heartharmony.com.au

I constantly hear how tight things are for many businesses – particularly professional service firms.  But  I have to tell you, there are an awful lot of firms doing their utmost to turn clients away.

In the past few days I have been talking with colleagues to try to get referrals to good firms (all say the same thing – when I find one please tell them) … and doing the ring around of potential firms. It is darn scary how many service firms adopt client killing strategies as standard practice.

So on the basis of chatting with my colleagues (who were only too happy to chip in their war stories), and myself – here are my top 10 client killing strategies used by many professional service firms:

1. Hire the vaguest receptionist you can find, and train them to respond when people call to say they want to bring their business over to them “The partner isn’t here – can you call back tomorrow”. Make the caller beg to leave their phone number.
2. Don’t return or acknowledge emails … ever.
3. Don’t return phone calls within a few days.
4. Make sure you miss all deadlines for little business related corporations – like the ATO.
5. Make the client follow you up to remind you of what needs to be done – and constantly make them ask you, “So where exactly is that matter at?”  Never volunteer any information about a client’s business or where projects are at.
6. Regularly ask for thousands of reports and pieces of paper and then never tell the client what you want them for or what you are doing with them.  Then lose the pieces of paper you have asked for … and then ask for another copy … and another copy … and another copy …
7. Create a “quirky and fun” website that shows the “out there” personality of the partners of the firm. Ensure there is some reference to assorted pets, or unusual hobby (Yes – I always pick my professional firm based on whether or not they have a Bischon Frise listed on the staff and not by if they know their profession).
8. Put little gold stars or smiley stamps on documents to show how fun and friendly you are.
9. Preach ethics and good business practice to the widest possible audience, and then do the complete opposite for your own business.
10. Charge premium rate value based fees – and deliver zero value.

I am sure similar problems occur in businesses outside professional service firms, it is just they seem to be over-represented in practicing these top 10.

So – what are your war stories? I’d love to hear what you have experienced.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Brisbane Copywriter

A few weeks back I talked about lessons from the Great Depression – and how the times of greatest challenge are also the times where the greatest fortunes can be made and the biggest lessons learnt in life.

Humans are not programmed to grow when things are all going along smoothly. We grow the most in times of challenge. And it is times of challenge that we begin to see who the real leaders are.  The best and most effective leaders don’t sugar-coat what is happening, but they give a clear vision of a way out. The communicate and then communicate some more – always explaining what they are doing, what is the next step and the next beyond that. They don’t hide their feelings, but they also don’t wallow in self pity or self-righteous anger. They give hope when others have lost their own.

Yes, the stock market has had a hiccup. It’s what it does. There are always peaks and there are always valleys. But most of the variation in the market has more to do with psychology than anything tangible. It is how people “feel” about situations – do they feel confident or do they feel scared? When people are confident, the stock market is bouyant. When they are scared, the stock market sinks. I like to imagine the stock market as a massive confidence and happiness indicator.

Right now -  people are indicating they are scared. So for a moment, I want you to imagine that your child tells you they are frightened. What do you do? Do you tell them that the Boogey monster is in fact real – and not only that, it will munch up them, their family and the family dog. Or do you take the time to calm their fears, help them to look at what is real and what is imagined, and help them work out a plan of attack?

Right now – each of us in our businesses are being called to step up to true leadership. Our role is to be “calm and carry on” – to create a strong and positive vision for our team and customers, and to inspire confidence.

This is not the time to be wasting time gossiping with other businesses about how bad things are. And it is not the time to be nervously tracking results to confirm your fears that sales are down.  It’s the time to reboot our mental hard-drives and re-focus on where we want to head.

We can join the doom and gloom merchants, or we can look for new opportunities for growth. I can tell you where my mind is focussed – bring on the growth! After all, there’s literally no better time in the world.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Brisbane Copywriter

One of the most important things about being found in the web is what is called your “title tag”. You can see each web page’s title in the blue bar at the top of your web browser navigation. But every day I see business websites with the same title across every page of their site, or sites with titles such as “About Us” or “Home”.

