I’ve written before about how to make a video go viral. This book takes us deeper into the phenomenon and looks at the broader picture of social epidemics. Berger has developed a model for explaining marketing virality called STEPPS. It breaks down like this:

1. Social Currency
2. Triggers
3. Emotion
4. Public
5. Practical Value
6. Stories

All of these factors are key to generating that priceless commodity: word of mouth.

Social currency

“Here’s a little secret about secrets: they tend not to stay secret very long.” – Jonah Berger

We’re social creatures. Even introverts like me have opinions and want to share them. We want people to think we’re interesting and entertaining. Berger suggests marketers “give people a way to make themselves look good while promoting their products.”

The first big takeaway from this section is for brands to “find the inner remarkability in any product or idea.” Although Berger uses the classic Blendtec Blender example here, his deep dive into the history shows that the videos of blenders blending, well, everything, captured something the founder was already doing as a quality test for the blenders. Knowing that such a successful idea was the result of careful observation rather than magic makes the viral success of those videos seem all the more achievable for any brand.

As Berger described game mechanics (a fascinating read for anyone trying to increase engagement) and how that plays into our competitive natures, I had some pretty shameful flashbacks to the many hours I once spent sending virtual plants to friends over Facebook.

And his reflections on how marketers can manipulate demand helped me connect with my inner consumer. He made me think about how I respond to scarcity (I want to buy all it now) and being given insider access (I’ll tell all my friends about the great deal I just got). Achieving that level kind of empathy is always useful as long as you use it as an entry point only and don’t over-generalize your experience.

Triggers

“Every day, the average American engages in more than sixteen word-of-mouth episodes, separate conversations where they say something positive or negative about an organization, brand, product, or service.” – Jonah Berger

Triggers are the things in everyday life that make us recall anything from an earworm to a product. Berger uses the example of Rebecca Black’s song, “Friday,” and provides data that shows the video is most frequently viewed on, you guessed it, Friday.

Berger talks about how to leverage these triggers and to think carefully about the habitat that your product lives in. For example, thinking about peanut butter often conjures thoughts of jelly. Although peanut butter might also make you think of that time on your cousin’s boat when you first tried beer, think carefully about whether the trigger you’re using speaks to a wider experience. Because in marketing, you want your customers to feel like they’re on the inside of the joke.

I thought about this last night when our news station featured a picture of a double rainbow, and I turned to my husband (who does not live his life on the internet) and said, “What does it mean?” He had no idea what I was referencing. So we spent a few minutes on YouTube (re)discovering some classic viral videos. If he’d been my audience for a product and I’d used that reference as my trigger, I wouldn’t have had time to bring him in on the joke and the connection would have been lost.

I also realized how much of my brain is taken up by obscure references to dated and only vaguely interesting videos. My immunity to virality and marketing is starting to feel like a myth.

Emotion

“When we care, we share.” – Jonah Berger

In this section, Berger looks closely at how the power of awe and other positive emotions inspire people to share. What I really appreciated is that he modified his research to go beyond that conventional wisdom. Ultimately what he found is that it’s not really how positive something is that makes people want to pass things along, rather it’s the state of heightened arousal that something provokes that incites people to share.

Quick aside: if anyone ever questions the power of social sharing, remind them that the “United Breaks Guitars” video caused United’s stock to drop 10% over a period of four days after the video went live.

Thinking about all the times I’ve ranted on Twitter about our local bus system or raved about an amazing customer service experience, Berger helped me remember how personal that state of heightened emotion can feel. As marketers, finding a way to channel the variety of strong emotions a product or service evokes is a fantastic opportunity to generate word of mouth.

Public

“People imitate, in part, because others’ choices provide information.” – Jonah Berger

It is this public aspect of social contagion that I thought I was most immune to. I think of myself as an innovator, not an imitator. But I realized that I follow cues as much as anyone—and that that’s not a bad thing. Social proof can help us “resolve uncertainty.” It’s also a powerful marketing tactic.

For example, Berger tells the story of two identical gyro restaurants—one with a super-long line and the other with no line at all. The one with the long line had received a fantastic write-up in a major magazine. That positive review and the line of people are both signals to a hungry lunch crowd that the first gyro restaurant is the place to go.

Where the public discussion gets really interesting is with the idea of behavioral residue—anything that makes a thought or action observable, like “checking in” at your favorite restaurant. This residue, which can be anything from a Livestrong bracelet to an “I voted” sticker, is how our actions can become contagious even if we don’t expressly talk about them.

Reading this section, I looked down at the t-shirt I was wearing, which features a large logo for one of my publishers, and realized I’m not only a follower of trends, I have embraced behavioral residue as a communication tool without even knowing it. You can see this in everything from the wedding pictures on my desk (to show off my relationship status) to the book reviews I write on weekends (to share information about great literature with the world).

Practical Value

“People share practically valuable information to help others.” – Jonah Berger

Sharing practical information is one of my favorite things. Because my audience is mostly creative writers, both my Twitter and Facebook are filled with calls for writers and application deadlines for artist residencies and grants. I rarely think about the fact that I’m marketing for these organizations. I just want to connect my friends with opportunities.

This section also delves into how people perceive value. As the daughter of an economist, I was delighted to read about Daniel Kahneman’s prospect theory (which basically says that people make decisions based on potential losses and gains with the information available at the time) and how it debunks the rational actor theory (which presumes that people have perfect information and are always looking for the best possible final outcome).

Instead, Berger writes, “The way people actually make decisions often violates standard economic assumptions about how they should make decisions” and about how shifting the reference points of a deal can actually make consumers want to pay more for an item.

Or, if you’re a teenaged girl, Kahneman would argue that it’s perfectly normal to violate curfew if it means having an extra hour of fun. Rational choice theory would say that she’s more likely to think ahead to the weeks of grounding she will soon receive.

Stories

“Narratives are inherently more engrossing than basic facts.” – Jonah Berger

The fact that Berger wrapped all these factors of contagion together into a section on narrative thrilled my writer self. But it’s true. Stories have the power to convey that we’re interesting people who have something pertinent to say that might make your life easier while adding practical value. Isn’t that everything? While complete immunity from social contagion seems impossible, I may have been underestimating how rewarding connecting all the parts of our lives can be.

