By understanding how your reader infers meaning and how they identify the relevance of your message, you can write your content in a way that will appear interesting and highly relevant.
The inferred meaning will be based on the information you have provided and their own experiences. In order to guide the reader to your desired meaning, expectation of relevance must be raised.
This is achieved by informing the reader of your intentions. An excellent way of doing this is by outlining your 'promise' clearly and openly at the beginning of your article.
The reader will only hold interest in your article if the intentions behind the information meets their expectations of relevance to their experiences and circumstances.
This could be improving their knowledge, settling a doubt, confirming a suspicion, or correcting a mistaken impression.
By creating a familiar environment, you can include experiences which the reader will relate to. You can then use this environment to provide the information that steers the reader to your desired meaning.
The higher the level of sophistication of the reader, the higher the expectation of relevance will be expected. Depending on the level of sophistication of the reader you are interested in, you can distort the environment to suit the message.
A sophisticated understander will be able to understand and detect deception. With this reader, you can focus the message within the environment and use 'alternate universes' to infer your message swiftly and concisely.
A cautious optimist will be able to detect deliberate deception, such as irony. With this reader, you must be careful that the environment is plausible, otherwise they may wrongly interpret the meaning behind your message.
A naively optimistic interpreter will accept the first interpretation they find. With this reader, you must ensure that the environment does not violate true experiences, otherwise they may also wrongly interpret the meaning behind your message.
These are known are the Gricean Maxims :
As a rational reader will have a natural tendency to infer relevance in all situations, the reader will choose the closest principle that meets their own expectations.
However, the Gricean Maxims must hold true according to your anticipated reader. Truth, for example, will still be met where deception is used for the sophisticated understander if it is used to create an environment where the reader uses the deception to infer the correct meaning.
If the reader can immediately apply this new information with their experiences and deduce positive conclusions, then the information is relevant and valuable to the reader. If the reader takes the new information and then chooses experiences that provides the greatest relevance, then the relevance of the information will vary between readers. Your article will provide more worthwhile conclusions to the reader with the most experience.
Therefore to improve relevance, you need to express meaning by providing the most appropriate principles of information that satisfy the Gricean Maxims, and create the most appropriate environment for your desired reader.
If you allow for different levels of sophistication of reader to infer meaning, you must create their expectations based on different maxims. If you can achieve this, the result will be that your article will be relevant to readers at all levels of experiences, and hence seen as an incredibly powerful and very relevant article.
This workshop will cover the following areas:
Further workshops include Marketing Analysis, Writing Styles, Search Engine Optimisation and Measure for Success. These introductory workshops are 45 minute telephone calls to be held once a week (a time and day that fits). Those companies who wish to take this further can arrange one-2-one training or join an existing workshop group held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
Netflare is a Cambridge based web design and marketing digital agency, specialising in delivering high quality web services utilising the content management system Drupal.
Netflare offers a complete design, development and hosting service for simple sites through to full ecommerce packages. We can even help maximise your business investment in your website via our own marketing training package - so you can effectively manage your own marketing strategy.
Netflare has created 'Coherent Content Marketing' workshops to help and guide businesses through these three steps and create successful marketing campaigns that bring in sales.
Digital marketing isn't just about attracting visitors; it's about engaging them, conveying your brand's value proposition, and ultimately converting them into loyal customers.
At the heart of this process lies your website – the digital storefront that represents your brand 24/7. Therefore, investing in modern web design is crucial to ensuring your message resonates with your audience effectively. Here's why you should consider leveraging Bootstrap 5 and Drupal 10 for your website:
That's why we offer comprehensive managed hosting and support services designed to keep your website running smoothly, securely, and efficiently. With our range of hosting solutions and dedicated support team, you can focus on growing your business while we take care of the technical aspects. Explore the benefits of partnering with Netflare for your hosting needs:
This workshop will cover the following areas:
Further workshops include Marketing Analysis, Writing Styles, Search Engine Optimisation and Measure for Success. These introductory workshops are 45 minute telephone calls to be held once a week (a time and day that fits). Those companies who wish to take this further can arrange one-2-one training or join an existing workshop group held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
This requires you to read the environment and recognise the impact you make.
