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A true brand is a metaphor for desire, a container for aspirations and the promise of fulfillment. We are all the same, each of us searching for the same things and they aren’t keywords. Most businesses think way too narrowly; too focused on the concrete instead of the psychological. Branding like history is based on enduring themes, the universal hardwired predilections that form our basic needs and wants, whether for business or pleasure.

Quintessential Brand Themes

Gerald and Lindsay Zaltman have come up with what they call the ‘Seven Giants’ in their book ‘Marketing Metaphoria.’ They describe seven classic elements that they see effecting consumer behavior: balance, transformation, journey, container, connection, resource, and control.

Balance is about maintaining or reestablishing normality; Transformation is about the metamorphosis from unsatisfying to fulfillment; Journey is about personal growth; Container is about physical and emotional constraints; Connection is about relationships; Resource is about acquiring and using tools and knowledge; and Control is about creating a sense of security, well-being, or mastery.

These themes have a marked similarity to the classic storytelling scenarios used by every novelist, screenwriter, and successful brand strategist.

The Brand Story

Effective brand strategies are based on delivering a story, a tale that embeds in the collective consciousness of an audience and becomes a metaphor for some deep-seated psychological human need.

We are taught to maintain a positive outlook, and it is definitely a more healthy approach to life than the opposite, but stories are based on tension, disruption, and overcoming obstacles. If your audience is self-satisfied, if they’re happy with the way they look, the way they feel, and the stuff they own, why would they be interested in buying your product or service? The fact is most people and businesses want more, more of everything, and the promise of more is what you’re selling.

It may not be popular to say, but the negative perspective is the more powerful. If branding is about making a memorable impression you will be more successful if you tap into your audiences’ insecurities and neediness.

Even seemly positive commercials like Dove’s ‘real beauty’ campaign is really about highlighting the audiences’ flaws: it places a mirror in front of the viewer and says, ‘look in the mirror, this is what you really look like, and girl you need makeup’ - cynical perhaps, but this marketing strategy was able to hit consumers from both sides of the psychological fence: great positive PR because of the apparent positive message, while at the same time subliminally saying, you really don’t want to look this natural do you? It’s what we call the Law of Dissatisfaction.

It All Boils Down To Creating Discontent

Archetypical stories all boil down to motivating sales by getting your audience to think your stuff will make their lives better; and in order to do that, you first have to get your audience to accept the fact that their current situation is not as good as they thought.

What good is a forty-two inch flat-screen when you could have a sixty inch one; what good is a headache tablet that takes twenty minutes to work when you could have one that works in five; and how can anyone really be happy with their face or body when just a few injections of some magic elixir will turn them into a beauty queen or matinee idol? Is there really anything wrong with wanting to reach your maximum potential? It is after all the driving force behind our economy and the ultimate motivation behind innovation.

Stories Are Content, Advertising Is Irritation

We all know the Web is about content, and the future of successful Web-marketing lies in the ability to turn marketing messages into content, and meaningful content is about storytelling. We need to stop looking at television advertising as the prototype format; the people running television have their heads buried deep in the sand beside the same people who run the music and movie industries - they just don’t seem to be able to adapt to the new Web-environment and it’s inherent nature, capabilities and demands.

Mind numbing, number crunching study after number crunching study, filled with misleading statistics, complicated graphs, and pretty PowerPoint charts don’t tell the real story. Wasting money on ineffective banner ads and irritating, over-used TV spots, while obsessing over search engine optimization and technical solutions won’t get you where you want to go.

Companies need to learn how to connect to an audience and build a relationship with that audience by delivering content in ways that people have used from time immemorial, through telling a story told by a real person with a real voice: something the Web is not only capable of doing, but is superior at delivering.

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

Tags: content writing, Writing

This article will give you 7 key tips for crafting an attention-grabbing article that will be welcomed by quality publishers, bring value to your readers, drive targeted traffic to your website *and* build up those precious one-way links in the process!

Let’s get started…

1) Remember who you’re writing for and why.

The object with article marketing is to write articles that bring value to your readers, that show you to be an expert on your topic, and that inspire your readers to click through to your website. Also keep in mind that your articles need to please the online publishers–after all, if your article doesn’t get picked up for publication, then nobody gets to read your article!

2) Don’t write about your website or business.

This is the part that so many article marketers struggle with! Remember, our articles are geared to meet the needs of our target readers and the online publishers. The minute your article stops sounding educational and starts sounding like an advertisement for your website, your readers will put their guard up and lose interest in your article, which is not what we’re going for! You need to take a more subtle approach. When you’re writing your articles, you are a teacher, an educator, an expert–not a salesperson!

The appropriate place to talk about your business, website or products is your author resource box.

3) Write about your area of expertise.

Your customers can be a constant source of article topic ideas. What are the top 10 questions that customers most frequently ask you? Write those questions down and create an article that answers each question. Remember, you have to be creative and subtle, because you must answer the question without mentioning your own website. Your role as the author of the article is to be a source of information, not a sales person.

4) Write ‘How To’,'7 Tips’ and ‘Top 10′ lists.

We all love a list, don’t we? Instructional ‘How To’ articles and informational ‘Top 10′ (or 7 or 5 or whatever) articles have a knack for catching readers eyes. No matter what the topic of your article, you can find a way to create a ‘How To’ or ‘Top 7′ list. This is an article writing strategy that works, so do it!

5) Always write about the topic of your website.

It sounds obvious, but I’ve seen more than a few authors who have a one track mind about article marketing–they just want to rack up the precious one-way backlinks that article marketing generates, and so they think it’s fine to write articles on any topic under the sun with a link in their resource box going back to their website on a different topic. Don’t do that!

Why? We’re not after just any type of traffic–we’re after *targeted traffic*. Targeted traffic means that the folks you lure to your website are people who would be very likely to be interested in the topic of your website. While you will never write directly about your website, you will definitely want to write about the *topic* of your website.

6) Make a great resource box.

Aha! This is the appropriate place to talk about your business. Writing a great resource box is an art in itself, but just to get you started here are a few tips:

• Do include a little biographical information.
• Do tell the reader why they should go to your website.
• Do ask them to click.
• Do customize your resource box to the article.
• Do include a link to your site, but don’t go ‘link crazy’. A single link is great. Three or four links is pretty pointless.

7) Don’t forget to have a great website.

This is the part that some folks overlook. They know that in order to increase their search engine rankings for their website that they need to generate incoming links and increased exposure for their site, but what then?

There’s no real benefit to drawing readers to a site that leaves them saying, “Is that all? This isn’t of much help to me.”

So, remember to create valuable content on your website too, so that you have a quality destination to which you’re trying to draw your readers.

The valuable content on your website is also like bait that entices a reader to click through to your site. Be sure to have something on your website that will expand upon the information you’ve just provided in your article.

Article marketing isn’t brain surgery–anyone can do it! Just follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way to a successful article marketing campaign!

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Interested in putting these 7 tips into action? Sharon Sarmiento is an article marketing expert who enjoys teaching website owners how to write and submit articles for maximum traffic. She’ll guide you step-by-step through the article writing and submission process at the popular blog, Creative Article Marketing => http://www.creativearticlemarketing.com

Tags: article writing, content writing, Writing

Book publishing, information publishing, however it’s called. It can create a wealth of fortune for you.

However, what most people understand about publishing means they have to do something big. They have to be really knowledgeable about the subject they want to publish. They had to be real good with writing.

But when does writing have to be a hard thing?

Here’s why: Long have we tried to write, and time after time we experience what we call writer’s block. The fact is, writer’s block can never have to be a problem at all - as you’ll learn why in a while.

Then, the world never cares whether you’re knowledgeable about something, they care when you’ve delivered to them in a value of some kind. Why do you think someone would want to buy a book from you? They wanted to learn something they can change their lives in, and further improve their quality of lives as well.

Here’s where researching comes in—but we’re not speaking about the average research. Sometimes people think research is a difficult feat requiring hours upon hours of effort, but with what you’re going to learn from me in later articles, you’ll find researching a petty little task to do, and you can create greater results from my technique!

We’ll talk about writer’s block here.

You see, the only reason why you have writer’s block is because you’re editing. It’s summed up in this one sentence.

Whether or not you’re editing doesn’t matter, but when you feel a block of your mind from writing amazing words, it’s because you’re giving yourself judgment over your writing process. It doesn’t have to always be this way.

And here’s a secret to eliminate writer’s block forever if you would but understand its true value and use it:

Write FAST. Write really, really fast.

