Making the Right Impression

In digital or advertising, the most important metric is the number of impressions your ad receives. The number of eyes viewing your content will always be important, but just as critical is what those eyeballs will see once they click through? What is the impression left by your marketing program?

This leads us to at least 3 main questions: (1) where does your advertising or marketing efforts lead—to a Facebook promotion or post, Instagram picture, a company website, or other? (2) what type of content will those eyes expect to see (which will largely be based on the destination), and (3) what is your overall marketing strategy, and how well does this effort fit?

Let’s consider the common Email blast. Unless it is promoting a going-out-of-business sale, it should not be a one-time effort. Email marketing is only effective if it is a part of a greater strategy, including at least several blasts (but not necessarily a preset number), in which the action statement leads the recipient to a link. This link is often a website’s landing page or, even better, a specific webpage within the site. For example, “to get a free consultation, click on this link,” which takes the recipient to a promotions page, a Contact Us, or a map with directions to your office. This way, the viewer is not led to your home page and has to guess where to click next, which usually results in their leaving your site.

People visiting your website or Facebook page, as a result of an Email blast or because they simply follow your posts, want to see compelling copy that gets to the point. I can say with confidence that no one in the history of the Internet has found happiness and fulfillment in reading content that is repetitive and replete with terminology that is written solely for the benefit of a browser search bot and search engine optimization. Content is useless unless people want to read it.

• Does it provide the education they are seeking in easy-to-understand language (and within a brief amount of real estate)?
• Does the content directly relate to their situation?
• Does it carry their motivation forward, encouraging them to take the next step?
• Does it provide answers to specific questions raised in the Email blast that got them there in the first place?

It may be that the Email blast leads them to a web page containing a comprehensive white paper or blog post that offers the most useful information with space limitations. If the white paper can only be accessed after they provide some level of identification and contact information, you will have a self-building database of qualified contacts.

These contacts will be left with the impression that you have answered their questions with specific information applicable to them—a perfect inroad to starting a live conversation.

I’d like to start a live conversation with you. Click here to contact me directly. I promise to make a strong impression!

Stanton Mehr is President of Revisions Communications & Editorial Services, an organization that is focused on providing top-notch writing, editing, and communication services for your business.