My latest website went live this month…you can check it out here: www.szwinsurance.com.

Now the story behind Scalzo, Zogby & Wittig’s new site…

I called Gary Scalzo in December 2010 offering my services as a Web content writer and consultant. He was happy I called since his insurance agency was anxious to get going on a new, more modern looking website. As I remember, his was one of the first agencies in the Central NY area with the foresight to have a website back in the mid 90s.

The problem was the site had that old, mid-90s look. And the content hadn’t been upgraded in a long time. They had hired a web designer to develop the upgrade, but they weren’t getting there fast enough.

What interested Gary and Steve Zogby about my approach to online marketing was that the focus for the development of the new site was to be content based. That is, the insurance information, tips, and advice they could provide their clients and prospects online was the driving force behind the development of the site.

We started work with a Web Creative Brief. Gary, Steve, and I discussed the agency’s insurance products, the way they did business, and the kind of customer they were looking for. This session plus extensive research gave me the insight I needed to write content that appealed directly to their audience in New Hartford, Utica, Rome and Central NY.

The website launched July 14, 2011. We introduced the site as an information-packed resource specifically addressing the insurance issues faced by the Central New York community.

Gary and Steve encourage people to bring their questions about insurance coverage, rating, and loss prevention to the site. Visitors can take advantage of fresh, updated content including weekly blog posts. There’s also agency info making it easy to contact any of the team by phone, email, or thru the site. And there’s much more…over 50 pages of content.

There have been 170 visits to the site in only 13 days and the feedback has been very positive. I want to thank Gary Scalzo and Steve Zogby for the opportunity to develop their new site and I wish them the best of luck with it in the future. Go ahead and take a look at it here and let me know what you think.

Until next time,

Nick

D.C. pundits have recently caught President Obama in an oft repeated cliche…”punching above their weight.” It’s an old sports phrase describing a boxer fighting someone much bigger and winning. Obama has gotten into the habit of saying it when praising smaller countries that do big things.

And if you’re a small business, let it be your battle cry as you fight for sales online.

Here’s why…

Say you’re marketing on an ecommerce site. You’re selling electronics online. Can you “box” with the likes of Walmart?

Take the short trip to your local mall and walk by the huge Walmart building and you think…no way!! I can’t get in the ring with them.

Now take out your iPad and look at Walmart’s website. Of course, it’s the same size as your business homepage. You have the same space as Walmart to present your products to the world.

The internet is a great equalizer. You don’t need to spend millions on your website to compete with the big boys. All you have to do is use the right keywords, present engaging content, and move visitors thru the site with easy navigation.

You may be small, but when it comes to content marketing and your website…you can easily “punch above your weight.”

Now,  you’ll need some strong content before you get in the ring for the big fight. I can help you write Web pages with muscle so you can compete with your market’s heavyweights.

Call me and I also promise that I’ll stop with the boxing metaphors…

Until next time,

Nick

A few weeks ago we talked about gaining your Web visitors’ confidence using your About Us page. On your website’s About Us page (or section) you can include your company’s history, its philosophy, and biographies (bios) of the major players.

I’ve developed a neat little 3-step presentation for your bios that I thought you might like. I think it sets you up nicely to make that connection with your audience that’s so crucial online.

Let’s use you as an example:

Start the Conversation with a Quote
Write in the first person. Talk about your philosophy of business, why you enjoy what you do, and how your customers have benefited by doing business with you over the years. Write two or three paragraphs and put them in quotes.

Then Add Professional History, Accomplishments, and Designations
Now, switch to the third person and list or describe your professional history. Where you began, companies you’ve worked for, even community work you’re doing. This is much more interesting after you’ve spoken with us directly in the first few paragraphs.

Top it Off with a Personal Touch
At the end, go ahead and let us in on your hobbies, family, personal interests. Everyone likes to connect with real people, and knowing about your life away from business is a nice touch.

Take a look at the bio page I wrote for Caruso McLean & Co. for a good example of all of this.

As always with Web content, finding the right words isn’t easy. Give me a call and I’ll write an About Us page that proves your expertise and connects with your Web visitors. Just call 315.738.1890 or email at nick@nkbmarketing.com.

Until next time,

Nick

So said one of my clients, Wendy Eden, professional organizer (website not up yet, but will announce!), in an email to me today. She heard a piece on NPR this morning about an online furniture company in Long Island losing 2/3 of its Web traffic. It had lost its ranking due to a change in Google’s formula for search results. Google code named its change “Panda” and launched it in February 2011.

It seems that Google is tired of “article farms” writing poor quality content to get higher search rankings and more ad revenue. Google is fighting back by favoring unique, quality content.

The online store sells all kinds of furniture for different manufacturers. Before Panda, they just copied the manufacturers’ product descriptions on to their site. Now, because of Google’s changes, they’ve had to rewrite all their descriptions…over 30,000 of them!!