Attempting to influence readers using the content on your website is obviously not quite the same. You will not know the circumstances and background of the reader, nor will you be able to immediately adapt from any feedback.
Instead, you can replace the face-to-face aspects of influencing with your 'trusted expert' status, and create the environment by writing articles that describes a given scenario your reader can relate to. You can then use your perceived status and the created environment to open doors to different paths which the reader can choose to take, putting them in control. This will allow you to offer alternative perspectives and give your reader choice by providing relevant knowledge in the directions you are offering.
It will be how you present and highlight these aspects of your status that will represent your personality, charm, and benevolence and hence your ability to influence.
Listed below are issues that may need to be discussed and explained within your article in order to substantiate any 'assumed status':
This strategy is best used when you anticipate high anxiety and low trust in the reader. The intention is to substantiate your status by providing impartial information and communicating in a benevolent way.
Your culture and reputation will need clarification so that the reader can begin to relate to you. Your passion and motives must be completely transparent in order to reduce their anxieties. Your systems and organisation must disclose the benefits such as rewards and quality of information. The style you use must be impartial and ready to compromise.
Build ideas and put forward proposals. Reason with the current opinions and compromise where you cannot justify your claims. Empathise by comparing your arguments with alternative views.
Put forward the main points and justify the relevant information you have provided. Dismiss certain arguments so that the main arguments are heard.
Objections are not only necessary but essential if you want the reader to fully understand your concerns. Show your concerns by responding to the most obvious objections. Clarify any doubts by highlighting the main benefits. Provide further information by referencing other internal pages, or external pages on other websites.
Put forward clear conclusions and outline the next step or call to action.
This strategy is best used when you anticipate lower anxieties and higher trust in the reader. The intention is to present a compelling argument by outlining all the benefits you can think of that delivers the value and results the reader is searching for.
Your culture and reputation will not be at issue here as the reader will have formed an opinion from other impartial articles previously read. Your passion and motives will need to demonstrate your concerns for the reader and link the benefits to improved results. Use the best style as a vehicle to connect with the reader and communicate the benefits.
This is your opportunity to position your products or services as unique in some way by describing known problems, how they are currently solved and why your solutions are different or better.
Clarify common goals and ensure that the value and results you deliver are desired by your reader.
Make sure your motives are clear and your reader understands why you offer these products and services.
State your obligations, guarantees and to what extent you will give, share and serve to ensure delivery of the promised results.
When presenting your arguments, be aware of the following reasons why resistance to change is found. If you anticipate the most likely form of resistance, you can tackle it head on. Use feel-felt-found techniques, or offer case studies or testimonials where possible.
Here is a 10 step plan for organising and planning your strategies to influence the reader. Whether you adopt the Impartial or Persuasive strategy, decide on the attributes of your status that will need to be highlighted. Have a scenario you have in mind in order to paint a clear picture of the environment you will be describing.
Influencing someone's judgement is an incredibly powerful ability. It requires the combination of many communication skills that, once harnessed, can quicken your efforts to build trust and hence increase co-operative opportunities.
This workshop will cover the following areas:
Further workshops include Marketing Analysis, Writing Styles, Search Engine Optimisation and Measure for Success. These introductory workshops are 45 minute telephone calls to be held once a week (a time and day that fits). Those companies who wish to take this further can arrange one-2-one training or join an existing workshop group held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
The success of your marketing strategies will depend on how clear your message is conveyed.
Business identity is all about identifying and developing your passion behind the business, the value and results your deliver to your clients, and how you differentiate yourself from your competitors. Once you have this, you can work on becoming the expert and define your uniqueness in your field.
The secret to successful internet marketing strategies is in making your website work for you automatically. By understanding the concepts of front-end and back-end marketing, you can create a lead generation funnel with auto-responder emails, and nurture your clients with value driven products and services tiered to give more to the clients who trust you most.
Grow your business by splitting your efforts into two distinct marketing strategies:
Learn how to find and win new customers by creating low-risk irresistible offers that will be impossible to pass by.
Learn how to develop strong customer relationships by clarifying your products and services and delivering the highest possible value. As you win your customer's trust, they will continue to buy from you.
Front-end marketing is all about customer acquisition.
As the lifetime value of a customer will make the cost of acquisition relatively insignificant, you can focus on adventurous ways to attract your prospect to make that leap and give you a try.
