Cat's Eye Marketing Blog

On Respecting Your Readers: Headline Trickery

Last week I wrote about rant blog posts. How they work and why they work. 

Big fat coincidence:

This week I feel a rant coming on. 

My first rule of writing is this: respect your readers. It's about trust. If you make a promise, keep it.

 And did you know that your headline is your promise?

I remember once, some time ago (okay, it was a long time ago because Lucille Ball, AKA Lucy Ricardo, was still alive), I saw a National Enquirer headline when I was in line with my mom at Scott's Market. In big old black letters it said:

"Lucille Ball throws her life away!"

Of course, my mom was beside herself.

"What? Lucille Ball killed herself?" she said.

It was the only time I saw her buy a National Enquirer. She thumbed through the pages quickly until she found the article, way at the back (why are they always way in the back?).  There it was—a tiny blurb: A Life Magazine had been found in the trash bin outside Lucille Ball's home.

A Life Magazine.

So, yes, technically she had thrown her life away. 

Now I admit. From a paper that later would print stories like, "I Cut Her Heart Out and Stomped on It" and "Mom Boiled Her Baby and Ate Her," this was nothing.

Though I was small—years away from being a writer—I never forgot that story—and how it made me feel. I'd been tricked. Even back then, I had this fierce sense of justice that bounced around inside my brain. It wasn't fair.

The sneaky headline writer

Have we become so jaded that we only pay attention to outrageous headlines? And we don't care if they were a lie or, at best, trickery?

This week, on a social networking site I belong to, a marketing consultant submitted an article. It was called, "Why No Business Should Be Involved in Online Social Networking. "

That's right. He promised to tell us why we shouldn't network online.

Would you click through to read an article with a headline like that? Of course. In fact 9,116 people did just that.

But this writer broke the cardinal rule: Deliver what your headline promises.

Eight paragraphs into his article he tells us that it's time to stop referring to it as "social networking." We should really call it "social marketing."

Huh? You got me invested in an article with a sensational headline: No business should be involved in online social networking.

Only to tell me that the reason is that you'd rather call it "social marketing"?

Why do we have to be so gimmicky? Is it that we are afraid that content won't stand up on its own merit? Do we think our readers are stupid?

A headline can generate interest without deceiving the reader

When we write with honesty, we build trust with our readers. If we break the trust, it can be more difficult to keep our audience. And if we do it over and over again, well, they may stop reading our stuff.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for catchy titles. I am especially fond of analogies and visual imagery.

Yesterday, the headline to Scott Ginsberg's guest post on the Duct Tape Marketing blog was, "6 Ways to Be More Referable than Edward Scissorhands at a Lawn and Garden Convention." Great title, unique imagery, and he followed through with six practical, actionable tips to get more referrals.

I wrote an article a few months ago. 

The headline was, "Swedish Cowboys and Scuba-diving Brides: 8 Reasons You Should Have a Niche." It got a lot of click-throughs, I am sure it was because of the Swedish cowboys and scuba-diving brides. 

But I followed through in the article, wondering aloud how small of a niche would still be profitable and whether those two market niches are too limiting. (Some of my readers disagreed with me on that.)

In each of these two cases, the writer did not go for tricking the reader with their headline. Yet it was still interesting. Memorable. And it motivated the reader to read on.

What do you think? Are you bothered by "trick" headlines that don't deliver what they promised? Or does it not matter to you if you still get something out of the article?

Please. Tell me what you think. I'm curious. 

Why Rants Work in a Blog Post and How to Write One

Has anything ever happened to you that made you want to vent on your blog?

It starts early, this "be nice" thing.

Your mom told you:

Look on the bright side.

If you can't say anything nice…

Your kindergarten teacher said:

Be a helper.

Use your quiet voice. (Sometimes called "inside voice.")

Mr. Rogers taught us to say please and thank-you and reminded us that puppets have feelings, too.

But no one told us it's okay to get all hot and bothered. To say exactly what's on our mind.

Because no one likes a whiner. Unless you whine about something that drives most people silently crazy.

 Why do rant posts work?

Listening to someone rant can be cathartic. We feel that thing that is making that particular blogger lose her sanity. And the blogger is giving us a voice.

You'll notice that your rant posts get lots more comments. That's because you've touched a nerve. Made someone think,

"Yeah. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

Or, a reader will disagree with you completely and she won't be able to settle down until she tells you just why you are wrong.

One way to pull off a rant blog post

Sometimes, you just need to get it out. Something is bugging you and you'll just feel better if you spill it. I did with my rant about people who put you on a newsletter list you didn't ask to be on.

