Web Presence – PR, marketing, and film production | Alchemy On Demand

How A Strong Website Helps Your Business

Admin — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 06:06:00 +0000

The web is a company’s first presence to a lot of people. And, as the old marketing adage goes, it’s all in the presentation.

Think about it. How would Apple look if it handed you their iPhone in a ziplock bag? What if the storefronts were all ramshackle and daub?

Yes, image matters – it’s the calling card of your business.

But how, specifically, does it help? Well, check out this amazing infographic from instantshift.com. It really says all there is to say:

-Hudson Hornick
Alchemy On Demand

How to Write a Block-Rocking SEO Press Release

Admin — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 03:05:41 +0000

You know what a press release is:

A press release is the #1 tool in the publicist’s bag of tricks. A press release is what publicists send to media to let the public know what their clients are up to.

But what you may not know is that business owners (a.k.a. Those do-it-yourself publicists) rely on press releases too. It’s true – they send them out when they want to tell the world about a new product or service they’re launching; a store they’re opening; an event they’re sponsoring; an award they’ve won; or some other newsworthy milestone they’ve achieved.

Thus, press releases are popular and important for business.

So that’s a press release. No big deal, right?

So what the hey is an SEO press release?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. An SEO press release is one that is written so that search engines–those robots employed by Google, Yahoo, Bing, and AOL–will read and rank your press release.

You want Search Engines to read and rank your press release because these days online media are as important as print and broadcast.

So how do you write a press release that a robot will read and disseminate?

The same way you write one for people.

Not so bad, right? Here’s why:

Search engines now want the same thing from a press release that readers want: interesting content clearly communicated.

Here’s what PRNewswire recommends about press release writing for SEO:

“Great content written with a specific audience in mind is good SEO and will increase your chances of being found.”

In other words, you write a press release when you have something newsworthy to say to a specific group of people.

Sometimes, however, that’s easier said than done.

How To Write a Great Press Release

Although most people can talk in clear straightforward sentences, too many of us get muddled when we’re saying something in writing. So here are eight easy tips for writing a great press release that both search engines (software) and people will want to read:

1. Decide what your lead is—the news you want to tell. Here are three examples from Malibu NoseRiding Championship, one of our actual clients:

Announcing the 2013 Malibu NoseRiding Championship:
World’s first timed, co-ed noseriding competition

—
Outside TV signs on as Malibu NoseRiding Championship sponsor

—
Win a GoPro camera in Malibu NoseRiding Championship’s photo contest

Why they’re great titles:

Each of these headlines states clearly what the “news” is. Either it’s the first of something, some big-name is getting involved, or there’s something people can win. Any way you slice it, someone will be interested and that, my friends, is the definition of News.

2. Tell who, what, when, where, and WHY—the five Ws. It’s important in a press release to get as many of the basic facts as you can into the first paragraph. Although WHY is the last on the list, it’s often important to say “why” even ahead of who, what, when, and where. That’s because attention spans are short; you need to let people know quickly why this matters. If readers care about WHY, they’ll stay with you to find out who, what, where, and when. Here’s out it played out for Malibu NoseRiding Championship:

“History’s first-ever timed noseriding competition, in which men and women compete as equals for cash and prizes, will take place “On One Perfect Day” in October 2013 at Malibu’s legendary Surfrider Beach.”

(It’s not often that you can claim a history-making event, and when you can, put it upfront.)

3. Fill out your press release with interesting details (content) as hyperlinks.

“The Malibu Noseriding Championship will bring together sixty-four of the world’s best longboard surfers to compete for ‘most time on the nose’ in an objectively timed event. The event will raise funds and awareness for the Malibu Beach watershed ecosystem—once a pristine environment named “Malibu” by the region’s first inhabitants, the Chumash.

“The event will attract some of surfing’s best, including (long list of championship surfers)…

“The Malibu Noseriding Championship will benefit three local nonprofits: Eco-Malibu, whose mission is to restore and protect the lower Malibu Creek watershed and historical wetlands of Malibu; the Bay Restoration Foundation, working to restore and enhance the Santa Monica Bay; and the Surfing Heritage and Cultural Center, dedicated to preserving, presenting and promoting surfing’s heritage for the appreciation and education of current and future generations.”

4. Include keywords in your press release. Keywords are terms that people will search for when they’re looking for a product or service you provide. If you’re a PR agency in Santa Barbara, “Santa Barbara PR agency” are likely some of your keywords, and so are “Santa Barbara” and “PR” and “public relations.” Anytime I sensibly include my keywords in my press release, I’m helping a Google bot rank it higher for those words.

If you’re the Malibu NoseRiding Championship producers, “Malibu NoseRiding Championship” is a great keyword phrase, but don’t forget that “surfing,” “noseriding,” “surf contests,” etc. can be equally valuable. Try to mix it up to get a more complete keyword profile.

Note: It can take some research and analysis to select your keywords, and we’ll say more about it in another post. For the time being, however, once you know what your company’s keywords are, use them in your press release.

Adding keywords can be as simple as including them in the headline: “Announcing the first Malibu NoseRiding Championship,” or in the first paragraph of the press release: “Alchemy On Demand, Santa Barbara’s PR agency, announces …” You can then add them, or variations of them, again in your press release whenever it makes sense to do so–from a reader’s (not a robot’s) point of view.

5. Include a photograph or video. You learned it in school: “A picture’s worth a thousand words.” In the Internet age, that’s an understatement.

Photos draw readers’ attention. If you have no other image to accompany your press release, quote someone—even if it’s yourself—and include a headshot of that person. Photos make editors more likely to include your story—because they know that readers will be more likely to read it.

6. Include contact info, including a link to your own website. That’s important for reporters, but also for readers who may want to know more about you than just the information available in your press release.

