Work Better, Not Harder

Search engine optimization (SEO) has been low on my own priority list throughout the 15 years I've been marketing my own services. Yes, I freely admit I've been mostly ignoring it while doing just the basics. This may seem like a blatant disregard for something that's portrayed more and more frequently as essential. It's actually been a strategic decision for my business... not an oversight. Why? SEO is complicated, time-consuming and expensive. It's a skill I've never desired to acquire. It's technical and behind-the-scenes, whereas I like doing work that can be seen (and yes, sometimes admired). Hiring help for SEO would be a big expense. The goal of SEO is generally to attract strangers. Over the years, I've wasted time with a few 'tire kickers'. Those are people who have stumbled across my website, know nothing about my experience or the quality of my work, and have focused on price comparisons. I have never competed on price - my ...

It happened again today. I am blown away by how often I see this particular mistake. I received an email newsletter from a business I wasn't familiar with. That's OK but I wanted to go to their website to investigate more. And there was not one link in that newsletter that went to their website! Granted, there are times when you may not want to distract readers from another goal for your email. But a newsletter is definitely a place where you want to encourage click-throughs to your website. There's a very direct correlation between the amount of text, the number of links available to click, and your click-rate - the more links, the more clicks . There are many ways to insert links to your website into your small business newsletter. Here are a few suggestions. Insert links behind images. ☺ Always insert a link to your Home page behind every iteration of your logo. ☺ If your photo appears in your newsletter, link it to your About page. ☺ Behind product/ser...

But all of our marketing words are not important in every context. We have to pick and choose. When I first started my business almost 15 years ago, I remember struggling with the distinction between features and benefits, and with talking about my potential clients' pain. Years later my collection of words and phrases has grown to include keywords, calls-to-action and testimonials. This month I've been working with The Phone Lady to develop a plan and process for prospecting... even more words! It can be confusing to know... what are the best words to use when? A website is a great example of seeing our words in action (or inaction as the case may be). It will contain features and benefits, pain points, broad and specific solutions, calls-to-action, keywords and testimonials. But we should never just toss them in somewhere and hope they'll work. Think alphabet soup. We need to use our words appropriately to lead our visitors to take some action. It might be a...

Every small business owner struggles with their messaging from time to time and this is especially true when developing content for a new or refreshed website. I - and you - can sit and make a long list of words and phrases that describe the way we work with customers. That's a good idea, of course. Here's a more powerful option and, in some ways, it makes the task easier. Search your words and phrases online. See what others in the same line of work are saying about themselves and the way they do business. Start a list of the words and phrases that are NOT like you and your business, that are clearly not ones you would use. They will practically jump off the screen at you. Using that NOT list, write a list of 'opposites'. If this is how you're not , then change it to the way you are . Now you can use these new words and phrases as you develop your website content and marketing messages. And you could easily include a bullet list of "This is not .....

I've done it. You've done it. And they've done it. I'm talking about mixing up points of view when writing. And also using the right point of view for the right purposes. Grammarly has a quick little article explaining  First, Second, and Third Person in case you don't remember from school. Here are some things to consider from a content marketing perspective: Articles, blog posts: Mixing up I-we-you-they-me all in one article might cause confusion. There may be reasons for including all of these words in one article but it's worth re-reading to check. Using both second and third person is something I see often and probably accounts for most of the editing I do. If you are writing to/for your reader, consider using the second person. If you are writing about your own experiences, of course, you have to use the first person. Website: If your business IS you, I recommend writing in the first person (about yourself) and the second person (for features...

You might think your website FAQ page is the best place to answer questions but I would argue that your blog is even better. In fact, I suggest your FAQ page should list the questions, and perhaps short answers, with links to blog posts for more detailed answers. If your answers to frequently asked questions are individual blog posts, that content is ultimately more shareable via social media, email or chatbot. It's also a great way to make use of common keyword phrases, boosting your SEO. The Question The question you're answering might serve well as your post title or you might include it in your first paragraph. If it makes sense, you might also add some context which gives information about who the answer is for. For example, I might mention that I get asked this question often when networking with other small business owners. The Answer Generally, there are two types of answers. Facts and/or opinions: In this case, the question might start with something...

What if you woke up this morning to discover your domain name has... disappeared? Likely you would make this discovery because your website is down, or perhaps your email isn't working. Or what if you are contracting for a new website and have no idea how to wrangle your domain name for your new website designer? Recently a client I haven't worked with for several years wrote to ask if I knew the whereabouts of their domain. I get it, not everyone is a control freak like me. But every small business owner needs to have control of their unique business domain name. If you aren't sure where your domain is registered, or under whose name, you can find that out here:  whois.icann.org/en  (or if it's a .ca domain, cira.ca/ca-domains/whois ). If your domain has private registration, you may not be able to view the name of the registered owner. But at least you can find out the domain registrar and can contact them through their support channels. Click to Tweet...