Just  as job titles in a business give credibility to roles, and help people understand the different roles people play, your web page titles are equally important. If every page is titled the same, this is akin to saying that every person in a business has the same job title and does the same thing.

Imagine a large business where everyone from the CEO to the office junior is called “Officer” – what would happen?  Mail would get lost, phone calls would go haywire, everyone would get everyone elses emails, no-one would know who to talk to about issues and clients would give up in disgust.

From a search engine perspective, they look at the pile of same page titles and think:  “Nothing new here – move along”. While the search engines will take a glance at the rest of your page, it is more of a cursory glance, than a longer look to see what other nuggets of information are contained on that page. When you get the title right, it gets the search engines to take a closer look.

Each web page needs a unique title, with the keywords you are targeting for each page included. You want to use the most important words – the ones with the highest traffic or the things you particularly want to be known for in that title.

Your title tag is also generally what is returned in search engine results. So you want the words to make sense, be enticing and help your clients go “yes – that’s exactly what I am looking for – I will click that link”.  For example, if your title tag is just the name of your business or the word “home”, how enticing is it when it is sitting next to a whole pile of other juicy sites with the words “Brisbane copywriter” or “SEO copywriter” in the title. People generally look for a solution, not the name of your business or the word “home”.

Now for some homework – go have a look at your website with new eyes. Look at the words you are currently using in your title.  If they are not all that useful, then fix it or have someone go through and fix it for you. Otherwise you are missing out on business – plain and simple!

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – SEO Copywriter

If you have listened to a news report, or read the papers online or in print form, you could be excused for thinking the world has spiraled into another Great Depression. Stories about shaky consumer confidence and massive downturns in sales plaster the media. The doom and gloom merchants are out in force!

So of course, I got to thinking. And I rattled through my archives to find out what happened during the big one … the real one … the Great Depression. You see, my grandma had lived through it, and I remember myself as a small child, sitting listening to her stories late in the evening in her lavender-scented tiny house in Thornleigh in Sydney. And from her stories, I imagined a world where everyone lived on bread & dripping and there was no money to buy anything. I imagined street after street of boarded up shops, and no-one game enough to start a new business. My grandpa became a traveler – moving from town to town to get what work he could, whether that was milking cows or carpentry. Times were tough for my grandparents.

But I also know that one person’s stories are not the full story.  So here’s what I found out when I started to look at other people’s stories.

Many of the largest companies started in the Depression. Names like Disney, HP and GE all had their starting point when we would imagine no-one in their right mind would want to start a business. The world’s first ever modern suburban supermarket – King Cullen Grocery, started during the depression (this may or may not have been a good thing!).

Then there was the technology. In 1921 there were 75,000 radios sold. in 1930 this had risen to 13.5 million radios sold in that year. Sound anything like the current stats on sales of tablets and smart-phones?

And how did clever businesses respond? They moved their advertising spend away from newspapers onto radios – after all that’s where the audience was.

Then Proctor and Gamble tried something out to engage their clients – something so powerful that we still refer to it today. They created the first “soap opera” – a drama liberally sprinkled with advertising for their products. And their soap sold like gangbusters.

Chevrolet decided to increase their advertising budget during the depression, and for 5 years from 1931, they outsold Ford where previously they trailed in sales 10:1 to Ford.

So what are the lessons? Here’s a few that come to my mind.

• There is no good time or bad time to start a business.  You can start a business in any economy if you have the right business idea, model and implementation.
• People still buy during down times. Yes, they will look for better deals, but they still buy what they need. And if you have served them well when things are tough, they will remain loyal when things improve.
• You need to get creative during down times. Find new ways of presenting your product or service.
• Don’t stop advertising or marketing. There is less “advertising noise” during down times as other people cut back on their marketing spend. Lever that opportunity – get out there more and find new ways to promote your message
• Grab technological developments with both hands and run like crazy. Get in front of the pack – don’t wait until the trend has passed you by.

So what I found was that down times are times of amazing potential if you look at them the right way. And perhaps grandma and grandpa did do it very tough – but we can learn from their experiences and try something differently.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words.

Heart Harmony – Brisbane Copywriter

Well. the US Borders is heading the same way as the Australian Borders – and the vultures are circling, ready to pick over the carcass of a once great business.

We have been hearing a lot about businesses that find people come into the store to try out products or find what they want, and then jump on line to buy them cheaper than they could at the store. We’ve also heard traditional retailers complain that they have overheads of stock, high rents etc which mean they can’t compete with the online stores.

People like to see, touch, feel and try on things before buying. And in a downturn, they also want to save their money. In my mind, the time is ripe for a clever business to actually embrace this online/offline trend, rather than just complain about it.

You see, after looking at the Korean grocery video, I couldn’t help but think – what would have happened to Borders if they had leveraged their online store and reduced their offline presence. By that I mean, what if each Borders store only ever held one sample of each book in their store, so that people who like touching books before buying, could browse. They could look through the books and then either with their smart-phones or using an in-store scanner similar to a library borrowing system, they could buy a copy of the book from the store online, in either hard-copy to be delivered to their home within 7 days, or electronically to their device.

And what would have happened if Borders got into the e-book reader market – stocking the full range of e-book readers and not just the Kobo? What would have happened if with each e-book reader sold, they gave away a free e-book from Borders online?

Store sizes could be reduced, as you wouldn’t need as much room if you only have one of everything, which means rents would be reduced. Stock costs would be reduced – you only need one hard copy sample of all your stock in each store. People would learn about your online business and give it a test run – provided the service and price was good, they would come back.

All just musings on a quiet day …

Now extend this to concept to dress shops and other “at risk” stores, where people are deserting in droves to buy online.  What other ways of merging the offline/online could be possible?

What do you think? Rather than blocking the try before you buy – how could you make that your new business model? I’d love to hear your comments.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Brisbane Copywriter

Australians, as a group, love technology. But some things they have been slower to adopt than others.

We have been slow to pick up on the QR Code trend – which is massive in many Asian countries and in the US. QR Codes? Those square bar code thingies that when you click with your smart phone, take you to discount coupons, websites and more information. You can’t go past a restaurant or store in many overseas countries without passing a QR Code as businesses try and entice you in their doors with menus, discounts and information about what is beyond the front door.

We have also been slow to pick up on online grocery shopping.  Which is why I love this creative idea from Tesco in Korea. The campaign took out the top prize at Cannes this year for the best marketing campaign in the world, so it is worth watching!

Why do I love the concept? For starters, people learn how to respond to new ideas by watching others. By having an extremely public display of how to order online groceries using QR codes, Tesco is killing two birds with one stone. They are teaching both online grocery shopping and how to use QR Codes.

They have tapped into the same strategy that the father of the modern shopping cart Sylvan Goldman used when teaching people how to use shopping trolleys. And once people see how fast and easy it is, they are more likely to come back for a second or third go (assuming their experience was a smooth one in the first place).

I also love how they have taken the concept of “impulse buying” to a whole new level. Most people get off their daily commute from work and head to their local store to pick up their groceries as part of a routine. By putting a virtual store in their way, Tesco is breaking their pattern.

And by putting up life size images of products in glorious colour, they are breaking down the other mental barrier to buying online – research a small photo and tiny description are not as effective as when people can see and touch your product. Life sized images bring to mind the possibility of touching the product, which hopefully should reduce the barrier (although neuro-marketing research by Antonia Rangel has raised questions about this approach).

So … what do you think? Would you try buying groceries online from your local train station if you saw loads of other people doing it?

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Brisbane Copywriter

Google+ is another major social media site, put out by the Google behemoth. Think of a mash-up of Facebook & Twitter, with a few new bits thrown in and you get the gist of it. It has been out beta testing for a few weeks to a limited audience mainly tech heads, early adopters and marketers at this point. And I’ve been quietly playing in the sandpit with the other Google+ kids and have a few observations.