7. Include “boilerplate” about your company at the very end of your press release. A Boilerplate is a single-spaced paragraph that describes what your company does. It provides background information for living, breathing editors, and adds credibility/authority for SEO software ‘bots. It’s also one last place to legitimately insert your keywords. Here’s an example using Lucky Penny Press, another Alchemy On Demand client:

“Lucky Penny Press is a children’s eBook publisher founded by Melissa C. Marsted, author of Pablito and the Speckled Bear. Lucky Penny Press, whose motto is “Nurturing the creative spirit,” publishes books written by both adults and children. Each book has a professionally recorded audio version. As part of LPP’s cultural fabric, each book is connected to a non-profit organization, which receives a portion of book sale proceeds. LPP sells eBooks in numerous eReader formats including those for iPads, iPhones, Kindles, Nooks, MP3 players, and any computer. Every eBook can be downloaded in either eReader or audio format, or both.”

8. Use the Associated Press style. Associated Press (AP) wrote the rules for journalistic fine points followed by most written media. Since many editors will run your press release verbatim if they don’t have time, staff, or inclination to rewrite it, your job is to make it easy for them to do so. AP style includes rules such as spelling out numbers one through nine, but using numerals for numbers 10 and above (as I just did in this sentence). This rule doesn’t apply for dates, such as July 1, 2013, for which numbers are always used, or when a sentence begins with a number, in which case the number is always spelled out.

AP style also omits the “serial comma,” which is the comma before “and” in a list longer than two. For example, “dogs, cats and ponies”; not “dogs, cats, and ponies.”

(This omission of the serial comma upsets Hudson, and my son Noah, but we’ll leave the grammar nazis to fight amongst themselves, yes?)

Another AP-style guideline is to put the comma or period inside the quotation marks. When you’re quoting someone, it looks like this: “This is our first award,” the proud business owner said. “We couldn’t be more pleased.”

And that’s it. Follow these straightforward recommendations for writing press releases, and you’ll also be writing an SEO press release in no time.

Congratulations!

–Leslee Goodman
Alchemy On Demand

Six Reasons Your Website Needs Video

Admin — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 05:51:07 +0000

Sorry about that, my Luddite friend.

I too, am a reader, not a watcher, but times have changed. Today’s websites need video and here are the top six reasons why:

#1. Search engines love video.

For the last few years, Google has rewarded sites that include video, presumably because videos are “content-rich.” When a video is optimized to include relevant keywords, it has a 50 times better chance of appearing on the first page of Google results than any static text page. And as if to emphasize the importance of video with web users, YouTube has become the second-largest search engine on the web. That means web users are nearly as likely to search for their keywords (your website) on YouTube as Google. If you don’t have video on your website, YouTube won’t find you.

#2. Videos are more engaging than text.

Just as it’s easier to get caught up in television or a movie, than in a book, well-crafted videos pull people into the storyline. And why not? Videos combine words, images, and music to create more compelling storytelling than words and images alone. For that reason:

#3. Videos are shared more often than text.

Because they are more engaging and compelling than static text pages, videos are shared—on Facebook and other social media, as well as emailed—far more often than static web pages. Moreover, a video thumbnail— embedded on a Facebook page, for example–attracts more attention and garners more “Likes” and comments than a static text page.

#4. Videos convert visitors to customers more frequently than text.

Videos are able to imitate the bricks-and-mortar shopping experience more readily than words and still images, giving prospective customers a “you are there” experience that can overcome any hesitation a shopper may feel about purchasing online. A video can also convey your company’s brand—the look and feel you want customers to associate with your company—far more than a static website. Moreover, once a website visitor has clicked on the PLAY button, he or she is in your control. A well-produced video can provide a “one-stop shopping” experience for the user, answering his or her questions, showing the product from various angles, offering appropriate calls to action (and the links to make them a click away), and even guiding visitors to the shopping cart.

#5. Videos can be shared on multiple channels

—thus maximizing the bang for your buck. By loading videos to multiple sites—YouTube, Vimeo, Google Video, Facebook Video, and more—in addition to your own website, you reach far more prospective customers than through your website alone. Moreover, videos can be optimized to play equally well on mobile devices, televisions, and in-store monitors, further maximizing the return on your video investment.

# 6 Best of all, Alchemy On Demand can create your videos

From animated shorts and two-minute sales pieces to full-length corporate documentaries, our team of award-winning producers, directors, and writers are masters of the craft of video storytelling to meet any budget. When you’re ready to go video, contact us.

-Leslee Goodman
Alchemy On Demand

How To Write Killer Copy (For Reals)

Admin — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 08:35:27 +0000

Copywriting has long been the black sheep of the marketing world. It’s a crucial part of the marketing process, but it’s tricky, and therefore many overlook copywriting as something that will take care of itself.

Big mistake.

Numerous studies have shown that small tweaks to your copy result in huge returns.

Still, most don’t want to pay to have it done professionally, so how can you get away with writing copy that sells?

Easy. Like this:

Know your target customer
Focus on benefits
Know yourself
Keep it simple, Keep it on point, and Be specific
Yell at them, Build trust, & Dissuade fear
Make them like you
Show them that others have already jumped aboard (Social Trust)
Universalize your tone
And finally – follow through

BAM – There you have it. 9 steps to write killer copy. Remember, practice makes perfect, but armed with this knowledge you’ll be well on your way to writing killer copy that converts traffic.

And it all starts with…

Know your target customer

The goal of any marketing campaign is to guide your customers through the Buying Funnel:

Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, Satisfaction – that’s the name of the game.

5 steps to customer (and business) happiness. You’re going to use your copywriting to guide your customers through these steps, and all of your marketing copy should be unified in this goal. Thus, your landing page copy should per tailored to where your customer is in that process.

Optimize your landing pages accordingly.

Example: Let’s say you sell shoes. You’ve designed a landing page to target those who search for “Santa Barbara Shoes.”

Your landing page copy should be geared toward conversions, yes, but you should also recognize that at this point in the buying phase, those that are searching for something as generic as “Santa Barbara Shoes” are likely in the first stage of the buying process, and that’s Attention.

Your potential clients aren’t not sure what they want, or even what’s out there. So your first step for these keyword searches should be creating a landing page that captures their attention, engages interest, and stimulates awareness and desire.

