How To Write A Compelling Commercial Blog A Quick Guide
How To Write A Compelling Commercial Blog – A Quick Guide
Posted November 3, 2022 by Guy Fagan

When you are crafting a blog try to remember at all times who it is you are engaging with. You are communicating not broadcasting.  

First, know your audience.  What makes them tick?  There are generally 4 main personality types in any reader.

D: DOMINANCE—This style is both bold and sceptical. They typically dive into challenges produced by their environment and place a high priority on “winning.” They tend to be more receptive to logic, data and analysis than they are to somebody else’s “gut-level feel” or intuition. They pursue challenges in a dynamic, assertive and self-assured manner. They can also become easily irritated with opposing points of view which elicits a response that can be categorised as indifference, intolerance or hostility.

i: INFLUENCE—This style is both bold and accepting. They are “people-oriented” and are motivated by their connections with others. They tend to welcome others in a warm and inviting manner that encourages collaboration and generates excitement. They pursue environmental challenges in an outgoing, enthusiastic and optimistic manner. They are also prone to “keep people happy” and as a result may be reluctant to provide others with constructive feedback or pay adequate attention to follow-through or attention to detail.

S: STEADINESS—This style is both cautious and accepting. They are highly motivated to help others and maintain the stability of their environment. They excel at cooperation and are routinely described as “calm” or “patient.” They respond to the challenges of their environment in a thoughtful and comparatively methodical manner routinely providing others with empathy and support. They have a tendency to struggle with change that disrupts their routine and can be shocked, stunned or temporarily dazed by its emergence.

C: CONSCIENTIOUSNESS—This style is both cautious and sceptical. They can best be described as “detail-oriented” and have a strong preference for an environment defined by its stability. They enjoy opportunities to demonstrate their expertise and share the quality of their work. They are driven by logic and objective analysis. As such, they will typically respond to disruptions in their routine by openly questioning the feasibility and viability of the proposed path forward. They have a tendency to “overanalyze” but when they reach a level of comfort, they can serve as a calming source of objective support.

A commercial blog needs to walk a fine balance between conversational and professional tones.  Too conversational and you will lose that authority that comes with being super professional and the detail-orientated reader will exit the page.  Too professional (technical) and many readers will have exited the page before you can effectively set out your stall and make your case. They will just lose the will to live. 

In every blog piece, you try to establish authority in a given subject.  Authority generally comes with facts and figures, technical information and specifications.  Relatability and engagement come from establishing rapport and resonance.  So, if you have the resources available to you, why not use 2 writers?

1. The first writer is a conversationalist style of writer (who may be a salesperson type) that will write the opening attention-grabbing headline and the opening paragraph which is effectively a conversational summary of what it is that you are trying to communicate in the main blog piece.  Keep it light as this opening paragraph will appeal to the D-types and the i-types of the above personality types.  Not long after the opening paragraph, you will generally lose these two personality types as readers and that’s ok, they will have learned all that they are interested in learning.  If you have resonated with them they will take some sort of positive action with you.  Mission accomplished.  

2. The second writer is a technical solutions-based writer (who may be an engineer type).  A person who deals in the meat of your service offering, a person who understands the finest details.  This persons writing will appeal to the S-type and the C-type personalities of the readers.  These personalities will generally stay until the end of the blog piece as long as you are communicating to them a solution to their particular pain point.  If successful here they too will take some sort of positive action with you.  Again, mission accomplished.  

The language in a commercial blog needs to be authoritative and factual in the main.  However, people prefer to buy from people not from faceless entities so it’s important to establish a human rapport.  Try giving some real-world examples that they can relate to such as “John/Mary in entity A had a certain issue, we had the solution and now John/Mary in entity A has an improved day-to-day experience thanks to our solution.”  Tell a story in the opening paragraph and populate it with people and relatable topics.  Provide the technical solution to a particular pain point in the main part of the blog piece, not the opener and make it relatable.  

Do not forget to have some strong CTA’s (Calls To Action) throughout the page.  CLICK HERE / GET IN TOUCH / LIVE CHAT etc.  Locate them after the opening paragraph and at the end of the blog piece.  

To summate: A winning story has a hero, a villain, a saviour and finally, redemption.  At the end of your story (blog piece), the hero (your client) has eliminated the villain (the business pain point) thanks to the timely arrival of their savour (you) and now lives happily ever after (redemption).

Good luck and happy writing!  Get in touch with me if you have anything that you want to ask or bounce off me. Email me here.

Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

Why WordPress Guy Fagan Digital Consultancy
Why WordPress?
Posted October 3, 2022 by Guy Fagan

Why WordPress?WordPress Logo Guy Fagan Digital Consultancy

Total simplicity.  I take care of everything.

Choose WordPress for the easiest way to create a website or blog.  Choose a custom WordPress installation for the ultimate control over your website.

Build a site, no installation required. I host your site and offer built-in plugins and free benefits including software updates and security. Register your domain easily and get started in minutes.

Choose from hundreds of beautiful designs and customise them for your business site, blog, or portfolio.

Purchased a WordPress theme elsewhere? No problem: I will let you install any theme you’d like.

Reach a wider audience and find new readers by syncing your content to Facebook and Twitter and connecting with millions of people.

Get the very best support, help by telephone and email plus live chat assistance.

People often make the mistake of classifying WordPress as just a blogging platform. Although that used to be true in the past, WordPress has evolved through the years into a versatile content management system (CMS). While you can still use WordPress to create a simple blog, now it also allows you to create fully functional websites and mobile applications.

The best part about WordPress is that it’s easy to use and flexible enough for just about anything. That’s the main reason why WordPress has grown so much in popularity. According to a recent survey, WordPress powers 28% to 30% of all websites on the internet.

Due to it’s robust features, many of the top brands use WordPress to power their websites including but not limited to: Time Magazine, Google, Facebook, Sony, Disney, LinkedIn, The New York Times, CNN, eBay, and more.

Let’s take a look at why you should use WordPress.

WordPress is Free as in Freedom

WordPress is a free software, this means you are free to download, install, use and modify it. You can use it to create any kind of website. It is also open source which means the source code of the software is available for anyone to study, modify and play with.

There are currently 3000+ WordPress themes and 35,000+ plugins available for free. You can download, install and use them on any website.

To run WordPress, all you need is a domain and web hosting.

WordPress is an open source software

WordPress Open Source Guy Fagan Digital Consultancy

By using WordPress you become part of that awesome community. You get free support from other community members, download free plugins and themes, and once you have little experience with WordPress you can even contribute back to the community.

WordPress is Easy to Use and Learn

WordPress is easy to use even for beginners

WordPress is used by millions of people and almost every day new people are joining the WordPress community by creating their first WordPress powered websites. The reason why people quickly adapt to WordPress is that it is fairly easy to use.

If you want someone experienced to setup your WordPress site, then our talented staff members are happy to help you get started.

For any WordPress related issue, just contact me.

WordPress is Extendable by Using Themes and Plugins

WordPress Themes

WordPress Themes Guy Fagan Digital Consultancy

Most people using WordPress are neither web designers nor programmers. As a matter of fact, most folks start using WordPress without any prior knowledge of designing websites.

The reason why WordPress is such an ideal candidate is that there are thousands of free templates (themes) to choose from, so you can give your website any look you want. There is a WordPress theme for just about everything. Whether you want a photography theme, magazine theme, portfolio theme, or an eCommerce theme. There is a perfect theme available for every kind of website.

WordPress themes are easy to customise because a lot of them come with their own options panel allowing you to change colours, upload a logo, change the background, create beautiful sliders, and do other cool things with your website without ever writing any code at all.

WordPress is super flexible and can be extended by using plugins. Just like themes, there are thousands of free and premium plugins available for you to use.  These plugins can add extra functionality to WordPress, there are lots of plugins which can add a whole new platform to your WordPress site.

WordPress is Search Engine Friendly

WordPress is written using standard compliance high-quality code and produces semantic markup which makes your site very attractive to search engines.

By design, WordPress is very SEO friendly, and you can make it even more SEO friendly by using WordPress SEO plugin. To understand how to improve your site’s SEO just pop me a mail.

WordPress is Easy To Manage

WordPress comes with a built-in updater that allows you to update your plugins and themes from within your WordPress admin dashboard. It also notifies you when there is a new version of WordPress available, so you can update it by just clicking a button. You can keep all your WordPress content safe by setting up automated regular WordPress Backups.

WordPress is Safe and Secure

WordPress Security Guy Fagan Digital Consultancy

WordPress is developed with security in mind, so it is considered quite safe and secure to run any website. However, just like the real world, the internet can be an uncertain place.

There are intruders out there who want to get their hands on as many sites as they could. On my websites, I use enhanced security protocols to manage our sites.

WordPress can handle all your Media Files

Using WordPress you are not just limited to writing text. It comes with built-in support to handle images, audio, and video content. You can also use WordPress for document or file management.

