Ghost Writers Launch New Website

by Elle Ray | Nov 18, 2015 | Announcement

Ray Access Launches Redesigned Website

“We’re still here!” shout Ray Access partners Linda Ray and Mark Bloom.

Those are mighty bold words coming from a couple of local ghost writers who are beating the odds. They’ve built a business that’s thriving in an industry fraught with corporate titans and overseas, underpriced competition. That’s right: Ray Access, a small online content provider, has grown steadily since it began in 2012.

Launch Coincides with Halloween; Coincidence?

“It’s frightening to think that the right words can have such a huge impact on businesses,” says Mark. “But the Internet has leveled the playing field for small companies looking to compete. In the vacuum of space, no one can tell how big your business is… if you present yourself well. And content plays a crucial role, even more than graphics or catchy videos.”

scary Halloween

In addition to a slew of local clients, Mark and Linda have attracted the attention of business owners from South Carolina to New Jersey, New York and Florida. With their new redesigned website launch, the partners hope to extend their reach even further.

Impressive Accomplishments

Some of the spooktacular success Ray Access has enabled includes:

Causing an explosion of business for clients immediately following their website content reboot.
Dramatically increasing the number of customer phone calls, directly improving the bottom line.
Increasing online visibility for one local company from 200 to 1,000 impressions per month within 30 days.
Producing website content revisions for some of the area’s top web development firms.
Hiring three part-time freelance writers to handle growth, including some Asheville locals.
Earning a sterling reputation among the local business community.

Not bad for the former reporter and former technical writer who started Ray Access. Now they research, write and edit website content that converts lookers into buyers, blog posts that attract attention and press releases that compel readers to learn more. All as ghost writers, meaning that their names, Mark and Linda, never appear as authors of the content. Business owners love it.

Behind the Costumes

Ray Access working in costume True superheroes, the team at Ray Access can use its superpowers to make invisible companies appear on search pages. To bring truth, justice and prosperity to all, Ray Access gives its clients a singular voice that echoes in the cacophony of the Internet.

“One of our main talents is being able to adjust our tone to address the needs of every client,” says Mark. “Each has an individual voice and story to tell. Yet Ray Access remains anonymous on the pages we craft. We’re not scary, but we are ghosts: ghost writers.”

And all clients get equal time from both partners. “That’s another benefit of hiring Ray Access,” says Linda. “Every single thing we produce is reviewed by both a writer and an editor. No other writer can say that with the confidence we do — and mean it — with no tricks, twists or asterisks.”

To find out how the ghost writers at Ray Access can help your business, set up a time to talk about your needs and the writing services of Ray Access. It’s free!

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

When Is a Sale Not a Sale?

by Elle Ray | Jul 12, 2015 | Small Business Advice

Instilling a Sense of Urgency Makes Better Copy

“Biggest blow-out of the year!”

“Don’t wait, buy today while prices are at their lowest ever!”

“We’ll never slash prices like this ever again!”

“Hurry! Sale ends Monday at 5:00 PM!”

It's a huge sale... or is it?

You don’t believe these ads. Or do you? You are bombarded with these “sales” messages every day — on TV, on the radio and on most Internet ads. The sense of urgency produced probably tends to get tiresome. You stop hearing the repetitious phrases and block out the so-called call to action they imply. Or do you?

Buy Now! It Works

A sense of urgency in your marketing copy can help to double, triple or even quadruple your conversion rates. Why? Because it works.

Groupon has made excellent use of the urgent call to action by limiting not only time that its deals are available, but also the number of people who can claim them. The Asheville, NC-based Rug & Home advertises on television with an obnoxious young blond who tells viewers that the big sales always end on “Monday” or after a big holiday sale when, in fact, the sales never end. Prices rarely change.

create a sense of urgency in your ads But buyers keep coming in. And the company thrives. The sales manager at the North Carolina rug outlet once said that the commercials work because: “The ads shake the trees, and then we rake up the leaves.”

