Humour is a great way to sell. It catches people’s attention, engages them, and injects an element of humanity into otherwise static information. People love to be entertained, and if you can keep them amused while promoting your products or services, then all the better (nice job, Old Spice). What’s more, humour can be a great way to distinguish yourself from the competition (take a bow, Groupon).

But selling through humour isn’t easy. Even if your target market finds you funny, it might not translate into sales. Every time you put that arrow through your head and play the banjo, you risk ignoring or alienating part of the market. Humour is culturally, socially, even gender specific, so you need to get it right.

Four Tips for Using Humour to Sell

1. Know your target market. True for most things in marketing, but especially critical when using humour to sell: you need to know your target market. What do they find funny? What not? What special knowledge or experiences do they share?

If you know your target market very well (and have a good read on who is not your target market) you can risk ignoring and maybe even offending everyone else. The marketers of Axe hair, body and shower products have run with this approach. Judging from their advertising, their target market is males age 16-25. With this narrow niche, they don’t concern themselves with others not getting (or liking) the joke.

2. Don’t let humour get in the way. It’s one thing to be funny but another to have it benefit your business. Remember those funny ads with the sensitive cavemen? Remember what company it was for? Neither did we. (We looked it up: it was GEICO.)

How can you make sure humour doesn’t get in the way of the product? Either keep the humour subtle or make sure your product is front and centre.

For example, we recently wrote web copy for UrbanBound, a relocation service serving the Chicago area. We added little shots of humour throughout the copy — just enough to keep it light, engaging and fun to read. Humour is a subtle side note.

When humour is more upfront, you need to keep your product or service in focus. Toyota did this brilliantly in promotional videos for the Sienna wagon. Here, humour doesn’t get in the way of the product because the product is central to the story.

3. Make sure humour is appropriate for your product or service. Humour doesn’t suit all products or services. Should City Funeral Service play for laughs? (They’re not, unless “welcome veterans” is supposed to be funny.)

For some companies, humour is a natural fit. Naked Pizza, one of the fastest growing franchises in the U.S., has nice splashes of irreverent humour throughout its web copy. And with a name like Naked Pizza, humour is a great fit. In fact, without humour the name would seem pretty creepy.

Also, if you’re seeking world domination, be especially careful when considering humour as a marketing ingredient. What might be hilarious to a New Yorker might upset people in different states or countries.

4. When humour is over-the-top, limit where you use it. When your humour is controversial or over-the-top, you might not want to apply it everywhere. Domain name and web hosting service Go Daddy gets a lot of attention for their TV and print ads, featuring underdressed, over-bosomy babes. But their web copy is straight-ahead — all business. Injecting the same humour into their web copy wouldn’t inspire confidence in their services. The no-jokes copy might also help those not enamoured with Go Daddy’s approach to hold their noses and sign up anyway.

By doing a little bit of research and carefully considering your approach, humour may bring new life to your marketing and help you stand out from stodgy competitors. Now all you have to do is make us laugh.

What tips do you have for using humour to sell? Who’s doing it well? Who’s not?

Good marketers and copywriters alike know the more you understand your target audience, the better job you can do writing and delivering your message. Sure demographics help — age, location, marital status, ethnicity and religion. But you’ll have a much richer understanding of your ideal customer if you get to know their psychographics — their lifestyles, behaviors and attitudes.

In today’s insanely diverse and competitive climate, it’s good to know everything about the person you’re trying to engage:

• What turns them on
• What turns them off
• Which words catch their attention
• What keeps their attention
• What makes them tune things out

Ways to capture groups’ subjective preferences include in-person interviews, focus groups and surveys. Also, snooping around sites like Twitter and Facebook offers a quick, easy and inexpensive route to uncover streams of priceless insight.

As you gain greater awareness about your audience’s lifestyles, attitudes, beliefs, values and personalities, you’ll also better understand their buying motives and product usage. For instance, would they purchase the beautification product to look younger, attract a mate, or for general health, and would they use the beautification product at home, on trips, or only at a salon?

What Types of Psychographic Groups Are There?

There are common psychographic profiles that people fit into:

The Belonger — Family-orientated, and likes the feeling of belonging to a community. Much of their time is spent with friends and family. The way to tap into this group is to build rapport within their communities.

The Achiever — Mostly businesspeople (such as bankers and managers), who work long hours, but are always looking for more success. They are independent and respond well to individuality, power, money and profit.

