Let’s Be Honest:CREATING CONTENT PEOPLE ACTUALLY WANT

@SarahRheaWerner | clickrain.com

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“Your call is very important to us.”

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“Your call is very important to us.”

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Bad web content

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PR spin

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False advertising

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Why are businesses

dishonest?

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Thoughtless vs. malicious

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They’re lying to themselves.

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“We’re fun!”

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Aspirational so easily becomes delusional.

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Agency.

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Money.

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Fear.@SarahRheaWerner | Click Rain

Today:● Gain a deeper understanding of your

audience & users.● Create honest content with an

authentic voice that engages users.● Take a moment to consider SEO

& web best practices for users.

@SarahRheaWerner | Click Rain

Today:You’re not going to come away from this with a “silver bullet” that fixes all of your problems.

In fact, you’ll probably leave with even more questions than you started with.

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But that’s OK.

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Step back.Who are you, really?

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Know the truth.If your company was a person, what would their personality traits be?

(Positive and negative.)

(And don’t spin it.)

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Most companies are unable to do this.They are not willing or able to come to terms with who and what they are.

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Aspirational so easily becomes delusional.

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Truth can hurt.But broken things can be fixed.

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What creates our truth?

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What creates our trust?

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“The idea of advertising is to lie without getting caught.”

—Joel Spolsky,CEO of Stack Exchange,

co-founder of Trello,& kind of cynical dude

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Why are we OK with this?

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We’re becoming less OK with companies that are:

● Disingenuous● Opportunistic● Dishonest● Insincere● Clearly in it for the $$$

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Relationship era.

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“The public is paying zero attention to your own pronouncements, but they are listening to one another talk about you. And, unlike your advertising and PR, they trust one another.”

—Bob Garfield,WNYC’s “On the Media”

(emphasis mine)

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“Business, government and all institutions used to do business from impregnable fortresses. Now they all reside in glass houses. Everything they do — or don’t do — is quickly located online and Google-able in perpetuity.”

—Bob Garfield,WNYC’s “On the Media”

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“We’re experiencing unexpectedly high call volume.”

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“Are they really so inept at planning that the call volume is unexpected? For months at a time?”

—Seth Godin,“And What Else Will You Lie About?”

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A more honest revision:

“To save money for our customers and investors, we keep our support team lightly staffed. Please wait patiently for a few days and we’ll get back to you.”

—Seth Godin,“And What Else Will You Lie About?”

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I believe web content & marketing can have

integrity.

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The idea of advertising is to create awareness & prove the trustworthiness of your brand.

—Me

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In the relationship era, content must be a

conversation.

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you + users

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Who are your users?Real vs. ideal.

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Know the truth.What type of personality traits do your users tend to have?

(Positive and negative.)

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Users want what users want.Not what your board wants.

Not what the president’s spouse wants.

Maybe not even what you want. (!!!)

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Users want what users want.Users come to your website with a question. Please don’t talk over them with information they don’t want.

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x

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xkcd.com/773/

Wants & needs.

How do I know what my users want?Ask them.

● User interviews● A/B testing● Analytics

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Users want what users want.Do they like you? Do they trust you?

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Engagement?● Is it a conversation?● Is it giving users what they want?● Is it you getting what you want?

It’s what happens BETWEEN the give and the take.

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Engagement:● Eliciting an emotional response from

your users

and

● Inspiring them to act.

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Trust & action.“Action is quite rare. For most people, the story of 'later' is seductive enough that it appears better to wait instead of leaping.”

—Seth Godin, “Awareness, Trust and Action”

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Trust & action.The value of trust is action.

We like people we can trust.

We buy from people we trust.

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“...for the first time in human history, commercial interests are rewarded for good conduct and penalized for bad conduct and have no capacity for obscuring which is which.”

—Bob Garfield,WNYC’s “On the Media”

@SarahRheaWerner | Click Rain

Content is a conversation.How are you speaking with your users?

