Copywriter

COVID19

It may have slowed things down. Given us a moment or two to think about what's important. It has less of us driving our cars into the office, more of us walking outside and exploring  areas closer to home - because hey COVID has taken the planes out of the sky too.

It's reduced the smog in the city air. It's unveiled India's view of the stunning Himalayan Mountains. And you know what else COVID has done?

It's reduced the number of ships on the sea allowing us, who live on the Eastern Coastline of Australia, to be witness to more whales gliding past our shores, closer than ever...

Are you smiling now as the words from the last news broadcast vacates your mind?

And you realise that it is important we not focus our attention on just one side of the changes COVID has forced upon us..

As they say, "time is the only thing we can't buy more of. And is the one thing we can never get back". .

And with that I urge you all to take these moments, we may never of had if COVID wasn't unleashed. 

Look around and observe the way your mind reacts to seeing something it's never seen before.

Be amazed by the reactions of others transforming their thinking so rapidly their businesses are not only thriving, but many are directly helping others to gracefully adapt to a new way of life. Like that Aussie dad transforming his printing business into a cardboard desk company. 

Listen. A new type of thinking - interacting - living is here and there's nothing we can do about it, but RIDE THE WAVE. 

With the grace and courage of The Duke. 

Drawing inspiration from playful dolphins at sunset.

And with the fierce determination of a shark feeding in a school of frantic tuna....

Make the most of it ❤️✌️🌞

Have you ever ridden a scooter - underwater?

Attention ocean lovers and underwater adventurers – Here’s one for the bucket list.

Now picture yourself, wind flowing through your hair, coasting across the turquoise coloured ocean. As you look in towards the shoreline you see the breathtaking backdrop of bright green volcano hills behind the little sea-side towns of Honolulu.

The boat starts to slow down a few hundred meters from shore and floats above a huge underwater crater…….you’re here.  You feel a little flutter of excitement in your belly knowing you’ll soon be cruising down underwater on a chic canary yellow scooter.

You jump from the boat into the warm Hawaiian water, wiggle your head into your glass, air filled helmet and get yourself comfortable on the little scooter seat.

You close your fingers around the throttle of your right handle bar and start gliding down below the surface of the water, into the crater filled with hundreds of beautiful coloured fish, all fighting for the crumbs of bread in the little mesh bag attached to the front of the scooter.

After a minute or two, you slowly take your fingers off the throttle and you sit there, breathing underwater on your little yellow scooter and you just look around, staring at all the silent beauty swimming around you.

Now it’s time to start planning your underwater scooter adventure and be ready for when the lockdowns to be lifted and we can travel again.

If you want to do what I did, when I planned my trip, book online with Island Water Sports before you  get to Hawaii this will guarantee you get a spot on the day you want.

You don’t have to though, there are so many little tour booking kiosks in Waikiki. Be a little aware of some of the vendors on the main street though. If I’m booking tours in town, I always go back to the same beautiful lady, Lee, from this little place up Seaside Ave.

I did the underwater scooter tour on my second time to Hawaii – I’m so in love with the island life, I’ve been there three times in the past four years. While we’re all at home dreaming of where we’ll go when the travel bans are lifted, come on a virtual adventure through my travel stories. You never know, it might just be the inspiration you’ve been looking for.

The results - Conversion

The decision to purchase

So, you have the attention of your target audience, they are on your website, or in your store. Now, they have made their first purchase, they “converted”. At this moment you have an existing customer base.

Take a look at my article on How to grow your business from within for tips on how existing customers can be a low-cost acquisition channel, when you deliver the value you promised them.

Back to Conversion………..the result of all your marketing activity are working well together.

For every completed application form, completed booking, completed sale, all goes towards your bottom line. And we now have the last step in the ROI framework.

Recap moment

The 3 step ROI framework

Awareness leads to Consideration which the indicator of your brand penetration in the market

Consideration drives Conversion

Conversions equals sales and revenue

In my How to Measure ROI you read tips on way to measure your return from each stage of the framework.

Now what?

Read How to grow your business from within.

Awareness Week – The #1 objective

Here’s what having all the elements together can lead to – Consideration

Let’s start with a recap of what these elements are:

The right Channel Mix

The right ROI formula

Brand driven perception

Now, why is Consideration so important?

Consideration is what I like to call the dating stage. The asking their friends what they think of you stage. The curious stage of hope, the excitement of something new. This stage is your first metric to measure the success of your awareness program and validate that you have done what you set out to do and they, your target audience, is clicking on your ad to find out more.

It’s an indicator your target audience is starting to believe your business / product / service will  improve on their already Instagram fabulous lives, today. You’ve started to inspire them, you have them daydreaming about the joy they will feel.

It’s all about your well-crafted, genuine words that have started building trust, a connection, providing certainty that your business / product / service will deliver on its promise, that what you’re offering will meet they need.

Once your business is on their consideration list, your job is already half done.

The next stage - Conversion

Each interaction your target audience has with your ads, has the opportunity to lead to dollars. Which converts to revenue. Conversions grow your sales, applications, bookings and your existing customer base.

When the time is right for them to make that decision to purchase, they will search for your brand, they will compare it with others because they already know what your business / service / product is offering. And today might be the day they buy. Why? Because when they land on your website and read the words on their screen, replicating the promise you have made to meet their need – conversions happen.

Key takeaways

The consideration list is your first metric to help measure the success of your Awareness Program

It’s the dating stage, first impression count

Let’s work together to design your effective Awareness Program. Email me at [email protected]

Awareness Week – Design your program in 3-steps

Step 1: Be the story your target audience is telling. sharing. living.

What do you want your business to be known for? What value will your business / product / service add to your target’s lives?

Take the time to answer these questions and create your brand story.

Step 2: Know your objectives and their dollar value

To measure your ROI, map the anticipated actions your activity will achieve and use an engagement score card to evaluate the dollar value of these actions.

Step 3: The Design framework

Set SMART objectives for each campaign within your program

Know your channel mix and how each will roll out your story. Timing matters. Plan the roll out, of your story, like bread crumbs on a path to something wonderful.

Turn the features of your business / product / service into customer benefit statements

Build your assets – this is where a copywriter performs their wordsmithing magic.

Key takeaways

Do the pre work before you start designing

Know your brand story

Know your target audience

Know your ROI formula

 Design your program by

Converting features into customer benefit statements

Hiring a professional copywriter to bring your statements to life

Mapping your execution plan to share your story and drive the perception you want for your brand – Brand driven perception

 Are you ready to get started? Email me at [email protected]

Awareness Week – How to measure ROI                              

 Step 1. Define the dollar value of each anticipated action

Although most companies recognise that awareness is the first step of the buying funnel/cycle, many still don’t invest the time or budget, as much as they maybe should. This seems to be due to the belief that measuring the return on investment is too hard.

My recommendation to every business out there is the world of marketing is changing rapidly and the traditional way of looking at how to measure the success of marketing activity needs to be viewed differently.

In the world of big data, it’s a much easier to assess and define the dollar value each action delivers. Take the time to work through this at the beginning and it will make measuring ROI as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Look outside the traditional way of measuring the return on your investment dollars – Develop an engagement score card.

The engagement score card

Developing an engagement score card enables you to convert anticipated actions, from your awareness activity, into a score that can then be assigned a dollar value based on the importance of that action to your business.

Here’s how to get started:

List the anticipated actions and rank them in order of priority for your business

Overlay existing customer behaviours and the journey they took starting with that first action and use it as a profile

Model the behaviour and assess the revenue built from that customer journey - then repeat until all anticipated actions have an associated dollar value

This method allows you to make an informed assumption that the first initial action will return $X amount of revenue based on the trends your business has already seen – Voila. Measuring ROI for your awareness program is made easier when you have a score card with predetermined dollar values. 

Step 2. Brand consideration - do you know yours?

Your awareness activity is driving towards one underpinning objective - to be on your target’s consideration list. Therefore, knowing your consideration percentage in the market place, not only gives you a clear metric to monitor, it also helps validates the success of your overall awareness program.

Once you start tracking your brand consideration, you then need to work through how that consideration influences conversion. You will already know the dollar value a conversion has on your revenue line therefore you can work backwards to establish the dollar value of your consideration.

To keep your business growing and flowing with the demands of your target audience, keep optimising your program. 

The 3-step ROI framework

Awareness leads to Consideration which is the indicator of your brand penetration in the market

Consideration drives Conversion

Conversions equals sales and revenue

 Key takeaways

Define the dollar value of each anticipated action using data from your existing customers

The 3-step ROI framework is your guide on how to connect each part of the journey and the overall return each step has to your bottom line

Your consideration score helps validates the success of your awareness program

 Follow me @dks.copywriting on Instagram and Facebook for more ways to refine your marketing strategy.

Awareness Week – Channels Part 2

Earned, Owned and Paid media

Use your channel mix to influence earned, boost the quality of your owned and get more from your marketing dollars with paid - Here’s how.

First definitions - What is Earned, Owned, Paid media?

Earned media is what ‘the others’ are saying about you, it’s word-of-mouth, it’s the comments on social, it’s the discussions on forums, reviews sites and blogs. Overall, earned media is the opinions people in the market place are sharing, with others, about your business – it’s Free advertising, so make sure they only have good things to talk about.

Owned media are the assets you own and influence, it’s your website, it’s organic search results, it’s the unpaid content you post on your branded social platforms, it’s your blog. Any branded assets are considered owned - $0 advertising.

Paid media is where your marketing dollars are spent across third party owned mediums to promote and advertise your business – Your marketing dollars.

How these 3 media types work together to maximise your budget and meet your business goals?

You already know, from reading the value of an awareness program, that a well planned and executed awareness program is your chance to shape the perception of your business. Therefore, if your program is performing well, earned media will be one of the by-product of these efforts. Design your program to get people talking. Tease them a little. Leave them wanting to find out more.

I see so many companies using their advertising to just spew out everything about what they’re selling all in the one ad, not allowing intrigue to take the target audience on a journey to get to know your business. Don’t make the same mistake.

Use social listening tools and be aware of what is being said about your business / product / service and learn from it. If the narrative is not going your way, respond to it and use it to be better.

The heart of your owned media is primarily your website. This is where your target audience will land from every other channel in your mix, and it’s also where you showcase who your business is, what it stands for and the value it has to offer. It’s the low-cost channel that you have full control over, so use it wisely.

Your paid media channels should be used as the composer to elevate the other two. In the awareness stage you want to grab attention, evoke intrigue, get them thinking about if they need what you are offering. You want them to start asking questions about your business / product / service. You want them to go on the journey to get to know you - Driving them straight to your website.

Although I’ve ordered earned, owned and paid in the way that I have, really the process starts with owned, moves to paid, resulting in earned and back again. The cycle of how you use this mix for your business is adaptable to all stages of the funnel – Starting with awareness, which engineers  consideration, drives conversion, resulting in sales and revenue. 

Then while that front end is working, the back-end channel mix, to keep your new customer, kicks off with engagement and retention programs – but I’ll talk more about this at another time.

Key takeaways

·       Understand each channel / medium / asset, know how they work together to get the best from them and your marketing dollars - to drive the results you want

·       Your website is the heart of all your activity. It’s where all your other channels should drive your target audience

·       Be creative with your awareness program, create intrigue, leave them wanting more so they are excited and want to go on the journey to get to know your business

 Do you like what you’ve been reading? Let’s work together. Email me at [email protected]

Awareness Week – Channels Part 1

The channel list

You probably know them all, however the question is are you using a good mix or are you taking the scatter gun approach or dipping your toe into one or two until the budget runs out?

Online Channels

·       Search

·       Display

·       Email

·       Social

·       Mobile

·       Website

·       Blog

Offline Channels

·       Out of home (OOH)

·       Direct Mail

·       Flyer/Insert

·       Magazine

·       Newspaper

·       Telemarketing

·       Radio

·       TV

What channel will drive awareness?

Unfortunately, there isn’t a one size fits all or a silver bullet channel to deliver awareness success. The key is to find the right mix for your business and marketing budget. And here’s how to do it.

Start planning, set clear objectives for each channel and developing a test and learn strategy until you find the best channel mix for your business.

Here are two tips to help get your plan started.

Always on

The rule of 7 - you audience needs to see/hear your ad before they start to recognise your brand, and before they consider buying. Which means you need to consistently be visible to your target audience. Know where they play on and off line, and be there. This approach will increase your chances of being on their consideration list, when they are ready to buy.

Search

Optimise your website content to answer the questions your target audience will ask Google. Ensure your title tags and alt tags are relevant to what your audience is searching for, and the content on each page. The secret here is to keep optimising, not for the algorithms but for your audience, this will give your business the best chance to organically be on top of the search results list.

Key takeaways

·       Know your target audience, where they spend their time and what questions they are asking – so you can serve up the answers and get noticed

·       Developing a test and learn strategy is the best way to understand the right channel mix to use for your business

·       The underpinning objective for all your tests is to be on your target’s consideration list. Giving your acquisition/sales campaigns a better chance to convert - get on that list.

