11 Simple Tips to Revolutionize Your Business Website (Content)

The truth is that most business website content is downright disgusting.  We might be tempted to say that it’s because it’s written by people who don’t write often.  Though writing is a skill, this view is inaccurate.  If someone can write emails and posts on Facebook then with guidance they can write good website content too.

Following are 11 of the most powerful tips for writing effective business/marketing website content or copy.  

Why?  Because it helps you stand out and earn more business! 

Leave your grammar books and your inhibitions about writing behind.  Creating website content is about communicating with your clients and trying to win some of your prospects.  If you can’t get even a little bit excited about that, then take a look in the mirror, because they’re what this whole thing is about.

Here are our 11 tips to help create powerful business website content:

1. Focus on benefits to the reader (and not on yourself).

2. Speak to your reader by using the second person (“you” orientation).

3. If you can, make a promise to your reader (that you can fulfill later).

4. Use specific proof and examples whenever appropriate.

5. Obtain and use video testimonial.  Even use written testimonials, but get those videos!

6. Have a plan ahead of time to save time in writing and to just do a better job.

Answer questions like to help with your game plan: what am I trying to get across here? Is this content useful to the reader? Does it convey my main/unique benefit?

7. Use short sentences and relatively short paragraphs.  Sentences should be no more than 12-16 words.

8. Write like you speak.  Not like you’re trying to be some marketing hot shot.  You’ll up sounding like you’re TRYING to be a marketing hot shot.

9. NEVER EVER copy and paste what someone else has done.  It is bad for Google ranking (SEO), unethical, and could damage credibility.

10. Answer this question with before, during, and after you write: why should I listen to you?

11. Edit your content for simplicity, clarity, and “why should I care?”

Our list is not exhaustive, so trolls be gone!  But if you have a worthwhile tip to add, then please do so.  We would love if you could add something extra for others.

Hope this helps you make a site that doesn’t read like a resume.  Because who reads resumes for fun?  And why would you ever want something to be monotonous when it doesn’t have to be? Engage readers, rather than handing them your resume.

Wishing you only the best (unless your our competitor … just kidding – we’re all just people trying to make life work).  Talk to you soon,

Ben Sarma,  Lead Marketer at Vanguard Internet Marketing.

This could be one of the most important questions in your SEO journey.  

The fact of the matter is that what’s commonly called black hat SEO can have adverse effects on your rankings.  

Here’s the text book definition of black hat search engine optimization: It’s when someone acts against a search engine’s guidelines.  Things like trying to hide text (like keywords) to blend with the background.  

Ultimately, this should mean that it creates a bad experience for the end user.  That’s where ethics comes in to play.  

One of the grey areas of SEO, that’s more black than anything, is the topic of link building.  The VAST majority of link building for SEO is meant to manipulate search engines.  Article marketing for example is a commonly used tactic for attaining links from article directories.  This is not inherently bad, even by Google’s standards; however, if an article is written solely for the purpose of the link, then it is black hat.  

This ambiguity is why we have an article.  

Getting back to link building, notice that when Matt Cutts (of Google) talks about it he always talks about “getting links” or “earning links” by having great content.  Here are two video examples Matt Cutts on Having Too Many Links and Matt Cutts on Organic Link Building.  What he’s talking about is different forms of link baiting.  This isn’t really link building or backlinking.  

It’s fascinating once you put this into perspective.

White hat SEO is basically any SEO that is not against Google’s (and other search engines) guidelines.  Another way of thinking about white hat is that it falls within the boundaries laid out by search engines, which are a bit vague.  It does involve some reading between the lines, as we’ve seen with “link building”.   

If you’re looking for some more info on white hat vs. black hat just read Google Webmaster Guidelines and fall in line.

At the end of the day, black hat SEO can get a company in trouble.  Also, “black hat”, is far broader than most people think!  When you think about it what link can be “built” naturally?  Though they exist, they are few and far between.  Even social links are kind of spammy in their own way (and certainly not organic).  

