Singapore, April 27, 2012, – GetIT Comms has today announced its strategic relationship with Meltwater Buzz, a social media intelligence and marketing platform, part of Meltwater Group, a global digital intelligence and marketing solutions provider. Established in 1997, GetIT Comms has more than a decade of experience in delivering innovative marketing & communication solutions to major corporations using interactive digital media (IDM) and social media.

“We’re delighted to enter into this relationship in what is an exciting and rapidly developing region.  Singapore is fast becoming a digital hub in Asia and GetIT is right at the heart of this,” says Mimrah Mahmood, Area Director, Meltwater Buzz APAC.  “GetIT has an excellent reputation in the market and we’re delighted to help them enhance their interactive digital media and social media capabilities, particularly following our selection by Facebook as a member of their Preferred Marketing Developer Program.”

“This represents an evolution of our relationship with Meltwater,” says Anol Bhattacharya, CEO of GetIT Comms. “Our team has been working with Meltwater Buzz on recent campaigns with some impressive results. The platform’s extensive social media monitoring capabilities help us mine conversations across social channels for nuggets of insight that we can use to create new strategies, engage new customers and drive the success of our business.”

Meltwater Buzz constantly searches through over 200 million sources and finds all the relevant social conversations about your product, your brand, your market and even your competition. The social media tool then analyzes all those conversations and gives you insight into the underlying themes, sentiment, influencers and trends that are happening in conversations across social networks both today and over time.

“This relationship enables us to do what we do even better, ” says Bhattacharya. “And that’s combining our expertise and services, with the best social marketing suite, to deliver a powerful, cost-effective solution to our customers. It’s helping our customers realize the true potential of social media, and helping us move the conversation from social media being a mere afterthought, to being a key component of our customers’ marketing initiatives.”

To learn more about GetIT Comms, visit http://www.getitcomms.com

To learn more about Meltwater, visit http://www.meltwater.com/

GetIT Comms selects Meltwater Group to mine for social media gold is a post from: B2Bento

Singapore, April 24, 2012, – GetIT Comms has today announced its strategic partnership with Wildfire Interactive, the leader in social media marketing technology and the only social media marketing company to have received an investment from Facebook’s fbFund. Established in 1997, GetIT Comms has more than a decade of experience in delivering innovative marketing & communication solutions to major corporations using interactive digital media (IDM) and social media.

“We are excited at the opportunity to partner with one of the leading end-to-end marketing providers in Singapore. We’re selective when it comes to partnerships,” says Jay Castro, International Business Development for Wildfire Interactive.
“GetIT has a rare combination of referenceable customers and extensive experience with our solutions that makes them a welcome and valuable partner.”

“This partnership is really an evolution of our relationship with Wildfire Interactive,” says Anol Bhattacharya, CEO of GetIT Comms. “Our team has been working with Wildfire Interactive’s Social Marketing Suite on recent campaigns. Using the Wildfire Promotion Builder platform helped us increase engagement by a factor of more than 10 over a relatively short 3-week period for a recent Facebook campaign that we ran for a major multi-national company in Singapore.”

The Wildfire platform affords the ease of creation, customization, and deployment that’s critical in exceeding expectations of a savvy social audience and equally so, a fast-moving client base. Furthermore, the wide range of promotion options – from quizzes and voting-based contests, to sweepstakes, group deals and fan coupons – allow marketers to deploy a gamut of marketing and promotional activities across popular social media platforms, including Facebook and LinkedIn.

With custom branding and design options, and powerful analytics built into the Wildfire platform, GetIT Comms is able to offer complete social media marketing capabilities as an integral part of its solution offerings.

“This partnership enables us to do what we do even better, ” says Anol. “And that is combining our expertise and services, with the best social marketing suite, to deliver a powerful, cost-effective solution to our customers. It’s helping our customers realize the true potential of social media, and helping us move the conversation from social media as a mere afterthought, to being a key component of our customers’ marketing initiatives.”

To learn more about GetIT Comms, visit http://www.getitcomms.com

To learn more about Wildfire, visit http://www.wildfireapp.com

GetIT Comms partners with Wildfire Interactive to deliver effective B2B social media marketing and lead generation is a post from: B2Bento

The search engine landscape has changed considerably since the days of the “Wild Wild Web” back in the early ’90s when the crown was still up for grabs. For some of us names like Archie, Altavista, Lycos, Magellan and even the funkier DogPile may cause a bad case of misty eyes and nostalgia. (Wikipedia has a great time line of search engines.)

There are still many search engines available and many specialise in particular markets (see Wikipedia list of search engines), however the simple truth is that there are 2 heavyweights left: Google and Bing. A while ago I would have said there were 3, but since Yahoo now relies on Bing for its results I count them as one and the same.

Of the two, Google is still the heavyweight champion and, like it or not, we have to pay attention to anything Google does that can affect our rankings.

Landmarks on the Google-scape

Since its creation on 15th September 1997 Google has changed its algorithms and its interface many times. In terms of SEO, the big bangs happened from late 2010 onwards.

December 2010 “Social Signals”

Google confirmed that they use social signals, including Twitter and Facebook data, to determine ranking

February 2011 “Panda”

Named after one of Google’s engineers, this update put content farms on the endangered species list. This was a major update to Google’s algorithm and, according to Google, affected up to 12% of search results. For too long results had been infested by content that was of poor quality, blatantly copied, or had too many advertisements. There have been a number of updates to Panda since February 2011 including its international roll out to non-English queries in August 2011.

June 2011 “Schema.org”

To me, this was one of those rare moments where Google and Bing stopped playing “mine is bigger than yours” (I’m talking about market share!) and came together to do something useful for search engine users. For SEO this marked the birth of what is commonly referred to as microdata.

The Schema.org homepage describes purpose of microdata as:

a collection of schemas, i.e., html tags, that webmasters can use to markup their pages in ways recognized by major search providers. Search engines including Bing, Google, Yahoo! and Yandex rely on this markup to improve the display of search results, making it easier for people to find the right web pages.

Many sites are generated from structured data, which is often stored in databases. When this data is formatted into HTML, it becomes very difficult to recover the original structured data. Many applications, especially search engines, can benefit greatly from direct access to this structured data. On-page markup enables search engines to understand the information on web pages and provide richer search results in order to make it easier for users to find relevant information on the web. Markup can also enable new tools and applications that make use of the structure.

A shared markup vocabulary makes easier for webmasters to decide on a markup schema and get the maximum benefit for their efforts. So, in the spirit of sitemaps.org, search engines have come together to provide a shared collection of schemas that webmasters can use.

To manually code these tags is quite laborious. Fortunately there are extensions and plugins for the more popular content management systems to help webmasters and SEOs add them to pages and posts.

June 2011 “Google Voice Search” and “Search by Image”

Recognising the proliferation of different devices used by consumers, Google introduced the ability to dictate your search terms or submit an image for comparison.

