Fering Communications Blog: sales and marketing

Showing posts with label sales and marketing. Show all posts

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.

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, 26 November 2012

Why Your Company Needs a Style Guide

A few years ago when I was working as a salesman for a different company I sat across the desk from a customer while he was engrossed by a report. I was immediately curious about what he was looking at and after he put the document down and we began chatting I tried to discreetly steal glances to find out what he had been reading. After we chatted for a while we were interrupted by one of his colleagues and he stepped out of his office to discuss an issue that had just occurred. Alone in his office, I finally got the chance to freely look at the report and I was surprised to find that it was a production report generated by the computer system that I had sold him a few months earlier. I was shocked that it took me so long to identify something created by the company that I worked for. Instead of using the logos, fonts and colours consistent with our sales materials our technical team had used the default attributes chosen by their programming tools.

It is so important to build your brand into your business and everything that is associated with it. Every piece of sales & marketing material should have the same look and feel that is central to your company’s image. This includes your website and blog, whitepapers and case studies and product specifications. The same look and feel should extend through your training manuals, installation guides, specification documents and other technical documentation. On a whole, every piece of written or visual material your customers will see should look and feel the same and a style guide plays a key role in delivering that.

A style guide is a document describing the fonts, colours, style, voice, tone, layout and other attributes of your brand—everything that the various people and departments will need to adhere to so your branding is consistent and uniform. You want your prospects and customers to know that they are looking at something produced by your company without having to search for whom it was written by. Written and visual communications that are not consistent can look unprofessional and leave your customers confused.

Below is an infographic covering the basics of what a style guide is, why it is important, who should use it and how to go about creating one if you don’t already have one:

Establishing a style guide can be difficult in the early going—especially if multiple people or departments are involved. Start the process by appointing someone to champion the process and engage key individuals to invite their input and win their support.

You should also keep in mind how your style guide affects resources outside of your organization like bloggers and content curators—the standards described by the style guide will need to extend through their work, too.

Conclusion

A style guide is a document that defines the appearance, voice, formatting and other aspects of a company’s written and visual materials. Having a well-defined and consistent look and feel will make your company look professional and customers will feel comfortable doing business with you. If you need help creating or updating your style guide give us a call, we’d be more than happy to help!

Monday, 15 October 2012

How to Write a Great Business Letter

Emails are by far the most common form of written business communication and are becoming shorter and more abrupt. Text-speak is slowly but surely making its way into the business lexicon (OMG! LOL … :). People are becoming accustomed to communicating in bursts of 140 characters or less.

It seems like the ability to craft a well-written, well-formatted, convincing and persuasive business letter is a dying art. However, at some point in your business life you’re probably going to have to write an important business letter: to get a sales appointment with a prospective customer, to close a sales opportunity, to be considered for a promotion, or to engage someone in creating a strategic partnership.

Here are some points to keep in mind when you’re faced with the daunting task of writing a great business letter:

Understand the Purpose: Before you even open up your favourite word processor you must understand what the purpose of the letter is – if you don’t then the letter will lack focus and effectiveness and you could lose credibility with your reader.
Focus on One (and Only One!) Point: Your letter will be more effective if you only focus on one key point. Every word of the letter should support your key point. This could be difficult if you feel that you have several things that the reader will be interested in, but isolate the most important point and focus on it.

Make Your Letter About Them: It makes little difference to them if your company has over 1,000 employees worldwide, offices in nine countries and has been in business for over 50 years. None of this helps them at all. If you want them to read past the first few lines then you’ve got to quickly get to the point where it’s all about them.
Focus on Value: Quickly establish what value they could get by dealing with you. In the business world the value that most people are looking for is financial: they want to either increase their revenues or decrease their costs. Many people focus on features – like how their product is so much faster or smaller or newer than the competition’s – but if you don’t emphasize the value that translates into (… our machine works 20% faster and can reduce your labour costs by the same amount …) then your reader won’t be motivated to engage with you. There are other values that you could deliver, such as an emotional value, a social value or an environmental value but in the harsh world of business (and please excuse the pun) you’ll get more bang for your buck by focusing on the financial value.