Anyway, I’ll leave it at that for today.  I would be more than interested to hear from others out there.  Some companies buy link packages, some use SENuke X or EVO Pro, while yet others write articles (or outsource articles) by hand.  None of these methods seems white hat, but maybe some are a little grey.  What do you think?

All the best from Ben at IM Vanguard (and a Happy New Year!)  - Let’s make 2012 really count for something!

Top 7 Reasons Why Websites Drop in the Rankings

Your site just got knocked off the map by Google.  I’m sorry to hear that. It happens to even SEO pros.  Though it is certainly disheartening, it is not the end.  Nor is it time to give up.  Search engine optimization is a science and a game.  It’s one of those things in life that requires perspective to see in the right light.  By rethinking your strategies you can move your way back up the SERPs.  You can overcome even the biggest challenges in SEO. 

The first key is to always have in mind what Google is trying to provide: they want their end users to have a positive experience with their search engine.  This means that a user gets results that are relevant to them.  That’s all Google is trying to do.  If your site isn’t providing a good experience, then Google (Panda) will catch up with you no matter what else you’re doing for rankings.

1. Panda Slap – Content has proven to not be engaging, so Google knocks a site down (high bounce rate, low time on site, for example).

2. Devaluing of links pointing to a site. This can mean that one or many of the links pointing to your site have been devalued or deleted.

3. An outbound link to a “bad neighbourhood”. Here we are talking about a link you have directed to a site that Google does not trust.

4. The search algorithm has changed.  This basically means that no one (outside of people at the search engine) knows exactly what has changed.  Internet marketers take educated guesses at the impacts of these algorithm updates by testing.

5. You made some substantial changes to your site that had an adverse effect.  For example maybe you changed WordPress themes.

6. Poor linking strategies have also been known to cause drops in search engine rankings.  Websites that have the same anchor text to a single page (e.g. the home page) have experienced stunning dips in ranking.  The cure of course is link diversity.

7. It may just be that others in your market are doing a better job than you in terms of SEO.  This is not as simple as it seems on the surface; however, it can make some sense of the situation.

Here is one of the major COMMON misconceptions about what causes a drop in search engine rankings:

Many people believe that if enough quality raters at Google give your site a bad score, then you will drop.  The truth is that quality raters don’t have that sort of power.  Here’s some more information from Search Engine Land.

10 Do or Die Marketing Questions for Every Business

Coming from me it’s likely no surprise that I’m emphasizing the importance of marketing (yet again)!  The truth is that any business success comes from marketing, as it encompasses all of how we earn and keep clients.  Knowing this is empowering, because it means that we can let marketing happen on its own, or we can take control of it.

I hope you don’t think the former sounds swell!  It’s equivalent to just saying I don’t really care about my business and clients.  Anyway, we need to get focused on the marketing questions you’ll be getting today.  If you take a step back from your every day, and consider these marketing questions it will change your business for the better.

Before we get flamed as well (lol), there are actually more than 10 questions here.  Be forewarned that we added some extra questions to increase the value of these 10 power questions of marketing.

1. Who is my target market?

2. Why do they (my target market) buy?

a. What are their hot button(s)?

b. What are we actually selling to them?

c. How are we going to convey this in your campaign(s)?

 .
3. Why would a qualified lead buy from my company and not someone else’s?

a. We are the only company in our market who …

b. How are we telling everyone about this difference (USP – unique selling proposition)?

4. Why would a qualified lead not buy from my company and go with someone else?

a. What can we do to earn that business instead of our competition?

b. What is my competition doing better than me? How can I match and beat them?

c. What are other companies in my industry (but in different cities) doing that I can adapt to my company?

5. What am I doing (or going to do) to measure the success of this marketing campaign?

6. How will I follow up with people who connect with my marketing?

7. What is our offer that’s so good that someone would have to be an idiot to turn it away?

a.What can we do to sweeten the deal?

8. Why? You can ask this generally about any aspect of your marketing, but also use it as a way to drill down to why you are succeeding in your expectations or not.

9.  What are people ACTUALLY buying from me? (Or what am I actually selling?)  Hint – it’s not tulips – even if you’re a florist!

