Website Development Archives - PROSAR Inbound Inc.

13 August 202113 August 2021

5 Recommendations for a Sticky Website

Young couple in tight slow dance embrace for PROSAR article on sticky websites.

Remember how you clung to your sweetheart as Lionel Ritchie soothed the airwaves with Stuck on You? Holding on so tightly it was as much a testament to your endurance as to your affection. Perhaps it was your high school prom or a party in your friend’s basement. Or perhaps you have no idea who Lionel Ritchie is (shame!) and have always avoided both parties and basements. I suspect you have still experienced that all-consuming embrace and being stuck on your sweetheart. That desire to be part of, that willingness to stay the course, that yearning to be involved… that will probably never happen on your website.

However, there are many things you can do to make your website more engaging and interesting – more sticky. Hormones aside, the following recommendations will help you develop a sticky website to attract more relevant traffic and welcome them with a tight embrace.

Simple to Use

There has been a trend towards simpler and cleaner websites. We’ve grown weary of “cool” design that is more form than function, and frustrated with hard to navigate sites. That’s not to say that people are no longer impressed with technically cool websites, it just can’t be at the expense of simple operation and clear communication.

Many websites have a large amount of information; it makes sense to provide a good resource online. The critical factor is structuring and presenting the information in an easy to access manner. That includes making your website and content accessible for those with disabilities. [Click here to download our AODA Checklist.]

Technically Sound

Little is more frustrating than clicking on a link and landing on an error page. Or, trusting in a website enough to register for a webinar and then the form doesn’t work. It can be very costly to disappoint your audience. Things will change on your website with new content being added, software updating, external links changing… it is virtually a living organism that needs attention to continue to perform. Maintaining the security and technical aspects of your website will help others trust and use it effectively.

Your website is made up of thousands of lines of code, and it interacts every day with thousands of lines of other code. It is likely that your website will suffer technical issues and even get infected at times, but a healthy (updated and monitored) website can survive just fine. [Click here to view our maintenance packages.]

Integrate Your Brand

Simply including your logo and using brand colours is not integrating your brand. It is a topical solution, and if you’re only going skin-deep your missing the heart of the matter.

Is your main messaging clear and do you leverage your headlines? What is the tone of your organization and is your content reflecting that nuance? Are graphics and icons customized to reflect your brand and strengthened with messaging (when appropriate)? Are photos and illustrations supporting your brand via composition, colour, cropping and customization? There are myriad ways to integrate your brand, some obvious, some subtle, some directed at peoples’ conscious deliberation, others directed at their subconscious. Branding is a sophisticated process that goes well beyond a logo and colour, and your website is an ideal tool to effectively position and support your brand. [View our approach to branding.]

Cater to Your Audience

That means you must know your audience. For a small business that requires lasering down to the segment of customers that you serve best. For an association that means concentrating on the core membership. That doesn’t mean that you must ignore other customers and stakeholders, but focus your message on your primary audience. Speaking loud and direct to them will help them see the relevance of your website.

Your website can be structured to address niche audiences, but that should be a conscious and strategic action. That allows you to communicate effectively to each audience, customize your SEO efforts for specific pages, and provide a user-friendly experience.

Keep Content Fresh

Even your core market won’t bother returning to reread information. Websites are relatively easy to update regularly. (Yes, I say this even though we are often less than frequent with our own blog!) It does take commitment and perhaps an ongoing expense, but well worthwhile to keep your audience updated and engaged; and to improve your website search rankings.

Your website could include relevant corporate sector or association information, such as events, activities, announcements, articles worth reading, etc. You can up the ante with images from an event, showing product usage, or photo contest with submissions form your audience. Video is an even bigger draw, whether it’s instructional, a review or highlighting a charity your organization supports. Videos can help improve search rankings as well. Another media file worth considering is audio, such as podcasts, interviews (staff, customers, news-makers, etc.) or maybe staff’s music picks.

Content is the reason why someone visits your website, so strive to keep it interesting, up-dated and formatted to be accessible, as well as to maximize SEO.