The experience they gain from your high quality products and services will mean they stay as long term customers.
By nurturing your customers, you will begin to form strong relationships with them. This will allow you to make available increasing levels of value as the relationship grows. Your back-end marketing strategies can be viewed as a funnel of trust layers of additional value you make available to your customers as they begin to trust you more.
Starting from a customer who has just bought from you for the first time and working down to your perfect customer who has implicit trust and buys high value products and services from you, you can determine between 4 and 7 distinct layers of your trust funnel.
There will be aspects of your business that seem difficult and other aspects that come naturally to you.
By discovering what you really enjoy doing and building on this to nurture your passion, not only will you find business life easier, but you can use this to define your uniqueness.
If you have discovered your passion for your business and know what you do best, you can build on this to add more value to your products and services. If you know your products and services will deliver results for your customers then highlight these benefits in your marketing to develop business growth and increase your market share in your business arena.
Using a unique selling proposition (USP) in your promotion and sales activities by highlighting your unique benefits will greatly improve its effectiveness. USPs help your customers to save time when considering buying a product or service by helping them to differentiate between you and your competition and focus on your key benefits.
Your USP encapsulates your products or services; your ideal customers; your key benefits and the results you deliver. The benefit of having a clear USP is that your customers will relate to your motives and become as passionate as you are about your business.
Knowing that the success of your website will affect the future of your business, it is no surprise when businesses ask “What works and how do I get it to work for me?”
This 45 minute call will cover the following areas:
The complete workshop programme includes Marketing Analysis, Content Marketing, Website Strategy, Messaging Strategy and Business Analytics. These workshops can be arranged as 45 minute telephone / Zoom calls to be held once a week (a time and day that fits). Those companies who wish to take this further can arrange one-2-one training or join an existing workshop group held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
It is defined by industry fit, demographic fit, business size fit, business growth fit, their ability to buy and their readiness to buy.
These profiles will describe a special set of buyer personas that perfectly match your products and services and will provide a viable and profitable business for you.
From your ICP's point of view, your products and services will add value to their business by improving efficiency, improving sales and improving profit.
Budget, revenue and size: determining what the highest price a customer would be prepared to pay.
This 45 minute call will cover the following areas:
The complete workshop programme includes Marketing Analysis, Content Marketing, Information Architecture, Improving Communication and Measuring Success. These workshops can be arranged as 45 minute telephone / Zoom calls to be held once a week (a time and day that fits). Those companies who wish to take this further can arrange one-2-one training or join an existing workshop group held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
You can then offer a personalised experience that appeals to your target audience by creating content for each persona.
Buyer personas are stereotypical customer types that you invent to represent each segment of your customer base. The idea behind this is that instead of broadcasting the same generic marketing content to all your customers, you tailor your message to the different personas. This way, you can broadcast different targeted content to each of the segments. The result will produce a higher level of interest in your products and services to new and returning customers.
For B2C businesses, this may be fairly straight forward to visualise. For B2B businesses, you can personify your customer types using expectations and past experiences.
Age group? Income? Location? Gender?
Business type? Technology savvy? Growth expectations? Education?
Preferred media? Social media users? Devices used?
Obstacles they hit? Inefficiencies? Risks?
KPIs? What metrics are important to them? Costs?
Primary? Secondary?
This 45 minute call will cover the following areas:
The complete workshop programme includes Marketing Analysis, Content Marketing, Information Architecture, Improving Communication and Measuring Success. These workshops can be arranged as 45 minute telephone / Zoom calls to be held once a week (a time and day that fits). Those companies who wish to take this further can arrange one-2-one training or join an existing workshop group held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
Making the content on your website highly visible and accessible from almost anywhere within your website will mean that your visitors will be able to decide where to navigate. This ability will probably be the most powerful feature of your website.
What it means is that your website has become interactive. Instead of displaying information that you have decided is good for the reader, the reader has decided what is important and chosen a path into your website to find the desired information.
This is only possible by writing articles that serve a specific purpose and yet are part of a collection of articles that respond to your visitors wants and needs depending on their anxieties and trust.
