Marketing Geek Show#43
5 commentsWe restate the intentions of the podcast as we approach one year of the show.
Comments from the Funky Gorilla about a two year old cache suggest it may be an ISP cache. Cloud computing and the future developments.
Ailsa talks about the importance of web site copy, how it is created and who should do the work. Marketing consultants can add a great deal in this process. The role of the copy writer in this process and the role of the web designer.
A small chalkboard advert has an advertising angle that illustrates this point.(via John Gruber)
Graphic designers may just make text readable in a visual sense but not in a grammatical sense.
An example of content that gives some information as entertainment to the user from Peter Russell.
Canberra business Expo show. 11.00am to 11.30am Wednesday July 30.
Web marketing that works. Live Web-Show from www.marketinggeek.tv
What to use and when to use it and most importantly what works right now! If you are in business you don’t have time to get a grip on all things web. “Just give me the take home message” I hear you cry. That’s what you’ll get from this presentation. Ailsa Page and Phil (aka the team from Marketing Geek) shares what marketers are doing right now on the web to gain advantage from blogs to podcasts, my space and everything in between. Join Ailsa live and Phil online for this live and interactive web-show, and become a fully fledged marketing geek in just 30 minutes
Opening and closing music by Velvedene.
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Oo Oo Oo (the funkygorilla)!
YOu have me on my soapbox now so watch out for a massive post following!
Firstly I should explain my situation. I am the marketing manager for a medium sized firm in Brisbane. Much of my work is concentrated on the web, hence my interest.
You sort of shrugged off the web apps as something that will come in time. For small business I think that time is actually now. Let me take you through a few scenarios (hope I spelled that right, typing is difficult for a gorilla you know).
Online word processing, such as Google Docs or Adobe Buzzword – The advantage here is collaboration. Say Ailsa is doing her word smithing for her client and they are an SME with a few people wanting to look at the copy. The workflow online would mean that anyone she gives access to can access that copy, at any time, even while it is being worked on by Ailsa. They can also chat if they are online at the same time, and point out any problems they think might be there. This sort of workflow really helps get the copy together quickly and gets it signed off, meaning you get your money quickly too.
Adobe’s Acrobat site also include online meeting software which you can use for free. This allows you to share your screen with others to show them something, even to the extent of letting them take over your mouse to try it themselves. Again great for a small company with limited or no sales staff.
Lastly, Google also have an online intranet product. Allowing small companies to set up information repository’s for their remote works, and guess what, the basic version is free.
All of these are great for small business and are free.
There are also other solutions like Basecamp for project management, which is free but has paid upgrades. Again great for small business trying to manage a project.
Anyway you get my drift on that one….now to my second point.
Copy….where do I start! Personally I think Ailsa is right, partially! If you get a marketing person to write your website copy you will get improved text for a user with a few qualifications.
Web copy is not the same as brochure copy. They are read differently, and you have to take into account robots and spiders on the web. What do I mean by they are read differently? Brochure copy tends to be read from beginning to end, whereas web copy is scanned for relevance. This means that web copy has to be sectionalised more, be more punching, loading up keywords at the front, so they are easy to find etc.
When you add onto that Google and how it reads your site things can get even more complex. Firstly you need to do keyword research and find if what people are searching for is actually what you call your product or service internally. You can write a page for what you call it, but should write a page for what everyone else calls it too. You then have to look at your keywords and make sure they are front loaded in your h1 tags, are in the first sentence on your page, are roughly the right keyword density (though usually if you just write they are) etc.
As you can see this is complex stuff, and I have to say that larger web design companies are now starting to realise that and are offering copywriting services.
Does any of this make a difference. Well yes, optimising for Google can mean the difference between your site just acting as a brochure you can send people to, and driving business to your company. Optimising and re-optimising your copy can make a huge difference to your enquiry rate. As an example I have now finished testing on one of the sites I managed, and a simple change in position of text, graphics and a table on a page increased enquiry rate by 550% (yes that is 550% or x5.5). That can really make your website work for you! You can see my testing at http://simongriffiths.name/?p=40.
Oo Oo Oo! I think I have written enough! I did warn you!
Hi Phil, Ailsa
Have to agree in a big way with Funky Gorilla on web-apps. As you guys know we run business expos. We have to manage data-bases of clients details and keep track of our ongoing communication with them. After years of trying to get just the kind of system that we wanted in our Content Management, back stage of our web-site, we have managed to put a heap of stuff, including our calendar, on Google doc and despite constant travelling we can both keep up with exactly where we are at. Google Docs allows you to invite people to share the data, or just view, plus you can track who has made what change to the document. Thanks to Funky Gorilla for his suggestion about Adobe Acrobat for meetings – Plug in Skype too and I can see even fewer flights…Fantastic.
Hey, Ailsa, happy to show you when we catch up at the http://www.capitalregionbusinessexpo.com.au for which you and Phil are doing our first Marketing Geek show with a live audience in the same room!
P.S. Hey – FG – can you help nag those boys at Animoto about getting a text function…Imagine the power of those videos if you could get some copy on screen.
Thanks for the interest this week guys, you make the work worth the effort.
I think I was a little mis understood when I mentioned web apps this week. I know Ailsa’s head was spinning as soon as I mentioned cloud computing.
I think what I should have said was that for most people the concept is still a little difficult to comprehend and make use of.
I have looked Google offerings and at times there has been issues on the platform we are using. Also the bulk of my clients are in the same boat. Media production is mostly Mac based and so Google has at times been slow to provide stable tools for that platform.
I have been waiting for web apps to be built with the new Open source tools from Sproutcore.
Sproutcore is a development platform that allows rapid development and an example has only just been released.
An entire suite of tools for Mac PC and iPhone has been released this wek. Mobile Me is the re invention of the old sync of .mac.
Web apps for file sharing, photo editing and sharing, calendars, mail and contacts.
Not free but only $119 a year. If it works well it will be useful but it will need good support from the cloud end at Apple.
Mobile Me
I agree that sproutcore looks promising, but there is also a company that has porter cocoa into javascript which should be better still. I am a mac user and have found no issues with google apps btw. If you want to speed things up the new version of firefox renders quickly, but if you want the best go for webkit at webkit.org. Awesome!
I should also mention if you want speed the adobe app behaves exactly like the desktop and has a really fast, slick interface.
I will try getting in touch with animoto again btw. Last time I suggested they put in the business account and they did even at the price I suggested, so you never know.
Animoto Update
I have had some feedback from Animoto saying that they do intend to add the ability to include text into their professional package. There is no word on the time scale though.
For all of you marketing consultants out there, you may also be interested in their affiliate scheme as well as the possibility of selling the videos you produce in their pro package.