Two days ago, I was informed that “PattyHewes” was following me on Twitter. I took a quick look, but didn’t recognize the photo of Glen Close.

I did, however, notice the hardass tweets, which included:

@gjkooijman That’s what Tom Shayes discovered. He thought he was ready to run the show after years of being in my shadow. How wrong he was.

Everyone thinks they want to be at the top. But most are just fooling themselves. Few have the stomach for it. Or the balls.

OK, that’s not someone I need to follow.

I forgot about it until the next day, when I was followed by another character who tweeted “If @PattyHewes is following you, you *should* be scared. You should be terrified.”

That got my attention.

A quick visit, then I put the pieces together – both were characters in a TV series called “Damages” and I’d been Twitterbaited (I thought I’d made that up myself until I googled it).

It’s a creative tactic, though a little unsettling to see TV characters crossing the digital divide into the “real” world (the “reality” of Twitter could probably be debated).

The characters are adding new tweets (about one per day), and the list of followed and followers continues to grow.

Will some consider this the Twitter equivalent of spam; a breach of etiquette that will outweigh the advertising aspect?

Keep writing, Tom Chandler

Hit TV show Mad Men is apparently using Twitter to communicate with its audience – in the voices of its leading characters.

You can read the whole story at American Copywriter, but here’s a tease:

For instance, last Sunday morning, well before the episode aired, @don_draper tweeted: “Wishing I didn’t have to spend most of my Sunday at the office.” It was later revealed in the show, of course, that Draper had to head into the city to work on the American Airlines pitch. Nice.

It’s a pretty example of engagement marketing via social network tools. Engaging with an audience is about tapping into shared values and passions, and nowhere is it written the people sharing those passions and values have to be real.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Its launch coincides with the rollout of several new Dell computers, though at its heart, Digital Nomads isn’t simply a product microsite.

Instead, it offers visitors a truckload of social network opportunities: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, an online community, and even a crowd-sourced white paper. (Warming the heart of marketing executives everywhere is the realization that most social network channels are free, provided you can fill them with content.)

This interesting bit of messaging came from the initial post on the Digital Nomads blog:

We’re all becoming digital nomads. And nomads want to know how to use
their technology in the most productive way every day. So, we decided
to create a site dedicated to Digital Nomads — a community where you
can network with others, learn and share ideas, and hear from some of
the best who are doing exactly what you do.

Compare that with the message found on the Dell blog:

Lots of folks are out there are connecting to the Internet to work from remote locations—places like coffee shops, conference rooms, airports, etc. Technology is enabling that capability through things like Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, cell phone networks and a host of mobile devices.

Those trends are changing the landscape of how work gets done and how people connect with each other. We hope to foster conversations about these trends and the technology and devices that are driving them.

They’re delivering largely the same message, but Digital Nomads does so in a direct, personal, engaging way.

The Dell blog reads like a corporate PR flack trying to sound folksy, and therein lies the value of a site like Digital Nomads.

Given the rapid adoption of microsites among the direct response crowd, it’s not that surprising to see Digital Nomads launched into what is likely Dell’s fastest-growing market segement.

Like any good community, Digital Nomads wants its users to identify themselves:

As I tell my clients, the static home page – packed with corporatespeak – is largely dead (though you still have to pry the monolithic, one-size-fits-all Web site from their fingers).

Is Digital Nomads is one more nail in the coffin? Undergrounders, the floor is yours.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Business blogs aren’t exactly booming — at least according to Ken Magill in a Direct Magazine post, where he cites a Forrester report documenting rapid decline in business blog growth:

Business-to-business blogging took a nosedive this year, mainly because returns on corporate blogs haven’t matched investment, according to a recent report by Forrester Research.

…the number of new corporate blogs has dropped sharply in the last year and a half, according to the report, with 36 companies launching them in 2006, 19 in 2007, and just three in the first quarter of 2008, according to Forrester.

The problem? Corporations repeatedly fall victim to their inability to escape boring, meaningless “corporatespeak.” In fact, Forester’s report speaks to the traits required to successfully engage customers:

Successful corporate blogs “talk openly with an authentic voice,” and are “humble and honest,” two traits that run counter to many corporate egos, said Forrester’s report.

Ouch.

For corporations – who often see blogs as yet another pipeline for corporatespeak (or showcases for preening executives), the ugly truth is this: customers and prospects want useful information or thought leadership, and they’re not getting it. (And yes, they need it coherently written.)