Every time I do online research, I find broken things. I'm curious; I like to see how things work. And it's quite amazing how many times I find things that don't work, or don't work well. I'm not just talking about small business websites - even big brands fail sometimes. The thing is, big brands usually have a reputation which leads people to forgive or ignore more easily. I've written before about how important it is to audit your website at least quarterly. (I pay someone to do it for me and it's well worth it.) If you haven't done a website audit recently, now is a great time. Here are a handful of specific things to check. Is your website doing these things well? Be really clear about the benefits to potential customers and put that front and centre. More money and more time are great - but how much? Read and test everything yourself. Don't rely on what others tell you. I've seen a lot of non-functional website forms and suc...

If you were holding a dinner where each plate sold for $150, would you buy the invitations at the dollar store? No? So don't promote anything important for your business with a free overused 5-year-old Pixabay image. There are options - lots of options - rather than intimating your business is a bargain brand. If you don't spend a bunch of time searching Pixabay or other free sites, you may not know what's been overused and common - here's an app for that . And you can also check the upload date, although that doesn't mean the photo was taken then. If you're going to use free photos, pick more recent releases. Unique and eye-catching is your goal. But you don't want to pay $20 for a stock photo for each new blog post or newsletter article. What are other wallet-friendly options? #1. Snap your own photos. This ensures uniqueness and the price is the best you'll get. Of course, the eye-catching part will be up to you. #2. Engage a friend or ...

If you aren't looking at statistics at all, how do you know if your online marketing efforts are paying off? You don't need to have a complex Google Analytics set-up to keep an eye on trends. Yes, hard numbers are good to know but trends give you strategic information. Anita Kirkbride and I used a similar chart to the one above when we presented at BlogJam 2015  - back then the top line was 9,000 pageviews per month instead of 20,000. I can tell you exactly what I changed at key points (at Anita's urging) which had a direct effect on my blog readership: June 2011 - I started using social media. September 2012 - I started blogging more and sharing posts more frequently on Twitter, in particular; results were obvious by December . December 2013 - I started posting daily enewsletter tips on Twitter and LinkedIn. 2nd half of 2016 - I started posting daily newsletter tips on Google+. I've tried lots of other tactics, too - some have contributed in little ways...

Over the last 10 years or so I've built close to 100 websites and landing pages. In the olden days, clients would send me Word docs with the text for each page. I would add the pages, insert the text, and insist on a call-to-action for the bottom of each page . Sometimes those CTAs were different and sometimes they were all the same. Often they included wishy-washy words, like 'feel free', and asked people to 'get in touch'. Last fall when I was rebuilding my own website , my WordPress mentor asked, "What do you really want people to do on your website?" I opened my mouth... and realized I didn't really know the answer. How did I want people to get in touch? Who did I want contacting me? I started with what I didn't want. Receiving unexpected phone calls during the day can cause havoc with my workload and lead to mistakes. And sometimes I work nights and sleep mornings. The getting-in-touch part couldn't be by a spontaneous ph...

There have been many good things about moving my website to a WordPress platform late last fall. And there have been a few frustrating things. I'd been doing a pretty good job of ignoring some of those frustrating things until I received an email from Google Search Console with the subject line:  Increase in "404" pages on daleyprogress.com . Oh no! That sounded pretty ominous. The accompanying graph was even more so. Here's the backstory: all my website links changed with the move . Previously my pages all ended with '.html' and now that's truncated. There's a plug-in for redirecting when people click on an old link out there somewhere, so I set that up for every current page. I also had to move several documents and files hosted on my old site to the new one, and then go change all those links on my various blog posts about them. Tedious, painful work but I thought I had it handled. It turned out I was so very wrong. These '404 errors...