The behaviour of this category displays a list of the titles of the articles with the same classification
The behaviour of this category displays a secondary list of the titles of the articles with the same classification
The behaviour of this category will depend on your application.
An example of a group is a collection of case studies or catalogues. In this example, an image could be used as the link instead of the title or keyword.
The behaviour of this category displays a tag cloud or a list of the keywords classified within a given article
This is the science of classification and what's known as 'taxonomy'. It is effectively building and defining a data model for your business. Using the exercises performed in Question Zoning and Zone Path Analysis, use the suggestions below to help you create your own category names:
Use the quality issues you have experienced as category names. For example, if a quality issue is 'fails to see the need for training', then create a category called 'training'.
Use customer types as category names. For example, if Local Authorities are one of your main customer types, then create a category called 'local authority'.
Use typical customer scenarios you have experienced as category names. For example if 'customer demands a fast turn-around' is a typical scenario you often experience, then create a category called 'fast turn-around'.
Use your existing product categories as category names. For example if 'Warehouse safety' is a part of your products and services you offer, then create a category called 'warehouse-safety'.
Use your existing service categories as category names. For example if 'maintenance and support' is part of your products and services you offer, then create a category called 'support'.
This will put meaning behind how you classify your articles and help to make sense out of how you plan to link your articles together.
Within each category, define labels for the terms that reflect the question zones. This will help to classify where the article belongs in your zone path analysis exercises.
Use the terms below to represent the question zones the articles belong to:
If you have already created and defined your trust layers, and have articles specific to your trust layers, prefix the term name with the trust layer. For example TL1 (trust layer 1).
Notice that the category name has been embedded into the term name to add clarity.
Try to keep the popularity of a classification to below 10 articles. This will be an iterative exercise and will depend on the number of articles you have written.
The purpose of an impartial article is to add trust to the visitor. You should classify an impartial article for a specific question zone, ie. try not to classify any given impartial article in more than one zone.
The purpose of a persuasive article is to move the visitor to the next question zone. You should classify a persuasive article in adjacent question zones, ie. classify a persuasive article with terms CanYouSolveMyProblem and WillItWorkForMe.
Try to keep the number of keywords to below 20 and check that the article contains a fair distribution of popular keywords used throughout the site. This will be an iterative exercise and will depend on the number of articles you have written and the number of tags you have defined.
This 45 minute call will cover the following areas:
The complete workshop programme includes Marketing Analysis, Content Marketing, Information Architecture, Messaging Strategies and Business Analytics. These workshops can be arranged as 45 minute telephone / Zoom calls to be held once a week (a time and day that fits). Those companies who wish to take this further can arrange one-2-one training or join an existing workshop group held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
If you could find a way to anticipate, respond to, and influence your visitor behaviour, it seems reasonable to assume that the levels of success you are currently experiencing from your website would be greatly improved.
In order to successfully influence your visitors, the following concepts require consideration:
Each oval represents the set of articles that responds to the style of questions for each zone.
The principle of information architecture is to present information appropriate to the visitor, satisfy their current anxieties and help to build trust. The objective is therefore to guide the first time visitor through each of the zones, becoming returning visitors, until they are ready to commit to your call to action.
As the previous diagram, each oval represents the set of articles that responds to the style of questions for each zone. Each coloured line represents the path a visitor takes when reading the articles on your website.
Anxiety is represented by the green line, trust is represented by the blue line. The zones are represented as red vertical lines on the x-axis of the graph and are in line with the ovals above. Although the level of trust will slowly improve with increasing number of visits, their anxieties will rise and fall.
As the visitor learns more about you and your products and services, their anxieties will lessen. But they will rise again when the visitor searches for assurance that you can actually deliver.
By analysing the trust and anxiety levels of your visitor at any given point, you can support and influence their decision making process by providing information written in an appropriate style.
The green bar represent articles written in an impartial style. The orange bar represent articles written in a persuasive style.
While the visitor remains within a given zone, trust can be improved and anxiety levels reduced by presenting impartial information to the visitor.
During the transition between zones (the unmarked zones between the red lines), the visitor can be motivated to move to the next zone by presenting persuasive arguments that outline benefits and delivery of results.
As the visitor anxiety levels fall, more persuasive articles can be presented to help influence the visitor to move to the next zone. As the visitor anxietly levels rise, more impartial articles can be presented to help build trust.
