Blog Archives

copywriting, social media, eNewsletter and SEO webinars

October 4 2011 | Brett | Comment

It’s official. The internet is for more than just online shopping and pornography. It’s also for training. For the first time we’re offering a smattering of our training via webinar for everyone, everywhere:

Copywriting Savvy 101: write copy worth reading. We ignore spelling and grammar to look at writing in the real world. Improve your releases, letters to editors, opinion pieces, appeal letters, CEO columns and more. How? Well how about getting to know your audiences first, developing a copywriting brief and getting those in charge to adhere to an editorial code of conduct? Plus we’ll work on quotes, headlines, captions and more. (New additional session) Thursday October 20 at 12.30am. Read more…

SEO Savvy 101: Help your website meet friends and influence people as it rises to the top of the Google heap. Nonprofit-related search terms are (relatively) uncompetitive – page one is there for the taking. Our achievable, inexpensive, minimally-nerdy ways to improve your search engine results can be actioned immediately. This is aimed at anyone wanting more from their website – marketers, fundraisers, volunteer co-ordinators and CEOs – not techie types. Thursday October 27, 10am to noon. Read more

Social Media Savvy 101: move from using social media to exploiting it. Learn to battle Facebook’s EdgeRank system and discover ways to build a cult-like Twitter following. Also: finding and deciding content, dealing with negative comments, when to post. We’ll look at nonprofits using social media to its best advantage and yes, we’ll overview Google+. Thursday December 1, 10am to noon. Read more…

eNewsletter / eMarketing Savvy 101: eNewsletters aren’t sexy but they reach more people, more reliably creating more response other options. Save thousands of dollars while reaching thousands of people. Agenda: moving from Outlook to a genuine eNewsletter system, creating and building databases, analysing statistics, finding the right content, trigger emails, tricks of the trade. Thursday December 8, 10am to 12.30pm. Read more…

Of course you can always commission a webinar or workshop for your group. Dozens do and and they’re all getting smarter than you courtesy of: Media Savvy 101, Marketing Savvy 101, Speak Savvy 101 and Online Savvy 101.

Webinars and workshops are backed with notes and follow-up coaching. Glowing testimonials, details and bookings at www.hootville/training or call Brett de Hoedt, Mayor of Hootville Communications 03 9017 1062.

Tagged copy savvy 101, copywriting, facebook, media training, search engine optimisation, social media, twitter

bad media releases gain media coverage

August 11 2011 | Brett | Comment

Greg Baum is a prominent sports writer for The Age in Melbourne. He’s a columnist, more than a reporter so he has a longer leash than most. Greg filled his July 30 Final Word column with several hundred final words of scorn for the PR folk behind the launch of the new domestic 20/20 Big Bash cricket league. They deserved it. Read his piece to gain an insight into how smarter journos see publicists. Here’s how to avoid creating similar responses.

Tagged copy savvy 101, copywriting, media releases, press releases

Copy Savvy 101 class takes shape

August 2 2011 | Brett | Comment

We already have Victorian Youth Mentoring Alliance, Surf Live Saving NSW, Family Relationship Services Australia, Jean Hailes Foundation for Women’s Health, Diabetes Australia Victoria and YMCA Victoria joining us for our first public Copy Savvy 101 webinar. Et tu Brute?

The first 10 registrants to our copywriting workshop have the first option to have their copy reviewed (mauled) by the group. With the anonymity provided by the web, the feedback should be full and frank so be quick and take up the opportunity.

As of August 16, we are just about full, so quicksticks if you want in.

Tagged copy savvy 101, copywriting, direct mail, media training

SEO tip. Copywrite this.

July 4 2011 | Brett | Comment

We’ve mentioned this before but we need to make it clearer. The websites that will continue to rise in search engine results are those which supply continually updated, relevant information and articles within their website.

We recommend folding most of your new copy into your news section. We recommend classifying many things as news – from new courses, to new staff apointmnebnts, awards, media coverage of your issue – the lot. This makes the news section a go-to area for regular visitors.

Abundant, fresh content helps in two ways – it gives people material to spread via their social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Google’s +1 which search engines love and it also gives people a reason to keep coming back to your site.

OK – so you haven’t got the time or inspiration to come up with fresh copy all day long. Here are some content suggestions:

Skim, condense and pour out media coverage. They'll drink it up.

Media monitoring: using Google alerts and your own media consumption, you can highlight media coverage of your issues (not your organisation necessarily, just your issues) to visitors. Throw in an explanation of the coverage (“The Courier Mail has a story about early childhood intervention waiting lists today: www…”) PLUS at least a line (would 500 words kill you?) of comment about the story. This adds credibility for both Google and the reader.