10. Why will someone (who doesn’t even know I exist or care about my business success) care about/share/like this marketing?

11. What am I doing to hold onto the clients I have earned?

If you have any questions about how to use these questions to your advantage then just let us know.  We’d be happy to explain any of these questions in further detail.  Also, feel free to add any other marketing questions that you think are valuable in the comments below.  These are the what we consider to be some the most important questions in marketing, but we’d love to hear from you.

Have an incredible day (and life if we don’t hear from you).

Ben Sarma – Lead Marketer

Vanguard Internet Marketing

Pondering More on What Makes Remarkable Content Remarkable

I don’t know about you, but I have found a tendency of some marketers and marketing authors to putter around in abstract ideas.  Then they expect others to just be able to apply them.  Though there is merit in indulging in the abstract and esoteric, I tend to favor the actionable and practical these days.  I have a great deal of respect for anyone who spends time in thought, but for marketing we really need to focus on what we can do.  Changing a mindset, like just about anything else is a matter of taking actions, not just thinking about them.  Creating “remarkable” or “shareable” or “likeable” content is one of those areas that a lot of authors leave out there in the ether. 

This blog post is the spiritual successor (and the literal successor) of a post that you can find here: on remarkable content.  That post is probably one of the few you will find on the Internet that is as good as the one you are reading right now.  

Our purpose here is to bring it down to earth.  So let’s focus on the idea of giving value!  We’ve oft been told that giving value is the KEY!  Just give enough value and you’ll get people to love you and your content!  That’s how it works right!  Well, that sounds easy enough.  Let’s all take a sandwich break …

Wait, you’re not satisfied?

Hmmm, funny how that works!  It helps to actually explain it!  Neat!

I seem to recall a nice video from Matt Cutts about quality content.  He’s that cute geek from Google that tells us about Google updates and answers questions on SEO.  I can’t find the actual video, but it’s probably out there.  

Here are a few things to consider when crafting “valuable” content:

1. Don’t give away your family’s secret recipe.  A lot of us are in information industries.  Some of the ideas we have, we have paid hundreds or thousands of dollars for.  You don’t necessarily want to give away the most valuable tidbits.  I say that for your business, but also to help your prospects out.  Some people get a little bit of knowledge and begin to feel like they have the answer.  They don’t.  They just feel like it.  

 Though some will argue that you want to be seen as an expert, etc. there are other ways to establish expertise besides giving away your family’s famous recipe.  

1.5.  #1 is kind of easy, so let’s add another tip on here.  Create content that is valuable for your prospects and clients.  This implies that you’re not just making content that you think is valuable.  Be as sure as you can about what your audience might like and respond to.  Then deliver it to them.  Note: this comes after seriously attempting to define your audience/ideal client(s).

2. Get your heart in the right place.  It’s SO easy in business to get focused on the bottom line and lose track of what really matters!  But, we’re all out there helping somebody with something.  Why not act like it?  Embrace it!  That doesn’t mean that no transaction is made.  Money is simply a way of recognizing the ‘real’ world value of what you are offering.  

When we care about others our problems start to drift away, and it becomes easier to truly deliver and overdeliver.

3.  Have a game plan for what “value” is going to mean for your web content (or any aspect of your marketing).  There’s not much more to say about that.  It’s just important to know where you’re headed, to get to where you’re going.

4. Direct your attention to specific problems and go into some detail.  Part of being remarkable is being precise.  Valuable content then is content that gives attention to a specific problem.

That’s all I have to say about value and remarkable content for now.

If you have any questions or comments leave them below or connect with us on Facebook.

To your success,

Ben Sarma

Lead Marketer, IM Vanguard. 

What Makes Remarkable Content Remarkable?

This question has been HEAVY on my mind the last few days!  So I’m going to do my best to give you some of my hot ol’ genuine thoughts and some research from the web.  We could just take a step back and say, well it’s content that is different from everything else out there.  Case closed, right?  Hmmm…

Somehow I feel like I just finished reading a Seth Godin book!  Don’t get me wrong, I love the guy.  His stuff is like candy for marketers.  I just want to gobble it all up. And, he’s probably the cutest marketer in the world. 