But written in a little more structured way, a rant can actually help your readers analyze an issue and motivate them to weigh in on it.

I used a little (okay, a lot) of sarcasm and humor to get readers thinking with my post, How to Be a Sensitive, Ponytailed Marketing Guy.

Yes, I had an agenda. I hate that kind of sleazy, manipulative Internet advertising. But I wanted to know how my readers felt, so I deconstructed the guy's messages: what he said and what marketing strategy he was using.

The post ended with, "What do you think?"

How to write the post

1. What are your feelings about this issue or topic? If you don't let go of those emotions, you won't be able to think clearly enough to present your case. Free write: what is happening that is upsetting you and how are you feeling about it?

2. Why does this thing bother you? In my case, not only was 'sensitive, ponytailed marketing guy' taking advantage of people who can't see through his tactics and who are suckers for the next big dream, but he was making it harder for the responsible, ethical marketers out there.

3. What can people learn from it? Now turn your emotions off (if you can) and just write about the takeaways. In my case, having been trained in direct marketing tactics, I could see through what the ponytailed guy was doing. I took six of the messages in his Internet video and matched them with the strategy he was using.

4. Ask your readers what they think. Be objective here. I said, "So what do you think? Can we learn anything about marketing and branding from this surfer dude? Is what he is doing good salesmanship or manipulation? Does it work for his brand but maybe not for someone else's?

5. Be prepared for a lively discussion. Now I didn't have as many readers when I wrote that post as I do now, but even the few comments I got showed "diverse" opinions. If you stir up the pot, get ready for lots of different viewpoints. Respect them because some of the best discussions start with dissenting views.

Do you enjoy writing rant posts? Do your readers enjoy reading them? What has been your experience?

How Do You Choose Which Blogs To Read?: 'Good Content' from Your Readers' Eyes

This week on LinkedIn, someone asked the question, "What is good content?" We were talking in terms of the web, so I'll change that question to, ""What is good online content?"

That's a loaded question, mainly because everyone has a different perspective of "good content." It depends on who you are and what you value.

But when it really comes down to it, what matters most is what your readers think.

Good content is 'in the eye of the beholder'

Were the answers different depending on the person's unique vantage point? Absolutely. Was consensus reached? Definitely not.

A few of the responses:

From a technical writer:

I ask myself, 'Did I learn something I didn't know before?'. (His life is facts.)

From an editor:

Good content needs good writing and there's not a lot of that around. Because it's a professional skill, which most content producers don't possess. (Likely fixes the poor junior writer's grammar mistakes.)

From a corporate and entertainment industry screenwriter:

Disney is a brand that I think has the most consistency. You see the Disney logo on a book, a TV show, a toy, a ride, a website or a DVD, you know exactly what to expect. (Writes scripts for corporate productions. May have an unfinished screenplay hiding in his dresser drawers.)

From a fiction writer:

People like to laugh and be entertained. You need originality and imaginative writing, (Is looking for a publisher for his first novel.)

Assistant editor:

Good content is clear and concise information with an unbiased and balanced analysis. (Has probably had to clean up too many writers' loose, meandering, pointless articles.)

It's just too confusing: describing good content

For fun, I gathered some of the adjectives people used in their descriptions of good content:

• unique    • accurate    • easy-to-read    • clear and concise    • credible    • balanced and unbiased

• consistently branded    • relevant    • thorough    • imaginative    • information-rich

• clever    • edgy    • no 'bad' words    • brings readers back for more    • shows passion

• generates interest   • makes the sale    • evokes emotion in the reader    • is well-written

And those came from less than two dozen responses.

In the end, we all have to figure it out for ourselves

The best answer I read came from a creative marketing director. He said:

Good content is in the eye of the reader.

But what do you do when your readers all have different ideas about what makes good content?

This is what I believe:

If you write from your heart, everything else will fall into place.

Writing from that place of honesty, where the real you lives, will naturally attract the people you want to talk to, help, create cool stuff with.

I like to laugh and I love making other people laugh. I want to work with people who take their businesses seriously, but themselves? Not as much.

Creative people.

People who probably had their hand raised wildly in 4^th grade because they had "found another way" to solve the problem.

Those are the people I naturally attract. Oh, and it doesn't hurt if they love puppets.

Do you write content with the goal of attracting the people you want to work with? 

Unintentional Marketing: Are We Making Our Customers Feel Stupid?

