorgeous new blank slate with which to convey your brand identity, so give people a reason to stick around and find out more about who you are, what you do and give them opportunities to subscribe, try and buy.

You’re already relaunching. You’ve got about 20 seconds to capture someone’s attention. Overhaul your content and keep them coming back for more.

Leveraging Your Content Assets

Your business likely leverages assets (financial, real estate, etc.) in some way to multiply gains, so how are you leveraging your content assets?

What are my content assets, you may ask? They may include:

* Your website. Also known as your face to the world.

* Business blog.

* Social media presence (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+)

* Email marketing

* Case studies, white papers, etc.

Whether you have all of these as part of your arsenal or are still filling your content pool, each and every one of them is worthwhile and can be leveraged to give you a return on your investment. Why should you invest in producing content? In short, you can use your content to position yourself as a thought leader in your field, to get people to your website and keep them coming back for more and to put your voice and your perspective out there while building trust with current and potential customers.

Simple ways to leverage your content assets:

* Know your audience and give them what they need and are asking for. It pays to do research early on to make sure you’re best meeting the needs of the people who can eventually pay you for your goods or services.

* Have a tight, concise, well-written, action-oriented website.

* Create a blog on your website and update it frequently. Update old posts (two years or older) to keep them relevant.

* When you update your blog, announce the new post on social media (Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn). Open yourself up to questions and encourage sharing. Further participate in the conversation by answering questions posted by those you follow. Try to keep your posts at 10 percent (or less) self promotion level or people will start to ignore you.

* Compile your content into an opt-in email newsletter. Bring the content to their inbox, but give them a reason to click on a link to take action.

* Make blog posts out of case studies (or vice versa). Offer white papers as an outline to solve customer problems.

* Multiply the productivity of your resources — in other words, write once, use twice (or more). Repurpose your content into presentations, webinars, classes or seminars.

You’ve got assets. You can add to your assets and leverage them to create a positive return on your time and brainpower investment. Now, get out there and move those assets!

Three Things to do Right Now to Improve Your Business Blog

You’re putting a lot of time and effort into your business blog, so make sure people are reading it and getting the most out of what you’re trying to say. These three simple tweaks can improve your blog with very little time invested. 

Make sure your  headlines represent

 Headlines are a lot of pressure — you’ve got a lot to convey with very few words. You may be tempted to shout in ALL CAPS, use exclamation points to illustrate your enthusiasm, toss in six or seven keywords to make sure you’re picked up by search engines and use a phrase worthy of the tabloids to really get people’s attention. Don’t. Don’t do any of those things. ALL CAPS is hard to read and really does make it look like you’re yelling. Exclamation points are okay, but must be used very sparingly (if at all). If a keyword (or two) fits organically what you’re trying to say, great. If not, don’t force it. But one of the worst things you can do to your readers is to mislead them.

Using a headline like, ”UFO Crashes on South Side“ then mentioning in your post that a group of children found a chunk of meteor in the general vicinity is likely to anger your readers and make them say, “I clicked on this because of the headline and the story was totally different. That’s lame. I won’t be clicking through to this site ever again.” Yes, they read your post, but it was a one-time deal, they’re not coming back, they’re cynical about you and you didn’t get your point across. Not a great strategy.

Make it easier to read

You’re good at what you do and you want to share. But if you have a lot to say and your posts are long, you’ve likely lost people in the “scan the page then oooh, something shiny over there…” era of Internet reading. Capture attention with a good and accurate headline then help break up the text with call out boxes, headers and bullet points. Make sure to highlight the information you most want people to take away.

Leave yourself out of it

If your last post (or last 10 posts) have mentioned you or your business or were in any way self-promotional, stop talking about yourself for awhile. Your blog is a place to position yourself as a thought leader within your industry and to give people a foot in the door to your company as a resource, but it has to be subtle. If every post begins and ends with your elevator speech and a “join here” or “contact us for an appointment” call to action, people will move on. Blog to build trust, not to blast people’s eyeballs with information about how great you think you are.

With these few simple tips in mind, you can achieve new heights in blogging. Now, go forth and blog with confidence.

How to Make Challenging Content Easier to Read — And Even Interesting!

Medical, legal, financial and technical businesses can have a tough time creating and disseminating content. Regulations, laws, restrictions and complicated terminology often mean long disclaimers tacked on to web pages or articles no one manages to slog through anyway. It doesn’t have to be that way.

While there may not be much you can do about the disclaimers, you can make challenging content easier to read, even entertaining!

