eSlice

7 May 2010

Top Tips For Getting Your Blog Read

Blogging is a great way to keep an open dialogue with customers and add currency to your content but only if your posts actually get read! Below are some generic methods to drive more traffic to your blog. However, no blog will succeed without well written, engaging content. Once you have created some quality content your audience will want to read, here are some ways to promote it.

Link Whenever You Can…

Make sure that the communications you already make direct people to your blog. This is about more than just linking to your blog from your website. Put it on your business cards and in your email signature too. Every contact with a prospective or existing customer is an opportunity to start an ongoing dialogue via your blog. If you’re asked a question and the answer is in a blog post direct people to it. When you post a new article mention it and link to it from status updates. Directing people to articles you know they will find useful will encourage them to use your blog as an information source again in the future.

…And Get Links From Others

If you know other bloggers try to get them to mention you in one of their posts. When people have found the information you post useful ask them to reference it. If bloggers comment on your competition, ask them to review your products or services too. Find trusted bloggers and reviewers for you area of business and engage with them. Ask their opinion on your posts. They may comment on your thread or they may create an article that references yours. Be creative about how you approach this and try to find other bloggers you can find mutual benefit in cross referencing to share readerships.

Use Descriptive But Intriguing Titles

Often people will just be presented with a link and the title of your article. If it sounds interesting and relevant to them they will click and then read your post. If it sounds dull or off topic they probably won’t. Many blogging communities create automatic links to your articles from other blogs when they think the themes are related. To make the most of them you must capture peoples attention and interest with clear, concise, compelling titles. Get it right and you’ll convert more links into clicks and visits.

Be Active on Others’ Blogs

Get out and comment on the blogs of others. Most blogging communities will automatically link your comments back to your own blog. If your comments are insightful, helpful and interesting then people will want to hear what else you have to say. Try to focus your commenting to popular blogs on related topics. This will ensure your comments are seen by people potentially interested in what you are writing about. If you have written an article related to the one you’re commenting on then reference it and include a link.

People may even be talking about you or your product. Search regularly for blog posts that are. If you join the conversation you can give your side of the story and direct potential customers to your blog or even directly to your products. But be aware if you are being talked about then it may not all be positive. Think carefully about how you engage with critics.

Use Tags, Labels and Categories

Tags, labels, categories: different blogging software uses different terms but they all have something to fulfil the same the role. (We’ll use tags as a shorthand for all the terms.) Essentially, tags are the list of subjects that a particular post deals with. Search engines use tags to determine what your posts are about. People use tags to find posts about the topics they’re interested in. Blogging software uses tags to inter-link posts that are on related topics. Obviously only include tags that are relevant to your post but include as many relevant tags as you can. Using tags properly can get you more visitors who are actually interested in your articles.

Update Regularly

Blogs are about keeping an ongoing dialogue. Keep your blog fresh by regularly adding new content. Blogs that update regularly will get visited regularly. Blogs that update infrequently will get visited infrequently or be forgotten altogether. As you build the volume of blog posts that you have you increase the potential for interlinking. Some posts will be ephemeral but written properly most will be useful for along time. The more material you have the more tickets you have to the lottery of related post links. Plus search engines love to index fresh copy. Every new post is a little more value in your blog to you and your customers.

Further Steps

This is by no means an exhaustive list. It covers some simple things that you can do yourself that will help build a following irrelevant of what you blog is about. Depending on your industry, content, who you want reading your blog and a host of other factors there will be other possibly much more valuable actions you can take. If you would like a discussion about how eSlice could help you promote your blog and your business online contact us today.

Comment on "Top Tips For Getting Your Blog Read"

8 Apr 2010

eSlice Website Refresh

It is a little overdue but we’ve finally found time to put to our own website. Our distinctive brand is still unchanged and still makes up the core visuals, but the new look and refreshed content is clearer and more attractive. Proof positive (as if more were needed) that sites with accessibility and standards compliance at their heart need can still be easy on the eye.

There are still lots of little improvements we will be looking to make as time is available in the mean time we would love to hear your views of what we have up now. If you have a point of view you would like to share please comment below or contact us.

Comment on "eSlice Website Refresh"

16 Feb 2010

Structuring Promotional Copy

I recently worked with Iver Therapy on some promotional materials and I thought they were an excellent demonstration of the importance of getting the right content and design to ensure you connect with as many potential customers as possible. The piece of work in this example is a flyer design to promote Iver Therapy’s hypnotherapy service to help people quit smoking permanently.

When you are designing marketing materials it helps to think about all the stages a potential customer goes through when they react to promotional materials and how you can encourage them to take the next step towards becoming a customer. Obviously, getting something like this right is an art and not a science but the key tenet of understanding the stages a customer goes through will apply to creating most printed materials.