Psyched Up

While it may seem unproductive and illogical, the fear of missing out drives many buying decisions. John B. Watson, the founder of behaviorism in America, worked for one of the biggest ad agencies in New York City. He believed that consumers make buying decision based on one or more basic human emotions — fear, love or rage.

A sense of urgency in your marketing copy appeals to the innate fears most people possess — the fear of missing out. And the ubiquitous nature of social media only confirms this idea. People fear missing out on something more than they fear anything else.

Consider the enormous risks people take texting while driving just to ensure they don’t miss a thing. Mediums like Facebook allow users to get notified about every move made by anyone who means anything, whether or not it is important.

Just in Case

So you may not actually believe the advertised sale is for a limited time. You may know instinctively that if you don’t act within the next 24 hours, you will lose your sole chance to buy that cool thing. Nevertheless, if you’re like most people, you think, “Maybe it’s true this time.” It’s kind of like the agnostic who won’t go all the way to embrace atheism “just in case.”

So build a sense of urgency into your copy. Make your sales last for just the weekend. Set time limits on your special offers. Tell consumers that if they don’t want to miss the biggest deal in town, they should act today. Because otherwise your message will get lost in the fog of all the other “sales” messages.

The Art and Science of Business Blog Writing

by Mark Bloom | Jun 28, 2015 | Blog Writing

Everything You Should Know About Keywords

Ray Access writes business blogs from a desktop like this

Writing business blogs, one of the core services Ray Access provides, is not like writing for a newspaper. It’s not writing a scholarly essay. And it’s certainly not like writing a short story. There’s an art and a science to it that few have mastered.

When done correctly, blog content attracts people looking for similar topics. It draws traffic to your website. A business blog can be a marketing tool, promoting your business and extending your reach, but only if your business blog posts are written properly. You don’t necessarily need Ray Access for this process, but we can do it quickly and inexpensively, freeing you up to run your business.

What Are Keywords?

A keyword is actually a string of words that together compose a phrase that someone may type into a search engine entry field. In other words, it’s a phrase that people are searching for. The more people that are searching for that phrase, the more valuable that keyword phrase becomes. Broad keywords (such as “writing”) have lots of competition, while more refined keyword phrases (such as “business blog writing”) may be easier to rank for.

Choosing the right keywords is an important part of gaining online visibility for your website. For example, if you own a massage business, your location should be in the keyword, as well as a descriptive word. So “Asheville therapeutic massage” is a better keyword phrase than “table massage.”

The Science of Business Blog Writing

Using keywords appropriately is the science of blog writing for your business. Keywords make it easier for people looking for your business to find you. Keywords tie your business blogs into the way search engines work.

But that’s not the only thing you need to know about the science of business blogging. You also need to post blogs regularly and consistently. You do not need to post a new blog every day, although that wouldn’t hurt. Once a week is sufficient. Your business still gets benefits from a bi-weekly or even monthly blog post; it just takes a little longer to work.

The Art of Blogging for Business

When you write a business blog post, write for your human visitors, not for the search engines. Only by providing useful content will you gain online traction. While the goal of maintaining a blog is to market your business, the way to do it is to appeal to actual people.

Answer common (and uncommon) questions about your business, industry or location. Share tips about your product or service. Provide content that is “share-worthy.” Going viral is hitting a home run in the blogging community, but don’t expect it to happen often. Target your customers and write to help them in some way. That’s the way to build your business.

Writing Tips

Develop a title that will grab attention. “Tips” is a good word to use in the title. So is “How to.” Include subheadings within the content. That helps visitors scan the article to find information. Subheads also break up the text so you don’t have imposing paragraphs that chase visitors away.

Use language that your customers can understand. When you write, speak to your audience, not at them. Write in approachable terms. You are building a relationship with your customers, so just as you might in real life, face-to-face situations, be polite, clear and friendly. Remember, that people do business with people and companies they like. Be likeable, even in print. It’s a science and an art that the experts at Ray Access can help you master.