Pro-tip: Use emotion – it’s the strongest stimulant.

Therefore, the landing page shouldn’t be geared to raising awareness, but more about getting the customer to take that action. This is where things like coupons, free shipping, ease of returns, customer service, and social trust metrics like “# of satisfied customers” comes into play. The desire is there, you just have to get the customer to convert:

Now, the amount of space you have to accomplish these goals differs with your target task. If you’re writing PPC Copy, you’ve got precious few words in order to attract your potential traffic.

But ultimately, for any of your copywriting, what you’re trying to do is offer meat, in the language of the dog, directed to the dog.

Let me explain:

Remember Pavlov’s dogs? It’s a classic experiment about classical conditioning.

Good ol’ Pavlov proved that he could stimulate a physiological response by conditioning dogs to know that when a bell sounded they would be fed. In this case, when Pavlov sounded the bell, the dogs knew (or thought) that they were going to be fed, and that stimulated the response to salivate.

Great response, no?

But imagine if Pavlov hadn’t used meat to stimulate the dogs. What if, instead of steak, Pavlov used… lentils.

Lentils don’t get dogs going like meat.

Nothing does, in fact.

So if you don’t present meat for your customers, they aren’t going to salivate. Period. End of story. They won’t be hungry. They’ll go elsewhere for the meat they desire.

Take-Home: Know your customers, and present them what they want (give them meat).

Keep it Simple

Additionally, if Pavlov hadn’t rung a bell, but had used a whistle beyond the range of their hearing, the dogs wouldn’t know it was dinner time.

Take-Home: The language you use matters. Don’t over-sell something, don’t use ostentatious language. All big words do is isolate people. If you can use a simpler word, do so. Or, as a student of mine pointed out, if you can use an Anglo-Saxon word instead of the Latin, use the Anglo. That requires you to know the difference between Anglo-Saxon and Latin words, however….

Alright, now you’re ready to start writing some copy. But before you do, you must…

Know Yourself

It might sound silly, but many small businesses, especially those early on in the growth phase, suffer from an identity crisis.

Before you write a lick of script, you’ve got to know who you are, what you offer, and what makes you unique. These are the things that your potential clients are going to be looking for, and they’re going to want those things quickly.

If you can’t define yourself and your service in a sentence or two, your first priority is to learn how to be able to.

Define. Your. Mission.

Learn what sets you apart.

Seth Godin called this the “Purple Cow,” and Santa Barbara-based Zeeblu spins this into a blue zebra:

The point is, you’ve got to know what sets you apart and highlight it. Level of customer service, cost, quality, whatever – you’ve got to know what that is and promote that so that you stand out from the crowd.

When you find your purple cow/zebra, whatever, you’re ready to put pen to paper.

When you do, be sure to…

Focus on benefits (not features)

I’m a big believer in the selfish nature of people and their time.

It stands to reason.

People want to know if you’re worth your salt before they waste any time listening to you. It’s the same with the guy handing you the flier in the street, and the message is simple:

DO NOT WASTE MY TIME.

When people are on your site, it’s all about them. Make sure that they know that. Don’t fall into the mistake of talking about you.

Example:
Check out this website from the Santa Barbara Small Business Entrepreneurship Center. This is cut from their homepage, and before I know anything about them, or what they do, I’m hit with a wall of text about who they are.

Right. Got it. No offense, but What’s in it for me?

A better design choice would have been one that speaks to the target customer’s needs:

“Get your business off the ground and running.” OR “What’s your goal? Here’s your solution.”

Or something thereabouts.

Take home: Make your copy about your customers, and they will thank you.

This brings us to…

Yell at them, Build Trust, & Dissuade Fear

Seems counter-intuitive, no? But it’s the truth. Well… sorta.

Talking firmly projects confidence, and people respect others with confidence. Many times people don’t know what they want – they want you to tell them what they want. So tell them. Use action verbs:

Just do it.

Act Now.

Subscribe.

Check this out: You tell me which one reads better:

A: “They may not even be hungry. They’ll probably go elsewhere for the meat they desire.”

B: “They won’t be hungry. They’ll go elsewhere for the meat they desire.”

If you guessed B, cheerio.

Remove doubt from your copy, and your readers will thank you.

*Caveat* Confidence isn’t enough. You actually have to know what you’re talking about. But before you do so, you’ve got to build up your reader’s trust. To do that, you’ve got to form a relationship with them.

Think about it. When you compose an argument, you start by getting the people to like you. This is why speakers start off with a joke. Bust up the crowd a little bit. Use conversational tones. Use “you” and “I”. Tell a story. Use your own picture:

Me hogging the spotlight at Christmas.

In short, get them to know you (and hopefully like you). Then, once you’ve established a firm relationship, you can speak directly, but don’t come out of the pulpit all fire and brimstone, or you risk alienating your readers.

Make them like you.

Humans aren’t such tricky animals. Ultimately, we’re social creatures and generally pretty predictable. It’s upon this premise that an ancient martial arts trick rests.

Ask any 3+ degree blackbelt what they would do to stop a fight from happening, and they’ll respond: “Smile.”

Yep. Smile. That’s it. Ten years of kung-fu knowledge distilled into a single word. And marketers use it daily.

Why?

Because it’s a lot harder to hurt someone you like, and as humans, we’re hard-wired to respond positively to smiles.

It’s called reciprocity, and it’s a powerful marketing tool.

Don’t believe me? Ask yourself what happens when someone you don’t know follows you on Twitter. Chances are, your innate response is to follow them back. Take and receive. That’s our social instinct kicking in again there.

So when writing your copy, go ahead and yuk it up. Put some funny images in there. Lighten the mood.

Look at Groupon, they’re champs of the sly-quirky just to make you smile:

Yep. They’re the masters of quirky. And I should know, I used to work for them.

Show them that others have jumped aboard the bandwagon

This is another one of our innate human characteristics. We’re social creatures. Additionally, if someone else does it, it reinforces the feeling that if we do it too, we’ll be doing a good thing, and that will release a small amount of dopamine (happiness chemical) into the brain.