Use a Professional Tone & Format: The only acceptable tone for a professional business letter is a formal one. Refrain from using abbreviations and use a professional format (click this link for an example and check out our blog post on writing tone). Typically you would print, sign and mail the letter but it’s becoming more common to send the letter electronically as a PDF or other non-editable document.
Tell the Reader What You Want Them To Do Next: In the final portion of the letter, set up what you want to happen next. This could be a call-to-action to get them to do something (“Call us now …” or “Visit our website …”) but it could also be something less actionable (“I will call you next week to discuss this further …”). Either way, the letter is only one part of a longer process and you should finish your letter with what the next steps in the process are.

Conclusion

If you’re in the business world you’re going to need to write a great business letter sooner or later. If you truly understand what your reason for writing the letter is before you start, use every word in the letter to support that key point, focus on the value that the reader will get by acting on the letter and finishing with a direct and definitive path for moving forward, then you’re on the right path to crafting a professional, engaging and persuasive letter that’s got a good chance of achieving your objectives.

Friday, 28 September 2012

A How-To Guide for Getting Your Online Content Found More Often

Do you want a fast and easy way to improve your search engine rankings so that your website and content marketing gets found more often? Having fresh content that is rich with keywords and phrases is a must, but you also need to make sure that the search engines know about your site and make regular visits to see what’s new.

While we’re all familiar with search engines thanks to our friends at Google and Microsoft, people are generally less familiar with web directories. Web directories are huge libraries of websites on the internet. Unlike search engines that use “spiders” to automatically crawl through the different pages on a website and catalog the results, most directories are manually compiled by volunteer editors. Search engines crawl through web directories so appearing in web directories will help your search engine performance.

While the reasons to be favoured by search engines and web directories are well documented, let’s quickly review why you want to let them know that you exist rather than waiting for them to happen upon you by chance:

Improved search engine ranking – If the search engines don’t know about your site, you’re not going to rank in search results. The search engine “spiders” will probably encounter your content sooner or later, but why wait?
More inbound links – Registering your site with web directories means increasing the inbound links to your site, and that’s good for directing more traffic to your site but also for increasing the credibility of your pages. Search engines keep a close eye on the web directories so showing up in the web directories will also help your search engine performance. Also, web directories are searchable and some people use them to find companies that they’re looking for.
Keywords and key phrase targeting – When you register with search engines and web directories you get to specify your keywords and phrases. By selecting the keywords and phrases that are in your sweet spot and are consistent with your content marketing platform you’re going to show up in the searches that you want to show up in.

Here are the top search engines and web directories and a brief note on how to sign up:

Google – With 85% of the search engine market share, this is a must. Go to www.google.com/submityourcontent and there are four options that you can choose from. You’ll want to start by clicking on the ‘Website Owner’ tab and then the ‘Add your URL’ link but you should look at the other three options on the page. You should also submit a sitemap so Google knows how to index your site – http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ is a great site that will build your sitemap.xml file, for free, that you can submit to Google.
Bing – While Yahoo has the second largest search engine market share, Bing provides the organic search results for Yahoo so by registering with Bing you’re also registering with Yahoo. Go to http://www.bing.com/toolbox/submit-site-url, enter your URL and you’re on your way. You can also submit your sitemap to Bing through their Webmaster Tools to make it easier for Bing to crawl your site.
DMOZ.org – This is the biggest directory on the web. To submit your site, go to www.dmoz.org and drill down to your business category. Drill down as deep as you can and when you’re in a deep as you can get click the ‘Suggest URL’ link near the top of the page. Enter your URL, title and site description and you’re on your way. Be careful in submitting: these entries are supposed to be objective and are reviewed before they are accepted so don’t use the site description part as a selling platform. Simply state what your business does and include your keywords and phrases.