One thing that Berger did not address is the curiosity gap. But we’ve got you covered there. To learn even more about why things catch and why you click on those Buzzfeed articles (even when you hate yourself for it), register for Sara Lingafelter’s webinar, The Principles of Virality. I’ve previewed it, and let me tell you, it’s the best kept secret in town.

The post Marketing Tactics so Contagious, Even a Professional Isn’t Immune appeared first on Portent.

This is my dispatch from last week’s Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) book fair and conference when 12,000+ writers, educators, and publishers converged on Seattle for what should have been a marketing extravaganza. I’ll talk about what succeeded, what failed, and what those lessons can teach you about Internet marketing—or how to do AWP 2015 right.

It pays to stand out

The fair’s 600+ exhibitors were spread out over two huge rooms at the Washington State Convention Center. Even though I’ve been to this conference before in other cities, my nerdy little writing self was stunned by the vast array of presses, MFA programs, literary magazines, writing organizations, and bookstores.

I actually walked in the first day and couldn’t process all the information coming at me. I had a plan about which booths to visit first and had read over the map, but I couldn’t even find them in those first stunned moments. It looked a little like this:

And it felt like like being on the Internet and having Googled “who’s who in the literary world” then having to sift through all the results in person. The Paris Review was at the back, The Sun was to my left, and The New York Times was in another room entirely.

At a book fair (or any other conference), you have to focus on the physical display you put together and the people you have working it in order to draw in people walking by. On the Internet, this same idea applies when you think about your search engine results page (SERP) listing. It needs to be full of the information your potential visitors might need.

Just like book fair concessioners can lure a person to stop at their booth by offering up the just-right freebies, you can make your web presence more attractive by ensuring your SERP listings have great title tags and meta descriptions that seduce. In either case, I’d recommend the following:

Have an identity not a gimmick

This is a neat little tool that one of the small presses put together. I answered a few questions about who I am as a writer and it personalized a rejection letter for me. Now, you might argue, that writers don’t need more rejection, but when I completed the exercise they gave me a sticker and a postcard. Although I have no idea which press it was (I hope, based on the URL that it’s Stone Slide Corrective), that fun experience will stick in my head when I eventually sort through the pile of AWP papers I dumped on my desk at the end of each night.

On the Internet, Portent has a tool like this that helps people create titles and we make other tools for clients. In fact, one of our newest announcements here at Portent is the development of a suite of digital marketing tools that Ian will be heading up. At the conference I also saw a robot that generated poems based on questions it asked you. Big or small, creativity wins.

Lesson: No matter who does your coding, the opportunities to be useful and memorable on the Internet are endless. Try them. Create a tool that makes someone’s job easier, design an infographic that adds to the conversation, or set up a super-shareable game. Standing out from the crowd is essential.

Standing out can also go too far. Yes, I walked over to this booth just because the man was wearing a horse mask. And I am glad that it was somewhat related to his literary journal, Iron Horse Review. Points to them for originality, but it was also a little gimmicky. They got my attention, but they didn’t help me know why I should submit my work to their journal and not someone else’s. I value my time, my writing, and the hundreds of dollars I spend on submissions each year. This journal might be the perfect fit for my work, but I can’t have that conversation with a man in a horse mask.

Lesson: Have a reason for the identity you’re creating. Use your content and tools to make it easy for your audience to connect with you and to know why they love you. An infographic about snake farming on a fashion website only makes sense if you make the connection for me that your gorgeous shoes are humanely sourced.

Personality matters

Full disclosure, I love Hugo House so much that I’m on the board of directors. My unbiased observation, though, is that every time I went by their booth, it was packed with visitors. And I think that’s due a lot to the enthusiasm of booth staffers like Zac and Elisa. They stood up and engaged with everyone who came by. Someone even found a second in the conference madness to retweet the pic I took of them.

Over at the MacGuffin booth, a man threw a tiny book of poems at my bag. He was sure to miss, but it was a great conversation starter (and too small to cause pain), and he was interested in having the conversation with me.

As a kid, I helped my dad work booths for years. I know how exhausting it is to be on your feet all day trying to engage with strangers who may or may not care. None of the people I’ve mentioned above let that show. This is a huge contrast to the innumerable booths where people sat back and checked their smart phones or chatted amongst themselves. Those booths were really easy to walk by.

Lesson: If you want people to care about you, you have to show you care about them first. If you don’t, there are hundreds of other entities who will. On the Internet you are a faceless entity until you engage with your customers. Tweet at them. Respond to their blog comments. Ask them to share with you on Instagram. You have a chance to catch their attention and build a relationship. Don’t just have social channels, BE social.

You can judge a press by its book covers

On the Internet or at the book fair, if you have designed and displayed your materials right, they can help you attract attention. Ahsahta Press (pictured above) is known for their gorgeously designed books of poetry and the rack was a clever way to get more acreage for their tiny table.

The ever-wild Write Bloody threw underwear across the top of their booth (this is only recommended if it suits the personality of your brand).

Display and design doesn’t have to be revolutionary or weird to get attention. I saw one lit mag stack their issue like bricks which made the spine (and their name) more visible. One press used wooden cartons as prop displays.

But you do have to think about your display and design a little. I saw too many tables full of unremarkable or poorly designed covers stacked in ways that I couldn’t easily parse while scanning the room. I’d name names, but I’ve forgotten them.

Minimalism is not for the faint of heart. The really cool kids, like Wave Poetry, can get away with the simplest designs of all. The sea of white covers at their table reminded me of the elegance of a Mac commercial. I loved it, but not everyone can pull this look off.

Lesson: Good design and display matter, and matching those to your brand’s personality is a must.

Know your audience

There are a lot of different types of people at a conference. At AWP you have writers with MFAs, writers earning MFAs, writers who might want to someday get an MFA and writers who think MFAs are overrated. You also have professors and book sellers, and on Saturday, they let in the general public.

Which type of booth you are running helps narrow your audience a little and it definitely changes how you talk to people. If you’re running a booth for an MFA program, you have to learn the difference between the person who is ignoring you because she has no interest in springing for another MFA and the one who desperately wants you to acknowledge her as a potential student.