The Wannabe — They strive to be an Achiever, but have yet to fit this profile. Most of the products they buy are knock-offs of those owned by the Achiever (think counterfeit sunglasses or watches). Wannabes can be insecure with a small amount of disposable income.

The Socially Conscious — They are concerned about the environment and the effect their spending has on it. This group recycles frequently, walks and cycles, and, not surprisingly, buys environmentally friendly products.

The Balanced — A combination of the Achiever and the Socially Conscious, the Balanced want to use their money and power to do something positive for the environment. They avoid purchasing products and services that exploit workers in poor countries.

The Needs Driven — They tend to be impulse buyers. You can often reach this group by appealing to their fear of being inadequate (consider late night shopping channels: “Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”).

Use Psychographics to Build the Right Message

The more you know about your target audiences, the more you’ll understand how they spend their money — and the better equipped you’ll be to fine-tune your marketing.

For additional information, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychographic
http://www.northcrossing.com/PsychographicMarketing.html

Does your website content confuse visitors or inspire them to take action?

The single most crucial function of any business website is to get people to act, whether it involves calling you, emailing you, buying your product online, or getting off their butts and into your store. Writing in the passive voice is often awkward and confusing, and does not induce desired action.

Good writers of any kind (fiction, articles, blog posts, or web copy) know that writing in the active voice is more engaging, concise and clear than writing in the passive voice. But how can a business owner without a writing background tell the difference between the two?

The Passive Voice

What does the passive voice look like? In passive writing, the subject and object trade places, meaning the object falls at the end of the sentence. It also usually includes some form of ‘to be’ (is, are, am, was, were, has been, have been, had been, will be, will have been, being), followed by a past participle (a verb that typically ends in –ed).

Example:

“Colourful, snug and breathable superhero underpants are sold by our superhero clothing company.” In this sentence, the company is the object, and the underpants are the subject.

Technically, the passive voice is grammatically correct, but experienced writers avoid it because it often reads awkwardly and interrupts the flow of a composition. In many cases, it’s also less concise, which, as we’ve discussed before, is not ideal for web writing.

The Active Voice

Writing in the active voice puts the object in a clearer position in your sentence, and uses active verbs.

For example, the passive sentence above becomes:

“Our superhero clothing company sells colourful, snug and breathable superhero underpants.” This version sounds a lot smoother and more direct, doesn’t it?

Calls to Action

Writing in the active voice is especially important when you compose your calls to action.

What is a call to action? A call to action is a sentence (or two) that persuades the reader to act. It usually falls at the end of a page, or in a prominent area such as a bright button in the top corner or side column. After you’ve explained why your business is the best choice (using the active voice wherever possible), the call to action encourages your website visitor to act on the information received, and hopefully give you his or her business.

An example of a call to action written in the passive voice:

“Want our colourful, snug and breathable superhero underpants to be enjoyed by your nether regions? Order today!”

A much more concise and active version:

“Your nether regions will enjoy our colourful, snug and breathable superhero underpants. Order today!”

Still Unclear?

Here are more examples of the passive voice transformed into the active voice.

Passive:

The meat dress was worn by Lady Gaga.

Active:

Lady Gaga wore the meat dress.

Passive:

The milkshake was regurgitated by the toddler.

Active:

The toddler regurgitated the milkshake.

Passive:

This article was written by a Webcopyplus copywriter.

Active:

A Webcopyplus copywriter wrote this article.

Adaptability, creativity and multiple delivery methods make two-time and reigning UFC Welterweight Champion Georges “Rush” St-Pierre (GSP) virtually unstoppable in the ring. Despite your weight class — make that your business size — marketers can take a page from this Canadian mixed martial arts master.

Mix it Up

“Georges St. Pierre is not an exceptional wrestler, nor is he an exceptional striker,” explained Sensei Ono Northey, Founder of Shinka Martial Arts. “But he’s a master of synergy and timing.”

St-Pierre makes his strikes look like takedowns, and his takedowns look like strikes, making him unpredictable. “His strikes land because people are afraid of his takedowns, and his takedowns succeed because they are afraid of his strikes,” said Northey. “He knows the timing of when to use each technique to its fullest, and the sum of GSP’s techniques exceed their individual worth.”

