Fering Communications Blog: 2013

Thursday, 14 March 2013

Don't Let Your Sales & Marketing Look Like This Oatmeal

Inspiration for what to blog about can come from the most unlikely places. One such example came last week from a Hampton Inn in northern Wisconsin: One morning, as I wandered down to the hotel breakfast area in search of some nourishment, the burger that I had for dinner the previous evening sat like a rock in my stomach. I wanted something healthier and hoped that the breakfast offering included oatmeal.

Happily, the breakfast bar did include oatmeal. Unhappily, this is what it looked like:

In an instant, my taste for oatmeal vanished and I decided to see what else was available.

OK, I get it, it’s a hotel, not a restaurant. I don’t expect a gourmet menu. But is it possible to make oatmeal look any less desirable? Upon sharing this picture with my wife, she compared it to the compost bin we keep in the kitchen for fruit and vegetable peelings and leftover scraps. Not exactly the comparison the folks at Hampton Inn were shooting for, I’m sure.

Let’s see if we can’t draw some food for thought (pardon the pun) from this most unfortunate food presentation.

The Importance of the First Few Seconds

In his book “Blink”, renowned author Malcolm Gladwell describes that our rapid recognition subconsciously make a series of conclusions about something within the first few seconds of seeing it. It’s why we dress nicely for a job interview, why we shave and comb our hair on a first date, and why we make eye contact and smile when we meet a prospect for the first time. All because we want the person we’re engaging to like us and give us what we want, whether it’s a job, a relationship or their business.

Sales & Marketing Materials

Here’s the reason the look of your sales & marketing materials (brochures, case studies, whitepapers, etc.) is so important: It’s often the first impression prospects and customers will have of your company and you want them to subconsciously conclude that you’re a professional and reputable company and make them comfortable with the prospect of doing business with you.

Website & Blog

Thanks to Google and other search engines, your website is very likely the first impression prospects will have of you and accordingly it should have a clean format so visitors are able to quickly determine what you do. Graphics should be clear and relevant, headers should logically break up your pages so the viewer can quickly scan and decide if you can provide what they’re looking for.

Your blog should have the same characteristics: an appealing look that makes the reader want to explore and read deeper. Relevant graphics and images make your blog posts more readable, and headers break up the body of the post, make it more reader-friendly and allow the reader to identify the highlights and decide if they want to read more.

Sales Proposals & Quotations

Sales proposals and quotations are notoriously poorly formatted. Many companies simply list quantities and prices for what they will provide, expecting that to be enough to convince the reader that they can solve the problem at hand. Images and headers are important here, too, and if your document exceeds ten pages you might want to think about adding a table of contents so readers can quickly locate what they’re looking for.

A professional title page clearly showing the title of the proposal, who the document was written for and by, and the date would all help create a positive first impression.

Conclusion

A bag of oatmeal doesn’t provide the most appealing first impression for someone with an appetite for a healthy breakfast. Your sales & marketing materials shouldn’t make this same mistake: your website, blog, sales proposals and quotations and other materials should have a clean, concise and professional look, lest your prospects and customers take a pass on dealing with you or your company and consider some other options.

Got something to say? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you! Got a question that we can address in our blog? Contact us through our website or email me directly and we’ll put our crack team to work and let you know when we post a reply.

Thursday, 28 February 2013

How To Write an Effective Professional Bio

I’ve found myself writing a fair number of professional bio’s recently, so I decided to take a few minutes to put fingers to keyboard to whip up a quick how-to on writing an effective biography. Bio’s can be used in a number of places including your company website, sales literature, or a program at a conference you’re speaking or presenting at and provide a summary overview of one in all of their glory.

What Is a Bio?

While it’s a pretty straightforward question, it’s worth pausing for a moment to consider. Of course, bio is short for biography which is a written account of a series of events that make up a person’s life. However, bio’s come in different shapes and sizes. Twitter provides the shortest bio opportunity, limiting you to 140 characters. The “Summary” section of your LinkedIn profile is a bio and is usually a few paragraphs long. If you have a blog, your bio is probably a few paragraphs there, too. Many companies include bio’s for their ownership and management team members on their ‘About’ or ‘Company Profile’ pages on their website. Famous people often have biographies that are published books and can span several hundred pages.