If you submit your site to Google, Bing and Yahoo you’ll have more than 96% of the search engine market covered, but if you want to go for the full 100% you should also register with Baidu, Ask, AOL, Excite and Lycos. There are other directories that you can find through various search engines – see what other directories are available and appropriate for you particular business.

Conclusion

A strong content marketing platform is vital for many small businesses. Creating fresh and engaging content that will resonate with your target audience is great, but you can boost its effectiveness by submitting your site to the major search engines and web directories. By doing the minimum of submitting your website to two search engines and one directory you can significantly improve your online visibility and get more traffic to your marketing content.

Monday, 17 September 2012

Five Great Sources for Blogging Topics

Coming up with interesting and relevant topics is one of the most challenging aspects about maintaining a blog. If you don’t provide blog posts that resonate with your readers then they’ll stop reading and the number of engaged readers is one of the key metrics in measuring the effectiveness of your blog.

Here are some of the top places that we turn to for inspirations when setting out on a blog post:

Real-Life Stories – Real-life stories are awesome because of their originality. The tricky part to real-life stories is making them relevant. Take for example our last blog post about the bird that hopped onto my hand in a client’s parking lot. Yeah, it’s interesting but my readers don’t really care about just that. I had to put a spin on it that made it relevant so I used it to put a human touch on me and my company. What stories serve as a good basis for blog posts? Anything you’d tell your spouse over dinner or a buddy over a beer.
Life Lessons – Life lessons that you learn from mistakes serve as great blog material because you can show your readership a sense of humility, modesty or vulnerability that they will respect. To err is human and openly discussing your life lessons will add an element of honesty and trustworthiness to you and your company. Also, as well as describing the mistake that you made you can also brag a little bit about how well you rose to the occasion, innovated to correct a mistake or went that extra mile to save the day. Be careful about being too honest, though: you don’t want to give your readers the impression that you’re clumsy, incapable or incompetent.
Current Events – News headlines are a great source of blog inspiration but again only if you can make it relevant to your readership. How many articles did you see this past summer about how we can learn something to do with our businesses from Olympic athletes like Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt or Ryan Lochte? How many articles did you see about how we can apply strategies from Angry Birds to our everyday jobs? Apparently everyone from instructional designers to environmentalists to enterprise software firms could all learn a thing or two from Angry Birds.
LinkedIn Groups – Two particular LinkedIn features are rich with ideas about things to blog about. First, the “LinkedIn Today” section, which shows near the top of the page when you log in, lists top stories of interest. Our favourite source, though, is LinkedIn’s Groups. Join a handful of groups that are related to your business and keep an eye on what is being discussed and you’ll likely find a bountiful supply of blog topics.
Competitors Blogs – Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? In a pinch, head over to your competitors blogs and see what they are blogging about. A couple of things to keep in mind, though: First, you should only use their topics as inspiration for your own, so don’t steal their content, that’s plagiarism and generally frowned upon. Second, don’t go to this well too often. If you do you risk them – and potentially some of your prospects or clients – finding out. If you are going to do this, make it less obvious by looking at their archives and seeing what they’ve blogged about in the past, it might seem too coincidental if you use their current posts as inspiration.

Conclusion

A well-written blog can be the cornerstone for establishing an online presence that can help your business grow through showcasing your expertise, building credibility with prospects and keeping your clients up-to-date on your latest offerings. However, keeping fresh and relevant content flowing can be tough. There are many sources close at hand that we can draw inspiration from, including real-life stories, life lessons and current events to name but a few. And, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that if you need help starting a new blog or continuing an existing one then we’d love to help. Check out our website and visit our Contact Us page to find out how to get in touch and get started!

