Many people ask me many questions about content writing. They vary from the off the top of the head answers to “I actually need to research that” responses. So when our head honcho at Design Theory asked me about researching client industries, billing and how clients respond to issues surrounding that, what solutions to these problems look like and how to not cause heart failure with the billing from it all, I realized I had quite a bit to say. So rather than writing it all, Jean & I decided to give you an over the shoulder peek at our conversation on camera. Some of it you might already know while another facet may give you an Ah-ha moment. Either way, I hope it conveys some worthy considerations when you incur some of these same questions and frustrations with content writing, research and billing for your web and branding clients.
Here are some of the highlights:
Professionally Developed Content
*Clients need to understand the process & value of the necessary research & writing that will be critical to the success of their website.
*Not everyone who owns a business can necessarily write well about their business.
*Understand the importance of the potential consumers experience will be via the client’s website.
*Make the potential consumer/service recipient feel like “I want to do business with them or by their product.”
Content Writing Time & Research *Do your due diligence in research to create great content to create traffic for the client *Become intrigued and entrenched in the subject matter & then writing from a position of “seeming” expertise and authority. *”Write It Like You Live It” positioning in content writing
Billing
*Use reportable billing software (i.e. Toggl) that report specifics to prove good utilization of time
*Consider incremental billing
*Establish a great rapport & trust so they so they don’t question the integrity of the work & the corresponding billing
When a new website is completed and launched, there is a great sense of relief and jubilation from my design firm. All the extra work we put into a project feels like it was so worth it. Almost like we could have done it for free had we been given the chance. Hearing how the client or group is so excited and hearing their praises gives us some great confidence and feedback that we met or exceeded their expectations. However the project actually isn’t completed at that point. I pull together all the staff members who were involved with the project for an exit interview.
In Corporate America when someone is let go from a job or moving to a new department, the sitting manager or HR representative will host a meeting with the employee that is moving to get their honest opinion on their soon to be previous role. Their asked to be candid and explain how they felt about their manager, job function, duties, achievements, and of course moral. The end of a design I feel should be the same in some aspects.
Some things to consider or talk about with your team or reflect on yourself would be:
Content: Was there enough content provided from the beginning? How much copy needed to be edited or rewritten? Did the client provide enough? Was I delivered or provided to us on time or when asked?
Budget: Was the client charged adequately for every deliverable we were tasked with. Did we find any areas in the project that could have been handled a different way that would have given us more services we could have offered? Does it seem like the client would have paid more for the same level of service?
Timeline: Did we beat our deadline? We’re we late and why? What were some factors that contributed to our timeline. How can we avoid any setbacks on our end or the clients going forward. We’re they’re new requests submitted that effected the timeline that was not accounted for?
Teamwork: Overall how did everyone work together? Did anyone feel like they didn’t get their opinions expressed or considered enough? Did everyone pull their weight? Did everyone feel they were given all they needed to complete their tasks? Was the communication across the team well enough or does it need improvement? What was the best medium for communication?
Customer Experience: Did the customer play a big enough role in the project. Were there enough options provided yet not too much to hinder a confident choice? Did all the team members have a chance to meet and/or talk to the client? We’re all of our responses timely? Did email communications go well, or could more phone calls iron out misunderstandings?
After reading through these I’m sure you may have wondered or even asked some of these questions to yourself after completing a project. It may seem a bit time-consuming but I promise you it’s worth the effort. It will help you avoid mistakes in your future projects while providing some self-examination to your firm and tactics. If you have some other points to add please do so in the comments below. As always we love hearing your opinions and contrary thoughts.
This Saturday July 1st, we launched yet another business website for a restaurant/cafe in Windsor, Connecticut called Whistle Stop Cafe. I had the pleasure of dinning there for breakfast about 3 years ago; long before they were a client of ours. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed their food. One of our staff members Yvonne Barber actually was a current patron of the restaurant and encouraged them on new ways to market their menu and website. Before we knew it, we were rebuilding their website on a nice responsive design and layout using WordPress.
“Since the beginning, it has been our goal to create a unique menu that blows away traditional ”diner food” with unconventional & delicious menu options. We also employ a great kitchen support team to Elizabeth as well as a wait staff that genuinely love their customers and are never too busy to get to know and remember you. When we started Whistle Stop in the quaint location we had no idea of how popular it would be become. Giving way to its success, we were forced to expand to a new, improved and considerably larger location just down a few doors at 139 Broad Street in December 2010. We are happy to report that the new spot has a terrific open kitchen, a fun & traditional swivel stool counter space along with plenty of well-spaced out tables. There is also a small, private room that can be reserved for family, corporate and special occasion functions. Thanks to the increased space we can serve more of our faithful customers, entertain large parties and host local area musicians monthly for our customers to enjoy while dining.”