What Does a Bio Include?

A bio is a summary of you as a person and what it includes depends on where it will appear. Professional bio’s are the most common type—the sort that appears on sales literature, websites, and on other business related channels. Typically, a professional bio highlights your related professional experience, your academic background, and career achievements. Awards, published articles and high profile customers or projects are all fair game for a professional bio.

Non-professional bio’s might relate to charitable work or community involvement and typically include more personal information such as how long you’ve been married, how many children you have and what your hobbies include.

It’s also not a bad idea to, where space allows, include some personal information in a professional bio: it will help put a human touch to your professional profile.

How To Write a Bio

Bio’s aren’t that difficult to write because of the law of supply and demand: most people generally have a lot to say about themselves but the amount of space or words they have to work with is typically limited. The challenge in writing a bio is cherry picking the important details and piecing them together in one continuous piece. If you’re writing a professional bio a good place to start is with a resume: reduce it to its essence by continually removing the least relevant information until you’re within whatever space constraints you’re working with. Then turn what’s left into a well written piece.

When you’re writing a bio, even if it’s your own, always write in the third person. Don’t write “I am the Managing Partner of Fering Communications Inc. I am married and have three children.”, instead write “Steve Hartley is the Managing Partner of Fering Communications Inc. He is married and has three children”.

Consider your tone carefully: let how the bio will be used dictate the formality of the tone. A professional bio should be written in a formal tone even if you’re a joke-a-minute kinda person—you never know how a reader might interpret some tongue-in-cheek humour.

Adding a picture is always a good idea as it literally puts a face with a name and that builds a stronger relationship with the reader. Again, let the purpose dictate the picture: a smiling but serious picture would be suitable for a professional bio, a picture of you with your family for more personally oriented purposes, and a picture of you with your beer league hockey buddies for something more fun.

Conclusion

Biographies are everywhere you look, and writing one can be a bit tricky. If you keep the purpose of the bio in mind and make sure what is included is relevant to the purpose, you’re on the right track. Letting the purpose of the bio dictate the tone and writing in the third person will also help make sure that the bio is appropriate. Adding a picture adds a personal touch that will connect with the reader.

Monday, 25 February 2013

What a Stale Blog Says About Your Company

I was reading a blog post recently—a guest post by the client of a web design company who was describing the business that he was losing because his website was outdated. Naturally, he was thrilled by his new website and had received all sorts of kudos because of the update. I wholeheartedly agree with him on the importance of a good looking and professional website—it’s what gives prospects their first impression of your company and you absolutely want that to be a positive and lasting impression.

But I’m not a web guy; I’m (among other things) a blog guy. So I’m going to continue the theme of the importance of having a good blog that is continually updated with fresh content. Company blogs are the centerpiece of successful inbound marketing campaigns as they can be stuffed full of SEO friendly keywords and keyphrases that help search engine rankings and they help engage prospects and build credibility.

We’ve come up with a few key pointers to keep in mind starting or managing your company blog.

Keep It Fresh

You have to keep fresh content flowing. When you pick up the newspaper in the morning do you want to know what happened in the world a month ago or yesterday? When you flip to your local TV news station do you want to know what’s going on right now in the world or this time yesterday? If a prospect visits your blog and your last post is from three months ago will they get the impression that your company is hurting and doesn’t have the resources to keep the blog current? Will they think that your company starts things but doesn’t follow through? I’m sure these aren’t the first impressions you want to make.

So what are you going to blog about? You definitely want to exhibit industry expertise and thought leadership. Take inspiration from the world around you: things that happen during your day both at home and at the office, current events and hot discussion topics, things that you’ve done right and wrong. Don’t be afraid to admit mistakes as long as you highlight the lesson learned: people love reading and learning about how not to do things.

Before you start a company blog make sure you understand the time it will take to maintain it. Some people don’t appreciate what’s involved and they end up with a stale company blog that sends all the wrong messages.

Make It Look Good

Your business blog has to look good because while it might be crammed full of knowledge, insight, expertise—and even if it had the winning lottery numbers—few are going to click through if it isn’t visually appetizing. Visitors are shallow like that so you’ve got nothing more than a few seconds to catch and keep their attention before they’re reaching for the ‘Back’ button.

