Using numbers in headlines, for example ‘top ten’, ‘eight tips’, etc. has become very popular. Headlines with numbers in them denote purpose to the article, and everybody loves a countdown! Perhaps it subconsciously brings to mind the good old days of MTV when they had the Top 30 songs of the week? Numbers are easy on human eyes, because they denote a defined structure to an article. Readers enjoy structure and nugget sized portions of information.
Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/
Are you writing a general interest piece, or what we like to call in the trade a ‘puff piece’? Then you have permission to be as adorable as a Scottish Fold cat. Try and tap into something I like to call the ‘universal hunger for knowledge.’ This is every human being’s need for love, laughter, inspiration, positivity, and squee (particular during the mid-afternoon work slump).
This last word ‘squee’ you may not have heard before. It’s internet slang for the irresistible cuteness factor of certain people, animals, situations or ideas. In my personal experience, for any commercial enterprise, feel-good posts tend to have greater virality, than feel-bad posts that thrive on sadness, guilt or fear. People are more likely to share posts that are shocking, funny, strange or cute. Although that contention is open to debate.
The usage of puns and double-entendres in headlines is always fun. The ‘Paint by Numbers’ example above is compelling because it’s out of context here, and generally isn’t associated with copywriting or marketing.
So how do you create something punny? This is where you need to call up the darkest reaches of your imagination. Come up with word associations that are ridiculous and odd. You also need to use your sensible and rational self, to decide whether or not the pun is too risky in its new context.
Source: http://www.womansday.com/cm/womansday/images/zb/08-Midget-sues-1.jpg
Sometimes the best way to sell the idea of clicking on a post, is by appealing to people’s sense of urgency. Give them the feeling that if they don’t click on the article, they will be missing out on indispensable life lessons, and will be poorer for it. ‘Can You Prove You Grew Up in the 90’s?’ Asks Buzzfeed, and what did I do? I clicked on the link.
Source: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle
Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/nonfiction-books-learning
A pun-riddled, slightly raunchy headline won’t do well in a corporate or B2B website, however for certain literary publications or a news site targeting younger people, it will be fine. When thinking of the audience, don’t err on the side of caution and make it unbearably dull either. Even in the most corporate of contexts, there is still room for a pleasurable and juicy headline! When in doubt vet the headline with several others, to make sure you’re all on the same page! Boom-tish!
The headline is the mini-sales pitch for what comes after that. It’s the old premise of don’t judge a book by its cover, turned on its head! Time poor people trawling the internet for that tiny nugget of joy, knowledge or je ne sais quoi, will only venture into your domain if you give them a compelling enough reason. Sell the benefits such as ’10 tips on SEO for start ups’, ‘Five ways to save money on electricity this winter’ Although these are missing the clever pun, they are still effective, because they sell the value of the article.
Finding the right superlative is going to make people fascinated and drawn to the article. These words are the thrill factor and energy that otherwise wouldn’t be there. Here are some great ones, although only use them when it’s appropriate: amazing, lush, splendid, brilliant, powerful, valuable. And the more risque: bitchin, kick-ass and bad-ass.
Source: http://www.waichim.com/the-copywriting-infographic/
Essentially this means you take what’s newsworthy and promote this in the headline. For example: ‘Will and Kate decide to name their baby George’. Remember that certain places, people and current affairs issues are newsworthy. So if you mention this in your article, highlight it in the headline.
That was another mutant phrase completely reincarnated in a new context! What I mean is – do the contents of the article live up to the fancy headline? A well-crafted kick-ass headline is only as good as the article itself. So it’s crucial for the article to live up to the hype. Otherwise you may find that your blog or website may be overlooked by readers in the future.
Source: http://pixabay.com/en/megaphone-shout-action-call-scream-50092/
And finally, here’s a TED talk about which headlines of today will still matter in 100 years time. A thoughtful and insightful talk on the long term resonance of news from Kirk Citron.
http://www.ted.com/talks/kirk_citron_and_now_the_real_news.html
Speak with Total Marketing Australia for bodacious headlines, content that delivers what it claims on the tin, and compelling content marketing. Call us today!