WordPress supports Embed enabled websites which means you can embed YouTube videos, Instagram photos, Tweets, and Soundcloud audio by just pasting the URL in your post. You can even allow your visitors to embed videos in comments.

What ways to use WordPress?

WordPress can be used in many different ways. It is open to possibilities. You can use WordPress as the following:

  • Arcade
  • BlogWordPress Audience Guy Fagan Digital Consultancy
  • Content Management System (CMS)
  • Gallery
  • Portfolio
  • Rating Website
  • Shopping Store
  • Video Collection Site
  • Membership Site

Note that the above are just some examples of how you can use WordPress. To see how other top businesses are using WordPress, get in touch.

I hope this article answered your question about why you should use WordPress. The best way to experience the true power of WordPress is by using it. Give it a try and ask me how I can help you to reach your audience more effectively and efficiently.

Guy Fagan Digital Consultancy Blog 10 Reasons To Use Personas In Your Digital Marketing Strategy
10 Reasons To Use Personas In Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Posted September 1, 2022 by Guy Fagan

What is a persona:

Personas are fictional characters, which you create based upon your research in order to represent the different user types that might use your service, product, site, or brand in a similar way.  Creating personas will help you to understand your users’ needs, experiences, behaviours and goals.  Creating personas can help you step outside of yourself.  It can help you to recognise that different people have different needs and expectations, and it can also help you to identify with the user you’re designing for.  Personas make the design task at hand less complex, they guide your ideation processes, and they can help you to achieve the goal of creating a good user experience for your target user group.

You probably know what buyer personas are and the inbound marketing theory behind why they work. But some people haven’t gotten around to using them yet, often because they don’t want to devote the time to writing personas and getting their teams to use them if they don’t think they’ll see a solid ROI.

And you know what? That’s completely understandable! So here are 10 things that buyer personas can do to improve your marketing in a measurable way.

 

Note: There are much more metrics than the ones below that you can use to evaluate each of these benefits. These are just the most obvious examples.

 

Buyer personas help you:

  1. Identify the customer’s needs and wants so you can excite and delight them with your products, services, and content, and earn their return business.  Metric: Product/service sales.

 

  1. Understand how your customers make purchasing decisions, so you can better target your marketing and move them through the sales funnel.  Metrics: Customer lifetime value, length of sales cycle.

 

  1. Develop new or improved products and services based on the needs and wants of your current customers, allowing your relationship with them to strengthen and evolve.  Metrics: Customer adoption of new products, customer lifetime value.

 

  1. Determine where your customers spend time on the web and in the world, giving you insight into how to communicate with them, how to reach new customers, where and how to promote your business, and what types of content to produce.  Metrics: Traffic sources, shares, engagement.

 

  1. Get everyone in the company on the same page about your marketing goals. Using your buyer personas ensures that every product, service, blog post, marketing email, and customer service response is consistent in message and aligned with your customer’s needs and expectations. Metrics: Internal performance metrics, the efficiency of a sales funnel.

 

  1. Segment your marketing efforts so you can target different personas and subsets of personas with the offers and content they’ll be most drawn to, making your marketing efforts generally more effective. Metrics: Email open rate, email click-through rate, smart content clicks and conversions.

 

  1. Segment your marketing efforts internally, so you can spend your time and energy on attracting and retaining your most ideal customers, making your marketing more cost-effective. Metrics: Customer retention, marketing qualified leads (MQLs).

 

  1. “Pre-qualify” leads by attracting the right potential customers and setting up lead scoring to prioritize them. Buyer personas result in better leads that are more sales-ready because you’re reaching the right people by leveraging what they want, rather than by pushing what you want. That’s why personas also make automated lead-nurturing workflows more effective. Metric: Sales qualified leads, close rate.

 

  1. Personas help you humanise your audience. Whenever you have a marketing plan that failed, you can almost always trace part of the problem back to a misunderstanding of who your customer is.

 

  1. Personas push you to ask the right questions.  Another great thing about buyer personas is that they get your company thinking about the customer in the right way. In order to make a successful buyer persona, you need to ask your current and potential customers the right questions to get a feel for who they are.  These questions are things like:
  • How old are you?
  • What is your job title?
  • Who do you report to at work?
  • What is your greatest challenge in the workplace?
  • What helps you get your job done right?
  • What resources are you lacking?

 

Totally sold? Yeah, I thought so.

Crafting buyer personas comes down to really knowing who you’re talking to and then being disciplined and consistent about giving them exactly what they want. Your experience, website analytics, market research, social media interactions, and much, much more can help you create data-driven personas that will lead to increased traffic and sales.

Get in touch if you’d like to discuss this some more. 

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