Remember that slow dance partner you were snuggling with when we started? They’re dancing with someone else now, but don’t fret. Apply these recommendations to your next website, and with a sticky website you’ll be enjoying that sweet embrace in no time.

8 April 202028 October 2022

Make Your Content FRUITFUL: An 8-Point Checklist to Writing Good Content

Bowl of colourful fruit for PROSAR's FRUITFUL Content blog article.

It may seem that content generation has become a hot tactic in marketing just over the past decade, but it’s actually been around for decades. David Ogilvy, often referred to as the Father of Advertising, always believed that the steak is more important than the sizzle. He maintained that good copywriters must know their product extensively, present the facts honestly, and explain the products merits effectively.

Ogilvy favoured well-written copy as the most persuasive advertising tool. If you have a good product (and you truly understand your market), your primary task is to inform, educate and explain — thus helping your audience make the logical decision to buy. With all the hype and noise created by online marketing these days his message is rather refreshing.

Although content generation is not new, it is now seen as a key means of attracting and engaging with your audience. It’s not simply a matter of generating content; there are reams and reams (or rather, gigabytes and gigabytes) of content being pushed out. If your information is going to be noticed and have any effect, it must be good. To help you with that ambition, consider this list to make your content more FRUITFUL:

Facts – Do your research and really understand what you are writing about. It’s difficult to inform others from a position of ignorance.

Relevant – Understand who your target audience is. Knowing who you are writing for will inform what you write about as well as how you write it. It will also direct where you post/promote the content.

Useful – Beyond being relevant, is the information of use? Readers will have interest if it affects them: consider how does this information make their life better, simpler or more enjoyable.

Images – Many people are more visual-oriented, others are simply too busy to thoroughly read your piece. So complement your words with appropriate photos, tables, charts, funny illustrations, etc. to help convey your message.

Trustworthy – Be honest, in reference to the information as well as how it is presented. We all want our product or service to stand out above the fray, but writing strategically and persuasively does not require falsehoods, or even hyperbole.

Flow – People respond well to stories partly because of their structure. A logical order of information and understandable chain of events makes it easy for readers to follow. The tone of “voice” of your writing and rhythm of the sentences can make your writing more accessible and engaging. (And this may change dramatically depending upon the content or audience.)

Unbiased – Ultimately you have an agenda. If you are communicating professionally, you are either trying to gain awareness for you or your organization, improve SEO, build brand, attract potential clients (or finally impress your mother). But, biased writing is typically discounted or disregarded by readers, so keep their needs in mind, not your own.

Learn – Humans have a thirst for knowledge, we strive to be continuously learning, so being a resource is an excellent way to earn readership. Incorporate tips and information that enable a “knowledge take-away” (like a check list!). Informing is good, but teaching is better (without being preachy or condescending).

There are many considerations in writing good and accessible content. You may also want to check out 5 Tips for User Friendly Content.

22 December 2019

3 Ways to Improve Your Website

Keyboard with "time t Update" key for PROSAR website improvement blog

In addition to regular content additions to keep your website fresh and a maintenance program to ensure that your website is technically up-to-date and secure. Here are three things you can do to leverage your website more effectively:

Marketers learn that Features explain what something does, while Benefits describe why it matters to the user. Then they can internalize and personalize material, making them more likely to act on your information.

Regardless of what your organization does, you’re selling something: products, services, memberships, ideas, etc. — there is a persuasive purpose for your website. Making your content meaningful to the user and helping them visualize how it makes their life better or easier, will have greater impact. Take advantage of your website to effectively position your organization and its message with persuasive and contextualized content. [Read more: 5 Reasons to Use Content Marketing]

Content Audit

Do you know what content you have and how it fits into your overall marketing and sales goals? Don’t worry, most companies don’t. (This blog will help you get started: Own Your Content)

Having content is good, but in order for it to be strategic it needs to fit into a plan. The plan determines what you need, the audit reveals what you have, you determine how it fits into the overall strategy and what other pieces you need to fill the holes. To make this manageable, we use a spreadsheet with columns for:

Source (web page, blog, whitepaper, infographic, etc.)
Topic
Name/Title
Funnel (does it fit top, middle or low in the info/sales cycle)
Workflow (what workflow or campaign is it part of)
Usability (our own scale on how useful/effective it is for our audience)
CTA (is there a relevant/custom call-to-action/ad in the content

Improving SEO and AODA

Keywords are still important, but keyword stuffing will cost you. Google’s keen sense of good online content can sniff out the junk to determine what is truly a good resource with many layers and forms of relevant content. Meta data is still important as it is used in your search displays, so word your page titles and descriptions carefully, to engage potential readers as they search the web. Check out our 5-Minute SEO Check You Can Do Yourself.

