Attract Local Customers with an Online/Real-Time Strategy

On eBay, your customers can “shop victoriously.” On Amazon, Overstock, and the big-box e-commerce sites they can get deep discounts, wide selection, and never-leave-the-sofa gratification.

So how can you motivate local customers out of the house and through your door?

Actually, it’s not as hard as you might think. With just a bit of creative thinking, along with some info-marketing and social-networking strategy, you can combine the best features of online and real-time business to bring local customers over your threshold.

Here are just a couple of ideas for blending your online and real-time marketing tactics:

• Combine online information marketing with real-time events to add value to your customers’ experience. For example, if you are a veterinarian, you might offer an e-course on recognizing common seasonal ailments, along with an in-office demonstration of ways to keep pets healthy during cold weather. For additional incentive, offer participants a discount on related on-site services.


• Set up a website survey to learn about your customers’ most challenging problems. For example, if you are a beauty consultant, you could ask about their biggest winter skin challenge. Then set up a real-time, on-site talk answering their specific questions and offering a discount on related products. Have your talk digitally recorded or videotaped, and offer (or sell) it on your website as an information product.


• If you offer more products in your real-time store than you’re able to list online, you can offer a special discount to website visitors who bring in an online coupon to your brick-and-mortar store. They’ll discover your on-site inventory, and you’ll learn more about their buying habits and needs.

If you’re combining your online and real-time campaigns, don’t forget to promote them in both venues. For example, info-marketing tactics offer valuable training to the public, and you can legitimately promote your presentations as educational events in local newspapers. Be sure to send out press releases.

Be sure, also, to include social-marketing options in your strategy. Using your blog and social networking platforms like FaceBook, you can promote both your online campaigns and your real-time, on-site events.

Last but not least, don’t forget to target local business-to-business traffic. If your Chamber of Commerce offers Member-to-Member discounts, match your offer to your customers' known needs, promote it through the Chamber, and proudly link to the promotion on your website.

Do Your Clients Understand Your Green Business Language?

This is a little bit of a rant, I'm afraid...I just read an article in GreenBiz News about an EcoPinion survey that found "Consumers Don’t Understand Green Terms."

To quote the key paragraphs of the article: "a survey of 1,000 Americans conducted the first week of November, on communications and language commonly used by companies and stakeholders in the energy and environment space. The EcoPinion Survey confirms a green gap exists around terms such as energy efficiency, energy conservation, demand response, smart energy and clean energy, and customers’ understanding, acceptance and perceptions of value around those terms.
The green gap in communications is contributing to a growing misalignment between customers’ stated intentions, e.g., their desire to be more green or frugal with energy consumption, and their actual behavior."

My judgment? It all boils down to something I tell my clients over and over: "Your customers don't care what nifty bells and whistles your products or services have. What they care about is - what difference will those bells and whistles make in their lives, what real benefits do they offer?"

Bottom line - It's not about you! If your customers/clients don't understand why your green services are better - not just how, but why - if the difference is wrapped up in green industry-standard terms that mean nothing to John and Jane Doe - it doesn't matter if you win every eco-award in the book. The customers will sail right past you to the company that speaks their language.

So what can you do to change this? Assume nothing! Start with the idea that visitors to your site have no clue whatsoever about the technologies you use and the standards you work so hard to meet...that the terminology that's so easy and intuitive to you means less than a torrent of Japanese would to a monolingual English speaker.

Assume that they don't know, say, the difference between "green business" and "sustainable business"...that they may or may not recycle their trash, much less know the difference between pre-consumer and post-consumer recycled content...that "green building" may signify more about the color of siding on a house than the LEED standards that governed its construction...you get the idea! Define your terms. Explain your concepts. Look at your marketing content with "beginner's eyes" - if you'd seen this when you were first learning about green business, would it have made any sense to you?

It's up to you to pass on this information, share your passion about it - why does it matter, why is it better for your customers and the planet? What is your commitment to improving your customers' lives and changing the world in the process?

And after all, what better way of gaining their interest and trust could you have, than providing the education that turns an incomprehensible wilderness into navigable territory? Create a blog and fill it with key concepts...send out marketing articles to distribution services...write a special report or e-book that introduces key concepts of the work you do...make it your mission to teach the world about your work, so your visitors will share your passion!

Yes - it's a bit more work - but think of the talks you give to the Chamber of Commerce and your professional networking groups. How many more people will your information reach on the Internet?

If you'd like more information on ways of educating your visitors, demonstrating your expertise, and building your business through social networking and information marketing, and why a green copywriter can save you valuable time and money in crafting this information, contact me at phila@your-words-worth.com.

Oh, and if you'd like to check out that article and the study (it's available free of charge), click here.




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What's Different about Green Copywriting?

Ever since I decided to focus my copywriting work on the topic of my heart - sustainable business - I've felt as if I've been walking a path that's barely been trodden. Despite the growing mainstreaming of green business principles, few eco-preneurs have begun info-preneuring.

Let's face it - infopreneurs can range all over the map, from flaming hypesters to hypnotic gurus. Many are selling an “Internet lifestyle” of getting rich quick with minimal effort…and while I respect their desire to share their abundance…well… let's just say that the owners of green businesses, my clients, tend to shy away from that kind of approach.

So in defining my services as a copywriter for eco-info-preneurs, I need to make it very clear - those priorities are not what I'm about! While I practice…well… semi-hypnotic writing, I also work to practice the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit, run a wind-powered office, buy carbon offsets….and generally try hard to walk my sustainable talk.

You could say I'm practicing green copywriting with an agenda: to promote not just my clients, but the whole idea of green, sustainable, environmentally and socially responsible business. To promote the idea that the Earth, in her delicate balance and biodiversity, sustains our life and endeavors and should rightly be respected, protected, and nurtured in return. That we as businesspeople should work in cooperation with the Earth rather than in heedless consumption or outright exploitation.

But how does copywriting with this underlying value differ from copywriting for business-as-usual?

All the Internet marketing gurus teach one principle that holds true for all kinds of copywriting: it needs to come from the heart. Whether you're selling an E-book about making easy millions on Google, or an online course in greening your business, it's the belief, passion, and sincerity of your tone that will convince the reader and inspire trust.

Back in the 90's, in the Cluetrain Manifesto (if you haven't read it - read it - this is where the core principles of online marketing and Web 2.0 began) presented the principle that Markets are Conversations - and the more you sound like a real, live, thinking, feeling human in those conversations, the more trust and business you will gain.

That's one of the founding principles of Your Words' Worth. And I believe that passionate, from-the-heart quality is also what sets green copywriting apart from other types of online copywriting.

Sure, the seller of Making Easy Millions on Google is probably just as passionate about this product as the seller of Greening Your Business 101. But I think the type of passion differs enormously…and this inevitably shows up in the tone of the copywriting.

You see, in green copywriting just as in green business, Profit isn't the only target of passion - People and the Planet are equally important. And if that passion isn't felt, if that underlying environmental and social responsibility isn't evident…well, no sincerity, no sale!

So when you look for a copywriter to promote your green business, ask - does he or she know about corporate social/environmental responsibility? the triple bottom line? carbon offsetting? fair trade? a living wage? If terms like these are familiar - are they just quaint concepts, or are they living ideals?

Bottom line - does your copywriter share your passion?



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