Skimming Over

Given the high proportion of promotional leaflets its vital to have that will attract the attention of your potential customers.  You need a good graphic that’s going to connect with them and tell them what you are selling and why they should buy it straight away. Quitting smoking is a fairly straight-forward example as the social connotations of that cigarette butt are already made in people’s minds. The job of picking the right image is lot more complicated when your audience doesn’t  have pre-existing ideas about the concept you are portraying but get it right and it will make all the difference.

The First Glance

So now you have the customer’s attention – but not for long unless you back it up with some short, specific language about why the customer should care about your message. Iver Therapy’s selling point here is that their hypnotherapy helps people to quit permanently, not just temporarily. The four word slogan ‘Quit Smoking for Good’ uses tone and language to emphasise both the permanence and positive nature of giving up with them. Their selling point is made in four words and will resonate with anyone who has struggled to give up before.

The Skim Down

So now that your customer is intrigued enough to read a little more you need to give them just enough information. Too much copy and none of it will get read but you need enough to make your case. However little you text you include, what is there may only get skimmed by readers. Try to put your key points first where they are most memorable. Keep to one point per sentence so that points are distinct in the reader’s mind. Bullet points lists are a great way delivering key points because:

As an additional aid we have printed the key words from each bullet point in green to highlight the key to each point. It took some rewriting to get this to work but it ensures that even a cursory glance of the text will show up the key words.

Call To Action!

Ultimately every piece of promotional material should be looking for a customer to do something. Whether it be calling, quitting, voting, buying or thinking about a viewpoint there should be some action you’re asking the person reading to perform. A clear statement of action should give them the next step. This will usually be to direct them to contact you via your telephone number and website.

If you would like more information on how your business could benefit from working with eSlice on printed, web-based or other marketing materials or you would like to know more about our other services then please contact us today.

Comment on "Structuring Promotional Copy"

12 Jan 2010

How Accessible Web Design Benefits You

Accessible Web Design is about making sure that websites are readable and usable by everyone, particularly disabled users who may have a visual or other sensory disability. But accessible web design isn’t just about getting that warm and fuzzy feeling of doing some social good. Accessability is essential to ensure your website is legal, profitable, manageble and opens your content up to as many users as possible.

The Law

In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act makes it a legal requirement to make to goods, facilities, services and premises accessible to everyone. As well as physical premises the act covers websites and website owners are required ensure that their websites are accessible to all. All websites are covered by the Act.

• Both commercial and non-commercial websites are covered by the Act
• Online shops and informational websites are covered by the Act
• Public sector, private sector and third sectors websites are covered by the Act.

The Act also allows for legal action to be taken based on personal injury. There is no need for any loss of earnings to be incurred by a claimant in order for them to raise a case. Much of the detail of the Act will be driven by case law but at present there is no maximum amount that a claimant can sue for.

The Disabled Dollar

Websites that aren’t accessible are missing out on business from upwards of 10 million people in the UK that have some form of physical or sensory disability. Furthermore, that number is rising steadily with the country’s aging population. In 2008, for the first time ever, the majority of people in the UK were over 50 years old, the age at which disability begins to increase rapidly. The Institute of Employment Studies estimates that disabled people represent a market worth of some £80 billion per year. Even a basic level of accessibilty will ensure that the vast majority of this population will be able to use a website. Accessible websites empower disabled users building brand loyalty as well as capturing business that competitors may miss.

Mobile Users

Accessible websites are open to the increasing numbers of mobile web users as well as disabled users. The last five years has seen an explosion in the number of people accessing the web from mobile devices like mobile phones, PDAs and Apple’s eponymous iPhone. The smaller screen sizes and reduced functionality of these mobile browsers can’t deliver all of the content that a PC based web browser can. However, websites designed with accessibility in mind will not require this additional content in order make them legible and usable. An accessible website might not display all its bells and whistles to mobile devices but crucially the website will still be usable. This may not be the case for some or all mobile devices when if the website has not been designed to be accessible.

Accessible Websites are Structured Websites

The basics of creating accessible pages are also the basics of creating websites that are easier to maintain. Two of the basic tenets for creating an accessible website are:

• Structure your content in an organised fashion
• Separate the content of the site from the design elements

Accessibility aside, this is good practice. Separating content and design will generally make your website look clearer, be cheaper and easier to maintain. The two together will make ensure that search engines index and list your site better – improving your position on search engines and getting you more relevant traffic.

Get Accessibility from Day One

Good web designers should have no trouble delivering an accessible website. It shouldn’t be an optional extra and it certainly shouldn’t substantially add to the cost of developing the majority of new websites. Trying to retrofit accessibility into an existing website can be expensive though. Getting accessibility built into your site is going to have to happen at some point, so do it up front when its cheaper and you can reap the benefits from day one.

Comment on "How Accessible Web Design Benefits You"