Some organizations have shown excellent returns from blogging (like Patagonia’s Cleanest Line), and the benefits of engaging with customers (binding them to the brand via shared passions and values) are significant.

If I were Absolute Ruler, I’d immediately recruit a good writer, slap a new job title on them (like Corporate Content Writer, though if it were me, I’d negotiate for “Content Czar”), and point them at the Internet.

Imagine the ROI of a good writer – working for a tech company — who was engaging with customers, prospects and media via blog, twitter, social networks, flick’r, YouTube, IM, eNewsletter, etc.

You don’t have to imagine it, of course. Look at what Scoble did for Microsoft.

One of the hidden truths of Web 2.0 is this: the need for copywriters who can communicate in a personable, engaging fashion is far greater than the supply.

Sadly, corporate America hasn’t realized it yet.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Next time you’re pitching a content project, don’t forget to roll out this excellent example from a Direct Magazine article by Joe Pulizzi:

Being Girl, sponsored by P&G brands Tampax and Always, is a microsite and social community dedicated to young women’s questions about PMS, dating, and other issues. Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff has reported that Being Girl is four times more effective than a similarly priced TV advertising program.

Phrases like "4 times more effective" make marketing directors sit up a little straighter — especially when you’re referring to a project run by a huge packaged goods company.

Need more ammunition?

Keynote tracked respondents’ behavior on three separate automotive microsites. Its research showed the more time visitors spent on a microsite the more likely they were to make a purchase. Even if the prospect initially was thought to be a poor candidate for buying anything, that probability soared after just a few minutes on the site.

There are a couple of important points to note here. First, relevant and valuable online information significantly affects a purchase. Second, a prospect who isn’t necessarily ready to buy can be positively influenced by Web content.

To many writers, "content marketing" means cheaply produced articles, written by the dozen, and yet it doesn’t have to be that way.

Proctor & Gamble — and many others (including niche companies like Pyramyd Air — have demonstrated the excellent returns delivered by high quality content.

The problem is this: A lot of copywriters aren’t funny. So when you need funny, it’s good policy to seek out one of the funniest people on the planet.

Witness the NXTube.com "spoof" blog, where an in-character John Cleese (yes, the Monty Python legend) masquerades as Ian MacCallister, an uptight Scottish golfer who feels Titleist’s new NXT golf balls are so good, they’re ruining the game of golf.

It’s hilarious, it’s well done, and it’s not a shallow effort; while much of the blog content is video-based, reader comments evoke in-character responses from the fictional MacCallister.

I cover the NXTube.com site in more detail on my Engagement Principles marketing blog. If you want to know what well-done humor looks like on the marketing stage, definitely worth a visit.

At this point, I’d love to produce six bullet points explaining how you can tap into the fast-growing humor copywriting market even if you’re really, really not funny.

But I can’t.

If you’re not funny, you shouldn’t try to write comedy (Really. I mean it.)

You can, however, become funnier, and in that vein, I’m offering you Today’s Single Helpful Hint (conveniently converted to a  bullet, because that’s what the pro bloggers do):

• If you want to be funnier, study funny content (comedians, humorists, funny ads, etc)

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Are copywriters keeping up? Is your copy as “relevant” as the overall online shopping environment?

When this post about relevant selling systems from Kim Proctor at How to Create Powerful Customer Experiences popped up on Google Alerts, I was intrigued:

A recent shopping survey (by Harris Interactive for MyBuys) revealed 84% of people polled shop online. But what’s most important here is that 60% of customers say they are more likely to shop with a retailer that e-mails specific recommendations based on their interests and previous purchases rather than a generic message.

This survey also found 53% of people prefer to shop with retailers that personalize their shopping experience and 65% would like retailers to offer e-mail alerts for new products or sales from brands or categories they like.

Only recently have retailers had the chance to create truly relevant sales experiences (outside of personal shoppers). In the past, most of the work has come on the list end — retailers used segment data to try and mail/e-mail the right product information to the right people.

The Dam Bursts on Relevant Selling

Today, retailers can deliver custom online shopping experiences in realtime, and some online selling systems have grown so sophisticated, they’re offering product suggestions based on an individual’s viewing/buying profile — not segment data or “others also bought these” schemes.

It represents yet another step towards the holy grail of online selling — a truly custom, wholly relevant online buying experience.

It’s also the kind of thing that makes retailers all warm and tingly. And for good reason. Highly relevant shopping experiences mean skyrocketing shopping cart averages.

It also means product copy better be just as relevant as the selling software. Or the benefits of all that powerful software will be minimized.

So what makes copy relevant?