June 2011 “Google+”

Yes, I know … this wasn’t an update to the Google algorithm. It signaled the start of Google’s challenge to Facebook giving members the ability to create circles for sharing content. Now do you see how this links (pun intended) to SEO? Backlinks!

February 2012 “Venice”

This update aimed to more tightly integrate local search data and aggressively localise the organic search results. In combination with the “Schema.org” update this opened new ranking opportunities for local SEO.

So what does this mean for SEO?

Content still remains king. Assuming that you didn’t stray to the dark side and fall foul of the Panda then the main task is to consistently create or curate content that is valuable, relevant and compelling.

Be an early adopter and start adding the microdata tags to your pages and posts to gain an advantage over the laggards. If you work with WordPress you can find a list of microdata plugins in the WordPress plugin directory. For other languages and CMS take a look at the list of tools at schema.rdfs.org

Get social! Now that Google’s algorithm has the smarts to detect dodgy backlink schemes don’t fall into that trap. Set up a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ account. Create links back to your original content and broadcast to your Tweeps, Followers/Subscribers, Connections and Circles.

If you haven’t already done so, set up RSS feeds for your content and for comments. RSS is great for your readership to passively receive your updates. Make sure your titles and extracts contain your keywords.

On the subject of keywords, this is one area where things get trickier. With the increase in use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, people are more likely to use fewer search terms to find your content. Conversely with Google Voice Search, they can effortlessly dictate a whole stream of search terms. Add the tighter integration of local search data and aggressively localisation of  organic search results, your SEO muscles are going to get quite a workout!

Do meta keywords and description matter anymore?

Whilst Google and Bing may place less emphasis on “old school” meta tags, there is still the cornucopia of other search engines to consider.

Likewise, make good use of “alt” and “title” tags.

How will I know if I’ve got it right?

With SEO, there is no absolute “right”, just varying degrees of success. Give it your best shot, check the results, make changes, rinse and repeat.

As with any marketing, the proof is in the results. Just remember the 3 most important words: Measure, Measure, Measure.

So that’s all there is to it!

Until next time, I look forward to your comments.

SEO 2012 is a post from: B2Bento

Marketers are a strange breed with quirks that are distinctly ours. Every once in a while a screw or two is turned the wrong way round and we end up with idiosyncracies that, amazingly enough, don’t land us in an asylum. Here then are 7 habits of highly defective marketers. None are spared. Read with tongue firmly in cheek.

#1: Being the dog from the movie ‘Up’

“Oooh! Is it new? Gotta be on it.” Squirrel, chat roulette, or Pinterest – it takes little to excite this lot. They will sign-up for everything out there and tell the whole world they have. But a week later, they’ve moved on, never to return.

#2: Being an ostrich

Contra to the dog above, anything new is viewed with grim cynicism. They prefer to stick to “tried-and-tested”…forever. Never mind that Typewriter is now just a font.

#3: Gobbledygook generator

Sentences like “paradigm shifting solutions provided through empowered employees…” are their lifeblood. Obfuscation is their rule of the game.

#4: Lacking originality and creative ideas

“Creativity? That’s what I am paying the agency for. I only manage budgets,” is a common refrain of this lot. Woe betide the agency.

#5: Going by gut feel

“I don’t understand analytics, and I don’t care.” Metrics give them indigestion. Feel is fuel. And one that’s infinite. Could anything be better?

#6: Thinking that “I am my target persona”

Everything they think or do is based on how they would like it. Not understanding, of course, that there is a target personae they should be looking at, who, in most cases, won’t be like them.

#7: Thinking that “content does not matter” in B2B marketing

Gloss and glitz is their mantra. Content is inconvenient and takes time. Isn’t this glossy brochure or artfully designed web page so much nicer?

So, what are the habits you would like to see weeded out? Tell us!

7 Habits of Highly Defective Marketers is a post from: B2Bento

Updated with Transcript

On 30 March all Facebook fan pages will be automatically moved to Facebook Timeline format. As B2B Marketers we can no longer define a default landing page but must use the Timeline features to our best advantage. On the plus side we now have a large banner image area plus a smaller profile image with which to promote our brand.

But what else do we need to do and what effect will the changes have on our marketing campaigns?

Join us as we talk about Facebook for B2B – The Times They Are a-Changin’ in this week’s #B2BChat – Thursday, Mar 8 at 5 pm, PST / 8 pm, EST (Friday, Mar 9, 1 am GMT).

Suggested ways of participating: via hashtag #B2BChat using your favourite Twitter client; or at tweetchat.com using #B2BChat.

This week’s topic: Facebook for B2B – The Times They Are a-Changin’

Q1 How has Facebook performed to date for B2B Marketing? What it is good for?

Q2 Are you using / used / plan to use any Facebook Apps for Branding / Lead generation?

Q3 Changes of business pages in FaceBook to Timeline format – what’s good for marketers?

Q4 Changes of business pages in FaceBook to Timeline format – what’s bad for marketers?

Q5 How will the Facebook changes affect usage for B2B Marketing?

Transcript

Facebook for B2B – The Times They Are a-Changin’: this week’s #B2BChat – [Thu, Mar 8 at 8 pm EST] is a post from: B2Bento

The following article was contributed by guest author Randy Tanudibrata, Interactive Designer at GetIT Comms.

Facebook, as one of the most interesting company that is rapidly changing, just announced another new feature on their platform. Facebook will change their fan page format into Timeline format.

On December 15, Facebook announce Timeline on for personal. Then recently, Feb 29 2012, Facebook announced that Timeline is now live for first time for some organizations that use pages and can be accessed by every Facebook fan pages owner without publishing their page. And later on 30 March all Facebook fan pages will be automatically moved to Facebook Timeline format whether you like it or not.

So what’s new? Let’s dissect the new features on Facebook Timeline for brand and how it affects us as marketers.

Cover Photo

If you have already changed your personal profile to Timeline for quite sometime then you will feel right at home. The first thing that you will realize is the new large cover photo. Just like Timeline for Personal, the Timeline for Brand employs a larger image at the top of the page.

The great thing about the cover photo is that you have a bigger canvas to show your brand identity without worries about the profile picture. You can really stretch your creativity on using these two canvases. Some brands are using the cover picture conjunction with the profile picture like (https://www.facebook.com/OldSpice) while other or most of the brand use a different picture for cover page and use their brand logo for the profile picture (https://www.facebook.com/olympics).

Another thing that you need to remember is that the profile picture (the smaller picture inside the box) will appear in your fan’s or fan’s friend’s newsfeed, so make sure it represents your brand consistently. Remember you can change both cover and profile picture as often as you like, so there is no limit to your creativity here.

However there is something to remember here, Facebook has specifically mentioned that you can’t overly populate it with promotion, call to action or contact information. This is surely changes the game how we (as marketers) look at the big cover image as a big billboard to put some ads and promotion there. The new Facebook Timeline is a great place for establish your brand by curating a narrative story through cover page, Profile picture and Timeline. The goal of your cover photo is to tell your brand’s story and not to be an advertisement.

