Think of the last celebrity interview you heard or saw. Chances are, it’s one that didn’t go so well. A lack of chemistry between interviewer and star, perhaps. Or the questions asked weren’t researched thoroughly enough. It’s viewing or listening you can’t take your eyes or ears off, but not what you want when talking to your senior subject matter experts – the ‘celebrities’ of your business.
These are the people who’ll care the most about any content or copy changes you make. Making their input invaluable. How you approach and speak to them could mean the difference between simply doing something new, and doing something game changing. You want the latter, obviously.
So before booking time with your senior experts, here’s our guide to making every minute count. No awkward moments, no off-topic distractions, just an interview memorable for all the right reasons.
(more…)So – you’ve got a big content project on the horizon. Unless you’ve decided to keep all the copywriting work in in-house (in which case we’d recommend reading our guide to polishing your content process), it’s time to choose a freelance writer or agency.
And there’s the problem. If your office is colder than a husky’s paw, it’s easy to find a certified heating engineer. But if the pilot light has snuffed out on your website copy, you’re on your own. Or rather, you were.
If you’re not sure how to choose the copywriter or copywriting agency to write your words, we’ve got your back. Our detailed 42-page guide will help you choose the best professional writers for the job, every time.
Here’s what to expect:
It might be a problem with a delivery, a pre-sales question or a complex technical question. Whatever the need, your customer expects your brand to behave consistently.
And that’s the problem – too often, the experience over chat, email and calls is a world away from the brand’s voice and messaging.
Back in June 2020, we spent 45 minutes looking at how to give customer service its rightful place at the heart of your brand. And now, thanks to the magic of recording, you can watch along from the future. Expect real examples, along with practical advice you can put to work straight away.
We even spent 15 minutes on audience questions at the end. We’re no longer live on air, but we still love to take questions. Send us a note: [email protected]
Finding a balance between brand voice and SEO keywords isn’t always easy, but there is a way. And it’s not as complex as some agencies might have you believe. In fact, Alan can give you a solution in just 92 seconds. Hit that play button above to find out how it’s done.
Or, get in touch to find out how we can help develop a clear voice for your brand.
Prefer good old-fashioned words on a screen? We hear you. Here’s the transcript:
Hello – I’m Alan from Blackad.
Lots of marketing professionals find it hard to reconcile their brand messaging with their search optimisation.
The brand copywriters fixate on tone of voice. Because it’s got to sound good, right?
And the SEO people focus on keywords. Which does the brand voice precisely no favours.
All while the poor marketing professional is left struggling to hit their messaging goals – not to mention their campaign KPIs.
Here’s a plan to fix this – and a small confession. It’s way simpler than you might imagine.
First, define your audience. Then define what matters to them. And finally, push those ‘matters to them’ buttons with your content.
So far, so SEO 101.
The slightly radical part comes next: get your SEO people to take a fresh look at your messaging matrix.
At the same time, get your brand copywriters to look at your topic clusters.
Better still, get them to look at both – together – while you’re still planning your content.
Topic clusters build up a stash of irresistible inter-linked content – usually core topic pages and supporting blog content.
And your messaging matrix is a parallel universe version of the same thing. It tells you which messages to take to each audience at each stage of their buying journey.
If you’ve already got topic clusters and a messaging matrix, you’re set.
And if you need a little help, check out the ebook and resources on our website.
That’s it…
We’d love to hear your insights about getting SEO and tone of voice to play nice. Get in touch.
And with bigger budgets and bigger targets come bigger teams – it makes a lot of sense to build at least some content capability in-house. So when should you grow your own, and when should you bring in a supplier?
Alan, Chris, Helen and Rachel help a listener build a content operations model fit for anything growth can throw at it.
Share your agonies (and anything else)
Got a brand agony you’d like us to answer? Send an email to [email protected] and we’ll do our very best to help.
Or maybe you need to call in the professionals for your own content operations. We’re available.
👂 Listen to Scaling Up is Hard to Do on Apple Podcasts
👂 Listen to Scaling Up is Hard to Do on Spotify
Clasp your face in horror at the dodgy spelling on your website. Pay thousands to fix the wonky phone number on your voiceover. Or mumble something unmentionable at the corporate Tweet that just doesn’t make any sense.
This week, the Brand Agony team look at modern tools, how to set high standards, and the issues that often lie beneath.
Share your agonies (and anything else)
Got a brand agony you’d like us to answer? Send an email to [email protected] and we’ll do our very best to help.
Or maybe you’re looking for a more in-depth copywriting course. We’d love to hear from you.
Some businesses think they don’t need an SEO copywriter for their site. Not surprisingly, they’re wrong. And Alan is here to outline some of the big opportunities they’re missing out on with this mindset. Just click that play button above for some quick insight.
Prefer good old-fashioned words on a screen? We hear you. Here’s the transcript:
Hello – I’m Alan from Blackad.
Today I’m going to talk about businesses who say they don’t care about optimising their new site for search.
Audience intent research? Don’t bother.
Topic clusters? They’re not really for us.
Blogs? Not so much.
Again and again, these business give three reasons for being search refuseniks:
1. Everyone knows us
2. We’re busy! We don’t really need any new business
3. Our market is all about word-of-mouth referral
Let’s tackle those in turn:
Number one… how can you be sure that all your prospective customers know you?
You can’t.
And, how would you market to people who don’t know you yet – but want your products or services?
Assume everyone knows your name, and you’re ignoring all that potential.