Beyond Analytics

by Mark Bloom | Jun 2, 2015 | Website Content

Why Ray Access Provides Website Assessments

Our website assessment gives your site a human evaluation.

a website assessment helps make your blog easier to read

Website analytics (like Google Analytics) can show you all kinds of data:

How many unique visits your website attracts.
How long they stay on your site.
What pages they visit.
Where they came from or how they got there.

All this is really useful information, if you know how to decipher it and act upon it. To the content experts at Ray Access, however, there are two very simple computations that are meaningful:

Are you attracting enough visitors to your website, and
Are you converting those visitors into customers?

In plain language, is your website successful at bringing in new and repeat business? Is it working for you? If it is, you don’t need analytics to tell you; you can see it in your bottom line. If your website isn’t working, analytics may not tell you what’s wrong.

What’s Wrong with Your Website

No disrespect to analytics and those professionals who rely on the data they generate. Those numbers are real, they’re valid and they do reflect success or failure. But customer conversion is a subtle art. If it were simply a matter of numbers, every online venture would eventually succeed, given the plethora of search engine optimization (SEO) specialists out there.

Unfortunately, conversion relies on multiple factors, including the mood of the visitor when he reaches your website. Little things can erode his curiosity, his confidence and his desire to buy. For example:

Readers who see spelling or grammatical errors on your website lose faith in your credibility.
Visitors often give up after a few seconds if they don’t see what they need right away.
Your website content may actually say one thing when you meant another, causing visitor confusion and lost sales.
Poorly designed sites are notorious for pushing away visitors. If your website content is not easy to scan, your website’s not easy to use.
Website designs that look antiquated do not elicit feelings of confidence in visitors.
Big blocks of text turn readers off.
A bad experience, like a bad review, is impossible to delete. Once your reputation is tarnished, you can’t easily win back your audience.

Pet Peeves of Real People

don't make people angry about your website While responding to analytics can show you where your website issues lie, you can master the SEO requirements for the pages of your website and still not be able to convert the visitors you’re drawing. The problem could be that you’re so immersed in keyword research that you’ve forgotten that it’s real people who actually visit your site. Real consumers rely on those search engines to bring them the goods, services and information they seek. So you must direct your website content to answer real questions from those real human visitors.

One of the worst mistakes web developers make is to rely on cool graphics, hyped up verbiage and trendy videos. As a result, a first-time visitor to your site sees so much flash that by the time he finishes viewing all these distractions on your home page, he still doesn’t even know what your company does, what it sells or why it even has a website (other than to show off its trendiness).

Business owners often rely too heavily on website designers to create a site, and then don’t take the time to go over that site to ensure that it works for their target market. What ends up happening is you get a great-looking site that doesn’t actually work to convert visitors. And if you don’t know what’s wrong, you can’t fix it.

Another common flaw in website design is that the contact information is difficult to find. Putting it in small fonts at the bottom of your page is insulting to a visitor who may just need a phone number or email address to ask a question or make a purchase. Your contact information — an email address, phone number, physical address, hours of operation… whatever it is — may be the most important thing on your website.

Website Assessments to the Rescue

We started Ray Access because of our own experiences and frustrations with website design and poor content quality. Here was a niche we knew we could fill. But at the beginning, we just offered to write website content and blog posts. Soon after, we launched a service we hadn’t even considered at the beginning: website assessments. For every new client, we offered to review the existing website and point out problems, errors and opportunities. Then we provided ideas, options and solutions.

It turns out that website assessments held enormous value in and of themselves. So it became a standalone service. An affordable, no-obligation website assessment provides a snapshot of how effective your current website is from a content perspective. In other words, we examine your website as a first-time visitor might see it. We generate a page-by-page report that tells you what works, what doesn’t work, and even what’s missing.

Why Content Providers?