You don’t have to worry if you find difficulties creating your cover photo. There are plenty of tools to help you. Here are some: http://mashable.com/2012/01/04/facebook-banner-creators/#4110111-Cover-Canvas–Name-and-Photos

Tabs and Application

The first thing you notice about the application tab is that there is no more lists of apps on the left hand side bellow the profile picture anymore. It has been replaced by the four boxes on your page dashboard. You can only show two custom apps to be visible, the other two will always be Photos and number of likes or Maps.

Facebook Timeline has replaced the apps in the page tab layout (510px) to a new 810px layout. This new canvas gives you bigger space for your creativity and maximizes your user experience by focusing them only on the apps without much distraction.

Facebook Timeline does not allow you to set a default landing page, everyone will land at the same Timeline page. This will completely change the way we control the user experience. Since you have no control of the landing page, you have to be more careful on your Timeline, especially as the first boxes on your Timeline will be the first items that the audience will see.

Facebook ads for brand will be vital here, because that’s the only way we control and guide the audience to the landing page.

Just like most of the Facebook Fan pages, the landing pages are usually just a call-to-action to “Like” their page. But the game has changed. Without the landing page we can’t “force” the audience to like our page before exploring the page. And if you think you can put it on the cover page, you need to think again. As I mentioned earlier that Facebook has created four new rules (https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=276329115767498) about things that you are not allowed to put on your cover pages. One of them is “References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features”. But don’t worry we will talk about the solution for this later on in this article.

Timeline and Milestone and stars

Facebook Timeline layout is divided by the line which represents the time chronology. The first few boxes on the right hand side of Timeline is featuring all friend activity; such as how many friends already “Like” your page, who are they, and what did they share/comment about your post. The rest of the boxes are the post and activity you have done to your page based on the chronological order from the recent activity to the oldest one.

You can curate the narrative on your Timeline further more by adding Milestone and stars to the post. Milestone is a major event that is relevant to your brand, such as when your brand was founded, when you launch your product, when you launch an event, etc. Tell your audience your story using photos or videos, curate your content and align to your industry.

A star is used to highlight an important post on your brand’s page. By clicking “star” icon on the top of your post, your post will expand to widescreen, filling all the width of your page and it will be always visible. The post that you highlight will be the most visible post among the other posts. With this new feature you can curate the narrative in your Timeline with the content/ post that you think will drive the most engagement, earned media and viral growth.

Facebook Timeline format also pushes us to be more aggressive to keep our content fresh, relevant and up to date.

Pin a Post

Another new thing about Facebook Timeline is “Pin”. With “pin”, you can pin a post so it will remain on top of the Timeline for seven days. Brands can only “pin” one item at the time. The post that you “pin” will appear at the top of the Timeline and its chronological place. Pin is a great tool for marketers to highlight the campaign or Call-to-action to the audience. This is the best way if you want to promote your campaign effectively on Facebook Timeline. And since there is no default landing page on the Timeline, it seems “pin” is the best solution for driving your user engagement.

Private Message

Timeline now gives users the ability to send a private message to brand pages. This feature was not available in the old Facebook Fan pages, and I personally think this is great. Sending messages through private messaging will create a more intimate engagement with users yet keeping the wall (Timeline) clean. But saying that, it means you have to ensure that the messages you received are replied in a timely and appropriate manner.

Last words:

There is plenty of time for you to think about the changes, adjusting your page and your apps before finally making the switch. Just be prepared for all the changes, because on March 30 Facebook will move all fan pages to Timeline Format.

What marketers need to know about the new Facebook Timeline for Brands is a post from: B2Bento

The following article was contributed by guest author Annabel Tan, intern at GetIT Comms.

According to one of my grey-haired colleagues, once upon a time in a millennium not too long ago customer relationships were managed almost as simply as “If you like our products, tell your friends. If you don’t like them, tell us”.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems evolved to be the foundation on which many companies managed their interactions with current and past customers, manage customer complaints, and handled their ‘sales funnel’ from lead generation to closing deals. These were, in effect, closed systems where the interactions were controlled by the company.

How times have changed!

With the rise of Web 2.0 technology and Social Media customers no longer have to rely on vendor advertisements and brochures for product information. They have access to independent channels, such as product review sites, Facebook pages and Twitter streams, to obtain third party opinions prior to making their purchase decisions. Similarly these channels provide them with the means to express their satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, with their purchases. For example, a quick Google search for “Dell problem” returned around 431 million results including articles and videos. A similar search on Twitter returned many results both complimentary and less than complimentary.

Traditional CRM systems have not been able to monitor or interact with these social media channels for marketing or customer support purposes.

Social CRM (SCRM) integrates the social aspect into CRM so that customer engagement and relationship will benefit. However, it does not mean that traditional CRM has been replaced.  SCRM represents the next evolution of CRM by enabling conversations with consumers, and allowing them to have more opinions in the products they are buying. Hence, this can be used as a marketing tool, to enhance client relationship, where customer interactions and responses are given utmost priority as opposed to transactions.

So what is the definition of SCRM?

In his article “Source: CRM 2012 Forecast – The Era of Customer Engagement – Part I“, Paul Greenberg (sometimes referred to as “the godfather of CRM”) aggregated the perception of SCRM from newcomers to veteran practitioners of CRM as:

“Social CRM is the integration of traditional operational customer facing activities including strategies, programs, systems, and technologies with emergent social channels to provide businesses with the means to communicate and engage with customers in their preferred channels for mutual benefit.”

 CRM vs. Social CRM

Bob Thompson’s diagram in “Social CRM: Strategy, Technology or Passing Fad?” (CustomerThink, September 16, 2009) nicely illustrates the seemingly diametrically opposed worlds of “Social” and “CRM”.

This is supported by Jacob Morgan’s description of CRM in “What Is Social CRM?” (Social Media Examiner, November 3, 2010)

“CRM is comprised of sales, marketing and service/support–based functions whose purpose was to move the customer through a pipeline with the goal of keeping the customer coming back to buy more and more stuff.

Traditional CRM was very much based around data and information that brands could collect on their customers, all of which would go into a CRM system that then allowed the company to better target various customers…

In social CRM, … The customer is actually the focal point of how an organization operates. Instead of marketing or pushing messages to customers, brands now talk to and collaborate with customers to solve business problems, empower customers to shape their own experiences and build customer relationships, which will hopefully turn into customer advocates.”

In traditional CRM, customers were not fully integrated into the relationship management process. There was a lack of collaboration and relationship between customers and companies. The focus was more on the individual relationship (company to customer, company to partner). There was a limited view of customers, their habits and community preferences.

Social CRM places the focus on collaborative relationships (engaging a network of complex relationships). With multiple connections, businesses have better understanding of the customer and his community. This better understanding generates value, which we will go into detail when we cover the benefits of SCRM below. With business seeing an importance in customer voice, there is now a shift from the control businesses once had, to a required interaction that companies need to have with their consumers.