Keep Changing It Up

Vary the lengths of your posts. Shorter posts (400 – 600 words) are more likely to get comments from your readers, while longer articles (800+ words) are more likely to be shared on social networking channels. Don’t force your posts to be any longer than they naturally are to meet some magical word count criteria—keep them crisp, concise and to the point. Even if you can only bang out four sentences before hitting the publish button you’ll still outperform at least one professional journalist on a nationwide sports website (don’t get me started on the ever diminishing standards of sports journalism!).

Conclusion

A business blog is a great tool for improving search engine ranking and engaging readers. To help your blog be everything it can be make sure it looks good and is updated frequently with fresh and relevant content. Some companies get overwhelmed when they try and set up a blog or find they can’t keep pace once they do have a blog up and running – if you find yourself in either of these situations then give us a call or shoot us a quick email, we’d love to see if we can help!

Monday, 11 February 2013

How To Write a Blog Post That Doesn't Suck

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last ten years, you’ve probably heard about blogging and how it can be a great way to help your search engine rankings, build a connection with prospects and turn those prospects into leads. You probably also know that there’s lots of competition out there for readership. So what do you do? How do you build an audience and engage readers when there is so much background noise drowning out your message? This post describes simple steps that you can follow to write a post that will put you above the rest.

A Catchy Title

A strong title is the most important part of a good post. It’s like an invitation to a party—if the party sounds boring then no-one will want to come. Your title has to have a bit of sizzle to it – it’s what a reader will quickly eye and decide whether to click to see the rest of your post or not.

Good titles include “How To” guides, “Top X Reasons to …”, or something that’s a bit cheeky (double score on the title of this post!).

An Engaging First Paragraph

After your title has caught the reader’s eye, the first paragraph needs to continue the momentum.

You don’t want to dive too deep into the content because you’re still coaxing the reader, but at the same time you have to start giving them something to show that they’re not wasting your time. Good things to include in the first paragraph include an anecdote, reference to a current event or a personal story that might resonate with them. Set up a problem or ask a question that the rest of the post promises to answer.

Images

What’s that old saying about what a picture is worth? Well, you can probably get some free images from your friend Google (although be sure not to use any protected images) or if you use a professional image service you can expect to pay as much as $20 for a large high-resolution image. Either way, add one or more relevant images to your blog post whenever you can: images break up the text on the post and make it look more readable.

Headers

Like images, headers are a way to make your posts visually appealing—instead of having a large block of text you have a post that is divided into sections. Another way that headers make your post more readable is by allowing the user to see what the following section is about and allowing them to skip it if it’s not something that interests them.

Killer Content

Finally we get to the meat of your blog post: the content. Your content should inspire, educate, entertain and solve problems. You should have something relevant to say, voice an opinion, frame something like no-one else has or write with a twist of humor or sarcasm – anything that’ll help differentiate your blog from the rest of the blogs out there.

A Strong Finish

Your reader has made it to the end of your post … so now what? Every post should end with a call-to-action (CTA) – tell the reader what you want them to do next. If you don’t they might leave your blog and you lose the opportunity to engage them further.

Conclusion

Blogging is a great way to get exposure and generate interest for your business or brand and engage your prospects. However, blogging isn’t just a matter of putting words on your website and calling it a day. Follow the pointers outlined above and you’ll be well on your way, or (CTA spoiler alert!) if you find that you don’t have the time or resources to maintain a blog or you can’t manage to make the words on the screen say what you want them to, give us a shout, we’d be glad to help!

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Video Tutorial: How To Use of Powerpoint Animations Professionally

Microsoft Powerpoint gets a bad rap because of the “presentations” that some people create with it. The use of tired and overworked templates, the Smorgasbord of fonts, the rainbow of text colours and the blinding animations with every slide advance make many presentations look awful. All this gives legs to Guy Kawasaki’s famous Presentation Zen introduction Zen that stated that 95% of presentations suck.

But don’t blame poor Powerpoint, it’s just a tool. It’s like blaming the hammer that I used that time I tried unsuccessfully to finish my basement—it *may* not have been the hammer but more the hammer swinger (me!).