Ray Access provides website assessments Whether you are creating a new website or updating a current site, bring in an experienced team of website professionals to provide an outsider’s view of your content and design. While we’re not website designers or SEO pros here at Ray Access, we have visited thousands of websites and we are experts in content. We know what works.

We review your content to determine if it builds trust and answers questions. We check your design to see if it’s clear and east to navigate. We look at your graphical elements to find out if they add value or just get in the way. And since our website assessments come with no obligation, you can turn around and hire someone else to fix your problems. Adding value is our goal. Getting more business from you does not motivate us; earning your trust does.

It’s the Details that Count

A professional website assessment from Ray Access gives you:

An overall critique of your site, including how it looks and how it reads
In-depth line reading for grammar, spelling and context appropriateness
Review for clarity
Advice for where to place call-to-action elements
A check of all active links (you’d be surprised how many web pages are filled with broken links)
Questions that your customers may have that can’t be found easily on your site, if at all
Suggestions for additional pages
How well and how easy your website is to navigate (or not)
Critique of the photos and taglines
SEO options, such as keyword optimization
An honest appraisal of how a new visitor sees your site

With each new website assessment we do, we find areas that are confusing or conflicting that we never encountered before. Because your business is unique, your website should reflect it. You can find hundreds of really cool design templates out there. Many businesses try to stand out by relying on slang and non-business verbiage. That’s great. Have fun building your site.

But don’t trade trendiness for clarity. And don’t trade flash for conversions. The bottom line is that your website should be adding to your bottom line. If it’s not, contact Ray Access for a website assessment. We’ll find the real world answers for you.

Just Like the Cobbler’s Kids

by Elle Ray | May 15, 2015 | Content Provider

We Have Good News and More Good News…

just like the cobbler's kids

We haven’t been slacking, and we’re not on vacation. The truth is that Ray Access has been busier than ever as April 2015 marked new highs in almost every category of our business. That’s the good news. Linda and Mark love staying busy and love writing, so for us, it’s a winning situation.

Unfortunately, that means our blog has suffered. It’s like the cobbler’s kids going without shoes because the cobbler is too busy mending other people’s shoes. Like us, this particular cobbler is likely the best in town, so new customers keep coming to him and old customers keep coming back. Meanwhile, his own kids go without.

It Will Get Better

So we apologize for not blogging for ourselves over the past month. That’s bad form, and it’s exactly what we advise our clients not to do. Now we’re back for a bit of air and rededicating ourselves to keeping our site active and updated.

We’re also making other changes. You can see our new logo, which we developed with a professional designer. In the very near future, you’ll get to see a new website design as well. It’s “in the works.” We appreciate your patience as we transform our web presence into the successful company we’ve become behind the scenes.

Expanding Our Reach

One of our other initiatives has been to expand our reach beyond Asheville, North Carolina. While most of our clients come from Western North Carolina, we’ve been able to attract some great clients from as far away as:

New Jersey
Manhattan
Charleston, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina

In addition, we network monthly in Greenville, SC, gaining some visibility in the Upstate region. As we grow, our network of referrals grows as well. Why? Because we do excellent work for our clients, and the results show. Our clients are not just getting more visitors to their websites, but they are also converting more visitors into customers. Content marketing, one name for what we do, works over time to gain visibility and market share for your company.

The Internet Advantage

Remember the movie tagline: “In space, no one can hear you scream?” Well, online, no one can tell at a glance whether your company has 2 or 200 employees. In this way, the Internet has become the Great Equalizer for small businesses around the country. To take advantage of this, however, your website has to be top-notch and professional.

By “professional,” we don’t mean “cold and impersonal.” But your website has to look like the company behind it is huge and successful. Design plays an important role. So do photography and iconography. But maybe more important than any of that is the content of your site. It must answer questions. It must invite visitors to stay. It must gain trust and create community. That’s a lot to ask, but it is possible.