Hardcore SEO types will be sure to insert an image of the article onto your webpage and to fill in details for the image when inserting it. (WordPress has half a dozen fields to enter when inserting any image which is bothersome but helps search engines.)

Your readers will love you filtering the news for them and by offering a comment you look like experts. Media loves that too.

Report on your progress - or lack thereof

Regular monitoring and reporting

Transparency is sexy. No really. Too few organisations regularly boast about securing new donors, participants, subscribers, staff, volunteers etc. We’d recommend monthly updates on all these.

Why? Because monitoring these issues, highlights these issues. Eg: mentioning that you scored three new monthly donors is a reminder that you want monthly donors. Regular updates create good regular, fresh copy with lots of keywords. Do it now and stop coming across like an organisation that doesn’t need everyone’s help. You should appear to be a living, breathing entity.

Imagine writing a note to every pollie who speaks of your issue, every time. Good for your profile?

Hansard: do you listen to Parliament much? Shame on you. In that case why not run a regular search of hansard for mention of your key issues? Again, you can summarise key mentions of your issue and attach your expert comment. One thing for sure – the pollies making the comments will quickly learn that they have been mentioned on your site. You look important, you bring your readers information they’d otherwise have missed and you get noticed by the right people.

Magazines do it for the same reasons - simple, regular, easily-digestible content.

Q&A: create a regular Q&A of 20 questions like this from the Good Weekend above. Throw in some serious questions relating to your issues and some silly questions too. Ask interesting people to answer them. Publish the most interesting 12 answers and a headshot. Approach some VIPs as you’ll be hard to refuse and the process will get you noticed by them. Aim for one a month. Simple.

Roll out the poll.

Monthly polls: each month you ask a new question and report back on the results of the previous poll. Simple. Use Survey Monkey or, preferably a poll application from within your content management system.

Short on inspiration for copy? Take nuggets from your annual reports and magazines.

Annual reports and membership magazines: Once published and quickly forgotten; these labour-intensive obligations are just waiting to be rehashed as fresh copy for the news section of your website.

See? Content is easy. And once you have the content flowing, be sure to add Sexy Bookmarks, as we have below to make sharing your content easy. And of course feel free to share this.

Tagged copywriting, copywriting training, seo

Very direct mail

June 1 2011 | Brett | Comment

Direct mail is a universe unto itself. Still the backbone of most fundraising programs, it’s a mix of skills, science and gut instinct. The creative must meet the right segment of the right list at the right time. If not, there’s no pretending otherwise – dollars don’t lie. The Arts Centre in Melbourne outdid itself with this effort, personally addressed to our Mayor and self-professed patron of the arts Brett de Hoedt.

Cute kid, quaintly illustrated, personally targetted.

At 16 pages, there's quite the narrative arc.

Sadly Baz Luhrmann outbid Martin Scorsese for the film rights.

Tagged copywriting, direct mail, Fundraising

PR advice: lose the track changes people. Editing tips within.

May 17 2011 | Brett | Comment

Oh dear. It’s too easy to make a mockery of this, so we won’t. Fairfax has sent out a memo to its soon-to-be-significantly-redundant editorial workforce in draft form with track changes visible. Read about the memo here. And yes, you can see the actual memo.

Suffice to say that it’s a PR blooper of significant proportions for Fairfax’s CEO Greg Hywood and PR supremo Sue Cato at a time of extreme sensitivity. (Journos get testy when being made redundant.)

Of course, frankly, it could happen to any one of us; so don’t get cocky kids.

Frankly the greatest lesson for the rest of us is to show how utterly valueless 90% of all re-writing is. Few if any of the changes were worth the time spent making them. We think is true of NFPs as well. Re-writing / editing is seen as a box to be ticked, a way to show authority by those in charge; not to improve the copy. We see this daily.

We suggest these copywriting / editing rules. The editor must only make changes to:

correct errors;
shorten length;
clarify or simplify;
boost interest or persuasiveness to reader.

Otherwise; bugger off.

Tagged copywriting, editing advice, PR advice, PR blooper

Fundraising appeal benefits from personal appeal

May 10 2011 | Brett | Comment

This banner outperformed all others.

Fundraisers and campaigners take note of this analysis of various banners. All had the same intention – raise money for Wikipedia but one iteration stood out above all others. That was the appeal that came from the top – specifically a person at the top who readers recognised. Think about this the next time you send out an appeal letter, eNewsletter, invitation or direct mail. Make it from one person – not from your organisation. Start creating your own Jimmy Wales now. (Close cropped beard optional.)

Tagged copywriting, Fundraising

Page 2 of 2«12