Marketing Lesson:
Don’t rely on just one marketing technique. Keep competitors on their heels and connect with prospects through multiple marketing avenues, including online and offline tools and techniques. Consider ‘push tactics’, such as packaging and trade shows, and ‘pull tactics’, including contests and discounts. Also, it’s important to add social media ‘embrace tactics’ to the mix so you can continuously listen, engage and interact.

Study Hard

St-Pierre devoured Josh Koscheck in UFC #124 with countless jabs. But what really won the fight, explained Northey, was his timing.

“GSP is a smart fighter,” said Northey. “He studied and recognized Koscheck’s three-rhythm count, and countered it with a quicker one-count strike.” As a result, almost every attack attempted by Koscheck was jammed by St-Pierre’s well-timed jab to the face.

Marketing Lesson:
Study what your competition does well — and not so well. Can you learn from their successes, fill voids, or identify ways to differentiate yourself? Likewise, get to know your desired audiences to understand their needs and wants, or industry cycles and trends. Doing so helps define people’s ‘trigger points’, which will help you connect with them emotionally and generate higher conversion rates. You can gain valuable insight by attending association events, picking up the phone, or scoping out comments in Twitter, Facebook or forums.

Evolve With the Times

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is young and fast-changing, and leading mixed martial artists like St-Pierre are constantly re-inventing themselves with new approaches and moves. In fact, it’s the wide variety of techniques and skills taken from other combat sports that make MMA fighters more effective than ‘traditional’ martial artists. “Mixed martial artists aren’t limited by convention or past customs,” said Northey. “We get to pick and choose and form an effective, practical, real-world arsenal.”

For instance, Taekwondo was developed centuries ago to kick soldiers off horses. Likewise, legendary tales have Karate masters punching through body armor. Several conventional martial arts don’t even have defenses against side strikes as such an attack would be “dishonorable.” But chances of a hooligan approaching you on a horse, wearing armor, or abiding by a code of ethics are probably pretty slim.

Marketing Lesson:
Don’t stand still. The speed of change is accelerating and if you haven’t reviewed, improved or refined your brand, marketing messages, customer relationship management, distribution, or products and services in the past year, you could become obsolete. One way to generate creative ideas and solutions is to benchmark yourself against other companies in other industries. Could you adopt any ideas or tactics from your favorite airline, coffee shop, auto manufacturer or fashion designer?

Conclusion: Don’t Market Like an Idiot

Consider the words of St-Pierre: “I don’t fight like an idiot. That’s what defines me. I’m (not the) champion because I’m the strongest guy in the division. It’s not because I’m the fastest guy. I’m not the best grappler. I’m not the best striker. I’m not the best wrestler. But why I’m champion is because I fight smart every single fight.”

Take St-Pierre’s lead: always market smart and go for the title.

Webcopyplus recently stole a moment from Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneurial legend, celebrated author and former chief evangelist of Apple (he was one of the employees originally responsible for marketing the Macintosh back in 1984 — enough said). We shot a few questions at him, and you might — or might not — be surprised to learn what brand he’d like to work with.

1. When did you first fall in love with the Internet?

My first exposure to anything online was CompuServe and AppleLink. Those were the days — email was simply magical. And CompuServe enabled people to connect with others around the world in a fast and free manner.

2. What buzz word should we kill? Why?

“Strategic.” Nothing is strategic. Everything is tactical. “Strategic” has come to mean “bull shiitake.” It would be very strategic to eliminate that word from our vernacular — see what I mean?

3. Which brand would you like to work with, and why?

You may find this astounding, but Apple is a brand I’d love to work with more. But, lucky for it, it doesn’t need me.

4. What book should every marketer read?

Forget books. Every marketer should see the movie Never Say Never. You’ll learn more about marketing in that movie than any book.

5. Who are your Twitter must-follows?

I follow about 300,000 people — basically, I follow anyone who follows me as an act of courtesy and so that they can “direct” me. But I never look at the timeline of the people I follow. I only react to “mentions” and “directs.” So in the spirit of what you’re asking, I don’t have any “must follows” that I’m sitting on the edge of my seat to see what they tweet.

6. The secret to your success?

I’m willing to grind it out. In fact, I enjoy grinding it out. I don’t consider myself particularly smart or insightful. I’m just willing to pay the price.

Guy Kawasaki is the author of Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions. He is also the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the Web, and a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures.  Previously, he was the chief evangelist of Apple. Kawasaki is the author of nine other books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules For Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream and The MacIntosh Way. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

FAQs are questions your website visitors and customers frequently ask. But sometimes you need to ask yourself: “Why do they keep asking these same questions?”

The answer could mean there are problems with your website content. What message are you not getting across? What information do people often have problems finding?

Some argue that FAQs are completely unnecessary if you’ve got the right web content. Ideally, your website visitors should be able to find information they need right away, which would prevent them from asking further questions. However, FAQs can serve a purpose if done right.

When FAQs Go Wrong

A recent survey of a person sitting in the same room as myself at this very moment revealed the following poignant insights:

Jill: “What are you doing?”
Me: “Writing an article about FAQs”
Jill: “Ugh, I hate those things!”
Me: “Really? Why do you hate them, Jill?”
Jill: “They’re so wordy! The questions I need answered are never there. Maybe it’s just that no one else wants to know what I want to know.”

While Jill is certainly no web content expert, her comments illustrate some common problems experienced by average website visitors regarding FAQ pages:

• They’re too lengthy and don’t answer questions quickly
• They miss the mark regarding your web visitors’ desires
• They alienate your visitors

Another common mistake happens when people use their FAQ page as a sales opportunity. Notable usability expert Jakob Nielsen believes your FAQ page should never be an excuse to post questions you wish your visitors would ask. For example, “Why is your company so awesome?” answered with, “We’re the best at everything because…” If you are doing this, then consider your FAQ page a waste of valuable Internet space. You could be using that space to show your website visitors you actually care about them by answering their real questions.

When FAQs Go Right

Even when your web content covers everything your site visitor needs to know, an FAQ page can be beneficial if done correctly. Here are some reasons why you might want to keep your FAQ page:

• An FAQ page presents an opportunity to add more keywords to your website, which is great for getting you noticed by search engines.
• If your site visitors are short on time, they can find quick answers to their questions on your FAQ page.
• If you’ve researched your FAQs well, they can demonstrate your knowledge of your visitors’ needs.

With all of this in mind, you’re now ready to develop the content for your FAQ page. What’s the best way to go about that? Like the other content on your site your FAQs should be:

• Scannable: The visitor likely came to the FAQ page with a specific question in mind, so make it easy for them to find it by breaking questions into sections and categorizing them with bold headlines.
• Concise: Perhaps even more so than the rest of your website, your FAQ answers should get to the point immediately. Your visitor wants to find their question, find the answer, and then move on. It’s not a place to tell stories or wax poetics. Additionally, if you think the question could be answered elsewhere on your site, add the appropriate content there, instead.
• Customer-centric: As with your other web content, speak directly to your customer. Find out the questions they really want answered. How can you do this? Monitor customer service calls, emails, and all other customer communication channels to discover the questions being frequently asked.

By conducting thoughtful research surrounding your visitor FAQs, you’ll not only be armed with the tools to build an effective FAQ page, but you’ll also gain insight on how you can serve your customers better, and improve your web content overall. For more on how to improve your web content, check out How to KISS When Your Web Content Isn’t Short and Simple.

Has an influx of auto-DMs ruined your day more than once? Ever respond to an auto-DM thinking there was a real person there, only to be ignored and reduced to just another faceless Twitter account? It’s time for this injustice to stop! Join me in commemorating May 2011 as Anti-Auto-DM Month and let’s work together to finally put an end to auto-DM abuse!

Auto-DM abuse has been a persistent problem. A few years ago, people were blogging their brains out about their seething hatred for auto-DMs. Even after all the complaining, and one popular auto-DM service provider throwing in the towel, the main auto-DM dope man – SocialOomph – headed by my new arch nemesis Dewald Pretorius, is still offering the service.

While you would think auto-DM abuse would have died down since then, especially considering the backlash, I know first hand that it is still an issue. A sampling of auto-DMs currently in my Twitter inbox:

“Hello, Thx for Follow, If you looking for Affordable SEO Services – I provides complete SEO @99$/month. contact us today”

“I would like to thank you by suggesting the powerful tools and tips for internet marketing you will find at <link>”

“Hi! Pulse Card is looking for US based providers like you! Free sign up & free leads <link><email address>” (I live in Canada.)

This one was my favourite:

“Hey Opticon We are your Web Design and Development Partners <link>” to which I answered: “Great! I’m an SEO copywriter and I’d love to chat about working together.” No response.