On the inside of one of our garage doors, in black permanent marker, the previous owner - a mechanic and race car driver - wrote: good fast cheap pick 2! I know Mike was talking about cars but this trifecta has implications for other (small business type) things, like marketing, product development, project management, and problem solving. Let's say you can get a good website built fast; you shouldn't expect it to be cheap. If it's fast and cheap, don't expect quality, and so on. If you think you're getting all three, beware! Economics - and people - don't work like that. Click to Tweet this Article

excerpt from Pantone's NY Fashion Week Spring 2018 We're just getting back to serious work after summer vacations and the design world is already thinking about spring. I like what I see but then I'm a sucker for bright colours. You'll find these used online next year, too , not just in clothing stores. Pantone says: The Spring 2018 palette encourages a sense of fun and playful release. With an air of complexity and distinctiveness, we find ourselves in a sanctuary of color that is ideal for some more unique and dramatic color mixing. Click here to see all 12 colours in the Spring 2018 Collection on Pantone's website. Click to Tweet this Article

Imagine you're planning a big party at your place... today . What will you do first: clean and cook, or invite people? Spending time and money to promote your business online is a bit like sending invitations to a party on your website. You want your place to be ready when the doorbell rings. Before you make the pretty pictures or the clever articles, make sure to vacuum under the couch. People will judge you. photo by jackfrench / Flickr Click to Tweet this Article

A small business owner, let's call him Bob, arrives in a small town for a meeting with a potential new client. Before his afternoon meeting, Bob decides he needs a haircut to get all spiffy. The receptionist at his hotel tells him there are only two barbers in town, both with shops along the main drag. It's a sunny warm morning so Bob sets off walking. When he arrives at the first barbershop, Bob can clearly see through the big front window that the place looks less than pristine - hair on the floor and a general air of disorganization. There's one fellow getting a cut and another waiting. Even the barber himself needs a trim! Further along Main Street, Bob comes to the second barbershop. The view in the front window looks much better. The floor is swept and gleaming, the barber is busy lining up shampoo bottles on a display shelf and his own hair has a crisp updated cut. Bob turns around and heads back to the first barbershop to get his cut. Do you know why? I r...

Burying my head into a new project that requires learning WordPress should give me tons of content for articles... if I had time to write. In fact, I considered documenting this new adventure in all its gory details via blogging and social media but, well, I'd rather put my head down and get on with it. I'm only stopping long enough to share something I'm doing differently with this project. I don't have time for learning things 'the hard way'. Been there, done that, loved it, wrote the blog. If I want to be more efficient, I need a shortened learning curve. This time I'm rewarding myself with 'the easy way'. If you're venturing into a WordPress project, I strongly suggest finding a WordPress virtuoso to consult with ( like I did ). You'll be surprised at how much less stress, more fun, less troubleshooting, and more efficient it is.​ I guess I can say I'm learning better, not harder . originally published in Work Better, Not...

Can you remember your first really big concert? For me it was The Rolling Stones in 1989 at CNE Stadium soon after I moved to Toronto. We had seats about mid-field and, when the concert started, it was a great spot to be. And then everyone stood up... and up onto their seats. Now I'm game but I'm also short. Standing on my seat up on tippytoes, I could just see the big screens... no stage, no Mick. Eventually my tippytoes got tired, so I sat... and suddenly the music was unrecognizable, muffled by all the surrounding bodies. I remember feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sea of people. Online marketing reminds me of that feeling, of being surrounded by many different people deeply interested in something other than me. Shouting over the noise to be heard, waving arms or grabbing people to get their attention. When you're not Mick Jagger, it's not easy to get people's attention. In fact, it's darn hard work trying to stand out in a sea of other peopl...

"My newsletter isn't doing anything for me." Over the years I've heard many different versions of this same sentiment, usually accompanied by a big sigh. A month or so later, the newsletters stop. A newsletter does not make a marketing plan. And sending out a newsletter is only a small part of a content marketing strategy . To be successful, there are other related things you need to be doing. Here's a checklist to help you identify what actions to take to improve your results. If you're not doing these things, that's why success is eluding you. Have a sign-up form on a landing page you can promote (i.e. with its own url) so you can actually get complete strangers as new subscribers. Promote your newsletter on social media, your blog, your website and everywhere else, including not online. If you don't actively build your list, it will stagnate. Actively share your newsletter issues on social media multiple times to extend your readersh...

A redirect page is a webpage where someone ends up after filling in your subscription form. This is something you have control over and it's worth putting a little effort into. After all, someone has just said they trust you enough to sign up for your newsletter - it's a good time to dazzle them with more of your brilliance and give them some value right away . Here is a screenshot of Anita Kirkbride's redirect page. When someone subscribes to Twirp's newsletter, this is where they end up. Here's why this page is great: It clearly describes what the subscriber signed up for. There's a free giveaway, which was promised in the call to action. There's a link to get immediate value by going to Twirp's blog. Also those cute little Twirplings at the bottom of the screen jump up and down... which made me feel kind of happy to have subscribed. Is it time to take a fresh look at your own redirect page? What is the most important message you want t...