What are the promises and benefits of SCRM?

SCRM is by far the easiest and cheapest tool for market analysis.

Easiest – because one can simply just log in to a site like FaceBook and create your own network.

Cheapest – most sites have no signing amount for logging into them nor is there any licensing fee involved for promotions and interactions with clients. For example, Pizza Hut sets up a FaceBook account for its fans and does advertising promotions on the platform, all at no cost.

With SCRM, your business can enjoy better targeting, better product solution, customer experience and word-of-mouth, thus improving marketing ROI. Continuing with the Pizza Hut FaceBook example, the restaurant can gather more information on customer experience by initiating conversations with their customers and seeking first hand feedback like areas for improvement in service or food quality etc, which was previously only done through feedback forms and complaint letters. This helps to efficiently reduce negative noise made by customers, preventing any snowball effect of noise to other consumers.

Increased contact with your existing and potential customers can help identify new business opportunities and improve cross/ up-selling abilities. Also, CRM helps you reduce the cost incurred out of giving sales commission, by building communities and advocates around your brand. Ideally, by tapping into collective intelligence of your target audience, R&D capabilities and innovation can be improved and created. Through promotion of brand transparent dialogues and improvements in employees/customer interaction efficiency, customer loyalty is enhanced. Humanising your company allows customers to see you as a trusted peer (customers trust people like themselves). Therefore, it is extremely important to understand the current customer while building a set of potential clients.

For example: A customer posted a complaint against your company’s brand on Twitter/Facebook.
Your SCRM agents, if active on the social media, should track the buzz. Immediately, they should contact your legal department to discuss the legal implications before replying to the person with the buzz. Essentially, understand the issue and implications, before fixing it on that platform of social media. The faster the cycle completes the better buzz it will create for your brand. Special attention has to be paid to customers in order for SCRM strategies to succeed.

The success of your SCRM strategy largely depends on how promptly you can turn your fans/followers into clients. It is all about bridging the gap between your business and your social clients.

Reality Check!

Individuals have the ability to control brand and brand experience, as much as businesses, influencing the decision of someone or anyone for that matter, even before they become a customer. This is essentially what’s fuelling the socialisation of CRM. However, many organisations currently face the challenge of adapting and evolving to meet the needs and demands of new social customers. Knowing the benefits of social CRM is one thing, but many organizations still do not understand the CRM value of social media.

Looking into the Future of SCRM

In the past, tracking conversations on social networks and responding from one interface was all one needed to qualify as a SCRM solution.

Moving forward, we should see greater movement toward problem solving for business issues that software and social media are unable to fix. We would need CRM systems that are smarter, dynamically personalized for each individual’s needs, and capable of helping businesses handle their more complex challenges that a more closely-connected world throws at them round the clock; unifying of customer views.

Many CRM systems are still built based on a one-size-fits-all concept. However, CRMs of the future are going to have to be very different, it must become a trusted server that will return all sorts of information, in all forms, to any interface, that an individual needs—whenever it’s asked to. Over the years, vendors have just added more features to their original CRM systems. They’ve focused on functionality at the system level, taking an everything-that-everyone-needs approach that rarely took into consideration the user’s interaction with the CRM system. Hence, a need for realignment of vendor’s capabilities with real world businesses needs.

Example: A customer posted a complaint against your companies’ brand on Twitter/Facebook.

Your SCRM agent, if active on the social media, should track the buzz. Immediately, the agents should contact with the legal department of the company to discuss the legal implications before replying to the person with the buzz. Essentially, understand the issue and implications, before fixing it on that platform of social media. The more quickly the whole cycle completes the better buzz it will create for your brand. Special attention has to be paid to customers in order to succeed with the SCRM strategies.

The success of your SCRM strategies largely depends on how promptly you can turn your fans/followers into clients. It is all about bridging the gap between your enterprise and your social clients.

CRM Reloaded: the Social revolution is a post from: B2Bento

Welcome back to our series of articles on the principles of better writing. In our first article we looked at process and motivations behind writing product reviews. In this article we take a step back and look at one of the foundations of writing any copy whether it is a product review, a business to business (B2B) communication, or a business to consumer (B2C) sales letter – the Consumer Profile.

When faced with a new project, some writers’ first reaction is, “Where do I start?” perhaps with a few expletives thrown in for emphasis.

A better question would be, “Who is going to read this and how am I going to persuade them to take action?”

In a face-to-face meeting, or when making a telephone call to a “warm lead”, you will usually have a fair to good idea of who you will be talking to and what would motivate him or her to take action.

When writing sales letters (printed or on-line), electronic direct mail (eDM), Facebook posts, Tweets – in fact most types of marketing “blast” – you don’t have that luxury. The best you can do is use the materials and information provided to create a portrait of your intended reader. I deliberately choose to use the word “reader” rather than “target” as it puts me in a better frame of mind to write an engaging, persuasive and conversational piece rather than something intended to beat the intended recipient into submission.

Different areas of the marketing industry and writing schools refer to this portrait by various names such as a “Buyer Profile”, “Buyer Persona” or some other name involving the words profile or persona. For the purpose of this article I will use the term “Consumer Profile” as the principle is applicable to many forms of communication, not all involving buying, that you want the reader to consume and take action on.

The Consumer Profile goes beyond the purely written Buyer Profile by giving you a visual portrait of the person you will be writing for. This visual portrait helps you stay focused on the copywriting fundamental that you are having a conversation with a person regardless of whether it is for B2B or B2C.

Your greatest tool for creating a Consumer Profile

Rudyard Kipling, author and poet, gave us a wonderful tool to help create a Consumer Profile in a poem that accompanies his “Just So Stories: The Elephant’s Child” written circa 1912 which have become known as the “Five Ws (and one H)”

I keep six honest serving-men ;
(They taught me all I knew)
Their names are What and Where and When
And How and Where and Who.

I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.

Have you spotted the discrepancy in Kipling’s words?

The first line of the poem states “six honest serving-men”. What are their names?

No, I didn’t make a mistake, check the original as digitized by Microsoft^®. One of them appears twice.

So, with due respect to Kipling, our “Five Ws (and one H)” become: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.

Kipling’s six honest serving-men are going to do some hard work to make our [writing] life easier.

Sources of information

The more information you can gather for the Consumer Profile the easier it will be to write something that will resonate with your reader in a meaningful and engaging way.

The sources of information available for you to create a Consumer Profile will vary from project to project and which market you are writing for.

Mailing List Data Card

Many businesses buy or rent mailing lists. Ideally these lists will be “clean”, i.e. the contact details are current, correct and have been collected legitimately.

The mailing list will usually have some form of data card which describes its contents. For example:

This example is for the B2C market. A data card for the B2B market is less likely to contain gender or age details and the profile information will be more business oriented such as industry and role or job description.