Meanwhile, it’s important not to pigeonhole people. I can’t tell you how many publishers, when hearing that I write fiction, directed me away from their poetry books. Though they were trying to be helpful, they were ignoring the (true) fact that I enjoy reading poetry and might want to buy some of their books. In a saturated marketplace, it’s really easy to move on to a table that lets you self-select.

Lesson: Ask good, open-ended questions and let your audience tell you what they want. On the web, you can use collaborative storytelling to learn more about your audience and to connect with a wider one. You might learn something essential and all the while you’re building that essential relationship with your audience.

Be competitive

If you’ve been to a few AWP book fairs, you might expect that Saturday afternoon is a great time to score cheap (or free) books. In fact, I watched as one very famous poet wandered the booths asking for free stuff at the end of the day while people packed up. We all know that sending those boxes back home is expensive and have come to expect last-minute deals.

But this year it felt like the presses fought back. I saw one table offering 5% discounts. Um, really? And many had no discounts at all. Pricing is an important decision, but remember that your competition can always undercut you.

I bought STACKS of books and lit mags I never would have otherwise at the tables with cheap books. Buy two get one? I’m in! $5 a book? I don’t know how you’re making money but I want to read that book. I bought a few expensive ones, too, but only the ones I had to have. (Technically the picture below illustrates both my books and those of my conference buddy, Liza).

All the books I took home will go on my Goodreads and I might even review some of them on my website.

As someone who has a couple of boxes of books she wrote in her living room to hand sell at events, I do realize that books cost money. I know that publishers’ marketing budgets have been slashed. I also know word of mouth is priceless and can be worth the occasional discount or freebie.

Another way to stick in the customer’s mind (and tote bag) is with giveaways. At AWP that means swag. Here’s where I really go easy on literary magazines, because, hey, t-shirts are spendy (I know, I bought at least one). Many, many booths had candy. Some had buttons (for sale or free). Several had tote bags for people who bought a subscription on the spot. One or two booths had temporary tattoos or stickers.

The tote bags were great for people who bought too many books (ahem). One of my friends really wanted to see more pens and pads of paper. And I don’t remember the last time I wore a button, temporary tattoo, or sticker, but I gladly slipped them in my purse. These mementos are good reminders of who I chatted with during the book fair and will help with future name recognition.

Lesson: Don’t be stingy with your discounts in a crowded marketplace like the Internet or a book fair. It’s just too easy to shop elsewhere. Research the competition to understand your audience’s expectations. Set a realistic budget; then get creative with your swag and giveaways. Use a service like Woobox to set up a social contest or send swag to influencers.

When I receive a free review copy of a book, I tweet about the package in the mail, write a review, and then put that review all over my social media. That’s a lot of advertising at a very low cost to publishers.

Participate your industry’s dialogue

The big news in the lit world in the days before AWP was the VIDA count – a summing up of how well female voices are represented in literary magazines (which, usually, is not very well). More and more writers are starting to pay attention to this dialogue and some progress is being made.

I loved the way The Gettysburg Review displayed their stats proudly (see that little pie chart to the left of the “book fair special” sign?). VIDA made it easy; they provided laminated cards to the magazines they had surveyed, but I saw very few magazines who were displaying this information. One can only assume it’s because their stats are bad. Even if that isn’t true, we’ll never know.

Lesson: Find a way to engage in your industry that’s bigger than just you. Then, as a second step talk about how it all affects you. Blog about it. Share your successes and plans for improvement. Celebrate thought leaders in your field. By contributing to the conversation, you’re showing you have nothing to hide.

Be present

AWP is a long conference (Wednesday through Saturday) and a lot of booth operators either have early flights back east or are too partied out to make it all the way through the final day. It happens to everyone, really, you get worn out sometimes or just can’t be there. What you have to realize, though, is that while you’re sleeping off last night’s after-party, your customers might not be. So leave behind a little something to let them know you haven’t bailed entirely.

Lesson: Your marketing has to be present, even when you can’t be. Clearly communicate when you’ll be available whether it’s your call center or your Twitter account. Schedule tweets to cover times you can’t be 100% present and then scan for any quick replies you want or need to make in the interim.

Today’s technology matters

I don’t want to tell you how many books I didn’t buy because the booth wasn’t taking credit cards. What I will tell you is that the problem was so rampant, many booths had signs that said when credit cards were accepted. I did fill out a couple of paper credit card slips and took notes on books I hope to find online later for booths that only took cash or check. But I know I won’t really go back.

Lesson: It’s 1990, people. No, wait… Whatever technology you use in marketing, whether it’s your website or your Square card reader, should be up to today’s standards. Is your site mobile responsive? Are you still torturing visitors with Flash? Whenever possible, design for tomorrow.

At the end of the day, have fun

I conferenced so hard I broke my shoes. And along the way I learned that there is a lot of room for better marketing in the publishing industry and how that all relates back to Internet marketing. If you hit AWP in Minneapolis next year, keep your eyes open. Oh, and if you’re going to the book fair, take a freaking backpack. I’m still recovering from the packed tote bag full of books I carried all day Saturday.

I’d love to hear about the best swag you ever picked up at a conference and things you’ve learned as a marketer trying to stand out in the fray. Please share in the comments.

The post Internet Marketing Lessons Learned from Walking the AWP Book Fair appeared first on Portent.

Transcription:

Katie: What’s on your mind today?

Isla: Editing.

Katie: Okay.  What kind of editing?  SEO editing or –

Isla: No, just editing in general, because I think we spend a lot of time talking about content –

Katie: Mm-hmm.

Isla: – and making good content, but what we don’t spend enough time talking about is how good content is made.  And I don’t mean writing it; I mean editing it, because editing is just as important as writing, and a lot of people just don’t spend enough time on it or leave time for it at the end like they should.

Katie: Do you have any tips for what would sort of – what i, what is a checklist of what you should look, look for when editing something?

Isla: Well, one, I think you need to get some distance from the piece when you’re editing.  Um, so [laughter] you take –

Katie: Yes.

Isla: – some – if you can, like if you’re working, say, in an agency, and you write a bunch of different stuff, let it sit for a day before you come back and rewrite it.  Also, if you have an editing buddy, that’s really fantastic, because they’ll have a perspective on the work, and they’ll get to know your writing and your tics, and they will call you on it.  If they don’t call you on your tics, they’re not a good editing buddy.