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

What Tweeting Looked Like Before Twitter

I know, I know, boo @ the cheesy title! I thought I’d use this platform to share a neat story that happened to me as I left a client’s office last week. As I headed through the parking lot toward my car, I noticed what I originally thought was a large stone a few yards ahead. As I got closer, I saw that not only did the large stone have eyes but it was moving its head. The large stone was actually a bird sitting in the parking lot watching the world go by. As I got closer, I thought that this little guy might be injured so stooped down and gently put my hand on the ground beside him. He hopped onto my hand and I snapped the above picture while I pondered how one determines if a bird is injured or not. While I thought about this he flew away, making the conclusion a moot point.

So how can I tie this into professional writing and presentation services? Well, I’m not sure if I can directly. However, I can offer that one of the goals of your company blog might be to make you and your company human and likeable.
In the story above, I’m hoping that people see me as a kind, caring possibly-hurt-animal-loving kind of guy. And I’m also hoping that I hit a soft spot with some of the readers of this blog and maybe they’ll like me and my company just that little bit more. And if they like me that little bit more and have professional business writing and presentation needs, maybe they’ll decide to visit our Contact Us page and connect with us.

Conclusion

Your company blog can be used to achieve a great many goals: increasing traffic to your website, showcasing industry expertise and thought leadership, converting blog or website visitors into leads. But your blog can also provide softer benefits, including adding a personal touch to your business and letting your prospects and customers know that there are human beings behind your corporate machine, which may differentiate you from your competition and give you the winning edge.

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.

Steve Hartley, Managing Partner
Fering Communications Inc.
Website: www.feringcommunications.com
Email: steve.hartley@feringcommunications.com

Sunday, 5 August 2012

The Importance of Tone in Business Writing

Writing is one of the most common tasks that you’ll find yourself doing during a regular workday. In 2011 the average corporate user sent and received an average of 112 emails every day. And that’s just email, it doesn’t include the sales proposals, technical documentation, business letters and other documents that you’ll work on.

Just as important as the content of business writing is the tone – the writer’s opinion and emotion toward the reader and subject matter. Just like your tone of voice in a spoken conversation, the tone of a written conversation is as – and sometimes more – important as the actual content.

When crafting a piece of business writing – a quick email before you dash off to a meeting or a hundred page sales proposal that you and your team slaved over for weeks – you certainly have to make sure that the content is appropriate but you have to make sure the tone is, too. You can’t take chances when you’re communicating through writing – you can’t read facial expressions or body language and you might not get a second chance if your content and tone miss the mark.

Not Good: Joe, get me the final specs quick or you’ll cause us to deliver late.

Better: Joe, we really need the final specifications before we can finalize delivery. Would you be able to send them over at your earliest convenience to avoid delays?

One of the most important considerations in establishing the tone of your writing is to be honest, authentic and sincere. Most readers will pick up if you’re not being true and you might lose your credibility. If the reader doesn’t trust you there isn’t much of a chance that they’ll be convinced by your writing.

Your state of mind plays a large role in your tone: if you’re in a bad mood, if you’re feeling playful, if you’re feeling happy – all of these emotions will come out in your writing. If you are in a bad mood or feeling stressed, you might want to stay away from your keyboard – those grumpy feelings will seep into your writing whether you like it or not.

At all times, you should maintain a professional tone, even if you are very comfortable or have a friendly relationship with the recipient. Talking about the baseball game you went to, how your kids are doing in school or your kitchen renovations might be appropriate for the person that you’re writing to directly but not for those that the recipient could forward it on to and you can’t count on them deleting the friendly chit chat before they do.

Finally, you should favour a concise and precise tone in business communication over a verbose and flowery one. The person reading your writing doesn’t have time to wade through ~~linguistic pyrotechnics~~ fancy words and filter out your message. Also, there’s a good chance that instead of coming off sounding eloquent you’ll end up sounding pretentious.

Not Good: We would like to inquire about your upcoming availability to arrange a mutually convenient brief conference call, if possible on next Wednesday morning, so we might gain some additional insight into your requirements for the upcoming project.