So when you want to compete with anyone in your industry, contact Ray Access. We know how to give you the Internet advantage so your business doesn’t end up like the cobbler’s kids.

5 Blogging Tips for Non-Writers

by Elle Ray | Apr 8, 2015 | Blog Writing

Ray Access Makes Blogging a Bit Easier for You

writing: it looks so easy

A blog is an ideal vehicle for sharing information with your business customers, for attracting new customers to your website and for communicating with people within your industry. The problem, of course, is that you may not feel like you can write a blog post. When you don’t know what to say or how to say it, you end up saying nothing at all.

But blogging delivers real results. A regular business blog can help you establish yourself as an expert in your field. So, to create engaging copy and entertaining blog posts, follow these five tips from the experts at Ray Access:

Keep Your Promises
Visitors to your site will resent it if they follow a link full of promise, but get nothing of value. Deliver what your title says you’ll deliver and give readers information they can use. Only then have you earned enough trust to ask for their business. You can’t lure them in for a sale without keeping your promises. If visitors don’t trust you for the simple things, they certainly won’t trust you with their hard-earned money.
Say Something Worthwhile
Respect is a two-way street, so if you want customers to respect you — and your products or services — enough to make a purchase, respect their time. Don’t waste your opportunity to connect with visitors with blog posts about what you did during your recent retreat, how your golf game reflects your excellence or what your latest sale brought in. Provide valuable, useful information, even if it’s not about your company. If you can enlighten your readers or improve their lives, you can bet they’ll take the time to read your post.
Include Graphics
Not everyone reads an entire blog, but if you can condense the information in a graphic, then do it. Give everyone that option. Graphs and charts often tell a story or impart key information much better than a block of text can. Plus, graphics break up the text and help readers get the information quicker. Artistic graphics draw the readers’ eyes to where you want them to look.
Try a Video
More and more people are getting used to the idea of website videos. Many younger Internet users prefer to sit back and watch rather than read. But to appeal to older visitors, include the script — or at least the highlights of the video — below it. Avid readers can scan through the text in seconds, and you keep them on your page long enough to get to your call for action.
Don’t Forget a Call to Action
“Hire us to write your blogs if you don’t have time.” That’s a call to action, and you need to include one somewhere in your text, preferably after you’ve already earned your readers’ trust and given them educated food for thought. A blog is not the place to put your latest big sale. Save that for your homepage or even better — a sale or specials page. That way, folks who are looking for deals can find them. But you want every reader to do something after reading your blog. Don’t leave it up to them to figure it out.

We hope these blogging tips will make your blog useful, powerful and effective. Good luck!

3 Tips for Using Keywords

by Mark Bloom | Mar 31, 2015 | Content Provider

Most People Want to Know: What Is a Keyword?

To start at the very beginning, a keyword (or keyword phrase, since a keyword can consist of one to five words) reflects the subject of a website page or blog post. The keyword sums up the content so that search engines can identify what’s on that page. It’s a shortcut, but it helps people find your page and visit it, already knowing that you are have what they expect to find.

Keywords are an important part of SEO or search engine optimization. SEO is the art and science of making a website or blog more visible to potential visitors. Using keywords correctly, therefore, helps bring traffic — and the right traffic — to your website or blog. Let us explain, since the writers and editors at Ray Access deal with keywords every day.

ark Twain thinking of keyword

1. Finding the Right Word

For any bloggers, but especially for business bloggers, finding the right keyword is the difference, as Mark Twain famously wrote, “between lightning and a lightning bug.” In other words, are you trying to attract meteorologists or entomologists? The keywords you use in your blog can attract the right audience or simply increase your bounce rate.

The bounce rate from your website or blog is the percentage of your visitors who leave quickly after landing on your site. Search engines interpret your bounce rate as people who went to your site expecting one thing and found another. In other words, they didn’t find what they were looking for and quickly left. Minimizing your bounce rate means you’re attracting your intended audience.