This project was an interesting one that brought out some new functionality that was never present for this business’ website. Having a nice photo gallery to showcase their dishes both now and ongoing will be great refreshed content. An easy to navigate food menu that is broken down by different meals of the day as well as beverages and desserts. We also added a blog to the site that will help keep fresh content to the website on a regular basis. From upcoming events to fan favorite dish recipes, subscribing to their blog will be fun and informative.
Well visit their website at Whistle Stop Cafe and see for yourself. And if you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to stop in and say hello to Christina and Elizabeth!
Ever have a client talk to you in a way that made it seem like you were a wizard at design? Ever have a project with very little resources from the owner, yet expected to deliver an award-winning experience? We’ve all been there, and for those of you who haven’t, know that you will soon enough. Having a potential client tell you they want the moon is a pretty funny experience. If you’re not ready, you’ll be taken back by all the requests. You may even think they’re accurate in their assumptions that flash is better than HTML5 or that having more images and no text is perfectly fine for a their entire website.
Let me first point out some of the warning signs:
A client that has no content, marketing plans, or media
You not having an up to date pricing list
If they’ve never seen your portfolio of work
The client thinks your prices are too high
The project needs to be done yesterday (already late)
There are unrealistic expectations
You not having a workflow
No contract
Sure these are just a few warnings, but they are with a lot of cause. When a potential client has expectations that do not seem to line up with your sense of reality, you’ll need to reach a middle point with them. One of the biggest mistakes you can do is promise the world when you’re in negotiations, then produce disappointments during development. You’re not going to want to keep calling or emailing them with bad news, and they’re not going to appreciate having to pay you for things their not going to get.
The idea of a magically grown project comes from misconception at the start. I know when I first got started, I would ask the client what they wanted. After a few years of experience, I now ask them what they do. After then tell me what they do, how their business works, I then tell them how a website we create for them will help. Either by plugging holes in their marketing, sales force, lead generation, brand recognition, social media, etc. By taking control of the expectations up front I get to set the scale for what the project will be. Even if I have my own limitations, I can still play within those limitations while the client essentially gets what they wanted.
Keep your clients on a schedule. It may be daily or weekly, but give them a clear set of action items or goals they need to achieve so that all parties can see the project “grow.” Also inform them when they’re behind on deliverable, and be honest about your hangups. This transparency helps to keep tensions on the ground instead of elevating to stressful levels. At the end of the day, it always comes down to customer service. You’re not a store at the mall, but you do need to have great service skills to ensure quality and future work.
One last time I have to create some checks and balances with your clients and your projects. Make sure everyone is accountable to either clear deadlines, or to someone else on the same team. This helps eliminate procrastination and even losses in translations. Clear goals and milestones post production will also help ensure a successful website.
See even the title causes a little stir & I’ve got a hunch that I’ve succeeded at the initial point of this blog. Since everyone these days has a blog about something or another, in order for your blog to get real traffic, you need to create some really compelling headlines and content. And that’s what allows your blog to flourish and your analytic report to make you smile-creating eye-catching headlines and “you’ve got my full attention” content. You know how people say you only get 10 seconds to make a first impression? Well you get even less to entice a reader with your headlines according to my research. Users often leave web pages in 10–20 seconds if there’s not compelling content to read and that’s some real pressure if you’re a blogger. I have also read that the average page visit lasts a little less than a minute. “As users rush through Web pages, they have time to read only a quarter of the text on the pages they actually visit (let alone all those they don’t).” Whew-tough crowd to please!
Aside from pleasing the reader, we want eye pleasing analytics capturing the success (or lack of) with our blogs. But how do we know that we’ve achieved our goals and keep those analytical reports looking like mountain tops instead of valleys?
~ Content may be king but headlines are indeed the crown. The bottom of the leading line is that if
your blog title/headline is unnoticeable, it gets passed over in a few short seconds and no one reads further. DOA before the first paragraph. But, if you’ve got something that’s contemporary, media talked about, news worthy headline, you can hook even the quickest page glancer. Here’s a good example: Dare I say WILLIAM LEVY…I can almost bet that someone who knows who he is has raised an eyebrow, let out a sigh and with anticipation, is clicking to see what I might say about him or hoping to see a picture of him. Ladies, your wish is my command…
On the flip side, someone who doesn’t know who he is, might Google him because the curiosity bug has nibbled and you’re wondering why I’m blogging about him. The point is that I’ve struck a chord and since we are curious creatures by nature, a tantalizing headline is all we need to capture ones attention before getting our content hooks in them. What’s even better from a business standpoint is that if you continue to put out “headlining” blogs, you develop a faithful following. Increased traffic = increased business. Increased business = $$$.