Better: Are you available for a short call next Wednesday at 10:00am? We have some questions about the project that we’d like to ask.

Conclusion

The tone of a piece of business writing is just as important as the content. If you’re in a positive frame of mind, are honest and sincere and keep your message concise then you’ll infuse a positive tone in your writing and generate a readable and convincing piece. And if you decide that you need help with any sales and marketing, technical or business writing projects that you’re working on, we’re only an email or phone call away.

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.

Amanda Hartley, Managing Partner
Fering Communications Inc.
Website: www.feringcommunications.com
Email: amanda.hartley@feringcommunications.com

Saturday, 30 June 2012

Six Great Ways to Dissolve Your Writer’s Block

Have you ever found yourself staring at the blinking cursor on your blank computer screen as it ticks away the seconds toward your looming deadline, but still can’t think of anything to write? You’re not alone: Writers block affects almost everyone from time to time, whether you’re young or old, an inexperienced newbie or an old pro. Luckily, writer’s block has affected enough writers that people have come up with a number of different things that you can try to overcome it. Some might not be what you would expect but when you’ve got a deadline looming you’re probably willing to give anything a try. Here are some tips that we resort to when we just can’t seem to get things going.

Arrange an Impromptu Brainstorming Session: Gather a small handful of your colleagues and start throwing ideas around. They don’t have to be good ideas; the aim is to give you a shove in the right direction and the spontaneity of an impromptu group brainstorming session might just do the trick.
Just Start Writing: Write about anything - what you had for breakfast, a conversation you had with a colleague, a list of groceries that you need to pick up on the way home or a to-do list for the weekend. William Stafford, a poet, once wrote, “There is no such thing as writer’s block for writers whose standards are low enough.” This is not to suggest that you should aim to lower your standards but if drivel is what it takes to get you going then bring it on! A page of drivel can be shaped into something brilliant, but a blank sheet of paper will remain blank until you get over yourself and write something.
Stop Writing: OK, didn’t we just tell you to start writing? Now we’re suggesting you stop writing? Do you wish we’d make up our minds? At the other end of the spectrum is to not try and force the issue but to do something else that is totally unrelated to your writing assignment. This takes a bit of guts – you’ve got a pressing deadline and we’re suggesting that you ignore the task at hand. Actually, we’re confident in your subconscious’ ability to work on something while you’re focusing on something else. Have you ever tried so hard to remember the name of an actor in a movie but you just can’t, and then while you’re brushing your teeth that night it comes to you? That’s your subconscious at work. Your subconscious is very powerful and if you leave it to wrestle with your writing assignment while you’re concentrating on something else you might be surprised with what you come up with.
Look for Fresh Surroundings: Being stuck at the same desk in the same office looking at the same faces might not be the best way to stoke your creativity. So change things up a bit by packing up and heading somewhere different. Coffee shops are great places and many offer free Wi-Fi if you don’t want to totally be out of contact or if you need to look something up. This article describes a recent study that concluded that the moderate ambient noise of a coffee shop enhanced subjects’ performance on a creative task. Alternately, head to a park and watch the world go by - you just might find that your writer’s block starts to dissolve.
Jump Right Into the Middle: If you’ve got an idea of the overall flow of what you have to produce, start somewhere apart from the beginning and just get going. Chances are the pieces will start falling into place one at a time and once you’ve got some momentum revisiting that part that was stumping you won’t seem so helpless. When we’re writing sales proposals, for example, we often start with the pricing section, one of the last sections of the proposal, and then work backwards. Often the Executive Summary is one of the last pieces that we write even though it’s the first page of the document.
Get Moving: As goes the body so goes the mind. If you’re sitting at your computer screen and your brain is stalled, jump up and get active. Go for a walk around the block, do some stretching, or throw a foam stress ball around with a couple of colleagues. (Disclaimer: you didn’t get the idea here if you break something!) Moving your body, particularly in a repetitive way, often gets your mind in action as well.