In our latest video tutorial we explore how to use animations in a presentation in a professional manner. The tutorial shows how to add and manipulate the fade, shrink and slide animations without distracting from the content or message.

Click here to check out the video tutorial

Sunday, 6 January 2013

10 Great Reasons Why Your Company SHOULD be Blogging (Part 2)

As promised, we’re back with reasons 6 – 10 of why your company should have a corporate blog. For those who didn’t see the first part of this post, please take a few minutes to check out the first part of this post to get up to speed.

Without further ado let’s get on with the rest of the reasons why your company should have a blog:

Share Timely Information – Your blog can serve as an announcement board for your company’s current events. If you’re going to be exhibiting at a tradeshow or attending a conference you can create a series of blog posts leading up to the event that discuss relevant topics and highlight your participation. If you’re going to release a new product or a major update on an existing product then your blog can play an important role in getting that message out there. If you’ve signed up a key account or established a strategic partnership, you can get that message out to your audience instantly by posting the information on your blog.
Damage Control – Your blog can be an archive of all things good about your company but can also play a key role in swiftly and deftly dealing with bad things that inevitably happen, helping to protect the reputation of your company, products and services. Say you just released a new version of your software without full testing Windows XP compatibility. Within hours of the release your help lines are overwhelmed by people who are finding out that your new software doesn’t play nice on XP. Within minutes of confirming the issue you could have a new blog entry posted recognizing the issue, accepting accountability for it and committing to a fix as quickly as possible. This might not correct the compatibility problem but will go a long way in assuring your user base that you’re dealing with the problem head on. And, if you use your blog as the foundation for social media channels, you might be able to get the message out to users before they install the new version and mess up their systems.
Humanize your company – As much as it may pain you, your website is probably a fine blend of corporate hyperbole, hand-wavy benefit statements and industry jargon. Your company blog is different: it gives you an opportunity to have a human voice—a chance to wish people the best of the season, to comment on current events, to drop the rhetoric and engage your readers in a human and personal way.
Understand Your Audience – By blogging about different products and services offered by your company and analyzing the number of pageviews, click throughs, shares and comments that each post gets you can understand what resonates with your audience. You could use this to boost products and services that might be underperforming or to eliminate products or services that your audience is showing that it’s not interested in.
Search Engine Optimization – Having a carefully planned, well written and informative blog that is updated regularly gives you a chance to lace your site with words and phrases that are key to your business and will help you rank better with the search engines. The search engine spiders adore fresh content that is rich with relevant material and will keep a close eye on your blog, helping your rankings and thereby increasing the traffic it directs to your website. While this is usually the number one reason on every other list of “top reasons why you should be blogging”, we have found it largely depends on your industry so we’ve put it at the bottom. Check back for a blog post in the near future where we’ll expand on this.

Conclusion

A company blog is a great way to engage prospects, establish your credibility, and keep your company in the forefront as prospects make their way towards a buying decision. You can use your company blog to share your experiences, keep your audience up-to-date and improve your search engine rankings, thereby increasing traffic to your website. But keep in mind that if you do decide to start a company blog it isn’t a trivial task—you should have a clear set of goals, define a strategy and identify your expectations before even posting your first blog. If the thought of all of this is overwhelming don’t let it stop you, just drop us a line because we’d love to help you navigate the waters of corporate blogging!

Fering Communications Blog

Thursday, 14 March 2013

Don't Let Your Sales & Marketing Look Like This Oatmeal

The Importance of the First Few Seconds

Sales & Marketing Materials

Website & Blog

Sales Proposals & Quotations

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts

Thursday, 28 February 2013

How To Write an Effective Professional Bio

What Is a Bio?

What Does a Bio Include?

How To Write a Bio

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts

Monday, 25 February 2013

What a Stale Blog Says About Your Company

Keep It Fresh

Make It Look Good

Keep Changing It Up

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts

Monday, 11 February 2013

How To Write a Blog Post That Doesn't Suck

A Catchy Title

An Engaging First Paragraph

Images

Headers

Killer Content

A Strong Finish

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Video Tutorial: How To Use of Powerpoint Animations Professionally

Other Blog Posts

Sunday, 6 January 2013

10 Great Reasons Why Your Company SHOULD be Blogging (Part 2)

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts