heartharmony.com.au

Have you wondered about negative dirty tricks political campaigns? Why do political parties do them? Simply because they work.

A study reported in Political Psychology showed that people who are asked to think about candidates in terms of who they  oppose rather than who they support, are more resistant to changing their view. This means when you see negative campaign advertising opposing a candidate you are being quietly manipulated into forming a strong viewpoint and embedding your vote for a particular candidate.  You see this sort of advertising more when there are elections with a larger number of “hanging” voters or close elections than when the votes are more clearly defined.

This research has much broader applicability.  If you are shown negative results about a product or company you are more likely to form stronger and less resistant to change viewpoints about that product or service.

Negative comparison tests fall into this category of advertising, which is partially why organisations such as the ACCC caution against using comparative advertising for business (and come down heavily on people who use it in the wrong way).

So should your business adopt negative framing of your ads? While the temptation is to use it due to it’s power, it is a strategy fraught with much greater scrutiny by both your competitors and the regulators. This is one marketing technique to use with caution (and just be aware of it’s use during the next election).

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter

If you are looking for something these days, chances are you will check out online as your first port of call. This shift in consumer buying behaviour is also reflecting in how people search for love. A study reported in New Scientist by Harris Interactive found you are more likely to find love on the net that at work or at a party (especially if you are over 45).

The study looked at 10,000 people who married in the US over an 18 month period. 19% met online compared with 17% who met at work and 17% who met through friends. Now,  you may question the validity of the findings given the study was sponsored by an online dating agency, but the facts remain – people are increasingly shopping online.

The problem online dating sites face is the same as for any business – people struggle in describing what makes them special. Ask people what is unique and wonderful about their business or themselves and they freeze up, or come up with platitudes. To succeed in an online world you need your USP (unique selling proposition) to be clear, articulate and compelling.

In the past 5 years we have seen an explosion in resume companies helping to polish individuals resumes.  In the next 5 years I fully expect to see an increase in online profile companies – helping to polish individual’s online profiles whether dating, Twitter, Facebook or other social media. Who knows … it could become a whole new branch of web copywriting complete with “How to write killer online dating profiles” e-courses and training.

In the mean time, if you are looking for love online then make sure you take a tip from business and highlight what makes you wonderful and different from the crowd. Test and measure the words you use and don’t be afraid to adjust the language to get a larger response.

The one thing offline marketing for love and online share in common is at some point the buyer will check out the product to see if the claims match reality. If you over-inflate your claims expect a lot of returns to the online dating pool.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance writer

If you have a website, chances are you want to learn how to boost your traffic numbers and customers to your site. One way you can do it is by improving your rankings in search engines through things such as SEO copywriting (which is where we can help you), or through other SEO on-page optimisation strategies and off-page strategies such as link building.

The other way to grab more traffic is through using Adwords. Adwords are the results that appear in the right hand side column of search engine results and the advertiser pays each time someone clicks on the link to learn more about the ads.

Adwords are a great tool – but if you don’t know what you are doing it can be very costly with little result. The good news is that you just need some basic knowledge and information to make the most what is a fantastic tool.

So how do you get the information? Donna-Marie Coggins was one of our Heart Harmony team and has her own business teaching newbies to the world of the internet exactly how to do each of the main steps you need for an online business.

Donna-Marie has the patience of a saint and is one of the loveliest and warmest people you will ever meet. She has a real gift for teaching people the internet basics.

Recently she interviewed Arran Robertson, an expert at Google Adwords campaigns and has agreed to share the interview for free to readers of this blog. If you want to listen to the interview then hop over to this special interview - http://worldinternetmarketers.com/adwords-interview/

It is a great interview and worth listening to if you want to test the waters of adwords.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – SEO copywriters