I will teach you how to do this even clearly on the next subsequent articles I will be sharing with you which you can find on my web site, but right now here’s the most important thing you need to eliminate writer’s block forever.

To quote one of the world’s current greatest science fiction writers of all time, Isaac Asimov (featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for his prolific writing), here’s what he says when asked by a reporter what his secret is to becoming such a prolific writer: “I guess I’m prolific because I have a simple and straightforward style.”

Little did people really deciphered the true meaning behind his quote.

The way you can really have a simple and straightforward style is to write the way you talk… and if you want to write the way you talk, you better write fast because that’s the little trigger to unlocking your amazing writing abilities to have your readers feel as though you’re talking to them.

You know what they say? The best books in the world always makes it feel as if the reader is involved in the picture.

Well this is one of the biggest secrets to writing a book fast and publishing one you can sell on the Internet, or have them racked upon the booths of book stores you visit in the next few weeks, or months.

Believe it or not, you could publish your own book in 2 weeks and use it to change your life forever.

If you want to learn the subsequent chapters to really write fast, and how to use what you’ve written to create a multi-million information publishing business online even though you’re just an average person, be sure to wait or discover the next articles coming up for you.

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A former college dropout, Dan Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to a multi-millionaire. Dan came to North America with little knowledge of the English language and few contacts. If you’re ready to take your online business to the next level, go to: http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com/more.html

Tags: content writing, Writing

With the number of websites and Blogs growing daily you need to make sure your website stands out from your competition. Your product or service needs to be the best solution for their problem, and you need to quickly and clearly convey that.

Previously we talked about the importance of headlines to draw your prospects into your site. Once they are in your site and reading your content you can’t drop the ball. Your text needs to continue to compel and excite your visitors.

You need to remind them why they are there (usually your site visitors are looking for something they want or they are looking for a solution to a problem).

Your copy (text) needs to remind them of their pain and talk about the solution you offer.

Although your website is about you and your products and services, your copy needs to always relate back to them. It needs to make them feel like you understand them and have exactly what they need.

When you sit down to write your content you need to consider the following:

1. Why are they buying your product/service? What problem is your product/service a solution for?

2. What motivates your prospect to take action and look for a solution?

3. What is your target demographic? What style and wording will resonate with your prospects?

So, let me take you through this process. Let’s say you sell jewelry.

1. Why are they buying your product? What problem is your product/service a solution for?

You may think that there is no problem here but dig deeper. Why do men and women buy jewelry? They want to look nice. They like pretty things.

They want to apologize for something they did wrong and need a grand gesture such as jewelry. They use jewelry as an expression of love. They use jewelry as a status symbol.

Each of those things has emotions behind them - probably on a subconscious level.

There may be an insecurity, which can be eased by having flashy jewelry to show off to the world. There may be a desire for a reward for hard work.

Understanding the underlying reasons why people want or need your product can help you start to form ideas for your text and write copy that will have an emotional impact on your site visitors.

2. What motivates your prospect to take action and look for a solution?

Understanding the first question will help you understand what will ultimately motivate your prospect.

If there is insecurity the motivator will be the relief of that insecurity and the end result will be feeling happy and special.

If the jewelry is being purchased as an apology gift the motivator is to smooth over a problem and recreate harmony in a relationship - at least on the surface.

You get the idea, knowing why your prospects do things will help you write your copy in a way that will increase their motivation.

3. What is your target demographic? What style and wording will resonate with your prospects? Is your target market an older or younger crowd? Is there slang that can be used to help you connect with and relate to your prospects? Are they broke, rich, middle-class? Are they looking for prestige and airs of sophistication? Are they likely to pay more because they can? There are people out there that feel if something isn’t expensive it isn’t worth it.

Understanding how they communicate, what they are used to and making them feel like you understand them can help you create a feeling of camaraderie with your prospects.

Learning more about your prospect is one of the best exercises you can do to enhance your copy and really connect with your prospects. Now, keep in mind you aren’t going to address every problem and every need in every page on your site, you’ll need to think about what makes sense and what is likely the strongest motivator for each product/service.

Using the information that we established above, let’s look at 2 samples of web copy.

Sample 1: Produced with no thought for the “reason why” and the motivator.

We offer the best price on sparkling diamonds. We have engagement rings, anniversary bands, sweetheart and promise rings. You’ll be dazzled by the beauty of our diamond rings.

Sample 2: Considering the motivator and the emotions behind the purchase.

