Humans are hardwired for stories. Our earliest communities used storytelling to transmit beliefs and information from one generation to the next. Even today, we teach our children to respond to stories, whether it’s The Tales of Peter Rabbit or The Time Aunt Becky Got Smashed during Christmas Dinner.

Today, marketers use stories as a powerful way to connect with consumers. You can use storytelling to sell too, if you know when and where to use it.

The Power of Storytelling

Stories are powerful because they combine fact and emotion. In marketing, you can use facts alone to make an argument: Our dish detergent cleans 15% better than the competition. But stories emotionally engage the reader:

Before I tried this dish detergent, my dinner guests were appalled at the soap scum left on my dishes. Today, I can entertain without worry or embarrassment.

So what makes for a good story? There are some common elements, such as a hero you can identify with, an obstacle to overcome, a climax or turning point, and a resolution or transformation. These elements are common to most good stories, whether it’s at the movie theatre, in a book or on the back of a cereal box.

Chanel N°5 and the Run Away Movie Star

You may remember this TV ad featuring Nicole Kidman and Chanel N°5:

The ad is like a movie plot condensed into two minutes. You have a hero to identify with (unshaven male lover or perpetually surprised movie star, your pick), the obstacle (she needs to stop dodging taxi cabs), the turning point (stick-in-the-mud manager insists she gets off the roof and back on the red carpet), and resolution (they settle on loving each other via Skype with maybe the odd naughty email).

Tell a Story or Shut Up and Make the Sale?

Part of good storytelling is knowing when to tell the story, and when to shut up. In marketing, much of it depends on the purpose of the story and what stage of the purchase decision process people are in. Have your potential customers recognized a unmet need? Are they looking for information? Are they evaluating alternatives? If so, storytelling can be a great way to persuade.

For example, the Chanel ad would work well with people who have no immediate plans to buy perfume. Even if you haven’t been thinking about buying perfume, the ad might get you started. The romance! The adventure! The smell! If you’ve been thinking about buying perfume, the ad might convince you to include Chanel N°5 in your list of perfume choices.

Incidentally, the ad also provides reassurance to consumers who’ve already bought the perfume. Look at how glamourous she is! I knew I made the right decision to buy Chanel during those five minutes at YVR duty free.

However, if the consumer has already made the decision to buy your brand, storytelling can get in the way. If you’ve ever had a beloved uncle who responds to any question with long, detailed stories about the war, you’ll know how painfully unproductive this is.

For this reason, visitors to Chanel’s website aren’t treated to stories about run away movie stars. Instead, the site has straightforward listings of products and store locations. After all, if you’re checking out the Chanel website, you’ve probably already decided to buy Chanel.

The situation is different for websites optimized for search engines. People are much more likely to land on your site as a result of conducting online research, before they’ve made a specific buying decision. In this case, storytelling can be a great way to engage visitors and generate sales.

Storytelling on About Us Pages

When you find storytelling on websites, it tends to be on the about us page. These pages often tell the story of the company’s founders, how they grew from Mom and Pop potato farmers into an international potato chip conglomerate. It allows the company to show their humble roots and values, and show how they carry these through today. McDonald’s website, for example, tells the story of founder Ray Kroc and his emphasis on quality, service, cleanliness and value.

Does your company have a story to tell? Should you tell it? Take a look at where your marketing channels intersect with consumer purchase decisions. You probably have an opportunity to tell an engaging story, one that your audience might want to share.

Most marketing campaigns can be stripped down to one of two themes: build the dream or stop the pain. Marketers tend to favour stop the pain. After all, not everyone has a dream, but everyone has a problem.

Knowing this, marketers use a technique of sticking their finger in there to get people to feel pain and motivate them to action. Let’s look at a few examples of this technique.

Proactive Solutions – Problem Skin

Proactive Solutions markets their skin care product line through TV commercials and infomercials. Their ads invoke the pain of skin blemishes and promote their product as a solution.

Do you stress out about your skin?
Do you freak when you breakout over night?
Well, hope is on the way.
It’s called Proactive Solutions.

Now that’s sticking your finger in the pain! If you weren’t terribly worried about your acne before, you’re probably worried about it now. And if you’ve been freaking over breakouts, then this commercial grabs your attention.