Check out the NPR report here….

What does this mean for your website? Be aware that there’s a revolution in online marketing and it’s all about content. Design is important, yes, but these days it’s never been more true that…CONTENT IS KING!!! (or QUEEN!!! as the case may be.)

Call me to write custom content for your website that Panda will love.

Until next time,

Nick

If you’re the owner of a small business, then you are the heart and soul of your brand. Your unique history, experiences, and values add up to customers choosing to do business with you over the competition.

That’s why it’s a good idea to get personal with your About Us page. It’s where you open up to your Web visitors. Tell your story. Let them know how your philosophy of business and of life sets you apart from your competition.

Establish that human connection that’s so crucial to successful online marketing.

I recently finished writing the website for the Balkan/Hadley Restaurants in uptown Utica, N.Y. Their French/German/European cuisine is a perfect reflection of the unique personal history of both the owner and the head chef.

As a young man, the owner, Boyd Bissell, worked in restaurants in Paris, gaining experience in “Authentic European Style Cuisine.” (Quotes around phrases that made it into the site.)

And the chef, Jean Marie, grew up in eastern France near the border with Germany. Turns out the food served there is a combination French and German, or as Jean Marie likes to say, “French with a German accent.”

And that’s how we wrote the About Us page and the site. Take a look at the Balkan/Hadley’s About Us page for the full story. Appreciating the personalities of the principals and their experiences made this About Us page fun to write…especailly after I tasted the food!!

So don’t use drab cliches on your About Us page (or anywhere else on your website) like “superior service” or “providing fill in the blank solutions” If you do, you’re selling yourself and your company short.

Tell us about yourself, your vision, and your story. Weave it all in to explain how your company is best qualified to solve your visitors’ problems.

By the way, this can be a tough page to get right. Give me a call and I can help. I’ll interview the principals and key employees and then write your compelling story…one that will pique the interest of your prospects and customers and instill full confidence in you and your company.

Reach me at 315.738.1890.

Until next time,

Nick

I’m easily amused. I laugh at the stupidest things. I can’t tell a joke because I start laughing in the middle of it. Not surprisingly, I’ve been reading MAD Magazine now since 1963. Mom bought me one when I had the flu and I’ve been laughing out loud while reading ever since.

OK…you’ve got an idea of the juvenile adolescent humor that’s a part of my persona. Here’s the subscription renewal notice of MAD I just received in the mail:

“We have news that is sure to fill your heart with dread. (Then again, maybe not!) In just a few months, your subscription to MAD will expire. (GAK!)

“By already subscribing to MAD, you’ve shown the world that you have poor judgement. But it’s only by re-subscibing that you can prove that you’ve failed to learn from your mistake!

“There is truly nothing we value more than a reader with low standards. So renew now and we guarantee you uninterrupted idiocy! You won’t miss a single moronic issue!”

Now does MAD Magazine know its subscribers or what! We’re all knuckleheads and we love this stuff.

In fact, I won’t renew right away cause I want to get the next in a series of these stupid, ridiculous subscription notices! I’ll send in my check after about the third one. Don’t want to miss an issue.

The moral of the story: know your buyers and write copy the way they want it. You’ll be amazed at your boost in sales.

Till next time,

Nick

I’m writing the content for a new site and my client asked me, “Why don’t we combine all three of my services on one Web page? I could save some money on design costs.” I see this often, one page listing all the different services a business offers.

But there’s a problem…

Your visitors usually have one thing in mind when they search for your product or service. Multiple topics will confuse them.  My client is a professional organizer, but she also offers redesign services and real estate staging.

If you search, “I want help getting my home organized” and you get to a page that lists Real Estate Staging, you might be tempted to click away. You’re thinking, “I don’t want real estate staging. Don’t really know what it is…must be in the wrong place.”

Plus, not only will you confuse your visitor, but you’ll confuse Google as well. Google ranks your page higher when it’s focused. When your meta tags, headline, subheads, and keywords all relate to the same topic, you make it easy for the search engines to rank your page.

So, sales pages, subscription pages, donation pages, info pages, landing pages (especially landing pages)…one topic per page pleases your visitors and the search engines.

Note: This gets tricky creating the content for your homepage. After all, how do you narrow all your services down to one! Well, it’s easy if you know the secret. But that’s another topic! I promise, we’ll talk about it soon though. (Or give me a call now, I’ll analyze your homepage on the spot…FREE! 315.738.1890.)

So, if you’re short on time or stuck with writer’s block, be sure to call me for help writing laser focused Web pages that’ll please your visitors and Google. I’m at 315.738.1890 or use my convenient contact form.

Until next time,

Nick

Last post I suggested that you write your blog as if you were a down home main street business owner answering your customers’ questions.

Well, check out this segment on MSNBC’s Morning Joe the other day.