Predictable, see?

The rub is that if someone did jump off a bridge, you might not, but you’d want to know why, and if it was a good idea, and if you were missing out on anything.

Your copywriting can exploit this.

“Scientists in California don’t want you to know this amazing secret to dieting.”

“These celebrities do things just like us.”

“1000s of satisfied customers”

…and so forth. Use some social trust indicators on your website with logos and testimonials, and use it in your copy to slam home the trust instinct.

Universalize your tone

All of your web copy is going to be setting a tone. Is it funny or serious? Flippant or stern? Direct or vague? You have to make these choices and stick to them. Obviously, if you’re in the business of selling caskets, you’ll want to take things a bit more seriously than Groupon. But they have the luxury of selling fun times and fun things, so they can get away with a little playfulness. This is where knowing your audience is key. Figure out what you can get away with and then tailor all-out copy to suit.

Additionally, make sure that your tone is the same across platforms. You’re building relationships with people whether you’re aware of it or not. If you’re Joe Happy one day and then Stern Moe the next, people won’t know what to think. And if they don’t know what to think, then they can’t count on you, and if they can’t count on you, then they can’t trust you with their money, can they?

Follow Through

This is the end of the AIDAS marketing funnel. You want your customers to be your biggest proponents. Follow up with them. Thank them for their business. Make sure they’re satisfied. It goes a long way to repeat business and referrals.

Use the same tone in your follow-up copy as the rest of your marketing efforts and you’ll be A-OK when it comes to quarterly profit reporting time.

And there you have it. 9 steps to copywriting mastery. So what do you think? Have you got any copywriting tips that I missed? Care to share? Drop me a line in the comments and I’ll holler back!

-Hudson Hornick
Alchemy On Demand

Why Social Media is Important for Small Businesses

Admin — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 10:53:27 +0000

I hear this one often: you’ve got a small business, so why even bother with social media?

As much as we might like to ignore it, social media has become a major player in today’s internet. As a business owner, it’s not something we can ignore, and with Facebook’s Two Billion+ reach, why would we? Lamenting your lack of business shouldn’t be an excuse if you’ve got a decent product. How many times have you said to yourself “I know that people will want what I have to offer if I could only reach them.” Well, writing a killer blog and correctly utilizing SEO is essentially free advertising – as is maintaining a social presence.

Generating some quality content is a great way to let these people know what your business is about. Keep in mind, however, that it’s imperative that your social presence be a quality social presence, as this Neil Patel blog will tell you. It’s also important that you don’t hard sell your customers, at least not right off the bat – do this and you risk losing your fan base. What you want to do is engage them, build a rapport with them, and then link them to your services.

Start things off slowly, and give people some quality information. Think of this process as making the web the best possible experience and you’ll do just fine. A sort of “Give the people what they want” ethos for the long run.

-Hudson Hornick
Alchemy On Demand

How To Find Your Ideal Client And Rock Them

Admin — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 08:06:05 +0000

Let me present a situation to you:

You’re blogging away, creating all this great content, and you’ve been at it for months yet nobody has seemed to turn into a regular follower. Your email #’s remain low, as does your traffic.

What gives?

If your content is good and your capture forms are in place, chances are your targeting is off.

To fix it, know that targeting is about two things:

1.) Knowing your target client.

2.) Finding them online.

Now let’s get crackin’.

Knowing your Target Client is Important

Here’s why:

1.) When you know your target audience you can write to just him/her. You do this because copy reads better if you’re writing to one rather than many.

Think about it. I’m writing to you right now, aren’t I? Note the conversational tone, my casual use of slang, the way I act familiar by using words like “you” and “I” – all these things help foster trust and break down inter-personal barriers. Getting people to trust you is the first step toward getting them to like you. And people listen to people they like and trust.

2.) The more you know about your ideal customer, the better you can present your business’s unique value to your potential clients.

For example, if you know that your target customer is in an older demographic, you’ll probably use different language than when marketing to 15 year-olds that eat lunch at Taco Bell. You’ll also be able to better identify their key pain points and insinuate why your business is uniquely poised to help solve them.

3.) Knowing more about your ideal customer helps you consolidate your efforts. It helps you know where to find them online and elsewhere, so your marketing campaigns can be more effective.

4.) And finally, it’s damn hard to find good content. It’s even harder to create good content on your own.

To continually come up with good ideas, you’re going to need to tap other sources. So in order to find what your potential customers are responding to, you’re going to have to know who they are and where they hang out, what they like and don’t like, what’s appropriate and what’s not.

So that’s why you need to find your ideal client.

Here’s how you go about actually finding them.

Step 1: Use That Grey Matter

Fight the urge to skip the “Target Client” step. It’s really in your best interest.

Example: Let’s say that you’re a contractor who specializes in high-end home remodels. You might first think that you want to rank like crazy for “Custom Home Remodel in [insert target city],” but in reality, most high-end home remodel jobs come from word of mouth, right?

Therefore, you want to:

1.) Position yourself as a leader in your field about construction.

BUT ALSO

2.) Target your approach to those who would give you word of mouth – Designers, Architects, Sub-Contractors, etc. You can make friends with these “complementary” industries who are also targeting your same client, but with a different service.

Take-Home: Think for a minute about who it is you’re trying to appeal to, then see if there are any complimentary industries that are targeting the same clientele, and then consider using their information to your benefit.

Cool?

Ok, now let’s say you’ve thought about your ideal client.

It’s time to get get to work.

Step 2: Find your Target Client: Search and Destroy is Not Just for War Games

Identifying your target demographic, much like writing, is a process of revision. You’re going to start out with an idea, then hone and refocus, hone and refocus, hone and refocus.

Try not to think of it as excluding anybody from your market, but more that you’re targeting the people where your message will have the greatest impact.

Also like writing, you’re going to need to be brutally honest about your business and its capabilities.

For example, if you asked me who my ideal client might be, I may say “Direct Relief International.” They have a huge advertising budget, do good work all over the world, and are accessible to me since I’m based in Santa Barbara, California.