If you are using an in-house mailing list or an autoresponder database such as Aweber, GetResponse, ConstantContact or MailChimp you will be able to obtain similar information based on the segmentation criteria being used.

Existing Buyer and/or Consumer Profiles

If you are working on an existing campaign then you could be in luck, someone may have already created a profile based on customer surveys and questionnaires.

An existing profile should give you basic demographic details and may include more specific information such as education, personal beliefs, views, spending habits and net worth.

Your job is to extract the relevant information and add any new information you can discover that is applicable to the particular campaign you are working on.

Customer Support Letters and Email

These can be a great source of information about what concerns your reader and what problems he or she may be experiencing.

Even if these are for earlier, possibly different, purchases this can tell you about purchasing habits and what is important to your reader.

Customer Surveys and Questionnaires

These are raw sources of information which, hopefully, were analyzed and compiled into an existing profile. Depending on the depth of the questions you can gather a lot of relevant information that will help with your Consumer Profile.

Take these and get an overall view of the personal information provided (the demographics), yes/no questions and more open-ended questions where the customer has been able to express his or her opinions.

Past Promotions: Successful and Failures

Past promotions to the same or similar readers, whether they were successful or abject failures, are a great way to find out what appealed to the readers and what failed to capture their attention.

From the successful campaigns identify what captured the readers’ attention. This is a good indication of what is important to them. Conversely, the failures tell you what the readers consider irrelevant.

Census Data and other Research

Census data and similar reference data can help augment the demographic information available. Much of this is openly available on the Internet.

Do your research using your preferred search engine or even take a trip to the local library. Where results are not from a credible or citable source, use them with caution and discretion.

The Creator, Developer, Editor aka “The Champion”

Whatever you are writing about, someone had to come up with the idea in the first place and determined who he or she saw as potential consumers.

An interview, telephone conversation, email exchange, or chat via Instant Messenger can give you more insight than hours of research.

Creating Your Consumer Profile

You’ve gathered all the background information you can, now it’s time to put your “six honest serving-men” to work. It would be great if they were real sets of eyes and hands to help you with the task ahead but let’s roll up our sleeves and get going.

As discussed before, you will have different information available according to the market you are writing for: B2B or B2C. Where applicable I have indicated the differences, otherwise I use the generic term reader or consumer is used.

Who?

For B2C this is about the reader as a human being. For B2B this may be limited to the reader’s occupation or job function.

B2C:  Assemble the personal demographic information where available

• Gender – If not 100% male or female then identify the mix, e.g. 50% male, 50% female.
• Age – This is important. People have different priorities at different stages of life. The content, tone and language that appeals to a Baby Boomer may not work with readers from Generation X or Y. If not 100% from one age group then identify the mix and be prepared to adjust content, tone and language for more broad appeal.
• Relevant physical characteristics – Does the reader have health concerns? Is the reader physically active?

B2B: If possible assemble the same personal demographic information as for B2C

• Occupation or job function – What proportion are C-level, executive management etc.

What?

For B2C this is what we know about the reader’s lifestyle and accomplishments. For B2B this is about the reader’s organization.

B2C:

• Education/Qualifications – What proportion hold what level of academic/professional achievement, e.g. 75% have at least a Bachelor’s Degree, 40% have at least a Master’s Degree, 50% are lawyers.
• Income/Net Worth – This gives an indication of potential spending power or priorities.
• Hobbies – Indicates the reader’s interests, activity level and potential risk threshold (adventurous?).
• Personal beliefs/views – The reader may be mistrustful of, or disenfranchised from, authority.
• Spending habits – What products or publications has the reader bought in the past?

B2B:

• Industry/Marketplace
• Size – What is the organization’s revenue, turnover, number of employee
• Publicly listed or privately owned
• Level of technological maturity – Is the organization an early adopter of new technology, what investments have been made?

Where?

This is the reader’s geographic location. If not 100% from one location identify the geographic distribution, e.g. 30% from North America, 25% from Europe, 45% from Asia Pacific.

When?

When did the reader last make a related purchase?

When does the reader intend to make a purchase?

Is there an urgent need or problem that the reader needs solved – now?

Why?

What concerns your reader? What are his or her pain points?

What emotions will motivate your reader: fear, greed, pride?

Does he or she have an urgent problem that your product or service can solve?

How?

How does your reader prefer to receive information? Does he or she consume content on the move?

Whether B2B or B2C, this can be affected by demographic factors such as which generation your reader belongs to (Baby Boomer, Gen-X, Gen=Y).

Create different headlines to suit the various media channels your campaign will target:

• Direct Mail
• Electronic Direct Mail (eDM)
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Google+

Creating A Visual Portrait From Your Consumer Profile

For some writers a purely textual Consumer Profile is sufficient. Personally, I like to go the extra mile and create a visual portrait. It gets the creative juices flowing and the act of creating the visual portrait burns the reader’s background, wants, needs and desires into my mind so I can “hear” the conversation as I write.

If you are an Adobe^® PhotoShop^® (or similar) wizard this should be a breeze. I’m far from that so I often end up going “old school” physically doing a “Cut and Paste” exercise with bits of paper.

Unless your demographic is a mix of men and women you should only have one picture of a person.

For B2B choose a picture of a man or woman in business attire. For B2C choose a picture that depicts the appropriate demographic.

The more accurate the base picture the better.

Try to take into account all aspects of the person: age, gender, ethnicity (if appropriate) etc.

In this context the ethnicity is only a representation of the “Where?” part of your Consumer Profile, i.e. your reader’s location. If you are not comfortable using an ethnically oriented picture, try adding a background image representative of the location such as the Eiffel Tower for France, Taj Mahal forIndia, Great Wall for China.

Now take each component of your written Consumer Profile and put it into a call-out bubble (or write it on a Post-It^®). Write it as though your reader is introducing himself or herself, e.g. “I am the CEO of a Fortune 500 company”. Keep each call-out concise so you can read it in a second or two whenever you want to remind yourself of each aspect.

Place the call-out bubbles around your base image so that the base picture representing your reader is at the center.

Now you can print it out, set it as your desktop wallpaper, whatever works for you. One of my current favorites is to use it as the wallpaper on my mobile phone so I can prop it up as a digital photo frame next to my screen. Look at it frequently as you write and it will help keep your conversation on track with the needs of your reader.

It’s only for your use so you can make it as simple or wild, wacky and colorful as you choose. Have fun with it!

Creating a Consumer Profile [Better Writing with Jeremy Ep II] is a post from: B2Bento

Today I had the pleasure to attend a webinar “8 Content Initiatives You Need to Seriously Consider for 2012″.
 
Given that it was February 2nd 1 PM EST which was 2 AM the following day here in Singapore, I had an ample supply of black coffee on hand. Not that I needed it as the content was gripping enough to keep me wide awake right to the very end.
 