Psych Comments

Ok. You know I love people watching, so watching people play with new online toys was an opportunity too good to pass up, so I jumped at the first Google+ invite that came my way (thanks Paul!).

Imagine walking into a room where nobody knows the rules. Where there are no boundaries or history of what is acceptable and what isn’t. What happens?

There was a great model developed by Bruce Tuckman, that described the four stages any group goes through in order to develop:

• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing

Forming is when everyone is trying to work out the rules, work out who is boss and who is the leader (not necessarily the same person). People tend to be independent and go their own way.

So what does that look like in the Google+ world? Well, to start with, there’s been an awful lot of “nice venue, have you tried the dip” type of conversations happening. Think back to when mobile phones came in – everyone walked around with their phones, saying very loudly “I’m on my mobile phone”. Then when Twitter came out, pretty much everyone’s first Tweets were “I’m on Twitter“.  In the early days, people talk about the space they are in to start a conversation.

In the absence of rules, some people just take what they know and adopt that same process in the new environment. So in Google+ that means we have seen a lot of people just posting their same stuff that they post on Twitter or Facebook. Other people test the boundaries, testing each new feature and whooping for joy with new discoveries.

Then comes the Storming phase. I used to describe this in groups I worked with as “the everyone hates everyone phase”. We are starting to see early glimmers of storming with people posting about how they have deleted their accounts because they can’t see anything new, others telling others how they “should” be using it and still others just having a rant about everyone and everything.

If Google+ survives the Beta testing, eventually we should get to the Norming phase, where the role, rules and uses become clearer and people get a clear view of what they will use Google+ for. Performing is the mature phase – think Facebook & Twitter.

So what is cool with Google+?

There’s a few great features that are useful for most businesses.

Hangouts – Live webcam chats. You can hang out with up to 10 people and see each one’s webcam (and no, don’t even mention Chat Roulette). This feature is free and would be great for group team meetings for geographically scattered groups.

Huddle – Group chats in the same vein as MSN, Skypechat or Facebook, except you can have an unlimited number of participants. I can see it being used for conferences and team brainstormings, and not just for getting a group of friends organised as to where to go for dinner, as promoted in  Google’s  video.

Circles – If you have ever been on Etsy, you have seen circles. These are where you sort your friends from your acquaintances. People you follow from people you can’t stand. You can then choose who gets particular updates. I’ll be honest, while I love the concept, I suspect this will appeal most to people whose spice racks are in alphabetical order and who find it easy to compartmentalise things.  My brain doesn’t work that way, so having to put a sorting hat over each person I want to talk with or follow, challenges me.

I can also see a lot more Wienergates happening, as people send the wrong update to the wrong circle (it is really easy to click the wrong circle at the moment).

So what do I think? Will it fly? To be honest, to me it’s too early to tell. Just like it took me about 12 months to get the hang of Twitter in the early days, I suspect it will take me a little while to work out it’s role in the bigger scheme of things. At this point it is just an add-on to my existing marketing, and not replacing anything … yet.

And what am I watching for? Privacy, Google indexing (how quickly are things in Google+ indexed in search engines) and the effect of such indexing on search engine rankings. Nothing much really!

If you have a Google+  account, what are your early thoughts?

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Brisbane Copywriter

Talk with anyone who has been around the internet for any period of time, and you will hear them quietly commenting amongst close friends that conversation on their blogs/ Facebook pages has slowly been drying up. A few years back, a good post could get a few hundred comments. Now even the news reports are lucky to get that many on a really controversial story.

Why is that? I have a theory…

When Facebook changed it’s approach from people having to be a “fan” to just having to “like” something, it removed a fair bit of psychological pressure. After all, the word “fan”  has very different connotations, with words such as devotee or fanatic springing to mind – along with images of people converting rooms in their homes to shrines venerating particular football teams or rock gods. Being a fan takes work … liking something, well I like my cats but I am unlikely to go out and get their photos plastered on my t-shirts.

Then Facebook added the “like” button to their comments stream. People could just click the “like” button rather than add in their two cents into the conversation – sort of like an electronic version of a smile when someone is talking. Again, it takes the pressure off. We can just click “like” rather than think and write a response. And it is manna from heaven for introverts – we can let people know we are listening without having to put ourselves out there and say something – woot!

So what has happened? “Likes” have increased and comments decreased across the board. We are becoming a society of silent onlookers – less willing to enter into debate or speak our truth, which is great if this is a conscious move, less great if it is happening by default.

Now, I am not sure if the net started the trend, or just reflected what was happening in wider society, and I am sure statisticians will happily discuss whether the issue is purely a correlation or causation, but whatever the order of the events it is certainly a trend to be aware of.

You know things are moving in a particular direction when Google gets into the act. This week Google has weighed into the act with its +1. Rolling out this week in Australia, if you like something in the search engine results, you can just click +1 to let other people know you like it. Go on … try it … put in heartharmony into Google and click the +1 button just after the result to see what happens The roll out is a gradual thing, so you may not see the +1 field in your Google for a few days.

And what am I doing about it? Personally, I am deliberately trying to increase my comments on blogs of writers I like and increase my debate with colleagues, while not falling into the sweet seduction of just clicking “like” … but I understand the siren call of one click simplicity.

So what do you think? Has the “like” button killed conversation? Will we be taking our personal “like” buttons with us to dinner parties in the future?

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Brisbane Copywriter

Ever notice how the universe conspires at times to tell you something? Last night I was presenting at a Brisbane Meet-Up of 60 awesome Brisbane Web Designers/Web Developers. The 2nd speaker on the bill was Luke Brooker – a brilliant designer who talked about the design shift needed from desktop based websites to smartphone/tablet website.  Then this morning I attended a breakfast with Peter Blasina (The Gadget Guy) as part of Moreton Bay Regional Council’s Better Business Events Series.

So what was the huge aha? The one so big that I am still working through the nuances?

The rise and rise of smartphones

Well, we have all heard some of the stats about the growth of Smartphones and Tablets. If you haven’t here’s a few from the two talks:

• 50% of all Australians with smartphones use their smartphones to regularly access the internet
• 1 in 5 use mobile internet daily for greater than 30 minutes
• There are 557,000 new portable devices bought every day in the world
• Smartphones are only 3 years old!
• Smartphones and tablets now outsell desktop computers.

Translated – a heck of a lot of people using smartphones to look at stuff on the net (i.e: websites) … and if the trend line is as predicted, this will increase by a factor of at least 26 within 4 years.  So this means, in just a couple of  years, most people will look at business websites using smartphones or tablets.

The problem is:

• Only 30% of Oz small businesses have a website (according to Peter), and of those, most are static brochure based sites.
• Most small business websites are not optimised to be viewed on smartphones (don’t feel too bad – most big businesses & government sites aren’t yet either!)
• Most web developers are still struggling with getting clients to understand the need to optimise their sites for mobile (and to be honest not all web guys know HOW to do it yet either).

This means that small businesses in the next 2-3 years are going to become almost invisible on the net. Why? If a site isn’t easy to see on a smartphone, it is easy to click away and find  one  that is.

Now a parallel psych change gets thrown in the mix

I always watch the change in how people use technology. People use smartphones to access information differently than desktops. With the dominance of iPhones and touch screens, people now use apps to streamline tasks, using intuitive touch to make things happen. If you read the reviews in the Apps store, the most scathing reviews are for Apps that are not super simple and intuitive to use – ones that are just cut-down versions of desktop programs. We want things that are quick to load, quick to do what we want and quick to close. Long load times and any “stuffing around” gets canned in the reviews. We want Apps – we don’t want complexity.

We also want screens that we can turn around from horizontal to vertical and that will adjust to the direction (try doing that on a desktop).

And we want to interact with our content – we want to be able to share the information with our social media or click a link and call the number on the site,  and scan QR Codes (not QLD Rail codes but those things that look like square barcodes) to find out more information or get specials from a business.

In other words, we do things differently on smartphones. Cut-down websites will simply not cut it. We need to think differently about our websites.

So the questions for me are …

• If we use our technology differently, will we need different content for smartphones vs desktop websites? Will we need 2 different versions of small business websites or will they still be the same? Is this difference in use only a short term trend, or will we see the change spill over to desktops?

• Will long copy still work on smartphones?

• With smartphones, there is very little on screen real estate – so if you make money selling affiliate products or promoting other services or goods, these will disappear from view as the core content becomes king and takes pride of place in the design. How should business models adjust as well as marketing strategies adapt to get your message out there without annoying people.

How big is the mental shift needed?

Luke described the shift best when he said that we are in an era similar to when TV was first invented. Initially all the programs were designed around what worked on radio – so the formats and program designs were just radio with pictures. As we got comfortable with the new technology, we demanded different things from TV.

The techno babble speak is moving from fixed web site to fluid web site design. Sites that are not longer exactly x pixels wide, they can now be x, y, z and a whole host of different sizes in between.

Luke highlighted there is a new trend in web design just starting in some parts of the world. This movement is Mobile first design. The designer starts designing the site for mobile platforms, and only when they have that nailed, do they move on to sites accessible in larger screens. This requires totally different thinking to cutting down existing sites for mobile. With one you start with the philosophy of what are the pared down essentials that need to be communicated, the other you work out how to make everything fit.

This to me sums up the thinking we need. We need to move from fixed to fluid thinking.

I can see I have a lot to mull over in terms of the impact to my website writing for my clients … but at least these are the smart ones who have a website. Now we just need to work out how to best present their content in a fluid world.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – SEO Copywriter

I love a headline probably more than most people … but even I now find myself rolling my eyes as I read yet another “The death of (insert current topical topic here)”.

At the moment there seems to be a huge debate about the death of retail due to the insidious and evil online shopping epidemic.  Open any traditional or online newspaper and you will find loads of articles bemoaning the demise of Borders books (and soon to be be Angus & Robertson if all the rumours are true), Colorado clothes and a whole pile of other retailers. Here’s just one from today’s round-up.

The easy target is online purchasing. People are blaming online buying as the sole cause of death. Not a word about the global financial crisis, not a word about consumer spending confidence dropping, no mention of the cult of saving starting to spring up, no mention of rigid management practices or out of date pricing policies. People’s buying patterns are shifting, but you can never just blame death on one single cause.

I think back to when every desk had a typewriter, back before PCs existed (yes, I really am that old). Then came the birth of PCs and people adapted. Many typewriter companies folded, others changed and merged to keep pace. Death was not the birth of the PC, it was the change in how people wanted to use information combined with society changes towards greater freedom and independence.

The thing is that we are always in a state of change, and yes, the change appears to be moving faster when we are in it. The businesses that survive are the ones who keep one eye on the unfolding trends and work out ways to surf the trend rather than sink. The retail businesses that will survive will be the ones that find new ways to access their market, in the way their market want to be served.

This will probably mean that retailers need to change and adapt to keep pace. They need to increase their information gathering rather than close themselves into their box and deny the change is happening. They will need to get onto services such as Trendwatching and listen to social commentators – and sift the data that is coming through before feeding it into their planning.

My inkling is this also means that 5 year strategic planning model is also under change. Which retailer 5 years ago could have predicted the impact of apps, let alone the impact of social media? Planning these days is probably more of the one-page one-year variety (and even that may be too long a time horizon).

So, for me, every new “death of …” headline simply screams opportunity. It means that the particular industry is in a state of change and is looking for ways forward.

Step up. If you are in that industry, try something radically different. Get on top of the trends and invest heavily in testing and measuring what works now.

Any “death of … ” headline should simply be a clarion call to action and getting your butt into gear … NOW!  Or you could just wait a few months, and join Borders.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriters