21 Feb 10 Social Media Got Small Business Acceptance

Social media is increasingly being used by Small businesses as found in a Small Business Success Index study. It was found that the low cost of attracting and retaining the target audience using social media was the impetus behind the doubling down of the adoption rate. Social media adoption grew by 24% in compared to 2008 when it was 12%.

Key findings

Positive Indicators

45% hope to reap rewards (profit) from social media spending in next 12 months
57% have built online network using LinkedIn or similar websites.
61% uses social media to identify and attract new customers.
75% small businesses surveyed had a company profile page on any social networking sites.

Things that make them scowl

6% of survey participants said that use of social media has hurt them
17% of them said using social media left the companies vulnerable to consumers’ criticism.
50% thinks it takes more time than expected.

These findings (See image for complete detail) indicate that to be successful in the new socially-connected economy, the company has to be caring. “Meet deadline and bottom line” oriented company will have a hard time persuading its customers. The concerns that small business owners that participated in the survey talked about had more to do with their business and its operation and less to do with the nature of social media. They will grow and get accepted, if only they accept this fact and make required changes in their businesses.

Tags: 12 Months, Adoption Rate, Bottom Line, Company Profile, Consumers, Economy, Hard Time, Impetus, Nature, New Businesses, Oriented Company, Rewards, Small Business Owners, Small Business Success, Small Businesses, Social Networking Sites, Survey Participants, Target Audience

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15 Jan 10 Is Copywriting Salesmanship in Words?

Copywriting is salesmanship in print. This classic statement has been a cause for major debate between advertisement copywriters and client servicing guy or advertisement account management guy in almost every ad agency in the world. Copywriters hold that copywriting is close to a high art, if not a downright high art, whereas, the other group tries to convince them that copywriting is nothing but mere salesmanship, a way to sell a product.

Having sat on both sides of the table, I am pretty much in position to see both side of the picture, and from the position I occupy, both the groups are right. Copywriting is indeed salesmanship in words but it is no less an art. Although I will not qualify it as a high art, but will always give it the credit of being a commercial art.

As I see it, advertisement copy performs two specific functions:

It attracts retain the attention of target audience by use of sight and sound.
Create a ground (emotional ground) for marketer to pitch in his product.

An advertisement copy needs to be creative in order to reach these two goals and that too in very limited times (typically in 30 to 90 seconds or in a few square inches). Attaining any of the goal using graphs, charts, numbers, and presentation will not be possible, as each one of them lacks the ability to form any connection with the audience which a well-written advertisement has.

An advertisement tells a story: a story that converts features of a product into benefits for the audience; a story that helps audience make sense of data; a story that touches their emotional chord; a story that helps marketer sell his product.

Each one of them is important: no matter how creative an advertisement is, it will not be considered good, if it fail to sell.

Selling is the end goal of an advertisement copy, and creative story telling is the tool a copywriter uses to meet the goal.

Tags: Account Management, Ad Agency, Advertisement Copy, Commercial Art, Copywriter, Copywriters, Copywriting, Creative Story, Emotional Chord, Graphs, Groups, High Art, Limited Times, Marketer, Salesmanship, Sight And Sound, Square Inches, Story Telling, Target Audience, Tool

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11 Dec 09 Why Do You Need to Write Quality Content

Every day I consume a lots of web content and written words forms a major part of it. I have seen a lot many good contents on the Internet, and I have also seen a lot many mediocre contents. Where the exciting content provides fuel to my intellect, the mediocre contents keep me wondering, why I have wasted my time.

Like me, millions of readers out there convulse at the sight of poorly written web content. No one likes bad content, no matter where your visitors are coming from. This is one thing that could be blamed for the increase bounce rate from the website. You may lure visitors to your website by applying the best SEO techniques or by buying the coolest keyword in the SERP, but you cannot retain your visitors if you do not have quality content.

Attracting visitors is one thing, and retaining them and making them come back again and again to your website is entirely different thing. You may use short-cuts like buying keywords in Google, Yahoo, Bing, or whatever, and even you can bypass the SEO security measure to use black hat techniques. But there is not any short cut to bypass the need of quality content.

Why you need quality content

Well-written high quality content help you interact with your target audience at equal level, which in turn builds trust.
A well-written product review can be persuasive.
Good content gives the reader a reason to talk to you.
It builds excitement, hope, and makes the reader think.
It gives them the reason to keep coming back to read more.
It helps you sale more.

These are the benefits that were at the top of my mind. I am sure, you also have a lot more benefits to add. Let’s discuss the issue here.

Tags: Black Hat, Bounce, Excitement, Google, Google Yahoo, High Quality, Intellect, Interact, Lot, Quality Content, Reason, Security Measure, Seo Techniques, Serp, Short Cuts, Target Audience, Web Content, Yahoo

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15 Jan 10 Is Copywriting Salesmanship in Words?

11 Dec 09 Why Do You Need to Write Quality Content

Why you need quality content

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