The webinar was hosted by John Sonnhalter of Tradesmen Insights (@SonnhalterB2T) with  guest presenter Joe Pulizzi, Content marketing expert and founder of the Content Marketing Institute (@JuntaJoe)
 
Joe Pulizzi began by reviewing the history and practice of content marketing and why it’s one of the fastest growing areas of marketing today. He then went on to discuss eight initiatives that all marketers need to consider now when it comes to corporate storytelling and social media.
 
Here is my recap of the webinar.
 
Update February 7, 2012: John Sonnhalter has kindly made the replay available to our readers.

Content Marketing has been around longer than you may realize

John Deere has been publishing “The Furrow” magazine since 1895. This publication can be viewed as one of the earliest representations of what is known today as content marketing or corporate story telling.

The purpose of the magazine was to educate farmers on, what was then, new technology.

Farmers were educated on the new technologies available presumably with the intent to get them into the mindset to buy John Deere’s farm machinery.

“The Furrow” still exists today, 117 years later, on the John Deere website.

Publishing

What we’re talking about here is publishing. Wikipedia defines publishing as “the activity of making information available to the general public.”

It is now both easier and harder to become an expert publisher.

Barriers to Entry are Gone

Things have changed since the early days of publishing. It took a lot of investment to be a publisher: targetting the right people, building the infrastructure.

These barriers are now gone. Customers expect and accept content much faster, as long as it looks good to them. There’s no need to be a leading newspaper or trade magazine to gain acceptance. It’s much easier now to find the talent to write and edit content whether it’s text or video. The technology is now readily available for anyone to create a blog in minutes, for example WordPress, Facebook and LinkedIn, and start publishing content.

Searching for Information

According to research by Google and Shopper Sciences, published in the free eBook “Winning The Zero Moment of Truth, the number of sources, i.e. content, engaged by buyers before making their decision has approximately doubled since 2010. This may increase to between 15 and 20 sources next year which represents a massive 300% to 400% increase on the 2010 figures.

Content Marketing

Joe Pulizzi defined content marketing as marketers being publishers who own the media, whereby the reader comes to rely on the marketer for information, rather than renting the reader’s attention by purchasing space in a third party’s publication such as a trade magazine.

It is the job of a content marketer to attract new, or retain existing, customers by consistently creating or curating content that is valuable, relevant and compelling. The end game of this is to get the reader to take action. What that action is depends on the desires and business aims of the marketer.

Corporate Storytelling

Corporate storytelling is at the core of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), lead generation and social media engagement. For these to work well you have to tell a compelling story.

SEO: to be found by the keywords you need to have compelling content that people link to and share.

Lead generation: whitepapers, webinars and eBook downloads are lead generation activities. If you don’t have compelling content then the lead is lost.

Social media: you have to talk about things that people care about and want to get involved in a conversation.

By being the best storyteller, i.e. content marketer, you become a magnet that attracts readers.

With the removal of the barriers to entry it has become easier to be a publisher. However, because of the increasing amount of content available, it has become harder than  before to get attention.  You have got to be the best storyteller in your industry and you have to make the on-line connections to get the story out.

Content Marketing Statistics

Joe shared a range of interesting statistics:

• Marketers Who Use Content Marketing
• Total Merketing Budget Spent on Content Marketing
• B2B Content Marketing Usage (by Tactic)
• Percentage of Marketers Who Use Various Social Media Sites to Distribute Content
• Content Marketing Spending (Over Next 12 Months)
• Biggest Content Marketing Challenge

Rather than repeat them here, head over to SlideShare where you can see them in all their glory (slides 20-27).

The Content Initiatives

The Niche Content Mission & Platform

When creating content, don’t be vague or try to go too large. Focus on your niche/persona, e.g. the mom/wife on the go.

Get SUPER NICHE

If you want to present yourself as the leading expert, you have to get as niche as possible to make an impact on your customers. Trying to be the leading expert on pets would be tough, but focussing on pet owners who like to travel with there pets is more achievable.

Define the Term and Flood with Great Content

Once you’ve figured out what you’re going do and flood that with great content.

“Defining the Term” – you can actually define the industry, e.g. “Workshifting” and, in fact, “Content Marketing”.

Produce consistent, relevant, very shareable content.

10 to 1 content … reimagine

Reimagine your content as you go, there’s not just one story, there’s not just one story platform.

Think “before” and “after” – What can the content become? A blog post, audio, video, Tweet, Facebook post, SlideShare, an eBook.

How do you seed it within your community? Share it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, RSS feeds, YouTube, Press Release  etc. There are more than 10 ways to sow your seeds.

Dominating a Category with Content Marketing and Social Media

Find your customers’ pain points:

• Ask your customer service, employees, sales reps.
• Use the Google Keyword tool to see what people are searching for, find opportunities in those that are being searched for but are not yet competitive.
• Take those keywords and use Google Trends to see if there is an upward trend, that will indicate an opportunity for your story ideas.
• Set a Google Alert to find out who is talking about the things that are important to your business. This will help build your “hit list”.
• Use tools like HootSuite or TweetDeck to monitor social media for your keywords.

Create content for key questions being asked.

Create pillar content e.g. eBooks, whitepapers and lists, which will attract people. This can form part of your lead generation strategy.

Social Media 4-1-1

For every 6 posts:

• 4 should be on other people’s content that you are sharing
• 1 should be your content
• 1 can be promotional.

Make sure that the influencer’s that you are highlighting know that you are sharing their content.

Have all the Sharing Buttons at the Top and Bottom of Every Article

Have at least the “Big Four”: Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

If you want your content to be shared, you have to set it up so that it can be shared.

Get Your Community Involved

Use your “hit list” and list of influencers. Ask them if they will create content for your site. If they do, then not only is your content shared with your community but also with the influencer’s community. This expands the reach of your content.

In Summary

Think Like a Publisher.

Whatever you want to sell:

• Choose a niche that you can become the leading expert
• Develop AND share the best multi-channel content
• Remove YOU from the story as much as possible.

Webinar recap: 8 Content Initiatives You Need to Seriously Consider for 2012 is a post from: B2Bento

With this post we introduce the latest member of the B2Bento team, Jeremy Tarrier (@JeremyTarrier), who’s joined us this year as the lead content manager. Deviating slightly from regular programming, we present the first in a series of posts on “Better Writing with Jeremy” . We look forward to your feedback.

Have you ever read a product review and thought “I could do better!” but didn’t know where to start?

In this article we will investigate the process and motivations behind writing product reviews. Our focus will be on product reviews published in the on-line media but the same principles apply to magazines and other printed media.

If you prefer to skip the what and why sections I won’t be overly offended, click here to jump to the how.

What can you write a review about?

To get you started on ideas of what you could review, here is a short list for inspiration:

• physical products such as a mobile phone, camera or book
• audio CDs or an album you have downloaded from an online store
• desktop software
• web application
• mobile application
• movies
• seminars and webinars you have attended.