For several years, Ontario has been rolling out the web applications of AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act), a set of guidelines to make Ontario more accessible for people with disabilities. Websites are now judged on whether they adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, AA compliance (except for live audio and video). The timeline for when compliance is required can be found on Ontario’s AODA page. In addition to being complaint, making your website accessible according to WCAG opens your website to a wider variety of potential prospects, improves SEO results and earns goodwill among clients. Check out our article on freindly user-content as a starting point.

Marketing Automation

Often referred to as Inbound Marketing, automated marketing enables a series of tasks to be automatically completed when triggered. For example, a client clicks on an e-newsletter link to your “Our Widgits” web page, and visits a specific new widget page three more times in a week. That shows some obvious interest, so your website may automatically send an email to the client with more information on that specific widgit, additional shipping information and a link to your delivery schedule. If your client clicks on the delivery link, another more informative email could be sent, and the appropriate sales rep sent a prompt to call said client immediately. II the client doesn’t click on the delivery link, then a different email with other information and an incentive might be appropriate, or links to relevant blog articles, or references from other clients who have ordered that widgit…

Point being, strategic tasks can be set up to happen automatically, accommodating for the receiver’s actions and sending the right information at the right time. It allows you to look after prospects’ and clients’ needs efficiently and effectively.

Use of dynamic content, presenting different content on a page for different buyer personas, further nurtures leads, and extensive tracking and reporting provides insight and intelligence to make the user-experience as rewarding as possible.

There is much that your website could be doing to better communicate and engage with your audience. Start taking some steps to leverage its potential.

26 February 201912 August 2022

3 Ways to Activate Your Website

Business person using laptop with icons of website, email, customer, data, marketing automation for PROSAR blog

It’s common practice to check out a company’s website before deciding to use their product or service. We all do it; either to learn specific information about the product/service, gain further insight into its use, or simply to feel more comfortable with the company before making a purchase or commitment. This is true for both B2C and B2B, online and in-store purchases, packaged goods and professional services.

Understandably, companies are doing their best to create websites that engage with targeted audiences. Savvy organizations are:

Presenting what they do in a stylish and easy to navigate manner.
Making their website easy to use on tablets and smartphones.
Ensuring their website is accessible for people with disabilities (a legal requirement for some organizations).
Incorporating meta information and strategically worded content to build a solid foundation for SEO.
Engaging readers with relevant and interesting information.
Positioning their brand with messaging and imagery for greater impact.

So, let’s assume you’ve done all the above and have a good looking, informative website that provides a good user-experience on any device. Good for you… however, you can do more. If you expect your website to play an active role in your marketing, it needs to go beyond passively presenting and further engage your audience.

Here are three areas where your website can play a more active role in increasing awareness, improving your message and brand, and facilitating growth. Note that PROSAR is a SharpSpring Partner, so naturally we recommend SharpSpring as a cost-efficient and comprehensive marketing automation solution, but there are many good automated marketing platforms such as HubSpot, Pardot, Marketo, etc.; and software specifically for email such as MailChimp.

Automated Emails

Going beyond an auto-reply email greeting when someone completes a form, your website can assist in nurturing relationships and prompting conversations when people have indicated an interest.

In their pre-purchase research, consumers may visit several websites looking for something specific or simply wanting to feel comfortable before they commit. Most consumers don’t announce that they are ready to buy, but they do provide signals. Wouldn’t it be ideal if your website could help identify those potential customers and reach out to them?

