MarCom Professional

Readers of web sites do it quickly; they take a quick glance, get the gist of what is being said and then move on. Few people spend hours poring over every last detail of your web site or blog. To be sure those people understand, you need to aim your writing for primary school children.

I've been testing the readability of a random sample of 50 web sites and blogs and most of them are at the "Graduate" level. In other words, you need to have a degree to understand them. That's not good.

So that people can understand your web site you need to be writing for children aged around eight or nine years old. More...

Just a quick post this week to let you know I havent abandoned you and will be back blogging soon. Currently I’m working on an eBook on persuasive writing which I’ll be serialising on the blog before giving it away for free in a couple of weeks.

It won’t contain any groundbreaking info most writers don’t know already, but I’m hoping it will be useful for casual visitors looking for some advice on how to write clearly, with brevity and without some of the corporate speak and gobbledygook used by government councils and the like, which confuses rather than communicates. More...

In a culture jaded from decades of interruption style advertising, people praise their digibox, for enabling them to skip the ‘annoying’ ad break, and ruthlessly bin emails which have the merest whiff of spam. Some think that advertisers and marketers are out to trick them, to make them feel unhappy or inadequate so they can then sell them products to heal their pain.

When you add the credit crisis to the equation, it’s unsurprising why some believe/hope we’re on the verge of a cultural shift away from consumerism and towards (supposedly) a bright new utopia in which people find meaning in other ways than the pursuit of ‘things’. More...

Congratulations to President-Elect Obama - an historic victory. But part of his success may be down to a psychological phenomenon known as "contextual priming". A study performed last year revealed that the building you vote in has an effect on who you decide to vote for.

In essence, the context of our surroundings affects our thinking. People voting in schools, for instance, are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports extra school spending - no matter what their political allegiance. Previous research has shown that the context of advertising also matters. Both the words and the visual images in advertisements have greater effect if they are in context. More...

Whether reading books, watching films or sitting in the pub, we love stories and have been telling them since cavemen times. Stories spark our imagination and connect with us on an emotional level, which is why they’re so powerful and why every brand needs one.

Stories sell

Stories shouldn’t just be kept in reserve for entertaining guests at product launches, but be an integral part of your marketing strategy, because your story can be the clincher in people’s minds between picking between your product or someone else’s.

People’s buying decisions are based on two triggers: More...

One for the ladies … Ralph Lauren has released a free iphone application so you can take a look at the latest collections and runway shows. Over at Mobile Crunch they’re non too keen on the idea but, dare I say it, the post is written by a chap and so perhaps he’s not the best critique. Personally, I like the idea of watching a quick bit of catwalk show, or listening to a short interview with Mr Lauren himself whilst staring out the bus window on the way to work. I would agree that not everything these days needs to be ‘mobilised’ but there’s nothing wrong with great-looking content on my phone. More...

Small business owners are all seeking one thing at the moment - more business. Everywhere you look, small businesses are in need of extra custom. Whether it's the recession, the credit crunch or just plain greed doesn't matter - what matters is the fact that this is such a common requirement.

So what strategies are small business owners taking to get more business? Some use "Search Engine Optimisation" in the hope that higher Google rankings will bring them more attention. Others try "pay per click" to get more visitors to their web site. Meanwhile, other small business owners are trying things like writing better sales letters to help them convert more. More...

Last week I offered some advice on why businesses of all kinds (whether you’re a one man band or continent spanning corp) should consider starting a content marketing campaign. People are constantly searching the web for answers, so if you can provide useful information in a way that promotes your expertise then you can increase the chance of turning a prospect into a customer.

So how do you go about it?

Get Wordpress

Unless your web developers were prudent enough to equip your website with a content management system, you’ll need somewhere to post your articles to. My entire website is built using Wordpress, so obviously I’m a big fan. More...

Nielsen's new figures point to a significant decline in ad spend. According to the figures, ad spend has declined by 5.28% in Q2 of this year and, if we're to believe the figures, we must all be shuffling a little uncomfortably in our seats. For the first time, for a long time, marketers will find themselves under scrutiny from within their organisations, to justify the value of their investment.

In the course of our lives as technology PRs, we meet lots and lots of marketing managers / directors and executives who geniunely feel trapped by the status quo. They stick to what they believe are tried and tested methods because it's a) all they know and b) just too hard to persuade their board of directors that it's high time something changed. More...