Why do we write them?

There are many motivations to write product reviews from the altruistic to those that are more self-interested. Here are some of the more common motivations.

Establishing yourself as an authority

By writing and publishing a review you are an author, not necessarily an Asimov or Rowling, but an author none the less. Being a published author automatically makes you an authority but only establishing credibility will make you a recognized authority on a subject.

Once readers recognize and accept your views then you can become their “go to person” for product reviews. You can expand on this to become a recognized authority on other related topics.

To make money

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to make money by promoting products. Unless you are fortunate enough to be financially independent then you need to make a living.

Writing product reviews is a long established way to promote affiliate products such as those on ClickBank.com and Amazon.com. If your product review resonates with the reader and he/she makes a purchase using your affiliate hyperlink then you receive a commission for the sale. A product review is like having a salesperson working for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and you don’t even need to pay him/her!

Product awareness

If you use a product or service that you strongly feel could benefit others then you can write a review to promote awareness. This akin to making a public service announcement, however it does not preclude you from receiving compensation for your efforts.

Why do people read reviews?

Information

These readers are not necessarily motivated by the need to solve a problem or make a purchase. Many people skim read magazines or websites as they are generally interested in the subject matter and will pause to read an article if it is pertinent and provides information they consider useful or interesting.

Whilst this group of readers may not immediately appear particularly important, they do represent a significant audience. By providing a memorable review, readers may well return to your review when they have a more immediate need for the information or actively seeking your other reviews.

According to a survey commissioned by Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, “the reach of consumer reviews isn’t limited to the online world; seven in 10 consumers who read reviews share them with friends, family or colleagues, thus amplifying their impact.”

Thus, writing reviews that appeal to this segment helps establish you as a recognized authority.

Research before they buy

When faced with a problem one of the first reactions is to search for solutions on the internet. Product reviews are an excellent opportunity to help your reader find a solution and provide valuable insight into how well and how easily the product can solve the problem.

Independent product reviews can sway a reader’s purchase decision in either direction. According to the 2011 Cone Online Influence Trend Tracker “research reveals four-out-of-five consumers have changed their minds about a recommended purchase based solely on negative information they found online. … Positive information has a similar effect on decision making, with 87 percent of consumers agreeing a favorable review has confirmed their decision to purchase.”

To justify their purchase decision.

People buy on emotion then justify with logic. After making a purchase there is often a sense of “buyer’s remorse” and a nagging anxiety that it was not a necessary purchase or that there is something better out there.

A well written product review provides such readers with clear, concise and logical information that will support their purchase decision. A reader who, based on your review, is satisfied that he/she made the correct purchase decision is more likely to read your reviews when considering future purchases.

Characteristics of a good product review

It’s personal

Your reader is a person, you are a person. Readers are more likely to trust a review that reads as though it comes from a real person not a faceless organization. Treat your readers as real people, make good use of “you” and “I” to establish rapport and trust.

Conversational

It’s a sad fact that in the internet era people have shorter attention spans. Use a conversational style to engage your readers and keep them reading. Write in the same way you would tell a friend about a product you feel would be helpful to them.

Experiential

The plain facts about a product are readily available from advertisements, brochures, datasheets and the vendor’s website.

Reviews are the opportunity for readers to learn “how was it for you?” rather than having to trust what the vendor tells them they will experience.

This is where you get the chance to exercise your creative writing muscles and tell your readers about your experience using the product.

Objective

Your review should be factual and untainted by personal prejudice or bias. This appears to contradict the need for the review to be personal and conversational however your readers will appreciate clear statements about the capabilities of the product or service.

It is a delicate balance which becomes easier as you gain experience writing reviews.

Concise

People searching the internet for answers are expecting short, sharp, bite sized information on which to make their decisions.

Avoid long, meandering text that provides little meaningful information.

Based on personal experience

Hang on a minute, didn’t we just go over a review needing to be experiential? Yes we did, however that was referring to writing about what your reader can expect to experience when using the product.

Although it is possible to write about a product or service without ever having used it, your reviews will be easier to write and be more meaningful to your readers when you have personal hands-on experience.

So where do you start?

In this section I aim to equip you with a set of activities that will help you in preparing to write your review. Some of the activities here will not be appropriate to every product or review so use your discretion.

As you go through the activities you may find it helpful to record your experiences and findings. Use your notes when writing your review, it’s easier than trying to remember it all when faced with a blank screen.

Other tools that may come in handy include a digital camera, scanner, and image editing software.

Where appropriate I have included a number of questions you can answer to help build up material for your review.

Get the product

There is no substitute for personal hands-on experience when writing a product review. Buy it, borrow it, ask the manufacturer/vendor/dealer for a review copy (see FTC caveat).

1. How easy was it to get? – exclusivity, rarity, limited edition
2. How long did it take to arrive? – digital download, high street purchase, courier delivery, standard postal service
3. Is it available in different formats? – eBook, audio, video, large print

Unpack it

If it is a physical, boxed product (including digital products delivered on CD/DVD).

1. Take a picture of the box/packaging.
2. Did it arrive intact? – poorly packaged product may indicate an alternative supplier or delivery channel is necessary
3. Can the product put back in the packaging? – important for storage and for sending a product back for refund or repair
4. Does the packaging reflect the contents? – clear image, list of contents, “This way up”
5. How easy was it to unpack? – sometimes it can be physically challenging to unpack a product
6. Was everything included? – power cable with appropriate plug, printer or data cable
7. Are there instructions on how to unpack and prepare the product for use? – are they in usable language, do they make sense

Install it

Follow the instructions.

If it is a software product you may want to take screenshots as you go through the installation process.

1. Were the instructions accurate?
2. Was anything unclear or missed out?
3. Were there sufficient pictures to help identify what should be done?
4. Were there any special requirements? – some software require additional components not supplied with the installation media
5. Were there any unexpected messages during the installation process?
6. Did you experience any problems with the installation process?

Use it

This is the core part of your review. Actually use the product.

If it is a software product you may want to take screenshots as you use it.

1. What was the problem you used the product to solve?
2. Did the problem solve the problem? – was it a complete solution or was there something the product couldn’t do
3. How easy was it to use? – intuitive or did you have to perform metal gymnastics to figure it out
4. Were there any problems using it? – was the manual/on-line help sufficient, was there support available
5. Were there instructions or tips as you went through the process?
6. Were there any surprises, good or bad?

Gather your thoughts and prepare to write your review

If you followed the process outlined above and recorded your experiences then you will already have a reasonable amount of material for your review.

Now it is time to get your material organized and supplement it with facts, features and benefits, and a list of pros and cons.

You may need to use information from the advertising materials, product manual and other sources such as the vendor’s website.

Write a description of the problem you wanted to solve

This is a very important step. It will provide you with ideas for the headline of your review and start the conversation with your readers.

It could be a single sentence or it could be a whole paragraph. It all depends on the complexity of the problem.