Um, so things that I like to look for are – obviously, you wanna do a copyedit.  Concision is important.  You know, if you find the piece that’s repeating itself over and over again – readers don’t have a lot of time.  We know that.  We know they’re gonna scan the content anyway, so you may as well make it short for them to read if you can, but make sure it still has all the information in there they need.

Um, what else?  I have notes.  Should I look at my notes?

Katie: Sure.

Isla: Um, oh, tension.  One of the things that – this is – so I’m a fiction writer, and one of the things that’s really important in fiction, even in literary fiction, which I write, is tension as the thing’s writing.  And so one of the things – when you’re reading your piece or when you’re reading somebody else’s piece, you start to notice when you get bored, because that’s where anybody else’s is gonna get bored, and it’s really important at that moment to just make a note, figure out what’s going wrong with it.  And on the Internet, a blog post may be about 400 to 800 words.  There should be no room to get bored, and there so often is, so think about that.

Think about your audience when you’re writing and when you’re editing, because you may think that what you’re writing is genius but the person that you’re – who’s your intended audience – may not even know what you’re talking about.  So that’s something really important, and that’s where getting that day-of perspective can be very helpful, too, when you come back to edit.  One thing I like to do when I really have time and when I’m really concerned about the wording of something is to read it aloud, because you will find things in there that will surprise you and it’s great.

The other things are the blank sheet of paper test, and you can always – what that means is that – Ian talks about this – but your title, your headings, your paragraphs should all be able to pass the blank sheet of paper test.  They should be able to fully explain themselves, what they are, without too much, um, external stuff.  So one of the things that can help with that is a reverse outline.  So if you’re going through a piece and you’re like, “I don’t really know where this went wrong,” go down and write in one or two words what every paragraph is about, and if there are sentences in there not about that, they go away.  That helps with concision.

Style guides can be really helpful.  Grammar – like, everybody’s got their own grammar and I don’t really care what you decide you like about the Oxford comma or not the Oxford comma, but I love it when people are consistent.  [Laughter]  And the other thing is just get to know yourself as a writer and call yourself on your stuff,  because if you don’t have that editing buddy – you know, like, for example, I know that I use the word “amazing” a lot, and there are so many other adjectives [laughter] –

Katie: Cool.

Isla:  – that makes writing more interesting.  Is that…

Katie: Yeah, that’s good.  Say goodbye, Isla.

Isla: Goodbye, Isla.

The post Portent Pop Quiz: Isla McKetta on Why Editing is Just as Important As Writing appeared first on Portent.

I can think of seven other places you have (or should have) amazing content: home page, landing pages, site navigation, product descriptions, shopping cart, email, and offline. Social media is content too, but that’s a discussion for another day.

I’m going to be using Boden as an example throughout this post for two reasons, 1) I really love their clothes so I spend a lot of time on their site and 2) they have a really well-developed brand voice (which we’ll blame for my closetful of Boden clothes).

About Boden

Boden isn’t a client so I don’t have access to any of their audience demographics, but I’d wager that their main customer is a woman in her late 20s to early 40s who likes good-quality clothes that are a little different but have a classic sensibility. More fun than Banana Republic, Boden is more conservative than Anthropologie.

What makes Boden’s content so wonderful is that they really know their customer and speak to her (and him, although I’ll focus on the women’s fashions today) in a voice that resonates with that core audience. This voice is pulled-together, British, and a little quirky. Here are some examples.

Home page

I’ve highlighted in green a few places that Boden expresses the British aspect of their voice. I love that they say “Great British Style” right at the top of the page. Here’s a brand that owns their identity. Because they know their customers are into the Britishness of the brand (keep in mind that this is the American site), they celebrate the royal baby on their page (note the wonderful phrasing).

True to a brand that is meticulous about details, they carry the Briticisms through their site like the spelling of “catalogue” and the use of “trouser” over “pants.”

Examples of the quirkiness are underlined in yellow. Note that no one ever wrote phrases like “fluttery feeling” or “big things for little people” for SEO purposes. No, these phrases are written to connect with the customer (as they should be).

And take a moment to look at the pictures. The one in the upper right of the girl making a face—her clothes are buttoned-up and proper, but she’s clearly having fun with the camera, as are the kids with the phone booth in the lower left. Remember that pictures are content too.

Landing pages and site navigation

For landing pages and site navigation, I’ve again used green to highlight the Briticisms. Of course, it’s a lot easier for Boden to get away with descriptions that include words like “cosy,” “corking,” and “jumpers” than it would be for Anthropologie to start writing web copy in French because British English and American English are (at least for now) mutually intelligible.

I actually have a tiny issue with Boden on the labels they use in the left site navigation—it always takes me a moment to remember to look under “knitwear” to find their sweaters—but because I have a relationship with the brand, I do take the time to look.

This language might affect Boden’s search rankings. They don’t show on the front page of Google when I search for “women’s sweaters” nor do they show when I search for “British women’s sweaters.” So Boden will have trouble attracting a random customer who isn’t already aware of their brand and that is something they could think about. I haven’t looked at any SEO factors to see if there are other reasons they don’t rank in the top 10.

But because Boden has built a strong relationship with their customers (if I’m any example), my guess is their repeat business and word of mouth are excellent.

Looking at the pictures on this page I feel like I could be out and about in London. That’s exactly the posh, urban experience I’d associate with this brand.

Product descriptions

Boden’s product descriptions are actually kind of weak. The name of this skirt, the “Notre Dame Skirt” is enticing although I’d add that it’s a pencil skirt. The language in the description is straightforward and I know what the skirt is and what it looks like without seeing the picture, but “must have” and “on trend” are pretty played out these days.

Pro tip: When you’re writing product descriptions, write a whole batch of them at once looking at pictures of the items. Then, if you can’t recall the picture of the item when you’re editing the description later, you know you have to rewrite the description.

What I do like about this page is the product grid. I love that I can see all the colors the skirt comes in at one time so I don’t have to switch from the purple skirt page to the green and pink checked one—no wait, the purple. And the product pictures are still great.