But, being honest, Alchemy can’t handle DRI – they’re simply too large an operation. We’d be swamped and completely under-resourced. We’d have to drop our other clients, bring teams of people on, and spend weeks, if not months, training them.

Instead, a more honest answer would be:

This guy.

This is a middle-aged CEO/doctor/dentist/etc in Santa Barbara who:

runs his own practice and, as of late,
has found his business trailing off. He’s not sure why – he suspects it has something to do with the digital revolution, but he
doesn’t have the time nor the inclination to do the work himself. He’s good at his job and he wants someone who’s good at theirs.
He makes more than$100k/yr, has an advertising budget of $2500/month, and “just wants it handled.”

That, is my ideal client. Notice that I’m not going for a big pay-off here. Our ideal client isn’t a windfall of good fortune, it’s the good solid customer that will form the foundation of your business.

I’ve narrowed my ideal client down by assessing his

Pain Points – time (he lacks it and wants more of it), small-to-medium sized business operation concerns, clients (he wants more of them by getting the phone ringing)
Age – 40+
Location – Central Californian Coast
Gender – Male or Female
Income – $100k+ annual
Education – High
Occupation – Doctor/Sciences (or any relatively high-level of income small-to-medium sized business owner. This opens up: contractor, dentist, lawyer, early startups, and so forth)
Occupational Heirarchy -(Manager, Buyer, Worker Bee, etc.) – Owner/ Manager/ CEO
Ethnicity – Any
Marital Status – Married with Children (Probably)
# of Children (2)

In reality, the more information you can gather about your ideal client. Hobbies, personality traits, recreational activities, outdoorsy/indoorsy, everything – the more, the better. Make a spreadsheet. Find a picture. Print it out and pin it to your wall.

Have it look something like this:

This will help you flesh out your ideal client personality profile. And this will, in turn, help you to understand what other information he might be looking at and how he might respond to your marketing efforts.

Ultimately, all your marketing efforts are going to be about building your brand into a brand personality. People resonate with a brand personality that is either closely akin to themselves or one they admire or respect.

This is who you’re targeting.

Now let’s go find them online.

Step 3: Let Me Google That For You

There are a number of ways I can go about doing this.

I can make a list of potential magazines that cater specifically to that demographic:

Conde Naste
Esquire
Vanity Fair, etc.

But this would take too long and be guesswork, nothing solid.

Instead, let’s put that information into amazon.com and see what’s recommended.

A quick search for “Business Owner Magazine” gives me Inc. Fast Company, and Entrepreneur. Click those and see what’s recommended, and your list grows.

You can then read some of these magazines, visit their site, and see how their social media efforts are panning out for them and what language is being used.

Ask yourself: Is humor involved? Is the tone subtle? Are the images racy? Classy? Dignified? You can model your marketing approach and brand copy after theirs.

Option 2: Use Your Competitors

Successful competitors are a treasure trove of customers. Pay attention to their social profiles and which posts do well and you can do likewise.

Additionally, Twitter allows you to search profiles. This is an often under-utilized tool.

In our example of Business Owners, we can search for “INC” “LLC” “.com” and other suffixes that are commonly found in users’ profiles if they’re business owners. This way you can not only see the language that they use, but you can reach out to them directly. Bonus!

Curveball: “Ok Hudson, you say. That’s all good and well, but I’ve got to market to my ideal customers, not just write to them.”

No problem.

Let’s take a look at CityTowninfo.com. Under Employment, we’ll see the list of just about every job in the country.

Click on the job, and you’ll get a breakdown of the professions, top-paying places in the country, job openings, and much more data. You can search for the job your target client has, see what cities have that job with a median pay that fits your target demographic, and then use these cities in your PPC/Facebook/whatever approach.

Not too shabby, eh?

Now you know how to: find your target customer, interact with them on social platforms, and speak to them in their language so that your message resonates with them.

What do you say? Got any additional targeting tips you’d like to share? Fire away.

–Hudson Hornick
Alchemy On Demand

How to Optimize for Local SEO (6 Quick Fixes)

Admin — Sat, 12 Mar 2022 05:07:17 +0000

Before we jump into the search engine optimization waters, there’s something that should be clear: there are two types of search engine optimization: There’s Organic Search and Local Search.

Organic Search is all about how people find your site in the search engine rankings.

Local Search is all about getting your business to rank better in the Google Places listings.

It’s an important distinction if you’re a local business because many small businesses get caught up trying to rank for big keywords and overshoot the moon.

Let’s face it – as a startup, you can’t compete with the big dogs that are throwing gobs of cash to optimize their online presence.

So how do you compete? You target a smaller pond.

Optimize your local SEO

Here are 6 quick local SEO fixes that will put you on the fast track to local SEO success:

Local search is all about how to rank better on Google Places. Aside from organizing your site well, there are really five main things you can do to optimize your site locally:

1.) Get a Google Business Page

2.) Put your business’s name, address, and phone number in the footer of your site

*Use microdata markup for that info

3.) Submit your business to local directories like the ones I’ve listed below

* Get Reviews on those sites

4.) Add testimonials to your site and use schema.org microdata markup

5.) Add images to the profiles you make on those directories and to your site

*Geo-tag your images *Add service & location ALT text to those images

6.) Get links.

It’s really that simple. And while the first five items are relatively easy to implement, the sixth takes a bit of effort to get moving. Link building is a process that can be simplified but just takes time. It’s something I’ll write about in a future post, but for now, let’s take a look at getting your site listed in the main local directories.

1.) Get Listed Locally

When you search for a business, oftentimes you’ll see a listing of the closest places in your region. Typically, Google will give you the top three or four results, then a listing of business places.

Something like this:

To get your business listed in these Google “Places” listings, you’ve got to have a Google Business Page.

*IMPORTANT: The categories that you select in Google Business are very important for how you appear in the listing results. Choose them wisely.*

Once you’ve set up your Google Business page, you’ve got to verify your business’s location with Google (typically they’ll mail you a postcard at your business’s location). After that, how you rank is in these Google Places listings is determined by a number of factors, which we’ll take a look at now.