Old El Paso – Falling Tacos

Pain doesn’t have to be personal or even all that painful. Sometimes the pain is slight, but it’s still enough to motivate. Check out this Old El Paso Taco commercial:

How to you stop tacos from falling over?
What if it had a flat bottom?

Are falling tacos a problem? Likely, you never thought about falling tacos until now. The problem would seem ridiculous if presented seriously, but the light humour makes the message more palatable.

Sticking your finger in the pain is a great way to get people to recognize problems as problems. You’ve never hammered nails into your table to stop your taco from falling over, but, hey, now that you mention it, a flat bottom taco is not such a bad idea.

1-800-Got-Junk? – Furniture, Appliances, Electronics and More

At Webcopyplus, we recently used stick your finger in the pain marketing for 1-800-Got-Junk, the garbage removal franchise. Here the pain is the hassle of getting rid of unwanted stuff.

Here’s a web copy excerpt:

Got old furniture, appliances, electronics, tires, construction debris, or yard waste you need to make disappear? 1-800-GOT-JUNK? can take away almost any material we can fit in our trucks, without you ever lifting a finger. We’ll remove junk from wherever it’s located, and we won’t leave a dent or speck of dirt behind.

The pain point is old furniture, appliances, electronics, tires, construction debris or yard waste…that you need to get rid of.

Trotting out this list of items makes potential customers think about what they have at home. If we merely asked, “Got any old stuff you need to get rid of?” people would tend to respond, “No.” By providing specific examples, we’re prompting people to scan their home environment to see if they have anything on our list.

Do I have old furniture, appliances, or electronics to get rid of? Well, I do have that old computer downstairs, and I haven’t used that old freezer in years. Maybe I should call 1-800-Got-Junk.

Of course not everyone has old furniture, appliances, electronics, etc. they need to get rid of. But if you do, the message will resonate.

As you can see, stick your finger in there and feel the pain can be a great way to motivate people to recognize a problem and take action.

Where do you see marketers using this approach? Have you tried it in your own marketing?

Words carry emotion. Words like hope, freedom, desire, sale and cheap inspire emotional reactions deep in the limbic system. Given the power of these emotion associations, it’s no surprise that copywriters use them to propel people to action. Yet, there are potential pitfalls. Let’s look at how different companies are using emotional language to see what’s working and what’s not.

Be Very Afraid

If you’re looking for fear-creating copy, look no further than The Club. You’re probably already familiar with The Club steering wheel lock that prevents would-be thieves from driving away with your vehicle. The Club also markets other theft-proof devices such as The Door Club (to stop thieves from breaking down your door) and The Bike Club (to stop thieves from stealing your bike). In almost all their copy, fear is the primary motivator.

Here’s some copy from their home page:

Each of us
Has a need…
to feel
Safe & Secure
Use The Club LIne of Quality Products

Every day
in the United States
people are victimized.
Nearly 3000 motor vehicles are reported stolen.
3000 vehicle thefts per day!
There are some simple safety and security precautions you can take.

These law and order haikus use emotional words like need, safe, secure, victimized, stolen, thefts, simple, safety and security. The message is clear — the world is not a safe place and bad things can happen at any time. The Club is the solution.

But where do you draw the line between reasonable fear and fear mongering? If you can’t back up your fear-based copy with facts, you’re crossing the line. The Club manages to stay on the side of reasonable fear by including car theft statistics, and information about law enforcement partnership programs. These supporting facts lend credibility to their emotional copy. It takes the copy from “Aliens are coming!” territory to “Crime exists, this is what you can do.”

I’m a Bad Person, But I Want to Be Good

Guilt is a great motivator, just ask any parent. Some copywriters have learned this lesson and use guilt to motivate potential clients. This is especially prevalent in copy for charitable institutions.

Some charities employ a dash of guilt, others a bucket. Cue the 1990s and this Sally Struthers classic:

Sally Struthers — Christian Children’s Fund

Did you catch that line?

Life for Sale  .75¢

The subtext is what kind of cheap, heartless person wouldn’t give .75¢ to save a child’s life?

Surely not you? The only way to prove you’re not heartless is to donate. Or change the channel.