Writer’s block affects us all at one time or another and the more you try and pressure yourself into powering past it the more strangling it can become. The points above will hopefully help motivate, energize and even distract you enough to make your writer’s block a thing of the past.

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.

Amanda Hartley, Managing Partner
Fering Communications Inc.
Website: www.feringcommunications.com
Email: amanda.hartley@feringcommunications.com

Friday, 15 June 2012

Social Media and Content Marketing: In-house or Outsource?

There are lots of different opinions on whether you should use in-house resources to quarterback your social media and content marketing presence or whether it’s better to use an outside company. At Fering Communications, we humbly submit that using an external company gives you the best advantage. Here are five good reasons why:

You’ve Got Better Things to Do: Honestly, you do. If you’re like most people I know, you’ve got a million things to do and that’s when you’re not busy. Setting up and implementing a social media strategy is seldom going to make it to the top of your to-do list. Luckily, if you work with an external company they’ll give you a content calendar with 30, 60 or 90 days of content activity and all you have to do is make sure that they do as they say they will.

You’re So Close You Might Miss the Obvious: Sometimes, people are so passionate about their businesses that they suffer from tunnel vision and only focus on what is most near and dear to them. In the meantime, all sorts of good and marketable stuff can be going on that you might not notice or might neglect to recognize the significance of. By keeping in reasonably close contact with your social media and content marketing company they will pick up on things that should be spun into new content and broadcast across the social media spectrum.

Don't Overwork Yourself: One of the first things an outside company will establish is your content marketing and social media strategy and activity calendar. This will contain a schedule for when you can expect premium content pieces, blog posts, Facebook posts and tweets. But what happens if something unexpected happens in your company that should be shouted from the rooftops? If you’re managing your own content in-house you have to find time to incorporate this on top of everything else that you’re working on. If we’re doing it we can reorganize our resources and priorities to fit you in.

Benefit From A Fresh Perspective: We spend a considerable amount of my day talking about, thinking about and doing social media and content marketing. On any given day we can touch any number of people who have different ideas and perspectives and where appropriate we can bring apply these ideas and perspectives to work for you. Your internal resource is so tied to one strategy (yours) and is going to see the same set of faces (your team) day in and day out that the chances of fresh ideas or new perspectives creeping into the picture is smaller.

This Writing Thing Isn't As Easy As It Looks: Sure, we all learned how to write when we were young, but I learned to swing a hammer when I was little and as my wonderful wife can attest, being able to swing a hammer doesn't mean I know how to finish a basement. You rock at what you do and that’s why your customers buy from you but unless you’re into social media and content marketing (and I’m puzzled by why you would hire us if you are) then we’re probably better. When I want a computer I buy a Dell laptop running Windows 7 because those are the best tools available for my needs. When we’re hungry we head out to the local Pita Pit and grab a pita. You could probably do a decent job yourself, but who shoots for decent when great is just a phone call away?

Social media and content marketing is a low-cost-high-return way to market your business. Like anything else, doing it poorly can do more damage than good and can be worse than doing nothing at all. Involving an outside company to create a consistent stream of content and social media activity will help establish you as an expert in your field, engage your customers and keep them coming back for more, and boost your lead generation. Fering Communications provides social media and content marketing services so if you are convinced that an outside company might be right for you give us a call, we’d love to talk to you.

Steve Hartley, Managing Partner

Fering Communications Inc.

Website: www.feringcommunications.com

Email: steve.hartley@feringcommunications.com

Saturday, 2 June 2012

Don't End Up Like Killface: 5 Grammatical Errors to Avoid

In the series premiere of Frisky Dingo, Killface wanted to use a direct mailing campaign featuring the following postcard to publicize his plans to annihilate mankind.