When a known user returns to your website within 24 hours or visits specific pages, a personalized and customized email could automatically be sent them. Perhaps providing details on the products they were looking at, informing them of an incentive (price, warranty, added value, etc.), suggesting an appointment, call or chat to answer questions… there are many ways to engage and determine how you can help them.
When someone downloads a resource from your website it can trigger a scheduled series of personalized and tailored emails with tips, related products/services, articles of interest, other relevant resources.
On an e-commerce website, an abandoned shopping cart or product comparisons could trigger a series of emails designed to provide information and insight, or bundling cost advantages on the specific products.

Workflows are series of emails crafted in advance and triggered by prospects’ specific behaviours. The flowchart can be as simple or complicated as you wish, with every if-this-then-that sequence of decisions triggering different emails. The prospects’ actions control what emails are sent to help them with their purchase decision.

Notifications should be added to the workflow so that marketing and sales staff can be alerted when and how a prospect would like information or assistance. Notifications can even alert when a prospect is on the website browsing.

Automated emails are not an excuse to force your information on unwilling recipients; the objective is to provide information to those who are seeking it. Harassment is not good business, the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) imposes strict and sensible regulations on how a company can engage with people via email, you can read more about CASL here.

Dynamic Content
On your website, as in your daily life, what you say and how you say it matters. When we speak, we typically cater our words to the audience we are addressing. Most websites are static in nature (ours included these days!). They are filled with relevant, but generic content. Many larger companies have people dedicated to their website and social media accounts, so content can be updated, making it more relevant and topical. However, it is typically focused on a single targeted audience, or worded to address as large a segment of the public as possible.

Personas are being used more and more by organizations to better understand and target specific audience segments. SharpSpring tools enable different versions of emails and website pages so that headlines, text and images can be customized for specific audience segments. When the website identifies a user, it will present the content that relates to that persona. One of the underlining benefits of marketing automation is the ability to target your ideal customer personas and treat them as individuals.

Dynamic content facilitates more appropriate and persuasive communication with targeted audience segments. It also improves SEO by tailoring versions of your content with specific search terms. Such strategically worded content impacts being found online, effectively presenting your message, and converting leads to customers.

Conversion Process

Combining personas, dynamic content, workflows and email campaigns with tracking, lead scoring and a full CRM tool (Client Relationship Management) provides a platform to nurture and convert prospects. This complete package is how things come together to more effectively (and efficiently) manage prospects and customers. By tracking user behaviour and notifying marketing and sales staff, your website plays an important role in supporting your customers and identifying prospects.

Marketers can identify trends and create customized content and workflows (emails and landing pages) to address them. Salespeople are notified of potential interest and reminded of customers who have not been active, triggering workflows to engage and retain lapsed customers.

Your website can be more than a 24/7 online brochure. It can be actively participate in the marketing and sales process by attracting, engaging and converting leads, as well as maintaining existing customers. Unlike social media, your website is a stable hub that you control. It is an ideal resource to go beyond passive information presentation and effectively engage with your targeted audiences.

12 November 2018

Gotta Get Gutenberg?

PROSAR Blog - WordPress 5_image of computer, smartphone and sketch of web page

Just as Johannes Gutenberg revolutionized printing with the invention of an effective mechanized printing press, WordPress believes it is releasing the next evolution in website development. In truth, it is trying to catch up to the current Page Builder themes that third-party organizations have created for WordPress. WordPress 5.0, also called Gutenberg, is being hyped by many — but just as many experienced designers and developers are dreading the release. It offers drag and drop and simpler building tools to create websites. (If you’re one of our SharpSpring clients, Gutenberg shares the same block and element structure as SharpSpring’s email and landing page editors.) This ease of use will make website creation more accessible to the greater population, but it comes with significant restrictions for those wanting to create unique and creatively branded websites.

The consensus among developers and designers that we’ve spoken to is that WordPress 5.0/Gutenberg is far more limited than most of the Page Builder themes developed for the Classic WordPress.

Unfortunately, WordPress 5.0 won’t play nice with Page Builder themes (which includes many of the newer, more sophisticated themes). Websites built with these themes, and updated to WordPress 5.0 will need significant work to maintain design and functionality (and some features and design may be lost). If you are planning to update to WordPress 5.0, budget the time and cost for that design and development work.