2. Choosing the Right Keyword Density

The playing field has shifted as search engines refine what they try to deliver to their customers. In days gone by, it was acceptable (and advantageous) to cram a keyword phrase as many times as possible into a website or blog. Those days are over. If you attempt to keyword-stuff an article with a particular phrase, the search engines will reject it and penalize your website or blog.

The optimum keyword density — that is, the percentage of the keyword to the rest of the words on the website or in the blog — is now a more comfortable one percent. That means for a 1,000-word blog post, the chosen keyword or keyword phrase should appear about 10 times.

3. Placing the Keyword Correctly

working on the meta-description

Putting the keywords you’ve selected in the right places on (and behind) your page or post maximizes the effect they have on a search engine. Keywords used correctly help your page rank high for the chosen keyword or keyword phrase. Ideally, insert your chosen keywords:

In the title of the web page or blog post
In the first sentence or paragraph
In a subheading
In several other places in the text (depending on the length of the page or post)
In the last sentence or paragraph

The keyword should also be part of the meta-title and meta-description. These do not appear on the website page or in the blog post, but they do show up when a search engine shows your website page or blog post in its search results. It’s the title and short description that appears when your site or blog shows up on a search engine results page. You can use the meta-title and meta-description to further entice people to click on and visit your page, as long as you’re honest and ethical about what’s really on the page.

Using keywords on website pages and on blog posts is a subject that runs deep and wide. The introductory tips listed here will immediately help your website or blog rank higher. Just keep in mind that choosing the right keywords is a difficult task to master. Seek help if you need it. It can make all the difference to your website or blog ranking.

Answering Questions

by Elle Ray | Mar 15, 2015 | Website Content

It’s the One Purpose for Blogs and Websites

Don't disappoint your website visitors

Business blogs and websites have a specific purpose, but it’s not to sell your product or service. At least, not entirely. Your website needs to develop trust with your visitors. Your blog needs to attract those curious visitors to your site. And there is no better way to accomplish both those goals than to answer questions people have about your business, industry or town.

No matter what your business, no matter what product or service you provide, people will have questions about it:

What will it do for me?
Why is yours the better product/service?
How much will it cost me or save me?
How can I best use it?

The list goes on and on. You need to answer these questions. Only then will your visitors be open to buy.

Answering Questions in Your Blog

A business blog is a marketing tool. With it, you can reach out, using keywords and topics not directly related to your business, to attract more visitors to your site. Answering questions, both about your industry and about other topics, is a great way to attract readers.

For example, let say you’re a plumber. You can cover the obvious in your blog, such as “How to fix a leaky faucet” and “5 things to ask a plumber before he makes a house call.” But you can also answer related questions, such as “5 steps to winterize your home” and “Handling difficult clients.” These aren’t necessarily topics you’d expect from a plumber, but they fit right in and may attract readers you normally wouldn’t.

Answering Questions on Your Website

Your website absolutely has to answer as many of the obvious questions about your business as possible:

Where are you located?
What do you do, exactly?
Why do people need your product/service?
How are you different from anyone else?
How do I get in touch with you?

These are the easy ones, but if your business generates more obvious questions, answer those, too. In the process, you’re generating trust. You’re sharing information about your business and industry. If it’s unique enough, you’ll get noticed. If it’s truthful enough, you’ll become trusted. If your website is clear enough and friendly enough, you’ll earn the respect of those who visit.

And that’s where the magic happens. If people trust your company, they will like it. If you provide valuable information about your business or industry or even your location, people will remember you. They may not be ready to buy your product or service right then, but when the need arises, they’ll remember you and they’ll return. Because people like doing business with people or businesses they like.

Your Business Website

Yes, the ultimate purpose of a business website is to sell your product or service. But you don’t do that by talking sales and guarantees and price points and all that for page after page after page. You do it by building trust. You do it by sharing value on your site. If a visitor learns something new on your website, that’s gold; that’s more valuable than 10 commercials.