And that is the problem with guilt marketing. Push the guilt button too hard for too long and you risk eliciting anger instead of guilt — people will ignore your copy or actively avoid it.

There’s Hope for Us Yet

Thankfully, there are other ways to motivate beyond fear and guilt, including positive emotions.

Political campaigns often use emotionally laden copy. They mix positive emotions (our candidate) and negative emotions (their candidate) to win financial support and votes.

During the 2008 US presidential race, Barack Obama’s campaign slogan employed powerful, positive language: Change We Can Believe In. Combined with the chant Yes We Can and Shepard Fairey’s posters of “Hope” and “Change,” Obama’s campaign copy was powerful, heady stuff.

Three years later, Obama’s campaign demonstrates the pitfalls of using over-the-top positive emotional language to motivate people. Today, his emotionally charged campaign stands in stark contrast to where he is now: a looming 2012 election and an approval rating of only 44%. If you use emotions to get people to act (e.g. vote for your candidate, buy your dishwashing liquid) you better make sure you deliver on expectations. Otherwise, people will be even more disillusioned than if you’d used logical arguments alone.

Who’s in Charge? I Am

Marketers also use words with emotional qualities of confidence and control to give power to copy.

One of the best examples is the web marketing copy for Viagra. You might expect Pfizer (which developed and markets Viagra) to take a “you’re suffering, we can help” approach, but Pfizer knows their target market better than that.

This is the age of taking action. And getting the answers you want. So you can get on your way.

Phrases like taking action, getting answers and get on your way paints Viagra clients as not men to be pitied, but men who are determined and ready to take charge. Pfizer takes a potentially emasculating affliction like ED and associates their product with positive emotional attributes like confidence and control. If you had symptoms of ED and were feeling disempowered, then the Pfizer copy would appeal.

As a business owner, you can employ many different emotions by using the right words in your marketing copy. There are potential pitfalls in using emotional language, but you can avoid these by understanding your objectives and your audience.

Has your company used emotional language to connect and motivate customers? What has worked? What hasn’t?

We all know that B2B marketing differs from B2C. B2B’s longer and more complex buying process has implications for marketing — and your web copy. Here are some tips to get your B2B web copy right.

1. Businesses Might Not “Buy Now” — But You Still Need a Call to Action

The B2B purchasing process is more complex than B2C — it can take weeks, months, even years to negotiate. Consequently, you won’t find too many B2B websites with “buy now” calls-to-action and accompanying shopping carts.

This doesn’t mean, however, that you should put up a purely informational site. You still want your readers to take action, whether it’s to pick up the phone, send an email, or request a quote.

Take Cisco, for example. Cisco is a multinational corporation that designs and sells electronics, networking, voice and communications technology and services, and B2B is a big part of their business. Their site contains tons of information about their products and services, but there’s no shopping cart. Instead, when listing their C3945 Integrated Services Router on their website, they use the following calls-to-action:

• Chat now
• Email | Request a price
• Find a local reseller
• Call 1-866-428-9596
• Download software

The reader (and potential customer) is not left to browse around and drift off to the next site. They are guided to take action.

2. Trust and Relationship Building Are Even More Important

The relationship between B2B businesses and their customers is even more important than B2C relationships. B2B customers tend to engage for multiple sales over a longer period of time, and ongoing support is frequently part of the package. Consequently, choosing the wrong B2B partner can be dire, potentially leading to years of problems and headaches.

Naturally, B2B customers want to get it right the first time, and the seller needs to reassure them they’re making the right choice. One powerful way to gain the trust of your B2B customers is to use your web copy to showcase successful customer relationships.

For example, Xerox’s website makes it clear they’ve successfully implemented their business process and document management services with other customers. On its US home page, Xerox has the following copy:

• Xerox and Michelin: We manage Michelin’s finance processing so they can focus on keeping the world moving.
• Xerox and Virgin America: We manage Virgin America’s call centers so they have time to run America’s coolest airline.

By putting these relationships up front, Xerox’s potential customers are more likely to trust Xerox to have the capacity, expertise and desire to help them succeed.