2.) Put Your Business’s Name, Address, and Phone on Every Page of Your Site

First and foremost, you have to be sure that your Name, Address, and Phone are placed on every page of your site that you want to be associated with your business location.

The footer of your site (at the bottom) is typically a good place to do this.

You also want to be sure that your business information is placed correctly with the Google Business page you just made. What you’re doing here is listing your location information on your site so that the search engine bots can associate your Google Business page with your site. Google’s bots are smart, but they’re essentially just counting 0s and 1s. Different numbers and listings appear different to them, and you’ll need them to be as accurate as possible to help boost your rankings.

Bonus Points

Additionally, you can use a bit of html code that will further help the search engines. The Search Engine Journal did a great write-up on its implementation here. You can use these markups to add reviews to your site as well.

This microdata markup is a bit complex for newbie web designers. Google knows this, and so made a structured data highlighter tool in Google Webmaster Tools to help you out. It’s really just highlight and select – that simple.

3.) Get Citations

Which means, essentially, try to disseminate your business’s Name, Address, and Phone number (what’s called the “citation”) to other sites that the Google bots can crawl. Having your business’s “citation” listed on other sites (like local directories) exactly as they’re listed on your site helps Google link those addresses to your site.

This is why you should avoid using inconsistent abbreviations (St. for Street; Apt. for Apartment, 800 for 1-800, etc). Additionally, you’re going to want to add pertinent markup to your Title Tags, Meta-description, and website content. Don’t stuff keywords in there, but if you’re a business based in say, Ojai, California, you can usually find a way to insert the info organically.

As for local directory submission, here’s a list of the most commonly used directories to which you can add your information:

Yellowbook.com

Citysearch.com

Google

Yahoo (Verizon) Small Business

Additionally, here is a Spreadsheet example that will assist you in keeping your login info and notes organized:

Alternatively, you can use a service like Yext, Moz Local, or to do a power-listing for you, and though this is something of a pricey option, you can assure that your Name, Address, and Phone are listed correctly across a wide variety of local directories.

You can also use a site like Upwork to hire someone overseas to fill out your various information, but ultimately, take it from someone who has done this personally and who knows – it’s best to do it yourself. It’s unfortunate and time-consuming, but really the only way to ensure accuracy is to either hire a service with access to all of your information or to do it yourself. Sites like Synup.com know this, and so offer an affordable hands-on solution that covers 175 sites.

When creating these listings, be aware that some listings like Yelp require a phone call to verify business ownership, so whoever is doing your listing should be by your business’s phone line.

Ok! I hope this helps.

Do you have any other tips for me? Share them in the comments!

–Hudson Hornick
Alchemy On Demand

How Socrates and Science Can Make You a Better Marketer

Admin — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 07:32:29 +0000

Here’s how you can take the teachings of a guy who’s been dead for centuries, combine that with some modern-day science, and walk away with a foundation for marketing mastery.

Check it out:

As a marketer and blogger, your visuals and your text are going to matter a lot. You have, on average, 8 seconds to persuade your audience to take some course of action. When it comes to your website or blog copy, that 8 seconds is trying to get the visitor to either read more, click on something, or enter some of their information.

Seems like a lot of work, doesn’t it?

That depends on how you look at it.

See, human beings aren’t as complex as we make them out to be. At our base, we’re really just predictable little nuggets running around in fancy clothes.

Marketers have known for a long time what stimulates customer responses. They’ve had several hundred years to test it, so they darn well should, if you ask me.

What takes over our brains when we look at stuff:

First off, the brain uses what’s called heuristics to scan and learn new information. It’s not a perfect system (it can lead to errors in judgment), but it evolved from us needing to process information quickly and easily and to make snap decisions.

This, in essence, is what people are doing when they scan your site, display ad, copy, etc. They’re making snap judgments about YOUR QUALITY, my friend.

They want to know, and they want to know quickly, if they’re wasting their time being there.

All of this boils down to a very simple, long-held tenet: What’s in it for me (WIIFM)?

WIIFM is the radio station the world tunes into. WIIFM is what everyone on two feet wants to know the second they land on your site. WIIFM is what Hubspot proved with this graph:

BOOM.

You’d better get your ducks in a row about what you want that message to be.

Here’s how to do that:

Luckily, Socrates and Google have done much of the legwork for you.

First up, Socrates decided all those centuries ago that he needed a way to make his speeches superlative, top-notch, something to be remembered for well… centuries. He wanted to maximize his ROI, if you will. What he came up with is still taught in schools today.

(Guess he succeeded, no?)

What Socrates developed was the idea of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. He concluded that in order to convince someone of an argument, you have to touch upon these three things.

Ethos, pathos, and logos – the three-headed dog of marketing

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are the three cornerstones of an effective argument, be it spoken, written, or visual.

When you’re writing your marketing copy, when you’re designing your website, you need to know what will convince people of what you’re trying to sell them (what your argument is, so to speak). Advertising is too expensive to get wrong, (amiright, America???) so your punches have to count.

Here’s what’s what:

Ethos

Ethos is the credibility factor. It’s things like social trust, celebrity endorsement, jump-on-the-bandwagon approaches, that sort of thing. For a marketer, it’s our brain rationalizing the decision to buy certain things because it’s safe and acceptable to do so (Ex: “Beyonce is doing it, so I can too!”)

Logos

Logos is the logical part of the argument. Logos, for a marketer, is the cherry on top. It’s the “Now 25% off!” banner hanging outside your local mattress warehouse. Logos tries to win over the inner critic in you by quieting the voice that says: “Hmm… it might not be wise to purchase that dress right now,” by providing evidence to the contrary.

Now, Ethos and Logos are powerful and convincing methods of persuasion. But Socrates learned that they don’t hold a candle to Pathos.