It’s a discussion with one of the hottest internet/customer service marketers out there, Gary Vaynerchuk. He’s a wine guy who’s figured out how to use the internet to establish relationships online and sell big time.

About 3:34 minutes into the interview, Mika Brzezinski gets it. She says about business and its customers in the internet age, “So in other words, be more small town.” The discussion waxes nostalgic for the old days of mom and pop  stores and how they knew their customers. And how the internet allows business to treat their customers great today!

Here’s the link again…. this is a terrific segment that’ll benefit every business out there. And, isn’t it fun to think that old fashioned customer service is the order of the day…on the internet!

Let me know what you think.

Until next time,

Nick

I’m talking with a business owner at a Mohawk Valley Chamber of Commerce meeting the other day, and he asks, “Everybody’s telling me I’ve got to blog. But how? Where do I start?”

I’ve been hearing this a lot lately. Trade newsletters, marketing seminars, business journals…they’re all advising businesses to blog. Wisdom has it that a business blog will attract visitors to your website and generate sales.

And the thing is, that’s true!

But people who’ve been in business awhile wonder what their approach to blogging should be. What should they be thinking about as they plan their blog and actually write the posts.

Well, try thinking about it this way…if you’re a middle aged boomer (like me!), you remember when you knew the owners of the local stores.

Way, way back when, in my hometown of Clinton, NY, if you were doing a little fixing up around the house and you ran into a problem, you drove up to Allen’s Hardware and asked Jack Allen for help. He’d advise you as to how to finish the job and then he’d sell you the tools and material to do it.

Same with Bob Ford at Ford’ Market. If you weren’t sure of the size turkey you needed for Thanksgiving dinner…he’d know just how many pounds to order.  And Ginny Bennett at the Country Store gift shop knew exactly what my mother wanted for Christmas…Mom had talked about it last time she was there!

One major change since then is technology and the internet. The other, of course, is the unfortunate demise of these delightful, locally owned Mom and Pop stores on Main Street, USA.

But people still need information to solve their problems. They still want to know how to do things. It’s just that now they don’t drive up to the local store, they search the internet to get answers. And that’s where your blog comes in.

So, as you write your blog posts, pretend you’re Jack Allen, owner of the hardware store and local expert on all things tools and materials. Write to that one person who’s visiting your store and who has a question that your expertise…and your product or service…can solve.

This holds whether you’re a hardware distributor or a plastic parts manufacturer…an investment adviser or an insurance agency. It’s the frame of mind you should be in when you think about starting a blog, and then when you start writing your actual posts.

Now there’s more to business blogging than just this. Things like keywords, frequency of posts, platform etc etc. are important. But answering questions and providing information in a small town, conversational way will help you connect. Just like the old days. And if you connect, you’ll draw visitors to your website and have a much better chance of turning them into customers.

Give me a call anytime to talk more about all of this. Maybe you need help starting a blog. Or worry about running out of ideas. Or can’t find the time to keep up your blog posts. Call me at 315.738.1890 or get in touch here. I can help you with this very profitable piece of your content marketing program.

Until next time,

Nick

Some fast facts from Pete Savage of WealthyWebWriter.com:

• Forrester Research reports that adding video into emails increases click thru rates 2 to 3 times.
• Emarketer predicts business spending for online video will nearly quadruple to $5.2 billion by 2014.
• The number of marketers planning to use video in email campaigns has increased 5x since the beginning of 2009 (Implix 2010 Email Marketing Trends Survey)

Imagine your prospect sitting in his doctor’s waiting room. It’s his annual physical and he’s stuck there. He pulls out his BlackBerry to go over emails and sees one from your sales department. He’s been talking with your firm about manufacturing a part for his latest product.

He opens the email in which your sales team has included an online video. The 4-minute case study answers some of his questions and proves your expertise. He calls your company and requests another meeting the following week.

The video helped move the sales process to the next step.

What about the email without the video?

Your salesperson would have sent a case study document, probably in the form of PDFs. Would your prospect have opened the PDF’s to read through them? Probably not…isn’t it easier to take just a couple of minutes to watch a video?

And, your prospect doesn’t need to be in a doctor’s office to find time for your video. The fact is, people enjoy watching video. YouTube is ranked the #3 website in the world, while CNN.com doesn’t even rank in the top 50!

The takeaway from all of this…smart B2B businesses know that there is a growing preference on the part of people to watch video. Which is a terrific opportunity to strut your sales stuff with video on your homepage, sales pages, and even info pages.

The question is, what do you say in the video? How do you engage your prospects?

I can help you here. I can write scripts that answer your prospects’ questions and prove your expertise. It’s all about making it easy for people to do business with you. And moving them through the sales process.

Let’s talk about online video for your internet marketing…give me a call at 315.738.1890 or contact me here.

Until next time,

Nick