As with any new software release, there will be bugs and glitches. This is what most scares the programmers we deal with. We recommend not switching to WordPress 5.0 for six months at least. Let them go through several patches, fixes and upgrades of the beta release with other websites before you make the jump.

WordPress has already proven itself to be a dominant force and a leader in website creation. Gutenberg may be a harbinger of the future in WordPress website creation, certainly as they add features and upgrade it. The digital world continues to progress in a constant state of flux and we will likely embrace the evolution of WordPress down the road. For now, we recommend maintaining what you have, sit back and watch the parade for a bit until it has truly found its way and is moving along smoothly.

25 September 2018

I Have a Website, Why Do I Need Branding?

This is a question asked by many small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners looking to grow their businesses. It’s a question we expect and we’re happy to discuss. Branding is an essential part of a marketing strategy, which is where it all should begin.

Branding Defined

What is my brand? is often the next question. Fair enough, many SME leaders are a little fuzzy on the specifics. Branding used to be defined as a name, symbol or design that identifies a product or a company and distinguishes it from others. However, branding has always been more than a logo or a catchy name. It transcends an impressive business card, updated website, and even a popular Facebook page. Branding is an expression of the value your organization delivers and the experience of dealing with you. It is the essence of your organization personified.

If that hasn’t completely clarified branding for you, the main take-away is that branding is the over-riding influence on everything your organization does. It should guide every touchpoint: it is the look ‘n’ feel of your ads and marketing collateral, the words and tone used in all communications, the way your staff deal with people in-person, over the phone and online, the atmosphere and feeling in your videos…

Branding incorporates science and art to convey the experiential — like a corporate deity it is omnipresent. So, it’s understandable that the concept is a little fuzzy for many, however it is important to take the time to clarify and structure your brand. Effective branding allows you to communicate that value in a unique way, integrated within everything you do.

What About My Mission Statement?

If branding is about expressing who you are and the value you provide, what about my mission statement… that we worked so hard on writing? Valid question, and good for you for having a mission statement.

Mission statements are important internal documents to guide decision-making and externally to inform the public as to your collective belief system and corporate raison d’être. Unfortunately, they often tend to be filled with unclear corporate-speak and declarations on how great a company is; neither of which is much good internally or externally. Focusing on simply communicating why your organization exists can help in writing a succinct and clear mission statement.

Both your mission statement and your brand are borne out of what you do and why you do it. Your mission statement is the down-to-earth description of what you do, and your brand is the face and implementation. It probably goes without saying that your branding strategy should reflect your mission statement, and your mission statement should reflect your branding. As such there are a subtle, yet pervasive, means of underlining your reason for being in business. (Check out How A Mission Statement Improves Your SEO)

How Does my Brand Affect my Website?

How does this relate to my website? One of the great things about having an effective brand is that it delivers a standard of messaging consistency. So, brand directs all collateral and communication, including your website. Brand covers visual and communicative tone that your entire organization can get behind. (In fact, effective brands are worn with pride by its employees, it has a rallying effect that keeps everyone singing the same song.)

Many companies approach a website as a technical project, when it is actually a communications and marketing project that involves technical ability. Equally important to the programming are the design and writing. A website, in all of its modern digital glory, provides several means to convey the essence of your organization: visual, aural and interaction strengthen your message. As such, it is an opportunity to fully introduce your organization, engage and nurture relationships.

There is an implied promise behind a brand that what you do as an organization will be consistent in quality, service delivery and in-keeping with your corporate ethics and beliefs. Today’s reality is that most people who interact with you will visit your website. It is therefore critical that your website effectively convey your brand and support a trusting relationship.

6 September 2018

3 Steps to Implementing Personas

PROSAR persona audits - illustration of many different faces

Personas are more than a buzzword, they help you to define and cater to a company’s multiple audiences. While audience segmentation is nothing new, marketing automation tools and content-based marketing (with heavy analytics integration) has made personas a powerful tool for maintaining customers and getting new sales. The more you integrate personas into your marketing automation processes, the more likely you are to speak directly to your audience segments and connect with them, directing your messaging specifically for them.