If you have a website and are looking to attract people to it then you need to know how you are getting that traffic. The engineers at Goolgle made this easy with their Google Analytics software. In fact, Google Analytics is one of the most powerful visitor tracking tools on the Internet. A powerful and free SEO tool.
Who uses Google analytics? The answer to that is simple. Anyone who has a website can use it. You can be an executive at a major corporation, or a sole proprietor. You can also be a marketer, content provider, or developer. There’s no sense in having a website without visitors. Google Analytics helps you understand where visitors are coming from (website urls), how they found your website (direct traffic, search engines, or referrals). You’ll also learn what keyword phrases they used.
You may be asking why track visitors? Well, look at it this way. If you worked hard on your site to get it to look really good and you spend hours creating your product, then you uploaded everything, you would want your product to sell, right? How can you tell if anyone is actually showing up? By tracking your visitors, you can tell how many go to certain pages, and how long they stay on those pages. By reviewing these stats, you can tell what pages are working and which are not. This way you can make adjustments to the pages that show low visitor count or high bounce rate.
What you do is create a free account with Google Analytics and fill in information about your website. Let them know the URL. Google provides you with a piece of code that you place on each page that you want tracked. That code will help Google keep track of visitors to those pages. Google indexes your site and reports back the pages you have and how many people actually hit those pages. Analytics will track any website, whether it is a blog, RSS feed, or a content management system (Joomla, WordPress, or Druple). If you are new to HTML or web page design, you may want to hire someone to put the code in every web page for you, as you will need to understand some HTML coding. This is to help you recognize the location of where the code will go.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that can help you get high ranking in search results, if you use the information to your advantage. Why not. It’s free.
Thousands of books and articles written about optimizing web pages so that your website has the best chance of achieving high rankings in the search index. We routinely follow a set of rules when optimizing our client web pages. There are onpage SEO (search engine optimisation) and offpage SEO tactics. While it may seem that we’re giving away big secrets in this onpage SEO checklist, you can find these SEO tips plus more in Google’s Search Engine Optimization Guide.
This checklist covers onpage SEO rules.
1. If possible, label the url for the page so that it includes the primary keyword phrase (examples: yourdomain.com/primary-keyword-phrase/ or yourdomain.com/primary-keyword-phrase.html)
2. Include the keyword in the “meta title” information for the page. Also, include a secondary keyword phrase in the meta title. (For example: Primary Keyword Phrase | Secondary Phrase) Note: Google recommends that you don’t exceed 60-80 characters for the title. Always put the primary keyword phrase first. If the target audience for our website is local, then consider adding the phone number, city or other regional reference. Just stay within the 60-80 character limits.
3. Use the “meta description” tag and include your primary keyword phrase and one or more secondary terms. Note: Make your “meta description” irresistible so that people want to click on the link to find out more information. Optional – Add “meta keywords” to your page. If you do, include all your targeted terms and maybe a couple of others. I’d try to stay to five or six terms max per page… don’t overdo it!
4. Use your primary phrase inside of the actual onpage content that is read by visitors. It’s best if it is used (a) Towards the top of the page and encased in an h1 tag (b) Used a time or two more in the actual content and again near the bottom of the page (maybe as an anchor text link if possible)
5. Make your onpage content read well (don’t just keyword stuff the page thinking that’s going to help) and don’t forget to include a call to action to the most important action for your reader. I realize that’s not really an SEO thing, but it’s important none the less. People may not be ready to buy, but if you get them on your email list you can keep in touch with them. Build a relationship with them so that one day, when they are ready, they will buy from you.
6. Keep each page as “light” as possible regarding its file size and the time it takes to load the page. More and more, search engines are taking page load times into account when indexing pages.
7. Keep your pages attractive… easy to read… and easy to navigate. You want your visitors to stay on your site for as long as possible. Search engines can track your “visit duration” and also how many pages a visitor looked at before leaving. The longer someone is on your site, the better your SEO AND the more likely the visitor will contact you!