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Do you have a voice & tone brief?

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Voice & tone:Voice expresses who you are.

Tone responds to what your audience wants & needs.

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Voice & tone:Voice stays consistent.

Tone shifts & changes with context.

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Keep it readable& usable.

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Is it something users want to read?

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Click Rain designs, strategizes, and develops websites that adhere not only to the fundamental best practices of website development, but embody a commitment to ensuring that success can be measured across all disciplines and within every aspect.

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At Click Rain, we make smart, strategic websites.

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Keep it readable:● Dialogue, not monologue.● Conversational (we, you, etc.).● Use headers to break up text chunks.● Shoot for a 7th grade reading level.

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“But we need to sound smart!”Do you? (Whom does that serve?)

Use hemingwayapp.com/.

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Keep it readable:● Dialogue, not monologue.● Conversational (we, you, etc.).● Use headers to break up text chunks.● Shoot for a 7th grade reading level.● Make sure it is literally readable.

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Keep it usable.

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Responsive web design.

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Write mobile first.What’s good for mobile is good for desktop.

But what’s good for desktop is not necessarily good for mobile.

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Answer users’ questions.If they don’t want to know it, don’t put it on your site.

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FAQs:Are these questions REALLY frequently asked?

Or is it just a repository of information you couldn’t shoehorn in anywhere else?

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Let’s talk web content.

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Let’s talk web content.

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Keep it usable:● Keep your content “device agnostic”.● Answer your users’ questions.● Keep information easily findable.● Limit choices to 7 or fewer.

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Content is a conversation.Creating good content is synonymous with creating an engaging conversation.

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“SEO today cares mostly about engagement.”

—Rand Fishkin Founder & CEO, Moz

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Insane honestywith Doug Kessler.

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Setting & meeting expectations.

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Put your worst foot forward.

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It’s not PR spin if it’s true.

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"Nobody does it. And when they do it, it works.”

—Doug Kessler,Author of “Insane Honesty”

& Creative Director at Velocity Partners

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Fear.@SarahRheaWerner | Click Rain

"No product or service is right for everyone on the planet. Not even Coke.

So why can’t marketers simply admit that? Why are we so allergic to excluding even the most unlikely-to-buy from our target audience?”

—Doug Kessler,Author of “Insane Honesty”

& Creative Director at Velocity Partners

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Alienate the right people.

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"We should be developing content that actively repels people we don’t want to work with."

—Ann Handley,Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

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Whom should you alienate?

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"Insane honesty builds trust. And that’s maybe the single hardest thing to build in a marketing context.”

—Doug Kessler,Author of “Insane Honesty”

& Creative Director at Velocity Partners

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@SarahRheaWerner | Click Rain

Why does everyone hate ?

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“Nickelback is too much of everything to be enough of something. They follow genre expectations too well, which is seen as empty imitation, but also not well enough, which is read as commercial tactics and as a lack of a stable and sincere identity.”

—Salli Anttonen The University of Eastern Finland

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Don’t be the Nickelback

of the web.@SarahRheaWerner | Click Rain

Stop trying so hard.

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Stop trying so hard.

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Stop trying so hard.

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@SarahRheaWerner | Click Rain@SarahRheaWerner | Click Rain

Setting & meeting expectations.

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@SarahRheaWerner | Click Rain

@SarahRheaWerner | Click Rain

Be authentic.

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Stay readable.

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Show your good stuff.

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Show what you’re proud of.

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Don’t hide what you’re not proud of.

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Change what you’re not proud of.

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Let go of the stuff that doesn’t matter anymore.

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Know it’s OK to be HUMAN.

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In fact, it’s PREFERRED.

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Become comfortable & confident with the truth.

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Respect your users—be honest with them.

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And you’ll be well on your way.

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Thank you.

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Keep in touch!● Email: sarah@clickrain.com

● Twitter: @SarahRheaWerner

● iTunes: The Write Now Podcast

● Visit me at clickrain.com!

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Questions?

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