• You better really, really know what you’re selling
• You must describe products using the customer’s language
• Descents into “I’m faking it” puffery will be immediately punished
• Conversational copy trumps formal copy

Obviously, the above have always been true. What’s different today is how quickly you’ll be punished for poor quality copy.

Simply put, the knife edge between relevant copy and bland, “I’m faking it” copy has never cut as deeply into profits as it does today.

After all, customers are dying for reasons to choose one online retailer over another; a more relevant experience (delivered via relevance technology and relevant copy) offer customers a nearly unbeatable reason for sticking around.

More on this — and how to write relevant copy — in an upcoming post.

Keep writing (relevantly), Tom Chandler.

Technorati tags: relevant selling, one-to-one selling, dynamic selling, relevant copy, copywriting, copywriter, writer, marketing writer, marketing, business writer

That’s exactly what writer Tom Gaylord did, and interested in his success formula, I called him out of the blue to talk.

Gaylord is paid to write extensively in the airgun market, and a quick survey of that niche reveals Gaylord’s name atop:

• The industry’s most-popular blog (paid for by the industry’s biggest specialty retailer)
• A series of paid (and successful) podcasts
• Countless paid product reviews and articles on multiple Web sites
• On the masthead of an online magazine as airgun editor

What’s astonishing to him isn’t that he’s writing about a topic he loves — it’s that he’s getting paid for every word.

That’s a prescription for lifelong success, and — dare I say it — long-term job satisfaction. (There’s a sentence worth reading twice.)

Gaylord’s animated face stares out from the industry’s biggest Web site.

The Airgun Market: More Than Hot Air

I became aware of Gaylord while teaching an online marketing class; I used Pyramyd Air (the airgun industry’s largest speciality retailer) as a case study in the benefits of high-quality content marketing.

(Helpful Hint: use them as an example in your own pitches.)

While their Web site is not exactly a thing of beauty, Pyramyd Air leverages high quality content better than most Fortune 500 firms. They engage customers with a wildly informative daily blog (written by Gaylord), twice-a-month podcasts (created by Gaylord), numerous “how-to” and product review articles (yes, written by Gaylord), and even short video snippets (Gaylord again).

If you look closely, you’ll even see his animated face talking to visitors from the “Tom’s Picks” product recommendation page.

Pyramyd’s site isn’t pretty, but to search engines and airgun junkies, it’s pure art.

All that high-quality content generates excellent native search results for Pyramyd, and the stream of useful engagement content renders Pyramyd’s Web site far stickier than competing sites (engagement marketing binds customers to brands via shared passions and values).

In fact, Gaylord’s blog posts often generate more than 100 comments, and the comment count on popular posts exceeds 300.

Those are startling numbers given the size of the airgun market (as a niche, it’s not exactly in the same league as celebrity gossip or computers).

With the help of their successful online marketing strategy, Pyramyd’s retail growth has been phenomenal; expansion is forcing them to relocate to a bigger building.

What I didn’t know about Pyramyd was that Gaylord pitched all those projects to the company (a practice I advocate), and that much of the company’s online success could be laid right at his feet.

In the interest of brevity, I segregated our interview into categories. Enjoy!

The Successful Writer

Tom Gaylord is a direct, precise speaker (he speaks much like he writes), yet his directness belies a thoughtful interior. He often paused after I asked an unexpected question, and his answers were responsive and to the point (not always a given).

Still, it’s not hard to see what matters to him — the first words out of Gaylord’s mouth were: “Most important is to write about the things you love doing.”

Gaylord’s writing style is conversational, and not intimidating or pedantic.

“I see my role as more an educator than salesman” he said, and his straightforward style of writing reflects it. He’s been writing about airguns for almost two decades, and expects to “continue doing so until I drop.”

How does he generate so much copy for so many venues?

“You should write about the things you love so much that you can’t wait to write the next post or article.”

The Successful Pitch

Pitching new media technologies to most business organizations isn’t for the easily discouraged. When pressed for the secrets of his success, he said “You have to start by getting to know people. You need to meet them face-to-face.

“I went to the trade show and met the owner of Pyramyd. When we first spoke about the blog, I already had a business plan ready.”

In this sense, Gaylord was lucky; the president of Pyramyd soon bought into the SEO and engagement benefits of a blog. Still, that’s not often the case, and Gaylord’s secret weapon is to find an internal champion for his information products.

“Often that’s an IT or marketing guy. Once someone on the inside is on your side, things happen.”