If you haven’t started using personas, what are you waiting for? Using them is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

1- Determining Your Personas

Determining your personas involves a mix of looking at your ideal audience and your actual, established audience. Even if you have a large client base already, have you really taken the time to figure out who, exactly, it is your serving.

This is a good opportunity to see how well you’re serving your market. If your ideal audience and your actual audience are too far separated, you might want to re evaluate your marketing plan.

You’ll want to gather data in generally-homogeneous groups, but what those groups are is up to you. Depending on your market, you might divide it by job title, age, relationship status, company size, or industries that use your product.

It’s important to not limit the number of personas you use, but don’t over segment your audience either. You want to look for groups that have similar buying patterns and product/service needs.

2- Persona Templates

There are as many persona templates as there are CRMs. If you have a platform like SharpSpring, you’ll want to follow their template.

Be mindful to make the persona template as usable as possible — you will, after all, be using these to guide your marketing strategy and content. This means that beyond demographics, you’ll want to focus on USPs, Motives, and Pain Points.

USPs, or Unique Selling Propositions, is the objective the persona is looking to fulfill. Their motive is why they want it, and what will drive them to eventually buy it. And pain points consider possible problems/barriers they have that you can help them solve.

Other pieces of information — like their overreaching price-sensitivity, the length of their sales cycle, and what they value in a product/service (including the level of customer service they want, how much they want something to solve their problems) — are also important to keep track of. That data is going to influence how you speak to your personas, and can help you figure out how many audience segments you have.

By honing these elements down to something that is unified across market segments, you get an idea of who your clients are. You can then adjust your content accordingly, and take one more step to increasing conversions.

3- Using Personas

Once you’ve determined your personas and completed your templates, you need to start applying the insights you’ve gained.

If you have a CRM or automated marketing platform with dynamic content, personas are the way to segment them and help reach your audiences more effectively. This allows you to have a single piece of content that speaks to each persona, helping to create relationships, increase conversions and lower the amount of campaigns you need to run.

Dynamic content also applies to digital campaigns, as most online platforms allow you to segment by demographic information, interests, how much they’ve interacted with your company before, and a lot of other metrics that allow you to have a dynamic content experience.

Beyond dynamic content, personas can help focus your content strategy for your campaigns, website text, social media posts, and more. Once you’ve created your audience segments, you can start speaking directly to them with your content and structure what pre-existing content you have into categories that allow each persona to find the content they need without fuss. Personas should influence your website content, blog writing, whitepapers, landing pages, and any other marketing efforts you create. Some of your content likely already fits your personas (it’s how you got your current clients, after all), but refining it is a prime way to help draw more people to your website and conversion process.

16 August 2018

Does Your Content Go the Distance?

PROSAR Blog Image_Letter cubes spilled from a cup,spelling CONTENT

With exponentially more content available to your target audiences from myriad sources, your content had better be performing. Follow the A, E, I, O and U principle.

For all organizations — large and small, corporate and non-profit — content marketing has become a more complex activity. It’s no longer adequate to drive traffic to an information-loaded, passive website. Today’s digital devotees are responding to curated content, presented with their perspective in mind, thoughtfully packaged in accessible and easy to absorb (and share) formats. Successful writers and editors have expanded their skill set and become veritable content engineers.

Enticing such a savvy audience requires a professionally branded online presence (website, appropriate social media and content) along with strategically developed content resources that will Attract, Engage, Inform, Offer and Understand.

Improve SEO and Engagement with Relevant Content Encourages Action

Writing content designed to attract, engage and inform seems to be the goal of most good writers. Material that improves organic SEO and interests the reader is key to good content, but the goal post should be moved further. Every organization has motive for publishing/posting content; that goal is to persuade the reader to take some specific action: buying a product/service, registering for a seminar, joining an association, signing a petition, etc. Creating awareness is a critical first step, but on its own — without the offer — it has achieved little value for the organization.