Also fabulous is the inclusion of a video. I have to admit until I was writing this post I neither noticed the videos nor ever watched one. But the video is a few seconds long and it shows the model moving in and turning around in the skirt. Gone are the days when you had to wonder whether that model was holding her arm across her abdomen to hide a side zipper that bunches.

Shopping cart (or other conversion page)

Okay, this actually isn’t Boden’s shopping cart; I neglected to take a screen shot on my last buying spree and my closet’s getting a little full. Instead, this is the order confirmation, but they are very similar. The only thing missing from this page is the box where it told me I had a $10 credit. It didn’t tell me why I had a $10 credit, which is a little mysterious, but I’ll take it if it comes through. UPDATE: Although the credit was only intermittently mentioned in subsequent emails from the company, I did get it. YAY!

The info at the top of the page is pretty plain, but most people likely don’t read it anyway. What I like about this page is that the Briticisms continue and here it’s not just spellings and word usage (“despatch” is an example of both), but the tone. The use of the polite, professional conditional phraseology, “Should any problems develop…we will, of course, try to contact you” is distinctly, delightfully British.

Do I write this way? Yes, I do. I even talk this way and I like it when people talk to me this way. I like it when Boden communicates with me this way because there’s a civility to it. I could reread the collected Jane Austen or I could buy sweaters… easy choice when I need a quick fix.

And then there’s the lovely personal touch that the email is signed by a real person. I assume Teri is a real person… I’d never contact her, but this makes me feel like I could reach out directly to her if I needed to.

The finishing touch is their “no quibble guarantee.” Don’t you love it?

Think about the content you have on any page where you want your customer to convert. Are you conversing with him or her or are you talking at them? Make sure your brand voice carries through.

Email

Although I edited this email a bit to hide a redundant table, now you can see just how much fun I had at Boden that day. But what’s really fun is the email itself, starting with the “good news” bubble at the top. Who would have thought? Just as I was dreading getting this confirmation email showing me how much I spent, instead I get a delightful reminder of a “lovingly packed parcel which is now winging its way” in my direction. It’s a simple touch that might be too whimsical for most brands, but it’s perfect for Boden.

And if I “fancy a chat,” there’s Teri again, ready to help me.

The odd bit about this email, and this is a tiny complaint, is that the “despatch” I enjoyed earlier has been changed to “dispatch” here. Perhaps I’ll ring up Teri after all.

Offline

One of the things we as Internet marketers often don’t think enough about is how our clients connect with their customers offline. In the case of Boden, I particularly like their catalogues and their mailing envelopes.

In the past few years, I’ve really liked how Boden has started to humanize their brand. First off is a note in the front of every catalogue from Johnny Boden himself (I forget if he’s real, but like Peter Pan, let’s pretend he is).

And then they started introducing the models. Here you see Geirdre. On a later page from this same winter 2012 catalogue, there’s a quick question asking Geirdre what her favorite dream is. She answers “The one where I’m a Bond girl.” I don’t know that I particularly care what her dreams are, but I appreciate the spirit of it, that I now feel more invested in her. I’m even imagining how I might try to pronounce her name. All of that investment brings me closer to the brand.

And the product descriptions in the catalogue are better than the ones online. For example, the description of this cardigan not only tells me what the aesthetic of it is, but it gets into the finer details of material, construction, and care instructions without being too dull.

That said, Patagonia still does product descriptions better.

This bright yellow envelope is from a purchase earlier this summer when I picked out three or four dresses I could potentially wear to my brother’s wedding. By the time the envelope arrived, I was lamenting how much I had spent and hoping that none of them fit. But then there was this happy little note on the outside of the envelope telling me to “try everything on, and admire” myself in the mirror. I did. I still sent a couple of dresses back, but I think of this envelope when I wear the one I kept.

This copy is engaging and practical and it suits the brand perfectly. Even “bloom through the gloom” was perfect for the rainy day I received this package.

Think about every opportunity you have to communicate with a customer. If you can even make returns fun (and maybe even convince your customer to try the clothes on instead of packing them up and sending them back), you’ve won the content game.

Key takeaways

What’s the lesson here? It could be that I am a neurotic shopper. But see how Boden engaged with me every step of the way to make the experience easier? See how much I love the brand? You can’t buy loyalty like that and I promise you that I reward them very well.

The real lesson is that you should let your content show off who you are. Should you go and change all the spellings on your site to British English? Absolutely not. But you should think about the language and tone you use and that your customer uses and speak to him or her in that way on every single page of your site.

The other takeaway is that content is made up of all the words and all the pictures on your site or any other marketing material you have. That means social media too, but that’s a whole other post.

These are opportunities and most of you are missing them. Don’t.

The post Content Actually is All Around (Not Just on Your Blog) appeared first on Portent.

Being a novelist obviously makes it easy to incorporate narrative into writing for clients. Less obvious, though, are the ways a creative writing background can help a writer nail down a brand voice. Let’s look at one of those techniques, building a lexicon, and how it can help you learn to speak a customer’s language, no matter how foreign it seems.

What is a Lexicon?

I alluded to lexicons in a post I wrote about how to humanize your brand with a blog, but “lexicon” is just a fancy name for a list of words. I first built a lexicon for my first novel (set in Poland) so I could separate out the different dialects that groups of characters were speaking. There’s a group of skaters who say things like “zajebisty” (no, I’m not translating that, this is a family-friendly blog) and (because they lived in a certain city) insert “yo” into their everyday speech in a similar way to how an American valley girl uses “like.” This simple cluster of words distinguishes those skaters from a group of gangster wannabes whose chosen swear word is “pierdolić.”

How Can a Lexicon Help with Brand Voice?

A lexicon helps you sort out the vocabulary that’s pertinent to a customer base. Every customer has a way of speaking that’s unique to them, what us word nerds refer to as “an idiolect.” When you gather a bunch of idiolects together, the place they overlap is a dialect. The classic example of this is the regional variations between whether “soda,” “pop,” or “coke” is the correct word to refer to a fizzy drink. Use the wrong word, and those people you and your client are trying to sell to will know you’re not from around here. But if you use the right word, they might stay on your page a little longer.