They've been around forever, those promises. We've all seen the infomercials:

Lose weight while you sleep.

We'll change your life. But only if you act right now!

Cook perfect pasta every time. And in less than 1.5 seconds.

Your body will slim down 2 sizes in just 2 minutes. (Yes, that's from a real infomercial.)

Often when the product arrived, it didn't quite work like it was supposed to.

But that was the product, not the customer. The product might have been inferior, but the customer didn't end up feeling inadequate. Duped, maybe. Taken, maybe.

But it wasn't her who failed. It was the stupid product.

Now something quite different is happening.

Look around you. The marketing and sales messages are everywhere:  in books, on social media sites, in those icky, hold-your-nose Internet sales letters:

Create a killer website in 2 hours.

Within 4 weeks, you can be living wherever you want and collecting affiliate checks of $50,000 or more a month.

I built my house with this kit in just 2 days. And I love it! (Okay, I made this one up.)

And my all-time favorite:

Become a bestselling author in 4 weeks. It's easy!

That one really gets me.

 

What you say and how your customer feels

The late Billy Mays, the OxiClean TV pitchman with the gravelly voice, was asked once what the secret to his phenomenal salesmanship was. He said:

"You can't make things look hard." (I take that to mean even if they are.)

Nobody wants "hard." I get that. I really do.

This product will make your life easier. This product will do the work for you.

It's one thing to say that.

But if you are selling advice that is supposed to help someone achieve something in their own life, something that they have always wanted to do or be, that's an entirely different thing.

You see, your customer is thinking pass or fail. Either she can do the thing that will turn her life around (or build her business or make her famous)—and in the time it takes to wash her hair, no less—or she cannot.

What you are really telling her is that, if she can't do what you say is possible—easy, in fact—if she can't build the website in 2 hours or get a book on the New York Times bestseller list in 4 weeks—she must be stupid.

Okay, you don't actually say that, but it's how she will feel if she fails.

If this is so easy and I'm having such trouble with it, I must not be very smart.

Not exactly how we want to make our prospects and customers feel.

 

Not everything is easy

At Cat's Eye, sometimes we get a new client who is confused and frustrated because someone told her in a workshop that she could have a killer WordPress website in 2 hours.

She went back and tried and, of course, it didn't turn out like all those bright, beautiful samples she saw in the class.

She was wondering what was wrong with her that she couldn't do it. Why the "quick and easy" wasn't quick and wasn't easy.

At Bob's WordPress workshops, you can hear the sighs of relief in the room when he says,

"Yes, it takes some work. Some things are a littler harder to do than others. And you may need a little help to get to exactly where you want to be. But you'll catch on."

If we are in the business of helping people develop their skills, whether we are a coach, a parenting support professional, a financial advisor, a WordPress consultant or something else, we can either empower our clients or make them feel incredibly stupid.

It is possible to make our customers' lives easier and better and be up front with them. In the long-term, they'll thank us for that. 

What We Can Learn About Commenting on Blogs from a First Grader

Are we always "too busy"? Are there other reasons why we don't leave comments on blogs?

Grant Griffiths, founder of the WordPress premium theme Headway, recently wrote a guest post on David Risley's blog. It was about what bloggers can do to get more comments. The post ended with tips for leaving better comments.

He concluded with, "If you can't leave a comment with more than, 'great blog post,' don't leave anything at all."

Now, that's harsh.

I know how much pressure it is, staring at that big old empty comment box. Really, I do. I even wrote an etip about it last week: 6 Ways to Get Your Blog Comment Noticed.

If a first grader can do it…

I was talking with a fellow blogger the other day about why most people who read blogs don't leave comments. Ever.

He laughed (well, actually it was an online conversation so I couldn't tell if he was actually laughing) when I told him this story:

In a former life (and I have had plenty of them), I was a first grade teacher.

Now just let me say that 7-year-olds are delightful little people. They are honest, open and imaginative because they haven't had it beaten out of them yet by well-meaning adults who just want them to conform so they don't grow up to be axe murderers.

We had a tradition in our classroom. When someone had a birthday, I would ask each student to write that girl or boy a letter, complete with those surrealistic drawings—some of them a little dark—that first graders are so good at.

Those puzzling drawings of first graders. I'll save that one for a future post.

The birthday letters in September—some of which had to be dictated to a parent helper because they hadn't mastered writing yet—invariably had messages like, "I like you. You are nice."

(Kind of reminds me of, "Great blog post," or, maybe, "Nice post.")

Of course, "I like you. You are nice," is a message with no meaning. Can you imagine the kid with the special day getting 27 letters that all said that?