People get online to look for answers to questions. Your website’s job is to answer as many relevant questions as possible. That’s how you attract an audience. That’s the value of content marketing. And it’s not always as simple as it sounds. It takes work. But it’s exactly what we do at Ray Access. Let us help you reach more people with well-crafted website content and a targeted blog.

10 Tips for More Effective Networking

by Mark Bloom | Feb 18, 2015 | Small Business Advice

10 New Ways to Improve Your Networking Skills

If you network in your town, you likely go to Chamber of Commerce events. You attend weekly after-hours, before-hours and during-hours networking meet-ups. You drink cups of coffee. You drink mugs of beer. You smile and nod. All in the hopes of making more sales.

You’ve got it all wrong, baby.

Instead, here’s a networking tip: try a different approach. Attend only those networking events that give you the best opportunities to meet new people. Make small talk with more people and introduce yourself to as many people as possible. In the end, this approach will pay off in more sales.

network like Ray Access does

Leave the Pitch at Home

Networking is not the place to pitch prospects. If that’s what you’re doing, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Eventually, you’ll join the ranks of naysayers who eschew shoulder-rubbing events for a cold beer and a ham sandwich at home — alone — where no one can get under your skin.

Networking is the place to meet interesting business people, learn what they do and who they do it with. It’s the place to see your peers and be seen as a helpful presence. With this approach, eventually you’ll start getting the calls asking for your professional help. People do business with those they like.

10 Tips to Take to the Bank

Get the most out of your networking by following this advice:

Arrive early
Make friends
Keep your cards handy
Leave a positive impression
Learn something new
Remember names
Tell a good joke
Laugh at a bad joke
Make introductions
Leave late

Intrigued? Remember networking tip #5 above and keep reading.

Arrive early
Sponsors, event coordinators and energetic networking nuts get to networking events early. As part of the “inner circle,” they often volunteer to do some task during the event. They know the benefits, and now you can too. Imagine how many more people you’d meet in an evening if you were the one pouring the beer. Think how popular you’d be if you got to hand out the door prizes. Networking is a participatory activity. Get involved. Get there early, and offer your assistance. You’ll come to be known for your generosity and willingness to help.
Make friends
People like to do business with people they trust — like their friends. Once you’ve seen someone around the local business circuit long enough, you realize they aren’t going anywhere. Introduce yourself. When you take time to get to know people — how many kids they have, for example, or what they do in their free time — you naturally feel a little closer to them. You develop a rapport. When they need something you offer, they’ll call a friend quicker than they would call a networking associate.
Keep your cards handy
While all the feel-good schmoozing is great for your reputation and friend status, your ultimate networking goal is to grow your business. We get that. So bring plenty of business cards to pass around. As a matter of fact, don’t leave home without them. Keep cards in easy-to-reach pockets or in the side pocket of your handbag where you can reach for them with ease and grace. Nothing blows an exit like making someone wait while you try to fish out a card from a messy handbag or a pocket stuffed with swag. For the best impression, always present your card so that it’s facing the person you’re handing it to.
Leave a positive impression
One of the best ways to impress people is to listen. When you meet someone new, apply a firm handshake and look the person in the eyes. Make a connection. Pretend the two of you are the only ones in the room. No one feels good talking to someone who constantly looks around the room. That merely says, “I’ll ditch you if someone more important comes along.” Hold eye contact and respond appropriately to the speaker. When in the middle of a group, nod and laugh when everyone else does, they’ll think you’re one of them — and like you for it.
Learn something new
Time is precious for everyone. Salespeople, small business owners and CEOs all have a million things they need to do. You’re not the only one using up your valuable hours in the local beer hall or event facility trying to network. Use your time wisely and make it a priority to learn about a new product, discover a new way to use your smartphone, find out who just moved into town or how many seeds it takes to grow a watermelon. Leaving networking events with newfound knowledge makes you smarter and makes the best use of your time. (Little secret: people like people who ask questions.)
Remember names
Remembering names can be tough, especially when you meet a dozen or more new people at a single event. But don’t give up. Instead, consider it a challenge. A good exercise for your brain health is to try to remember at least 10 names during each networking event. The impression you’ll make the next time you see one of them and remember the name is priceless. You can’t buy that kind of marketing for any amount of money. This is one of the little secrets of networking that can build your business tremendously. And while you’re at it, you’re giving your brain a little workout.
Tell a good joke
Laughter is like glue; it bonds people together. Laughter tells others in the room that you have a sense of humor and don’t take yourself too seriously — major personality pluses. If you feel uncomfortable telling a joke, practice. Keep your joke clean and free of cultural references. And find something relevant like: “Last week at this after-hours, I asked a guy why he left his last job. He told me it was illness-related. His old boss got sick of him.”
Laugh at a bad joke
Almost all people think they’re funny. Some are not. But a networking event is not the time embarrass anyone. Show good manners and laugh if someone tells a joke you’ve heard 17 times that week. Never make people feel uncomfortable. It will reflect poorly on you. If you’re kind and gracious, they’ll remember your kindness. They’ll know they can trust you. And you can be sure that they’ll call you when they need your product or service.
Make introductions
Of all the networking tips, this one is our favorite. It feels powerful when you’re the one in the know. Be the good guy or gal and introduce people you meet to people you know, especially when it may help either or both of them. Give a positive testimonial of their business or talk up their favorite hobbies or the big promotion they recently got. You’ll be remembered as the one who made the connection. You’ll be known as the one who has a finger in all the pies. You’ll gain a reputation as the one to get to know in business networking circles.
Leave late
On days when you don’t have to rush off to another meeting or return to the pile of work waiting for you, stick around to the very end of the networking event. There are always a few stragglers who still want to talk — or boast or rant. You never know whom you’ll run into when the room starts to clear. It’s very often after the last shrimp has been gobbled up and the tables are coming down that the really big, meaningful (and profitable) relationships are forged. Don’t miss it.