Plus, I think he has a lot of great ideas!  BUT, I don’t feel like his work is ever really practical.  I’ve never gleamed a strategy from one of his books or came out with something actionable.  But maybe that’s just me.  Either way, I think he rocks, but we still need to solve the problem of what makes remarkable content.

As with many things in life it helps to take a step back and reflect.  What content do you love when you go to someone’s site?  Or what do you share on Twitter or Facebook?  Let’s make this into a throught experiment and see what we come up with.  Yes, I studied philosophy in university (among other things). 

To make this a bit more interesting (if that’s even possible!) let’s think about content that is not worth sharing and that is NOT remarkable. 

It’s definitely not one of those web adverts that we all know.  And, hey I’ve made my share of those. But I’m trying to round up those days and make things more interesting.

It’s not a website or blog that is all about the author or publisher.  But this one actually gets complex fast!  You see, we love reading the opinions and thoughts of others (well a lot of people do).  But only certain people and only certain opinions. That’s tough, so we may have to revist this notion some other time. Can you smell another blog post cookin’?

It’s not unhelpful information … So, I really just wanted to use this point to say that we like helpful information.  Perhaps the thought experiment has gone awry.

Remarkable content is not boring! We must be entertained.  There is too much information now, for information to be boring.  In a lot of cases we can get it somewhere else.  [Insert your favourite interesting video here.]

A tangent of the previous point is that we don’t like content that lacks any personality.  In copywriting there is a rule of thumb that you should write like you speak.  This because it communicates to people more rapidly and even more clearly. 

Finally, let’s just go over one more point today.  I don’t want us (i.e. me) to get overwhelmed by all of this genius! (just kidding)

Here is a beautiful display of graphic design and research from Mashable!

Sharing Infographic Research.

If you do go and check out that link, you may be wondering what I am trying to say by sharing it!  Well, I think there is a very powerful point that can be taken from that study.  And that’s that people love sharing content that is easy to digest.  I have seen blog posts that are over 6000 words.  I’ve never read one, and who actually has?  But more to the point, we must fall in love with a piece of content quickly in order to share it.

That concludes our first consideration of what makes remarkable content remarkable.  I hope it has been enlightening.  I don’t know about you but I am looking forward to delving into this further.

Ben Sarma,

Lead Marketer, IM Vanguard.

How to Make a BLOW ‘EM Away Facebook Posting Game Plan

If you’re like most people, then posting on your business page (what used to be called a “fan page”) on Facebook can be tedious.  We all just have so many things going on in the day.  So, many a business owner doesn’t actually use the wall to truly engage people. I know the feeling of tediousness as well as anyone else.  I spend most of my time on the computer, so another 10, 15, or 20 minutes to post on Facebook, Twitter, etc. may not seem like much, but it adds up on a daily basis.

The key to making Facebook posting easy and far less tedious is to have a game plan.  This has a few components. 

1. You need goals and objectives.

What are you trying to achieve by posting on your wall?  Are you trying to bait people to like your page?  Are you trying to get people to engage in a conversation?  Are you trying to keep people up to date on offers?  All of these are good reasons to post on your wall.  For example you can share whenever you do a good job, land a new client, or write a new blog entry.

Whatever it is that you want to achieve with Facebook posting … just be sure to know what IT is!  Know what you want it to achieve for you.  Yeah, that is obvious, but A LOT of business owners have not thought this through.

2. Create a database of posts.

There are going to be some days when you are not really going to want to post.  You won’t have that burst of enthusiasm that YEAH I need to post this now!  That doesn’t happen to everyone every day!  An alternative to counting on those ongoing bursts of enthusiasm is to start collecting important articles to share, quotes, videos, etc.  This way, you can post every day with ease.  You won’t have to think long and hard about it. You can just go right to your list.

Note: make sure this list/database of Facebook (and Twitter) materials is in its own separate place.  Don’t just go to the quotes that you’ve been storing up for years.  Make a separate folder with files dedicated specifically to this.