What these auto-DM offenders don’t realize is that their automated messages are not only annoying the recipient, but also likely losing them followers and jeopardizing any business connections they’d hoped to make. It’s a lose-lose situation. I have yet to see any evidence in support of the effectiveness of auto-DMs for bringing in business or helping achieve any goal other than annoying people.

My question: does the owner of SocialOomph know that his service is still being used for evil? Why can’t he step in and put an end to the misery once and for all? And why doesn’t Twitter, which has several other anti-automation regulations, block the auto-DM function?

So far, only band-aid solutions have been offered. Pretorius suggests simply unfollowing the sender, or opting out of receiving auto-DMs, putting the onus on the innocent recipient to stop the abuse. This is not fair! Let’s get rid of pesky auto-DMs once and for all!

How You Can Help

Throughout the month of May 2011, I will be encouraging folks who share my sentiment regarding auto-DMs to sign a petition, which will be sent to Pretorius (and copied to Twitter headquarters) in hopes of swaying him to disable the auto-DM function of his service. There are several ways you can get involved:

•    SIGN THIS PETITION to disable the auto-DM function
•    Share the petition on Facebook and Twitter and encourage friends who agree to sign and spread the word
•    Send your thoughts to Pretorius directly through Twitter @dewaldp, and use hashtag #endautodms
•    Send your thoughts to @Twitter and use hashtag #endautodms

If we work together, we can put a stop to auto-DM abuse! Don’t let me down, dear citizens of the Internet!

Sincerely,

Opticon

At a time when everyone with a smart phone and a Twitter account boasts social media genius, digital analyst Brian Solis renews our faith in the existence of intelligent discourse in that realm. Author of Engage!, a comprehensive guide for businesses vying for success in the social web, Solis offers practical advice on how to build a social media strategy and measure its effectiveness beyond the template follower-counting approaches.

Webcopyplus recently stole a few moments of his time to ask some pressing questions on the minds of most businesses trying to optimize their digital reach.

WCP: Is a social media strategy prudent for any kind of business or are some more suited to participate than others?

Solis: At the very least, every company should start with learning. The thing about social media is that it represents the ability to organize and study sentiment, perception, activity, impressions and experiences, and that’s pretty remarkable when we stop to think about it.

Social media didn’t invent conversations and opinions, but it allows us to have access to what people think and share—right now. Businesses and governments have had this in the form of focus groups and town halls, but the resources required to compile the information were archaic. And I’m not convinced that beneficiaries of this insight truly saw the value in its ability to change course. Now we can grab it at any moment.

The thing is that insights are different for each business but many take template approach—Twitter, Youtube, Facebook—but if you listen (not just monitor for name mentions) and extract insights and trends, that should dictate your strategy and what type of content, leadership and channels you use.  All of this is dictated by your community and is true for any kind of business. You have a choice… do you let it touch you to do something significant or do you stuff that information into a report to demonstrate a change in activity?

WCP: How much time should a company allocate to social media engagement?

Solis: This is the question of the moment—what is the right mix of budget, resources and time? The answer lies in what you see and also the position you want to take in social. Showing up is free and the time you invest in it only reflects what it is you sought to get out of it in the first place. But in order to build a dedicated and active community it takes a significant commitment.

Start with a pilot program where you set out to accomplish something and see how much time and resources it takes to make that happen. We see so many companies bypassing that step and they find it difficult to measure success because they’re not sure what they’re doing, or what customers are getting out of the experience.

WCP: Should a business have one employee dedicated to a social media campaign, or to spread the responsibility amongst everyone?

Solis: It’s all dependent on the goals. A business, at the very least, should have a community manager and/or a social strategist; someone who is responsible for the greater conversation, with their ear to the ground, but also connected internally to design and execute.

I’m a believer in this… when you study outside activity, it applies to many departments—from sales to customer service to marketing to HR. Any division that’s affected by outside activity should also have a counterpart for the social strategist internally and make sure they are engaged and they learn and stay connected.

WCP: How can you avoid falling victim to the time-sucking properties of social media while still using it effectively?

Solis: You can lose yourself in anything. But, everything starts with establishing goals and objectives. Many businesses aren’t really thinking about it on a deeper level. Businesses are looking at goals from the standpoint of number of followers, but in reality those are soft metrics that don’t really show or demonstrate whether we’re on the right track.

I’m a firm believer in tangible goals. Do we want to generate leads? Hire new employees? Set out with objectives and build programs around that to see the impact you’re having—then you can assign time, resources, and budgets to it. We find that over time businesses will be required to have a full-time person and at least part-time in different departments. Then, as you see the ability to meet goals and objectives, you can make the choice to expand.

WCP: What companies are doing it right? Can you provide an example?

Solis: Dell was famous for starting in social media for customer service to address negative sentiment. They used it to address customer complaints and over time they’ve completely socialized all of their departments. Through Idea Storm, for example, they built products based on what people were saying and built infrastructure across the organization to deal with this feedback. Then came Employee Storm—where employees can say what they want to learn, see and do, that they aren’t getting internally. Almost every aspect of Dell’s business is now built around the principles extracted from social media and corresponding behavior.

WCP: Where do you see social media engagement trends in business heading? How do you think it will change in the future?

Solis: Social media will become a lot smarter and at the same time it will become a lot more natural. Not everyone within the organization is using Facebook and Twitter everyday and certainly not to the point where they are proficient. It’s becoming like email—it’s how you engage with customers, coworkers and peers. What goes in those channels is what matters, not the channels individually.

The real power is less about the technology and more about the change in culture that is going to affect every business. Today, we have a permeating culture of command and control where you operationalize departments and tune them to be more efficient, dictating messages that are pushed into the market. This is counterintuitive to social media, which opens up the doors internally and externally, creating a culture of change and collaboration. A business becomes more social when it has value to add and something to learn and changes as a result.

WCP: How can a business prepare for its strategy to evolve with the quickly changing social media landscape?

Solis: Social media will have to cross over from social to the executive layer, which is the real challenge. Social won’t win by itself. It has to align with a broader initiative within the organization. Social media right now is in marketing or service only.  Recent Altimeter Group studies run by colleague Jeremiah Owyang found that 50% of SM is run out of marketing department. You can’t change a business if SM is already siloed in one department.

It takes a change agent to recognize what is taking place out there and translate that into executive speak. How do we apply all of this to sales or information that will directly or indirectly impact the bottom line. How will we specifically gain a competitive advantage? It becomes less about social media and more about becoming a better business overall. We need to translate this to the executive layer and demonstrate the business value.

Check out the recently released second version of Solis’ book Engage!, which offers a more succinct package for executives, strategists and “change agents,” who may have less time to spare but still require insight to lead.

Did you forego your venti half-sweet hazelnut soy latte habit to experiment with a pay-per-click ad campaign this month? We’re offering some tips to help you get started, so you can sleep tight knowing you didn’t renounce your coffee princess throne for nothing.

The Facebook Ad

Buying Facebook ads is a great way to reach the 90% of the population that are wasting 85% of their work day checking out Becky from high school’s baby bump photos (exact percentages TBD).

Some great features of Facebook ads: You can pick whom your ads are targeting, specify the amount you’re willing to pay per click, and monitor your campaign’s effectiveness with the insights function.

Here are some general guidelines to help you get started:

Facebook ads only allow 25 characters per headline and 135 for content, so think carefully about both the image and copy. As the copy is limited, a strong image is ideal to help illustrate the benefits of your product or service. Make sure it’s recognizable. If you’re a relatively new company with lower brand recognition, it’s probably best to go with an image other than your logo.

In terms of the text, think of your Facebook ad as a quick call to action. There’s not enough room to capture everything that’s great about what you’re selling, but you can certainly pique interest and encourage a click-through for more information. Keep it concise, persuasive and benefit-centric.  Try highlighting your unique selling proposition and make it snappy.

Ensure your messaging is consistent wherever the visitor lands after clicking, whether it’s your Facebook page or a landing page on your website. For example, if you’re promoting a particular deal you’re offering, make sure the click-through leads to a page that includes more information about said deal. Otherwise, the clicker will become confused and your chances of losing them will increase.

You may want to consider using your ad to promote a special Facebook-only discount, which will also allow you to measure the effectiveness of your campaign. Facebook suggests making any special offers easy to find on the corresponding landing page.

Optimize your ad for your desired audience. While developing your Facebook ad, you’re given the opportunity to highlight keywords that you believe your target audience will list in their interests.  These words don’t necessarily have to be included in your content, but they help Facebook direct your ad to the appropriate eyeballs.  For example, if you’re advertising your web design services, you might want to target people who list “web marketing” in their interests.