Pathos – god of passion (don’t quote me on that)

If Ethos is all about credibility, and Logos is all Spock-like logic, Pathos is all about emotional response. Pathos is why you paid extra for the red sports car instead of the yellow sedan. Pathos is why you can’t commit to forking over $300 for a phone that, though better on paper than an iPhone, just doesn’t impress you with the way it looks and feels.

Logos says budget is best. Pathos says sexy is supreme. Guess who wins?

Why ethos and logos aren’t as powerful as Pathos:

Take a look at this magazine ad:

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this ad is primarily geared towards men (it was taken from an issue of FHM (For Him Magazine)).

But riddle me this: why is this ad effective at all?

It does nothing to espouse the wonderful taste of the Silver Bullet. (I come away knowing nothing about what the product does, or what, even, it is.)

But what the ad does do is make me feel something. Specifically, it makes me feel an association with three things.

Three very powerful things:

1.) lust – sex is a very primal (and therefore powerful) motivator.

2.) fun – this goes hand in hand with lust – it’s a great time, and that’s something that a company might want a potential customer to associate with their brand.

3.) strength – this one isn’t as abundantly apparent, but notice the black and white color schemes, which are a classically powerful color pattern. The black bottom with a hard red font in all caps, the mountains in the background, the women on their knees in an overtly sexual post, the snowman behind the blond, grinning wildly as if he’s been outfitted with two carrots (sorry, but… c’mon) – all these lend themselves to the idea of strength and dominance.

So there we have lust, strength, and dominance. All from drinking a beer!

But do you notice a pattern here?

None of these things have anything to do with credibility (ethos) or logic (logos), do they? Nope, it’s all passionate, emotive forces at play.

Does that strike you as odd? It shouldn’t.

Here’s why:

Human beings are emotional creatures. Our decisions are based on our emotional reactions and little else. We’re SO emotional, in fact, that in a study done by Antonio Damasio at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, has shown that humans whose emotional parts of the brain have been damaged are physically incapable of making a decision – even for something as mundane as whether or not to fasten your seatbelt.

As in, these poor souls just sit there trying to decide whether or not to fasten their seatbelts. Without an emotive response, they’re literally paralyzed.

Take-Home: EVERY decision is emotionally based.

Crazy, no?

It gets deeper, my friends.

But before we go there, let’s bring it back-to-home by pointing out that these marketers knew that they had one shot with their magazine ad, and they knew that they wanted to convey strong emotive connections between their brand and these feel-good emotions.

Ethos and Logos are important, but depending on your budget, and depending upon the size of your campaign, you should always be sure that your potential customers are leaving with a positive emotion, and preferably the emotional association you want to link to your brand.

The Coors Light marketers went over the top with their message, but they were successful in their goal because they stopped the reader long enough to associate their product with three emotions they were targeting.

When you’re designing your ads, you’ve got to think about the goal of your campaign. If you get just one shot, you want it to count.

Know your target customer, and know what moves them to action, then put the hardest-hitting message you can in front of their face.

What you and lions have in common (*spoiler alert*: it ain’t your heart)

James Clear recently wrote a great post on Buffer (a great social media tool, btw) about how to tame lions by presenting them too many options.

Have you ever seen the lion tamer in the ring with a whip and a chair, bravely warding off three hungry lions? It turns out that the reason this is successful isn’t because of the whip; it’s because of that seemingly-stupid little chair.

But that’s not just some object chosen by random. The chair, positioned correctly, offers the lion four potential focal points.

The chair, along with the whip and the man wielding them, presents the lion with too many things to focus on, and the options immediately capture the lion’s attention (the whip and the chair, that is) it can’t eat.

The lion, after having its stimulus (food) taken away, becomes preoccupied with the clutter of other things in its face, can’t decide on which one to attack, and so instead decides it isn’t hungry after all.

Score one for the lion tamer, but human beings are little different: if we are presented with too many choices we stall and walk away.

The same is true with web design. If a design is too cluttered, it becomes confusing. We’re not ready to take on too much information. We see a wall of text and our first instinct is to balk and run away:

Too much.

Visitor: What is this?

You: It’s a site about nonprofit governance.

Visitor: Oh. Why’d I have to ask? [walks away]

Instead, aim for a clean design that strips away all but your primary objective. Airbnb does a great job of this:

AirBnb. Well played, sir.

Why is this good web design?

1.) Because it uses larger-than-life cool images of travel that entice but don’t overwhelm.

2.) Because all extraneous elements are stripped away and you don’t have to waste time wondering what the hell it is you need to do; the call to action is large and in charge, front and center.

3.) Because it’s simple, it loads fast, and there’s additional information pushed to the background, there only should someone need/request it.

In short, it’s successful because it remembers WIIFM – Your website isn’t about you and what you do. It’s about serving your clients and giving them what they need.

The take-home? Three parts:

1.) We need an emotional response to make a decision.

2.) Don’t present your visitors with too many options (cleanliness is next to godliness).

3.) Remember WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)

Now, back to the Coors Light Ad.

These marketers got rid of the now-metaphorical chair and dangled what they were selling in front of their target audience – that is, they’re selling the idea of sex, fun, and power. Coors Light will give you that. This is the meat of their message, so to speak.

They could have used other factors: “9 out of 10 doctors recommend Coors Light,” or “Now 25% off!” but that would cloud their message.

Don’t get me wrong. The “9 out of 10 doctors recommend Coors Light” and “Now 25% off!” are good marketing tactics in their own right, but given the one-shot opportunity that this magazine ad had with its intended audience, these marketers decided (and rightly so) that the main message should be meat, so to speak.

These emotional engagements people have with your product/brand ARE HUGE. They’re so important, in fact, that big brands spend $millions$ every year in order to make sure that they remain in their client’s good graces.

Come fly the friendly skies.

Relax, it’s FedEx.

We’ll leave the light on for you.

People want to have a sense of what they’re getting into before they get into it. Therefore, your first marketing message should be an effort to convey trust and confidence. Additionally, you want your customers to come away feeling good about your brand.

Bonus: More Science to Blow Your Mind: Surprise and Conquer

The nucleus accumbens is the part of the brain associated with pleasure. Studies show that it gets more excited (read: that people have a better experience) when it is surprised.