These little ones quickly learned that teacher wouldn't accept a letter like that. It's too easy. Over time, as I worked with them ("Why are they nice? What do you like about them?), they began to write funny, engaging, heartfelt letters.

Letters the birthday kid couldn't wait to read.

We would read the letters in the afternoon when we had the birthday cupcakes and juice. And, yes, often the "I like you because…" letters would spark a lively discussion.

"I didn't know Joshua could make a spoon stick to his nose!"

(Okay, sometimes the comments were a little weird. No accounting for the things that will impress a first grader.)

Now I don't know what kind of adults these kids turned out to be, what jobs they are in today, where they ended up, but I bet they are very good at commenting on blogs.

We are more like 7-year-olds than we think

By now you must be wondering, "What do first graders have to do with leaving a quality blog comment?

It is this:

7-year-olds had a hard time with "meaningful comments." And so do 37-year-olds. And 57-year-olds. But over time, with a little thought, they figured out what they wanted to say—and even started having fun with it.

So how do we make comments that don't take us half a day to construct? Just pick one thing in the post you agree with (and add to the conversation from your personal experience) or choose one thing you disagree with and tell why.

It's probably good to stay on topic, though. The blogger will appreciate that.

That means no random comments about the ability to make a spoon stick to your nose.

And no comments about how you can juggle and say "Four knives will be sufficient" in Swahili. (Which I can do, and I know, someday, they will fit into a blog comment somewhere.)

Do you ever get tongue tied when it comes to leaving a comment? What could you do to make it easier for people to comment on your blog?

What Has Social Media Ever Done for You?: Lurkers, Listeners and Planets- Lining-Up Kind of Stuff

 Someone might be listening. I'm not being paranoid here. But, really. 

Someone might be listening.

The first rule of social media (and sometimes we forget this rule) is:

People are listening.

My friend, Sonia Simone, who is now assistant editor at Copyblogger, called them The Imaginary Friends Who Live in Your Typewriter. 

And, though they aren't always your friends, still, they are reading your words. 

Thinking. Listening. Sometimes even responding. 

My social media story

I love blogging. I love reading other people's blog posts. And yes, from time to time I even leave a comment. 

But mostly, I am a listener. 

I skim and scan and when I have something relevant to say, I'll click on the submit comment.

Last Saturday I landed on a friend's blog. Don't even remember how I got there. How's that for randomness? I met him on biznik. I've seen him only twice in person, but we have chatted online quite a bit. 

In my comment to his post, I mentioned an online reputation management tool I like a lot, called StepRep. 

Five days later he called me out of the blue. I could feel his smile over the phone line.

"I just wanted to thank you, " he said.

"For what?" I said.

"For leaving that comment about StepRep on my blog."

Okay, now I was puzzled. It was a great tool, but a phone call?

Turns out my friend went in and registered, did a search for "social media" and "media buyer." Up came a company looking for someone with those exact skills. He called, interviewed and three days later, he had a new job.

Yeah, it was random. A crazy coincidence. I mean, I didn’t even know he was looking for a job. 

But, still. He had a blog. I read a post. I offered a resource. He checked it out. And bam. He has a job.

Okay, so what's the point?

I think sometimes we forget about the power of social media. We're there. We're talking. It's fun. We don't always know if people are listening. 

Or when they will have something to say.

If it is your blog, or twitter, or Facebook, I would say, just keep putting your stuff out there. Yeah, it's work and sometimes we get discouraged. And it can seem random and pointless at times.

But things can happen in an instant.

Things that will change your life. 

E-mail Marketing Lesson from Ghandi: Be the Change You Want to See

Three more people decided to put me on their e-newsletter lists this week. These are fine people, one of them a friend of mine.

Still, they didn't ask me. They just did it.

And that puts me in the very uncomfortable position of having to "unsubscribe" (gotta love that word) to something I didn't subscribe to in the first place.

Technically, the button at the bottom of these people's e-letters should not say, "Unsubscribe." It should say, "I have put you on a list you didn't ask to be on. Click here if you want me to remove you."

Be the change you want to see in the e-marketing world

Okay, paraphrasing Ghandi here. But just stop and think, "How do I want to be treated?"

In our marketing with e-newsletter workshops we, always say:

Don't just follow the letter of the law. Be better than the law.

Building a list is hard work. But wouldn't you rather have people who want to be on it? People who eagerly await your next issue, rather than grumbling and deleting it every time it lands in their in-box?