Write a description of the product you are reviewing

Do not be tempted to copy this from the product literature, another article, or another review. Firstly, unless you have permission, it’s called plagiarism and it can lead to all sorts of nasty repercussions ranging from being black-listed by the search engines to litigation. Secondly, your readers will quickly notice if it doesn’t gel with the rest of your review. Remember: wherever you found it, they could find it too.

Write the description in your own words. Sometimes it helps to write down simple bullet points then talk to a friend (even better if it’s a stranger) about the product. If your friend gets the message then your description works. You will then have a natural way of describing the product that others can understand.

I am often asked, “How long should it be?” There is no fixed size for a description, nor in fact for most things in copywriting. The more complicated something is, the more words it takes to describe it adequately.

Keep the length within reason. If you find yourself getting bored writing about it, your reader isn’t going to enjoy the experience either. You have about 5 seconds to capture a reader’s interest so your description needs to be both appealing and concise.

Identify the most important features of the product

Products have many features, sometimes too many for a review. The trick is to identify those features which are important to your review.

Using your description of the problem, identify the features that were important in solving the problem.

For example, if your problem was taking clear photographs in poor conditions the the important features could include:

• waterproof design
• lens shield
• textured grip
• low light / night vision feature
• high speed storage
• rapid flash recharge

Convert the important product features into benefits the reader can understand

A list of features isn’t particularly interesting to read, what is interesting is what can be done using those features.

Alongside your list of important features write what that means to someone using the product.

Using our previous example:

• waterproof design – Keeps working in the rain. Can use it by the pool
• lens shield – Keeps the rain off the lens
• textured grip – Doesn’t slip in the hand
• low light / night vision feature – Clear photos even when it’s  poor light

Now you can convert this into a short sentence or two that encapsulates both the features and the benefits in a way that will make immediate sense to your reader.

This helps with not only your description of the product but also with your conclusion of why the reader should get the product.

Gather your list of pros and cons

Not all review writers like to include a list of pros and cons. Including a list does show your objectivity and can help establish your credibility as an impartial reviewer.

All products have strengths and weaknesses. These are important to your reader. If the strengths outweigh the weaknesses the reader may still choose to buy the product. Conversely there may be one weakness that is the deal breaker.

For example, a piece of software may have all the bells and whistles and seem to be the perfect solution but if it’s not available for your reader’s computer then it’s not a contender. If you have reviewed a similar product that is available for your reader’s computer you have the opportunity to suggest the reader goes to that review to find out more.

Write a concluding paragraph that sums up your experience with the product

This is the closing section of your review. You can draw upon your earlier material and condense it into a few short sentences.

If you like to give products a star rating, whether it is an overall rating or one per important feature/benefit, this is an ideal place to do it. There are readers who will read what is above the first fold (the first information shown) then hit the ‘End’ key to read the bottom. If you capture their interest then they may go back to read the rest.

Writing your review

Now you’ve done your homework it’s time to assemble your review.

Write your headline

This is your chance to capture your reader’s attention. The headline needs to be short and punchy. Grab your description of the problem you solved and turn it into a headline. This often will include the name of the product.

For example, if your problem was to take family photos at the pool without risking water damage to your camera

“Capture your family making a splash at the pool with the Kamra 1000DS”

There are many headlines that could be made from a problem statement. Copywriters can spend hours coming up with ideas and selecting the best. That’s a whole different skill that would take an entire article on its own.

State the problem to be solved

Remember drafting this earlier? Go ahead and do a “Copy & Paste”. Later we will check the overall flow of our review and can make any necessary changes.

Introduce the product being reviewed

You got it! Another “Copy & Paste” exercise.

Include an image of the product

This helps your reader identify what is being reviewed.

Include at least one product image. If you did not create the image then you may wish to seek permission to use the image to avoid copyright issues. (If you obtain permission from the manufacturer/vendor then there is always the possibility they will ask you to review other/future products – depending on how valuable they consider your review.)

If your review is to be published on-line avoid using technologies that are not compatible with your reader’s devices, for example iGadgets do not like Flash. It is better to use an “older” standard technology such as animated GIF files (which is visible on most devices) to display rotating images than using Flash which will not be visible on devices such as iGadgets.

You will find the logical places for images as your review evolves but generally you should include a cover image near your headline.

You can also include your experience obtaining the product, unpacking it, installing it.

Describe how you used the product to solve the problem

Take your notes from the “Use it” activity and write a description of how you solved the problem using the product.

This can be several paragraphs according to the process needed. Remember that your reader wants quick information so don’t be tempted to include every menu option and mouse click. That is your material for another article or “How to” guide.

The reader will be interested in “how was it for you?” so include appropriate commentary on how easy or difficult it was to use the product.

Add your list of pros and cons

Not all review writers like to include a list of pros and cons. Some review styles do not benefit from such a list. Hence, this is an optional section.

If you are including your list of pros and cons, put it here.

Bring your review to a close with your conclusion.

Keep this short and to the point. If it goes beyond one screen it’s time to reconsider what is in your conclusion. There may be parts that are better suited to earlier sections or can be condensed into fewer words.

If you are allowed to include affiliate hyperlinks you could include them here.

Other considerations

Always declare if you have received any compensation or sponsorship to write the review -  US FTC regulations.

Always declare if you will receive any compensation if someone purchases the product via a hyperlink – US FTC regulations.

Even if you are not in US jurisdiction it is better to err on the side of caution and declare any compensation. FTC regulations may still have effect if someone within its jurisdiction makes a purchase via your hyperlink.

Acknowledge all trademarks used in your review. For example, Flash is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries

Review your review

Now it’s time to look at the review as a whole.

Ask yourself:

• Do all the sections flow naturally into each other?
• Is the tone consistent?
• Does it make sense?
• Are there any spelling mistakes?
• Are there any glaring grammatical errors?

If you answer “No” to any of these questions, go back and change your review until you are satisfied with it.

Personally I find it easier to print my draft review and go over it marking any areas for improvement with a highlighter pen.

When you are happy with the results, get someone else to read it and make comments where things were unclear or where mistakes were found.

Publish and Promote

Once your review is complete it is time to publish.

Whether your review is destined for your own review site or elsewhere it will need to be promoted if anyone is to read it before the search engine spiders have time to index it.

Take your review headline and statement of the problem and get ready to promote your review.

Make appropriate use of social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to get the word out.

Facebook and LinkedIn are easier to use in so much as you can use a headline and have an abstract of what your review is about. This is where your headline and statement of the problem come in useful. Try not to use exactly the same words, keep the abstract relevant but not identical to your review.

Twitter limits each Tweet to 140 characters which is not a lot for a headline. Reserving space for a shortened link to your review and for possible Retweets further reduce the number of characters available to drive traffic to your review. Satisfying these constraints will give you plenty of practice crafting headlines.

Writing Product Reviews [Better Writing with Jeremy Ep I] is a post from: B2Bento