When you are looking for the perfect ring for that special moment in your life you want something as pure, clear and breathtaking as your love. Our unique diamond anniversary bands, engagement rings, and promise rings sparkle, although not as much as the sparkle in her eyes when you present her with the perfect ring. Clarity, cut and color are important; and we’ll help you with making the best selection in your price range. However, remember when you look at our beautiful rings that you are selecting a symbol of your love - follow your heart and pick the ring that will look perfect on her finger for a lifetime.

Please note, I’m no jewelry expert and this was just off the top of my head, but you’ll notice in the second sample I wrote the text for a romantic looking for that special piece of jewelry. I’ve tapped into his mindset and conveyed that I understand what it is he is looking for in a ring.

When you are working on your website copy, remember you don’t need to be a professional copywriter with years of training - you know your product/service and you know the benefits of it. All you have to do is take the time to learn a few simple concepts like the one outlined above to make small improvements in your copy that could have a big impact on your bottom line.

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Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing and co-owner of http://www.EcomBuffet.com Since 1998, her expertise in online marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has helped clients increase revenue and achieve their business goals. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on Search Engine Optimization and has been published in many SEO and marketing publications.

Tags: content writing

It is incredible what lengths people will go to in an attempt to have success online without using any of their own ideas or products.

People are willing to go out of their way to buy pre-made web sites, purchase or find free ebooks to promote, and place affiliate links on their site to sell other people’s products. But if you really want to make money on the internet, try selling ebooks of your own.

I discovered this very fact out for myself. Much like many other entrepreneurs on the internet, I was moving along ok and making a few bucks here and there, but I certainly was not making the BIG bucks.

And that is when I realized what all of the top internet marketers were doing!

If you pay attention closely to some of the top internet marketers, you will notice that they all have their own products and ebooks to promote. i.e. They are all selling ebooks of their own.

There is no secret to their success. They were willing to put in the time to create fresh and enticing products.

There are far too many sites on the internet that have created duplicate content that is written in different wording. Unfortunately, most internet surfers can identify the same content that has been slightly altered. But if you can create something new, something that nobody else has touched on, or give a subject a different slant, you can have success.

There is nothing wrong with taking an idea that has already been created and going in a different direction with it. In fact, this can give people a different view of the topic. But the important thing is that you include new information and fresh tips and techniques on how to do something. If you can do this, you will sell ebooks that can bring you in a very tasty second (or even main) income.

Once you have ebooks and info products of your own, you can open up a whole new world of internet marketing. These are your ideas you can promote meaning nobody else has touched on them in just the same way. There are not hundreds of other people already approaching the idea in the same way as you are. But eventually there could be hundreds of other people promoting and selling YOUR ebook.

It is a completely different story once you have people promoting and selling ebooks for you because you are getting the credit.

Selling ebooks that are not yours can be difficult because you are selling other people’s ideas. It certainly is not easy coming up with fresh ideas and creating an ebook, but it is far more rewarding and much easier to sell.

So the secret behind selling ebooks is writing your own first. While it can be difficult creating your own ebook, (unless you have a good teacher), it can be even more difficult to sell someone else’s.

Save yourself the trouble and gain more recognition by writing and selling your own ebook.

Writing and selling ebooks of your own is now EASY! Check out the 6 week course that is changing lives! http://www.InfoProductsMadeEasy.com

Tags: content writing, ebooks, Writing

The way you present your e-business to the world is the key to its success. Its so important that your website looks professional and credible so that customers will trust the products or services you are selling. Ideally, your site’s content will also be interesting and unique enough that they appreciate your brand and remember to shop with you again. You need to develop two types of content to make this happen: a “Hollywood pitch” and website copy.

The Hollywood Pitch

It’s important to have a clear idea of what your business does and what it offers to its customers—both for your own thinking but also because friends, family, customers, and even potential investors are all going to ask you, “So what does your business do?”

The best way I have found to encapsulate your new business concept is to use what I call the “Hollywood pitch technique.” You identify the basic elements of your business and compare them to familiar, existing concepts or previous successes in a pseudo-mathematical equation.

In Hollywood, new movie and TV program ideas are often pitched this way because it uses already existing success stories to give listeners a quick, positive impression of what you are proposing. Boiling down your business idea to this quick summary will also help you focus on what is important and unique about your business.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: content writing