3. Share Your Research and Forecasting

Unlike demand for B2C consumer products and services (which comes directly from consumers), demand for B2B is indirectly derived. Derived demand is based on future consumer demand, so B2B businesses need to do a lot of research and forecasting. By sharing this insight on your B2B website, you may drive more business.

Airplane manufacturer Boeing does this beautifully. Their website has loads of data and future projections for the travel industry. This data can help airlines determine if they need to order more planes now, before consumer demand for air travel increases.

4. B2B Customers Aren’t Emotionless Automatons

You often hear that B2B purchases are an emotionless decision. But we must remind ourselves that despite piles of internal policies and processes, humans ultimately make B2B buying decisions. And where there are humans, there are emotions.

So you may not be able to motivate with “limited time offer, just three days left, buy now,” but you can motivate by alleviating fears and developing trust. Employees still fear making the wrong buying decision and looking bad in front of their peers or the big, bad boss.

Microprocessor manufacturer Intel uses its web copy to reassure, support and persuade its B2B customers. On their US home page, Intel’s copy states:

• Take Amazing for a Spin. Test drive the 2nd Gen Intel Core Processor that’s right for you
• 10 Million Teachers Trained. Countless Classrooms Reinvented. Join the Celebration.
• Get the processor that’s right for you (and your business) and you’ll be amazing too.

5. Just Because It’s B2B Doesn’t Mean You Can Fill Your Copy With Jargon

Some marketers believe because their business is B2B, they can use jargon and super technical language. Keep in mind B2B purchases are made by cross-functional teams of people. These teams include some technical users, but also representatives from non-technical departments, such as purchasing or finance. So some members of the group may understand your techno-jargon copy, but some won’t.

The challenge for copywriters is to write copy that persuades all members of the purchasing team throughout the buying cycle. You can include technical specifications on drill-down pages, but you also need to include product/service benefits in clear, simple language.

Industrial equipment manufacturer Caterpillar doesn’t need jargon or technical language to explain the benefits of its new Cat 789D large mining truck. Even heavy equipment novices can understand the scrolling copy on their home page:

• “Lowest cost per ton in class”
• “Increased payload capacity”
• “Engine, tire and dump body options”

B2B sales and marketing impacts your web copy. By understanding the B2B buying process — and tailoring your web copy to it — you’ll have more business customers banging on your door.

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.

Some companies post fluff on the web as a marketing strategy. We’ve all seen it: “helpful” articles written without the benefit of a decent encyclopedia by writers paid pennies per post. Until recently, Google’s preference for content-heavy sites rewarded these content farms with improved search rankings.

In February, Google took steps to downgrade the search rankings of high volume, low quality sites by making a significant adjustment to it’s algorithm. In April, Google expanded its algorithm change from just U.S. sites to all English-language sites. By some estimates, visibility of some of these sites fell as much as 94% after Google’s initial adjustment.

But fluff isn’t just limited to content farms. Could your site get caught in Google’s fluff reduction efforts? How much of your website is fluff?

The Webcopyplus Fluff Quiz

Take our quiz to see if your site is fluffy or fantastic. Rank your level of agreement with each statement below, then tally your points and read our assessment. Good luck!

1. Our main website priority is search engine optimization.

Strongly Disagree (1)     Disagree (2)     Undecided (3)     Agree (4)     Strongly Agree (5)

Unless your target market runs on a chip and looks like the Tin Man, your priority should be human visitors first, and search engines second.

By letting SEO drive your web content, you are creating fluff. It is better to write for your target market first (i.e. some subset of the human race) and then amend as needed to maximize SEO without sacrificing your human audience. SEO tactics may improve your ranking, but people still need to view the site.

2. We like to see what keywords people are searching for and then come up with content to match.

Strongly Disagree (1)     Disagree (2)     Undecided (3)     Agree (4)     Strongly Agree (5)

And that new content is typically fluff.

Creating content based on popular searches might direct traffic your way, but it’s not going to help your conversion rates. It’s fine to amend your content to utilize hot keywords, but only if the keywords are a natural fit for your site. Content driven by keywords not relevant to your site is a recipe for fluff.

3. We sometimes repeat content on our website to maximize keywords.

Strongly Disagree (1)     Disagree (2)     Undecided (3)     Agree (4)     Strongly Agree (5)

Repeated content is fluffy content. Repeated content is fluffy content. It irritates the reader. It irritates the reader.