What Is Good Content?

by Mark Bloom | Feb 7, 2015 | Website Content

How Can Anyone Tell If Your Copy’s Any Good?

Everyone with a keyboard thinks she’s a writer.

The problem with being a writer or a painter is that anyone can do it. All it takes is a few strokes of the pen or brush (manually or digitally), and you’ve got something. So how can you tell if it’s any good? Given the state of art and literature today, you could realistically assume that “quality” is a totally subjective assessment.

Maybe that’s even true, but when it comes to writing online, for businesses, there are ways to determine whether the content on your website or in your blog reaches the heights reserved for the label “quality content.” Ultimately, it comes down to the objective question: Does it work?

Does It Work?

A website for a business is supposed to generate leads and convert visitors into customers. A business blog is supposed to attract people to your website, share insights into your industry, and tout you as a trusted professional. The goal of online content is to get your company noticed.

If it’s not working, you can tell. Traffic to your website is down. The people who do visit aren’t buying. If you have these problems, it could be that you don’t have the right content on your website. It’s possible that good content — content that’s useful to people doing searches, content that’s directed at your target market — can solve these problems.

How Does It Work?

Quality content attracts two distinct audiences: people and search engines. This order is important. Good content is written for people first (not for search engines). If people can’t read it and understand it, then search engines won’t like it either.

Web searches have to provide answers.

People are searching online for answers to questions (e.g., “How do I fix a leaking faucet?”), for specific information (e.g.,”Where can I buy a new faucet?”) and to find businesses (e.g., “Who’s the best plumber in town?”). If you’re a plumbing service, your website should answer all three questions. And more. By making your website useful to people, they’ll find you and remember you.

That in itself makes a website rank higher on a search engine results page. That in itself will help direct more traffic to your website and increase your business awareness and profits (both goals of quality online content). Remember, search engines have competition, too. They want to deliver the best websites to their customers.