3. Engage your community. 

This comes in the form of questions, contests, etc.  The key is to ensure that what you are posting passes the “will someone else give a darn” test.  The truth is we care more about ourselves and our businesses than most other people do.  That’s not a bad thing!  That’s the way it should be.  But, it means that other people are busy thinking about themselves, and your Facebook page/wall posts really need to be worthwhile for them.  What value does your community add to the lives of your members?

One simple way of doing this is to share value.  Also, try posting conversation starting topics on there. This means sparking some controversy, which may not sound ideal for business; however, you can bring up controversial issues without taking a ‘bad’ side. 

This CAN be you:

We hope you’ve found these Facebook strategies useful.

Wishing you only the best in business and in life,

Ben Sarma,

Lead Internet marketer and Founder of IM Vanguard, Victoria BC Internet marketing firm.

How to Write Blog Posts – Motivating Yourself

I woke this morning with a fire in my belly to go and write at my computer.  I was determined I would sit down and pump out a few blog posts, maybe a few articles, while I was at it.  Then I got here and just couldn’t write a single word!  We could call it writer’s block, but I think it was more that I just didn’t want to write.

This reluctance to write can happen even when you’re passionate about blogging, and about what you’re blogging.  I’m proof enough of that.  And I definitely know that there are business owners out there who believe that they should be blogging but who aren’t doing enough of it.  So, let’s see if we can remedy this.

1. Established Purpose for Why You are Writing

For whatever reason humans are better at doing things when they have a reason for doing them, a motivation.  What motivates you?  What drives you?  For me it is a constant desire to be better than I used to be and better than my ‘competition’.  And, it is to do right by my family, to represent my love in work and wealth.

It may seem a bit strange, but these things motivate me in just about everything that I do.  There are other motivating factors of course, but these are the big ones.  Share below if you have any personal motivations that you would like to share.

When I put that into perspective then it’s not so hard to sit down and write a blog post, or work my butt off for 15 hours in a day.

2. Do It Now – Starting is Halfway Done

The easiest way to get over not wanting to do something, is to just sit down and get started.  Tell yourself that you are going to just type a few words … the rest will really take care of itself.  This principle can be applied to a lot of different activities in your life, namely anything that is not easy to do.  I think it was someone (lol) who said “getting started is halfway done.”  Try it.  It works EVERY time!

3. Attitude

Oddly enough the most important lesson that we ever learned was back in grade one.  Remember when they told you how important your attitude is?  How it’s contagious?  … “is yours worth catching?”  Oh the good old days!  I certainly remember that lesson.  But so often we pretent like we don’t know the truth of this claim.  So we get comfortable complaining about a problem rather than solving it.  I think most of us have been there, even a lot.

But after you have established your purpose in doing something, in this case blogging, it becomes easier to create your attitude.  Some people talk about attitude as a completely controlable entity.  But it’s not necessarily so simple.  It’s not a switch that you turn on or off.  With that said, like anything in life, you need to approach blogging with a positive attitude.  It’s imperative.  If you don’t then I am confident your blog will not succeed. Ouch!

Here’s a simple way to take control of your attitude.  Just reflect on what you could be doing.  And blogging will all of a sudden, not seem so bad afterall.  You could be hauling rocks for some fat foreman just to scrape by.  Instead you are running your own business in your attempt to achieve financial freedom!  Now that’s truly exciting.

In case you haven’t heard the news, we are killing it in SEO.  Take a look at our results for SEO Victoria BC, the most valuable term in our city.  Soon we’ll be at the top of the ladder for Internet marketing on Vancouver Island.  I’m just excited about that, so I had to mention it!

Wishing you only the best in life and in business

Ben Sarma

Lead Marketer at IM Vanguard.

Crucial Keys to Over-delivering in Any Business

I was speaking with a fellow Internet marketer recently, talking about getting reviews for a business. And, he said sternly, as he tends to do, that the way to get reviews is to over deliver.  Funny enough but that also happens to be the way to keep clients! And get referrals! And build a strong brand!

Alright, let me be clear and say that overdelivery is not the ONLY way to get these things.  However, it’s probably the best and possibly the easiest.  SO, it seems perfectly reasonable to say that it is darned important!  Right?