How to Make a Lexicon

Because dialect is shaped by experiences, you want to build a customer profile (yes, this can be a persona if you insist) to see what language he or she will relate to. I’m going to break out some demographic factors I’d consider and the answers I’d expect for a group of customers shopping for prom dresses:

• Age: 17
• Gender: Female
• Region: Nationwide
• Education level: Almost done with high school
• Profession: Student
• Ethnicity: Various
• Religion: Various
• Favorite TV shows: Vampire Diaries (today), Pretty Little Liars (today), Hannah Montana (as a tween)
• Favorite magazines: Seventeen, Teen Vogue
• Where she hangs out online: Tumblr

There are a myriad of ways to get this information. Ask your clients what they already know about the customer. Do research. Listen in on conversations. Use your noodle.

Now that you have a picture of who the customer is, where she hangs out, and what media she consumes, you can start researching words that are used in those places and by people who are like her. Keep a list (I use a Google doc) and you have yourself a lexicon. Here’s part of mine for prom:

See that part about Hannah Montana? To connect with this audience on a subliminal level, I want to know not just what their current cultural referents are, but what they were at an even more formative age. We retain language from throughout our lives even when we don’t use it anymore.

You can do the same thing with an enterprise client who sells cloud computing; just reconsider all the questions in terms of a customer who is an IT Director.

Now What Do I Do with It?

The obvious use for a lexicon is to incorporate these words in your copy. The less obvious use is as an immersion point into the customer’s culture. If you’re a language person like I am, reading the words in the lexicon will transport you to the world of the customer. You’ll start to think like her and understand what she wants from life and the product. Every girl wants to “turn heads” at prom and for her date to think she looks “super cute.” Once you’re inside the customer’s head, you can write excellent blog posts that speak to her needs and build trust. You’re becoming her bestie who can help her find the right dress.

Are There Other Applications?

Lexicons are great for blog posts, but they work for any kind of copywriting. Use these customer-specific words in an email subject line or in onsite copy. Try them out on Twitter and see if you get more bang for your 140 characters. Remember that a lexicon is a living document that should continuously be honed and updated. If you do any multivariate testing, share the results so we can all learn from them.

How do you learn the language of your clients and customers?

The post Why You Should Add “Building a Lexicon” to Your Copywriting Toolkit appeared first on Portent.

Don’t.

Remember the real reason you’re creating a blog is to connect with your customers readers. You may think it’s to educate customers about your brand and to get them to buy your stuff—that’s true (to a certain extent) but none of that happens without a connection. The best way to do that is to…

Be human

You want readers to trust you. That means you have to let them know that you share their values and beliefs and that they know what to expect from you and your brand. Potential customers need to know that you are in it for them. Then, when they are ready to buy, they will come back to you—that friend they made on the Internet that one time.

Don’t sell products, tell stories

People relate to people, not to companies. The more your writers can tell specific stories about real people, the easier it will be for the customer to empathize with the stories and thus the brand. Kate Spade uses their blog to introduce readers to the people behind the brand.

Be a resource

Sometimes a consumer doesn’t even know the solution you offer exists. Be the friend they need. For example, MomAgenda, a company that provides organizing solutions for busy families recently wrote a post about how to create family time. Notice that the post doesn’t mention their products at all. Friends give before they ask.

What about the blog voice?

Companies often worry about how much the blog should reflect the established company voice and how much should reflect the employees’. My vote is for the employees (and not just because I’m a writer). Remember, relationships are all about the personal connection. Introduce your employees, use bylines, and establish Google Authorship for your writers. You hired good people who believe in your company. They might need a few editorial guidelines (see below), but let them surprise you (plus, this is a great way to not sound just like your competitors).

Create a style guide

About those guidelines… think of a style guide not as a rigid set of rules that confine your writers to a corporate voice. View it instead as a strong platform that makes sure your writers are all playing on the same field. Once everyone knows the rules, set them free to find new levels of excellence.

You’re going to want to include nitty-gritty grammar quirks and also some fun stuff.

Grammar choices to make

If you aren’t a copy editor, this bulleted list might read like gibberish. Trust me, it’s not. Many people who do know what all of these are care less about which camp you choose than that you are consistent.

• To Oxford comma or not to Oxford comma?
• En dashes or em dashes?
• Smart quotes or straight quotes?
• One or two spaces after a period?
• How do you spell industry-specific jargon (e.g. e-book, ebook, or eBook?)

Find a good copy editor and let them help write your style guide. Your blog will achieve a level of consistency and organization that 99% of readers will only appreciate subliminally, but it’s worth it.

Lexicons and other fun topics

I’m not kidding. Building a lexicon (a list of words you will commonly use) is really fun and can be a great tool to get your writers to stick to a consistent tone. Consider the difference between a blog that refers to weddings as the “big day” “celebrating you and your beloved” and one that uses phrases like “ball and chain.”

What else do you need to consider?

• Pick three things your blog is about and insist that every blog post include one of them. In the above wedding example, I’d suggest wedding etiquette, fashion advice, and planning tips. David’s Bridal covered planning tips by adding their voice to the “do wedding websites make for generic weddings?” fray.
• Create a persona for your ideal audience member(s). For weddings, write for the bride, bridesmaids, and ideally, the groom too. Not all posts will speak to all people, but make sure your content targets the right people. A “How to Do a Bachelorette Party Right” post appeals to a very different readership than one providing event set-up tips for caterers.
• What can’t be said? Some writers respond best to knowing exactly how far they can push things. Will your bridal blog acknowledge shotgun weddings? How about gay weddings? The idea isn’t to make a list of every prohibition. Instead, you are providing parameters for success.

You’ll be amazed at what a good writer can do with these little tidbits of information.

The bottom line

Because you’re a business, it ultimately comes down to money. Here’s how that works. You use the blog to connect with your customers (readers) as human beings. Once they learn to trust you, your name is top-of-mind when they need the services you offer.

Don’t believe me? Use Google Analytics to see how many people convert after visiting your blog once, twice, or many times. Which posts keep people coming back? Write more of those.

What are your favorite blogs written by humans? Tell us about them and dish about corporate blog fails in the comments.

The post How to Blog: Humanizing Your Brand appeared first on Portent.