To be successful, the offer needs to be of value to the reader, and should therefore be appropriate for where the content is in the sales funnel. For example, an association looking for new members shouldn’t necessarily ask a reader to join simply because they registered for a blog article. An invitation to download more detailed, or related, information would be more appropriate. On the other hand, a reader on an HVAC site, who has visited several product pages on air conditioners and downloaded “10 Things You Need to Know When Buying an Air Conditioner,” may be ready to book a sales appointment in the showroom.

The take-away here is that interesting content with the right keywords is not the end goal; you should include an offer associated with the content to move the reader further down the funnel.

Create Personas and Content Strategy for Better Results

The next step in the process of attracting, engaging and converting readers is understanding. Hopefully, you have already created personas for your target audiences and you have a solid understanding of their perspective, needs and wants. Now is the time to demonstrate that knowledge and try to develop a relationship. People are relationship driven and we choose to deal with those we trust and those that show they care. The best way to develop and maintain a trusting relationship is via the content you produce and the communication you have directly with the reader (which is, after all, more content).

The reality is that most of your readers will not engage with you. (I know, it hurts.) Even if they liked what they read, most will be hesitant to move further with your relationship attempts. Understanding their point of view and the type of information that interests them allows you to provide more information and other offers that help you gain trusted relationship status. Welcoming readers further along your funnel with relevant content and thoughtful offers is part of the nurturing process, as well as an important aspect of actively maintaining customers.

Back to the content engineering: doing it right is a lot of work. Developing strategy, researching and defining personas, creating a content plan, developing topics, themes and keywords… this all happens before the actual research writing and editing. Then you have the actual implementation monitoring and responding. If you’re taking advantage of marketing automation you’ll also need to develop emails, landing pages and strategic workflows to nurture your interested readers.

Whether you contract out these tasks (which will still require some significant time from you and your team), or handle it all internally, you’re best advised to budget time and money to be successful. Either way, ensure to use a comprehensive process that will attract, engage, inform, offer and understand your readers.

10 July 2018

5 Considerations for Your Unique Selling Proposition

Unique Selling proposition hand-written for PROSAR blog

What are the unique characteristics that make your organization valuable to potential customers? If you had the classic 15-second elevator ride with a key prospect, what would you say to them?

Most likely you would struggle with a muddled sense of what your organization does but fail to present a cohesive and compelling introduction. How convenient it would have been if you were ready with a well-crafted Unique Selling Proposition (USP). A good USP accomplishes several objectives:

Differentiates your organization
Identifies the benefit(s) of dealing with your organization
Supports your brand
Engages the listener and creates interest

The concept of a Unique Selling Proposition goes back to the 1940s and has been used ever since to help marketers and salespeople focus on key statements that could influence potential buyers. Whether the buyer is a consumer or a business, and whether they’re searching for a service, a product or even an association to join, a USP can be instrumental in influencing their decision. Regardless of what you’re selling, the ability to communicate clearly and persuasively will help you be more successful.

A well-crafted Unique Selling Proposition is very powerful as it guides your marketing content and tone. It typically finds its way into your advertising copy. And moving beyond words, consider how you could incorporate your USP in processes and procedures, influencing the organization’s culture.

Here are five key points to consider when crafting your Unique Selling Proposition.

Be Specific: You don’t have time for a backstory; immediately hone in on the benefits you offer that distinguishes your organization. Remember that the point is not simply to enumerate why your organization is good, but why it is UNIQUE. Specify what makes you ideal in comparison to others.
Be Succinct: Clearly and quickly state your case. Your audience doesn’t need a description of how you do what you do (unless that is what makes you unique), however they do need sufficient context to determine any relevance for them. Include the context they need within your simple and short statement.
Be Compelling: It’s essential that you grab them right away. What’s in it for them? If they don’t care, they won’t listen, not even for 15 seconds. Consider not only how your service/product is relevant, but how it will make their life better. Present it in a compelling manner to give your statement more impact and grab their attention.
Be Consistent: Support your brand and organizational raison d’être. Not only does this make sense to positively position your organization, but if there is a disconnect between your USP and your established branding, or way of doing business, it can cause confusion and mistrust.
Be Honest: You want your statement to have impact and even be a little dramatic, but this isn’t the time for hyperbole. If your USP is not genuine it will sound like a sales schpeel, and that won’t interest anyone. If prospects don’t feel they can trust you, they won’t be interested in hearing any further from you. (And don’t forget that if you are successful, you have to deliver on what you’ve promised.)