Let’s tackle the second so-called reason: not needing any new business.
If you’re chugging along nicely – not growing, but not shrinking – what’s wrong with that?
Precisely nothing… if you’re happy providing the same products or services – to the same customers – for the same margins… until you retire.
To paraphrase the author Janice Galloway, the trick is to keep growing.
Mark time, and you’re letting your competitors take what’s yours.
Number three…
Word of mouth is phenomenal.
Most of Blackad’s business is word of mouth – we love it. But if ALL your leads come in this way, you’ll only get customers that look like… your existing customers.
What if you want bigger orders or more repeat business? Your existing customers won’t get you there.
You need new customers all the time – which is why I’d say you need search, no matter what business you’re in.
That’s it…
We’d love to hear your insights about traditional businesses that embrace search – and ones that don’t. Get in touch.
Want more? Download our Guide to Optimising for Search.
The person commissioning a copywriting course has lots of choices to make. We can help. What topics should you build into the day? How do you find out what the team really needs? And what’s the best way to make sure your people apply their new skills straight away?
In this episode, Alan, Siân and Chris find a way through the complexities – and figure out how to tame the trainer.
Share your agonies (and anything else)
Got a brand agony you’d like us to answer? Send an email to [email protected] and we’ll do our very best to help.
Or maybe you want to find out about the copywriting courses that we offer? Get in touch.
How do you brief a copywriter? In the past, the answer was to send them a written brief, then wait for the words to roll in.
But is a written brief always the answer? Probably not, especially when your words and commercial strategy need to line up.
In this episode of our Brand Agony podcast, we look at three possible causes of death for the traditional process, and offer a way through the calamity of mis-briefs, re-briefs and non-briefs.
Share your agonies (and anything else)
Got a brand agony you’d like us to answer? Send an email to [email protected] and we’ll do our very best to help.
Or perhaps you need some help with briefing your own content creators? We can help smooth the kinks out of your process.
👂Listen to My Grief with Briefs on Apple Podcasts
👂Listen to My Grief with Briefs on Spotify
You need your web copy to speak to human readers, but also optimise it for search engines. Luckily, we specialise in SEO copywriting.
So, here’s what we know. The balance is tricky, but there are a few easy tips to make sure you appeal to both humans and algorithms. Alan is here to help you bridge the divide in just a couple of minutes. Click that play button above to hear how it’s done.
Prefer good old-fashioned words on a screen? We hear you. Here’s the transcript:
Hello – I’m Alan from Blackad. Today I’m going to talk about structure.
How do you organise web pages to serve the needs of your readers and search engines?
Bridging the divide between humans and machines is not as complicated as it might first appear. And there are three simple rules that really help:
1. Lead with value
2. Invest time in strong headlines
3. Make it scannable
Right, let’s take that first point – ‘lead with value’.
Ultimately, users and search engines want to know if your page nails the question it sets out to answer.
If it’s a page about opening times – put them right at the top of the page. The bigger and more obvious, the better. Don’t lead with a scene-setter sentence on how convenient it is to shop at your store. Nobody cares.
Structure your content so the most valuable information comes first – before the reader has to scroll down. Because guess what? The search engines look at valuable content ‘above the scroll’ as a big, hairy ranking factor.
Right… now let’s take a look at investing in strong headlines.
If you have a heading that says ‘Our running shoes’ and another that says ‘How to choose the right shoes for your running style’, it’s clear what your page is about.
Flip this around for a second: what wouldn’t be clear?
‘Our range’ and ‘How to choose’ make sense in context, but make it much harder for search engines to categorise them and harder for users to find.
They also make it harder for humans in hurry: ‘Our running shoes’ wins over ‘our range’ every time. Which takes us to our last point…
Make it scannable.
How often do you read a web page from top to bottom? Me neither – and I’ve been doing this for over 25 years.
Most of us scan the page to pick out the information we want. At least, that’s what over two decades of eye-tracking research shows.
Your keys to scannable content are super-simple:
Subheadings – use these to break long text into self-contained chunks.
Bullet points – these show the reader – and search engine – there’s a group of related good stuff coming up.
That’s it…
We’d love to hear your insights about structure. Head to the comments and tell us your stories.
And if you want to know more, visit our website to download our guide on optimising your content for search.
What’s the best copywriting approach for highly technical products, such as analytics support for pension trustees, or digital twin tools for offshore energy?
If you’re writing specification sheets and white papers, the answer is pretty obvious – go large and go technical.
But what about the homepage and landing page? Is there a way of selling to the main buyers – without annoying the people who just came for the amperes, ohms and microns?
Share your agonies (and anything else)
Got a brand agony you’d like us to answer? Send an email to [email protected] and we’ll do our very best to help.
Looking to bring in an agency to help with your technical copywriting? Get in touch for a free consultation.
👂Listen to Another Technical Glitch on Apple Podcasts
👂Listen to Another Technical Glitch on Spotify
As marketing professionals, isn’t it our job to aim for tone of voice consistency above everything else?
Alan, Chris, Helen and Rachel help a listener connect a brand voice to audience needs – with some help from a pillar or two.
Learn more about how we can help your brand find its true tone of voice.
Share your agonies (and anything else)
Got a brand agony you’d like us to answer? Send an email to [email protected] and we’ll do our very best to help.
Or maybe you’d enjoy our Terrible Tone of Voice Playbook – a guide to creating a truly insufferable tone of voice for your brand.
👂Listen to My Tone-Deaf Brand on Apple Podcasts