Yet not everyone knows how to overdeliver! Not everyone focuses on this even on a theoretical level in their business!  This is one of those things that you should be able to shout out if someone jumped you in a back alley (and asked you about it).  I’m not sure exactly who might be doing that, but it’s just a thought experiment anyway.

Anyway,  I promised you some keys to helping you overdeliver in your business and that’s just what I’m going to do.

1. Underpromise and over deliver.

Alright, I can hear the groans right now.  Who hasn’t heard that one before?  I learned that in when I was in first grade.  Fair enough, but I don’t think we can be reminded of it too often.

My partner David Nicholson, of Queensbury likes to bring this one up whenever he can.

2. Care … I said CARE about the person you are serving!

Compassion will set you free.  It’s one of the great truths of life.  If you think only about yourself and your own concerns, challenges, and priorities it doesn’t seem possible for you to be truly happy.  This is GREAT news.  Because it means that can stop thinking quite so much about yourself, become a better (more compassionate) person, and do better in business!

That’s a glorious idea!

It’s glorious because we get so much for methodically going in the direction of fulfillment (and happiness).

3. See it from their perspective.

Now, before you get up and walk away, because you think this is the same as number 2, just hear me out.  We call this walking a mile in someone else’s shoes.  Something we have all heard before, but often forget to apply.

When you look at someone’s situation from their perspective, in a business setting you can understand if your strategy is working.  For example, does your client even actually know about all of the work you are doing? Does he or she know clearly what you are minimally required to do?

In other words, you need to SHOW them that you are doing right by them.

Remember that everyone thinks they’re worth a million bucks.  It’s important to treat them like that.

I don’t like to go on longer than is necessary, so I’ll wrap this post up.  We’re all busy, but I think that today we have covered the fundamentals.  Apply these to your life and your business, and you will succeed (if you work hard and don’t expect others to do things for you).

Comment below to add your opinion to this valuable conversation.  Your opinion means a lot.

Also, feel free to contact us if you want assistance with any of our services.

Wishing you only the best in business and in life,

Ben Sarma

Founder and Lead Marketer at IM Vanguard.

Here’s Three Reasons Why Serious Business People Love Facebook Ads

Facebook advertising is like nothing else before!  I spent a few hours the other day gushing about how awesome it is!  Yeah, it has been around for a while now, but it’s a revolution in marketing platforms.  And, it’s one of the few arenas that can help just about any business.

1. Facebook Ads are better than Google Adwords

Now I don’t know if Google is going to like me saying this, because it’s how they make their money.  They may even knock our site down a notch.   I’m just kidding.

Basically Google lacks the ability to laser focus their ads like Facebook can.  We’ll give more about that in a minute.  On top of that you can do SEO for Google instead of PPC or adwords.  In many respects it’s actually a lot better to do SEO than ads.

2. Can you say market research?

Before we go into what makes Facebook advertising so awesome, let’s look at what makes it even more awesome!  It is a POWERFUL market research tool.  Because they have so much data you get to see parallel interests (aka demgraphic and psychographic research!) of your market.  It’s like investing a million dollars in market research, or getting the results of that investment anyway!

As a marketer this brings me more than cake pan’s worth of delite.  It’s revolutionary!

3. Facebook Advertising Allows Laser focus.

Now let’s get into what makes Facebook advertising so powerful!  It is the data!  You can laser target the people who are going to see your ad!  This means that you don’t have to show it to anyone that you don’t want to show it to.

Sure, you will want to start somewhat broadly, but after a while you can begin to cut off specific demographics from seeing your ads.  If this doesn’t excite you then you must not have a marketing bone in your body!

Constructing the ad is a whole different matter, and a different science; however, it is also a whole different realm of fun.

I hope this article gets you at least a little bit fired up about Facebook advertising.  We sure are pumped about it!

Leave a comment if you have anything of value to contribute to this conversation. Or if you just have a question or two.

Wishing you all the best in your business and in your life,

Ben Sarma

Lead Marketer at IM Vanguard.