Okay, now you are thinking, "But I have a very low unsubscribe rate."

Does that mean that those people are actually reading your content? Well, no. Not necessarily. I like to tell the story of a friend. Happens to be a printer. I was in his office one day and he was glaring at his computer screen. 

"What's wrong?" I said.

"Oh, just all these 'newsletters' I get," he said. "They are badly written, worthless and full of crap. And I didn't even sign up for them."

"Why don't you unsubscribe?" I said.

"Because they are all from customers and I'm afraid I'll hurt their feelings—or lose their business."

So this guy is frustrated and angry every time he gets another issue. But he is afraid to opt out. Not exactly what we want our subscribers to feel when they open our emails.

Respect your subscribers

Violating someone's trust can happen without ignoring the loose rules of the U.S. CAN-SPAM law.

It happens when you forget about permission-based e-marketing and best practices. 

It happens when you decide that getting high "subscriber" numbers is more important than working to develop a list of people who are truly interested in what you have to offer.

It happens when you follow only the minimum requirement instead of the spirit of the law.

There is such a huge difference between slapping someone on your e-mail list and offering resources they may need. Go ahead and send them one past issue with a note that if they find it helpful, here's a link to sign up. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's a very successful strategy.

Just do not randomly add people to your list when the mood strikes you.

Do you get put on lists you never asked to be on? Do you think it's important to get permission first? What are your core e-marketing values?

 

 

How to Be Funny: Why Humor Sells

I like to enter the New Yorker cartoon caption contests. Haven't won yet, but I'm working on it.

Have you ever thought about how making someone laugh brings them closer to you? If you know someone really well—say, your best friend—you can talk about anything, and even make fun of each other. It's a sign of your closeness. You know their quirks and faults and they only make you love them more.

What might this mean for you? For your business?

I blog from time to time about my strange past, things like the time I made my hand puppet Pépe quit a job for me. I write articles about how to humanely dispose of your fourth grade teacher so you can write freely, and with joy. I am interviewed on topics like how to draw your customers in by telling stories and using humor.

Now if you are in the funeral business, you might not want to use humor in your sales and marketing. But I can't think of many other businesses that couldn't bring their customers and clients closer by making them laugh.

Why make your customers and prospects laugh?

Because it makes them see how much we are alike. That we have the same dreams, the same fears, the same screwed up perspectives of the world. You know, the we're-all-in-this-together kind of thing?

Because they want to be entertained. Sitcoms, bad reality shows, Judge Judy, David Letterman, even the formerly dry news sites ——keep you listening by making you laugh. Just think The Colbert Report and The Daily Show. News and information with opinions that make you chuckle.

Because they'll listen more to what you have to say. John Cleese, actor from Monty Python and creator of Silly Walks, says it this way: "If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas." I'm not talking cruel, sarcastic humor here. I mean the kind that helps us forget our differences. The kind that brings us together.

How To Be Funny

1. Reveal a flaw. This is a great device for building trust and empathy. My blog post, Doing What You Think You Can't: Marketing for Scaredy Cats," reveals a flaw of mine. I can write almost anything in the world with confidence. But put me on a stage, like when I appeared on the Brent and Brandi radio show, and I get all jelly-legs. Letting people know that you are not perfect—and throwing in a funny story to illustrate it—will get your readers on your side faster than anything.

2. Make fun of yourself. This is a favorite of mine. (Maybe it's because I have such good rich material.) Rather than making your reader the subject, if you are able to laugh at yourself, your prospects or customers will not be put off and may just see a little bit of themselves in it, too.

3. Use empathy. Put yourself in someone else's shoes. If your reader can see that you know what they are feeling, you have made a friend. Try writing from your reader's viewpoint.

4. Exaggerate. Just take something simple and expand on it. Stretch it. I wrote an article recently about the explosion of "social media experts" and seven warning signs that yours might not really be one. One sign was that he was selling cars yesterday. Now this is an exaggeration (although I've seen "experts" who left a job selling insulation, so who knows?). Another sign your social media expert might be a fake: He or she wants to show you how to get 10,000 Twitter followers in 8 hours. I took an already inflated number and went over the top with it.

5. Let your readers in on secrets. My website bio tells what I love to do. It also tells readers that I know every line of dialogue from Spinal Tap, I can juggle, I've been to Timbuktu—literally—and I can say "four knives will be sufficient" in Swahili. Not your normal (dry, serious) bio stuff.

What do you think? Do you think that humor, used in the right ways, brings us together? Is there anything we have to be careful with when using it?