After the success of the blog, Gaylord kept pushing; he pitched a podcast (despite not knowing how to produce one), taught himself the technology, and delivered a catalog of podcasts that garner extremely high listening rates.

Gaylord couldn’t produce a podcast until he sold one. Now he has a page of them.

Still, the initial pitch wasn’t a no-brainer — until Gaylord found an effective sales tactic.

“I told them it was better to pay me to write the articles than it was to spend the money on SEO optimization or a huge keyword buy.”

That’s an intriguing tactic. Many companies spend small fortunes on AdWords and SEO optimization, but are experiencing diminishing returns.

The Successful Blog

Gaylord’s Five Rules of Successful Commercial Blogging are refreshingly simple, and reflect his down-home approach to the subject of writing for a living:

• Write about what you know and love
• You don’t have to know everything
• Charge appropriate to your market
• Serialize when the subject gets long
• Edit your work (People may use poor grammar and punctuation, but they don’t want to read it)

His posts are crammed with information, and slaughter some of blogging’s sacred cows. They’re long (by blogging standards), and though he breaks up the text with frequent subheads, the subheads (and copy) lack hype or strong benefits.

It’s an excellent illustration of engagement writing; he’s talking to a very engaged audience, and the slow buildup of disbelief fostered by excessively amped copy would eventually damage his credibility with readers.

They want information and a demonstrated passion for the sport, and he provides it. Gaylord’s writing is either a great example of a refined editorial/commercial writing style, or one of the softest sales pitches you’ve ever seen.

The Conflicts

When I asked Gaylord about walking that fine line between PR hack and credible writer, he knew exactly what I was talking about.

“I have to maintain my credibility, so I don’t say good things about bad products. And though I’m not an employee of Pyramyd, I represent them, so I watch what I say.”

Apparently, Gaylord’s done a good job maintaining credibility with readers and retailers; his articles appear on the Web sites of several competing retailers, and he recently wrote a blog entry largely condemning a new air pistol with “As the Typhoon stands today, it has very little to recommend it.”

Nothing creates credibility with a client like success, and given Gaylord’s contribution to Pyramyd’s rise, he’s built the credibility needed to deliver a less-than-shining product review — or pitch Pyramyd on new technologies.

The Job

“I’ve held a variety of regular jobs in my life, and I did not like them. When I found out I could make a living doing this fulltime — something I’d probably do anyway — I said to my wife ‘they’ll pay me to do this?’”

The fact that Gaylord hasn’t read a shelf of “How to write copy that sells” books likely works in his favor; the new engagement writer isn’t pitching products, he’s engaging via shared passions and values, and engagement doesn’t exist in an excessively hype-laden environment.

In fact, Gaylord isn’t really a copywriter in the classic sense, and he’ll likely never have the lead spread in Inc. magazine.

He’s simply a writer seriously engaged with his subject matter — so much so that he infects his readers with his enthusiasm.

In short, what Gaylord’s really selling isn’t airguns or pellets; the product here is his rampant, authentic passion for airgunning.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler

Technorati tags: tom gaylord, pyramyd air, copywriting, writing, engagement, engagement marketing, engagement writing, airguns, interview

Proof can be found in an excellent New York Times article, which outlines the extent to which marketing giant Nike is already channeling its marketing budget into engagement marketing:

Last year, Nike spent just 33 percent of its $678 million United States advertising budget on ads with television networks and other traditional media companies. That’s down from 55 percent 10 years ago, according to the trade publication Advertising Age.

”We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive,” Mr. Edwards says he tells many media executives. ”We’re in the business of connecting with consumers.” (emphasis added)

If you’re in advertising sales, you wince at that last paragraph.

Nike’s “Nike+” running site is a social network for runners. No Michael Jordan ads here.

Nike — the 800-pound interrupt marketing gorilla in the sports world — is increasingly betting on social media, branded content and engagement marketing (where brands engage with the passions and values of their customers).

For example, many of Nike’s video efforts aren’t even broadcast; they’re simply released as viral videos. Plus, Nike’s investing in social networks sites (like the Nike+ running site shown above) — and all this at the expense of their traditional advertising budget.

Nike’s not alone; from the same New York Times article:

Add it up, and the money flowing out of the traditional media is huge — even at a time when ad budgets in general are growing, advertising research shows. The 25 companies that spent the most on advertising over the last five years cut their spending last year in traditional media by about $767 million, according to Advertising Age and TNS Media Intelligence.