Surprise, therefore, can help put your brand in your audience’s good graces.

Check out these creatives:

Pretty clever, no? All of them are clean, uncluttered messages that make you pause, think, and smirk. All get you excited about their brands, and all of them link a target emotion to their brand.

Use surprise wisely and you’ll have your customers all:

How this makes you a better marketer

1.) If you’re trying to sell something, push passion to the forefront. Let Logos and Ethos be Robin to the Batman of passion.

2.) If you’re trying to sell something, don’t give your customers too many options. It stalls them. There’s been a great deal said about this by others like this amazing post by Peep Laja.

3.) Surprise your audience to give them maximum pleasure.

In Sum:

If you’re trying to sell something, if you’re trying to dangle, say, a steak in front of your visitors, keep it simple, keep it passionate, keep it fresh.

Got it? Great.

-Hudson Hornick
Alchemy On Demand

How to Generate Free Publicity (Part 2)

Admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 00:26:12 +0000

OK, so you’ve got a great story about your business you want your local media to cover. How do you get their attention?

Just like in fishing, we call it The Hook.

The Hook is an intriguing email subject line/press release headline that makes readers (and editors are readers) want to know more.

Here are some tips for “hooking” an editor with your press release:

Use numbers. I don’t know why; they’re like lists. Editors–and other readers–love ’em. “Fifty ways to leave your lover.” “Top 12 Films of 2012.” “Five flavorful ways to serve meatloaf.” “Thirty great gifts under $30.” “The 10 worst pick-up lines ever.” Except for the meatloaf one, don’t you want to know more?

Turn conventional wisdom on its head. It’s always interesting when someone goes against the grain. Instantly, observers start to follow that one and ignore the crowd. “Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten” (not college). “Why working out won’t help you lose weight.” (Sorry; I made that up. Last time I got on the scale it still wasn’t true.) “Why raising test scores won’t fix society.”

Do both. “Five reasons nuclear weapons can’t keep us safe .” “Three myths about fluoride your dentist doesn’t want you to know.” “Three things your girlfriend wants besides chocolate, flowers, and a ring.”

See the world through an editor’s eyes. That means being sensitive to what’s timely in THEIR world (hint: what holiday is coming up next month?) and tying your news to it in ways that catch their attention. For local business editors: “Why Mother’s Day is a money-maker”; Lifestyle editors: “What NOT to give Mom for Mother’s Day this year,” or “When Mom is gone: How to remember Mom on Mother’s Day.” For Travel or Food editors: “Beyond brunch: 10 memorable places to take Mom on her day.” Politics and foreign policy: What would Mom do? (Threw that one in there to see if you’re still reading.)

Mind you: these topics are timely a month in advance for daily or weekly media; monthly media typically want six months’ lead time. That means if you want media to run a story on you before the holiday season, send them your press release six months in advance, using any of the above tips that appeal to you.

Share your success stories! What’s the most effective “hook” you ever used with the media?

— Leslee Goodman
Alchemy On Demand

How to Generate Local Publicity (Part 1)

Admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 00:22:23 +0000

It’s the holy grail of all small businesses – Free Publicity.

But how do you get it?

In this age of information overload, it can be hard for beginning businesses to be heard above the din of more experienced buzz-makers.

The good news is that the more media outlets there are–newspapers, e-zines, magazines, social media sites, and blog-talk radio shows, the more media outlets are looking for quality content. And local media outlets are hungry for LOCAL media content… meaning you and your business.

Sadly, local media producers are unlikely to come to you. If you want the media to report on your business, you have to let them know why they should.

The press release is a business’s primary tool for communicating with the media. A press release is a one- to two-page document that informs the media of a newsworthy event at your company.

What is a newsworthy event?

A new product launch; a new management-level hire; a new location; new store hours; new social responsibility initiative; new partnership – all are newsworthy events. Are you seeing a connection here? What’s newsworthy is what’s NEW. It’s really that simple.

Sure, not every editor is going to be interested in every new offering that comes out of your company, but tailor your news release to the appropriate outlet.

The business section of the local paper may be interested in your new product line, while the news and lifestyle editors will not. Perhaps there’s a trade publication for your industry? Send your new product launch press release to its editor. If your company makes the cover of the trade publication that news may warrant a story in the hometown paper or news broadcast.

Take, for example, Lucky Penny Press. They recently partnered with poet laureate emirata of Santa Barbara to co-create a picture book of poetry for kids and adults. We sent a press release to the Santa Barbara Independent arts editor, who found it pertinent because the poet, Perie Longo, maintains a following in the Santa Barbara area, and April is National Poetry Month. Lucky Penny Press got some good publicity out of the deal.

What are some other ways you can generate buzz for your business?

Do something for your community.

Partner with a local nonprofit to clean up the beach. Start an intern program for local teens. Conduct an office food drive for local fire or flood victims. Take a photo of any of these initiatives, write it up, and send it to the local press. Do it monthly. You’re doing something for the people the media serve and they are likely to cover it.

Create a contest.

This is one of the most effective ways of building social media followers and fans. Offer your product as the prize and give people a chance to win it for “Liking” or “Sharing” your page. Mashable wrote a great post about the creative ways businesses used contests to build their online community. One of my favorites is the Downtown Ithaca’s Alliance, which hides a garden gnome somewhere in downtown Ithaca, NY. People hit the streets in order to find the gnome and post their findings on DIA’s various social media channels. A great way to build community and a relatively free and easy way to drum up press.

Host an event.

Open your doors for the local art walk. Have a monthly open house with wine and cheese. Host a talk about something your business is knowledgeable in. People love free events–especially with food and drink–and most local media will list free events in their Calendar sections–for free.

These are just a few ways you can get the word going about your business. There are numerous other ways to get the media interested in what you’re doing… ways we call “hooking” an editor.

Do you have any creative ways to “hook” an editor?

Let us hear about ’em!

–Leslee Goodman
Alchemy On Demand