Okay, maybe not that entertaining, but close.

Keep it simple.
Note: This does not apply if you’re writing for an audience of your peers in a journal article, for example. In those cases, have at it and be as technical and “inside baseball” as you need to be. If, however, you are writing for a more general audience, the simpler the better. Very few people in the world enjoy the gift of being able to program and understand multiple programming languages, for instance. If writing an article or blog post on that topic, use simple, straightforward language to explain concepts and avoid jargon.

Find multiple editors.
There are people in your law firm who are not attorneys (or people who are not engineers or scientists or techies, etc.). Find them and ask them to read the piece you wrote. Ask them to read it as if they have no background or knowledge of the subject (even better if they don’t). And ask them to be honest with their feedback. Tell them that your goal is to create a piece that can be read and understood by everyone. Remember, feedback is not criticism of your work, it’s just an opportunity for you to have your message better understood.

Break it down.
If you’re attempting to address a long list of elaborate theories — don’t. In all likelihood, you’re going to lose people. Instead, create a series of articles and break down the concept into “bite sized” pieces that are more easily digestible.

Be interesting … carefully.
Obviously, in most cases, anyone writing about finances, legal, medical or pharmaceutical issues should not use personal or real-life examples. However, you can tie your topics into current events or put them into a format people find easier to read and understand — lists, how-to articles and interviews can all be a great fit.

Communicating more clearly with a general audience ensures that a broader group of people knows about and understands your work, no matter how technical it is. And your thoughtfulness in taking the time to make complicated concepts understandable may even inspire others to learn more about the field of work you love.

For a great example of how to make challenging content easy and interesting to read, check out anything written by astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. I’m kind of a fan girl and not just because he’s an impeccable and passionate communicator who makes space seem awesome again. Trust me, you can write like that too (and some day have your own legion of nerdy fan girls like me).

Five Things I Learned From my Dogs About Effective Writing

Social Visibility Consulting has two mascots (who also happen to be my coworkers). Ossi is a Corgi/Yellow Lab mix and Eli is a Corgi/Border Collie mix (we think). They’re both quirky, lovable goofballs and both were adopted from local rescue groups. The boys have taught me a lot about enjoying life and, surprisingly, I’ve also learned a lot from them about writing — in spite of their lack of opposable thumbs.

Five Lessons About Effective Writing I Learned From my Dogs

1. Be yourself.
If you try to write like someone else, it will sound false and robotic. If you don’t inject at least a little personality into what you’re writing it will sound like a financial prospectus and, let’s face it, no one reads those because they’re boring. Don’t try to sound like something you’re not, your readers will be on to you. If you need someone to write something from a particular perspective that’s not your own, hire a writer. Our special talent is becoming  mini “experts” on just about everything and communicating in the style you need us to. And here’s a secret, a twinkle of our own personality always comes through.

2. If it’s interesting, dig for it.
If I want general information, I’ll scan an entry on Wikipedia. If you’re going to write about something, whether it’s your company, industry or area of expertise, do your homework and dig for real information we can’t easily find elsewhere.  This may mean spending extra time researching and learning about your topic, but the payoff will come when your readers view you as the go-to source for a particular subject. And, as Ossi and Eli will confirm, sometimes the joy is in the digging itself.

3. Stick your head out the window. 
Don’t fall too much in love with your own words. Stick your head out of the proverbial window once and awhile to assess your audience. You may want to write a company blog post and tie it into a recent controversy in the news. But the topic may end up stirring up the wrong kind of feedback, becoming an issue for your organization and losing you readers (and, ultimately, customers). Know your audience and find out what kind of information they’re looking for. Bonus lesson: Not all attention is good attention.

4. Take a nap or a walk. 
Don’t participate in reactionary writing, particularly if you’re writing in a forum that represents your business. Social media often requires a nearly instant turnaround, but not every comment is worth replying to. Before you write something you’ll regret and can’t take back (remember, the Internet has an infinite memory), step away from your keyboard and really think about your reaction and the appropriate response. Sometimes it will be to shake, sometimes it will be a bark, occasionally a growl, but sometimes your best response is no response.

5. Be patient and keep at it. 
If you struggle with writing, but you love to do it, keep writing. Write for yourself, write as a hobby, work to excel at your professional writing. Read about writing and practice writing. You’ll just keep getting better at it. The first time we threw the ball for Ossi and Eli they didn’t know what to do. Now, they chase it and, occasionally, bring it back. Fetch, like writing, is a work in progress.