And in the first half of this year, those companies decreased their media spending an additional 3 percent, or $446 million, to $14.53 billion, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

I discussed the implications in greater depth on my Engagement Principles blog. And I believe the New York Times article should be mandatory reading for any copywriter more than a few months away from retirement.

What’s this mean to you? In truth, copywriters have always wanted to engage their readers — it’s just that we lacked the technology to do so affordably.

It’s likely that copywriters will be writing more branded/engagement copy (and fewer ads) in the future. It’s also likely long-running programs will take the place of one-off projects, a change which bodes well for revenues.

How Can the Modern Copywriter Benefit?

First, learn about concepts like “customer lifetime value” and RFM (recency, frequency and money). After all, we’re marketers, not word jockeys.

Second, it’s helpful to test-fly engagement technologies before you tell a client you understand them (and find yourself under a tight deadline). Looking foolish is bad.

Third, bookmark the New York Times article, and use the most compelling figures in your own client pitches. For example, someone asks you to bid on an e-newsletter. Every other writer simply responds with a price.

You respond with a price, and justify it with background, trends data, compelling statistics — maybe even a project ROI analysis.

Now tell me — who’s going to get the job?

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

[tags]copywriter, copywriting, engagement marketing, marketing, nike, nike+, nikeplus.com, relationship marketing[/tags]

With consumers facing a constant barrage of marketing messages — and marketers struggling to make even a wisp of an impression — we’re witnessing the birth of some pretty extreme interrupt marketing techniques (including the two-second radio “shock” commercial as chronicled by Michael Stelzner).

Escalating the “shock” value of a message offers a temporary refuge, but the contact often acquires an adversarial taint. It’s little wonder marketers are looking for alternatives.

Which is where you step in. You’re the engagement copywriter.

The Rise of Engagement Marketing

Look hard at the emerging marketing arsenal: blogs, social networking sites, wikis, texting & interactive mobile, etc.

All are effective marketing tools. And all are exceptional vehicles for engagement — the loyalty-building tactic where a brand connects with customers via shared values and passions.

The key is two-way communication; not only do customers receive messages, but they respond to them (in fact, that’s kinda the point). In some cases, they generate their own brand-related content and network with other “brand fans.”

It’s an active (and welcome) alternative to traditional media channels, where customers are expected to sit idly while messages are shoved down the pipeline. Engagement isn’t a replacement for traditional interrupt marketing, but it’s an interesting (and growing) discipline that binds customers to brands.

It also expands a customer’s “acceptance bandwidth” (the amount of time they’ll invest in your message), and creates the brand loyalty so many “membership” programs strive for but don’t achieve.

The good news? You won’t have to rebuild your copywriter’s toolkit — the techniques are similar. But engagement copywriting does have its own set of rules.

The Rules of Writing For Engagement

The engagement copywriter combines the snap of the direct marketer, the charm of an entertainer, and the passion of a poet. More often than not, you’re writing a blog, e-newsletter, social network or other similar media channel (long-term gigs). So how do you do it? What are the rules of engagement?

• You’re engaging the reader around shared passions and values (which often excludes flogging product features)
• The conversation is typically “chunked” into small bites and dispensed over time
• You must be authentic — or the passion-drive partisans will sniff you out and hang your brand in effigy
• Invite your readers into the conversation; let them define the direction

Where Do Copywriters Go Wrong?

Where most businesses (and writers) go wrong with engagement is the product copy — or rather, the utter lack of it. Some of the better engagement blogs talk about anything but the products in question, and why not? If the goal is to bind the reader to the brand, then a demonstration of shared values or passions is the strongest adhesive known to the marketing world.

After all, product superiority is fleeting; whatever advantage your product enjoys today can disappear tomorrow. Engagement typically binds customers to a brand more than a product, a reality which elevates the conversation far beyond features and bullet points.

The second most common mistake? It’s not inviting participation. I’m writing an article for an online magazine about a pair of business blogs that appear to be publishing the right content, but fail badly in the “ask for a response” department.

It’s yet another way the engagement copywriter practices the same craft as the direct response writer; in both cases, you need to ask for the response you want.

In fact, the central tenets of copywriting apply to writing for engagement: be clear, be intriguing, be captivating, and be dramatic (no writer bores a reader into submission).

The Future of Engagement Copywriting

It’s tempting to declare traditional copywriting “dead” and announce the ascension of engagement writing in its stead.

Of course, it’s bullshit. A good “interrupt” copywriter will be a good “engagement” copywriter — provided you recognize the different goals and techniques.

[tags]copywriting, writing, marketing, [/tags]