Account Strategists

@portent Account Strategists Are… #AutonomyDay vine.co/v/br6gLt5KjgL

— Katie L Fetting (@KatieLFetting) February 15, 2013

Account Strategists are often the most recognizable members of the Portent Team (and not just because of their great hair). If you’re a client, you’ll know that these are the people who call you on a regular basis. Behind the scenes, they are coordinating with other departments to make sure you have a cohesive strategy tailored to meet your goals.

Creative Services

@portent Creative Services Soar… #AutonomyDay vine.co/v/brg5AaYxKij

— Rebecca Bridge (@rebeccabridge) February 15, 2013

The Creative Services department is responsible for everything from creating stunning visuals (of kittens) to coding and structuring your site to balance images and copy for maximum impact. Essentially, they add beauty and order to the world. Not bad for a day’s work.

Copywriters

@portent Copywriters Are… #AutonomyDay vine.co/v/brrlleVKEXF

— Rebecca Bridge (@rebeccabridge) February 15, 2013

Copywriters use words to weave magic. We pull heartstrings and convince people to do things. Between arguments about the Oxford comma, we edit our copy to perfection so customers fall in love with your brand and convert without ever noticing the spell we created.

We’re also the cool kids, and we’re not just saying that because we’re the ones writing this—when we were (collectively) Little Miss Nevada, our dads told us we had a sparkle.

PPC

@portent PPC Earns #AutonomyDay vine.co/v/brgz90Q0izL

— Katie L Fetting (@KatieLFetting) February 15, 2013

The PPC team makes money. They evaluate your keywords and write the ads people click on. They monitor your analytics constantly in search of the lowest cost per acquisition. And then, they make you more money by bringing interested buyers to your site.

SEO

@portent SEOs Keywording #AutonomyDay vine.co/v/br6Ul65YMjF

— Katie L Fetting (@KatieLFetting) February 15, 2013

SEOs keep up on the latest algorithm updates so you don’t have to. They winnow down lists of targeted keywords. They consult with other departments to strategically place those words in copy and site structure so customers (and search engines) can easily find you. They know things about the Internet that would keep a normal person up at night.

Social Media

@portent Social Strategists Are… #AutonomyDay vine.co/v/br6WZwYrFVu

— Rebecca Bridge (@rebeccabridge) February 15, 2013

Did Facebook change Timeline again? The Social team keeps on top of all of the latest developments with Google+ (in case people ever start using it), Twitter, Pinterest, and platforms you haven’t even heard of yet. They create best practices guides and help keep you engaged with your community.

Who did we leave out?

You already know Ian Lurie. Portent also has a group of management-types who keep all of this running smoothly. They were off on top-secret missions during filming, but we’ll see if we can catch some stealth video of them next time.

What have you always wanted to know about Internet marketing?

The post The Life of Pi Part Deux: What Does an Internet Marketing Firm Do? (In Vines) appeared first on Portent.

”There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.” – Audre Lorde

At SearchFest on Friday, Ian Lurie debuted a fantastic new tool, the Content Idea Generator. I could tell you about how amazing the tool is and how influencers like Jonathon Colman shared it all over social media:

How did @portentint find out all my deepest secrets?! vine.co/v/bgAFdqLXLgd

— Jonathon Colman (@jcolman) February 23, 2013

Instead, I’m going to tell you the secret story behind the Content Idea Generator and how you too can create awesome new ideas.

Origin story of the Content Idea Generator

In the beginning was Jaelithe Guillette, Portent’s Associate Director of Content. She wanted a way to make brainstorming easier and came across this link bait generator:

It was a pretty efficient way to get a title. But Jaelithe wanted something flashier… something that would inspire greatness from even the most worn-out copywriter. Something that would explain the strategy behind each idea so others could mold the titles based on their individual goals.

Actually that wasn’t the beginning. We were first inspired by Ross Hudgens’s 2012 SearchLove presentation, “LinkBuilding by Imitation: How to Steal Your Way to #1.”

We realized that inspiration, actually, is all around. But that wasn’t the beginning either. You see, Hudgens was inspired by Austin Kleon’s Steal like an Artist which was in turn inspired by a variety of his favorite artists.

I guess Audre Lord was right. There are no new ideas. Here’s how you can make that work for you.

Old ideas felt anew

The point is that even our shiniest new tool isn’t an original idea. You’ve seen headlines like these before. You may understand some of the emotional triggers they are pulling, but you haven’t had time to do the research. All we did with the Content Idea Generator is take an old idea, transform it using Jess Walker‘s eye for design and use Christopher Bachmann‘s expertise to make sure the tool worked. Bryden McGrath and the rest of the copy team added writing tips; we made the tool flashy and fun. Oh, and you don’t need a login to get to it.

Your turn to steal

Jaelithe’s original idea stands. The Content Idea Generator is a great resource for creating crazy and wonderful titles. The Content Idea Generator is our gift to you and your team. Use it, learn from it, improve upon it. Here is a quick guide to some of the link bait strategy behind the titles you’ll find in the Content Idea Generator. We’ve borrowed these too (from Stuntdubl), but we think you’ll like what we’ve done with them.

Ego hook

Remember how we used Jonathon Colman’s Vine up above? And Ross Hudgens’s presentation and Austin Kleon’s book? To be fair, we referenced these guys because they are excellent resources, but you have to know they are that much more likely to share our content because we gave them a shout out. What pickle experts do you know?

Attack hook

By going on the offensive, you can spark interest. This hook requires a solid sense of judgment, though. Replace the first mention of “pickles” with the name of a celebrity or expert and you are good to go, as long as it doesn’t hit too close to home. “Why Anderson Cooper is on crack about pickles” is funny. “Why Whitney Houston is on crack (about anything)” is not.

Resource hook

You know what a resource is. Provide one for your reader.

News hook

News hooks are all about hitting what’s happening right now and this title would be even better if you inserted a trending topic into it. Try “Why Pickles are the New Black at the Oscars.”

Contrary hook

Some people like pickles and some people hate them. If your title is set up to create a debate, you’ve got yourself a contrary hook. Readers want to click through to argue with the blog post or find out why they were right all along.

Humor hook

Any of the headlines above qualify here because pretty much anything is funny as long as you write about pickles. Remember that people like to share things that make them happy. Do you need an illustration or are you ready to steal create your own titles now?