This 45 minute call will cover the following areas:
The complete workshop programme includes Marketing Analysis, Content Marketing, Information Architecture, Improving Communication and Measuring Success. These workshops can be arranged as 45 minute telephone / Zoom calls to be held once a week (a time and day that fits). Those companies who wish to take this further can arrange one-2-one training or join an existing workshop group held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
Question Zoning aims to improve the quality of communications with your visitors and hence improve the level of success you are experiencing from your website.
From your visitors point of view, they are looking for information to satisfy their wants and needs. For them, a great website is one that delivers the results they are looking for efficiently and honestly.
From your point of view, you want your visitors to turn into long term customers. For you, your website will be a success if it reflects the passion behind your business and attracts great customers.
Both can be achieved by ensuring that your visitors are being provided with the information they are looking for and yet know that more information is available on their return visit.
Question Zoning uses the information obtained from your Marketing Analysis exercises. This enables you to collect anticipated customer questions based on scenarios and quality issues. The responses you create will be used to guide and nurture your visitors to become returning visitors and eventually customers.
Please review the sections below if you are not familiar with these exercises:
Customer Relationship Analysis: Analysing your existing relationship with each customer or prospect type and reviewing their existing or perceived qualities. Customer Scenarios
Analysing individual customer types with a specific quality issue and identifying relevant scenarios that describe their situation.
The style of questions take the customer from first time visitor, who know little about your product, service or business, down to prospective customer who are ready to buy and looking for specific information.
The objective of this exercise is to be able to provide the right kind of information that gets straight to the point so the visitor doesn't end up having to trawl through pages of sales literature only to be dissapointed that the information doesn't provide the right level of detail.
You must assume that there will be no visitor commitment at this stage. The visitor will not know anything about you and not even know if you can solve their problem.
You must assume that the visitor has a basic level of understanding about the kind of product or service they are looking for, but will know nothing about you, or how different your product and services are.
Visitor anxiety will be very high. They will have fixed opinions on how to solve their problem. They will want to know if you have solved similar problems and at least understand their problem. They will probably be unaware of any alternative solutions, and have a healthy scepticism of any suggestions at this stage.
The questions asked will reflect their high anxieties. The style of questions will be specific and results orientated. Examples would be:
At this stage, the visitor will be looking for empathy and trust. You should respond with impartial advice and case studies that reflect similar customer scenarios.
The response you provide will have a purpose to either build trust (educate and nurture) and keep the visitor within this zone, or empathise and persuade them to move the to next zone, "Will it work for me?" (capture and hold).
You can assume that there will be a low level of visitor commitment at this stage as they know you might be able to solve their problem. The visitor will still know little about you and not even know if your solution will work for them.
The visitor will still have a basic level of understanding about the kind of product or service they are looking for. They will know a little bit more about you, and may be more open to your suggestions and ready to see how different your product and services are.
Visitor anxiety will be high. Their specific problem will be different or unusual in some way, and they will want to know under what criteria your solution will work for them. They may be more open to suggestions on how to solve their problem. They will still want to know if you have solved similar problems and at least understand their problem.
The questions asked will reflect their high anxieties. The style of questions will be specific and results orientated. Examples would be:
As the previous stage, the visitor will be looking for empathy and trust. You should respond with impartial advice and case studies that reflect similar customer scenarios. If you have alternative solutions then the 'feel-felt-found' technique would be a good persuasive introduction to consider new concepts.
The response you provide will have a purpose to either build trust (educate and nurture) and keep the visitor within this zone, or empathise and persuade them to move the to next zone, "What's in it for me?" (capture and hold).
You can assume that there will be a stronger level of visitor commitment at this stage as they know you will be able to solve their problem. The visitor will be beginning to learn more about you and be interested in the benefits you offer.
The visitor will have a better level of understanding about the kind of product or service they are looking for. They will know your products and services to some extent, but want to see how you differentiate from other businesses.
Visitor anxiety will be low. Their specific issues will be in identifying the value and results you offer.
The questions asked will reflect their low anxieties. The style of questions will be benefit orientated. It could be they may be comparing an existing solution with you. Examples would be:
The visitor will be looking to see how you differentiate yourself. When persuading, you should respond with strong benefit statements. When informing, you should respond with impartial advice and case studies that reflect customer decisions based on your benefits.