Create your best content and put it on your site once. It disorientates the reader to find the same information in different locations on your site. If you find you need to put the same information in two places, then you need to take closer look at your site architecture.

4.  We sometimes add extra paragraphs or web pages to improve our search engine ranking.

Strongly Disagree (1)     Disagree (2)     Undecided (3)     Agree (4)     Strongly Agree (5)

Snore. Oh, sorry. What were you writing there? It was so deathly boring I nodded off.

Never create content just for the sake of creating content. It’s lazy, unimaginative, bores your readers, and makes your brand look bad.

5. When we need to add more content to our site, we randomly link another page or two to our sitemap.

Strongly Disagree (1)     Disagree (2)     Undecided (3)     Agree (4)     Strongly Agree (5)

Building a website is like building a home: You need a good plan. You don’t want to rip down walls or build lean-tos in your backyard every time you want to make a change.

If your site architecture is well-planned, it should be scalable, both up and down. It also makes it easier to see where more content is needed and where it is not. If you have one-pagers hanging off your root folder, you may have a fluff infestation.

If your site architecture is a problem, consider whether:

6. We developed our website as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Strongly Disagree (1)     Disagree (2)     Undecided (3)     Agree (4)     Strongly Agree (5)

If you assigned the design, development, and content of your site to a junior assistant, you have fluff. If your web developer scribbled your site plan on pages torn from the back of a Tom Clancy novel, you have fluff. If you acquired a writer with promises of portfolio development and pizza, then you have fluff.

A strong team of professional designers, developers and copywriters can help make sure your website meets your goals while keeping fluff to a minimum.

Fluff is cheap. But it may end up costing you more than you know.

7. If we create an interesting table, list or graph for a presentation, we also like to post it on our website.

Strongly Disagree (1)     Disagree (2)     Undecided (3)     Agree (4)     Strongly Agree (5)

That’s about as appealing as belly button fluff!

Repurposing content is fine. It can be a time-effective way to keep your web content fresh. But you must present all content in context. Don’t post pretty tables, lists, graphs or illustrations without explaining what they are and why people should care. Otherwise: fluff.

8. There is nothing we enjoy more than auto-generating content or scraping content from other sites.

Strongly Disagree (1)     Disagree (2)     Undecided (3)     Agree (4)     Strongly Agree (5)

You need a fluff intervention, my friend. These black hat activities will generate fluff and a Google delisting. Can jail time be far behind?

No need to calculate your score. Delete that website and return to question one.

Scoring

Add up your score and see how you did:

If you scored 8-15:
Congratulations, you are officially fluff-free! Your content is relevant, topical and useful to readers.

If you scored 16-23:
Your website is a little soft and chubby. Time to bring out your inner-editor and start editing.

If you scored 24-31:
You have more fluff than the corporate headquarters of Build-a-Bear. Time for some serious website reworking. Start deleting pages and sections, and think about revising your site architecture.

If you scored 32-40:
Call the fluff exterminators! It’s a fluff swarm of biblical proportions. You can either delete the site and start over, or translate the entire site into Swahili. It might keep you safe until Google expands its algorithmic adjustment to non-English sites, but don’t expect the people of East Africa to be grateful.

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.

In this inaugural edition of Are You Really Gonna Search That?, Opticon makes a peculiar discovery while conducting keyword research for a snowmobiling company in Whistler, BC.

Does the idea of stripping down and engaging in snow sports excite you? You may be in luck! According to my keyword research, a market exists for naked snow sports, and one snow sport in particular is underserved in the web realm. While ‘naked snowmobiling’ has a healthy amount of competition as a search term, ‘naked snowshoeing’ has zero competition and an 81.0 score on the Keyword Effectiveness Index.

Personally, I’d choose naked snowshoeing over snowmobiling. I would fear for the safety of my bits not only in the cold, but also whilst strapped to a snowy crotch rocket hurtling through the rough trails of Whistler. This guy, however, seems to be having a swell time with it:

Are You Really Gonna Search That? Is a regular series on the Webcopyplus blog that chronicles the gems discovered while conducting keyword research and building search engine optimization strategies for our clients.