Your organization may require several USPs to effectively address distinct audiences for different services/products, or for different market segments. You won’t be able to be specific, succinct and compelling if you’re trying to talk to many different audiences at the same time. It would be more strategic, and successful, to customize your USP for each targeted market segment.

This can be quite a process and it may take some time to hone your USPs until you feel they properly represent your organization. After you have internal consensus, I suggest vetting your draft USPs with clients and suppliers. Do the hard work and you’ll be ready to start riding the elevators with anticipation of that perfect prospect to walk in. Admittedly, that may never happen. But you will be involved in sales calls and networking when you’ll definitely have the opportunity to succinctly and compellingly state your organization’s value. And you’ll shine — you know what they say, “Luck favours the well-prepared.”

22 June 201813 August 2021

3 Strategic Considerations for Your Website

PROSAR Blog on Effective Websites Stylish image of laptop with Effective on screen

When we ask, “Is your website part of your marketing plan?”, most organizations affirm that, indeed, their website is an important part of their overall marketing. But often, they’re wrong.

Many websites are simply an online brochure with little more than some background and a listing of services/products offered. Oh, and a Contact Us page with a form inviting people to “Contact us!” That isn’t marketing, it is informing. Information isn’t a bad thing, but on its own it’s rather passive and unproductive.

The goal of marketing is to effectively communicate with a target market to align perceptions and reinforce or change behavior. Essentially, if you say the right thing in the right way to the right people at the right time — you should see some positive result. What results are you getting from your website?

With the great functionality available online, websites are an opportunity to do so much more than simply inform. By presenting information in engaging ways and using marketing automation tactics to build relationships, your website can complement and contribute to your marketing plan. To help make your website an active part of your marketing initiatives, consider the following suggestions.

Provide Content with Context

Go beyond simply presenting facts. Certainly, you should be factual and include details, but also provide context to make it relevant to your main audience. Why should they care, what’s in it for them? Marketers learn that Features explain what something does, while Benefits describe why it matters to the user. Then they can internalize and personalize material, making them more likely to act on your information.

Try to Interest and Engage

As you add relevant (and contextual) information, consider how to present it in an interesting manner. Infographics, animations, video, etc. make information more fun and often more memorable. People learn differently, so providing more than one way to interact with your information can improve the strength of your message.

Providing different formats also makes your information more shareable. Encouraging sharing and integrating your social media accounts with your content is a powerful conduit to reaching a larger audience and creating more meaningful ties.

Explore non-frivolous ways for the user to interact with your website. Polls, forms and other interactive online tools are important to gain information about your users and even start a dialogue. This can guide more effective communication, perhaps with dynamic content, and even lead to sales conversions. Use different and dynamic formats on your website to engage your audience. [Read more: Improve Conversions with Dynamic Landing Pages]

Create a Continuous Plan

Kaizen is the Japanese philosophy of ongoing improvement that North American businesses embraced in the 1980s. Some are still working at it (which is, after all, the point). It is a smart strategy to consider for your website, since your site is never “done.”

Most organizations realize the importance of keeping their website up-to-date and adding new content (including different media formats). Some companies go further and integrate promotions with emails and create new landing pages for each campaign, others track behaviour on their websites and make subtle changes to improve the user-experience or take advantage of high traffic pages.

Your website is a never-ending story, an evolving presentation that welcomes old and new visitors to drop in at any time. A plan that involves routine updating and analyzing, integrates communications and promotions, and facilitates the sales process, will maintain your website as an effective marketing tool.

It’s easy to treat your website as a constant, but that shouldn’t make it static. Ideally, it is constantly evolving and growing to better communicate with your target audiences and continue to provide the information and experience they are looking for. Consider and practice these three points; this process can reward you with business growth and loyalty. [Read more: Using Growth Driven Design to Make Existing Websites Perform]