Go forth and steal (wisely)

The Internet is based around sharing and building on the ideas of others. That is a beautiful thing. Remember, though, that it’s up to you to create something new out of old ideas instead of stealing them outright. And it’s always a good idea to credit your sources.

Have you used our Content Idea Generator for inspiration? Tell us about your experience in the comments.

The post The Secret Backstory of Portent’s Content Idea Generator appeared first on Portent.

If you are a client, you’ve said it. If you’re a marketer, you’ve heard it and (most likely) cringed. We want your content to go viral as badly as you do, but the public can be fickle and there are no guarantees.

Or are there?

The Viral Video Manifesto by Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe (you may know them as EepyBird) offers a simple formula for making videos that will go viral. These guys know something about viral video—in only 48 hours, their Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment video went from filming in backwoods Maine to being featured on David Letterman—and these guys want to help you get your content shared.

Four rules to make your content viral

Other people are talking generally about what makes videos go viral. But The Viral Video Manifesto lays out four simple rules for creating awesome and viral-worthy content that anyone can follow.

1. Be true
2. Don’t waste our time
3. Be unforgettable
4. Ultimately, it’s all about humanity

The content of the book is broken down into easy-to-digest chunks complete with QR codes that link to some of the most popular viral videos of the last decade. It’s easy to follow along as Voltz and Grobe critique how well each video adheres to the four rules and provide suggestions for how each could be improved for maximum shareability.

What does this have to do with Internet marketing?

According to Ian Lurie, marketing is communicating true value and significance to your audience. The first step is making contact with potential customers.

Awesome and significant content, video or otherwise, is more likely to get shared. The more viral your content, the more potential customers you can make contact with.

“If the content is odd enough and strong enough, your chances of being picked up and pushed along by key influencers is pretty good.” – Stephen Voltz

Voltz and Grobe write, “Let your brand be human.” We know our clients spent a lot of time and money crafting a brand. This is important. But when it comes to getting your Internet content shared, allowing potential customers to relate to you on a human level will get you a lot more shares than strict adherence to brand messaging.

Is it really that easy?

Yes and no. Every person you involve in decision making about content needs to have the same vision for the project.

Voltz and Grobe use their own video as a cautionary tale about what happens when vision gets muddled. Because The Extreme Sticky Notes Experiments was slated to air on TV and the Internet, the powers that be insisted on including a narrative. The trouble is that the video takes more than a minute to get to the cool, shareable tricks. The vision that worked for a passive TV audience is exactly what caused Internet viewers to click away before they realized how awesome the tricks were going to be.

How can you make viral content?

Take it from Voltz and Grobe and “Be the content.” Voltz said in an interview, “We mostly work to develop ideas of our own to the point where we have something that can become contagious… [we] also try to keep an eye on what’s happening online because… there are great ideas out there that can give us inspiration.”

“We believe that anyone can create compelling content if they approach it right. The key is to find some unexplored idea or phenomenon and explore it so deeply that you find something that no one has ever seen before.” – Stephen Voltz

Step outside your own idea of what needs to happen in your video or blog post. Look at it with a fresh pair of eyes from the point of view of your audience:

• Does it feel authentic?
• Is it awesome from the very first second all the way to the end?
• Is it unforgettable?
• Does it relate on a human level?

If you answered no to any of these questions, go back and fix your content. It is that easy when you know what you are looking for.

This is a great for anyone who wants to understand what makes content (video and otherwise) shareable. We still won’t guarantee that your content will go viral, but following the intuitive and thoughtful suggestions in The Viral Video Manifesto will make it a lot more likely.

What about video search engine optimization?

The only criticism of this excellent book is that it could use an SEO addendum for the next edition. Voltz and Grobe don’t optimize their videos for search engines, but all great content deserves to show prominently in search results. Here are a few SEO thoughts for your next YouTube video:

• Write a concise meta tag (only the first 150 characters show in search engines)
• Use tags for discoverability, not SEO
• Create transcripts if you have significant dialogue

Feeling inspired? We’d love to hear about your great video ideas in the comments.

The post The Viral Video Manifesto: How to Make Content Shareable appeared first on Portent.

What on earth does this have to do with Internet marketing? More than you know… here are 7 ways inbound marketing is like a snowball fight.

1. Action plans are essential

You might have some success in life or in snowball fights without an action plan. But if you want to go beyond whitewashing a single opponent to dominating an entire field, you have to plan ahead. Your inbound marketing plan should cover earning attention, making yourself easy to find, and providing value to your customer.

2. Exploring new territory

The Internet has been around for a while, but the landscape changes as fast as any melting battlefield. Every time Google updates their algorithm, we must reassess our strategies and make new battle plans. Whether you are creating the freshest content or building a catapult on the fly, adaptation is key to survival.

3. Some people play dirty

Some Internet marketers will sell you a bundle of links along with promises of glory. This is not inbound marketing. Like those rats who put rocks in snowballs, they may be successful in the short term, but there’s a lot of collateral damage. Play unto others as you would have them play unto you…

4. Capture the high ground

You want to rank #1 on Google. That prized, top-of-the-hill position helps your customers find you. Just expect that once you plant your flag, you automatically become a target. So be ready to defend your position when you get there (see step one).

5. Even little guys can compete

You don’t have to be a megastore to compete on the Internet. In fact, being small has its advantages. With the right set up, whether we’re talking a killer fort or an awesome site design, you can grab customers (or fling snowballs) while staying under your competition’s radar. Heck, if you can create super-awesome video without owning a camera, you can do anything.

6. Capitalize in the short term

Trending topics are as fleeting and wonderful as Seattle snow. People get very excited about them in the seconds before they melt. Part (and only part) of your content strategy should be to grab onto a hot topic for an easy content win.

7. Teamwork is the best strategy

Beating South Korea’s 2010 snowball fight world record will require 5,388 combatants. That could mean you against 5,387 snowball-flinging strangers or you could team up with a friend who can cover your back. Same goes for inbound marketing. Because the Internet sometimes looks like this:

Consider teaming up with someone with field experience to help you draw up a plan of attack.

Don’t forget to sign up for Snow Day on January 12 at Seattle Center. Together we can set a world record, raise money for charity and have a rockin’ good time.

The post 7 Ways Inbound Marketing is Like a Snowball Fight appeared first on Portent.