 Part 2 will be posted tomorrow, but if you can’t wait contact me today at [email protected]

Awareness Week - The value for your business

Let’s start with what an Awareness Program is - 

The answer is in the definition – the Oxford dictionary states that awareness is the ‘knowledge or perception of a situation or fact’.

To translate this into something meaningful for business - investing in an awareness program gives your business the opportunity to shape the perception of your brand, in the minds of your target audience, to provide them with knowledge of what your business represents and has to offer.

The mission of DKs copywriting is to help your business become the story your target audience is telling. living. sharing. And an awareness program is the first step in achieving this goal.

The number one thing to understand is that to build a strong awareness program, some patience is required. It’s a long tail strategy that will support your tactical campaigns and it needs time to build.

Trust me though, it’s worth the time, keep reading.

The value of building an awareness campaign

The rule of 7. 

Research shows us that a potential customer needs to see/hear your ad seven times before your brand is even noticed. And before they will consider making the decision to buy.

This is where the value of an ‘always on’ awareness program can underpin your other marketing activity. An awareness program allows you to be in front of your target audience and have them ready to buy when you push your sales campaigns to market.

An always on programs doesn’t mean you need a big budget. Using a well-planned channel mix will allow you to build cost effective programs – I’ll share more on this later in the week.

Hot Tip - An awareness program is the opportunity for your business to shape the perception of your brand. The content shouldn’t be focused on your price. 

Share how your brand will add value to the lives of your target audience. Focus on how you can provide what they are looking for, better than the others.

Key takeaways

·       Building awareness is a long-tail strategy. Be Patient.

·       Awareness programs should not be focused on price

·       You don’t need a big budget to achieve your objectives

Here’s the sneak peek into what you’ll learn during Awarness Week - Starting tomorrow.

The value of an Awareness Program and why it should be part your Marketing Strategy

The need for a channel mix strategy

How to get the most from your marketing dollars

How to measure the ROI of your Awareness Program

Start-up tips: How to design an effective Awareness Program

How Awareness turns into Consideration

The Results

Grow your business from within

If your business is open today, chances are you already have an existing customer base. Whether your business has been around for 6 months or for 20 years, you have customers who have already found you, know your brand and have made a purchase that met their immediate need.

Once that initial transaction is complete the important next step for your business is to stay relevant to them, engage them and turn them into advocates.

The key benefit of turning existing customers into advocates is that they will tell their friends, family and anyone else that mentions they need what you’re selling.

Word of mouth is still the supreme and least expensive advertising channel in the market.

So, whether you’re selling a dream; a destination; product or service; focusing on engaging your existing customer base and turning them into advocates is an easy, cost effective way to grow your business from within.

Your business can become the story your customers are telling - living - sharing.                       

 Here’s how:

Have a balanced marketing strategy. One that is focused on growing both externally and from within

Reward loyalty

Stay relevant with consistent engagement that is meaningful and relevant to them

 Do you want help crafting the right copy for your engagement program?

Let’s work together. Email me at [email protected] and tell me about your business.

Words Matter

They say, a picture is worth a thousand words. However, for a business wanting to be noticed, I would like to argue that without some well-crafted words, a picture alone won’t get your target audience to click through to your website.

Therefore, I invite you to stop for a moment and think about what you do when you’re scrolling through your Instagram feed.  

You see this gorgeous picture of a bungalow over the water on a perfect day, what’s the first thing you do? Double tap? Click to the profile of the poster?

Or do you scroll down to see the words to find out where this glorious destination is and if there’s a sale price so you can be there swimming with the turtles, as soon as possible?

The images you use to grab your targets attention is very important. Although without the right words to give context to the image, it won’t get your potential customers clicking through to your website.

I would like to propose a re-write on this old saying to be - A picture sparks emotion and intrigue. And coupled with the right words, that picture will return the desired action you want from the people you want to buy your products and services.

The bottom line is.

To increase sales and grow your customer base you need a good copywriter. One that works with you to understand your brand, your vision and the people you’re trying to attract.

What does your business need?

A website refresh

An email retention program

Higher search rankings

Scripts – Video; Webinar; Telesales

Content, content, content

All of the above

 Let’s work together. Email me [email protected] and tell me about your business needs.

Words Matter

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I say a picture sparks emotion and intrigue - And coupled with some well-crafted words, will return the action you want from your target audience.

Email me and tell me about how I can help your business be the story your target is telling. living. sharing.