8. Add a sitemap.xml file to your site. While this is not mandatory, this can help search engine spiders crawl your content. This is very important if you have a lot of pages on your website. Don’t have a clue how to do this? No problem. If your site is a static html site, you can generate your sitemap here (http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/). If you are using WordPress then I’d recommend using the Google XML Sitemaps plugin found here:http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/
People often confuse the terms “logo” and “brand” as having the same meaning. However, the only way you end up with a logo that reflects the values held by your company and the promises you make to the buying consumer is to define your brand before you begin the logo design process. Your logo is the graphic design that conveys your brand name and character to the buying public. Think of it as the “face” of your brand.
1. Keep the logo design simple. In a world full of complexities, the simple logo is usually the logo that stays top-of-mind.
2. Simple logo designs are enduring. They won’t go out of style. They are timeless.
3. They are more easily remembered and recognized.
It’s not unusual for business owners to dabble with a little creative logo design work. Anyone with a PC and Microsoft applications has access to a library of ready-made clipart. You can create a logo with just a few hours (or evenings) of frustrations. Of course, the entire point of having a brand is so you stand out from the competition. However, having a self-made logo may make you stand out in a manner you didn’t intend. It also may break any promise of quality and professionalism you intended with your company brand.
A logo designer should ask you questions prior to creating any draft logo designs. If he or she doesn’t, how can you expect them to capture the essence of your brand in the logo? That’s why it’s so important to have worked through your business mission, vision and position in the marketplace. Those unique characteristics that your company delivers to the marketplace are part of your brand. You want your logo to capture those characteristics.
Here are some things to present to your logo designer.
Finally, to support brand awareness, you must maintain a strong logo identity. Your logo has to appear exactly the same every single time it’s used without exception. Use brand guidelines to maintain that consistency.
These are description guides to provide to advertisers, as well as to your internal organization. They include guides for logos, colors and fonts to use in all types of communications.
Your brand name is what causes the consumer to lock into your brand image. Ideally, your website domain name should reflect the brand, i.e., www.australianopen.com. If you rely on Web-based sales, it is imperative you carry your brand name and image throughout your website. This includes artwork and graphics, but of critical importance is to keep that name in the domain name.
Sometimes the domain name isn’t available. You can try to purchase the domain. Be prepared to pay a premium for an aged brand-related domain name. Don’t be tempted to by a domain name with a .org or .net extension. People will always choose .com first before trying another extension. One exception to this is if you are branding for an organization like The Red Cross or www.redcross.org. For businesses and professional, get a .com top-level domain. Don’t be tempted to use hyphens in the domain name either. That makes it harder to remember.
If you can’t get a www.yourbrandname.com domain, consider using your tagline. A short, simple tagline is best for this. To borrow from Foster’s tagline, a brand related domain name could be www.australianforbeer.com.au.
Another option is to use a keyword phrase that receives a good number of local searches on a monthly basis. Google Adwords tool is free and easy to use. Brainstorm a few relevant keyword phrases and then find out if that domain name is available. For example, you have a business offering different types of cruise packages and charter boats on the Sydney Harbour; you might find www.sydneyharbourcruises.com available.
Once you settle on the top-level domain consider buying up all the other domain extension for .org,.net,.biz and so on. This prevents your competitor from using these other domains to compete with yours. Unused domain names typically cost less than $10 a year. This is a smart strategy to secure your online name.
Another way to capture people searching for your website is to brainstorm different spellings and purchase those domain names. Domain registrars allow you to redirect these domains to your main domain. For example, people may type in www.sydneyharborcruises.com instead of www.sydneyharbourcruises.com. You discover that www.sydneyharborcruises.com is available and purchase it. Now you just redirect the one domain to point to the main domain called www.sydneyharbourcruises.com.
Before building or redesigning your website, think about your target audience. What information are they looking for and the tone of the content. If the target audience is brides looking for a unique and memorable way for a wedding reception, make sure you have photos and content written along those lines. Of course, share your brand guide with the graphic artist responsible for the web design. He or she needs to incorporate the correct font, colors and brand usage within the web design.
Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools continue to dominate the online marketing landscape, but email still remains one of the most effective methods for building customer relationships and should be a cornerstone of any marketing campaign. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, where users are bombarded with constant messages and information, most people will look at everything in their email inbox, even if it is just the subject line. This is why email newsletters remain a viable marketing tool. The following steps will help optimise your marketing newsletter to increase subscriptions and, in turn, increase sales.
The sign-up form is the most important part of the newsletter itself, because most people need a compelling reason to add to their already full inboxes. Describe what benefits subscribers can expect, including discounts and useful industry tips and information. Content is critical to a successful newsletter, but a convincing pitch is essential.
Constantly spamming the inboxes of your mailing list is the quickest way to get subscribers to unsubscribe. However, if you’re sending messages too infrequently, your subscribers may not remember your company or be as intrigued by your sales pitches. A balance must be maintained between the two extremes, but sending newsletters once or twice per month is typically effective.
Keep the design simple to ensure your message is easy to read. Include enough white space that each element of your newsletter is easy to find. Be careful when using large graphics or images. While they can give your newsletter an attractive and professional look, many people block images when reading email, so they will see large white space instead your images.
Nobody will open your email if the subject line does not grab their attention. Make your subject line specific, yet short and to the point. Highlight the most important information of the newsletter and describe the exact benefits the readers can gain by opening the email.
Your newsletters should be more than just a relentless sales pitch. Provide useful industry information to prove to your subscribers that your company is an industry expert that can be trusted to offer a premium-quality product. Readers are constantly being sold anything and everything. Offer them something more than a sales pitch.
Many e-newsletter services are available to help you begin your email marketing campaign. Two of the more intuitive services are MailChimp and iContact.
MailChimp lets you create email lists, track who has viewed the messages and integrates with useful third party applications like Google Docs and Zoho. MailChimp can build your email campaign in just three steps
1. Create the email list by adding information including list name, reply-to email and your company description. Then click “Save” and your list is complete.
2. Populate your list with email addressed by importing your contacts or adding them manually.
3. Finally, write your e-newsletter message and have MailChimp send it out to every address in your list.
iContact is also a very user friendly e-newsletter application. Its interface is visually appealing and easy to navigate, and its innumerable features let you customize your email campaigns to your precise needs.
These features include:
1. Survey builder – Create surveys to receive input from the people in your email database to focus your newsletter and promotions to your customers’ precise desires.
2. Message scheduling – Write out all your newsletters in advance and let iContact send the messages to your database on an automated schedule.
3. Open click tracking – Keep track of who is opening your emails and who is putting them in the trash folder.
Knowing that it only takes about 10 seconds to make an impression to your visitors, it is indeed crucial to have a functional, great looking website. Whether for business purposes or personal use, building an impressive site is very important, here are some essentials to create a great site:
User-friendly navigation – The menu navigation should be simple and easy to understand. Ensure that there is a systematic hierarchy of text links on your website. Your home page must be easily accessible on each page. Place links that would smoothly take your visitors from one page to another without any complication.
Content will always be king – Your content is the basic foundation of your website. A website with informative content never fails to end up becoming popular in the long run. Aside from having numerous visitors obtaining useful data from your site, optimized content will also rank well in various search engine results. Update your content on a regular basis to ensure the information is always fresh and current. It would also be helpful to check for spelling and grammar errors on your website copy text.
Test for usability – Be sure to test your website using different browsers. What works with Internet Explorer may not do fine with Mozilla or Safari. To guarantee a more professional appearance of your site, test your web pages using every available browser used online.
Less is actually more – Go easy with distracting flash animation or huge files that take a while to load. Music and videos are fine, as long as they are not auto-played because they can cause pages to load slower. In some circumstances, they can also crash the user’s browser. Just refer to Google’s website and you’ll understand that less bytes mean quicker loading of web pages.