The response you provide will have a purpose to either build trust (educate and nurture) and keep the visitor within this zone, or empathise and persuade them to move the to next zone, "Why should I choose you?" (capture and hold).
You can assume that there will be strong level of visitor commitment at this stage as they will probably have decided to favour your products and services over the competition. The visitor will now want to learn more about your business history and be interested in what assurances you offer.
The visitor will by now have a high level of understanding about the kind of product or service they are looking for. They will know your products and services quite well, but want to see more about your systems infra-structure and support.
Visitor anxiety will be high. Their specific issues will be the stability of your organisation and whether you can provide the assurances they are seeking.
The questions asked will reflect their high anxieties. The style of questions will be probing for weaknesses in your organisation. Examples would be:
The visitor will be looking to see how your organisation can support the products and services you offer. When persuading, you should respond with strong benefit statements. When informing, you should respond with impartial advice and case studies that reflect customer decisions based on your assurances.
The response you provide will have a purpose to either build trust (educate and nurture) and keep the visitor within this zone, or empathise and persuade them to move the to next zone, "What's next?" (capture and hold).
You can assume that there will be a very strong level of visitor commitment at this stage as they will have decided to use your organisation. The visitor will now want to learn more about the product roll-out and any contractual and support information.
The visitor will by now have a high level of understanding about the kind of product or service they are looking for. They will know your products and services very well, but want to see more about deliverables and the fine details of any contracts.
Visitor anxiety will be low. Their specific issues will be the details of the immediate deliverables, and any information regarding long term contracts and support.
The questions asked will reflect their low anxieties. The style of questions will be seeking negotiation or confirmation of variations. Examples would be:
The visitor will be looking to see for commitment from you and a process to follow to receive the deliverables. When persuading, you should respond with strong benefit statements. When informing, you should respond with impartial advice and case studies that reflect customer expectation based on your deliverables.
The response you provide will have a purpose to either build trust (educate and nurture) and keep the visitor within this zone, or empathise and persuade them to become a long term customer.
This 45 minute call will cover the following areas:
The complete workshop programme includes Marketing Analysis, Content Marketing, Information Architecture, Improving Communication and Measuring Success. These workshops can be arranged as 45 minute telephone / Zoom calls to be held once a week (a time and day that fits). Those companies who wish to take this further can arrange one-2-one training or join an existing workshop group held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
To be confident of generating the best possible response, turn your copy into a presentation that attracts your prospects, keeps them riveted with interesting arguments and persuades them to respond in the way you want with 7 key elements of writing copy. Here are the seven key elements of writing copy:
With a strong benefit orientated headline, you’ll capture the attention of the kind of visitor you want to read your copy. If you have an offer or a strong purpose behind the article, include this in the headline to increase the response even more.
This will be the purpose or agenda of the copy you are presenting to the visitor. By outlining what the rest of the copy is about and what the visitor will gain by reading it, you are helping them to make the decision whether they should stay on this page, or click away. Either way this is a healthy state, as the visitor will know what the page is about and the frustration of trying to find the detail they are interested in will be avoided.
This can be achieved by converting your product or service features into benefits tuned specifically to the type of visitor you are looking for. Keep them riveted by following a logical and organised path that outlines the message you are discussing. Clear milestones will be seen and the reader will feel that ground is being covered.
This can be one or more of the below:
Be explicit in defining what the visitor would be losing if they took no action. If you have already graphically expressed your benefits in terms of gaining momentum, you can also use lost time as a consequence.
Rephrase these most important benefits to drive the point home.
If the purpose of the copy was well defined in the ‘promise’ section, and the ‘benefits’ section fulfilled the agenda, then the call to action will be the closing of the contract and outline the next step.
The next step should be clear and logical and appear to be as simple as possible.
This 45 minute call will cover the following areas:
The complete workshop programme includes Marketing Analysis, Content Marketing, Information Architecture, Improving Communication and Measuring Success. These workshops can be arranged as 45 minute telephone / Zoom calls to be held once a week (a time and day that fits). Those companies who wish to take this further can arrange one-2-one training or join an existing workshop group held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.