~ Is your image worth 1,000 words so your blog doesn’t have to be? Say you go to the Yahoo homepage and see an image of the Queen of England and she has on an African Head wrap? 2 things would probably occur:
(1) you do a double take, shake your head in disbelief and click on another page OR what’s more likely is that…
(2) you do a double take, become amused and want to read what supports that picture. And even though I don’t have an image to represent this theory you can almost SEE my point. Images play as much a significant role in the content of blogs as do the words written. They bring color and vitality to the black & white copy that lies on the page and enhances the experience your content brings to the reader. That’s what blogging is all about-enhancing the quality of the readers experience in order to gain a faithful following. That’s what measures the success of your blog and puts you in the “air up there” on the analytics peak.
And if you chuckled at the title of this blog or you’re still looking at William Levy,
the goal has been achieved…lol.
What in the world is Link Baiting?
In the simplest form, it is the act of creating any content within a website, advertisement or blog that is designed to gain attention and more importantly, encourages people to link to its original form. The goal of link baiting is to leverage content to become an extremely powerful form of marketing. Some feel it’s another tool to acquire the currency of SEO. Let’s talk about how it can be the biggest fish in the pond of SEO, why it’s important to get others hooked into it and then what it really reels in for you and your business.
To completely understand its meaning you have to understand what is at the heart of its composition. Link-baiting goes way beyond words within the content of your website, advertisement and/or blog. Aside from text, it can also be an image, audio or video clip. Any of these can be effective link baits as long as they are interesting enough to catch people’s attention. And once someone has clicked onto one of these vehicles, you want them to share it and hence great amount of traffic for your content. And that’s the goal-for some part of your content to become the Los Angeles freeway at 5pm. Think about how popular blogs have become that have infographics or videos. Videos gone viral on You Tube can take a no-name person or product and spread it like wildfire. Its all about engagement, the tantalizing, wiggly worm on the hook just waiting to be nibbled. Now that you understand what it is, where & how do you use it? What-For blogs you definitely need a strong & compelling headline to capture the readers’ attention and engage them. Take for instance this blog. “Link baiting” is a popular, strongly researched topic. So having a witty “hook” title will return good traffic once its out there. And while the “body” of the work needs to be strong and compelling to keep you entertained, its important to hook you right off the bat with the title. If a title doesn’t create intrigue then you won’t get the readership; and without readership, your content just floats along lonely in the sea of the worldwide web…you don’t want it to be Dory in Nemo singing “keep on swimming” – lol. Where -You want your content on all major Social Media sites to ensure good dissemination. Period – it’s that simple. How-A simple example is making sure to add links to your website and/or blog to a witty catch-phrase let’s say on Twitter. I plan to do it with this very blog so check me out on Twitter to see this concept hard at work. https://twitter.com/#!/Dt_Yvonne You can also add a video or audio clip to your content so that others will want to share it. http://blog.jpdesigntheory.com/why-website-content-is-important-video-interview/ For most businesses, the goal of disseminating information is to generate business as well as inform in some nature-whether it’s to sell shoes or trying to get elected as Mayor. Therefore the process of employing effective link baiting requires preparing the hook with the best content. Oh by the way- GOTCHYA!
If I didn’t persuade you enough, check out this listing from Wikipedia which offers some of the most common approaches to effective link baiting:
Informational hooks – Provide information that a reader may find very useful. Some rare tips and tricks or any personal experience through which readers can benefit.
News hooks – Provide fresh information and obtain citations and links as the news spreads.
Humor hooks – Tell a funny story or a joke. A bizarre picture of your subject or mocking cartoons can also prove to be link bait.
Evil hooks – Saying something unpopular or mean may also yield a lot of attention. Writing about something that is not appealing about a product or a popular blogger.
Tool hooks – Create some sort of tool that is useful enough that people link to it.
Widgets hooks – A badge or tool that can be placed or embedded on other websites, with a link included.
Unique content hooks – This hook is intended for people that are in need of unique content or articles for traffic or AdSense revenue. This became popular after Google implemented Duplicate Contents Filter and sites with duplicate contents saw fall in traffic. To use this hook, you have to create unique content and give it out to bloggers and webmasters with an obligation to link back to your site.
Curated hooks – A content that links out to other websites by citing them as resources naturally attracts linkers and have high chances of going viral as the mentioned sites in the link bait are most likely to link to the site and share it through their own networks.
Always remember that your content must be current (ripping something tantalizing from the headlines of major reporting forums such as nightly news, respectable magazines or newspapers) and is a great form of SEO currency. Don’t let your creativity dwindle when it comes to achieving this objective. Remember, the ultimate goal of all this is to create buzz and get people to share your content and its links – which hopefully hooks bank for your business.
Now that you understand what it is, where & how do you use it?