Bad

Whoever wrote this Seventh Generation Facebook ad should probably just spray some of their cleaning products on their marketing budget and use it to wipe down the bathroom.  Do you care whether they’re “committed to being the most trusted brand of household and personal-care products for your living home”? Are you remotely compelled to click? Personally, I’m trying to wrap my head around my home having a pulse. They should have at least highlighted their main selling point – that their products are environmentally friendly.

Good

Whoever wrote this ad for Café Crepe deserves a free pitcher of beer.  Although the business is called “Café Crepe,” the ad copy tells us they serve more than just crepes.  On top of that, they’re offering a great deal on a burger and fries, and a pitcher of beer.  Plus, they used the magic word “FREE.”

Google AdWords

Google ads are great since they’re not limited to one social network. Although the headline also has a 25-character limit, the Google ad differs from the Facebook ad in several ways.

• No images or colour allowed
• 35 characters per text row (four rows allowed in total, including your URL and headline)
• You can optimize it with keywords

Since there is no visual aid, the words in your Google ad are even more important for delivering your brand message.  As with Facebook ads, ensure your Google ad content conveys your product or service’s most attractive benefits, and that it relates to the content on your landing page.

You can use the Google Keyword Tool to find appropriate keywords to use in your ad, and as with other web copywriting, ensure that the placement of keywords for search engine optimization doesn’t compromise the logic of your content.  Remember – you’re writing for both search engines AND people, who will ideally click through your ad and interact with your brand.

The fact that you can include your URL, and that it can be modified to whatever you wish, as long as the domain remains the same, is another opportunity to use text wisely in your Google ad. For example, if Webcopyplus ran an ad that promoted our white paper writing services, we might make the URL www.webcopyplus.com/WhitePapers.

What a Google Ad Looks Like

These ads are all customer and benefit-centric, although the last one is a bit yawn-worthy.

As with other PPC ads, you can run different ads and switch up certain elements to see which works better. Try different headlines, promotional offers, calls to action and display URLs, let them run for a while, and use the click-through data to determine which works best for future use. You might be surprised at what switching one word here and there will do for your click-through rates. Of course, starting with a solid foundation can help you save money in your testing.

The Landing Page

The landing page is an equally important component of your campaign. A great one helps you reduce your PPC costs by boosting conversions. For example, someone clicks on your ad, which leads them to the landing page that, if well done, will get the clicker to do what you want them to do — sign up for your newsletter, submit their email address for lead follow up, complete a transaction, or what have you.

Landing page content is easy to test for effectiveness. Using methods such as A/B testing (running two different landing pages at once) allows you to try different copy and see what works best.

More points for writing a great landing page that makes click-throughs worthwhile:

• Ensure the copy relates to the corresponding ad in tone and content
• Deliver the important information up front, preferably before the fold (where the visitor must start scrolling down)
• Make the call to action strong and straightforward, with a boldly designed button or form, so there’s no mistake about what you want the visitor to do
• Keep it simple and focused on getting the visitor to complete the desired task
• Keep links to a minimum, since these are distractions from your goal
• Keep the copy customer-centric – don’t talk about your company, but what it can do for ‘you’ (your prospect)

Bad

Leads to…

… which then leads you to confirm your city (hasn’t this already been established as Vancouver?), then enter your email address to see today’s deal. There is no mention of how doing these things will help you cross things off your bucket list (and what is up with that image in the Facebook ad?!) Not to mention, if you know anything about Groupon, the deals certainly don’t often have much to do with life-changing activities or events. I don’t know about you, but my bucket list doesn’t include getting 50% off my next bikini wax (p.s. there are some things you should never buy at discounted rates.)

Good

Leads to…

The Facebook ad copy directly relates to the landing page content, which gets to the point quickly, before you need to scroll down. You’re given two easy contact options – a phone number or a form to get more information. You’re told exactly what the program is and how it will train you. And there’s that magic word “FREE” again. Nice!

For more on how design and copy can work together for a killer landing page, check out Formstack’s tips. Need help with your PPC ad or Landing page copy? Check out How to Find the Right Tone for Your Web Copy.

No matter the industry, all creative professionals, and even the left-brained ones, need to look outside of our circles of influence for inspiration. By exploring new ideas, images, methodologies or concepts, we expand our minds and fuel our own creativity. This is how innovation happens, and how new products, business practices and ways of living help us grow as individuals and as a society.

Where do you look for creative inspiration? Here are some awesome locations around the Web where you can bask in the creativity of your fellow humans.

The 99 Percent

www.the99percent.com

@the99percent

The “research arm and think tank” of Behance, a network for creative professionals, The 99 Percent is named for the famous Thomas Edison quote “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Consisting of a website, conference and book, The 99 Percent features instructional articles, videos and other resources (even playlists) that help creative types put good ideas into action.

One interesting recent feature described how mundane routines can produce creative magic. In it, the daily routines of some notable creatives (like filmmaker Ingmar Bergman and architect Le Corbusier) are described. The accounts are taken from Daily Routines, which profiles how “writers, artists and other interesting people organize their days.”

Booooooom

www.booooooom.com

@Booooooom

Booooooom is a Vancouver, BC-based “art and photo blog with a soft spot for hand-made work by unknown people,” meaning you won’t be seeing anything conventional here. Featuring works of art covering the spectrum between mesmerizing and bizarre, you’ll find photography, sculpture, music, drawings, paintings and more creative works from around the world posted daily.

One favourite discovery from Booooooom actually came from its Twitter account, where the author tweeted about an internationally acclaimed painter named Cholla (who also happens to be a horse.)

Bajillion Hits

www.bajillionhits.biz

@Bajillionhits

Alex Blagg, the man behind the brilliantly hilarious web marketing guru spoof Bajillion Hits describes himself in this role the best: “Social Media Strat Guru-Ninja-Genius. Bajillionaire. Webeneur. Techspert. Lord of All Social Media. Intergalactic Master of the Internet.” This guy is basically the inside joke of all web marketing professionals in the world who have ever rolled their eyes at the growing mushroom cloud of people claiming to be social media experts. By poking fun at the tech-speak that runs rampant in web marketing circles, Blagg encourages us to make fun of ourselves, and perhaps find new ways of approaching web marketing that aren’t so predictable.

Check out Blagg’s post I’m a Tech Media Douche for his full (and hilarious) bio.

Illusion 360

www.illusion.scene360.com

Illusion 360 is a partner project of the award-winning online film and arts magazine Scene 360, and features amazing art, design, technology and video from around the world. Features are chosen based on their uniqueness, skill, level of creativity and vision, and can include anything from living grass graffiti to human touchscreen interfaces.

One recent post includes the World’s Smallest Post Service, which sends tiny letters to your loved ones.

Hello You Creatives

www.helloyoucreatives.com

@Hellocreatives

Hello You Creatives is a London-based blog run by a collective of creative people in design, illustration and “everything else,” who work together to inspire, showcase and discuss creative works and creativity in general. Admittedly, they don’t discriminate regarding the quality of works posted, giving exposure to both good and bad ones, and talking to the people behind them.

One recent post featured Unicef’s Dirty Water campaign, which placed vending machines selling dirty water (including diseases like malaria and cholera) in major cities to raise awareness for the lack of access to clean drinking water in developing countries. The campaign, credited to the creatives at Casanova, has raised almost $1 million to support UNICEF’s clean drinking water programs.

Laughing Squid

www.laughingsquid.com

@laughingsquid

Laughing Squid describes itself as “an online resource for art, culture and technology” and is also an independent web hosting company. Blog posts feature a wide-reaching range of subject matter including anything from an avocado ukulele, to an interview with Steven Sasson, the inventor of the digital camera, to a recreation of Brooklyn made entirely out of LEGO.

Le Creative Sweatshop

www.lecreativesweatshop.com

Le Creative Sweatshop is a Paris-based creative studio/agency combining the worlds of design, fashion, contemporary art and architecture, with a focus on hand-made works. The site offers the agency’s portfolio of work, which is inspiring in itself.

One example is the agency’s paper scenography installation for airline operator Transavia, which fashioned a suitcase out of colourful paper and wood as both a work of art and communication support.

Sharing Creativity

By sharing new ideas and ways of doing things, we not only inspire one another to do better work, but we push ourselves to innovate and make the world a more enjoyable place to coexist.

What are some of your favourite creativity boosters online? What is your daily routine? Why not share them with your fellow creative professionals and promote the cultural advancement of our species.