See to it that there are no broken links and blank pages – Nothing is ever more frustrating for visitors than encountering the “Page cannot be displayed” message on their computer monitor.
Design consistency – There is a fine line between a well-designed site and an overly decorated site. The look and feel should be consistent all throughout by choosing the same design theme. Be sure it is simple yet interesting.
Encourage interaction – An interactive website is always good, especially for business sites, wherein you want to gain more customers. Put an email link somewhere highly visible. You can also have links to sign-up for newsletters, or fill out online forms, etc. Consider live chat support, support downloads, product specification sheets, etc.
Spread the word – What’s the use of a great site if you’ll keep it to yourself? Promote it and let people know about your website through advertising, direct mail, online marketing, referrals, and other marketing efforts.
Keep in mind these fundamental pointers above to accomplish a great website. Now, if you want to avoid the hassles, it’s always a smart decision to hire a professional website designer.
Selecting a web design agency can be quite difficult if you don’t know what you should look for—especially nowadays when there are a lot of companies that claim to be the best in the industry. You need to be extra careful of who you hire. Remember that a poorly designed site can cost you a huge amount of money, drive away potential clients, and hurt your credibility.
To help you choose the right web design company that meets your needs, here are some useful tips to look into:
Portfolio – Ensure that the web design company has some experience to boast of. And since any agency can claim to be the best, you should check out their successfully accomplished projects. To effectively evaluate a website, you should asses the quality of design; ease of use and navigation; and overall look. Also, they must have a broad range of past works in a variety of industries.
Services – More than just a web design agency, it’s better if they as well offer other relevant services to meet your requirements. These can be anywhere from e-commerce, Internet marketing, to list a few of the things that can help you promote your website. To save time and effort, choose a company that can provide all your needs.
Customer Service / Technical Support – Apart from creating professional design, a good web design company should possess a reliable customer service and technical support. This means that they should be able to provide prompt responses to your queries, as well as timely assistance should you encounter any technical issues.
Pricing – While everyone wants everything cheap nowadays, unfortunately, you’ll just get what you pay for. As you know, prices vary from a few hundreds to thousands of dollars. So, assess whether you can afford them. What’s really important is that the price quoted is reasonable enough to accomplish what you’re looking for.
With the tons of web design agencies in various sizes and shapes available these days, it’s really quite tricky to choose one. So, remember these practical tips above to ensure the success of your website and your business.
Lately, there have been positive changes here at Total Marketing Australia, and they are so good that we wanted to share them with you.
First of all, Total Marketing Australia is glad to unveil its newly revamped website — fully functional and very informative, and contains all of our latest marketing projects (link to portfolio). Feel free to browse it and we are sure you will love it as much as we do.
Along with this launching, we would like to introduce to you our newest team member, Stuart Anderson, who is in charge of Search Engine Optimisation & Hosting. Stuart’s boundless creativity will definitely be a great asset to the team.
Also, we would like to extend our warm greetings to one of our clients, Macchiato Pizza Bar and Grill, who are celebrating their 10th anniversary. Their birthday celebrations include the launch of their brand new website, mix 106.5 FM broadcasting from their restaurant every Monday of September, and a range of amazing Birthday Specials.
Some more good news! We want to you to meet our newest clients: Peta Hastings – Famous make-up artist for Movies and celebrities, Peta Hastings has styled various prominent icons, such as Susan Sarandan, Emily Blunt and Eric Bana.
Vodafone – Top mobile network phone provider which actually means Voice-Data-Fone, is geared towards further delivering innovative wireless services to Australia. TMA has been enrolled by one of their longest clients Successful Executive to support Vodafone in the development of one of their Internal sites.
We will keep you posted for the next buzz. Meanwhile, enjoy our new website!
A website is a very powerful tool to promote your business online. However, when you are quite new to web development, you are more prone to make errors along the way. To help you avoid them, find out below the biggest mistakes people make when building a website.
These are the top 10 biggest mistakes people make when building a website. Do veer away from these at all cost to guarantee a well-designed website you and your audience will love.