Unfortunately, several episodes later he was mocked on national TV because of the grammatical errors on his postcard. This probably wasn’t the publicity he was looking for. Luckily, you’ve found Fering Communications to make sure you don’t make similar types of errors that will make you look less than professional. Here are five common grammatical errors explained so you can avoid the “DOOM!” making them will surely bring.

Your vs. You’re – “You’re” is a contraction of “you are” and is used to describe the person you’re talking to, as in: You’re so wonderful because you’re reading our blog! A quick way to check if you're using “you’re” correctly is to replace it with “you are” and your sentence should still read correctly. “Your” is a possessive adjective and is used to describe something that is yours, as in: Your postcard mailer has grammatical errors, Killface. If you want to get tricky: You’re probably reading this blog on your computer. If your not sure what’s wrong with this sentence you should call you’re friends for help.
They’re, Their and There – “They’re” is a contraction of “they are”, so you should be able to replace “they’re” with “they are” and your sentence should still make sense. Remember those kids who jaywalked in front of you today? They’re going to get themselves hurt! “Their” is a possessive adjective and is used to refer to something that belongs to them, so you might have thought about telling their parents. “There” refers to a location (real or abstract), like over here or over there. “There” is also used with the verb “be” (is, am, are, was, were), as in: There was a crosswalk a little further down they could have used!
Its & It’s – Starting with the easier of the two, “it’s” is a contraction of “it is” or less commonly “it has” or “it was”. As above, replace “it’s” with its longer forms and see if the sentence makes sense still and if it does you’re (as in “you are”) in good shape. It’s (as in “It is”) really quite easy! “Its” is a possessive noun and describes something that belongs to “it”, where “it” is a previously defined object. Remember that funny video you saw where the dog chased its tail around and around? The dog is the previously defined object and the tail belonged to the dog.
Dangling Participles – No, this has nothing to do with the punch line of a raunchy joke, it’s what happens when you order your sentence in a confusing way. Try this one actually taken from a newspaper article: The burglar was about 30 years old, white, 5’10”, with wavy hair weighing about 150 pounds. That’s some heavy hair! Maybe they were trying to describe a burglar who was about 30 years old, white, stood 5’10” tall, weighed about 150 pounds and had wavy hair. Cancel the APB on the white male with incredibly heavy hair.
Me and I – If you’re describing what you and someone else will be doing, when do you use “me” and when do you use “I”? Take the other person out of the sentence and see if it still makes sense. For example, “Bob or me will call you next week” is wrong because if you take Bob out of the sentence you’re left with “me will call you next week”. This might have been acceptable tens of thousands of years ago but isn't not today. Alternately, “Freddy told me and Jim that he’d send the order across tomorrow” still reads properly if you take Jim out of the sentence.

The English language is a cruel and unforgiving language full of weird rules and nuances. Making grammatical errors in a business environment can confuse your audience, dilute your message and make you and your company look sloppy. Being able to write and communicate effectively are so important that taking a little time to re-read what you’ve written to ensure that you’re clearly and concisely communicating your message is a worthwhile exercise. If you find that you’re having difficulty crafting or refining your message then give us a call, we’d be glad to help.

Steve Hartley, Managing Partner
Fering Communications Inc.
Website:www.feringcommunications.com
Email: steve.hartley@feringcommunications.com

P.S. For something a little more risqué, check out this link.

Thursday, 14 March 2013

The Importance of the First Few Seconds

Sales & Marketing Materials

Website & Blog

Sales Proposals & Quotations

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts

Thursday, 28 February 2013

What Is a Bio?

What Does a Bio Include?

How To Write a Bio

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts

Monday, 26 November 2012

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts

Monday, 15 October 2012

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts

Friday, 28 September 2012

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts

Monday, 17 September 2012

Conclusion

Other Blog Posts

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

Conclusion

Sunday, 5 August 2012

Conclusion

Saturday, 30 June 2012

Friday, 15 June 2012

Saturday, 2 June 2012